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Samuel Scheidt.

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Samuel Scheidt. Tabulatura nova. Herausgegeben von Harald Vogel. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, c1994-2002. [Pt. 1 (1994): introd. (Vogel), sources and dedication (Hans-Peter Koch) in Ger., Eng., p. 3-10; facsims., 7 p.; comments on the ed. (Vogel), p. 18-21; score, p. 22-158; Anhange, p. 159-69; kritische Bemerkungen, 2 p. ISMN M-004-17854-6; Edition Breitkopf 8565. [euro]35. Pt. 2 (1999); introd. in Ger., Eng., p. 3-9; facsims., 5 p.; score, p. 16-130; Anhang, p. 131-44; essay "Keyboard Playing Techniques around 1600," p. 145-80; kritische Bemerkungen, p. 181-82. ISMN M-004-18036-5; Edition Breitkopf 8566. [euro]37. Pt. 3 (2002): introd. in Ger., Eng., p. 3-7; facsims., 7 p.; score, p. 15-174; Anhang, p. 175-81; "Notes on the Use and Structure of the Liturgical Pieces" and "Notes on the Registration Practice," p. 182-90; kritische Bemerkungen, p. 191-92. ISMN M-004-18122-5; Edition Breitkopf 8567. [euro]38.]

The publication of Samuel Scheidt's Tabulatura nova in 1624 was overseen by the composer himself. The edition contains hardly any errors, and Scheidt even added some helpful advice for players. This contrasts strongly with the survival of the seventeenth-century North German Organ School as a whole. Most of this repertory survives in manuscript form, and many of the sources, especially in the case of Dietrich Buxtehude, have no direct connection with the composer, and present intractable textual problems. One might imagine, therefore, that with two editions of the Tabulatura nova already published in modern times (ed. Max Seiffert, Denkmaler deutscher Tonkunst, ser. 1, vol. 1 [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1892], rev. Hans Joachim Moser [Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1958]; ed. Christhard Mahrenholz, Werke, vols. 6-7 [Hamburg: Ugrino, 1953-54, reprint 1964-66; Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fur Musik, 1966, etc.]), a third is something of a luxury. Certainly if this edition had done little more than present the notes once again in short score rather than the open score of the original, this view would be justified. But fortunately, Harald Vogel's new edition for Breitkopf & Hartel gives so much more than just the notes, and with such authority, that its publication is...