The Vindobona Collection was one of a number of  series of publications initiated by UE in the 1920s (including Vindobona Jazz Series, Vindobona Collection Film Series; UE Ensemble Series) in an attempt to move into other markets (e.g. entertainment music) and to respond to new technology (music for silent film, arrangements for small radio orchestras).¹ None was very long-lasting.

Fig. 1

Anzeiger für den Buch-, Kunst-, und Musikalienhandel,  1926/35 (27 August 1926), 210

As the catalogue indicates, the basic arrangement was for a small salon orchestra usually consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet I, trumpet I [omitted from the catalogue list], trombone, percussion, violin-conductor (2 copies), violin II, viola, cello, double bass, piano-conductor and harmonium, but this could be expanded with supplementary parts for clarinet II, horns I & II, and trumpet II, and if all these were used, the piano and harmonium parts could be omitted. One of the striking features of the Vindobona Collection was that although described as for Salon-Orchestra the repertoire was, as the catalogue reveals, resolutely high art (V.C. No. 1 was the Adagio from Bruckner's Seventh Symphony) and did not exclude representatives of modernism (e.g. Bartok; Zemlinsky). The earliest orders were placed in April 1926 and most of the collection appeared in 1926–28, although new titles were added up to 1934 (no. 169). New impressions were rare and the last dated from January 1939 (No. 55). It should be noted that the numbering system was (probably deliberately) misleading: the numbers 'missing' from the printed catalogue were either never assigned or, in a few cases, were assigned to arrangements that were not realized.

These various ventures were probably not a success, and according to a typescript note on the Verlagsbuch containing the publishing records of the Collection:

Although Kalmus was critical of the arrangements it is striking that at least in the case of the adaptations of the Mahler songs and symphonic movements, the music is always presented complete, and the excellently engraved parts preserve Mahler's characteristic performance directions: a revival of them might well be merited.

Fig. 2a-d

Universal-Edition Gesamt-Katalog 1937

(GB-Lpc)

Probable/possible radio broadcasts (1926–1930) of seventeen arrangements of Mahler

included in the Vindobona Collection

© 2007 Paul Banks | This page was lasted edited on 26 October 2022