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In 1912 Heinrich Schenker contracted with the Viennese publisher
Universal Edition to provide an 'elucidatory edition'
(ErlAuterungsausgabe) of Beethoven's last five piano sonatas. Each
publication would comprise a score, newly edited by Schenker and
using the composer's autograph manuscript as principal source,
together with a substantial commentary combining analytical,
text-critical and performance-related matter. Four of the five
editions appeared between 1913 and 1921, but that of the
'Hammerklavier' Sonata, op. 106, was never published. It has
generally been assumed that this was simply because Schenker was
unable to locate the autograph manuscript, which remains missing to
this day. But as Nicholas Marston shows in a detailed history of
the ErlAuterungsausgabe project, other factors were involved also,
including financial considerations, Schenker's health concerns, and
his broader theoretical ambitions. Moreover, despite the missing
autograph he nevertheless developed a voice-leading analysis of the
complete sonata during the years 1924-1926, a crucial period in the
development of his mature theory of tonal music. Marston's book
provides the first in-depth study of this rich analysis, which is
reproduced in full in high-quality digital images. The book draws
on hundreds of letters and documents from Schenker's NachlaAY; it
both adds to our biographical knowledge of Schenker and illuminates
for the first time the response of this giant of music theory to
one of the most significant masterworks in all music.
In this book on Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E, Op. 109, Nicholas
Marston combines source studies and a Schenkerian analytical
approach to produce one of the most extensive and detailed studies
of a Beethoven piano sonata ever published. The study is based on a
complete transcription of all the surviving autograph musical
sources: the sketches, a fragmentary Urschrift, and the autograph
score. Early printed editions and manuscript copies are also
discussed and the text is handsomely supported by extensive
transcription from the sources. After an introductory chapter in
which previous work - notably that of Heinrich Schenker himself -
on this sonata is reviewed, chapter 2 draws upon Beethoven's
letters, conversation books, sketchbooks, and other sources to
build up a detailed 'biography' of Op. 109. The middle chapters
form the core of the analytical study: the sketches for each of the
three movements are analysed both to reveal aspects of the genesis
of the movement and to build up a particular analytical approach to
the final version. The discussion embraces all levels of detail;
even Beethoven's previously misunderstood notation of final
barlines in the autograph score is shown to be musically
significant. In the concluding chapter the notion of 'sketch' is
extended beyond Op. 109 and the results of the whole study are
summarized. The book might be read as a study in the extension of
conventional Schenkerian analysis. Marston argues that individual
movements of Op. 109 are structurally incomplete and that
satisfactory closure is achieved only at the level of the entire
work. The concluding theme-and-variation movement is crucial, and
Marston offers a rare Schenkerian perspective onlarge-scale
coherence in this genre. But in combining these analytical
perceptions with an understanding of Beethoven's sketches more as
valid proto-compositions in their own right than as wrong turnings
en route to a 'perfect' finished work, Marston also offers a unique
and compelling interpretation of this profound and beautiful
masterpiece of late Beethoven.
Schumann's Fantasie, Op. 17 is one of the finest examples of Romantic piano music. In a rounded picture of this major keyboard work, Nicholas Marston first traces the fascinating history of its composition, drawing on many of Schumann's letters to Clara Wieck and to his publisher, and examining the few surviving sketches: To whom was the work really dedicated? Was the celebrated opening movement perhaps intended as an independent composition? Schumann's own critical writings provide vital insights into his ideas on genre and the relationship between the Fantasie and the many generic and descriptive titles that the composer gave the work before publication. Every aspect of the work is covered, providing the performer, the listener or the student with an understanding not only of the Fantasie, but of Schumann himself as a composer.
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