The importance of urtext editions?

[Emma]

How important is it to have urtext editions, and which ones are the best?


Today, my teacher told me to start working on Scriabin's Etude in D# minor op. 8, no. 12, so I started looking at an Alfred Masterwork edition that I already had, but an editor's note disturbed me that said that the autograph had a completely different dynamic plan (quite a dramatic difference- the autograph ends in p, but their edition ends in fff); so that made me think that I need to get a better edition.

If anyone could tell me about a good edition for this Scriabin, or any thoughts on urtext editions, I would greatly appreciate it.

[aki]

Corrrect me if I'm wrong: Isn't the urtext the original score without any kind of changes or additions made by the editor?

[thracozaag]

Corrrect me if I'm wrong: Isn't the urtext the original score without any kind of changes or additions made by the editor?

 
 The term "urtext" is a fallacy and a marketing job basically stareted by Henle.  NO edition you will purchase, short of seeing an autograph in the composer's hand will be free of editing (Henle included).  Then it all comes down to the skill (and concientiousness) of the editor in question.
 As to your question about the Scriabin etude, there is actually an ENTIRELY different version of it, which I believe unfortunately has never been published, aside from a collection of scriabin works the Scriabin Society privately printed.  The other version has some extremely interesting deviations (particularly in regards to the melody in the right hand) and of course, the pp ending.

koji (STSD)

[xvimbi]

For what it's worth (stolen from the Peters homepage):

The term "Urtext" is first found in the writings of Herder and Goethe, where it is used to describe the original version of a text such as a novel that was later translated into other languages. In a musical context, the word is first recorded in 1895 in the Urtext-Ausgaben Classischer Musikwerke published under the aegis of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin. This edition was set up with the explicit aim of counteracting what the Academy termed a progressive "muddying of the sources". At the beginning of the 19th century, precursors of today's Urtext editions were the norm: Bach's keyboard works, for example, were published without performance markings, thereby reproducing each work in what might be called its "Urtext" form. It was only with Carl Czerny that fingering and other interpretational aids first became established. At a later date, piano virtuosos such as Liszt, Bülow and Busoni made often far-reaching editorial changes in order to adapt the pieces concerned to their own ideas and to contemporary taste. It was precisely this sort of "muddying of the sources" that finally led the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin to embark on the above-mentioned series of editions, which was published by Breitkopf & Härtel. The idea of an Urtext edition was then taken up and perpetuated by C. F. Peters, primarily in the form of "practical Urtext editions". The editions by Max Friedlaender in particular and, later, by Ludwig Landshoff and Kurt Soldan are still regarded as models of their kind. The Urtext took on a new lease of life in the wake of the Second World War, when the term started to be used as a marketing tool and was incorporated into publishers' company identities.

A distinction must be drawn between the Urtext itself and Urtext editions. The Urtext is defined as the text actually intended by the composer, while Urtext editions seek to reveal and reproduce that text for us today.

What does this mean? The editor's aim is normally to produce a text which, complete and free from error, is easy to read and play. His or her task consists in deciding what exactly constitutes the "will" of the composer, in other words, what the composer set down in written form or - in the absence of original sources - what he is assumed to have written down. In the case of passages that have survived in incomplete or contradictory versions, the editor must establish precisely what the composer intended. He or she will reach his or her findings by examining the source or sources and will propose a solution on the basis of what is termed source criticism. The result is a critical edition. (In German, the terms "kritische Ausgabe" and "kritisch revidierte Ausgabe" are used interchangeably.) The editor will justify his or her procedure in the edition's critical commentary.

Every Urtext edition is at the same time a critical edition. It soon becomes clear that the concept of an Urtext, at least in its narrower sense, is a more or less theoretical one. An editor can never be absolutely certain that he or she has really established the Urtext, i.e., the text intended by the composer. This explains why two different editors may produce divergent Urtext editions even when working on the same source material and even though there is only one text intended by the composer. Most scores published as an Urtext must be regarded as Urtext editions when examined closely.

Concessions to the Urtext make good sense in the light of modern editorial and performing practice. After all, little use would now be served by notating Bach's vocal works in old c clefs, a form which, however authentic, can nowadays be read only with considerable difficulty. And if performers were to play Bach's keyboard works from the Urtext, the result would be a uniform, pseudo-Baroque style without any articulation, agogics or differentiated dynamics. 18th-century music in particular contained many elements that the composer did not need to write down, since musicians of the time could be relied upon to take them as read. It is one of the tasks of today's editor to assist performers by drawing their attention to the performing practice of a work. The realization of a figured bass, for example, is not part of the narrower concept of the Urtext, but it is now included in Urtext editions since it represents one aspect of the composer's intentions.

The "practical Urtext edition" is a compromise between the pure Urtext and an edition prepared or edited for practical use. Its aim is to make the editor's findings available to a wider circle of users. Admissible additions include editorial fingerings which, although not part of the Urtext, can none the less be helpful if the Urtext edition is to have any real use. All editorial additions must be indicated as such, by being set in a smaller type, for example.