Review

Author(s): Alfred Einstein

Review by: Alfred Einstein
Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Jun., 1949), p. 462
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/890673
Accessed: 19-02-2016 16:11 UTC

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Mozart-Goethe: Das Veilchen-The Violet; the History of a Song.
By Paul Nettl. New York: Storm Publishers, 1949. [15 1., facs.; $7.50]
This new facsimile edition of Mozart's
autograph of KV-476 is apparently de-
signed as a gift for bibliophiles in com-
memoration of this Goethe year of 1949.
Certainly it is a more palpable means of
honoring Goethe than the many transi-
tory poetical and musical festivities being
held at a time which is more remote
from the spirit of Goethe (and of Mozart)
than any other has ever been. This is
not the first facsimile edition; the auto-
graph of Das Veilchen is one of the best
known and most popular ones, thanks to
Otto Jahn's biography of Mozart and
even Naumann's History of Music, which
contained a reproduction from the first
edition onward. But it is one of the best.
The reproduction in collotype is perfect;
the whole edition is manufactured with
the greatest enterprise and care, if not
with the greatest taste. It is simply too
elaborate for my liking.
The editor, Paul Nettl, has amassed an
abundance of materials toward the his-
tory of Goethe's poem and Mozart's set-
ting. The best and most original contri-
bution is the paragraph on the develop-
ment of German song in Vienna. A wel-
come addition is the facsimile of the first
edition, which allows comparison with
Mozart's manuscript. Certain changes in-
dicate that Mozart himself corrected Ar-
taria's publication-but very carelessly,
as usual; the autograph is indispensable
for a critical text. The most interesting
detail is that even in an engraved publi-
cation Mozart's dots ("mit leichtem
Schritt und muntern Sinn") are replaced
by heavy staccato marks.
The edition is not without slight slips
from beauty. Goethe's characterization
of the song in Erwin und Elmire ("ein
Liedchen, das er wohl in so einem Augen-
blick dichtete") should be translated "in
just such a moment," not "in just one
moment." "Christman's Collection Musi-
kalische Blumenlese" should read:
"Christmann in Bossler's collection Musi-
kalische Blumenlese." The title of Him-
mel's opera is Fanchon, not Fauchon.
Goethe's Dusseldorf friend is Johanna
Fahlmer, not Fahlner. The foreword to
Stefan Zweig's facsimile edition of Das
Veilchen is not really a foreword but an
epilogue, a "Nachwort." Finally, I
must feel honored that the editor used for
the conclusion of his analysis of the song
the same idea that was expressed, at the
end of a paragraph in the "Nachwort,"
in an earlier facsimile of Das Veilchen
edited by this humble reviewer.
ALFREDEINSTEIN

Inventionen und Sinfonien. By Johann Sebastian Bach. Facsimile

edition with foreword by Ralph Kirkpatrick.New York: C. F. Peters Corp.,
1948. [iv, 64 pp.; $7.50]
Bach was a great teacher. In many of
his works we recognize his desire not
only to provide good music but also to
show how good composing is done.
His first attempt of the kind appears
here in a facsimile edition. The pieces
were originally written for the instruc-
tion, in the technique of both playing
and composition, of Wilhelm Friedemann,
Bach's first-born son. For each of the
two-part pieces Bach originally used the
term Praeambulum; for the three-part
pieces, Fantasia. When he collected the
compositions into an independent work,
he turned to the terms Inventio and Sin-
fonia. The word Inventio was derived
462
from Bonporti, whose Inventiones (for
violin and figured bass) served Bach as
thorough-bass exercises; Bach never ap-
plied the name, as we unfortunately do,
to the three-part pieces. As a matter of
fact, it seems likely that Bach was not
happy with the name, for the "inven-
tion"-like pieces in the third part of the
Clavier-Obung are simply called "Duetti."
It would require a rather bulky volume
to explain all that the inventions and
sinfonias reveal of Bach's composition
technique; nor is there any need to pro-
claim the value of a work which is fairly
generally used, though hardly well-known.
The facsimile represents Bach's final man-

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