“Treulicher Unterricht im General-Bass” by David Kelner: about the Primary Text of the Russian Translation
Abstract
Abstract. The first translation into Russian of the European manual textbook on figured bass,
David Kelner’s “Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß” was made in 1791 and came out under the
title of “Vernoe nastavlenie v sochinenii general-basa…” [“Accurate Instruction in Composition
with Figured Bass…”]. Despite the apparent character of the source, there remained the appropriate
question about the primary text for the Russian, since prior to the latter’s publication, Kelner’s
work had undergone seven German publications, the half-century long history of which testified to
bringing in changes of various types. A collation of the texts of the first three editions (1732, 1737,
1743) and the comparison of all of them with the publication in Russian has made it possible to
establish the primary text of the “Accurate Instruction.” The author cites as his proof for this decision
a certain number of discrepancies discovered in the German editions (insertions, abridgements,
details of musical examples, etc.) the correlation of which with the Russian edition makes it
possible to arrive at the conclusion of the first edition being the primary text for the translation. This
conclusion discloses the path for further research of the translation of the “Accurate Instruction,”
stipulating the objectivity of the analysis of its quality and technique and the understanding of the
level of interference into the text’s structure on the part of the translator. Close examination of
the terminology of the “Accurate Instruction” in the context of the formation of the special music
theory apparatus of the end of the 18th century will be conducive to the development of such a new
branch of contemporary scholarship as the historical lexicology of Russian musicology.
Keywords: David Kelner, “Treulicher Unterricht im General-Bass,” 18th century Russian
music theory, figured bass
Full Text:
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33779/2782-3598.2021.4.007-015
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