A New Urtext Edition of Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor by Tibor Szasz & Gerard Carter & Martin Adler (version with endnotes)

Abstract

This article is a shortened version of the JALS 2017 article "Towards a New Edition of Liszt's Sonata in B minor". It contains all discussions relating to the proposed New Urtext Edition but omits most of the material relating to historical and symbolic issues. The result is to provide pianists, analysts, editors and musicologists with the opportunity to implement, at this stage, the corrections to be introduced into the new edition. This will correct the many serious errors present in the original edition which the composer did not correct in the reprints issued in his lifetime. It will also correct the many serious errors in the numerous Urtext and non-Urtext editions that have been published over the years. This article will form the basis of a new Critical Commentary (Kritischer Bericht) which will be included as an appendix to the new edition. This will result in the presentation of an authentic text, uncluttered with footnotes, together with a separate, comprehensive explanation for each and every correction. The new edition will be the first and only edition, among other things, to state correctly the motifs on which the Sonata is based. It will enable every pianist to prepare her or his own live performances and recordings from a flawless score. The desired result is that eventually all performances and recordings of the Sonata will be in conformity with the composer's intentions. The word Figure (coded red) is a hyperlink that will automatically move the cursor to the linked music Example. To activate the hyperlink, touch the screen or click the word Figure with the mouse pointer. Be sure, however, to make a note of the original page number, since the hyperlink will not move the cursor back to the original place in the text. Textual revisions suggested by the present authors are found on pages 3 and 42. (This PDF file uses Endnotes; the other one uses Footnotes).