What is an Urtext Edition?Published October 24, 2014 General 2 Comments

Tags: Baerenreiter Verlag, Breitkopf and Haertel, Classical music, classical Urtext Editions, EditionPeters, G. Henle, music editions, Urtext, Urtext Editions, Wiener Verlag

by Kevin Harper

We’ve all seen the term “Urtext Edition” when shopping for sheet music. But whatdoes that mean? How is it different from other sheet music? Let’s begin with thedefinition of “Urtext”.

Germans famously love to combine separate words into one long word. In this case,we have the German words Ur and Text. The oldest city in the world was the city ofUr in modern-day Iraq. This word became part of the German language, meaningoriginal, ancient, or great. For example, Great-grandfather in German isUrgrossvater. In the case of the popular German beer Pilsner Urquell, Urquell means“old source” or “old recipe.” (Quell means source.) Germans use Ur to describesomething that is not only very old, but also respected and distinguished.

The meaning of Text in German is easy to figure out. It is a cognate of our Englishword, which means they have the same definition.

So we’ve established what the word Urtext means, but what in the world does it haveto do with music? Publishers use the term to refer to old editions of music,particularly those that have the music written in the hand of the composer, or withannotations and guidelines in the composer’s own words.

Urtexts have become increasingly respected and sought after since the PeriodInstruments Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s. During this time, numerousorchestras were founded in which members played original instruments. Theirpurpose was to play music as it would have sounded in the time it was written. That’sright! While Pierre Boulez was in Central Park experimenting with wild avant-gardemusic, others were playing hurdy-gurdys and serpents, two very old instruments!

Due to the diligence and hard work of those pioneers, publishers were left with awealth of information on authenticity and performance practice. There was also nowa market for this kind of stuff! So, they began publishing these as alternate editions,eventually dubbing them “Urtext Editions” to distinguish them from the editedversions, which are more common.

This inspires the question, “Why do there need to be different versions of one pieceof music?” Composers’ music was highly edited and altered to conform to thelimitations of the orchestra, or even the limitations of the printing press itself.According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography:

Although publishers sought out Beethoven and he was an able manager ofhis own business affairs, he was at the mercy of the crooked publishingpractices of his time. Publishers paid a fee to composers for rights to theirworks, but there was no system of copyrights…or royalties…at the time.As each new work appeared, Beethoven sold it to one or more of the bestand most reliable publishers. But this initial payment was all he wouldreceive, and both he and his publisher had to contend with rival publisherswho brought out editions of their own. As a result Beethoven saw hisworks published in many different versions that were unauthorized,

unchecked, and often inaccurate. Several times during his life in ViennaBeethoven started plans for a complete, authorized edition of his works,but these plans were never realized.

We see fewer Urtext Editions for music composed in the late 19th and 20th centuries,because technology and the printing press had improved and copyright laws cameinto existence. The greatest need for Urtext Editions is for music from the Baroqueand Classical periods, when publishing companies often violated composers’ rights.While these editions are meant to represent the closest version of the composers’original intentions, it is difficult for historians to know if they are completely accuratedue to poor print quality or the composers’ or copywriters’ ineligible handwriting.

Even Anton Bruckner’s symphonies exist in multiple editions, edited by Brucknerhimself. Often he would ask a friend what they thought of his symphonies, andwould happily add whatever changes they recommended. Or, his publishers wouldpublish an altered version without telling him. Thus, there is no definitive edition ofmany of Bruckner’s symphonies; they are classified by the year of the edition, i.e.Symphony 5: the original version, 1978 version, and the ‘revised’ edition of 1892-1894. (Bruckner had very little say in the last edition.) His Symphony No. 4 has sixdifferent editions!

That said, Urtext Editions are by no means the one valid Urtext of any given work.Very often, the publisher must choose between multiple Urtext editions to publish, ortry to combine them. There are several publishers who specialize in Urtext Editions,including:

Baerenreiter Verlag

Breitkopf & Haertel

Edition Peters

G. Henle

Wiener Verlag

We cannot rely on Urtext as the be-all end-all of a composer’s vision. However it canlend great understanding to what the composer’s intentions were. Often the processis lengthy and painstaking – determining what is authentic, writing the textfootnotes, checking accuracy. Why do they do this if it’s so much work? It’s for thelove of music and the quest to better understand what the composer meant. Themore we understand about the music’s history and composition, the more weunderstand our own music in the present. And while many of the most popularpieces may be over-played, it gives them a new light and new perspective.

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2 Responses to “What is an Urtext Edition?”

June 25, 2015 at 7:59 am

Reblogged this on Take Note.

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August 4, 2015 at 10:23 pm

I should definitely share this on my site: http://www.NCMusicCenter.com so thatmy studnets will be able to understand the importance of quality editions.

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