The Foundation for the Publication of the Works of Niels W. Gade was established in 1990 for the purpose of publishing editions which are both scholarly and practical of all Niels W. Gade’s finished compositions, including completed individual movements and his arrangements of his own and others’ compositions.

The editions will be issued in seven series:

I: Orchestral Works

II: Chamber Music

III: Works for Keyboard Instruments

IV: Choral Works

V: Solo Songs

VI : Music for the Stage

VII: Arrangements and Supplements

The works within each series are grouped according to genre and further arranged in chronological sequence.

The edition (GW) strives to reproduce, after consideration of all known source materials, the “Fassung letzter Hand”.

 

As a rule Gade’s personal copy of the printed score has served as the principal source; where such a source does not exist, the manuscript or the printed parts have been utilized as the principal source. Alternative movements appear in appendices to the respective volumes.

The musical text is presented uncluttered by editorial alternatives, additions or annotations; only in very special cases is a footnote used to refer to a comment in the Critical Report.

Alterations to the principal source are of two kinds:

1) those that modernize or standardize the appearance of the printed page without actually changing the musical text (normally introduced tacitly) and

2) those that affect the musical text in the form of additions or corrections. Changes of the latter type, which may be due to obvious errors in printing or writing, graphic inaccuracies or omissions, will occasion a general or a specific comment in the Critical Report. Completion by analogy and uniformity of parallel passages are important editorial principles of the edition.

Titles, instrument markings, voice indications and the layout of the score follow present-day conventions (the original title and changes to the order of staves are always specified in the Critical Report); the clefs are normally those of the principal source and transposing instruments are presented in their original notation.

Section letters in the principal source have been removed but are mentioned in the Critical Report and bar numbers are placed at the head of every accolade. In the case of prima and seconda volta, these begin with the same bar number.

Triplets are only marked at the beginning of extended triplet passages. Tempo, dynamic and expression marks, advice as to playing technique and accidentals have all been standardized according to present-day conventions without comment. Missing ties have been added tacitly. Where a slur follows directly after a tie (or vice versa) or two slurs follow each other, the notation is tacitly standardized according to present-day conventions.

An attempt has been made to ensure that all abbreviated passages begin with at least one fully written-out bar.

Where missing, the wavy lines of trills have been added tacitly.

Whereas in the manuscripts and original prints staccato passages are often indicated by only a model example, in this edition implied staccato (and marcato) marks are written out or signified by an added simile indication. Moreover, since Gade’s notational practice in this respect varies from work to work, it is specifically referred to in the Critical Report.

Deviations from the notation of grace notes in the principal source will occasion a comment in the Critical Report. Slurs between grace notes and principal notes are included only to the extent that there is evidence for them in the source material.

Divided string parts are notated either with double stems or with single stems and marked divisi [div.]. Double stops are notated, wherever possible, with single stems. Where the source is unclear as to whether a passage should be played divisi or with double stops, the notation reproduced is that of the principal source.

In vocal works the texts have been standardized in accordance with modern orthography, though antiquated word-forms have been maintained.

Board of Directors

Finn Egeland Hansen (Chairman)

John Bergsagel

Siegfried Oechsle

Peder Kaj Pedersen

Editorial Secretary

Anne Ørbæk Jensen

Editorial Board

Finn Egeland Hansen (Chairman)

Bo Foltmann (Executive Editor))

plus the currently active editors

Auditor

Kovsted & Skovgård