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GB-TCrawford SLWeiss and the Dresden and London Manuscripts ofHis Music

This very interesting article is part of the series: Goldsmiths Universityof London, Research Online, *free* to access & *free* to download

http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/8398/

Crawford, Tim. 2009. Silvius Leopold Weiss and the Dresden and London Manuscripts of His

Music. Journal of the Lute Society of America, 39, pp. 1-64. ISSN 0076-1526 [Article]Text (JLSA_vol38_LondonDresden.pdf)JLSA_vol38_LondonDresden.pdf - Accepted VersionDownload (435Kb) | Preview

Abstract or Description

Describes and discusses the contents of the two main sources of the lute music of S. L. Weiss(1687-1750). These differ in their makeup, the manner of their compilation, and thus in theirsignificance as primary sources. Both contain several items in Weiss's autograph, but hiscontribution to the London manuscript (now known to have been owned by a wealthy patron inPrague) was direct, in that he copied this music into a pre-existing book, presumably during his

various visits to Prague. The Dresden source, on the other hand, is a set of six volumes, eachcomprising a collection of separate fascicles using the same tuning of the lute's bass strings; eachfascicle in turn contains a single 'Sonata'. The compiler of Dresden seems to have put themanuscript together from various sources, probably gathered in Weiss's late years and soon afterhis death; some non-autograph items bear comments in his hand. The article further discusses thesignificance of the prelude as a component of Weiss's sonatas; in a few cases preludes were notsupplied by the copyist, who left space for them on an empty page, and Weiss himself has copied aprelude on these empty staves. The overall impression is that preludes were expected to beimprovised, and the many examples in both MSS were intended as improvisation models ratherthan definitive texts.

http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/8398/http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/8398/http://eprints.gold.ac.uk/8398/