Well-tempered Clavier, Mugellini edition

[worov]

Hi, everybody !

I'm not sure this is the right place to post. Feel free to move this, if I'm in the wrong forum.

I uploaded recently Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, edited by Bruno Mugellini. Somebody (an administrator, I guess) wrote some notes about the score :

"Text in Polish. Mugellini's name is also listed as co-editor of the Busoni edition. It is possible that this edition is a reprint of the Breitkopf issue above with the text translated into Polish."

I think the text is indeed Polish. I can't read it though. I trust the administrator on this. Nevertheless, I don't think it is a reprint of the Busoni edition. If you compare the Busoni file with the Mugellini file, you will see big difference in tempo indications, fingering, articulation. Just a thought, I could be wrong. I have not the books, I have found the file on the Internet.

[Carolus]

Hi, I'm the one who found the references to Mugellini being a co-editor (along with Egon Petri) for the Busoni edition. It appears that the one you posted is a new engraving by PWM, not a reprint of the Breitkopf. I am a bit confused about the exact nature of Mugellini's contribution to the edition that came out under Busoni's name. I did not find any records in OCLC for a Mugellini edition issued under his name only before his death in 1912, which confuses the issue even more.

[worov]

Hi, Carolus !

Thank you for your answer !

I am a bit confused about the exact nature of Mugellini's contribution to the edition that came out under Busoni's name.

In the Breitkopf edition by Busoni, you can see on the title page the names of Egon Petri and Mugellini. They have collaborate to the Edition of the Klavierwerke.

Wikipedia has a page on the subject. I don't know if it is reliable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach-Buson ... ed_Edition

According to the Wikipedia article, Mugellini has edited the following Volumes :

Konzerte nach B. Marcello, G. Ph. Telemann, A. Vivaldi u. a. Nr. 1-8
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1915; cat. no. EB 4311

Konzerte Nr. 9-16
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1915; cat. no. EB 4312

Präludien und Fugen
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1917; cat. no. 4319

Präludien, Fughetten, Fugen
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1917; cat. no. 4320

Fugen
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1917; cat. no. 4321

Suiten und 2 Sonaten
Ed. by Mugellini; Issued 1921; cat. no. 4324


But Wikipedia doesn't mention the name of Mugellini for the volumes of the WTC.

I understand that Mugellini has also made his own edition of the Well-Tempered Clavier.


It seems to me that the edition I have posted is this one :

http://www.pwm.com.pl/szczegoly.php?prz ... &grupa_p=9

[worov]

I did not find any records in OCLC for a Mugellini edition issued under his name only before his death in 1912, which confuses the issue even more.

I think I have found it in Google Books :

http://books.google.com/books?id=yWoZQA ... hl=fr&cd=9

It's a Breitkopf edition from 1908.

[Carolus]

Thanks for the info, Worov. Your info and that from Robert Allen (our resident Busoni expert) have resolved the problem. Mugellini produced his own edition in 1908, as your link shows. Apparently Breitkopf used a generic title page for the complete Bach series in the Busoni edition which mentioned Petri and Mugellini as co-editors (which is true for selected volumes), the WTC was Busoni's alone however. This has generated a great deal of confusion in the library catalogues over the decades.

[worov]

Well, I'm glad that the information is confirmed and that I could help to solve a problem. Now, we are sure that Mugellini has an editited the work.

I think you have noticed that I also uploaded a reprint from Muzyka for the Book I, BWV 846-869. I think this is one :

http://www.ruslania.com/entity-6/contex ... 53948.html

The Musyka and PWM files don't come from the same website. Both websites claim that the editor is Bruno Mugellini. Am I allowed to give you the links ? They contain a lots of sheet music, which may interest IMSLP, though some of the sheet are not public domain in Canada.

I'm quite sure for the book one : both are made by Mugellini. You can see the same tempos, fingering, articulation. I don't understand Russian, neither Polish, but I'm sure the comments are the same.

I have some doubts about Book II, BWV 870-893.

The website which contain the PWM, offers for the Book 2 the file which I have uploaded. I have encountered this very same file is on several websites. So I think it is good. There is no title page. As in Book I, there are some footnotes. However, if you compare with book I, there are some differences. The footnotes are translated in several languages : russian, english, italian, french. No polish comments. Is this PWM ? I don't know.

I have not posted the edition "Musyka", though it looks very much like the Book I. A title page is included, in russian, with Mugellini's name on it (I can't read russian, but I have compared the cyrrilic letters with Book 1, they definitely are the same). The titles for each piece "Prelude" and "Fugue" are written in russian. But there are no footnotes. Some indications of tempo, but very different from PWM.

For instance, Prelude no 1 in C major, BWV 870 :

Muzyka says : Andante espressivo. The duration of a crotchet is 54.

PWM says : Moderato. The duration of a crotchet is 72.

I can upload the Muzyka file on rapidshare if you want to have a look at it. But I'm quite sure that tone of the files is not edited by Mugellini.

Again, thank you very much for your time and help. And thanks to Robert Allen.

[Carolus]

For the purpose of the type of research we're discussing here, any links are permissible. When people are trying to find copyrighted items for free download we do not allow linking in the forum here in order to circumvent the law. As for the odd volume for BWV 870-893, go ahead and upload it if you like. I'm fairly certain that Muzyka issued several editions of Bach's WTC - not just the one by Mugellini. It is very likely the volume you cite has a different editor altogether.

[worov]

I have uploaded the Book 2 from the russian edition. Here's the links :

Preludes and Fugues no. 1-12 : http://rapidshare.com/files/356026172/W ... 2.pdf.html

Preludes and Fugues no. 13-24 : http://rapidshare.com/files/356026825/W ... 4.pdf.html


I have made some research about the editions made by Muzyka. The Mugellini is the only one I found.

I will send you the links of the two websites by private message.

[worov]

Carolus, do you have any idea which publisher it might be ? Does it look like a Muzyka edition ?

[Carolus]

Sorry for the delay, Worov. Yes, those definitely looks like Muzgiz engravings. There's no editor credit to be found, naturally.

[worov]

Sorry for the delay, Worov.

You are welcome.

Muzgiz made some reprints of thez Busoni edition, but it is definitely not what we have. To much differences between the two.

This is the only edition I have heard of. I have searched in the libraries and found nothing. I have found nothing else on the internet.

Could it be a reprint from the Hans Bischoff edition, from Kalmus ? I have found some excerpts of the Bischoff edition on google books and it looks very similar. Here it is :

http://books.google.fr/books?id=dwNY7Uu ... q=&f=false

Look at BWV 870, first prelude and fugue in C major.

For the prelude, you can read Andante espressivo and crotchet duration is 54. Same fingering.
On the fugue, Vivace on both files, same tempo again, the fingering is exactly the same.

The only difference is that the Bischoff edition, from Kalmus, has some footnotes, which don't appear in the Muzgiz file. They seem to have been taken off.

What do you think ?

[Carolus]

It looks like it could be a Bischoff edition, but it's not the Kalmus/Alfred re-engraving you linked to on Google. Muzgiz/Muzyka was an enormous enterprise. It is entirely possible that they issued their own engraving of the Bischoff edition along with those of other editors like Mugellini. The two volumes of Book II you uploaded are definitely Muzyka engravings, and quite consistent with their production from the 1960s. They were most likely produced at the main facility in Moscow, which used to be P. Jurgenson's factory and offices before 1918. The items produced at the Leningrad branch office have a somewhat different appearance. Bischoff's edition was originally issued by Steingräber in the 1860s or 1870s. It was reprinted extensively by Kalmus starting in 1933. After the Kalmus piano music catalog was sold to Belwin in the 1970s, the print quality got so bad they actually had the entire thing re-engraved in Korea (mid-1980s). That is what is being sold now by Alfred (under the Kalmus Classic Series imprint). Some of the older reprints of the Steingräber are fairly decent in quality.

[worov]

Thank you for all these enlightments.

I guess the Bischoff is public domain in Canada and can be uploaded, isn't it ?

[worov]

Well, someone has now uploaded it.

By the way, do you know if the Bartok edition is public domain ? It's this one :

Book 1 : http://www.emb.hu/fr/product/4475/BACH- ... -Clavier-1

Book 2 : http://www.emb.hu/fr/product/4476/BACH- ... -Clavier-2

[Carolus]

I don't think those are free in the USA, which means they would be locked up in [TB] jail even though Bartok is free in Canada.