Forgotten Music from the 18th and 19th Centuries: Rediscovering Neglected Works through the Creation of a Modern Performance Edition

Authors

Fidel Perez, Brigham Young University
David Day, Brigham Young University

Keywords

music, neglected works, modern performance, viola repertoire

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Music

Abstract

The written violin repertoire is vast, yet the amount of published material is relatively limited to performers. Available viola repertoire is even narrower. A person can easily find pieces by the most famous composers, such as Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, in a music library. These pieces, however, represent only a mere fraction of actual written material. There are many lesser-known composers whose works have been virtually ignored. The number of pieces available to us in modern day editions is probably only half of what has actually been written; many of those still unpublished pieces have gone totally unknown, with only the actual manuscript or a first edition surviving. These forgotten pieces carry the potential to be masterworks, yet we have little or no knowledge about them. It is interesting to know that Felix Mendelssohn revived the public interest in the works of Bach and Schubert.

Recommended Citation

Perez, Fidel and Day, David (2013) "Forgotten Music from the 18th and 19th Centuries: Rediscovering Neglected Works through the Creation of a Modern Performance Edition," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 2297.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/2297