Lonarc Publishing
 

Josef Triebensee 1772-1846

Theme + Variations 

on a theme by Josef Haydn from this Symphony No 94  The Surprise

 

 

performance practice

 

Viennese oboe royalty at the time of the 1st Viennese School played for Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven etc. Triebensee was born into this rarified world, as his father Georg played 1st oboe for this musical elite. He even married into it; his wife Maximiliana was Johann Went’s eldest daughter and chief copyist. As a 19 year old, he even played for the premiere of Mozart’s Magic Flute. The music critic for Vienna’s Magazine der Musik describes a concert in 1783 featuring Triebensee’s father-in-law Johann Went:

 

…they perform things that are actually only intended for singing, which one of them, the virtuoso and composer Went, arranged for this Harmonie, such as: choirs, duets, even airs from the best operas, with the oboe and the clarinet representing the voice.

 

The exact same could have been written about Triebensee 10 years later. My point is, that we oboists are well placed to imitate the human voice, and as I see it, this is equally true for the music of Triebensee. It’s all about singing.

 

dots and daggers

 

Beethoven opens his Egmont Overture with loud portentous chords written as minims (half notes) with dots above each one. This indicates two things: 1) they are not to be slurred together, 2) they are not to be phrased off, i.e. not to be played in diminuendo. It does not mean they are to be played short. Unsurprisingly, Triebensee uses the same convention. So, for example, he writes dots over all the quavers (eighth notes) of Haydn’s theme, hence these are to be given equal weight, and, I repeat, not played short. The observant among us will notice that in bars 8, 20 & 24 he writes no dots, so these can be phrased off.

 

Now looking at Variation 3. To avoid any confusion between dots and daggers, he writes the word Staccato over oboe 1’s triplets, detached, shorter notes then, in complete contrast to what comes after, Variation 4, where in bar 80, the quavers are written with dots under a slur, i.e. as long as possible. A violinist might keep their bow on the string. To my taste this sets up a vocal feel for this variation, so I have suggested semiquavers also with dots under a slur in bar 84.

 

legato phrasing, slurs & ties

 

I have preserved most of Triebensee’s careful notation of slurs, adding some in Variation 2, for example, where I wish to bring out the contrast between  fragments of Haydn’s theme (with their characteristic dots) and Triebensee’s legato lines weaving around them.

 

I have added a tie to the cor anglais part at 43 to 44 for two reasons: 1) for me these two minims prefigure the cor anglais drone in the Coda (141-149) where we added a dynamic swell BTW and 2) Judy loves drones.

 

dynamics

 

Triebensee uses pp, p, for, ffor, fp and crescendo. I have added mp for the opening, then p at bar 9, because it feels safer, and dolcissimo for the oboes in Variation 4, because this is how we felt it at the time. Ultimately, of course, all rules are there to be broken in service of spontaneous and most soulful feeling (see historical note).

 

harmony, or “when the architecture speaks”

 

We at Lonarc Publishing are dedicated (among other things) to creating full scores of the Austro-Bohemian wind Harmonie and oboe trio music of the First Viennese School, especially works by Went, Triebensee, Krommer etc. Currently there are only scores for the Beethoven works. We aim to build on this, because careful score study can bring performers indispensible and transformative insights into the music they are preparing for the concert stage. To this end, we also offer biographical and musical-historical context.

 

Suffice to say, with a full score to hand, it’s easier to investigate in greater depth and detail the basic building blocks of any music you’re about to perform: form, melody & motif, rhythm, tempo, instrumentation/orchestration, performance directions and absolutely not least, harmony.

 

Note that we present cor anglais parts in the conventional way, a 5th above sounding pitch. In our scores, however, we print the cor anglais voice at sounding pitch to make it easier to read the harmony, always a primary goal.

 

When performers immerse their ears, minds and hearts in the underlying harmonies of music while they are playing it, when they feel the harmonic narrative shift and flow as the music unfolds, everything becomes truly alive and listeners always feel this. Expressive decisions, about tempo, articulation, dynamics, intonation, ornamentation, balance between the voices etc, then seem to make themselves, on stage too, and just feel right, feel convincing.

 

Above all, music then ‘makes sense’, finds its voice and tells a more powerful story.

 

To offer help and encouragement in line with these aims, we will include structured score analyses in future editions.

      

                                                                  Professor Joseph Sanders MA (Cantab) Dip.RAM, ARAM