Inconsistent beaming in Bruckner

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Schonbergian
Posts: 252
Joined: 03 Feb 2017, 02:25
Location: Toronto

Inconsistent beaming in Bruckner

Post by Schonbergian »

While perusing a critical edition of Bruckner's Psalm 150, I noticed that several figures in a solo soprano line are beamed in the modern fashion, i.e. with two groups of four eighth notes in 4/4. This is preserving the notation from the manuscript, in fact:
bruckner_1.PNG
bruckner_1.PNG (147.26 KiB) Viewed 3272 times
However, after a few bars, he goes back to the style of beaming he uses throughout the rest of the piece:
bruckner_2.PNG
bruckner_2.PNG (356.49 KiB) Viewed 3272 times
Bruckner was usually extraordinarily meticulous with his scores, so I've been looking for some justification for this, but I haven't been able to find one yet. The phrasing seems identical between the "irregularly" beamed section and a similar passage a few measures later (not in either image) that is beamed as per the era.

Anyone have any ideas what this could be representing?
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John Ruggero
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Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 14:25
Location: Raleigh, NC USA

Re: Inconsistent beaming in Bruckner

Post by John Ruggero »

Judging from the many corrections in the MS in the soprano solo section, some pasted on, it appears that the section was highly modified later. This might have distracted Bruckner and caused the errors.
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