Program Notes

Program Notes
Ted Wilks, Program Annotator

Classic Concert Series
        October 9, 10 and 11, 2009; A Dynamic Duo Performs Brahms,
                                                     Plus Surprise Symphony
            Haydn, Symphony No. 94 "Surprise"
            Schubert, Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"
            Brahms, Double Concerto

        November 13, 14 and 15, 2009; Choral Fantasy
            Beethoven, Choral Fantasy
            Bach, Motet No. 3 "Jesu, Meine Freude"
            Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

        January 15, 16 and 17, 2010; Agony & Ecstasy: Kachaturian and Tchaikovsky
            Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4
        Peter Boyer, New Beginnings
            Khachaturian, Violin Concerto

        February 19, 20, and 21, 2010; Authentic Mozart
            Mozart, Overture to the Opera "Don Giovanni"
            Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21 "Elvira Madigan"
            Mozart, Symphony No. 38 "Prague"
            Mozart, Overture to the Opera Le nozze di Figaro

         April 9, 10 and 11, 2010; Masterworks of Shostakovich & Lalo
            Beethoven, "Leonore" Overture No. 3
            Lalo, "Symphonie espagnole"
            Shostakovich, Symphony No. 9

        May 22, 23 and 24, 2009; Rhapsody & the New World
            Wagner, Overture to the Opera "Rienzi"
            Rachmaninoff, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
            Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"



Spelling Variations for Composers’ Names Originating in Script other than Roman
A personal perspective, by Ted Wilks, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Program Annotator

When they encounter names of composers that were originally written in a script other than Roman, program annotators of orchestras and chamber ensembles, and others who write program notes regularly or occasionally, are faced with the question of how best to spell them. The long list of scripts other than Roman in use around the world includes several major ones – Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, and Korean – as well as many other less well-known ones. Fortunately, perhaps, for those who write program notes, the only one frequently encountered in classical music is Russian.

The list of Russian composers whose names were originally written in Cyrillic script is extensive. While many of these names convert from Cyrillic script into Roman script with little or no room for variations, conversion of a few has resulted, over the years, in spelling variations in Roman script.

A comparison of program notes and other Internet references written in the USA, versus those in England or Europe, rapidly forces readers to conclude that there seem to be no standards for conversion of Russian names from Cyrillic script into Roman script. Each country within the European continent converts Cyrillic-script names in a phonetic manner that best suits its own pronunciation rules. It is harder to account for differences between North-American English and British English. The oft-quoted saying (attributed to either George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde), “England and America are two nations divided by the same language,” is not true when it comes to conversion of some Russian composers’ names!

The most frequently encountered Russian composer’s name, and the one with (at least) four different spellings, is Rachmaninoff (USA), spelled Rachmaninov in Canada, Britain, and some European countries, and Rachmaninow in Germany, while the 1965 and 1980 editions of Grove’s Dictionary¹ spell it Rakhmaninov. Why do these differences exist?

Grove’s Dictionary, the most prestigious musical encyclopedia in the world, presumably adopted the spelling Rakhmaninov for its fourth and fifth editions because it is closest to the name in its original Cyrillic script, Рахманинов, but the current online edition has two entries, with two different spellings.² In Britain, Canada, Germany, and Holland, for example, the spelling Rachmaninov is used; whoever decided to convert the Cyrillic “x” into “ch”, rather than “kh”, started a trend that continues on both sides of the Atlantic. Retention of the final “v”, as opposed to an “ff” ending, is presumably an attempt to adhere reasonably closely to the Cyrillic original, and it raises the issue of when to use “voiced” consonants versus their “voiceless” equivalents, which is a feature of many languages, though not English. Suffice it here to say that a final “v” in Russian words is pronounced as an “f”.

The US spelling varied appreciably during the 20th century. Thus, Upton³ spelled it Rachmaninov, whereas both Goepp⁴ and Borowski⁵ both spelled it Rachmaninow. By the 1950s, the spelling seems to have been standardized to Rachmaninoff; the final “–ff” was presumably adopted so that readers would pronounce the name with a final voiceless “f” sound.

The conclusion is that there is no absolute “standard” or correct spelling for the conversion of Russian names such as РАXМАНИНОВ, and readers can expect to encounter spelling variations of this and other Russian composers’ names for the forseeable future. Here are some other examples found in Grove and on the Internet:

Лядов: Lyadov (Grove); Liadov (Grove, Canada, Britain); Liadoff (US).

Last updated Monday, March 01, 2010; 11:08:26 AM
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