A new edition of Morceau de Concert: An interview with Travis Bennett

4924
- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
- - Please visit: Peabody Institute - -

One item that caught my eye at the horn symposium in Denton was a new critical performing edition of the Saint-Saens Morceau de Concert, a standard of our rep with a very familiar old standard edition. Very recently also editor Travis Bennett put a short post related to this new publication on his blog. There we read from the foreword,

This critical performing edition of the Morceau de Concert, op. 94, by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) is the first to be based on the composer’s manuscripts housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. It addresses literally hundreds of discrepancies found not only in the manuscripts themselves, but also in the scores most widely used today: the Durand edition of 1893 and the International edition of 1956.

And also we learn

Saint-Saëns first wrote a version of the piece for horn and piano in October 1887, and then completed the version for horn and orchestra one month later. When you look at the two manuscripts, it appears that the piano version was more of a rough sketch, and the orchestral version is a more thoroughly thought-out work. Most of the current editions are based solely on the piano version. Our edition could be called a piano reduction of Saint-Saëns’ orchestral version, but it really is more than that. We looked carefully at both manuscript versions, and tried to faithfully represent the composer’s intentions.

There is a bit more information in his blog post (from which this image of the cover was linked) and much more in the foreword. As this new, critical edition obviously brings new information out of interest to Horn Matters readers, Bennett agreed to a short interview with more details about this work and edition.

JE: What were some of the most interesting things you found looking at the manuscripts of the piano and orchestral versions of the piece?

TB: I’m always fascinated by looking at a composer’s hand written manuscripts, especially when you can find clues about their working process or the piece’s evolution. In this case, I was surprised to find that the original title was “Fantaisie pour Cor”. This title was clearly written on the title page, then crossed out and replaced with “Morceau de Concert pour Cor.” Also–and even more interesting–the main theme was originally quite different. Before Saint-Saens changed his mind, the horn part began with a stepwise melody rather than the arpeggiated figure that we all know. In the foreword to our edition, we also describe some of Saint-Saens’ shorthand techniques, which partly serve to bolster our assertion that the piano version was more of a preliminary sketch than a complete composition.

JE: One question I have had as well is what was the original instrument that this was composed for? It is obviously not natural horn.

TB: The piece was written for the omnitonic horn, which was a generic term for many different horn designs during a time when horn makers were trying to develop a system that allowed players to play in multiple keys without changing crooks. Saint-Saens dedicated the piece to Henri Chaussier, who had invented his own design for an omnitonic horn. Claude Maury, at the Paris Conservatoire, has written an extensive article (in French) on Chaussier and his horn. There are great pictures and musical examples showing the fingering system of Chaussier’s horn.

JE: So, where can you buy this edition?

TB: It’s published by Faust Music. I approached Randall Faust about publishing it, because he was the host of the 2009 IHS Symposium, where Andrew Adams and I first presented some of our research about the piece. I’m very happy that he added it to his catalog. It sells for $15.

JE: Thank you for your work to bring new light to an old standard!

University of Horn Matters