Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/45

ADDITIONAL ACCOMPANIMENTS.

In the first of these extracts nothing is added but a viola part; in the second Mozart has doubled the first violins by the second in the lower octave, and assigned a full harmony to the three solo wind instruments, while in the third Franz has added the string quartett to the solo oboe, and again treated the parts in that polyphonic style which experience has taught him is alone suitable for the fitting interpretation of Bach's ideas.

5. In all the cases hitherto treated, the melody being given as well as the bass, the task of the editor is comparatively easy. It is otherwise however when (as is sometimes found with Handel, and still more frequently with Bach) nothing whatever is given excepting a bass, especially if, as often happens, this bass is not even figured. In the following quotation, for example, taken from Bach's 'Magnificat' ('Quia fecit mini magna'),

it is obvious that if nothing but the bass part be played, a mere caricature of the composer's intentions will be the result. Here there are no figures in the score to indicate even the outline of the harmony. The difficulties presented by such passages as these have been overcome in the most masterly manner by Robert Franz, who fills up the score thus—