Fauré requiem

[David Wright]

Hi, I've looked at your score and I fall into the Simon Albrecht camp,
but I'll reply privately with questions of preference.

I have a copy of OUP's Rutter 1893 version, only the vocal, not the
full score. It's in the OUP's larger format (inconvenient for folders)
and I've never sung from it (my wife has) because I prefer the Hamelle
open score (and Rutter also has to accomodate his English translation
with dashed slurs and the odd tie).

Mixing copies for performance necessitates a new set of rehearsal
marks (Hamelle's advance faster) and quite a few markings:
word changes (bars 34, 81), cutoffs (bars 10, 11, 38, 87), bar 24
beat 1 is a rest (or else a domino!), and the disposition of parts
(bars 51, 53), all these from the Kyrie. (BTW you have the sopranos
singing F in bar 53.)

Most of these differences don't concern me as a singer (the conductor
chooses the dynamics, indicates the cutoffs, and adjusts the parts to
match the strength of the sections) as much as they do you in
preparing an edition. As your edition is choral, I can't check for
any instrumental differences.

Rutter refers to a paper published in November 1984 in "The American
Organist" about differences between versions and his editorial
treatment (because he's publishing a score and orchestral parts).
The organ part in his vocal score is original, and he adds a second
keyboard just where it's essential (Libera me bar 53 comes to mind).
That might make this edition hard to use for some organists playing
alone in a church service.

The edition is actually Hinshaw's (1984); OUP publish it (1985) under
licence. The title page says it's not for sale in France, West Germany
[sic], Spain, Portugal, Columbia, Panama or Cuba. I assume somebody
else licenses it there (or else this list might be out of date).

Cheers,
David.