The sources of Reger’s arrangements (RWA vol. III/1)
Christopher Grafschmidt
1.
We can best determine the nature of Reger’s arrangements and the extent to which he might have intervened in the original text if we know both the original work and the version of it that Reger used as the basis of his arrangement. This is unproblematic when he himself names it, if the publication history of the original allows for only one possibility, or if the various extant editions reveal no relevant divergences. In the present volume, for example, the only possible source for the Andante from Christian Sinding’s Piano Quintet in e minor op. 5 was the published score. And for the Feierlicher Einzug by Richard Strauss, we know that Reger had at his disposal a “piano reduction and a score”. (Letter from Reger to Henri Hinrichsen of 29 August 1909)
Reger’s arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach provide us with a particular challenge in this regard, however. For example, if he used the edition of the Bach-Gesellschaft (BGA) that was published by Breitkopf & Härtel,1 then the expression markings added in his arrangement must have been his own work. However, his arrangement also contains a whole series of tempo indications (including metronome markings) that are similar – and at times identical – to those in the C.F. Peters editions of these works by Carl Czerny or by Czerny, Friedrich Conrad Griepenkerl and Ferdinand August Roitzsch. Nor can it be a coincidence that Reger’s musical text (the basic layer that he was accustomed to writing in black ink) corresponds in prominent places to editions other than those of the BGA (such as an added bar at the close of the Prelude of BWV 866, included in the Selected piano works, Bach-B6). The case of the Prelude and Fugue in g minor BWV 885 (Bach-B6 no. 7) is also particularly striking, since the musical text as edited here by Czerny contains elements from two different versions that we also find in Reger.
It is likely that Reger possessed various editions of Bach’s works, or had become acquainted with such sources when he was studying and teaching in Wiesbaden. However, it seems unlikely that he would have deliberately consulted different editions when arranging individual pieces. The large number of editions of Bach’s works that already existed in Reger’s time in any case makes it difficult to determine his actual source in every case. Ultimately, the best we can do is to use a broadly similar publication as a comparative edition here.
About this Blogpost
Authors:
Christopher Grafschmidt
Translations:
Chris Walton (en)
Date:
14th March 2025
Tags:
Module IIIVol. III/1
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Citation
Christopher Grafschmidt: The sources of Reger’s arrangements (RWA vol. III/1), in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00058, version 4.0, 18th December 2025.
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