Debussy Pelleas full score with revised interludes

[Carolus]

OK, that's a big help. The 1964 printing I have in my hand is therefore of the revised orchestration. All three elements you describe are present - and definitely absent form the IMSLP score. This is a fairly decently printed copy, too. There is no sort of copyright claim apart from the original (now moot) 1904 claim. I'll scan this ASAP and post. If you post a list of items that didn't make it into this score on the talk page for Pelleas over at the wiki, I can add them via Photoshop provided they're simple enough - like pasting the flute passage at the start of Act II into the first and second violins.

[sbeckmesser]

Will the weirdness ever end? If indeed the full score you have with the revised orchestration dates from 1964, then it must be an enlargment of the study score with the revised orchestration. The Grayson article in the CUP book mentioned earlier clearly states:

"the study score . . . was amended in 1950, but the conductor's score not until 1966, which was the first [Durand] reprinting of that score since 1904!"

If your full score is from Kalmus, and it truly dates from 1964, then Kalmus enlarged it from a copy of the study score, a procedure they have been known to follow for other works, with varying degrees of success (often an enlarging copier would have produced better, and cheaper, results). In that case I'm surprised that it looks so good. My offical, newer Durand study score isn't very "clean." Good luck on the scan. If your full score is from Durand, then the situation is even more strange, since it shouldn't exist!

As for the post-1905 revisions, they apparently exist as handwritten emendations only in Debussy's own copy of his work and this, possibly, is what has actually been used to supply the video interludes in that Boulez DVD of Pelleas. Due to the nature of the revisions, which are presumably similar to the 1905 changes (changes to or additions of instrumental doublings in order to alter the sonority of a passage), it is usually very hard to determine from a recording alone what has been altered. I know about the flute-violin doubling since the score showing the inked-in changes is actually on-screen with the Boulez DVD. And while the first bar is a doubling at unison, in the second bar the first violins break into a descending pizzicato arpeggio. Also shown in the video, on p.129, last bar of 1st system, it appears that the harp line is reassigned to the 1st oboe, while the harp is given a variant of what the oboe used to have. And in the last bar of the same page, the 2nd and 3rd bassoons double the contrabass line (the bassoons notated in unison with the basses, presumably sounding an octave higher. These changes are actually performed by Boulez. It would have been fascinating the have the whole score on video!

But it is possible that a full accounting of the alterations in Debussy's own score is in the research material mentioned earlier, but I don't have access to those works. If it exists there and you could enter the necessary changes without too much trouble, then IMSLP would be in the delicious position of being able to issue its own quasi-Critical Edition -- scooping the official Critical Edition -- and it would have copyright protection! An irony worthy of Maeterlinck!

--Sixtus

[daphnis]

You all should also include a link to this forum post on the work page in question to answer these confusing issues for other users.

[Carolus]

The score I have here is a study score printed by Durand in 1964. The Kalmus score hasn't arrived yet.

But it is possible that a full accounting of the alterations in Debussy's own score is in the research material mentioned earlier, but I don't have access to those works. If it exists there and you could enter the necessary changes without too much trouble, then IMSLP would be in the delicious position of being able to issue its own quasi-Critical Edition -- scooping the official Critical Edition -- and it would have copyright protection! An irony worthy of Maeterlinck!

Actually, we couldn't make a copyright claim on anything written by Debussy (dead over 70 years) in the USA, even if we wanted to and it was music never before published. As it is, we're talking about simple corrections or perhaps minor changes - not a missing scene. It's highly questionable whether the Editio Princeps rubric would apply in such a case even in the EU.

At any rate, if someone can provide us an exact detailed list of the changes/corrections made in Debussy's personal copy of the 1908 study score, listed as B.N. Cons. res. 2729 in the Briscoe book, or in the 41 parts from the Opera-Comique with misc. written corrections (mainly by orchestral musicians), listed as B.N. res. vms. 338., we could at least get an idea of what would be involved in bringing the score up to snuff. Even if there is too much to do without a re-engraving, this 1964 Durand study score is a decent printing (somewhat unusual for them) which should produce a reasonably nice scan at 600 dpi - despite its small size. It will be a while before it's accomplished, but expect to see it here in a month or two.

[dancarter10]

Hello Carolus!

I know this is all a long time ago now - but could you please let me know which version the Kalmus print turned out to be? I am thinking of buying it myself if it is newer than the Dover print, as I can't find a larger format score anywhere!

All the best,
Dan

[Sallen112]

You should not ever resurrect a thread that is not in use anymore.