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Schubert - Mass in G (also a tip re Faure Requiem accompaniment)


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This is a long shot, I know. I am accompanying this is a couple of weeks' time and have settled down to working it out at the organ this weekend. Would anyone know where I can get access to a proper organ arrangement of the accompaniment instead of trying to make sense of the reduction in the vocal score. I see that Elmer Thomas has made an arrangement and that it is available in the States - I have written to see how long it might take to be delivered, but in the meantime am wondering about what might be available over here. Any thoughts? I might just try Salisbury Cathedral.

 

Incidentally, I had to play the Faure Requiem last term and was wondering quite how to handle the 'Sanctus' which takes a bit of working out. In the IMSLP library, there is a complete organ arrangement by someone called Pawel Jura which might repay a visit for anyone needing a Faure reduction. I used this for 'Sanctus' and 'In paradisum' and played the rest from Rutter.

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The best edition for playing the Faure Requiem on the organ, without orchestral instruments accompanying, is the Barenreiter which sets it out clearly and logically over three staves.

 

Malcolm

You may well be right, Malcolm, in saying that Barenreiter is best but are you saying this having looked at or evaluated the Pawel Jura as I mentioned earlier?

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Incidentally, I had to play the Faure Requiem last term and was wondering quite how to handle the 'Sanctus' which takes a bit of working out. In the IMSLP library, there is a complete organ arrangement by someone called Pawel Jura which might repay a visit for anyone needing a Faure reduction. I used this for 'Sanctus' and 'In paradisum' and played the rest from Rutter.

 

I played this a couple of months ago from the Desmond Ratcliffe piano score (on the organ). Looking at the Pawel Jura edition, I don't think it's necessary for the organ to double the voice parts (e.g. bar 3), so I went with the semiquavers in the left hand and the quaver motifs (e.g. bar 5, top line) in the right hand. These could be done on separate manuals, although I didn't bother with that. During the crescendo somewhere around bar 35 the semiquavers swapped to the right hand iirc, and by having both hands together it was easier to add stops at will (I used about four general piston changes to achieve a smooth crescendo). Then at bar 42, chords in the right hand and the left hand on a solo stop (if available) - I didn't bother with any double pedalling, but had a 32' Bourdon out (this and the climax in the middle of the Agnus Dei were the two loudest points in the whole work, so I went for it a bit, without of course drowning out the singers!). At bar 50 I moved the right hand to Swell, using the quieter Great Trumpet for the solo motif, then keeping the semiquavers on the Swell to the end, swapping hands roughly as shown by Jura and playing the melody in bar 55 in the right hand as a solo on the Great with a string or flute stop (or combination). I wouldn't bother with the pedal fifth at the end either.

 

On the 'In Paradisum', I used a Sesquialtera for the right hand semiquavers, but to add clarity to the bass part I played crotchets in the left hand on the pedals with an 8' stop only.

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Pawel Jura's Fauré looks pretty good.* Inevitably one can quibble about odd details (e.g. in the first movement, why are the last two pedal notes of bar 24 and 67 not an octave higher? It would have been better to follow the cellos and basses here).

 

Assuming you want to retain some resemblance to the orchestral score, the first pedal note of the Sanctus should be G, not E flat, and should be registered at 8' pitch (until bar 36). It would be even better to use both feet and sustain the lowest two notes of the arpeggios, but perhaps that's "over-engineering" the solution a bit. I agree about not doubling the voices in bar 3. In the orchestral score, those notes are an octave lower and are in the organ accompaniment; they are not at all prominent. They would be covered by the double pedalling, if used, but they are in the arpeggios anyway.

 

* Incidentally, this is hosted on CPDL, not IMSLP, though there is a link on the latter.

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This is a long shot, I know. I am accompanying this is a couple of weeks' time and have settled down to working it out at the organ this weekend. Would anyone know where I can get access to a proper organ arrangement of the accompaniment instead of trying to make sense of the reduction in the vocal score. I see that Elmer Thomas has made an arrangement and that it is available in the States - I have written to see how long it might take to be delivered, but in the meantime am wondering about what might be available over here. Any thoughts? I might just try Salisbury Cathedral.

 

For Schubert’s Mass in G you might want to take a look at Paul Horn’s arrangement, which was published by the Carus-Verlag. There is an evaluation copy available online. I havent’t played it myself, so I can’t give you any feedback regarding its usability.

 

M

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For Schubert’s Mass in G you might want to take a look at Paul Horn’s arrangement, which was published by the Carus-Verlag. There is an evaluation copy available online. I havent’t played it myself, so I can’t give you any feedback regarding its usability.

 

M

Thank you so much for this pointer - exactly what I was hoping for. I have contacted Carus to find out costs etc. It does look much more digestible in this format in, for example the Benedictus, than the way it is set out in the Novello vocal score, though I have almost got my hands round it now.

Thanks again;

Martin.

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