Dr. David Mathie
Trombonist, Professor, Arranger
Why new editions of older music?
Two reasons.
First, most brass editions are over-edited. As a trombonist and college teacher I became frustrated with what I saw in our literature: articulations such as slurs, staccatos, accents and other marks were tossed in seemingly without reason; tempo changes were written in that made no sense; and expression markings that had no business for the time period were plastered everywhere. They were probably added because - to the editor - they sounded good. The results became older music played in modern musical style, bearing little resemblance to the way the piece should sound. I decided to publish music as close to the original as possible. Thus, my transcription are taken from the best available source, usually the latest versions of the complete works (for example, in Gabrieli I use the Opera Omnia, American Institute of Musicology, Hänssler-Verlag, 1998). All musical indications in the originals, such as dynamics and articulations, are retained in my transcriptions. Any editorial additions have been kept to a minimum and are clearly marked: added slurs are written with dashes, and other musical suggestions have been put in parentheses - (rit.) - to distinguish them as mine versus the composer's. To help the performers I add tempo suggestions with metronome markings and dynamics.
Second, there is an immense amount of music out there that would sound spectacular for brass, if only it were published! For example, while there exists nine different arrangements of Gabrieli's Canzona per sonare Number 1, dozens of Gabrieli's antiphonal choral works have never been transcribed for brass, while some of them have never been published at all.
First, most brass editions are over-edited. As a trombonist and college teacher I became frustrated with what I saw in our literature: articulations such as slurs, staccatos, accents and other marks were tossed in seemingly without reason; tempo changes were written in that made no sense; and expression markings that had no business for the time period were plastered everywhere. They were probably added because - to the editor - they sounded good. The results became older music played in modern musical style, bearing little resemblance to the way the piece should sound. I decided to publish music as close to the original as possible. Thus, my transcription are taken from the best available source, usually the latest versions of the complete works (for example, in Gabrieli I use the Opera Omnia, American Institute of Musicology, Hänssler-Verlag, 1998). All musical indications in the originals, such as dynamics and articulations, are retained in my transcriptions. Any editorial additions have been kept to a minimum and are clearly marked: added slurs are written with dashes, and other musical suggestions have been put in parentheses - (rit.) - to distinguish them as mine versus the composer's. To help the performers I add tempo suggestions with metronome markings and dynamics.
Second, there is an immense amount of music out there that would sound spectacular for brass, if only it were published! For example, while there exists nine different arrangements of Gabrieli's Canzona per sonare Number 1, dozens of Gabrieli's antiphonal choral works have never been transcribed for brass, while some of them have never been published at all.