The Scores of " La Fille Mal Garde@2e " .sx =2- HEROLD'S SCORE .sx JOHN LANCHBERY and IVOR GUEST .sx THE score for the 1828 revival of La Fille mal Garde@2e at the Paris Ope@2ra was described on the playbills for the first performance ( see Fig. 1 ) as being " newly arranged by M. " .sx Presumably , when the question arose of producing this long-popular ballet at the Ope@2ra , the original music , which still accompanied performances of it at the Porte-Saint-Martin and other theatres , was considered too light .sx The chorus-master , Ferdinand Herold ( 1791-1833 ) , who had already composed the music for three ballets , was accordingly given the task of refurbishing the score .sx Since the ballet was no doubt too well-known for the original music to be discarded altogether , several of the best numbers were retained , but Herold wrote a considerable amount of new music and inserted several numbers borrowed from familiar sources .sx Borrowings of this kind were common in ballet composition at this time .sx The ballet composer regarded his task as part of his day's work rather than as a serious artistic creation , and this practice greatly lightened his burden .sx It was also considered that the interpolation of a melody which the public would associate with the line of a song appropriate to the action it accompanied was an aid to understanding the situation .sx Our knowledge of Herold's music for La Fille mal Garde@2e is based on the full score preserved in the Library of the Paris Ope@2ra , which was used by John Lanchbery as the principal source in arranging the music played today for the Royal Ballet .sx This score is too clean to be the score used by the conductor , and it was probably the fair-copy prepared by one of the Ope@2ra's copyists from Herold's original draft and perhaps used as the master for copying the orchestral parts .sx It bears the inscription :sx La Fille mal Garde@2e / Ballet en 2 actes / de Dauberval / mis en scene par Mr Aumer , musique / nouvellement arrange@2e par Mr Herold / represente@2 sur le the@2a@5tre de l'acade@2mie / Royale de musique le lundi 8 de@2cembre / 1828 .sx Why the score bears this date , which is that of the seventh performance , instead of the date of the first performance , November 17th , 1828 is a mystery .sx Did Herold only have part of his score completed by November 17th , the complete revised score not being ready until December 8th ?sx As is to be expected , the score is written for a typical orchestra of the period .sx The music is mostly scored for two flutes , the second usually playing piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two pairs of horns , and strings .sx For the number " Pas de Mr Albert " in Act =1 ( No .sx 17 ) , however , the orchestra is augmented by harp , trumpets , trombones , drums and percussion ( triangle , bass drum and cymbals ) , while the Finales to Act =2 ( Nos .sx 36 and 36a ) and an occasional number here and there have parts written for trumpets , trombones and drums .sx Further , there are various places in the score where trombones and/or drums have been added in another hand in a stave at the bottom of the page .sx Judging from the orchestration , which is markedly inferior to that of Herold's operas , his score of La Fille mal Garde@2e was hurriedly composed , and this perhaps lends support to the conjecture made earlier that it may not have been quite finished in time for the first performance .sx In it the strings play throughout , resting for only ten out of the thousands of bars in this hour and a half of music .sx Many of the numbers display great economy of effort by doubling some instruments with others , a common practice of that period .sx This method of scoring , of course , made it possible to orchestrate a number in a fraction of the time that would be needed in ballet-composing today , although it is still very much in use in the field of commercial arrangement .sx An example of this is to be found on page 381 of the full score ( see Fig. 2) .sx Reading from the top , the first two staves are the horns ; then follow two staves for the oboes , which double the violins ; the next two staves are the bassoons , which double the cellos ; then come the first and second violins , the violas which also double the cellos , the cellos , and finally the double basses which again double the cellos .sx Thus , in eleven separate staves , there are only five different voices .sx Herold made no attempt to produce a modernized version of the score in the way that Hertel was to do in 1864 .sx He retained a considerable amount of folky music in the Bordeaux score , to which he added numbers of his own composition with an essentially French melodic content , and several borrowings which one must allow are excellently suited for their purpose .sx In fact , from the point of view of orchestration , the borrowed numbers , in which the orchestration has been left unchanged , are among the most effective parts of the score .sx Herold fulfilled his task in a much more self-effacing and effective way than Hertel .sx Herold's numbers are generally longer and more developed than the equivalent numbers of the Bordeaux score , but his score has less continuity than the original , in which one number occasionally runs into the next without pause .sx Herold gave the music greater characterization , wisely retaining note for note one or two of the more pointed numbers in the Bordeaux score :sx an outstanding example of this is the spinning number in Act =2 , retained by Herold , but discarded by Hertel in favour of a much less suitable number of his own composition .sx This greater characterization which Herold injected into the score was marked by a much more heightened dramatic content in the music .sx In Herold's score there is a stronger predilection for 6/8 than in the Bordeaux score , where the preference is for fast 2/4 .sx As was the case with the Bordeaux version , there is a frustrating lack of " landmarks " in the Herold score .sx Our only aids in fitting the music to the scenario are the division of the score into the two acts and a few written indications :sx " lever du rideau " in Act =1 , Scene =1 ; " Pas des " , " Pas de Mr " , " Apre@3s le divertissement " and " Orage " as titles to four numbers in Act =1 , Scene =2 ; and " Finale " as the only title indication in the whole of Act =2 .sx Again , as with the Bordeaux score , it is much easier to wed the music to the action in Act =2 than either scene of Act =1 , the second scene of which is particularly difficult because of two weaknesses inherent in the score as a whole :sx a lack of any kind of thematic continuity , and the absence of obvious mime scenes .sx It would have been difficult to write an overture which better set the scene than the number which Herold borrowed ( No .sx 1) .sx This was the overture from Giovanni Paolo Martini's comic opera Le Droit du Seigneur , in which it serves to describe a French countryside scene at dawn .sx This was the very atmosphere needed for the opening of La Fille mal Garde@2e , and Herold therefore inserted it down to the last note of scoring , with its bird calls imitated on the woodwind , and the slow legato melody played by the first violins against a monotonous Alberti type of accompaniment from the second violins .sx The curtain having risen during No .sx 1 , there follows ( No .sx 2 ) another borrowing for Lise's entrance :sx the opening chorus from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia " 6Piano , " ) chosen no doubt to illustrate an entrance on tip-toe so that Lise's mother will not be awakened .sx The orchestration has not been touched , and no attempt has been made to supply the chorus parts of the original , which are of no musical content any way .sx At one point , however , where sufficient music has been supplied for the purpose , there is an abrupt termination , followed by a three-bar link of the most primitive kind to give some kind of continuity .sx Nos .sx 3 and 4 have their equivalent in Bordeaux No .sx 3 .sx The former is a very long allegretto number in 6/8 , intended undoubtedly to accompany Colas's entrance with the harvesters .sx So far the music has been growing progressively louder :sx No .sx 2 brought in two trumpets , and No .sx 4- a short , loud , dramatic and fast-moving number , presumably for Simone's entrance- introduces three trombones , and is scored throughout with every instrument playing except drums , and marked fortissimo .sx No .sx 5 , to which Colas discovers Lise's ribbon , is identical with Bordeaux No .sx 4 , but transposed down a tone to make it fit .sx For No .sx 6 , which closely approximates Bordeaux No .sx 5 , Herold has composed a new tune which follows the original to the extent of having not only the same time signature but even the same note values .sx By present-day standards , this is rather feeble music for the scene which it probably accompanies , Simone telling Colas to be off .sx Herold also wrote a new number ( No .sx 7 ) for the entrance of the villagers , with the same time signature and speed as Bordeaux No .sx 6 .sx After a marking " plus " , there is a sudden silent bar , followed by four soft chords and a loud chord played in a slow tempo , serving as a link to No .sx 8 , which is exactly the same as Bordeaux No .sx 7 with a few bars of tasteful coda added at the end .sx This latter number is scored for strings alone , trumpets and trombones having been silent since No .sx 4 .sx Not surprisingly , No .sx 9 , the " playing at horses " number , used most probably for the lovers' meeting , is precisely the same as Bordeaux No .sx 8 , even to the extent of reproducing a bowing indication- a great rarity in the Herold score .sx At the end of this number there is a pencilled sign which is still used today by some continental conductors to indicate the imminent entrance of drums .sx Drums do indeed appear in the first bar of No .sx 10 , a jolly 6/8 tune which in its context must be a continuation of the love scene .sx It is of considerable length , and its lilt suggests a flirtation with coy and playful exchanges .sx Its counterpart in the Bordeaux score was cut considerably .sx At the end , however , there is no distant echo of the melody heralding the approach of the village girls , as in the original , but instead , the following number ( No .sx 11 ) , which follows straight on without a break , opens with a sudden sforzando chord .sx This is a surprisingly effective piece of orchestration :sx a chord of the diminished seventh with three trombones high up and close together and two oboes and two clarinets in their low reedy register , while all the strings play tremolo .sx This number , written for Colas's flight , begins in a bustling manner and then eases off in a relaxation of the tension .sx No .sx 12 , a folky number in 6/8 written in simple four-part harmony , with flutes strengthening the tune , accompanies the entrance of the village girls who urge Lise to accompany them to the harvest .sx Simone then appears to prevent Lise's departure to No .sx 13 , in which her anger is depicted by a striking piece of dramatic scoring for strings only , in which much play is made of unison , fast-moving phrases in the minor , syncopation , quick scales , crushed notes , and a strong dotted rhythm .sx The final number of the first scene , No .sx 14 , introduces Thomas and his half-witted son Alain , whom Simone plans to marry to her daughter .sx A loud , majestic , march-like theme is undoubtedly the accompaniment for the entrance of father and son .sx Then follows an effective passage of soft staccato minor chords on strings and clarinets only , which is probably the theme for the stumbling Alain .sx A return to the major , with a joyous , animated 6/8 theme , and with Alain's theme repeated , ends the scene with the proposed marriage arranged and the departure of everyone to the harvest .sx The absence of a clear break in the score at this point is undoubtedly explained by the next number ( No .sx 15 ) being intended to accompany a changement a@3 vue to the harvest scene .sx