August 30 - Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (The Musical Birthday Series, 3rd Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 30th are found here: Regina Resnik (2019) and George Frederick Root (2020)

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Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (30 August 1767 – 27 October 1822) was a German composer, pianist and musical editor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BWV 846; or, A Bar Walks into a Prelude…

Some earlier editions of the prelude contain an extra bar between bars 22 and 23 allegedly added by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke in an attempt to correct what he or someone else erroneously deemed a "faulty" progression.  Called the Schwencke measure, it has made its way in countless later editions, including the Ave Maria setting that Charles Gounod based on it.-- adapted from Wikipedia, s.v.  “Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846” and “Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke”

There are certain editions

   Of the Prelude in C

With an odd extra measure

  (It’s bar 23).

It was C. F. G. Schwencke

  Whose manuscript had

This odd extra measure

   For good or for bad.

There’s no way to know if

   This tiny addition

Was the work of our Schwencke,

   Or reflects the Tradition,

So it falls to each player

   To make a decision

If the version is valid

   Or Schwencke’s revision.

 

 

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