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Piano reduction = urtext?

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2017 10:03 pm
by bicinium
This has been bugging me for a little while; how can the piano reduction of Vanhal's double bass concerto edited by Rudolf Malarić be an urtext edition if it is itself an arrangement? We know for a fact that it isn't the composer's piano reduction, because the only source we have is the set of parts that is also on IMSLP (praise be).

I've got another Doblinger/Malarić publication in a similar predicament.

Re: Piano reduction = urtext?

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 12:35 am
by Carolus
That gets complicated sometimes. It really boils down to the question of whether or not the piano reduction is something more than a mere transcription of the bass line and the violin parts (plus some fill) into 2 staves or not. Lots of piano reductions of older music fall into this category and thus fail to meet the threshold of originality as there are a number of conductor/pianists who can create such reductions on the fly from a full score.

Re: Piano reduction = urtext?

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:14 am
by Sallen112
It also comes down to if the arranged setting has new original contributions specific to the edition (if the editor added any) that would determine from a normal published edition vs. a scientific (urtext) edition. If the edition has anything original not done by the original composer, then under copyright protection could come into play here.