42 Etudes for Violin solo: Urtext

Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831) creator of the 42 Études ou Caprices pour Violon, considered fundamental for the acquisition of the technique of modern violin execution, exposing a series of progressive studies in which he was able to translate the basic principles to a technical complexity of the instrument. The first edition consists of 40 Etudes and they were published by the Magasin de Musique dirigé par Mrs Cherubini, Méhul, Kreutzer, Rode, N. Isouard et Boieldieu, founded in 1802. The publisher's number (411) points to 1805, and the Publisher's address of Rue de la Loi (renamed Rue de Richelieu in 1806), plus an advertisement in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung of January 1806, confirm 1805 as the year of publication. The printed information Propriété de l’Auteur and Déposé à la Bibliothèque Impériale (deposited in the Imperial Library) in Paris. Etudes 13 and 25 of our version do not appear in the first edition. Possibly the edition of Alessandro Rolla, perhaps it was one of the first editions to expand to 42 Etudes where it mentions that it adds two unpublished studies of the composer. However, the composer made a new edition, revised and corrected by the author, entitled 40 Études ou Caprices pour le Violon. Paris Chez J. Frey (legal successor to Magasin de musique), it contains the two new Etudes 13 and 25 excluding 1 and 12, in addition, making several modifications to studies 23, 28 and 34. However, in Etude 23 the change is so noticeable that we had to add the version of the first edition from 1805 to our appendix. Now, his pupil and assistant professor Joseph Clavel clearly based his version on the revised edition by Kreutzer, it contains the same modifications that the composer made. Etude 22 was arbitrarily altered in an early 1806 reprint, the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel, perhaps wishing to improve the page turns, shortened this Etude by 15 bars and thus altering part of the work, erroneously many modern editions have maintained this to this day present. Although there has not been a single version that contains the 42 Etudes like those presented in our Urtext edition, it is known at least they all belong to Kreutzer, consequently, we are maintaining the order and numbering of modern editions and we use the sequence of the first edition, with numbers 13 and 25 in the order that appears revised edition of Joseph Clavel. Despite this, we faithfully keep fingerings and bowings from the first edition of Kreutzer and add the missing elements from the 3rd revised edition of Clavel but always going back to the first edition in those cases where necessary. There is a Manuscript that contains 25 studies, 13 of which can be identified as a preliminary version, since fingerings that do not appear in the first edition were taken from here and were added in our edition Roisber Narvaez Verlag in italics, we have also placed between parentheses first edition annotations and bracketed editor's suggestions. Read more