From: Jeffrey Snider
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: RE: Composers Intentions/was Brahms Serious Songs
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

When I was doing my final DMA project on the songs of American Composer
Sidney Homer, I was able to ask his daughter Katharine hpow he felt about
his songs being transposed. Since he composed primarily for his wife,
American contralto Louise Homer, most of his songs are originally in LOW
keys, and must be transposed UP for high voice.

She told me that, while he preferred his original keys, he knew that they
would not sell well in the original keys only. There are many cases of
composers transposing works themselves (e.g. there are contralto and tenor
versions of the role of "Orfeo" in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.)

There was an article many years ago in the Musical Quarterly about being
"faithful to the composer's intentions." As I recall, the author thought
that the concept was nonsense. Nonetheless, there are those who think that
songs and arias should only be performed in their "original keys." (The
people who suggest this are usually tenors and sopranos, however, who tend
to have a higher percentage of the song literature in their keys than do
lower and medium voices.)

Just some thoughts!

Jeffrey Snider, DMA
Chair, Division of Vocal Studies
College of Music
University of North Texas
Denton, TX USA
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