On the Problems of "Reconstruction from a Sketch": Webern's Kunfttag III and Leise Dufte

Abstract

Of the three opus posthumous orchestral songs that Webern at one time grouped as Opus 11, only two-Leise Diifte and O Sanftes Gliihn der Berge-exist in a final version in full score. For the third song-Kunfttag III-there is only a particell sketch.* In 1967 I began to try to develop some kind of a working score from this so that the three songs would be available for performance as a group. My doubts about the project led me to undertake the following experiment: I studied the particell of one of the other songs-Leise Diifte, a piece I didn't know-derived a full score from the sketch, and then compared my results with Webern's actual score. I hoped thereby to provide a check on my amateur paleography, a control for my editorial procedures, and possibly even some insight into just what such a reconstruction from a sketch constituted and how it might differ from an actual piece by Webern. Example la shows the second page of Webern's particell of Leise Diifte. Locating and deciphering the symbols is not problematic. Example lb shows a transcription of mm. 14-17. With few exceptions the symbols are standard ones, and the patterns they form follow the usual notational constraints. Two of the exceptions can be understood by referring to other sketches from the same period: the circles around notes and groups of notes are deletion signs. The notes on the extra staves at the bottom of the page are alternate versions-judging from the common pitches and rhythms they are alternate versions for the voice and celesta in this example. Two other exceptions are equally unproblematic because Webern's notation is so consistent in other respects. In m. 15 there seem to be four quarters for the downward-pointing stems in the