Saint-Saëns - Bassoon Sonata op. 168 for low brasses
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:25 pm
Sonate
opus 168
pour Basson avec accompagnement de Piano
à Monsieur Léon Letellier
Premier Basson de l’Opéra
et de la Société des Concerts
Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)
Solo part edited by Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre 2015
The editions of solo pieces by Massenet, Elgar, and Nielsen allowing for performances by other instruments than the original solo instrument have generated enough interest to inspire more work along this line. Again this project only provides music for the respective soloists, whereas the piano score may be found at IMSLP:
http://tinyurl.com/kqhrco8
This edition of the solo part basically follows the printed bassoon part (which differs slightly from the piano score in a few performance instruction details). This edition’s basic version with the original clefs varies in three matters:
in bar #49 the bass clef octave-up notation is replaced by the tenor clef
in bar #76 the original print only has the 2 first notes slurred. The manuscript isn’t entirely clear on this matter, but this edition has a slur over all 3 notes of this bar in reference to the sequence pattern of bar #78.
This edition, in contrast to the original print has bar numbers indicated at the start of the staves. May be helpful in teaching situations.
This edition is made for practical purposes and has no musicological ambitions. Aside from potential unintended proofing errors there has been made no changes to the note text. Yet one possible error in the manuscript as well as in the print version may be pointed to:
Formal reading of bar #227 has its 10th note being a concert A# because of the passing note earlier in the same bar. However this editor finds an A-natural being much more likely from the musical context. The decision has been left to the performer.
The very wide range of 3 octaves plus a tritone poses a challenge to most wind instruments, so the selection of versions is a smaller one than usual for these editions. Two or three of these present versions even have this said wide range placed in extra challenging areas of the ranges for the given instruments. Anyway the quite complex tonality may provide a good etude in sight-reading.
So far I have uploaded editions of the solo part for these 14 instruments and modes of notation:
Versions in the original octave:
Bassoon – written in the original, bass, tenor, and treble clefs. More compact notation than in the original print.
Bassoon – written in all bass clef
Bass clarinet – written in treble clef
Horn in F – written in treble and bass clefs – best played on a double horn
Wagner Tuba – notation similar to the horn version – best played on a bass WT or on a double WT
Bb Euphonium – written in all treble clef, brass band style
Euphonium – written in all bass clef
Ophicleide – written in all bass clef
Bass tuba – very high range
Eb tuba – written in all treble clef, brass band style, very high range
Versions one octave down:
Contrabassoon – all bass clef 8-bassa
Contrabass tuba – all bass clef
Eb tuba – written in treble clef, brass band style, very low range
BBb tuba – written in treble clef, brass band style
Korsør - January 12th - 2015
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre
Available for free from my Yahoo-based project. If you want an invitation, you may send me an email address via the mail button to the right of here.
The sample pages are written in 5 different transpositions, clefs, and/or reading modes.
opus 168
pour Basson avec accompagnement de Piano
à Monsieur Léon Letellier
Premier Basson de l’Opéra
et de la Société des Concerts
Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)
Solo part edited by Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre 2015
The editions of solo pieces by Massenet, Elgar, and Nielsen allowing for performances by other instruments than the original solo instrument have generated enough interest to inspire more work along this line. Again this project only provides music for the respective soloists, whereas the piano score may be found at IMSLP:
http://tinyurl.com/kqhrco8
This edition of the solo part basically follows the printed bassoon part (which differs slightly from the piano score in a few performance instruction details). This edition’s basic version with the original clefs varies in three matters:
in bar #49 the bass clef octave-up notation is replaced by the tenor clef
in bar #76 the original print only has the 2 first notes slurred. The manuscript isn’t entirely clear on this matter, but this edition has a slur over all 3 notes of this bar in reference to the sequence pattern of bar #78.
This edition, in contrast to the original print has bar numbers indicated at the start of the staves. May be helpful in teaching situations.
This edition is made for practical purposes and has no musicological ambitions. Aside from potential unintended proofing errors there has been made no changes to the note text. Yet one possible error in the manuscript as well as in the print version may be pointed to:
Formal reading of bar #227 has its 10th note being a concert A# because of the passing note earlier in the same bar. However this editor finds an A-natural being much more likely from the musical context. The decision has been left to the performer.
The very wide range of 3 octaves plus a tritone poses a challenge to most wind instruments, so the selection of versions is a smaller one than usual for these editions. Two or three of these present versions even have this said wide range placed in extra challenging areas of the ranges for the given instruments. Anyway the quite complex tonality may provide a good etude in sight-reading.
So far I have uploaded editions of the solo part for these 14 instruments and modes of notation:
Versions in the original octave:
Bassoon – written in the original, bass, tenor, and treble clefs. More compact notation than in the original print.
Bassoon – written in all bass clef
Bass clarinet – written in treble clef
Horn in F – written in treble and bass clefs – best played on a double horn
Wagner Tuba – notation similar to the horn version – best played on a bass WT or on a double WT
Bb Euphonium – written in all treble clef, brass band style
Euphonium – written in all bass clef
Ophicleide – written in all bass clef
Bass tuba – very high range
Eb tuba – written in all treble clef, brass band style, very high range
Versions one octave down:
Contrabassoon – all bass clef 8-bassa
Contrabass tuba – all bass clef
Eb tuba – written in treble clef, brass band style, very low range
BBb tuba – written in treble clef, brass band style
Korsør - January 12th - 2015
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre
Available for free from my Yahoo-based project. If you want an invitation, you may send me an email address via the mail button to the right of here.
The sample pages are written in 5 different transpositions, clefs, and/or reading modes.