Purcell, Fairy-Queen vocal score

[haydenmuhl]

Fairy-Queen, obviously public domain. I've got a Novello vocal score from 1966. It's my understanding that this would also be in the public domain. In general, piano reductions do not meet the requirements for a new copyright. Even if this were to fall under the umbrella of urtext, it's well past the 30 year mark.

[daphnis]

It looks like the Novello VS from the late 60's was further revised and edited (on top of the work done in 1903 by Shedlock) by Anthony Lewis (d. 1983). Presumably the piano reduction was either Purcell's or some other contributor whose work was present by the time the 1903 revisions took place, which means that could safely be ruled out. The work done by Shedlock would have to be considered in all this; certainly the critical prose would have to be removed.

[haydenmuhl]

Here's what the preface says.

The principal source of this edition is thee contemporary Ms. full score, of which a large proportion is autograph, in the Royal Academy of Music in London. The following were also consulted: [...]

In this vocal score all smaller-size music-type is editorial; this mainly relates to the continuo part, which has been written with the harpsichord in mind. Almost all the tempo-marks are editorial, and printed in italics; exceptions occur in nos. 24 and 30. Except in nos. 11 and 12, all dynamics are editorial, suggested alteration of rhythm are shown in small notes above the stave.

Even though the edition is not marked as urtext, it seems to me that this fits the bill.

[pml]

@ Daphnis, Purcell usually didn’t do piano reductions! This will almost certainly be the work of a 20th century contributor, though the possibility exists the 1960s editor borrowed the work of the 1900s score.

Cheers PML

[panda]

The continuo realisation in the 1966 vocal score is totally different from the 1903 edition and a sizable part of the score is accompanied only by continuo. Where there is a piano reduction (instrumental music, choruses, some vocal solos) it is obviously pretty close given it is mainly a straightforward transcription of the string parts, although sometimes notes have been redistributed between the hands. Plenty of editorial dynamics have been added to the reduction in the 1966 score.