Confusing instrumentation: Arriaga nonet/sextet
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:52 pm
https://imslp.org/wiki/Overture_in_F_mi ... 3stomo_de) is listed on IMSLP and elsewhere as a nonet - with the nine instruments duly listed (N.B. no violoncello) and classified as such ('for 9 players' etc.). However, looking at the parts, there is a violoncello part included.
To confuse matters, the string parts say 'for sextet' on the cover but then 'for sextet or nonet' inside. The wind parts say 'for nonet' both on the cover and inside. The Vc part says 'play cue notes if no viola' (but it would be impossible double stopping, implying two celli?), while the DB part says 'ad lib'. The piano conductor says "piano conductor for the sextet and guide for the nonet", and refers in some places to ''all strings and piano sextet' while in others to "piano and quintet".
My guess is that it is intended to be playable either as a piano sextet, i.e. piano/V1/V2/Va/Vc/DB, or as a non-piano nonet, i.e. V1/V2/[Va/Vc/DB]/Fl/Cl1/Cl2/Tp1/Tp2 with the Va/Vc/DB somehow equating to just 2 full instruments as the Vc would either play the Va bits or the bass line...
But it all seems terribly muddled. Looking on the site about him at Bilbao.eus does not help. Can anyone make sense of it?
To confuse matters, the string parts say 'for sextet' on the cover but then 'for sextet or nonet' inside. The wind parts say 'for nonet' both on the cover and inside. The Vc part says 'play cue notes if no viola' (but it would be impossible double stopping, implying two celli?), while the DB part says 'ad lib'. The piano conductor says "piano conductor for the sextet and guide for the nonet", and refers in some places to ''all strings and piano sextet' while in others to "piano and quintet".
My guess is that it is intended to be playable either as a piano sextet, i.e. piano/V1/V2/Va/Vc/DB, or as a non-piano nonet, i.e. V1/V2/[Va/Vc/DB]/Fl/Cl1/Cl2/Tp1/Tp2 with the Va/Vc/DB somehow equating to just 2 full instruments as the Vc would either play the Va bits or the bass line...
But it all seems terribly muddled. Looking on the site about him at Bilbao.eus does not help. Can anyone make sense of it?