5,000 Pages of Verdi’s Drafts, Long Hidden, Will Be Made Public | Hacker News Reader

5,000 Pages of Verdi’s Drafts, Long Hidden, Will Be Made Public

nytimes.com

58 pointspseudolus7 comments

Here's hoping for an undiscovered bassoon concerto!

On a more serious note, I really hope "made public" means making the digitized copies available to anyone on the web, without restriction. There is an enormous amount of music that has lapsed into the public domain (most of it long out of print) that remains inaccessible because the parts can only be found in a handful of libraries. Even worse, many libraries restrict borrowers from making digital copies of public-domain works. Regardless of what Verdi intended for his drafts, I can't help thinking that most deceased composers would have been dismayed that their works remained obscure in an era where they could be instantaneously disseminated across the world for anyone to enjoy. (Time to donate to IMSLP again...)

I've been playing Verdi's piano reductions lately as a way to get to know his operas better, so this comes as a wonderful surprise! He was not only a master of lyricism and orchestration but also quite involved in politics and well-loved during his time. Fascinating man.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131002-verdi-when-music-m...

I'm of two minds with regards to this story. On the one hand it is fantastic to gain concrete insights into the processes that went into the creation of his work. On the other hand, and more controversially, I can't help but think that the artist was disrespected when his heirs didn't follow through with his wishes that the drafts and notes be destroyed.

Same with Kafka. I honestly think we're better for having his writing than destroying his work like he asked.

Verdi—and Kafka—could have burnt his notes as he went so a part of me thinks, maybe he was just being coy.

and chopin. several of his most beloved works were to be bruned. if i had a time machine, my 1st stop would be paris, 1840, with pills for tuberculosis.

> [...] scribbling on their covers: “Burn these papers.” Fortunately, his heirs never carried out those orders.

I would be rolling over in my grave if this were the case. Doesn't this feel wrong?

"The Verdi villa was never widely open, but scholars complained that under the family’s stewardship, it was far too difficult to access documents ... The culture ministry took the trunk from the villa in January 2017, partly in response to the complaints."

Mama mia.

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