Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Vocal Score - German Only by Richard Wagner, 672 Pages, Published by Schott Music

An important addition to our newly produced orchestral materials is the first publication of vocal scores of Wagners ten great operas, in every important version, based on the Complete Edition. * The score corresponds to the performance materials from the Complete Edition. * For practical use in rehearsal cues and bar numbers throughout. * The publisher has secured the services of renewed musicologists associated with the Richard Wagner Complete Edition who convey detailed information in critical forewords. * The forewords are given in three languages(German, English, French). * Uniform and attractive front cover designs with reproductions of paintings from the Wagner era underline the series design of the edition. DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NRNBERG Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg is today still considered a German festival and national opera: this evaluation is borne out by the operas performance history, the history of its reception and customary performance practice. Critical minds will perhaps recall the quotation from Friedrich Nietzsches publication "Jenseits von Gut und Bse" [Beyond Good and Evil] in which the Vorspiel [Prelude] to Meistersinger is described as magnificent, ornate and ponderous art and Wagners music in general as being rough and coarse. This music according to Nietzsche possesses no trace of the fine southern clarity of the sky and nothing of grace, but instead a cumbersome garb, with a touch of licentious barbarism and solemnity and even a certain degree of ungainliness. Nietzsches evaluation is regarded by many as an insight into the essence of the matter, although it is evident that Nietzsche was exaggerating in order to be provocative. What is more important today is however that this characterisation appears to have been the result of an approach to the performance of Meistersinger which had neglected or even gone as far as to misappropriate elements of this work. This is also the conclusion reached in the Meistersinger Edition of the Critical Complete Edition of the Musical Works of Richard Wagner (Richard Wagner, Smtliche Werke, Vol. 9, I-III, edited by Egon Voss, Mainz 1979-1987). It has in fact been established that the first print of the score published by B. Schotts Shne in Mainz in 1868 contained numerous errors and omissions, particularly with regard to dynamic markings and articulation. The difference between staccato dots and dashes which has an influence on the tone was simply ignored. The substantial omission of these staccato markings unambiguously draws attention to the fact that Wagner intended a lighter-weight sound than was produced in adherence the first edition. The same also holds true for the dynamic markings which were submitted to a general levelling process in the first edition, thereby entirely masking their original broad scope of differentiation. [] When the saying the music sets the tone is cited, it is in actual fact tempo, dynamics which are implied. If the new findings incorporated into the Meistersinger edition of the Critical Complete Edition are taken seriously, this will inevitably produce a new Meistersinger sound. (Egon Voss, quoted from the foreword of the new Meistersinger vocal score; translated by Lindsay Chalmers-Gerbracht) Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Composer: Richard Wagner Publisher: Schott Music Instrument: Voice Format: Vocal Score Pages: 672