ARCHIVED UPDATE NOTICES FOR BRAHMS LISTENING GUIDES
©2005-2013 by Kelly Dean Hansen
(9/26/12): I'm still here! A big move and some other
life changes have happened in the last three months, but I was
working on the Triumphlied the entire time. In many
ways, this is Brahms's most complex work (eight-voice double choir
and large orchestra with a lot of intricate counterpoint). So
it took some time. Next on the docket are the Op. 120
sonatas. I've been going back and forth on how to handle the
different versions. Obviously, the primary analysis is going
to be based on the clarinet versions. But the viola versions
are played almost as frequently. The problem is that Brahms
didn't have as much to do with the arrangement of the viola part as
has been previously believed. The little-known violin
versions, however, are entirely his own, including alterations to
the piano part. Since the violin versions are rarely played,
but the viola versions are staples of that instrument's repertoire,
I have decided to include recordings with viola, but not
violin. Each sonata (Op. 120, No. 1 and Op. 120, No. 2) will
have its own guide. The original clarinet version will be
presented and below it, an outline based on a recording with viola
indicating divergences of the viola part from the clarinet part
(shifts of register, double stops, etc.) will be given. Also,
I have updated the score links through Op. 24 (except Op. 3, which
is going to be revised soon). The format I am using should
stay consistent if the URLs at IMSLP migrate again--so no more dead
links. Please be patient--this job is huge, and will
eventually be complete. The good news is that IMSLP now has
most of the Breitkopf & Härtel Complete Edition (Sämtliche
Werke) in excellent scans by "piupianissimo."
(6/23/12): SO NOW I REALLY AM BACK!!: If I still
have any regular viewers left after such a long time (and PLEASE
email me to let me know you're still here), here's the story.
The dissertation is complete, and I am now a Ph.D. As late as
2009, the dissertation was going to be on Brahms vocal quartets and
duets. But I found that the only thing I really wanted to do
with Brahms was work on this site. In 2009, as you can read in
my first column for the Daily
Camera (it's called "The Ph.D. Process" and is available
online at http://www.dailycamera.com/entertainment/ci_20543047/classical-notes-ph-d-process),
the project wasn't going anywhere, and I switched to a translation
of Paul Bekker's Gustav Mahler's
Sinfonien with commentary (Mahler being the other composer
I dearly love). It ended up being an enormous project.
While I still worked on the Brahms site for much of 2010 and briefly
came back in 2011, I eventually had to dedicate myself full-time to
completing the translation project and finishing my degree. I
hated to abandon the site for all that time, but I really had no
choice. As soon as I finished, however, I eagerly wanted to
come back. And so, I'm back, and hopefully will not have
another huge absence. The guide for the Op. 44 partsongs for
women's chorus marks my return. In the meantime, much has
happened regarding the site. First of all, you'll notice that
there is no longer any disclaimer at the top about ads and no longer
any mirror site. The latter has been gone since 2011, when
CU-Boulder discontinued its webfiles service. The former is a
happier development and makes the need for a mirror site moot.
GoDaddy.com (where I host the site and the domain) very recently
stopped providing free hosting with domain purchases. But
since I had purchased the domain with that option, I was
grandfathered into free hosting. But the best part is that
GoDaddy has now removed the banner ads. This is simply
awesome! The site will now be hosted only here, and ad-free,
at http://www.kellydeanhansen.com.
In a more negative development, it appears that
most of the score links from IMSLP have died. The URLs for the
IMSLP pdf files are unstable, and frequently change. But I
believe that I have found a solution that will make the links
permanent. IMSLP provides shortcut links to all their scores
with identification numbers. It will take some time, and it
will be a gradual process, but I will replace all the IMSLP score
links with this shortcut, which should remove this issue in the
future. I will also add the permanent link to the "work page"
on the IMSLP wiki to each guide, just in case the score links
themselves die again. I may also purge the links
somewhat. The excellent user "piupianissimo" at IMSLP, with
whom I've worked a bit on adding low-voice versions of the songs,
has scanned most of the volumes in the Breitkopf & Härtel
Complete Edition (Sämtliche Werke).
I hope that he will eventually have them all. Any links to
that edition will be replaced with links to his much higher-quality
scans. The links to the first editions from Lübeck will remain
for their historical interest. I will also link to all
transpositions of the songs in the Peters Edition as they become
available. As for the links to the Choral Public Domain
Library (ChoralWiki), I'm going to purge out most of those.
Many of them use Sämtliche Werke
as their source anyway, and all the choral works without orchestra
are now available from that edition. The one exception will be
the fantastic scores by Robert Urmann, which will remain. The
project of updating the score links will take some time, so please
be patient on that, as I want to work on new guides while doing it.
I want to once again acknowledge the wonderful
Emily Ezust, whose site remains the source for English translations
linked from the guides. Emily is a true "Mensch" in every
sense of the word. Please consider giving her a donation (via
the PayPal link visible on every text and translation on her
site). There are not too many holes left for translations of
Brahms texts, and I am working to fill them (I believe my
credentials as a German translator are well established at this
point), and am grateful to Emily for her help with that as
well. You'll notice that many of the translations for Op. 44
are mine.
So once again, PLEASE contact me to let me know
you're still here, and while guides may not appear as rapidly as
they once did, I will make every effort to avoid another huge
break. Hey, over half of the opus numbered works are here
already--they will be finished eventually. Only a few guides
still remain to be revised. This will happen shortly as well,
starting with the long-suffering guide to the Op. 3 songs, which has
been begging for revision for a long time.
(5/7/12): IN HONOR OF BRAHMS'S
BIRTHDAY: For the sake of those of you who think that I
have totally lost interest in completing the guides, let me assure
you that I have not. Since late 2010, I have been heavily
engaged in finishing my translation/dissertation of Paul Bekker's
"Gustav Mahlers Sinfonien." I am receiving my Ph.D. this week,
and finishing up this massive project. Because this has
consumed so much of my time, I have simply not had any time at all
to continue the Brahms site. This summer, after the
dissertation is submitted, I have every intention of returning to
the guides and completing them. Look forward to new guides in
late May or June. At the same time, I will update many of the
score links. IMSLP has added scores for most of the Complete
Works Edition (the "Gesellschaft Edition") from 1927. The
score links have not been touched since mid-2010, and many of the
works do not have links to the best available scores on IMSLP.
Again, look for my highly engaged return later this month!
(3/27/11): I'M BACK!
Yes,
I've snuck back into the site with a revision to the Op. 20 duets
and a new guide (shocking, I know) for the great Op. 75 duets.
I had started working on these back in the summer of last year, but
an extremely busy fall and other very urgent events in my life
required a break from the Brahms guides that was much longer than I
had planned or anticipated. I apologize for this. With
the site becoming more well-known and visited, I should have at
least communicated that I would be absent for a while. But I'm
back for now.
UPDATE ON SCORE LINKS (7/1/10): IMSLP has been undergoing
a server upgrade and other upheavals in recent days, and yesterday I
discovered that some of the score links that I have posted here were
not working. This is easy to fix, as the score files are still
available on the IMSLP directories, but it seems that some URLs have
slightly changed. I will work on fixing the score links in the
next few days, and will monitor more closely in the future whether
all the links are working or not. For now, all score links
through Op. 19 should work, and I will continue to go through the
list and repair broken links. Incidentally, some new scores
have been posted on certain guides, such as alternate-key (usually
low-key) editions of certain solo songs. As a rule, I'll
always post links to the first editions, to the Breitkopf and Härtel
Gesamtausgabe, if
available, and to the Peters edition of solo songs (in high, low,
and in some cases middle keys), as they become available. If
you find a broken link, please let me know and I will fix it
immediately.
(6/30/10): Two straight new additions on the last day of a
month...anyway, I wanted to get the Op. 9 Variations on a Theme of
Robert Schumann up before June was over in honor of Robert
Schumann's 200th birthday on June 8 (I started the guide for Op. 9
that day). Since I had a vacation and a move in the meantime,
it took until today to get it done. But it's still up before
Robert's birth month expires!
(5/31/10): There is
something highly appropriate about posting the guide for the Four
Serious Songs on Memorial Day. Happy coincidence.
UPDATE (3/26/10): In a milestone for the site, the very
first two guides I ever did have been redone and reposted. The
Op. 1 Sonata never actually left, and now a revised version can
finally head the list. These guides represented the conception
and origin of the project, but they also came to represent an
earlier, less detailed standard that was made with beginners in
mind. My new standard is meant to be accessible and useful to
all, and started to evolve around the time I did the Op. 33
"Magelone" song cycle. I actually removed the guide for the
First Symphony when I decided that it just didn't fit with the rest
of the site, but that spontaneous 2004 exercise was the germ and
cell of the project's evolution. Now a new and improved (and
long-awaited) guide to the First Symphony can be enjoyed. The
Op. 1 Sonata was the last large work to need extensive
revision. Three song sets, one set of duets, and one set of
male choruses will undergo revision in the next updates.
Thanks again for feedback and encouragement! We have now
reached the halfway point of 61 out of 122 opus numbers!
UPDATE (1/29/10): It seems like I was absent for the past
couple of months, but I really wasn't. I decided to tackle the
Second Symphony at a time when a lot was going on (holidays,
preparing to teach a class, etc.). The guide to the first
movement of the Second ended up being truly epic. I was
worried about this--it was much longer than the one for the first
movement of the Violin Concerto, which is of similar tempo, length,
meter, and even key. But then the other movements were not
nearly as long, and I simply came to the conclusion that it wasn't
so much as me getting out of control with detail in a guide--it was
the fact that the first movement of the Second Symphony is simply
extraordinarily rich in content and complexities. At the same
time, I finally revised a very early Piano Sonata guide (Op. 2 in
F-sharp minor, originally posted with the site's first version in
December 2005). Op. 1 was going to be my last revision, but
I'm increasingly embarrassed by that very early, very rudimentary
guide up there at the top of the list, so I'm going to revise it,
and it will be among the next updates along with...wait for it...the
trimuphant return of the First Symphony!! I've finally got a
good recording with the exposition repeat. The song set Op. 43
was also in dire need of a revision. Since this set contains
my favorite Brahms song, I am glad that I finally brought it up to
standards (although one thing I did do was remove the embarrassing
"personal note" in the heading--I think it's rather obvious from the
guide itself what my opinion of "Von ewiger Liebe" is!). Other
revisions to be done include the song sets Op. 84 and Op. 106, the
duets Op. 20, and the male choruses Op. 41 (if I can ever get my
hands on the original parts to clarify the text underlay in
#5). Finally, the last revision will be the song set Op.
3. For Op. 84, I think I'm going to include two timings in
every heading--I'd like to include a duet recording as well as a
solo one, but the description would be the same for both (since the
musical material is the same). Op. 106 will also remove an
embarrassing personal note about a song I like.
I have now moved the long list of previous updates to an archive
page, linked below. This front page was getting too
cluttered. If you're new to the site, you might want to check
out the archive. The front page will only include the latest
update.
(9/29/09): The update to the Op. 18 sextet has been done, and the
recording used is now one that takes the first movement exposition
repeat. The guide now reflects that repeat.
UPDATE ON REVISIONS (9/15/09):
The guide to the "Magelone" cycle, Op. 33, represented a turning
point
in the style and development of the project. I consider it the
first one to use the new standard (that might also explain the long
hiatus after I posted it). It did not require a great deal of
intervention, but there were some important details I missed and
some
cleaning up to do. It is by far the largest guide (and
probably
will remain so). I hope that now it is better than ever.
In
the near future, revisions will be done of the song sets Opp. 43,
63,
84, and 106 as well as the duets Op. 20. I also intend to redo
Piano Sonata #2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 2. That will only leave
Op.
1 and Op. 3 for extensive revision, but I'm saving those for a
future
time. I would like to revise the male choruses, Op. 41.
I
am currently engaged in a quixotic quest to get my hands on the
original vocal parts so that I can clarify the text underlay of the
bass parts in No. 5 (this has been a sore spot for a while).
I'm
trying to exhaust my resources there. There will also be a
slight
revision to the Op. 18 sextet, which will be noted when it is
done. I have obtained a recording that takes the exposition
repeat in the first movement, and would like to change the guide to
use
that recording and be more "complete." My beloved Amadeus
Quartet
recording of all the quintets and sextets sadly left out the repeats
of
both this piece and the Op. 111 quintet. To my great joy, a
recording was recently made of those two very pieces (strange
coupling)
by the Verdi Quartet that includes the repeats! The Op. 111
quintet will be one of the next guides to be added. I think I
have found a way to make sure that no exposition repeats are omitted
in
any recordings I will use for the guides (this is also one reason
why
the return of Symphony #1 is kind of delayed). Finally, I am
NEARLY finished adding score links and bolding the time headings
(really, only the guides to be extensively revised still need
attention
there). Op. 65 still needs score links, and then that will be
pretty much it. I also think it's time to archive all of these
updates and move them to a separate page so that this main page can
mainly be devoted to the list of guides and to the very latest
update. That will probably happen soon. Thanks for all
the
wonderful feedback on the site!
(9/1/09): The addition of Violin Sonata # 1, Op. 78, and the
revisions
of Violin Sonata # 2, Op. 100, and Violin Sonata # 3, Op. 108, mark
the
first completed chamber music genre on the site. The major
revisions to Op. 108 were in the last movement. I remember
doing
that hurriedly back in 2007. In late 2006, before the long
break
with no updates, I had completed the first three movements of the
piece. In 2007, a very busy year for me, I needed to finish it
for use in a class, and did the last movement quickly and
superficially. You'll notice that it was the only guide added
that year and the last one before I resumed the site in earnest in
late
2008.
--Because of Robert Urmann's excellent recent work on Brahms at
Choral
Wiki, his editions will now be given precedence in my links to that
site, and any editions he completes will replace any current links
to
Choral Wiki. Urmann's editions also lack the measure numbering
issues that are present in other editions on the Choral Wiki site.
(8/19/09): The revision of the Op. 42 partsongs taught me...well,
why
revisions of the earlier guides are necessary. I had thought I
wouldn't need to do much with it since I was more detailed with
vocal
works than with instrumental works back then, but in addition to
grammatical format, I also discovered several blatant analytical
errors. Hey, I'm human. Let me know if you ever find
what
you perceive to be outright mistakes. Also, note that complete
scores for Op. 93a (with CORRECT measure numbers) are now available
from Choral Wiki and linked!
(8/3/09): Six Piano Pieces (Klavierstücke), Op. 118, which was
already one of the better earlier guides, has been somewhat
revised. Many attractive elements of the old guide that I no
longer regularly use, such as internal event timings within
segments,
have been retained. This revision comes in tandem with the
posting of the companion set, Op. 119.
(7/21/09): In case anyone is wondering, I really despise "vocal
scores"
(piano reductions) of choral/orchestral works and orchestral
reductions
(two-piano arrangements) of concertos, and will NOT include any
links
to such scores (except in one case, where the first edition full
score
of Piano Concerto #1, Op. 15 is not available from Lübeck).
Those
types of scores are for performance preparation, not analytical
study.
(7/11/09): I have finally done a revision to an earlier guide.
Violin Sonata #2 in A Major, Op. 100, has been thoroughly redone to
help it conform to the standards of later guides. It's not as
easy a task as I imagined! This will now be done with older
guides on a regular basis. For now, only guides posted BEFORE
August 2008 will undergo extensive revision, although even later
guides
could be revised in the future. If anybody liked the brevity
and
"digest" form of the earlier guides, I do apologize, but I have to
try
to get them all to the same standard, and the "digest" form started
to
fail me around the time I did the "Magelone" Romances (Op. 33).
(6/26/09): In one final "tweak" to the score links, I've decided to
go
ahead and include the link to the Lübeck first editions for all
works, since these are of great historical interest, even when they
are
not the only available scores. I will also include links to
other
online scores when they are available. All scores will be
linked
through either IMSLP or CPDL (Choral Wiki). Note that in some
CPDL
scores that begin with upbeats, the upbeats are counted as measures,
so
one number should be subtracted from all measure numbers that appear
in
such scores. Again, this ONLY applies to certain CPDL scores
that
begin
with incomplete measures (such as Op. 93a, No. 3 or Op. 92, No. 4).
UPDATE OF UPDATE BELOW (6/17/09):
I have rethought my approach to including score links. The
Lübeck site, while valuable, is quite limited because of the
restriction to first printed editions. I have therefore
decided
to link to the scores via the International Music Score Library
Project
(IMSLP)/Petrucci Library. There are several advantages to
this. First, the site's basic language is English, not
German. Second, the scores are always uploaded as printable
.pdf
files, not the rather confusing page navigation system from the
Lübeck site. Third, and most importantly, it allows me some
flexibility in which scores I link. In many cases, the
Lübeck score is the only one available (their entire collection is
mirrored by IMSLP). But at IMSLP, even these scores are full
.pdf
files. For many scores, the Breitkopf & Härtel complete
edition from 1927 is used (which is the best available public domain
source). I will include what I believe to be the best
available
scores. Songs present a special challenge. IMSLP has
links
to the complete Lübeck scores (which are always in the original
keys, and I always use original keys for my guides). It also
has
links to some individual song scores, currently available for all
song
groups through Op. 58. These come from the Peters Edition, and
are easier to read. The problem is that these are always in
the
high key, which in most cases (but not all) is also the original
key. I have decided to include links to both the Lübeck
scores and the Peters scores (when they are available), always
indicating whether they are in the original key. I should
mention
that most of the recordings that I use for the site are in fact in
the
low key (which is usually NOT the original key), since Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau is a baritone. This is only a problem for
those
with perfect pitch. I felt it best, however, to use the
original
keys for analysis. So it is in fact uncommon that my analysis,
the recorded performance, and an available online score will all be
in
the same key for solo songs. Confused yet?
Also, for choral works without orchestra, I may turn to the Choral
Public Domain Library (CPDL or ChoralWiki), whose .pdf scores are
generally of even higher quality than what IMSLP currently has to
offer. Their offerings are, however, far from complete.
All
score links will be directed through CPDL or IMSLP. Lübeck
scores will be linked through IMSLP rather than through their own
site. That will be the practice.
IN OTHER NEWS: A symphony is
finally available! OK, now that I've said that, I want to say
that it is painfully obvious that the earlier guides (essentially
anything added before August 2008) are of lesser quality than the
later
ones. Rest assured that these earlier guides WILL be revised
eventually. Right now I'm concentrating on getting up as much
content as possible, but the revisions will happen. All
guides,
even the later ones, are subject to constant revision. I
really
want to create a uniform standard so that the guides can be useful
to
both musicians AND lay music lovers with a reasonable knowledge of
music theory. Even those with limited musical knowledge can
simply ignore what they do not understand. I'm honestly trying
to
be all-inclusive (which was not the case when I started this).
FINALLY, don't forget that I
have
the recordings available for anybody who individually requests
them. Simply email me to obtain them.
UPDATE (6/10/09):
In
yet
another
effort
to
improve
the
guides, I am beginning, with the just-added guide to the
Op. 47 songs, to add links to the online scores from the
Brahms-Institut Lübeck. This collection is a wonderful
resource. Each link will be to the first page of the
score.
Navigation buttons (in German) are at the top. These
scores are
usually first editions and lack measure numbers. Score
links will
gradually be added to existing guides, again moving in reverse
order by
date. The boldface time and measure number indices will
continue
to be added to existing guides, also in reverse order by date
as before.
(12/26/08):
In an effort to make the guides somewhat easier to read, the
main time
and measure number indices will now be in boldface with all
new
guides. This will be changed in existing guides in
gradual
updates, moving in reverse order to that in which they were
added. For example, the first "update" to an existing
guide was
to the Op. 76 piano pieces. I have also decided to
remove the
link to the Symphony #1 guide (Op. 68). It is simply not
up to my
current standards, and will be reposted upon revision.
While
other earlier guides may be revised in the future, none except
this one
will be removed.
(11/13/08):
Beginning with the String Sextet #1, Op. 18, movement headings
in
instrumental works will be underscored. This will be
updated in
existing guides, but not noted on the main page.
(9/26/08):
I went ahead and removed the green "measure numbers added"
tags.
The Symphony No. 1 guide is the only one that does not have
them, and
since I know that it will undergo a substantial revision at
some point,
I will add them then.
(8/28/08):
All guides except for Symphony #1 (Op. 68) now have measure
numbers and
recording catalog numbers. When Symphony #1 is added,
the green
tags will be removed. Also, I have added a "home" link
to the
bottom of each guide. I should have done that long
ago.
This should help if somebody runs across a single guide
through a
search engine.
LONG-DELAYED UPDATE
(8/18/08): These guides are my personal labor of love.
Posting them on the internet is a way to share them with
others.
Unfortunately, I have had little opportunity to add more of them in
the
last couple of years due to real academic and personal life getting
in
the way (including my Brahms dissertation, which must take first
priority--and the birth of my third child in February 2007).
But
I love this project so much that I can't let it die, and I hope to
begin to work steadily, if not quickly, on adding more. I have
not yet brought them to the attention of entities such as the
American
Brahms Society (whose officers I know), as I want them to be more
complete before doing that. You can see that Op. 108 was added
in
2007, and Op. 41 a few months ago. I have now added Op. 85,
and
my goal is to add two or three works (or opus numbers) per month if
time and other demands allow that.
In the interim, the University of Colorado has dropped the
ucsub.colorado.edu server, where I was hosting my personal
pages.
I needed to move everything to webfiles.colorado.edu, which is free,
but doesn't work well with search engines. Because of that, I
decided to acquire kellydeanhansen.com, a domain I've wanted to have
for a while anyway. For now, it will display ads for
GoDaddy.com
on top, which kind of messes with the margins of the pages and also
creates issues with printing. I'd like to do more with that
domain in the future, including starting a blog, but for now, the
Brahms guides will be on the index page there. The page
already
shows up in Google under the "Brahms Listening Guides" search
(usually
in second position), and I'm hoping it will show up in Yahoo as well
(the old ucsub.colorado.edu page did show up there). There
were
at least a couple of pages that linked the old URL, so the change
was
kind of frustrating. But ultimately, this is better. To
keep an ad free version available that is probably also more
printer-friendly, I will continue to mirror everything at
webfiles.colorado.edu, linked at the top of kellydeanhansen.com.
As far as the guides themselves go, I'm struggling with the decision
whether or not to revise some of the earlier guides. My style
has
evolved since 2005 more toward complete sentences and greater
detail. That is not necessarily "better," but styles do
evolve. I have not made that decision yet, but at least one
guide, that for the First Symphony, Op. 68, will probably demand
it. That was the exercise I did back in 2004 on a whim to
share
with a couple of friends and it inspired the entire project. I
have great affection for that guide as it stands, but it has an air
of
informality (as does the one for Op. 1, but that is less extreme)
and
brevity that will surely contrast with the other three symphonies
when
I get around to them. So at least that one will probably be
revised whenever the next symphony goes up. When I conceived
the
idea (based on the First Symphony guide), I initially decided to go
in
chronological opus number, but after the first three, I went with a
random list for more variety. That has worked well and I am
sticking with that. Because songs and vocal works have more
opus
numbers (out of 122 total), there may seem to be a bias toward songs
at
some times. Also, only a few posted guides still lack measure
numbers (Opp. 68, 100, 106, and 118). Those will be completed
and
added in the near future. See the link below for information
on
measure numbers.
FINALLY, a reminder about
the
recordings used in the guide. I can provide any of these to
anybody who asks, but you must contact me privately at hansenkd [at]
colorado [dot] edu to request them. I can provide them in mp3
or
CD format (the latter would require a snailmail address, of
course). For very obvious reasons, I can't post any recordings
publicly.
UPDATE (6/26/06):
I'm back! I went for a while without updates (busy with my
class
and other things), and am anxious to
get back into constructing guides, so I'll be placing new works up
more
regularly now. I do hope that eventually the site will become
known in the Brahms world and will be visited. There are a
couple
of changes I am instituting in the guides. First, I am now
including measure numbers along with time indices. This will
make
the guides less "recording specific" and might be helpful for those
who
may want to use them with just scores or scores in conjunction with
recordings. "Old" guides will be gradually updated with
measure
numbers, and any "new" guides will include them. Until all
posted
guides are updated, those that have been given measure numbers will
be
indicated. For some additional information about how measures
are
numbered, click
here. Also,
each guide will now include a brief indication of the catalog number
of
the recording used. A link with more details about these
recordings will be added shortly. Because of copyright, no
MP3's or other audio of the recordings will be posted on the
site. Contact me privately for help in obtaining digital or CD
versions of the recordings from me (many are out of print).
UPDATE (12/29/05): A WORD ON
TRANSLATIONS OF WORKS WITH TEXTS:
I have communicated with Emily Ezust, the webmaster of The Lied and
Art
Song Texts Page (http://www.recmusic.org/lieder).
She
is
happy
to
allow
me
to
use her translations for the site, but she
would prefer for me to link directly to the respective pages on her
site for translations rather than copying the texts here. She
has
good reasons for this request. Translations by their nature
will
inevitably involve copyright issues, and Ms. Ezust's site is, for
many
reasons, the best option for providing translations in my
guides.
The guide for Op. 3 has been changed accordingly, and this format
will
be used for ALL texted works, with a few exceptions. The
original
German texts will of course remain in the guides themselves. A
convenience of linking directly to Ms. Ezust's translations on her
own
site is that the original German is often printed side by side with
the
translation. She currently has all of the Lieder (solo songs)
as
well as vocal duets and quartets translated. She is gradually
working on part songs and other choral works, and has promised me
that
those "holes" in the Brahms choral output will be filled. For
this reason, I will not post guides for certain poetic choral works
until she has the translation on her site. The exception to
this
will be works with biblical texts. In these cases, I will
include
the corresponding passage of the King James Version along with the
Luther Bible text set by Brahms. King James is obviously not a
translation of Luther, so the correspondence will not be
exact.
In cases where Ms. Ezust has provided a close English translation of
the Luther Bible text, links will be provided for those
translations.
I am grateful to Emily Ezust for allowing me to link to her
translations and for her positive feedback on the guides themselves.