Score Reading: Misprints

A passage from the fugue of Franck’s Prelude, Fugue and Variation in B minor, op. 18 is quoted above. I believe it contains a rather serious misprint in the highlighted measure.

Misprints in musical scores can occur for a number of reasons: a slip of the copyist’s pen from autograph to 1st edition or to any subsequent edition, a copyist’s misinterpretation of the composer’s notation, misreading a clef, an editor’s decision, or in rare cases, a mistake on the part of the composer.

When the composer’s autograph is not available, how are we to know which edition to use? Can we trust so-called ‘urtext’ editions implicitly? Fortunately, two or more editions are available for most repertoire, although many performances are indeed based on a single source. It is also fortunate that misprints are extremely rare. What is unfortunate is that they can easily go undetected.

The alleged misprint in the Franck excerpt occurs in the soprano voice - the eighth note D should be a major 6th higher - B on the 3rd line. The evidence supporting this assertion is quite clear. In the measure in question, the soprano voice appears to re-enter, after a brief rest, with two additional connected statements of the characteristic 8th-note motive which is part of the fugue subject. [Actually, the previously existing soprano voice either becomes the alto, or it splits into two voices on the downbeat of the measure - notice the change in stem direction from the 1st to the 2nd measure of the system]. If the D is correct as it appears, this would be the only statement of the motive in the entire fugue which does not conform melodically to all its other appearances. There is more. The voice leading as it stands involves a pair of parallel unisons, again the only such occurrence - in this case of faulty counterpoint - in the fugue. Finally, the augmented 4th, D to G sharp, sounds disturbing, yet the piece is full of augmented and diminished intervals, both melodically and harmonically, which sound perfectly natural.

There are many instances in various editions of Franck’s organ music in which I believe there are misprints of this sort. As responsible musicians, we need to be on the lookout for this potential problem in our daily musical studies. This is especially true in the more complex chromatic styles and those of the 20th century, but we can never be too careful, whatever the style or composer.

Score Reading: A Bach Autograph

There are many special features to be observed on the beautiful manuscript of Bach’s [Prelude and] Fugue in G minor, BWV 535 for organ, the opening page of which is shown above: 1] Bach notated his organ works on only two staves, usually with the soprano clef above the bass. 2] While the fugue is in G minor, the key signature contains only one flat. It was common practice in the Baroque period and earlier to notate music in the minor mode with a key signature of one flat less than we use today. This is known as the ‘Dorian’ key signature. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor [the so-called ‘Dorian’] has no flats in the key signature. Interestingly, in the Peters edition, the G minor fugue has a modern key signature while the Dorian adheres to the original. The one-flat key signature works as well for G minor as the modern two-flat version: Bach writes the flat symbol when E flat is required, and writes nothing when he needs E natural. In the modern signature, a natural sign needs to be written before E when that pitch occurs, but nothing is necessary when E flat is intended. It is a perfect illustration of the old saying ‘six of one, a half dozen of the other. 3] In the 4th measure, Bach rewrites the flat symbol in the 1st repeated group of 16th notes. This is the case in subsequent statements of the fugue’s subject in the home key of G minor and in several other instances throughout the piece. 4] Both the 1st and 2nd systems end with a half-measure, thus no bar line appears. 5] Two additional staff lines, rather than individual ledger lines, appear on the top staff toward the beginning of the 3rd system, and extra staff lines appear briefly in other places. 6] Bach often notates three voices on the upper staff alone, with crystal clarity. 7] The third entrance of the fugue subject, in the tenor, takes place on the 3rd beat of the 1st complete measure of the 2nd system, signifying an invisible shift of the bar line. The ‘displaced’ bar line shifts back to the notated downbeat when the bass voice enters in the last full measure of the 2nd system, where Bach writes in ‘Ped.’ The pedal begins a long rest in the last measure of the 3rd system, and does not return until the following page. 8] The prominent diminished 5th in the 2nd measure of the fugue subject is replaced by a perfect 5th later in the fugue, when the tonality shifts to the relative major.

Tonal Relationships: Related Keys and Modulation

Every major and minor key has 5 diatonically related keys. To illustrate, I am arbitrarily choosing the keys of A flat major and C sharp minor. For A flat major, the related keys are B flat minor, C minor, D flat major, E flat major and F minor. For C sharp minor, they are E major, F sharp minor, G sharp minor, A major and B major. Any two diatonically related keys either have the same key signature or a key signature with one sharp or flat more or less. Another type of key relationship is known as ‘parallel’, for example, B flat major and B flat minor. But this is not a diatonic relationship.

The 231-measure fugue from the Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548 is one of Bach’s longest. The formula given above would suggest that this fugue might visit the keys of G major, A minor, B minor, C major and D major. Every one of these keys indeed appears. In addition, however, there is an excursion, during the 113-measure middle section, to the unrelated key of F sharp minor. Bach achieves this goal by progressing from D major - a related key to F sharp minor - just before it. Thus, while E minor and F sharp minor are not closely related, D major is related to both of them.

Arriving at F sharp minor is done quite straightforwardly. It is the way in which Bach gets from F sharp minor back to related tonal areas that is remarkable. In the passage quoted above, measures 136-145, a continuous modulatory excursion takes place. Starting in F sharp minor, there is a motion to A major [related to F sharp minor], on to E minor [related to A minor, the parallel key of A major], G major [related], D minor [related to G minor, the parallel key of G major], F major [related to D minor], and C major [related]. The excerpt shows only upto the onset of G major. Bach has gone from F sharp minor to the remotest key of C major in only 10 measures by way of 5 intervening keys. Then from C major, the home key of E minor returns by way of a simple harmonic sequence.

Similar tonal excursions are found throughout the music of Bach.