137
Prejeto / received: 9. 1. 2022. Odobreno / accepted: 1. 8. 2022.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, DOI: 10.3986/dmd19.2.07
THE “AUTHENTICITY” OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF 
MISSING PARTS?
SOME REFLECTIONS ON A MISPLACED PROBLEM
MARINA TOFFETTI
Università degli studi di Padova
Izvleček: Trdili bi lahko, da ob poslušanju glas-
benega dela, ki ni popolnoma ohranjeno in je 
kak glas uredniško dodan, ne dobimo prave 
oziroma avtentične slike o skladatelju. A po 
drugi strani v primeru, da nepopolno ohranjene 
skladbe ignoriramo in jih sploh ne izvajamo, o 
skladatelju ne dobimo nobenega vtisa. Razprava 
obravnava vprašanje in upravičenost kritične 
uredniške rekonstrukcije večglasnih glasbenih 
del z enim ali več manjkajočimi glasovi s filo-
zofskega, filološkega in praktičnega vidika ter 
vzpostavlja nekatera temeljna merila za spre-
jemljive končne izdelke.
Ključne besede: avtentičnost, rekonstrukcija 
manjkajočih delov, kritična izdaja, glasbena 
analiza, emendatio
Abstract: Some would argue that the idea we 
get of a composer by listening to his incomplete 
music in which a voice has been reconstructed 
is not “authentic”. But the idea we can get of 
him by ignoring his incomplete compositions 
altogether, as if they never existed, is much less 
“authentic”. The article examines the issue and 
validity of the reconstruction of polyphonic music 
with one or more missing parts in critical editions 
from a philosophical, philological and practical 
point of view and establishes some criteria for 
the acceptability of the results.
Keywords: authenticity, reconstruction of 
missing parts, critical edition, music analysis, 
emendatio
As is well known, many collections of polyphonic music published in separate partbooks 
have been preserved in an incomplete state because of the loss of some voices. In the present 
state of knowledge it is not easy to quantify them. The results of some surveys of limited 
periods or portions of the repertoire may prove useful for gaining an idea of their extent.
1
The fate of incomplete collections is mostly that of being forgotten (indeed, they are 
neither published, nor studied nor performed); however, in some cases, the missing parts 
have been reassembled in such a way as to make them performable again. Although the 
relevance of such operations is unquestionable, they may raise some doubts about the 
authenticity of their results. This article will address that issue by showing the elements 
1 
In the current state of research it is not easy to quantify the polyphonic collections published 
in separate parts that have come down to us incomplete. To gain an idea of the percentage of 
incomplete as opposed to complete collections, the results of some surveys conducted on limited 
periods or portions of the repertoire are useful. See Toffetti and Taschetti, “In Search of the Lost 
Voice”; Cassia, “Bembo’s Soundscape”.

De musica disserenda XIX/2 • 2023
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of its complexity, examining the criterion of authenticity as applied to music editing, and 
questioning the appropriateness of its use when dealing with the restitution of lacunae 
and the recomposition of missing parts.
The custom of adapting music for practical purposes has been widespread among 
musicians for centuries. Performers have always made adjustments to compositions, 
recomposed parts that do not “work” or introduced adaptations to the musical text with 
the simple aim of being able to perform them more comfortably in concert. Most of the 
time, this is done without any declaration and without asking anyone’s permission.
In the early seventeenth century many composers were at the same time maestri di 
cappella and/or organists, musicians or cantors, so that the line between composition and 
performance was less clear than it is today. Not only did musicians of the time have no 
need to ask permission from composers to adapt their music to the concrete circumstances 
of performance, but they often also had the latters’ explicit blessing.
Let us consider, for example, what Giovanni Ghizzolo suggests to performers in the 
“Avvertimenti alli cantori et organisti” (Notes to Singers and Organists) appended to his 
Opus 15, Messa, salmi, lettanie B. V., falsi bordoni et Gloria Patri concertati a cinque o 
nove voci, published in Venice in 1619:
2
2 
“AVVERTIMENTI DELL’ AUTHORE ALLI CANTORI, ET ORGANISTI. Per voler in parte 
sodisfare al giuditioso gusto, che le persone di questa nostra età ricercano nelle compositioni, 
non mi è parso fuor di proposito voler concertare in tal maniera questa mia opera, che insieme 
havendo del vago conservi anco il grave, o vogliamo dire, secondo il modo di parlare d’alcuni 
ritenghi la debita maniera dell’arte; in oltre che dove sarà copia di voci possi cantare a nove, 
dove penuria a cinque; e dove copia d’instrumenti in parte servi per sinfonia; et acciò in questa 
varietà tanto li cantori, quanto li organisti habbino facilità, mi è parso brevemente qui accennare 
alcuni avvertimenti. Primo è, che quest’opera si puol cantare a cinque voci servendosi in ciò li 
cantori solo del primo choro, sì che come di sopra dicevo, la sudetta opera potrà servire anco 
dove penuria di cantori. Secondo è che volendo li cantori servirsi di quest’opera anco per far 
più gran corpo di musica, potranno cantare a nove, o pure volendo dar sodisfattione particolare 
con l’istrumenti all’auditori, potrano servirsi del secondo choro per sinfonia, sì che secondo la 
necessità, et occorrenza, in varie guise potranno concertare. Terzo è, che ho voluto ancora, per 
più commodità delle capelle, o musiche, che del continuo si fanno, concertar talmente la sudetta 
opera, che la quinta parte, quale è un canto, si possi anco cantare in tenore, havendo in ciò riguardo 
alla penuria de’ soprani, et alla copia de’ tenori. Quarto è che li organisti, per haver più facilità 
nel mettere, o levare li registri, secondo il bisogno, potranno riguardare all’infrascritti segni, 
e primieramente dove troveranno questa parola FORTE tutta distesa, sarà inditio, che entri il 
secondo choro, et si facci ripieno: ma quando troveranno la sola lettera F. sarà segno, che entri 
il secondo choro, ma senza ripieno, e quando si troverà la parola PIANO, sarà segno che cessi il 
secondo choro, e canti solo [il] primo. Quinto è che ritrovandosi l’infrascritte lettere C. A. Q. T. 
B. sarà segno, che sotto a dette lettere entrino le parti, o del canto, alto, quinto, sì che, secondo 
la necessità di più o meno organo per il concerto, potranno l’organisti porre più o meno registri 
conforme al bisogno. Ultimo è che niuno deve così in un subito meravigliarsi, se sonando gli 
paressi di sentire o doi quinte, [o] doi ottave con il basso continuo dell’organo, et imparticolare 
nella quinta parte; poiché potendosi ella (come ho già detto) trasportare all’ottava bassa in tenore 
molte volte avverrà, che dall’acuto descendi in grave sotto il basso, ma ciò io ho fatto per più 
facilità de’ sonatori, come ogn’uno da se stesso potrà giudicare. E questo è quanto m’occorre 
brevemente d’avertire”. Ghizzolo, Messa, salmi, lettanie, RISM A/I G 1790.

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Marina Toffetti: The “Authenticity” of the Reconstruction of Missing Parts?
1. […] this work can be sung with five voices, using the singers only from the first 
choir for this, so that […] it can also be used where [there is] a shortage of singers;
2. if the singers wish to use this work to create a larger “body” of music, they can sing 
with nine [voices], or if they want to give the listeners particular satisfaction with 
the instruments, they can use the second choir as a symphony;
3. I wanted […] to put together the afore-mentioned work in such a way that the fifth 
part, which is a canto, can also be sung as a tenor, taking into account the shortage 
of sopranos and the abundance of tenors;
4. the organists, to make it easier to open or close the stops […], will be able to look 
at the following signs, and first, where they find this word FORTE written in full, it 
will be an indication that the second choir enters complete with ripieno: but when 
they find only the letter F. it will denote that the second choir enters, but without 
ripieno, and when the word PIANO is found, it will be a sign that the second choir 
ceases and only [the] first sings;
5. the appearance of the following letters, C. A. Q. T. B., will be a sign that the parts of 
the canto, the alto or the fifth [voice] enter under these letters, so that, according to 
the need for more or less organ for the concerto, the organists will be able to employ 
a greater or lesser number of stops;
6. no one should […] be surprised if, while playing, he seems to hear two fifths [or] two 
octaves with the basso continuo of the organ, and in particular in the fifth part; since 
this can […] be transposed to the low octave in the tenor; many times will it happen 
that it descends from the high to the low below the bass, but I did this for the ease of 
the players, as everyone will be able to judge for himself.
3
Hence Ghizzolo on the one hand presupposes, and on the other hand encourages, an 
active approach on the part of the maestro concertatore or organist, arranging his collec -
tion so that it can be performed in at least six different ways: for five voices (singing only 
the parts of the first choir) or for nine voices (singing the parts of both choirs); entrusting 
the second choir to either voices or instruments; and singing the soprano part normally 
or transposing it to the lower octave to be taken by the tenor.
In cases such as this, the different modes of arrangement were explicitly suggested 
by the composer himself (something that would also have facilitated the sale and diffusion 
of his musical edition, making it adaptable to cappelle of different sizes). It is probable, 
however, that during the same period the performers were accustomed to similar adaptations, 
dictated by the size of the musical ensemble (the number of singers and instrumentalists) 
actually available, and therefore also prepared to make small interventions in the music 
(such as transposing a part and adding or removing one or more voices, even an entire 
choir). In principle, then, it should not be a problem if a modern musician or the editor of 
a modern edition contributes to making music performable, should it no longer be so on 
3 
English translation by the author.

De musica disserenda XIX/2 • 2023
140
account of the loss of a partbook: what would a composer of the time have done if he had 
found himself in the same situation?
In a critical edition the modern editor’s task is to retain as far as possible everything 
that was fixed, but to refrain from fixing what was not, and to provide modern performers 
with all the necessary information to be able to perform the compositions of the period 
as performers of their time would have rendered them.
As we have seen, however, the compositions published in separate parts that have 
come down to us incomplete have mostly fallen into oblivion. Only in a few cases have 
incomplete compositions undergone an “integrative restoration” that has made it possible 
to restore them to modern listeners. This has led to the publication of musical editions 
that include a hypothetical reconstruction of the missing part, such as has occurred for 
the madrigals of Giovanni de Macque
4
 and Giulio Schiavetti,
5
 the motets of Gesualdo,
6
 
Frescobaldi’s sacred concertos,
7
 Biagio Marini’s music for vespers,
8
 Giulio Cesare 
Ardemanio’s “Pastorale”
9
 and many other works – not to mention the numerous individual 
compositions included in academic books and articles
10
 or the online collaborative edi-
tions of re-composed music.
11
In most cases these re-composed editions have brought with them the modern “world 
premiere” and the first modern recording of the recently restored music – as has happened, 
for instance, with Gesualdo’s motets and Frescobaldi’s sacred concertos.
4 
Macque, Il terzo libro de’ madrigali.
5 
Skjavetić, Vokalne skladbe.
6 
Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones (2013). Previous editions without reconstruction of the missing 
part: Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones (1961); Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones (1982); Gesualdo, Sacrae 
cantiones (1990).
7 
Frescobaldi, Liber secundus diversarum modulationum (2014); on this critical edition see Toffetti, 
“Restoring a Masterpiece”.
8 
Marini, Music for Vespers.
9 
Ardemanio, Musica a più voci (2012).
10 
Among the many cases that could be cited are the articles by Levitan, “Adrian Willaert’s Famous 
Duo”; Grenfell Davies, “Wilaert’s Quid non ebrietas” ( analysis of the alleged duo of Willaert); 
Lowinsky, “Adrian Willaert’s Chromatic ‘Duo’ Re-examined” (reconstruction of two parts out of four 
in Adrian Willaert’s “Quid non ebrietas”); Luisi, “Il Liber secundus diversarum modulationum” 
(reconstruction of the Altus voice in Girolamo Frescobaldi’s motets “Ego clamavi” and “Iesu f los 
Mater virginis”); Jasiński, “‘Christus iam surrexit’”; Toffetti, “Note a margine” (recoposition 
of 2 voices in Marenzio’s motet “Laudate Dominum”). Previous edition without reconstruction 
of missing part in Marenzio, Opera omnia.
11 
The Italian Madrigal Resource Center, “Madrigals Minus 1” (Project Director: Martin 
Morell), accessed 27 December 2021, http://italianmadrigal.com/members/minus.php; The 
Lost Voices Project: Companion Resource to Les Livres de Chansons Nouvelles de Nicolas 
Du Chemin (1549–1568) (Project Director: Richard Freedman), accessed 27 December 2021,  
www.digitalduchemin.org; Gesualdo Online (Project Director: Philippe Vendrix), accessed 
27 December 2021, https://ricercar.gesualdo-online.cesr.univ-tours.fr; Tudor Partbooks, 
“Digitizing, Restoring, Reconstructing and Analysing Tudor Polyphonic Music Manuscripts” 
(project led by Magnus Williamson and Julia Craig-McFeely), accessed 27 December 2021,  
http://www.tudorpartbooks.ac.uk; The Orgelbüchlein Project (Academic Advisor: John Scott 
Whiteley), accessed 27 December 2021, http://www.orgelbuechlein.co.uk.

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Marina Toffetti: The “Authenticity” of the Reconstruction of Missing Parts?
The case of Gesualdo is well known: in 1956 Igor Stravinsky re-composed the 
missing parts of three motets from Gesualdo’s Sacrarum cantionum liber primus for 
six and seven voices
12
 – “Illumina nos misericordiarum Deus” (1957), “Da pacem” and 
“Assumpta es Maria” (1959) – albeit using far-from-historical stylistic criteria.
13
 Thanks 
to his re-compositions, these motets have been performed and recorded on several LPs  
and CDs (including one by Robert Craft).
14
 More recently, a group of Dutch composers 
reconstructed the missing parts of all twenty-two motets in the collection,
15
 and two more 
CDs were recorded, of which the first is based on the reconstruction of James Wood
16
 
and the second on that of Marc Busnel.
17
 Thanks to these recordings, it is now evident 
that Gesualdo, hitherto regarded as one of the greatest madrigal composers of the late 
Renaissance, actually composed some equally interesting motets.
The same is true of Girolamo Frescobaldi, (rightly) regarded as “one of the greatest 
keyboard composers of the first half of the seventeenth century”,
18
 whose vocal music 
was long considered of minor interest. We know that Frescobaldi also composed two 
collections of sacred music: but the first has been lost, and the second has come down to 
us incomplete and accordingly has been forgotten for centuries.
A few decades ago, however, two editions of Frescobaldi’s motets from the Liber 
secundus were published that included only the complete motets,
19
 later recorded on a 
CD.
20
 Following the publication of a new edition containing both the complete and the 
incomplete motets (together with the recomposition of the missing part),
21
 a new CD that 
also includes some of the reconstructed motets was recorded.
22
While the historical and musical interest of such reconstructions – thanks to which 
we can finally listen to forgotten music again after centuries – is plain to see, these 
same operations could possibly raise some perplexities: after all, there is always the 
risk that they lead us to listen to music that never existed or to take for authentic music 
12 
Gesualdo, Sacrarum cantionum liber primus (1603). RISM A/I G 1719.
13 
Gesualdo, Illumina nos; Gesualdo, Tres sacrae cantiones. On the reception of Gesualdo’s music 
in the twentieth century, see Turba, “La recezione novecentesca di Gesualdo”.
14 
Gesualdo, Madrigali et Sacrae cantiones; Gesualdo, Madrigali & Sacrae cantiones; Gesualdo, 
Responsoria, Sacrae cantiones; Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones (1971).
15 
A collective project involved three contemporary Dutch composers (Henri Broeren, Theo Verbey 
and Joop Voorn) for the reconstruction of the missing parts and the Cappella Gabrieli ensemble of 
Rotterdam, conducted by Maarten Michielsen, for the performance. The copyrighted completions 
were added to Peter Hilton’s transcription, resulting in several performances by the Cappella 
Gabrieli held between 2005 and 2013 in various European cities (Berlin, Rotterdam, Den Haag, 
Utrecht, Haarlem and Ouderkerk). On the reception and the modern reconstruction projects 
of the missing parts of this collection by Gesualdo, see Toffetti, “La ricezione della musica di 
Gesualdo”.
16 
Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones liber secundus.
17 
Gesualdo, Sacrae cantiones (2015).
18 
Hammond and Silbiger, “Frescobaldi”, 238.
19 
Frescobaldi, Mottetti a 2 e 3 voci; Frescobaldi, Mottetti a 1, 2 e 3 voci.
20 
Frescobaldi, Intergrale dei mottetti.
21 
Frescobaldi, Liber secundus diversarum modulationum (2014).
22 
Frescobaldi, Organ Works and Motets.

De musica disserenda XIX/2 • 2023
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what is not. But is it anyway appropriate to apply the concept of authenticity to such an  
operation?
The concept of authenticity in music has long been applied to performance, giving 
rise to a debate, especially since the 1980s, that has lasted for decades.
23
 Today it is gener -
ally believed that many of these misunderstandings have arisen from the inappropriate 
use of this concept.
24
Similarly, the objection that the result of reconstructing the missing parts would not 
be authentic is equally misleading. The results of a reconstruction cannot be proved like a 
theorem. Within a critical edition the reconstruction procedures relate to the amendment 
operations. Like any other field of philology, musical philology is not a demonstrative 
science but a historical discipline whose object is the history of a text (of a musical text), 
and the historical truth is not demonstrable but must be acceptable.
The theory of argumentation, as defined by Norberto Bobbio, is a logical system 
that does not deal with demonstrations (with steps governed by the principle of neces-
sity), but with non-demonstrative proofs, whose aim is to identify acceptable truths and 
then make preferable decisions
25
 – and this is exactly what we do when we reconstruct a 
missing part: we look for acceptable solutions and then discuss which one is preferable. 
The concept of historical truth is built through a quantitative determination of opposing 
probabilities. Even in the case of a hypothesis for the reconstruction of a missing part, 
it will therefore be necessary to ascertain whether there are no different solutions more 
convincing than the one proposed.
Of course, the very concept of “acceptability” implies an addressee, who must be 
persuaded by the arguments presented and the way they are presented to accept the con-
clusions to which the argument leads (and in our case the argument is the critical edition 
itself). Given the pioneering nature of reconstruction practice, the fact that the result of 
reconstruction is not accepted may sometimes arise from a lack of competence (that is, 
philological and analytical competence) of the recipients rather than the re-composer.
What is more, every operation of emendatio involves margins of opinion and is the 
result of a hypothesis, as such not verifiable. The objection of resting on epistemologi-
cal foundations that are not sufficiently solid, of mixing original and non-original parts 
(those that have been emended or reconstructed), and of returning an overall inauthentic 
composition could be applied to all critical editions that involve processes of emendatio. 
Who is it that has the authority to determine what degree of certainty is sufficient to 
legitimize an operation of textual criticism? So the reconstruction of one or more missing 
23 
See, among others, Dreyfus, “Early Music”; Kenyon, Authenticity and Early Music; Kivy, 
Authenticities.
24 
For a broad reflection (in Italian) on this issue, see Nattiez, “Interpretazione e autenticità” 
(and related bibliography), which summarizes the main themes of the debate on the concept of 
“authenticity of interpretation”. On the concept of authenticity in music, see also Toffetti, “Dalla 
musica ficta alla fake music”.
25 
See, for example, Bobbio, “Pareto e la teoria dell’argomentazione”. “While in the logical-exper-
imental discourse the conclusion comes after, as a necessary consequence of the premises, in 
the derivations the conclusion is presupposed, and the argumentative procedure does not serve 
to demonstrate it, but to make it plausible, to make it accepted”.

143
Marina Toffetti: The “Authenticity” of the Reconstruction of Missing Parts?
parts differs, if at all, only quantitatively, not qualitatively, from any other emendatio  
intervention.
Let us take one example. Of Ruggiero Giovannelli’s Mass Iste est qui ante Deum 
there remains only a very damaged and partly illegible manuscript from the musical 
archive of the Chiesa Nuova, drawn up for the use of Santa Maria della Vallicella, seat of 
the Congregation of the Oratorio dei Filippini, and preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale 
Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II of Rome (I-Rn).
26
 In the Kyrie from this Mass, on account 
of some gaps, there are certain bicinia that are clearly illegible in the partbook. The recon-
structions proposed by Paolo Teodori as editor of the critical edition are appropriately 
placed in square brackets (see Music example 1).
Music example 1
Ruggiero Giovannelli, Mass Iste est qui ante Deum, Kyrie, bb. 70–75.
These are relatively short passages, and no one would dream of questioning Paolo 
Teodori’s edition because of these fragments reconstructed on a hypothetical basis (on the 
contrary, the editor will be given credit for having proposed a hypothetical reconstruction).
Something similar happens in Marc’Antonio Ingegneri’s collection of hymns (1606),
27
 
where in one hymn the tenor part is missing, while two other hymns are only partially 
incomplete, since the tenor part is missing only in certain portions: again, the editor of the 
critical edition (i.e. the writer) has proposed an integrative hypothesis in the incomplete 
and two of the partially incomplete hymns, employing smaller type to distinguish the 
reconstructed part and using italics for the added text (see Music example 2).
28
26 
See Giovannelli, Composizioni sacre.
27 
Ingegneri, Liber secundus hymnorum.
28 
Ingegneri, Inni a 4 voci.

De musica disserenda XIX/2 • 2023
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Music example 2
Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, “Veni creator Spiritus”, bb. 1–6.
Another, similar case is that of Enrico Radesca di Foggia’s Thesoro amoroso,
29
 
in which five compositions of the twenty-one in the collection have reached us with-
out the upper voice because of a lacuna in the canto partbook,
30
 while the remaining 
compositions have come down to us complete. In the five incomplete compositions, the 
editor of the critical edition has provided a hypothetical reconstruction of the missing  
part.
31
Let us now consider what happens when an entire partbook is lost. Of the Secondo 
libro delle divine lodi by Giovanni Battista Riccio, for example, four out of the five part -
books have survived, while the tenor partbook is lost.
32
Can we conclude that this collection is eighty percent complete? No. Upon closer 
examination and considering the actual distribution of the parts within the fascicles of 
the voices, we realize that, out of a total of twenty-eight compositions, only seven are 
incomplete (two for three voices
33
 and five for four voices and bc):
34
 therefore seventy-five 
percent of the compositions are complete, while only twenty-five percent are incomplete. 
Nevertheless, this collection, like many similar ones, fell into oblivion for over four centu-
ries because just one of the partbooks was lost: the entire collection was wrongly treated 
as incomplete, whereas three-quarters of the compositions it contains are actually one 
hundred percent complete and therefore performable in the normal way.
29 
Radesca, Thesoro amoroso (1599). RISM A/I R 12.
30 
See “Benché Barbara sia”, “Dove s’intese mai”, “O tu che tieni sì capelli d’oro”, “Quest’è quel 
chiaro giorno”, “Dunque gentili spirti”.
31 
Radesca, Thesoro amoroso (2002).
32 
Riccio, Il secondo libro (1614). RISM A/I R 1284. Critical edition: Riccio, Il secondo libro (2022).
33 
“Ave Domine” and “Dilectus meus”.
34 
“Hic est panis”, “Ego sum panis” and “Exultat Maria”, in addition to the two instrumental 
compositions (the “Sonata a 4” and the “Canzon a 4”).

145
Marina Toffetti: The “Authenticity” of the Reconstruction of Missing Parts?
Moreover, within each incomplete composition, there are sections that can be 
reconstructed with very reliable results, even if some others pose more difficult  
problems. Take, for example, Riccio’s four-voice instrumental canzona, which lacks 
the second of the two upper parts. Within it there are “echo” sections in which a recon-
struction of the missing voice has a very high probability of corresponding to the ori-
ginal (see Music example 3, bars 1–8), while in other imitative sections one solution is 
much more convincing than all the others, even though the others are not so bad; and 
in some block-chordal sections several convincing solutions can be proposed without 
there being any good reason to prefer one to the other (see Music example 3, bars 9–10). 
Music example 3
Giovanni Battista Riccio, “Canzona”, bb. 1–10.
When reconstructing a missing part, one realizes that some portions of the recon-
struction have a very high degree of reliability, while others involve a greater number 
of solutions that seem equally plausible. To indicate to the eye this variable degree of 
reliability, one can if desired highlight different portions of the score by using different 
colours (or a different grey scale) according to the degree of reliability of the reconstruc-
tion (see Music example 3).
This method of highlighting portions of the score according to the reliability of 
the reconstruction presents some similarities to the theory and methodology of “virtual 
archaeology”, a set of computer-based visualization practices employed at least since 
the 1980s to mark hypothetical reconstruction. Today these practices are conceived not 
only as publicly acknowledged fiction but also as scientific tools that can lead to a deeper 
understanding of the very process of reconstruction.
35
 In the methodology of the so-called 
EM (Extended Matrix), portions of the restoration related to different virtual stratigraphic 
units are displayed using different colours.
36
35 
Ferdani et al., “3D Modelling and Visualization”, 1–2.
36 
Demetrescu, “Virtual Reconstruction”. See the activity of the VHLab (Virtual Heritage Laboratory) 
of the CNR-ISPC in Rome. The “virtual stratigraphic units” are intended to represent the recon -
structive process graphically in order to make it legible and transparent.

De musica disserenda XIX/2 • 2023
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Let us now imagine that the tenor part of Riccio’s Il secondo libro delle divine lodi 
had been preserved with just some small lacunae. In that case, the editor would have 
found himself, as often happens and without anyone complaining, having to reconstruct 
only a couple of bars corresponding to the missing portions. Whether the missing portion 
corresponds to an “echo” fragment, where the reconstruction is almost automatic and 
allows virtually certain results, or to a fragment that poses more problems, no one would 
accuse such an edition of being based on ungrounded epistemological foundations: after 
all, one of the editor’s tasks has always been to correct the text where it is wrong and to 
supplement it where it is lacking. Why should one worry if there are an unusually large 
number of bars to reconstruct?
The problems posed by reconstruction do not worsen as the number of bars to be 
reconstructed increases: it may happen that a composition of seventy bars “in echo” is very 
easy to reconstruct, whereas a single bar poses insurmountable problems. What remains 
inescapable, in an edition that intends to be critical de facto and not only de jure, is the 
need to make every intervention of the editor recognizable: that is, to make the edition 
completely transparent.
37
As previously mentioned, one of the main problems of reconstruction is the fact 
that its results cannot be verified. But what kind of verification would such an operation 
require? An acceptable definition of “verification” is “the process of establishing the truth, 
accuracy or validity of something”. In the case of reconstruction, it is out of the question 
to re-establish the “truth”, unless the lost partbook is accidentally found.
38
 But we can still 
evaluate the competence and the accuracy of the “re-composer”, on which the validity of 
the results depends (for instance, by inviting him/her to reconstruct a preserved part as 
if it were missing and then compare the results with the original part).
Sometimes, the reconstruction is the result of group work or the successive efforts 
of different musicologists who collaborate or alternate in search of increasingly pertinent 
solutions. In certain cases, it has happened that a part, re-composed by one or more musi-
cologists because it was lost, was later rediscovered and compared with the reconstruction 
hypotheses: this is the case, for example, with the alto part in two canzoni villanesche by 
Adrian Willaert, “Occhio non fu giamai” and “Quando di rose d’oro”, re-composed by 
Helga Meier,
39
 Donna G. Cardamone
40
 and Luca Bruno and later, fortunately, discovered 
in the Geneviève Thibault collection.
41
All that said, the fact remains that in the case of incomplete music the overall sonic 
dimension of the original composition will forever remain a mystery to us, and that all 
37 
On the concept of transparency in a critical edition, see Caraci Vela, Musical Philology.
38 
On a few occasions, a scholar who had earlier reconstructed a lost voice has been able to check 
his work against the original. This is what happened to H. Colin Slim: four years after publishing 
the edition of the Newberry partbooks in 1972, with his reconstruction of the (allegedly) missing 
Altus part for ten compositions, the missing partbook turned up. Slim later evaluated the quality 
of his reconstructive hypothesis in a 1978 article, and then published the newly discovered parts. 
See Slim, Gift of Madrigals; Slim, “Royal Treasure”.
39 
Willaert, Madrigali e canzoni.
40 
Willaert and His Circle, Canzone villanesche.
41 
Bruno, “Le Canzon di Ruzante”.

147
Marina Toffetti: The “Authenticity” of the Reconstruction of Missing Parts?
we can do is produce “fakes”. The percentage of surviving parts compared with missing 
ones does not change the essence of the matter. If I reconstruct one part out of five the 
result will not be twenty percent fake and eighty percent authentic, but still one hundred 
percent fake, because the combination of the reconstructed voice with the original ones 
does not correspond to anything that has ever been performed before in history. But what 
is the alternative to reconstructing the missing parts? That of continuing to ignore many 
thousands of incomplete compositions, considering them irrecoverable – an act that creates 
a distorted perception of the history of past music.
Although the reconstruction of a missing part, even if conducted with historically 
informed criteria, represents an operation of a hypothetical nature, to gain a more realistic 
idea of our musical past we have no choice but to try to reconstruct as much incomplete 
music as possible, to acquire ever better analytical skills and to be able to listen to music 
forgotten for centuries in versions ever closer to the lost original.
While the idea we get of a composer by listening to one of his/her incomplete 
compositions in which a voice has been reconstructed in recent times is inevitably not 
authentic, the idea that we can have of him without even listening to the piece is surely 
even more strongly fake.

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long play.
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»A VTENTIČNOST« REKONSTRUKCIJE MANJKAJOČIH DELOV? 
RAZMIŠLJANJE O NESMISELNEM PROBLEMU 
Povzetek 
 
Znano dejstvo je, da so številne zbirke večglasnih kompozicij, ki so izvirno izhajale v 
več glasovnih zvezkih, zaradi izgubljenih posameznih glasov preživele le v nepopolni 
obliki. Čeprav so zato te zbirke večinoma že stoletja pozabljene (niso objavljene, raziskane 
ali izvajane), so bili v nekaj primerih manjkajoči deli rekonstruirani, tako da se lahko 
skladbe ponovno izvaja.
Posledice tovrstnih posegov so pogosto notne izdaje, ki jih uredijo muzikologi ali 
izvajalci, včasih tudi v sodelovanju. Često taki objavi rekonstruiranega dela sledi tudi prva 
sodobna izvedba in snemanje obnovljene glasbe (tak primer predstavljajo moteti Carla 
Gesualda, ki jih je rekonstruiral Igor Stravinski, ali pa nedavna rekonstrukcija duhovnih 
koncertov Girolama Frescobaldija).
Taki posegi so zanimivi predvsem iz zgodovinskega in glasbenega vidika, saj zaradi 
njih lahko po stoletjih končno spet poslušamo pozabljeno glasbo. Nekateri po drugi strani 
menijo, da takšni posegi niso utemeljeni. Rekonstruirani del ni avtentičen, skupni rezultat 
kombinacije izvirnih glasov in dokomponiranih pa je po njihovem mnenju skladba, ki 
je prej ni bilo.
Pričujoči članek v to razpravo vstopa s kritično obravnavo inherentnosti takega posto-
panja in predstavi elemente njegove kompleksnosti. Pozornost namenja zlasti konceptu 
avtentičnosti na področju glasbene filologije in kritičnih glasbenih izdaj ter težav, ki jih 
povzročajo take spremembe (emendatio). Nadalje se sprašuje o smiselnosti uporabe merila 
avtentičnosti pri rekonstrukciji manjkajočih delov v nepopolno ohranjenem večglasju, 
upoštevajoč način predstavitve pridobljenih rezultatov v kritičnih izdajah in izvedbah. 
Nazadnje predlaga merila za objave v kritičnih izdajah, ki omogočajo nadaljnje izboljšave 
rekonstruiranih manjkajočih delov.
Da bi si ustvarili realnejšo predstavo o naši glasbeni preteklosti, nam ne preostane 
drugega, kot da poskušamo rekonstruirati čim več nepopolno ohranjene glasbe. Tako se 
izboljšujejo naše analitične sposobnosti in smo pripravljeni poslušati to stoletja pozabljeno 
glasbo v različicah, ki se vedno bolj približujejo izgubljenemu izvirniku. Če predstava, ki 
si jo ustvarimo o skladatelju ob poslušanju skladbe, v kateri je bil rekonstruiran en glas, 
ni »avtentična«, pa podobe o njej, če skladbe sploh ne poslušamo, sploh ni, kot da nikoli 
ni obstajala, in to je še večja »laž«.