What Constitutes Proof: Challenges in Wind Harmony Music

Abstract

Proof of authenticity is important both to scholars seeking insights and to investors more concerned with value. Is a ceramic 1400 years old? Is that music by Mozart? We seek parallels between scientific proof and musical authentication, focussing especially on some of the many opera arrangements for wind ensemble from the years c.1800. Such arrangements incorporate features characteristic of both arranger and original composer. We have developed a novel computer-based analysis based on numbers of rest bars in the instrumental wind parts, a simple but objective approach that works well in known examples. Specific cases analysed here were chosen both for their interest and as demanding tests for the method, including the divertimento containing the St Antoni Chorale, the Donaueschingen octet arrangement of Die Entführung, Mozart serenades, and arrangements of sixteen operas for winds. Pleyel was clearly not the composer of the St Antoni divertimento, as often asserted.