IMSLP Forums

To my knowledge, no completions of the Symphony No. 9 finale are public domain; the earliest ones date from the 1970s, so they would need to be specifically PD-dedicated. * I know that some smaller unfinished works have PD-dedicated completions, but probably not this one.

I am asking about a different edition, though - the 1994 study score by Phillips of the fragments only, published by MWV. This score is not a completion; it retains all compositional "gaps" and does not attempt to fill them in, as Phillips and others did in the SPCM completion published elsewhere. Would this edition be considered "urtext" as documenting only the music as written by the composer? And if so, does this edition qualify as public domain?

* For the curious, I believe that there are some publicly-available completed scores (e.g., on the Berkey site), but I assume that they are still not truly PD and only allowed there via special arrangement.

If the score is only of the composer's contributions and does not use any editorial additions to the score, that would be a critical or urtext edition.

Given that all gaps in the score are maintained, I assume that the score is only of the composer's work, or at least that that was the intention. The score basically appears like an engraving/printing of the extant manuscripts, including short score.

Obviously, the edition does feature editorial additions in the form of prefaces, tables, notes, etc. Some of the notes are footnotes that appear at the bottom of the page within the score.

I assume that an "IMSLP-ready" scan would be of only the main score, with all "in-line" notes and references removed. Since I am not sure, I will provide both the abridged score as mentioned and the complete edition of the same score for comparison purposes. Presumably only the former will actually be published; this is just to make sure that everything that needs to be removed (editor's preface, etc.) is actually removed.