Some Preliminary Remarks about Matanya Ophee's

Open Letter to Paul O'Dette

 See http://www.orphee.com/RMCG/odette.html 

 Beware: Matanya is not always accurate or even truthful. Some of the musical examples are forgeries. It is a self-serving document. After seven sets of proofs, John Ward, the volume editor, okayed the edition for publication.  But Matanya Ophee interfered, and attempted to "correct" Ward's musical text, producing a great many childish mistakes in the musical text. The "Open Letter" is an attempt to shift blame from his shoulders to mine.

 

In the musical examples, I have reproduced the authorised versions from my own computer files, and print-outs provided at the time by Matanya, himself.  I also consulted the original copy used by John M. Ward.

Also see

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepq31c/musexx/index.html

My former teacher at Harvard University John Milton Ward had just published his Music for Elizabethan Lutes and needed to complete its coverage with an edition of lute music by John Johnson (fl. 1540-1574).  In order to have my assistance as one of the General Editors, the publisher Matanya Ophee agreed to initiate a lute series that would be headlined with the second edition of my Lute Works of Francesco Canova da Milano (1497-1543) (Harvard U. Press, 1970).  It had become a very popular work, especially among lutenists and guitarists.  It was the best seller in the Harvard Music Series.

I spent a year learning a professional music engraving program and finished the lute and guitar transcriptions for the Francesco edition. With my edition on his hard disk, Matanya decided that we would have to complete the Johnson edition first.  His explanation in the Open Letter is not accurate, when he writes "Out of respect to our senior statesman of the lute John Milton Ward, we decided to first publish the Johnson book."  That is not true! The Francesco edition was slated to come first for several reasons.  Francesco had become a household name, and his music would be an ideal headliner for the series. The second reason was that we needed publication subvention assistance, and such grants are not given for second or revised edition. But with the Francesco we could show what we could do, and it would be a good example to include in later grant applications to illustrate the quality of our work.

I should have been suspicious of his motives then, but I unwittingly considered him a valued friend.

The Johnson work was a two-year haul. In order that John would have everything as fine tuned as he wished, I graciously provided SEVEN (7) sets of proofs. I could not, and did not, start the guitar transcriptions and the tablature until Ward approved a final musical text (the Seventh Set of Proofs).  I carefully checked everything to assure accuracy in the edition. And a professional lutenist Doug Freundlich was commissioned to check the entire edition to assure everything written was playable on the lute. (It was expected that Matanya would serve as a double check when he fingered the guitar transcriptions, which I would prepare from Ward’s lute transcriptions.)

When it was ready, after those seven sets of proofs, I felt it met the high editorial standards that we wished to set for the series. Alas, it was not to be for very long.

Unbeknownst to us, after he received the final text, Matanya decided to re-write Ward's work. Many of the examples I cite here come from my computer files of that seventh set of proofs, files which John M. Ward authorized for publication. I also have the original copy for the edition.

Matanya created a disaster when he attempted to revise Ward's work. Frequently when changing Ward's musical text, Ophee produced glaring mistakes. And he refused to correct the many  errors, giving bizarre reasons why they were not mistakes.  Four years of hard work were ruined.

The musical examples I provide here are merely a sample of the some thirty pages of mistakes I compiled, after finding out what Matanya had been doing.  We always welcomed his comments because he boasted about his expertise. (It was a lot of hot air, I now realize.) I never expected that he would alter the approved text without telling us. It is now apparent to me, and self-evident from what was done to Ward's work, that he is a virtual musical illiterate. Some of the mistakes he made would shame a five-year-old.

So it was not I who altered Ward's work. The guitar and tablature volumes were derived through computer manipulation directly from Ward's approved musical text. Matanya's allegations that I had "assumed authorship" are absolutely and totally false.  Even some of the musical examples he provides are forgeries.

It is typical MO behavior to accuse an adversary of sins he himself has committed, thereby making it appear that he is innocent.

As I show in the before and after examples quoted on the following pages, Matanya Ophee is the person who had "assumed authorship."

Most apparent are the many mistakes in notation that a conservatory-trained musician would never make. (Click to see About Arthur J. Ness, Ph.D.)  In effect, Matanya had made so many stupid mistakes in "emending" Ward's authorized text, it then looked likethe work of a musical imbecile.  And who would get the blame?  Matanya?  No the person whose name appeared on the cover, John Milton Ward, a distinguished professor emeritus at Harvard University.

Matanya often bragged how he was "one of the world's leading authorities on guitar notation."  As I worked through the guitar, which would be fingered and edited by him, I expected he would lend this expertise to what I was doing in making the guitar transcriptions (directly from the grand staff lute transcriptions that Ward had approved for publication).  But such commentary was not forthcoming, even though I accommodated him by sending the guitar pieces in small batches. Only a preliminary sample, "The Carman's Whistle" elicited some comments.  On October 12, 1993, a year before the edition was completed, he wrote:

Just got back from Poland. . . The Whistle looks great. . . While voice-leading is absolutely clear in your work, reading it becomes rather difficult, particularly for the average guitarist. . . However, it is difficult to come up with generalities.  What I suggest is this: when I receive your files, I will print them out as is, before my editing, and then after editing.  We can then discuss particular matters and you can correct mistakes which I may have committed in my alterations of your input.

The Carman's Whistle is one of Johnson's most complicated pieces, and so reading it on one staff would be difficult for most players, and it is not a piece for beginners. I sent the guitar in small batches so that Matanya could begin editing, and then I could benefit from his advice. Matanya is sadly mistaken, and probably simply fibbing, when he writes: 

. . . the guitar notation was done . . . on the basis of his original [keyboard] input  before this was corrected for unplayability by Ralph <sic> Freundlich.

This is not true. I sent the final, Ward-approved seventh set of proofs off to Matanya on August 5, 1993, and the first guitar transcrptions started to follow only on August 15th.  I had personally entered all of Doug's emendations for "playability" in a much earlier set of proofs.  They had been incorporated  nearly from the beginning, two years earlier. Part of the frustration was having to wait for Ward's final text.  To push ahead with the guitar and tablature volumes would be foolhardy without a settled text.

For example here are some of the batches:

• 08-15-93: G02A thru G08C (pieces 1 thru 8)
• 10-13-93: G09A thru G10A ( 9 through 10)
• 10-15-93: G11A thru G13A (11 through 13)
• 10-25-93: G14A thru G15A (14 through 15)
• 10-26-93: G16A thru G16C (16), et cetera.

I heard not a word until I was nearly finished. Matanya is not being truthful when he writes things like this (Ibid.):

 I am not sure I actually mentioned to Arthur the concept of my "house style," but I gave him precise parameters on how I want the music to look.

He certainly had not provided me with any "parameters," or any kind of advice on notation. And given his claims about expertise in notation, I expected some advice. But none was forthcoming.  And I now know why.  He is a musical illiterate and can barely read music, as the samples I provide demonstrate.  And since I sent the guitar transcriptions in small batches, he had ample opportunity to do so. In fact, in the only comment he called my work "great." 

But I own dozens of editions of lute music arranged for guitar, and am familiar with the standard notational conventions.

I would never have envisioned his eccentric "Odd-man-Out" guitar notation in a million years.  This he unloaded on us, only after I was almost finished with the entire project. Nor would I as editor accept such untried, experimental notation for use in a scholarly edition of lute music by an Elizabethan master.

I heard about "Odd-man-Out" guitar notation only after I received the disastrous bandora pieces.  I was appalled by all the mistakes, and when he refused to correct the errors, I had no choice but to depart.  I could not have my name associated with what became a musically illiterate edition. 

Some of the notation he created is so convoluted that it is unplayable (See (2) Critque: Unplayble Musical Notation).  Because he cannot read music, he didn't realize that what he had written is unintelligible. He had the screwy idea that musical notation "for guitar must be such that reflects the actual sound produced [my emphasis], without being overly pedantic and tedious. [his emphasis]."

I am unaware of how musical notation can be pedantic or tedious.  Matanya's concept of musical notation is absurd. There are accepted ways of notating music, and those standards are recognized universally in the music publishing industry.  All undergraduate conservatory students are aware of the basics of proper musical notation. And standards have been set forth in manuals like the Kurt Stone, Music Notation in the Twentieth Century: A Practical Guidebook (NY: Norton, 1980). And by organizations such as the Music Publishers Association, of which Matanya is a member.

My transcriptions for guitar, made directly from Ward's lute transcriptions, used standard notational practices for polyphonic guitar textures. One professional guitarist-editor looked at a sampling, and declared, "what's the fuss and feathers about?" I was using the same standard guitar polyphonic used in so many editions of lute music for guitar, e.g., Piotr Pozniak (Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne), Eliot Fisk (Ricordi), Jamie Bellizzi (Mel Bay), Brian Jeffery (Oxford), Emilio Pujol (Schott), Heinz Bischoff (Schott), Karl Scheit (Universal), and Daniel Benkö (Editio Musica Budapest). 

Matanya started ranting about how it was impossible to play polyphony on a plucked string instrument.  Accordingly such guitar transcriptions were mere intellectual exercises "which may look good on paper, but not be playable on the ... lute."  This was the subject of the talk with Paul O’Dette, who explained how to play polyphony on guitar, in almost the same language as I had used.  Chris Wilson’s explanation is similar to ours, as well.  Matanya lives in the 19th-century, and holds to the belief that the guitar can only be strummed.  Unbelievable.  I started thinking about John "Rasgueado" Johnson.

And I am unaware of any competent edition that uses anything like Matanya's eccentric "Odd-man-Out" guitar notation.  It is reminiscent of the Schrade method. Only one serious edition used the Schrade notation, the edition of lute pieces by Bartolmiej Piekel (Wydawnictwo Dawnej Muzyki Polskiej, 30), and after a few years, it was withdrawn and the music re-issued in conventional notation, for example. 

When I accepted the position of one of the General Editors, and agreed to make the guitar transcriptions for Ophee to edit, One if my first samples was a guitar transcription using conventional guitar polyphonic notation, used universally these days. And that's what I provided, working directly from the files containing Ward's lute transcriptions.  At no time did Ophee tell me that he wanted Schrade-type guitar notation.  And he wasn't the editor of the series, anyway.  He wasn't going to respect our judgment, then he should have told us to go elsewhere.  He was from the beginning aware of the editorial parameters Ward and I had selected.  And said that he agreed with them.  

The musical examples illustrate how very difficult it is to decipher "Odd-man-Out" guitar notation.  (See especially the section on unplayable notation.  ((2) Critque:  Strato-Bandora)

I should add that Matanya, not Paul O'Dette, initiated the meeting that resulted in the Open Letter. In spite of the somewhat paranoid comments in the first paragraph of his letter, I had had no contact with Paul regarding my difficulties with Ophee.

Thus Matanya's imagination is running loose when he writes (Ibid.), "I am not sure what Arthur have <sic> told you, but it appears that he told you a lot."  I had tried to explain to Matanya how to play polyphony on guitar, and Paul's explanation (which precipitated the violent reaction) was similar to mine. Chris Wilson likewise discusses polyphonic play in much the same way.

Matanya arranged a face-to-face meeting, by prior agreement at an airport while Paul was on tour. Their words became quite intense, and the meeting ended in near fisticuffs.  The Open Letter followed a week later, and frightened Paul's wife when she saw it. It seemed threatening to her.

Accordingly, Matanya is lying when he writes (revised version of letter):  "I received a phone call from Paul O'Dette. ... he would see if he can patch up the differences. ... He asked me to write."

I had not told Paul O'Dette about my difficulties with Matanya.  That we might be talking behind his back is simply his overworked imagination getting the better of him.

I was forced to resign over Matanya's failure to adhere to the editorial parameters we'd agreed upon, and his refusal to correct the "zillions" of mistakes he'd made in the edition when he surreptitiously attempted to "emend" Ward's approved musical text.  I could not lend my name to such an endeavor. Matanya had my revised Francesco da Milano edition on his hard disk, and he brazenly told my attorney that my successor as General Editor would edit my edition for Editions Orphee. When my attorney warned him of copyright laws, someone went to the Copyright Permissions office at Harvard University Press in an attempt to have the copyright transferred to Ophee.

The Open Letter was that from the beginning since he sent a copy to at least one guitar magazine, Soundboard.  (Probably tried Classical Guitar, etc, as well.) It is a self-serving instrument with few truthful statements, designed to shift the burden of blame from his shoulders to mine.  The "before" and "after" examples I quote here speak for themselves.  In two short months he destroyed four years of intense work in collaboration with Masakata Kanazawa, Laurence Berman, John H. Baron, Doug Freundlich, Pat O'Brien, Paul O'Dette, David Dolata, Arthur Ness, and John M. Ward.  All that talent was wasted by a retired airline pilot.