Vierne's Arabesque From 24 Pièces

[Vox Humana]

In bar 8 the second C has no accidental, but, surely, shouldn't it should be C# to match the notes just played an octave lower (not to mention two bars with this figure on the final page)? Ben van Oosten plays C natural here and to my ears it always grates - but that may be just because I'm so used to playing C#. Does the Carus edition shed any light?

[headcase]

In bar 8 the second C has no accidental, but, surely, shouldn't it should be C# to match the notes just played an octave lower (not to mention two bars with this figure on the final page)? Ben van Oosten plays C natural here and to my ears it always grates - but that may be just because I'm so used to playing C#. Does the Carus edition shed any light?

 

The Carus edition puts a cautionary accidental in, so C# is deemed to be correct. The Critical Report says that 'Cautionary accidentals were tacitly supplemented'.

 

H

[heva]

Compare with bar 36: must be a C#.

[Paul Walton]

The other correction in Carus is bar 4 - rhythm should be the same as bar 31.

 

Paul Walton

[Dulciana]

Funnily enough, I, too had been thinking about this recently. In my edition, the second (octave higher) D has a sharp, and so I had (perhaps foolishly) assumed that the absence of one before the second C meant that it was implicitly natural. If both the C and D were to be sharpened, I assumed that their treatment in the score would have been consistent. However, if the C was natural, one might have expected a natural sign just to make that clear. In other words, I don't really know. I like the sound of the C natural, though.

[Vox Humana]

The Carus edition puts a cautionary accidental in, so C# is deemed to be correct. The Critical Report says that 'Cautionary accidentals were tacitly supplemented'.

Compare with bar 36: must be a C#.

Thank you, both. So Carus's use of a cautionary accidental here would imply, presumably, that not only the print, but also Vierne's manuscript does not mark this C with a sharp. I do think it has to be sharp, though, given all the parallel passages; a C natural has no logic.

 

The other correction in Carus is bar 4 - rhythm should be the same as bar 31.

Thanks. Yes, I think this one must have been published before somewhere since I already have a note of it in my score. Can't remember where I read it, though.

[Guest Roffensis]

I've always played it C#. Vierne's scores can confuse at times.

 

R

[Vox Humana]

... the problem being, as we all know, that he was largely blind and therefore much more prone than most to overlooking details like this.

[Ronald Bayfield]

The other correction in Carus is bar 4 - rhythm should be the same as bar 31.

 

Paul Walton

I had read this somewhere and have altered my copy. As printed the note values don't equal the dotted minim below. Regarding the C#, I have pencilled a sharp in my copy but on reflection I like the natural as it gives the oriental flavour which appears elsewhere.

[Nick Bennett]

I am sure I have seen a long list of suggested corrections to Vierne's published scores not too long ago. Was it in the Organists' Review?