It is amazing how history can get revised. Sometimes it is by people who should know better, the insiders. Why did I waste my whole day, when I could have slept in for the morning?
Recently and not so recently I've spent a lot of time with Miroirs, a series of pieces dedicated to Soiciété des Apaches, a group of musicians, writers, and artists in France in 1904-05. Far from expecting people to heap blandishments on he and his friends, with disingenuous emulations of the ostensibly superior, Maurice Ravel and his homies were happy to be known by terms typically applied to what we call gangsta, thug, hustler, and other coeval terms of street cred not so flattering, today. Maurice and his buddies wanted to be punks and tried hard to be one whenever possible, at least, while young and not so dumb. Is that so bad? This was the last piece I remember formally studying with an instructor before entering a phase of self-teaching that appears to be permanent. But I keep returning to the set. Translation of Soiciété des Apaches certainly is not geniuses, which far more, would be an appropriate antonym. Why so offended? Touchy touchy.
Being released from the Steinway Bubble and being the man who fell to earth can be somewhat enlightening. C'est un véritable truc d'Apaches,[i] Fred Sturm wrote an article in December 2011 The Invention of the Sostenuto Pedal, and mentioned something, I floating, grasping for breath as I, puzzled over a score published in 1853, bars 7-10 of Liszt's 12th Hungarian Rhapsody, at how on earth it could be written or executed without a sostenuto pedal, as Sturm observes, "Some say Albert Steinway invented it, citing his 1874-75 patents." Floating through the depleted ozone layer, I read on, gasping for air, as that I had been taught this my whole life, and suddenly, it bursts, as Sturm continues, "The Boisselot brothers received their patent for the sostenuto in 1843 or 1844," research I had been spared from for so many years. Suddenly, Liszt made sense, who claimed, "The perfection of a Bösendorfer exceeds my wildest expectations." Which brings me to my question about the chronology of another invention, the 8 octave Model 290.
In the third movement of the Miroirs suite, "Une barque sur l'océan," we have in the 40th bar what likely is editorial, though I have not seen the autograph or an edition that is not the same. Instead of what we find in Ravel's own transcription of the piece for orchestra,[ii] what would be G#-0 at the piano, we have A-0. He repeats this in bar 42 apparently. But then, in bar 45, we have G#-0. What is the problem with this?
When I inquired about these things @Wikipedia on Bӧsendorfer I found a reference to a recent version of the Bӧsendorfer website. It claims that Bӧsendorfer built its first prototype, not put into production, the Model 290 in 1909 at the request of Ferruccio Busoni.[iii] The updated website did not remove the word prototype.[iv] I am having a hard time believing it was a prototype or a factory production of the piano in 1909. Wikipedia does provide a translation of the work that Busoni wrote, "On the Transcription of Bach's Organ-works for the Pianoforte,"[v] in order to accomplish the task that many claim motivated Ludwig Bӧsendorfer to build the Model 290, in 1909. But Busoni's work was published in 1894, not a work in progress by then either.
Is this a chronological aberration? Again, Busoni published his instructions for Transcribing JS Bach's organ works in 1894. Could this be something other piano manufacturers were experimenting with at the time? Not to take anything away from Bӧsendorfer, but these are dates it provides about itself. 1909 sounds late to me in light of the piano literature. Is this just another example of how history changes itself when people begin trying to remember it, especially in writing? Perhaps Ravel's earlier composition from 1904-05 is neglected because of what could be considered its spurious dedications?
[i] Stolen from the internet
[ii]Ravel, M. Une barque sur l'océan for Full Orchestra,@ http://ia802305.us.archive.org/16/items/Cantorion_sheet_music_collection_2/9c55d32b80fb3f64031d996365dfa5e8.pdf#track_/download/1178/9c55d32b80fb3f64031d996365dfa5e8/Miroirs%20Une%20barque%20sur%20l%2526%23039%3Boc%C3%A9an%20%28orchestral%20score%29%20-%20Orchestra%20-%20Maurice%20Ravel.pdf?view=1
[iii] Obsolete Bӧsendorfer Website.@ https://web.archive.org/web/20131111181650/http://www.boesendorfer.com/en/model-290-imperial.html
[iv]Current Bӧsendorfer Website.@
https://www.boesendorfer.com/en-us/pianos/pianos/Concert-Grand-290-Imperial
[v] Busoni, F. "On the Transcription of Bach's Organ-works for the Pianoforte", First Appendix to Volume I of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavichord, pp. 154–190 New York: G. Schirmer, 1894. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Busoni-On_the_Transcription_of_Bach_Organ-works_Schirmer_English.pdf
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Benjamin Sloane
Cincinnati OH
513-257-8480
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