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The Transcriptions for Harmonie of Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1975

Roger Hellyer
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Extract

In the year 1954, two great Mozart scholars, Schmid and Giegling, brought to light a transcription for Harmonie of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail in the archive of Prince Schwarzenberg at Ceský Krumlov in southern Bohemia. Their reports caused no small excitement, even though they merely suggested the possibility that this was the long lost Harmonie transcription of the opera made by Mozart himself. They reported that the manuscript was in the hand of Haydn's copyist, Johann Elssler. It is the only anonymous Harmonie transcription of a Mozart opera in a group of five scored for pairs of oboes, English horns, bassoons and horns; all the others bear the name of Johann Went. Went is known to have made a transcription of Die Entfuhrung for pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns; this was advertised in the Wiener Zeitung in 1784 by Lorenz Lausch, and the Entfuhrung transcription now in Florence probably represents a copy of this version. Schmid and Giegling mentioned obvious similarities between the Florence and Krumlov transcriptions, and noted the possibility that Went had copied Mozart's transcription.

Type
Eleventh Annual Conference
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 102 , 1975 , pp. 53 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 The 18th-century words ‘Harmonic’ and ‘Harmonicmusik’ have, I believe, a more specific meaning than is understood by such English equivalents as ‘wind band’; this point should be borne in mind for the translations of 18th-century letters and advertisements cited in this paper.Google Scholar

2 Ernst Fritz Schmid, ‘Neue Quellen zu Werken Mozarts’, Mozart-Jahrbuch 1956 (1957), 40 42, Franz Giegling, ‘Acht Stucke aus der Oper “Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail” fur Blaser bearbeitet von W A Mozart’, Programmheft zum 5. deutschen Mozartfest (Ludwigsburg, 1956), 71, also Franz Ciegling's introduction to the subsequent Barenrciter edition (1958, available only on hire).Google Scholar

3 These operas are Don Giovanm (catalogue no 37 K 1), Le Nozze di Figaro (39 K 1). Die Zauberflöti (40 K 1) and Cosi Jan tutte, (41 K 1). The catalogue number of Die Entfuhrung is 38 K 1.Google Scholar

4 Florence, library of the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini, D V 552.Google Scholar

5 David Whitwell, ‘A Case for the Authenticity of Mozart's Arrangement of Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail for Wind Instruments’, The Intrumentalist, xxiv (November, 1969), 40 43Google Scholar

6 Katalog sämthecher in dem k k Huf-Musik-Archu corhandenen Bucher und Musikalien (Vienna, Austrian National Library, MS S m 2469), 111 122.Google Scholar

7 Emily Anderson, ed., The Letters of Mozart and His family, second edition edited by Alexander Hyatt King and Monica Carolan (London and New York, 1966), ii, 794, the original text reads 'das Erste ist der Junge furst licchtcnstein, (er will es aber noch nicht wissen lassen) dieser will eine Harmonie Musick aufnehmen, zu welcher ich die stucke setzen sollGoogle Scholar

8 Anderson, op. cit., ii, 808, the original text reads. ‘Nun habe ich keine geringe arbeit —bis Sonntag acht tag muss meine Opera auf die harmonie gesezt seyn— sonst kommt mir einer bevor—und hat anstatt meiner den Profit davon; … sie glauben nicht wie schwer es ist so was auf die harmonie zu setzen - dass es den blassinstrumentcn eigen 1st, und doch dabey nichts von der Wirkung verloren geht.—Je nu, ich muss die Nacht dazu nehmen, anderst kann es nicht gehen.’Google Scholar

9 Wilhelm A Bauer, Otto Erich Deutsch and Joseph Heinz Eibl, ed., Mozart, Briefe und Aufzeichnungen Grsamtausgabe, vi (‘Kommentar III/IV: 1780 1857’) (Kassel, Basle, etc, 1971), 110.Google Scholar

10 Otto Erich Deutsch, Mozart a Documentary Biography (London, 1965), 206; the original text reads 'den 18. aber die in Harmonie kurzlich ubersetzte, von Herrn Kappellmeister Mozart neu componirte Oper, betitelt Die Entführung aus dem Serail, gemacht.Google Scholar

11 Deutsch, op cit, 206.Google Scholar

12 Deutsch, op. cit., 226.Google Scholar

13 Vienna, Hofarchiv, Akten der Hofmusikkapelle 1791, f. 65r ‘Unterzeichneter hat durch die ganze Zeit, als er sich in Allerhochsten k.k: dienst befindet, auf Allerhochsten Befehl laut Beilag fur die Harmonie Musik komponirt, und ubersetzet’Google Scholar

14 It survives (uncatalogued) in the Schwarzenberg archive at Česky Krumlov.Google Scholar

15 This is the catalogue cited above in n. bGoogle Scholar