German Music Manuals in 18th Century Russian Translations: about the Attributes of the Primary Texts

Abstract

The first Russian translations of German musical treatises were published in the last
third of the 18th century: these were the textbooks on clavier playing by Georg Simon Löhlein, and
Daniel Gottlob Türk, and a guide to figured bass performance written by David Kelner. Despite the
obviousness of the information about the original texts of the translated publications, the problem
of attributing the primary text remains relevant for each of them. Its staging is due to the fact
that the German treatises by the time of the publication of their versions in Russian underwent
numerous publications, which were not stereotyped. Since the title data of the Russian versions do
not contain information about the numbers and dates of the publications of the original sources,
establishing the latter has become an important scholarly task. Its relevance is indisputable: without
turning to the texts in the original language, it would be impossible to carry out an exhaustive study
of the range of translated 18th century literature, especially those aspects that are associated with
identifying the specific features of translation, its technique and quality, the degree of structural
correspondence to the original source, and the means of translating terminology.
For the sake of attribution of the originals, a comparative analysis of the German editions published
prior to the appearance of the Russian versions has been carried out. As a result of their correlation
with the translations, the following primary texts have been specified: Löhlein, Georg Simon, Clavier-
Schule, oder kurze und gruendliche Anweisung zur Melodie und Harmonie (first edition, 1765);
Kellner David, Treulicher Unterricht im General-Baß (first edition, 1732); Türk Daniel Gottlob,
Kurze Anweisung zum Klavierspielen, ein Auszug aus der größern Klavierschule (1792).
A positive reliance on German primary sources will make it possible to take a fresh look at
the results of the translation work, come closer to their objective assessment, and also may help
increase the degree of the scholarly veracity of contemporary research works.

Keywords: Georg Simon Löhlein, David Kelner, Daniel Gottlob Türk, translated musical
manuals, 18th century German musical treatises, 18th century Russian musical theory