THE FIRST MODERN EDITION OF THE INSTRUMENTAL WORKS OF MARIN MARAIS(1656—1728)Author(s): John HsuSource: Fontes Artis Musicae, Vol. 52, No. 1 (January-March 2005), pp. 60-64Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres(IAML)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23510478 .

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THE FIRST MODERN EDITION OF THE INSTRUMENTAL WORKS OF MARIN MARAIS

(1656-1 72 8)

John Hsu1

Abstract

Marin Marais (1656-1728), one of the greatest virtuoso viol players of late seven teenth and early eighteen century, was the most prolific composer of music for the

viol, and played a major role in the development of the genre. John Hsu, editor of the Instrumental Works of Marais for over 30 years, gives his reflections on the Marais

edition and the work necessary to develop this edition.

French Abstract

Marin Marais (1656-1728), l'un des plus grands virtuoses de la viole de la fin du dix

septième et du début du dix-huitième siècle, fut également le compositeur le plus fé cond pour cet instrument, jouant un rôle majeur dans le développement du genre.

John Hsu, éditeur des Instrumental Works de Marais depuis plus de 30 ans, expose ses considérations sur l'édition Marais et le travail nécessaire à son développement.

German Abstract

Marin Marais (1656-1728) war einer der bedeutendsten Violinvirtuosen im späten 17ten und frühen 18ten Jahrhundert. Zusätzlich komponierte Marais zahlreiche

Werke für sein Instrument and war massgeblich an der Entwicklung des Genres

beteiligt. Der Herausgeber der Instrumental Works of Marais, John Hsu, blickt auf

die dreißigjährige Entwicklung und das Enstehen dieser Ausgabe zurück.

It is difficult to say with certainty when and how the viol (viola da gamba in Italian and la viole in French) was first introduced in France, but we can say that by the middle of the seventeenth century, solo playing on the bass viol was a well-developed art. All the solo viol music now in existence dates from mid seventeenth to mid-eighteenth century. The achievements of a few of the out

standing performers are documented, showing that their style of playing was much influenced by the English division viol, lyra viol, and the lute. However, in contrast to improvization, French solo viol music was carefully notated with both technical and musical details. Extant treatises and music from that period provide us with a reliable account of the incredible speed with which French

1. John Hsu is Old Dominion Foundation Professor of Music, Emeritus, at Cornell University.

60

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INSTRUMENTAL WORKS OF MARIN MARAIS 61

viol players carried their art to its apex. Marin Marais, one of the greatest vir tuoso viol players of the period and the most prolific composer of music for the

instrument, played a major role in the development. Marais was born in Paris in 1656, and lived there until his death in 1728. He

studied composition with Lully and viol playing with Sainte-Colombe. In 1679 he was appointed "joueur de viole de la chambre,

" which carried with it the rank of "ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du Roi. " He held this position for

forty-six years, until his retirement in 1725. Although Marais composed four

operas, a Te Deum, and other works that are now lost, he is remembered and celebrated for his seven volumes of printed instrumental works. The most sig nificant of these is the corpus of five volumes of Pièces de violes, published between 1686 and 1725, containing 598 pieces (559 for solo viol and continuo, 18 for two viols and continuo, and 21 for three viols and continuo). In addition, there is a volume of Pièces en trio, published in 1692, containing 67 pieces for two treble instruments (violins, flutes, or treble viols) and continuo, and La Gamme et autres morceaux de simphonie for violin, viol, and harpsichord, published in 1723.

In 1971, the late Irving Broude of Broude Brothers Limited had the idea of

publishing a modern edition of the instrumental works of Marin Marais. On the advice of the late François Lesure, long-time head of the Music Depart ment at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, I was offered the editorship. Thus

began my thirty-year Marais sojourn as an editor.

Throughout these years, I have had the benefit of the guiding hand of Dr. Ronald Broude (Irving's son), who, with his expert staff, provided all nec

essary support and invaluable advice in every aspect of the editorial and pub lication process.

In view of the fact that I had already agreed to record for The Musical

Heritage Society a series of pièces de viole by Marin Marais, embarking on a

thorough study of Marais's instrumental works in preparation for the edition was a most timely undertaking.

The first editorial decision was to have all the works published in full scores, which would facilitate perusal and performance by today's musicians. Since Marais's pièces de viole and pièces en trio were published in part-books, the first task was to score them in order to provide the engraver with the manuscripts on which to base his work. In the process of scoring these pieces, certain as

pects of the original notation in the sources were adjusted to conform to modern practice, or changed by substituting current signs or terms that have

the same meaning. For example, in Marais's time, an accidental applied only to the note which

it preceded and to immediate repetitions of the same pitch. Since nowadays an

accidental is effective for all succeeding occurrences of the same pitch in the

same measure, providing that no change of clef or octave intervenes, some

accidentals in the source had to be deleted because of their redundancy in

modern interpretation. Sharps and flats used in the sources to cancel previous accidentals were replaced by natural signs.

Likewise, the various signs used in the sources to indicate different kinds of

repeats were replaced by modern repeat signs and endings to indicate da capo,

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62 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 52/1

dal segno, and petite reprise. The stems of chords were extended to join all notes of a chord, to conform to present-day usage, instead of connecting only the two outer voices of a chord. In some instances, beaming was re-ordered to make the main beats more easily recognizable.

While figures for the continuo part were preserved unaltered, I added a few

figures in parentheses where the sources did not provide figures and where the harmony was not clearly indicated in the viol part.

To facilitate location of pieces in the source, I provided in brackets above the first measure of each piece the pages in the part-books on which the piece

begins. The first number refers to the viol part-book and the second to the continuo part-book.

At the same time we had to find an engraver who was up to the task of deal

ing with the meticulously notated and richly decorated music of Marais, and

willing to have new punches made for all the signs that are peculiar to French viol pieces. After reviewing the work of several engravers, we decided to en trust the Marais project to an experienced engraver in Paris.

The design and construction of the punches for all the peculiar signs in Marais's music was a long and tedious process. Before e-mail, fax, and transat lantic telephone calls became common modes of communication, the response from the engraver to each of our suggestions for corrections or improvements of the shape and size of the signs took almost a month by air mail. Therefore it took months before all the necessary punches were made and ready for use. After that, we had to establish guidelines regarding the placement of each or

nament, vis-à-vis the note to which it referred and to other adjacent signs. Thus it was over a year before the actual engraving of the music began.

Along with the preparatory work with the engraver, I began a thorough col

lation of the eleven original viol part-books of the first volume of viol pieces that were available to me in order to determine the best source on which to base my edition. A note-by-note collation of the viol part-books revealed some 400 variants in the music. Moreover, these copies were also found to differ from each other in the address of the composer given on the privilège page, and in the items and prices contained in the catalogues of the composer's works present in the copies. These clues and the musical variants together provided the evidence that I needed for suggesting a chronology of the as

semblage of the copies and ascertaining which copy, or copies, contain the

composer's last revisions. The result of this exercise was so informative that I undertook similar collations of all the available part-books of subsequent volumes. A detailed account of the variants is included in the Critical Report of each volume.

Marais, like other French composers of his time who published their own

works, underwrote the cost of engraving his works and retained ownership of the plates. Copies of an entire book or sheets from a given book were printed as needed and sold from the composer's home, music shops and homes of members of the immediate family. Since the plates were in the composer's pos session, he was able to make revisions on them whenever he wished, thus new

printings were likely to contain variants. With over 1,000 variants, the second volume of pièces de viole was the most revised volume. On the other hand, col

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INSTRUMENTAL WORKS OF MARIN MARAIS 63

lation of part-books of the fifth volume of pièces de viole yielded no evidence of

post-publication alteration to the music plates. Excluding variants that were corrections of mechanical errors in the early

printings, the nature of the variants ranged from second thoughts on finger ings and bowing to musical matters such as the addition of ornaments, changes in rhythmic notations, and the replacement of harmonies. The density of variants on each page ranged from none to fifteen.

Marais's revisions of his works, as manifested by the variants that I have

identified, show us that he used his own music for playing and teaching, and that his creative mind was active to the end of his life. Believing that the com

poser's latest musical decisions should be respected, I have based my edition on those original copies that I believe were printed from the terminal state of each plate.

The scoring of the music, the collation of part-books, the engraving, and the communication between Paris and New York all proved to be much more time

consuming than I had anticipated. Therefore, the first three volumes were pub lished in 1980,1986, and 1996 respectively. The publication of the third volume was further delayed by the ill health of the Parisian engraver, who afterwards was unable to continue. At this critical moment, Marc Mellits, a talented com

poser versed in technology, became our new engraver. Using Score, a program by Leland Smith, he was able to make such speedy progress that the last four volumes were published in 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2002.

In the seventh volume of this edition, along with La Gamme et autres morceaux de simphonie, we included the unpublished viol pieces from the Panmure manuscripts, MSS 9466 and 9467, in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. These manuscripts, which predate the publication of Marais's first book of viol pieces in 1686, contain 82 pieces and 29 couplets of the folies, but without continuo parts. Of these, 27 pieces were published in the first book of Pièces de violes; ten pieces and 17 of the folies couplets were printed in the second book, and one piece appears in the third book. The remaining 44 pieces and 12 couplets are unique to the Panmure manuscripts, and are published in this edition for the first time.

The significance of Marais's instrumental works extends beyond their in herent musical worth. These seven volumes, with the composer's meticulous and detailed notation, are the single most important musical source of infor mation on performance practice of that period. They add immeasurably to the information furnished by treatises and other documents of the time. Thanks to

Broude Brothers Limited and The Broude Trust, the publication of this series

has made Marais's instrumental music more easily accessible to musicians

who are seeking to recapture the essence of French baroque instrumental

music.

Marin Marais. The instrumental works, edited John Hsu. New York: Broude

Bros., 1980-2002. v. 1. Pièces à une et à deux violes (1686-89) v. 2. Pièces de viole, 2e livre (1701) v. 3. Pièces de viole, troisième livre (1711)

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64 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 52/1

v. 4. Pièces à une et à trois violes, quatrième livre (1717) v. 5. Pièces de viole, cinquième livre (1725) v. 6. Pièces en trio pour les flutes, violon & dessus de viole (1692) v. 7. La Gamme et autres morceaux de simphonie pour le violin, la viole et

le claveçin (1723). Unpublished Pieces from the Panmure Manuscripts

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