JAVS Summer 2011

Franz Schmidtner (1913–1969). Schmidtner was the violist in the Hamburg String Quartet and the “Radelow Streichquartett,” both working in and around Hamburg. 14 He edited a number of works by Vieuxtemps, Paganini, Liszt, Rode, and Fiorillo; all published by Sikorski. He also wrote a fine viola exercise book— Tägliche Studien , in 1957—also published by Sikorski. Publisher information: Sikorski , No. 316, 1955. The brief Preface is in both German and English, which explains that his edition “is based on the autograph of the Prussian State Library”—the Anna Magdalena Bach copy. 15 The numbered measures are well-spaced with ample bowing and fingering suggestions. Measures 59–62 of the Suite No. 2 Prelude are arpeggiated without indication that in the Anna Magdalena manuscript the measures are dotted half notes (exs. 2–3). Suite No. 5 has no indication that the manuscript uses scordatura. Suite No. 6 is transposed to G major with no indication that the original key is D major. Example 2. J. S. Bach, Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008, Prelude; mm. 59–63 (Schmidtner edition).

Example 3. J. S. Bach, Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008, Prelude; mm. 59–63 (From the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript).

Robert Boulay (1901–1978). Unfortunately, we know little about Robert Boulay except that he taught at the Paris Conservatoire and performed with the Paris Opera, all in the middle of the twentieth century. He wrote a very nice letter to Lionel Tertis on May 26, 1949, commenting enthusiastically about the positive qualities of the “Tertis Model” viola. 16 Publisher information: Alphonse Leduc , A.L. 21779, 1962.

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