Some Thoughts on the Use of Autograph Manuscripts in Editing the Works of Verdi and Puccini

Abstract

No one believes an autograph manuscript provides sufficient information to allow scholars to edit nineteenth- or early twentieth-century music, particularly in genres that accepted considerable modifications in performance, opera or virtuosic piano music. If anything, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, with doubts cast on the role of composers' autographs in choosing texts to serve for critical editions. This latter approach is problematical, even for composers known to introduce significant changes in their works to ensure their survival in the theater. One needs always to cite (while not necessarily adopting) autograph readings, which tend to reflect compositional concerns rather than practical concerns. A critical edition may ultimately present a text oriented toward practical solutions, but it demands that users understand why and how a composer's ideas could not be maintained. This is particularly true for a composer like Verdi, who left autograph manuscripts close to a definitive version, but it is also true for a composer like Puccini who expected autograph manuscripts to be superseded in performance.