Different types of editions
Facsimile
For violinists there are many kind of scores available. In this chapter the differences between those types of scores will be explained. The most common kind of edition these days is the Urtext edition. Next to these Urtext editions there are the performance editions. Then, mainly for the violin concertos, there are also study scores available. Lastly, the facsimile are a possibility for some pieces of the violin repertoire.
The facsimile is perhaps the easiest to understand. The word comes from latin (fac simile) that could be translated as ‘to make the same’. It is an identical copy of a manuscript. More and more music has been published as facsimiles the last few decades. whether it is really possible to read while playing, is depending on the handwriting of the composer. Anyway, it is an easy access to do some historical research for the musicians themselves. A facsimile does not always have to be the final result of what the composer had in mind. It could be that there are more sources (instructions of musicians from that time) or other versions (composers could change their mind after a while). So it does not mean that a facsimile is always the end result of what the composer had in mind.
Performance editions
By researching the manuscripts the tendency of what was important for the performance practise of musicians changed a lot over the last few decades. Concerning the violinists, there were a lot of different violin schools half a century ago. The differences existed on the fields of violin technique, ideas of phrasing and articulation. Therefore the publishers embraced certain musicians to help them with their editions. David Oistrakh is one of the most well-known violinists who did a lot of editing. Also Josef Szigeti or Nathan Milstein and longer ago, George Enescu, Carl Flesch, Ivan Galamian and Josef Joachim where asked to help with the final result of a certain edition of a piece. These editions with fingerings, articulation and phrasing remarks are called performance editions. They show the ideas of a (good) violinist on how the piece could be played. Therefore it is possible that the same piece is edited in different ways. The historical background of the piece itself is less important in these kind of editions.
Urtext editions
Because of the globalisation these different schools are not so clearly represented anymore: in the way of violin playing it could be said that we live in a period where we are dealing with a ‘melting pot’ of different violin schools. Musicians are more often confronted with other styles and perhaps that could be the reason why musicians started to value more the historical side of a work.
This was the beginning of a new sort of edition: the Urtext. These editions are historically justified. The better editions give explanations why certain decisions were made. Editors are not famous artists anymore (as in the performance editions) but historians. These editions are currently by far the most popular among musicians. Notice that Urtext is not a facsimile. This is a mistake that is often made. In an Urtext all available sources have been taken into account. That means that revisions or other versions, after finding the evidence, could be seen as the final idea of a composer and therefore part of an Urtext. As Henle describes it on their own website:
The term "Urtext" has been debated ever since it was first used. Yet the idea behind it is simple and easy to understand: the musician is offered a musical text which solely reflects the composer’s intentions (…)
In order to produce an Urtext edition worthy of the name, the editor must first of all strip away the distorted layers. This task is similar to the one carried out by a restorer of fine paintings who divests a work of art of all the changes made to it over the centuries to reveal the original. To this end the editor turns to the source criticism. This evaluates whether, and to what extent, an existing document (e.g. a music manuscript or a printed version) was authorized by the composer.
The composer's original manuscript is often gone and even if it is available, the editor must ascertain whether the composer did not also authorize later sources (e.g. the first edition). Once the wheat has been separated from the chaff, the second, no less painstaking phase begins: textual criticism. Now that the editor has uncovered the "nucleus" of the work, the sources (textual witnesses) have to be examined meticulously - note by note, mark by mark. Experience has shown that the mere complexity of the musical notation means that the sources are not able to provide us with a text free of ambiguity. 1
Study scores
The sort of score that has not been discussed yet are the study scores. This type of score is mostly available for concertos and bigger chamber music works. Study scores have a pocket size and therefore they are not really suitable to play from. There are made to allow the musician to have a nice overview of the piece. Most Urtext publishers have their own study scores. Next to a better overview these Urtext study scores also give more background information on the music or composer. There are also study scores that are not specifically Urtext. Those give just the overview. Those study scores can be very usefull for learning concertos so you know what the orchestra does. However, as mentioned before, most study scores are way too small to really practise or perform from.
Copyrights
Because the Urtext editions are so popular, new works are being released in this edition nowadays Looking for example at the Haydn string quartets: first only Henle had an Urtext edition. Peters has it now too. With some composers it is even possible to choose between Urtext editions. This will probably be more and more the case in the future. Still there are many works that belong to the “standard” repertoire of every violinist, that do not have an Urtext edittion yet. For example the violin sonata by Poulenc, there is just one edition available and it has a lot differences when you compare the violin part with the score. This has to do with publishing rights. On the Convention of Berne on September 9th of 1886 it was decided that the author of a work has the rights over his/her work until 70 years after death. The rights continue to exist after the death of an author and go to the heirs. After 70 years the rights stop automatically. It could be that the author sold the publishing rights to a specific publisher and therefore there is only one publisher that sells the work. Therefore, the Urtext publishers do only copyright-free music. For example: a few years ago Henle started publishing the music of Maurice Ravel, which was not possible before 2007. With contemporary music it is a more simple procedure. Composers are asked to do their own editing: how they deliver it, is how it will be published concerning the content of the score.