Critical
Edition - Editorial Policies
The Complete Edition of Ferenc Erkel’s Operas is based on a critical study
of all available sources, with special attention tothe performing
materials, i.e. orchestral, choral, and vocal parts used
at the Hungarian National Theatre, and in the Budapest Opera
House, where the operas were premičred and played
under the direction of the composer, first conductor of these
institutes from 1838 on.
The operas appear in their last
form, as approved by the composer. The scores include all
emendations and insertions added to the work that originate
with or were approved by Erkel. Melodic variants in the vocal
parts which got firmly established, are given as ossia.
Cuts that on the evidence of contemporary sources were
applied during the performances of the opera under Erkel’s
direction, are marked Vide. The original Hungarian
words of both text and stage directions are included in the
score. The Appendices comprise early versions substituted
by later insertions, items surviving in fragmentary form,
insertions that cannot be assigned to any unambiguous place
in the work, and finally, the score of the banda. The
Hungarian libretto and its modern English translation in
prose will also be published in the Appendices, along with
the contemporary German translation of the libretto, which
is in some cases available.
The
edition does not aim at reconstructing the compositional
process. Compositional drafts or sections that do not appear
in the sources used for productions, i.e. that never reached
the state of performing, are not printed. The volumes do
not contain the composer's own arrangements of any parts
of the operas or their piano scores.
For
the sake of better legibility, facilitation of practical
use and preservation of the homogeneous nature of the score,
editorial alterations will not be distinguished typographically.
The only exceptions are items in square brackets which do
not occur in any of the sources but are indispensable for
the understanding of the musical context.
All
musically significant differences between the edition and
its sources, and the deviations among the sources themselves
are listed in the critical notes to be published separately.
Wherever necessary, footnotes in the score call the reader's
attention to relevant critical notes. The critical notes,
preface, introduction and various editorial additions are
published in Hungarian and English.
On
preparing the edited version of the score, special care was
taken in retaining contemporary notation practices which
were standardised to the least possible extent. Unavoidable
changes include using the present standard order of instruments
in the score, modernising and unifying the designation of
instrumental and vocal parts, and eliminating the C-clefs
from the vocal parts. Clef changes have occasionally been
shifted and outdated abbreviations tacitly modified. Similarly,
the spelling has been modernised in the score and the libretto.
Additions are solely made for the sake of stressing tendencies
that are discernible in the sources. No new dynamics marks
or articulation signs have been introduced and the standardisation
of identical or analogous places with regard to dynamics
and articulation has been avoided. All editorial alterations
will be documented in the critical notes.
|
