What are your reference scores for good engraving?

[Roland_Gurt]

Dear colleagues, we all know the reference books like Gould, Read, Ross etc. – but oftentimes, it can be best to "go to the source" and look at the great publishers best efforts directly, especially for the more minute details.

Let's compile some scores that we keep coming back to for studying the finer aspects of music notation and engraving (preferably longer works that display a variety of notations). I'll start with a few of my picks for the most common genres:

Orchestral scores / opera

• Mahler: Symphony No. 3 – Universal Edition 1906 (or any other big symphony; scan on IMSLP is not tidy but in print it looks good, contains a breadth of notations)

• HK Gruber: "Frankenstein!!" – Boosey 1978 (modern with voice, not the most "beautiful" engraving, but good handling of several extended techniques/instrumentations, and great music!)

Chamber scores (2 or 3 systems per page)

• Berio: "Folk Songs" – Universal 1968 (good looking "semi-modern" score including voice and percussion

• ?

Choral scores

• ? (not my field of work)

Vocal scores / songs

• Berg: "Lulu" – Universal 1936 (incredible attention to detail, exemplary handling of vocal score particularities)

• Eisler: Songs ("Complete Works" by Manfred Grabs) – Breitkopf 1976 (these scores are beautiful, looking traditional and modern at the same time (just don’t look at the new editions from the 2000s))

Piano

• Grieg: Lyric pieces – Peters 1977 (for me the perfect traditional look)

• Chopin: Nocturnes – Wiener Urtext 1980 (also an exquisite engraving)

Orchestral Parts

• ? (anyone know editions where part-specific notations like cues and page turns are presented in an exemplary way?)

Contemporary Notations

• Stockhausen Klavierstücke (e.g. No. XIII) – James Ingram / Universal 1960–80s (very interesting to study, see also Ingrams website: https://james-ingram-act-two.de/)

• Lachenmann: "Guero" (Piano), "Pression" (Cello), "Toccatina" (Violin) – Breitkopf 1970s (some of the best "heavily extended" notation I’ve seen)

Popular styles / Film scores

• ?

Critical Editions of old music

• ?

I'd be really interested to know your picks!

[John Ruggero]

Great idea!

Orchestral Parts

• ? (anyone know editions where part-specific notations like cues and page turns are presented in an exemplary way?)

All the parts for the orchestral and chamber music from Complete Works of Brahms in the Breitkopf and Härtel edition

Piano

Again, the piano music in the Breitkopf Complete Works of Brahms.

Chopin Complete Etudes (Badura-Skoda) Wiener Urtext. Wonderful edition that has incorporated the variants into the text in a way that is not obtrusive. And Wiener Urtext editions of piano music in general.

[OCTO]

For newer music:

   * Dieter Amman - glut (Bärenrieter) [Finale]
   * Jörg Widmann - Viola Concerto (Schott) [SCORE]
   * Ligeti - Violin Concerto (Schott) [SCORE]

[mburns]

For solo instrumental works, my high standard is André Jolivet's Cinq Incantations pour flûte seule, published by Boosey & Hawkes (B. & H. 19381). Extremely detailed, but highly legible. One of the few pieces I play from the original because I've never needed to write anything on it.

[John Ruggero]

Critical editions of Old Music

The New Mozart Edition is excellent. The critical notes are particularly well done. And it is available free online.

[Roland_Gurt]

Thank you all for your great tips!

OCTO, yes, and on the Schott website, you can peruse many of the scores. I can also recommend looking at their editions of Henze opera/ballet scores, like Boulevard Solitude, König Hirsch, Undine. These engravings were done in the 1950s and show Schott at their best in my opinion.

Schott also published Czernowins opera „Infinite now“, which won an award for best publication, and I believe that wessmusic worked on this.

Speaking of opera scores, another good resource is the work of Britten, published by Boosey/Faber.


mburns, thank you! this score reminds me of some works by Enescu, particularly the „Impressions d'enfance“ op. 28, which is of course a tour de force of the most dense yet scarily amazing notation.


John Ruggero, thanks a lot, I will be sure to add these to my library!

[OCTO]

mburns, thank you! this score reminds me of some works by Enescu, particularly the „Impressions d'enfance“ op. 28, which is of course a tour de force of the most dense yet scarily amazing notation.

You know this perhaps:
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