Autograph

What it means

An autograph is the written record of a work made by the composer’s own hand. It thus stands at the head of the sources: everything that comes later — copies by copyists, first prints, later editions — derives from it and can contain errors or foreign interventions. Not every autograph, however, is a fair copy; drafts, sketches and working manuscripts with deletions are equally preserved, showing how a piece came into being.

In the notation

Handwritings differ greatly: from the carefully executed fair copy, intended for print or a patron, to the hasty notation in which voices are abbreviated, repetitions only hinted at and performance marks left out. Typical are later entries in a different ink, patched-over places, reference signs to additional leaves. Decisive for legibility is that musical notation was historically variable — the use of clefs, bar lines, slurs and accidental rules did not always follow today’s habits.

Musical use

For performance practice the autograph is the authority to which an urtext edition appeals. Where it is missing, editors must reconstruct from copies and prints, and the edition becomes, of necessity, a reasoned decision. Even where an autograph is present, interpretive work remains: the composer may later have changed a place in print, so that two valid versions stand side by side. The critical report of a scholarly edition discloses which source was taken as the basis where.

The autograph is to be distinguished from the contemporary copy, which stems from the same time but is in a foreign hand, and from the first edition, which has passed through typesetters and proofreaders.

Performance practice

If a facsimile of a piece is at hand, a look into it is worthwhile — often the handwriting clarifies what seems ambiguous in the printed edition, for instance the reach of a slur or the assignment of a dynamic marking. But do not take the autograph as a playing copy for everyday use: use an urtext edition and read its critical report on the places where you are unsure. Where sources diverge, decide deliberately for one reading and keep to it throughout the piece.