At 7:12 AM 05/30/03, Michael Edwards wrote: > The difference here is that, at least for a living composer, you can >go and >ask him about any dubious points; but you can't do that with Gounod now. You >*have* to make certain decisions without his help or agreement.
I only edit works in the public domain, so all of the composers I edit are long dead. > I'm trying to ignore my ingrained feelings on such matters, and thinking >about it from your point of view and your audience's point of view. I >guess, if >it is appearing as your edition of the piece, it's okay to do the things you've >mentioned. I guess part of my own ingrained feelings is that it irks me to imply there is any question at all of whether it is "okay" to do what I do. I'm making an edition of a work in the public domain. I could re-arrange it all to hell if I want to and the composer can't say boo. His original edition is out there, and if the piece was a success it's probably readily available to anyone who wants to see it. I do sometimes make adaptations to make a piece work in a concert setting or with different voice parts. But whether I'm adapting or not, as a general rule my goal is not to misrepresent the composer. If I'm editing the piece it's because I like it and I want to communicate the composer's intentions better, not worse. What ticks me off -- and perhaps I'm being oversensitive here -- is all this discussion about whether I ought to be allowed to defile the composers intentions in such a way. (As if the original edition is a true reflection of what the composer wanted anyway -- have you seen any original editions of Donizetti? Halevy? They're a terrible mess.) > Given your situation, and that you explain in the score the changes you've >made, at least briefly, this is, I suppose acceptable. If I were doing this, I >would also put "edited by..." on the title page (perhaps you've done that >anyway). You suppose that it's acceptable? Gee, thanks. This is what I'm talking about in the paragraph before. As for putting "edited by" on the title page, no actually I don't do that, because I think that would be presumptuous. If I'm adapting a piece in some way, then yes, I do claim my share of the credit. But if all I've done is clean up the notation to make it more readable, that's a clerical task and I think I would be out of line to announce myself as a creative participant. > Something purporting to be the composer's unedited manuscript probably >shouldn't do this, though. I'm not purporting anything. I'm just providing a usable and readable copy of a piece which singers might not otherwise have access to. There is no question of any "manuscript" here. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
