Neue Mozart-Ausgabe

The ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' (''NMA''; English: ''New Mozart Edition'') is the second complete works edition of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A longer and more formal title for the edition is ''Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke'' olfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): New Edition of the Complete Works

Publication

Published between 1956 and 2007 by Bärenreiter-Verlag, the ''NMA'' is a scholarly critical edition of all of Mozart's compositions. It consists of 132 volumes containing 25,000 pages of music, organised in 35 work groups, arranged in ten series. Each music volume is accompanied by a separate critical commentary, totalling 8,000 pages.

The ten series are:

Strengths

The ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' is an advance over the previous complete works edition of Mozart published by Breitkopf & Härtel from 1877 to 1883 (with supplements until 1910), which is sometimes referred to today as the '' Alte Mozart-Ausgabe'' (or "Old Mozart Edition"). One of the editorial directors, Wolfgang Rehm, writes that "The ''NMA'' aims to be a historical-critical edition and to offer as such the latest state of philological-musicological procedure as well as practical knowledge (particularly with regard to performance) of Mozart's creative production."

Highly regarded and frequently used by performers of Mozart's music and musical scholars, the ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' is an indispensable reference for anyone seriously interested in the output of this composer. H. C. Robbins Landon has called it "an absolute necessity if we are to perform Mozart correctly," and on one occasion had to insist that the Vienna Philharmonic use the ''NMA'' for a series of recordings of Mozart's symphonies rather than the less accurate Breitkopf & Härtel edition mentioned above.

Unavailable source materials

Stanley Sadie remarks that the work of the ''NMA'' was "hampered by the removal in World War II and the unavailability until 1980 of most of the largest single collection of Mozart autographs, that of the Berlin State Library, Berlin." Consequently, the editors of the ''NMA'' had to manage with this state of affairs as well as possible. In editing ''The Marriage of Figaro'' for the ''NMA'', which appeared in 1973, Ludwig Finscher was only able to access the first two acts of the autograph score. In editing the Piano Concerto No. 27, K. 595, Wolfgang Rehm actually had to make use of a photographic reproduction of the autograph made before the war, which was provided by the pianist Rudolf Serkin, since the autograph itself was not accessible in 1960 when the ''NMA'' volume containing the concerto was published.

Along similar lines, Landon comments that "recently discovered manuscript sources have rendered even the ''NMA''s edition of the ''Linz'' symphony obsolete." It is perhaps inevitable that new finds will in time render some aspects of the ''NMA'' open to reconsideration, since research and discovery regarding Mozart's work remain an ongoing process.

Criticisms of ornamentation

Some detailed criticism of the ornamentation suggested by the ''NMA'' can be found in Frederick Neumann's book ''Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart''. Neumann finds some of the ornamentation, particularly regarding vocal cadenzas, helpful, while some of it is in his view misjudged. However, Neumann's strictures do not seem particularly severe, and in his "Preface" he writes that, although he attempted where possible to view primary sources of Mozart's music, where this was not possible, the ''NMA'' "offered an indispensable supplement".

Availability

The ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' has been most accessible in large hardbound volumes found in music libraries, though its publisher, Bärenreiter, has more recently been publishing portions of the ''NMA'' in a paperback format.

Starting December 12, 2006, scans of most of the ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' are also available online as the ''DME'' (''Digital Mozart Edition'') in JPEG and PDF format, a service provided by the International Mozarteum Foundation in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute."''Digital Mozart-Edition"
International Mozarteum Foundation

References

Sources
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See also

* Köchel catalogue, since 1863 ongoing effort to catalogue all of Mozart's works
* List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

External links

''NMA'' Online
Digital Mozart Edition (DME)
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Opera libretti
critical editions, diplomatic editions, source evaluation (German only), links to online DME recordings; Digital Mozart Edition

{{Authority control

Mozart
Mozart scholars