Stem Direction-the Long View

[John Ruggero]

The area in red from the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata K. 457 is an example of his "long view" of correct stem direction, a characteristic seen also in Beethoven and Chopin.

In the surrounding measures, the soprano part has up stems because of the position of the lower parts. Yet while up stems were not required in the boxed area, Mozart continues to write up stems. To do otherwise would have worked against the visual continuity of the upper voice. And the visual and audible were one and the same to Mozart. It is the same when the passage appeared earlier.

Note that in other areas of the example, the stemming follows standard practice. And it is the same throughout the manuscipt.

Mozart K 457.1.png (1.47 MiB) Viewed 15858 times

[NeeraWM]

Would you engrave it upstem in a modern edition?
I have come through a similar issue in Liszt's Liebestraume recently and I have either flipped things down or added explicit rests in specific places.

[John Ruggero]

In such cases, I ask myself: Is it clear?

If the answer is yes, I engrave exactly as the composer wrote it, without additions or subtractions, since a great composer almost always knows best.

If the answer is no. I make the least possible change, while trying to stay as close to the original as possible. If there is a loss of information, I put the original in a footnote.

In this case, I felt that it is as clear as day, better than any possible alternative, and therefore engraved exactly as it stands.

[NeeraWM]

Interesting!
I would have interpreted as a mistake, even if I understand your reasoning on voicing.
If voicing needs to be preserved, explicit bar rests in the downstem voice would need to be added to justify the stem up, in my opinion.

Since this is an autograph, it could even be that Mozart wrote the melody upstem without knowing (or deciding) beforehand what would go in the accompaniment. Of course, we will never know, but I try to avoid sanctifying the composer's autograph when it doesn't really add something to it.
I am no pianist, so I may be biased, but in this case needing upstem to identify a voice is overkill.

[John Ruggero]

To me, it can't be a mistake, because it was harder to write with up stems than down stems since there is more clearance below than above. And this is the second time the passage occurs; the first time also has the same unique up stems. Definitely not a mistake.

Mozart never added unnecessary rests or unnecessary anything.

Mozart shows no hesitation and makes very few corrections in his manuscripts since the piece was generally finished in his mind before he wrote it down. The few corrections that do exist are of the afterthought type, where he changes his mind about something later.

When one looks at the manuscript of the whole sonata at

https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks ... graph-.pdf

you will see how clean it is. The first movement, from which the excerpt was taken, has a couple of slight retouches of an ornament on the third system, and that's it. The second movement (which is at the end of the MS) has nothing either, the variations of the returning theme that added later at the very end of the MS, have a couple of note changes in an accompaniment. The third movement is the same, but he changed his mind about the final few measures and decided to extend the passage. I believe that this is unique in his piano sonata manuscripts.

In any case, I think that the way he wrote the passage in question is very meaningful and wouldn't think of changing it. The moment is amazing in purely dramatic terms, as the two hands make a couple of false starts, start to play more continuously, the left hand abruptly stops, leaving the right hand to noodle on, and leaving us in a state of suspense wondering when it will join in again and what will happen next. What better way to show this state of "suspension" than they way he did?

[Felipe Copaja]

Hi John, it's quite a mind opener issue! I wonder what do you think of the upper right corner measure, and the following one, with stems up and down... an implied third voice?

[NeeraWM]

Thank you for explaining this John, but I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree.
While it can look beautiful in handwriting, I would find it to look wrong in modern notation.
The rests in the downstem voice wouldn't be unnecessary, I believe.

I am not sure this notation should be interpreted as trying to convey an emotional message by the way it is laid out on page or if one should feel forced to read a deeper meaning into it. Of course, this is just my opinion.

[John Ruggero]

You are very welcome, NeeraWM. I always enjoy our discussions. Serious discussion is what this forum is all about.

I do want to clarify that I didn't mean that Mozart was (necessarily) trying to convey an emotional message consciously. It may have more that he wrote it like that spontaneously because it "just wouldn't have looked right" the other way.

Everything we feel comes out in our actions. And who feels a piece of music more intensely than the composer of that music? The idea that a composer's feelings are not reflected in the notation seems far-fetched to me.

If we accept that, then why would we not want to convey this in the way we engrave the music?

[John Ruggero]

Yes it is, Felipe Copaja!

Do you mean this spot:

Mozart 457.1.png (136.26 KiB) Viewed 14608 times

If so, it is non-controversial. All editions engrave it just like that since there is a three voice imitation going on there that starts between the hands. Note the half rest that Mozart felt necessary to show that the left hand is resting immediately before it enters with an imitation.

But perhaps you are referring to the double stems on the sixths. This strange "double" notation occurs here and there throughout the piano sonata manuscripts, and I have yet to find it discussed anywhere. My guess is that Mozart was giving the engraver the option of double stemming or single stemming the voices depending on the house style. He does seem to prefer double stemming the voice leading however more than one sees, say in Beethoven, and I have gone that route in engraving it. I have found that one gets into less quandary and having to make arbitrary decisions by simply following the composer's style in such matters. Everything fits together, and when you change one thing, unforeseen issues start to arise.