Text vs. Act.

When the Bach-Gesellschaft was founded in 1850, could its organizers have Known that their 'objective' actions and intents would not be taken kindly by much of subjectively-minded musical Europe? Within the decade, a polemical public debate about the Bearbeitungsfrage (issue of arrangements and transcriptions) arose around the very nature and goals of the emerging discipline of musicology. Early editors such as Phillip Spitta and Friedrich Chrysander often found critical support for their work in progressive figures such as Joachim, Brahms, and Eduard Hanslick. The opposition was led by the composer Robert Franz, and supported by (among others) Franz Liszt. They derided the 'most recent alliance' of Spitta and Chrysander, characterizing them as mere 'archeologists', musical incompetents who were vandalizing great art and producing useless, unperformable editions, In the period 1860 to 1890, Franz's 'artistic' school (which included his acolytes, Julius Schaeffer, Albert Hahn, and Otto Dresel) published rival editions of Baroque works with full scores, vocal scores, and instrumental parts, some of which were still in print well into the 20th century. By the end of the 19th century, the debate had died down, along with its principal authors. But the issues raised remained, as the tensions surrounding performances in the past fifty years by Glenn Gould and Angela Hewitt may remind us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]