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Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

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ludu

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Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostTue Jul 12, 2022 8:58 am

Dear fellow organists,

I am pleased to announce today that I have just completed a brand new edition of the ten symphonies for organ by Charles-Marie Widor. By visiting the site https://www.lucdupuis.org/en/widor, you can get an idea of its appearance. Currently, the foreword and the edition notes are written in French, but I plan to add an English translation of the texts, as soon as I have found an English-speaking organist who can help me in this task. I have already done a translation project for the foreword (14 pages), but the translation of the edition notes (18 pages) is more delicate. Interested people can contact me from my website. I thank in advance the future collaborator who will agree to sign the English translation.
Last edited by ludu on Sat Oct 21, 2023 8:26 am, edited 3 times in total.
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sjkartchner

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Re: Widor – A New Edition of the 10 Symphonies for Organ

PostTue Jul 12, 2022 4:00 pm

Wow! What an impressive effort. I will look forward to the English editions.
Stan Kartchner, Tucson, AZ USA
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ludu

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Re: Widor – A New Edition of the 10 Symphonies for Organ

PostTue Aug 23, 2022 4:52 am

Dear fellow organists,

Today, I am pleased to announce that the bilingual version (French/English) is now available. The translation was done by English-speaking organist Andrew Carter, who even took care to use American and English terminologies side by side (e.g. eighth note = quaver), so that everyone is comfortable with his (her) reading habits.

This is the very first complete edition of Widor’s Ten Organ Symphonies to be published in landscape format and whose engraving, paper and binding are of very high quality. The texts that surround each symphony finally make it possible to understand how to perform Widor and how to solve the many problematic cases. And yet the price of this edition is two to three times cheaper than the other musicological editions currently on the market.

Each symphony can be acquired separately or in more economical volumes grouping together several symphonies. Also, in both cases, you can choose between the traditional sheet music or the PDF version. The PDF version is mainly designed for reading on a tablet or an e-reader. But it can also be used as a print-at-home edition, which costs about 2/3 the price of the sheet music, for those who are looking above all for a crushed price.

All the information as well as excerpts from the score can be viewed at https://www.lucdupuis.org/en/widor. Thank you in advance for your visit to my site.

Regards,
Last edited by ludu on Mon Sep 26, 2022 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Romanos

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Re: Widor – A New Edition of the 10 Symphonies for Organ

PostTue Aug 23, 2022 12:53 pm

These editions look very fine, indeed, and the engraving is superbe! Merci beaucoup pour votre éffort.
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ludu

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Re: Widor – A New Edition of the 10 Symphonies for Organ

PostWed Aug 24, 2022 4:50 am

Many thanks for your encouragement!
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dcitron

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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostFri Sep 02, 2022 9:06 am

This looks fantastic! I bought volume II PDF.

One question I have -- the landscape page orientation is beautiful in print, I'm sure, but for reading on ForScore on an iPad, it's hard to deal with -- there's no way to see two pages at a time.

Is there any possibility of a "portrait" orientation PDF or would that just be too much work to re-flow everything?

Even if the portrait mode simply had two scaled-down landscape pages filling the top and bottom of each page, I think that would be more useful on an e-reader.

Thoughts?

Thanks again for this wonderful publication!
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ludu

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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostFri Sep 02, 2022 10:09 am

Hello and thank you very much for your encouragement!

Displaying two pages in portrait orientation would be difficult to read, because the score would be too small, even with an e-reader such as BOOX Max Lumi, the largest on the current market. In addition, Widor’s music is so dense that the portrait orientation does not allow for a nice layout. If you want to display two pages at once, the best way in Forescore is to use Dual Page Mode with a second device. This function has been available since version 1.4 of this software. Another less expensive but less convenient solution is to use the Half-page Turns feature, also available in Forscore.

To answer your question about the engraving work, I must specify that the entry of notes is done very quickly, but that the layout represents at least 90% of the work.

Kind regards,
Luc
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dcitron

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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostFri Sep 02, 2022 10:49 am

Thanks for your reply! I think you're right that it would be a bit too small the way I suggested (I tried it). It's almost readable haha

The half-page turn feature in ForScore doesn't really work with these landscape pages -- it just turns half of the landscape page at the top of the screen. The bottom of the screen remains empty even if I drag the divider down.

The dual-page mode option is tempting. I'll consider it.

If you *do* decide to offer a portrait-oriented PDF publication, I would be a customer (and I would buy vol. 2 again in portrait mode) :) -- I know that one person's purchase is not enough to justify the work, though.

Thanks!
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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostFri Sep 09, 2022 9:07 am

Well, and as a music engraver myself, I can assure you that it is a very non-trivial task to re-engrave this music with the same degree of finesse as the initial editions. That takes a LOT of work, even if the program you are working in gets you most of the way there automagically.
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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostMon Dec 19, 2022 4:37 pm

Hereunder the covers.

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The symphonies are also available separately, as printed scores or as PDF documents.
More information on http://www.lucdupuis.org/en/widor
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ludu

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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostThu Dec 22, 2022 10:19 am

A video has just been posted here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEHkACbtbxQ
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Re: Widor –The 10 Symphonies now in bilingual version FR/EN

PostMon Jul 31, 2023 6:37 am

Hello, dear colleagues,

I'm pleased to give you a sneak preview of a review that will soon be published in Forum Kirchenmuzik (Germany).

Anyone who plays Widor’s organ symphonies on the basis of the old editions published between 1872 and 1920 will be familiar with the difficulties of approaching this music, due to the enormous number of errors and inconsistencies in the musical text. The complicated copyright situation is directly linked to the problem of the text: Widor’s work fell into the public domain in 1987 in the United States, but only in 2007 in the European Union. John NEAR’s first complete American edition went unchallenged in Europe for 20 years, which gave it time to establish itself and to be considered by many as the reference edition – with all the errors it peddled.

In parallel with the edition presented a few years ago by Carus, the Belgian composer and organist Luc Dupuis […] has just published a complete and critical, but at the same time very practical, edition of all Widor’s symphonies. As someone who has been familiar with Widor’s organ works for more than half a century, Dupuis has also been confronted with the countless errors contained in older editions, which continue to be produced and to raise questions to this day. The changes that Dupuis has made to the transmitted musical text can be explained by a very well-founded discernment from the point of view of compositional technique, but also are primarily reflected in the revision of the partly disastrous musical image of the first editions, which Dupuis has transposed into a clearly legible horizontal layout.

Consequently, this edition is the result of several decades of study of Widor’s work: it departs from the traditional practices of scientific and critical editions in that it does not overload the musical text with notes, brackets and cross-references of all kinds. Each intervention is precisely indicated by an editorial note at the end of the score, which can be read at anyone’s discretion. Everyone is free to decide how much they want to read, in order to improve the readability of the edition. This ensures that editorial decisions remain comprehensible (and are also fully translated into English). The volumes are accompanied by prefaces by the composer – also bilingual – as well as fundamental remarks on the interpretation of the music of Widor and his school.

The editions are published on a self-publishing basis and are available on the publisher’s website in printed form (if the collections are purchased in the practical ring-binder layout) or at a reduced price as a PDF download; their great advantage lies in the ease with which they can be read and turned over, and consequently in the practical handling of the volumes, which is due to the publisher’s remarkable experience.

Birger Petersen, Forum Kirchenmusik (Germany), translated from German
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Review in the Sydney Organ Journal

PostSat Oct 21, 2023 8:51 am

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Editor Luc Dupuis has set about the enormous task of constructing an entirely new edition of the organ symphonies of Charles-Marie Widor. […]

Monsieur Dupuis's extended notes after Widor's own foreword are very well-considered and informative. He touches on a number of areas that are fundamentally important to understanding the performance not only of the music of Widor, but also French symphonic music more generally. […]

Dupuis also decided that he would deviate from the musicological premises in other updated editions which, although they had made revisions and corrections, had still left a very large number of errors, and perhaps due to the concept of the 'sacredness' of the editorial process had not actually corrected many of the other problems to do with hand distribution, incorrect accidentals, registrational inconsistencies and other assorted musical conundrums.

Dupuis's new edition presents as an extremely practical, thoroughly approachable one for performers: a veritable elongated organ performance practise lesson in print. In addition to producing a new edition of this invaluable repertoire (and although correcting a plethora of typographical errors in the scores), Dupuis has further wisely decided that any commentary or alternative readings should all be left after the end of each symphony in the manner of editor's notes, so as not to overburden the score. This has the pleasing effect of creating a level of freedom for the performer to decide which way to go in a valid informed manner whilst possessing an accurate un-encumbered surface to read from. The text typeset of this edition is extremely clear and the binding of the book is much more orientated towards a practical performer. It will be durable and pages will not crack. […]

I can highly recommend this new edition of Widor's organ symphonies. Dupuis lends the performer clarity, and a reimagining of Widor's true authentic style that has perhaps been lacking in some earlier editions that merely sought to reprint pre-existing often inaccurate material without taking the brave step into constructive and purposeful revision.

Kurt Ison in Sydney Organ Journal
Full text: lucdupuis.org/reviews
Last edited by ludu on Tue Mar 19, 2024 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Organists' Review

PostTue Mar 19, 2024 4:16 am

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[…] The editions are well presented on good quality paper with clear and easy-to-read fonts, and registration indications are equally clear. The notes in these editions are informative and helpful, and where changes have been made it is for good reasons. […] The edition clearly shows respect for Widor's teaching of phrasing and legato, a style which the composer learned from his teacher Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens. […] This is an impressive and well-researched edition conceived with the player in mind and one which should be seriously considered by those wishing to play the composer.

Malcolm Archer in Organists’ Review
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