Weberiana. Heft 21 (review)

Abstract

Weberiana. Heft 21. (Mitteilungen der Internationalen Carl Maria von Weber Gesellschaft.) Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2011. [236 p. ISBN 9783862960231. i28.] Music examples, illustrations. It has been over fifteen years since Michael C. Tusa first reported to Notes on the inauguration of the Weber-Studien, describing its first issue and, by implication, the Carl Maria von Weber Gesamtausgabe (WeGA), to which it is parallel publication, as bringing a refreshing focus on sources to field that has all too often been content to rely on the bibliographic and biographic work of the nineteenth century (Notes 52, no. 2 [December 1995]: 468). With the stated goal of creating complete edition of Weber's musical works, letters, writings and diaries by 2026 (the second centenary of the composer's death), the WeGA was indeed embarking on an ambitious project when it was constituted in 1992. Furthermore, year earlier related organization had been founded: the Inter - nationale Carl-Maria-von-Weber Gesell - schaft, which supports and assists in directing the work of WeGA, and which since 1992 has published Weberiana, an annual publication containing scholarly contributions from its members and reports on the work of the WeGA. Now that we are little more than halfway to that 2026 goal, perhaps this is an excellent time to assess WeGA's progress and review the most recent issue of Weberiana. As detailed in the Arbeitsberichte section of Weberiana, the most striking aspect of the project is its digital portion. One example of this is the digital editions that WeGA has been developing with the Edirom project (a project that specializes in the development of digital critical editions of music) to create critical editions of Weber's music on DVD. The software is designed for both the musicologist and performer, being capable of simultaneously presenting variant readings as well as facsimilies of the sources themselves. The DVD also contains complete letters and other primary documents that relate to the score. Further, when installed onto computer, the edition may be updated to include any future developments in the software and additional links to related sources as they surface. Another example of the society's digital work is the new website, http://www.webergesamtausgabe. de (accessed 10 January 2012), where all of Weber's letters, writings, diaries and documents will eventually be made available to the general public. Already fair number of these are present and completely searchable; some of them (and eventually all of them) with built-in links to pages describing works and people mentioned by Weber in them. Clicking on name's link leads to page where brief bio graphical information, iconography, and links to further named figures can be found. This new resource is very exciting, although it does give one pause to also see links to Wikipedia articles given for each figure. Finally, the WeGA is light years ahead of many other societies in terms of digital presence: by maintaining text that adheres to TEI (text encoding initiative), it is part of growing consortium of projects seeking interconnectivity with the goal of reaching across all discipline boundaries in order to build complex descriptions of historical facts that have never before been possible (p. 134; translations throughout this review are mine). Apart from the digital projects, the Arbeitsberichte section also describes the WeGA's paper-based publishing, which is continuing apace. In 2010 alone, three volumes appeared in the WeGA: piano scores of incidental and concert arias as well as overtures (ser. 8, vol. 7), the vocal score of Silvana, WeV. C.5a (ser. 8, vol. 1), and concertos and concertinos for clarinet and orchestra (ser. 5, vol. 6). While fewer than half of Weber's works had appeared in the WeGA by the midway point to 2026, and while one may be particularly eager to see editions of the big operas (Der Freischutz, Euryanthe and Oberon), if the WeGA can manage to keep up this pace, it will surely catch up in short order. …