The Limpid Stream. Op. 39. Ballet. Piano score.

The piano score (author's arrangement for piano in two hands) of the ballet The Limpid Stream was published for the first time by DSCH Publishers in 1997. The publication was prepared by Professor I.A. Barsova on the basis of the following author's manuscripts and hand-written copies:

1. set of author's manuscripts (RSALA, rec. gr. 2048, inv. 1, f. 56), which I.A. Barsova describes as the “rough draft of the author's manuscript of the original edition of the piano score”;
2. hand-written copy of the Leningrad edition of the piano score (sheet music library of the Mussorgsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet [former Maly Opera Theatre], call mark 1570);
3. hand-written copy of the Moscow edition of the piano score (GABT sheet music library, call mark KB No. 1789);
4. authorized hand-written copy of the Moscow edition of the piano score (GCMMC, rec. gr. 32, f. 63);
5. author's manuscripts of the score, as well as
6. orchestral parts of the Moscow edition.

This publication is based on the 1997 edition, which has been correlated with the score published in Vols. 64a and 64b of New Collected Works.

As we know, in The Limpid Stream, Shostakovich included several items from the ballet The Bolt. During preparation of the performance, many changes were made to the score: rearrangements, repetitions and xclusions of certain items, their expansion or abridgment, and finally the inclusion of new items. When the ballet was transferred to the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, the libretto was radically revised (for more about this see the article in this volume) and new changes were made to the score, to which, in particular, additional items were added written by Shostakovich especially for the Moscow performance.

This publication features the piano arrangements of several items and fragments that are absent in the 1997 edition. All of these rearrangements were done by musical editor of the volume Viktor Ekimovsky. The repetitions of small fragments of the score revealed are designated by reprise signs in this publication. In several of the pieces, the score was written without key signatures or accidentals; the key signatures are shown in the piano arrangement. These differences are not stipulated in the comments. Nor is a note made of the insignificant differences between this publication and the 1997 piano score with respect to the dynamic nuances (for example, their distribution with respect to the bar beats). Slips of the pen and inaccuracies in the previous publication are removed without stipulation.