What’s the score?

by | 10 May 2024 | blog

  “What a diary is to others, in which their momentary emotions and so forth are recorded, so to Schubert was music paper, to which he entrusted all his moods. His thoroughly musical soul wrote notes where others used words.” So wrote Schumann. Scribbles on paper that translate to expressive musical utterances when performed are the basic means of transport for the realisation of composers’ ideas. They are really interesting for performers to see (as long as they are available to see – many are not, or they have disappeared over the years) and often provide helpful information on the genesis of a musical work. Brahms used his manuscripts as working documents, editing and re-editing his compositions, often over many years, which was the case with the op 51 string quartets, as it was with his 1st symphony, finished when he was forty-three after many years of careful refining. Later in life, Brahms said: “Neither Schumann, Wagner nor I were properly schooled. Talent was the decisive factor. Each of us had to find his own way. Schumann took one way, Wagner another, and I a third. But none of us really learnt what is right.” This is an astonishing statement even if it is primarily to do with an idealistic aim to live up to the contrapuntal disciplines that were so superbly manifested in previous ages by such people as JS Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Although the first public performance of op 51 (1873) was given by Brahms’s close friend, the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim and his quartet, the music had undergone careful assessment and adjustment with the...