200 Henle blog posts. Hard to believe, but true!

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

You are reading the 200th post of the Henle blog. Two hundred! Hard to believe. So many exciting, informative, entertaining original texts. Thoroughly researched essays from our editorial staff on music sources, reading variants, philologically interesting things about new publications, and so much more. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings | Tagged | 7 Comments

At long last: Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra is now also in a handy format

Posted on October 28, 2019 by Annette Oppermann

The great Hungarian composer Béla Bartók has finally entered the Henle catalogue as of spring 2016: First of all, with the Complete Critical Edition of his works that by this summer has already grown to four volumes; secondly, with the individual practical Urtext editions of his piano works based on the scholarly music text of this complete edition. These really offer meanwhile something for everyone, from the beginners’ repertoire (with the instructive books For Children and Mikrokosmos) via the  Bartók classics (such as the Romanian Folk Dances) up to the advanced virtuoso literature (for example, with the  Improvisations op. 20). But up to now one thing has been missing:  Bartók’s name in the series of our study scores in a handy format. So, we were all the more pleased to be able to fill this gap when in 2018 the Concerto for Orchestra was at long last published in the complete edition. Continue reading →

Posted in Bartók, Béla, Concerto for Orchestra (Bartók), Monday Postings | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Quality: especially valuable – the galley proofs in Fauré’s 1st Cello Sonata op. 109

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Peter Jost

There is always a risk in producing an engraved plate (or a digital file today) for a printed music edition that the engraver/typesetter will not accurately copy the model in some places. That’s why composers were already insisting very early on that the publishing house in question let them have a galley proof to proofread and correct before the final printing. This was, in fact, no guarantee of a flawless first edition, for composers often overlooked compositional errors or, vice versa, the engraver overlooked or misunderstood the composers’ corrections. But it gave composers some degree of certainty that the printed music text would not appear littered with errors. Moreover, the proofreading offered a welcome opportunity to make changes here and there in the original version.

Continue reading →

Posted in Fauré, Gabriel, Monday Postings | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Dont worry, be happy – the first critical Urtext edition of etudes by Jakob Dont

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Dominik Rahmer

Jakob Dont (1815–88)

Every violinist is most likely acquainted with them from violin lessons: the 24 Études et Caprices op. 35 by Jakob Dont (1815–1888) are even today an irreplaceable curriculum item. The reason for this is certainly that Dont was successful in finding a congenial way to combine targeted training for certain technical challenges within an appealing and melodious musical form. Dozens of various editions are on the market today, though all differ from each other – sometimes considerably.  What then is the “real” Dont? Continue reading →

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More Climate Protection is Urgently Needed Now! #HenleVerlagForFuture!

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

For once – and absolutely exceptionally! – today’s post is not going to be about our beloved music, its texts or matters editorial, such as you are accustomed to reading in this blog. No, today I want to draw your attention to the strike day #fridaysforfuture coming up on 20 September 2019. This is the day when the whole world will again go on strike for more climate protection, for more specific decisions and concrete action towards a sustainable, liveable environment, instead of merely talking perpetually about it. Because we the employees of the G. Henle Verlag will join this strike, the publishing house will remain closed on Friday, September 20, 2019. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Summer break

Posted on August 5, 2019 by publisher

Time flies! Summer has arrived and our blog is taking some time off, too. A good opportunity to relax at the beach with some light reading. Our authors will make good use of the rest period to think about new topics to write about. And you can look forward to signing in again on the 16th of September 2019.

Meanwhile, we wish all readers a fine and relaxing summer!

G. Henle Verlag

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An insightful correction in Mozart’s autograph of the String Quartet in C major K. 170

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

In a few weeks a long-cherished dream of mine will come true: This 2019 autumn we are going to publish Mozart‘s early Viennese String Quartets K. 168 – 173, in Urtext (HN 1121 and HN 7121). To be sure, the text that I’ve edited and our production team has magnificently typeset and printed will not be presented as any totally “new Mozart”, but in the end will feature in detail many, many improvements for the quartet-playing profession. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Monday Postings, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, string quartet | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Froberger – retrospectively and prospectively

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Norbert Müllemann

Title page of the Libro Quarto (1656). Source: http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/10040126

How time flies! – this hardly original realisation came to me as I began planning my new Froberger blog post a week ago, since I had the feeling of having just recently written the previous post on this topic. Not by a long shot! It was three years ago in 2016 when I introduced our edition to celebrate Froberger’s 400th birthday. But this cross section was supposed to be, so to speak, only an “appetizer”, an overview of the keyboard genres that Froberger employed time and again: toccata, fantasia, canzone, suite (Froberger would always use the equivalent term “partita”). The suites are without doubt his most famous works, and of these we have, of course, chosen for our edition of selected works the most popular one, the partita “auff die Mayerin” whose individual movements present variations on the popular folk song of that time. Continue reading →

Posted in Froberger, Johann Jacob, Monday Postings, piano solo | Tagged , | 2 Comments

What did the composer want? On a strange measure in Saint-Saëns’ Romance for Flute op. 37

Posted on June 24, 2019 by Peter Jost

Anyone who compares the edition currently on the market of Saint-Saëns’ Romance for Flute and Piano op. 37 from the original publishing house Durand with its first edition appearing in 1874 will quickly notice a striking difference in measure 102, at the end of the piece’s repeatedly varied main idea: Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, op. 37 (Saint-Saëns), piano + flute, Romance, Saint-Saëns, Camille, versions | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The other type of sources: Letters about Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei”

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Annette Oppermann

An Urtext edition – and not just only from Henle publishers – is generally considered to be based on a critical examination of all a work’s sources, which are then also described and evaluated in a commentary section and used to document the editorial decisions. Looking more closely at these Comments in our Urtext editions, you might think that these sources include only music manuscripts and printed editions. This is, of course, only half the story, for besides such primary sources, numerous secondary sources – be they reviews or programme booklets, publishing-house business records or the composer’s diaries and correspondence – also play a role in giving important information for the edition – for example, about the dating of a work or the authorisation of an arrangement. This other type of source is usually mentioned only very briefly in Henle’s Preface – but this should not belie the fact that finding and evaluating these sources can sometimes be more time consuming than merely editing the work. Continue reading →

Posted in Bruch, Max, Kol Nidrei (Bruch), letter, Monday Postings, piano + violoncello | Tagged , | 1 Comment