Preface to Volume 22 B

Volumes 22 A and B (Chamber Music I) contain those chamber works, other than the compositions for string quartet and string trio, which make no use of keyboard or plucked instruments. In addition to two completed works with opus numbers – the string sextet Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4, and the Quintet for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, Op. 26 – they include 20 early pieces and fragments. Volume 22 of Series A contains the scores of the two completed works and also of the two fragments which, in terms of their size and their existence as fair copies, meet the conditions for a critical edition (Werkedition) as laid down in the Editionsprinzipien: namely, the string sextet Toter Winkel and the String Septet of 1918. These fragments contain enough details to make the compositional conception unambiguous, providing a clear basis for performance.

The present volume, Volume 22 of Series B, contains the critical commentaries to the works in the Series A volume, and also the musical texts of the other fragments and early works; each of these texts is printed after the relevant description of their sources.The pieces from the Nachod Collection are included in the Series B volume rather than in the Series A volume, which constitutes an exception to the editorial guidelines for complete works. These pieces, which are among the composer’s very earliest musical efforts, are in places so amateurish, and indeed technically flawed, that it would be inappropriate to describe them as fully canonical. They have therefore been included in the present volume, in accordance with the principles of the Inhaltsedition.

In preparing these two volumes – and, especially, after completing my period of work at the Berlin Forschungsstelle at the end of 1996 – I have constantly been able to rely on the support of colleagues from the Complete Edition. They have not only answered all my questions but have posed new ones, thereby helping me to make many improvements. I am particularly grateful to Ullrich Scheideler, who undertook the final editing and proof-reading and, in addition, described and reviewed the sources for the Wind Quintet in Vienna. Ulrich Krämer helped in the search for documents. Nikos Kokkinis, Ralf Kwasny and Andrea Hanft provided stimulus at different stages of my work. I am grateful to the following for providing photocopies and answering queries: Wayne Shirley (Library of Congress, Washington), R. Wayne Shoaf (Arnold Schoenberg Institute, Los Angeles), Therese Muxeneder and Iris Pfeiffer (Arnold Schonberg Center, Vienna), Regina Busch (Alban Berg Gesamtausgabe, Vienna), Regina Kampersky (Universal Edition, Vienna) and Morris Martin (North Texas State University, Denton, Texas). I am indebted to Anton Förster for enabling me to read his then unpublished dissertation on the Wind Quintet: the present volume has benefitted in many ways from his careful and detailed work.

Arlington, Virginia, July 1999
Dorothee Schubel