Editing and performance of selected works for bassoon from the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin archive
thesis
posted on 2023-05-28, 11:06authored byWalters, SF
The rediscovery of the Sing-Akademie of Berlin manuscript collection in Kiev and its eventual repatriation in 2001, has had a significant impact upon music scholarship. In addition to discoveries of new sources from leading composers, the collection sheds light on the output of more obscure composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the 5,100 autograph scores and manuscript copies are a number of mid-eighteenth-century works featuring obbligato bassoon. This doctoral research has focused on five unpublished works from the collection: a Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Continuo attributed to Telemann; a Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Bassoon and Violoncello by Christian Gottfried Krause, and three compositions of Johann Christian Roellig‚ÄövÑvÆa Concerto for Bassoon and two Partitas featuring obbligato Bassoon. This research has been conducted to enable and inform performances of these works included in the folio that forms part of this submission. Critical editions were prepared based on manuscripts now held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin‚Äö-Preu‚àövºischer Kulturbesitz enabling the first modern performances of these works presented throughout four public recitals on period instruments. The critical editions are included as appendices to the exegesis, which contextualises the research underpinning these outcomes. The exegesis provides an overview of the provenance of the manuscripts, the editorial process, and discusses the musical style and historically informed interpretation of these newly discovered works as documented in the folio recordings. Outcomes include insights into mid-eighteenth-century performance practices and original findings relating to the identification of the primary source material of the two Partitas by Johann Christian Roellig. These five new critical editions constitute an important contribution to the bassoon repertoire. The world premiere recordings included in this thesis vi demonstrate historically informed interpretations and new insights into performing practice that will inspire further performances, advocating for their return to the repertory.