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Among the surviving printer's copies for the
Sieben Lieder this manuscript is unique in one respect: it was prepared by
a copyist almost certainly based in Leipzig, not Vienna, who was also responsible
for preparing many of the manuscript parts for the Sixth
Symphony (ACO)
and the transposed piano-vocal score of the second of the
Kindertotenlieder (CV2)
(see
RKGMK, 164).
The source used as the copy text,
[AF5m], has not been located but must have included
substantial differences in comparison with the autograph score
of the high-voice version (AF5h); for example CF5m gives bar 15 in its revised, 2/4
version. Moreover, there is no evidence that Mahler ever saw
this manuscript¹ or that it was used for rehearsals or
performances; moreover it seems to have been a remarkably
faithful copy. Only one substantial correction was needed during
the proofing stage: the instruction Ohne Steigerung, which had to be added in b.
53 (not b. 51 as in
PF5h).
If prepared in Leipzig
the copy was presumably commissioned by the publisher, Kahnt (or
possibly the printer Brandstetter), but why? One might
conjecture that for some reason the score supplied by Mahler was
deemed to be unsuitable for use as a printer's copy, and that,
furthermore, the reasons for that may stem from the haste with
which the medium-voice orchestral score of the song had to be
prepared in January 1905. However it was
originated (see the entry for
[AF5m]
for a discussion of this issue) the score would have been
prepared quickly (a set of parts had also to be generated from
this new score) and would have been the working copy used in
rehearsals, during which Mahler probably made corrections and
further revisions. So by the time it was delivered to the C.F.
Kahnt offices in the spring of 1905, it may have included
several layers of changes, thus encouraging the preparation of a
new fair copy for use by the engravers.
In the middle of fol. 1r
there are two stamps: Verlag von C. F. Kahnt Nachf. in
Leipzig and Copyright 1905 by C. F. Kahnt Nachfolger,
Leipzig, and these stamps also appear in the bottom left and
bottom right corners of the verso. The title page also includes (right-hand top
corner) the reference number 57887/8 in
lead pencil. Fol. 1v
carries the annotation 4559, the plate
number of the first edition of the E
major orchestral score of the song (PF5m1),
and 4560, that of the orchestral parts; the publisher's imprint and copyright statement
have been rubber-stamped at the foot of the page. Bar numbers have
been added in pencil at the start of each system in the score
and rehearsal numbers have been added in blue pencil.
At some point the
manuscript was folded in half
vertically. |
