The Sketches of Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas by M. K. Čiurlionis: The Theory and Practice of Editing

Doctoral student: Virginija Unguraitytė-Levickienė
Supervisors: Prof. Zbignevas Ibelgauptas, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Audra Versekėnaitė
Department: Piano
Duration: 2012–2017

Abstract

Virginija Unguraitytė-Levickienė

Editing of musical compositions is one of the major processes of preparing a musical text for publication, where the course and outcomes of this process are based on individual decisions made by the editor. The analysis of insights by musicologists (Ernst-Günter Heinemann, Christina A. Georgiou, John Robert Brown, H. Wiley Hitchcock & Noel Zahler, Frans Bouwman et al.) who have researched into the editing processes of pieces composed by W. A. Mozart, L. van Beethoven, F. Chopin, E. Grieg, G. Mahler, and Ch. Ives has revealed that presentation of the musical text of the same piece varies from one edition to another. Therefore, a musical text authentically recorded by a composer is usually available only as an original manuscript or its facsimiles.

The problem statement of this research paper is focused around the preparation of the urtext of the Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas by M.K. Čiurlionis. Cycles created in 1904-1905 not only manifest the beginning of his mature period based on the language of modern music; they also largely reflect the problem of decrypting M.K. Čiurlionis’ manuscripts: the compositions were written as hasty sketches and mostly in a draft form. Sketch-like nature of the M.K. Čiurlionis’ autograph of Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas that led to the problem of editing these pieces. Editors who have published these cycles so far (Stasys Šimkus, Jadvyga Čiurlionytė, Vytautas Landsbergis, Dorothea Eberlein, Darius Kučinskas, Rokas Zubovas) tend to interpret the texts of Variations in a number of different ways, which has even led to several versions of M. K. Čiurlionis’ Sefaa Esec and Besacas.

In this research, for the first time, a detailed comparison of the manuscripts of M. K. Čiurlionis’ Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas, as well as all the previously published editions, has been carried, revealing major trends and potential prospects of editing M. K. Čiurlionis’ musical works for piano. The research aims at developing new urtext versions of M.K. Čiurlionis’ Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas as close as possible to the authentic manuscript on the basis of the analysis of the theoretical trends of musical editing emerged in the global editing practice as well as the analysis of the examples of the editions of M. K. Čiurlionis’ Variations on Sefaa Esec and Besacas and performing them (submitting the audio recording and new urtext versions in Annexes).