Beschreibung:

LISZT, Franz (1811-1886). Autograph music manuscript, a complete draft of the orchestral and choral score for Gaudeamus igitur - Humoreske (LWV L11; R541; S.71), [c.1869]. 22 written pages, 271 x 340mm, 24-stave paper by Lard Esnault, Paris (inserted leaf between pp.12-13 torn from sealing wax with which it was originally laid down at outer margin revealing further notation beneath, two small tears to title page repaired with tape, waterstain on p.4 not obscuring the notation). Red morocco gilt. Provenance : The manuscript bears Liszt's private cipher 'signature' (a series of Bs; on p.18) to Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the Polish noblewoman with whom Liszt conducted a forty-year relationship – a copy of the orchestral score, presumably the present manuscript, for Gaudeamus igitur - Humoreske was recorded by P. Raabe ( Franz Liszt: Leben und Schaffen , R 541) in 1931 in the possession of the German musicologist Fritz Stein (1879-1961), erstwhile Director of Music at the University of Jena. Title page (‘Gaudeamus / Franz Liszt’) in blue crayon in the hand of Karl Gille, 21 pages of autograph music drafted on rectos and versos in black ink on up to 24 staves per page, scored for solo voices ad libitum , male or mixed chorus and orchestra, very extensive autograph cancellations, revisions, insertions, and annotations throughout in black ink and red and blue crayon supplying pagination, dynamics, tempo, rehearsal letters and notes for the copyist [?Georg Leitert] (‘für Leitert: das [crescendo] gilt für die Bässe nicht für die Trompette, welche gleichmässig p fort fährt!’, p.10; ‘Wenn das Stück ohne Chor aufgeführt, von hier weiter die 46 Schlüsstakte Seit – ’, p.11, etc), the final two pages supplying revisions to be made at the end of the movement. The rediscovered orchestral score for Liszt ’ s rousing Gaudeamus igitur composed for the 1870 centenary of the ‘ Academic Concerts ’ held at the University of Jena; this manuscript has gone unrecorded since 1931. The jocular student song ‘Gaudeamus igitur’ (‘So Let Us Rejoice’) had long been associated with university graduation ceremonies and festivals: here Liszt reworks a well-known melody he had set once before in an 1843 piano paraphrase into a stirring orchestral work fit for the 1870 centennial Academic Concerts, where it was conducted by Karl Ernst Naumann. It later appeared in a version for solo piano and piano four-hands. Liszt dedicated the work to his close friend, the lawyer and Hofrat at Jena, Dr Karl Gille (1813-1899); since 1855, Gille, a devotee of Liszt, had arranged concerts in collaboration with Jena University to showcase his friend’s work as part of the University’s programme of ‘Academic Concerts’, a musical tradition established at the end of the 18th century. Liszt’s participation in the Concerts would continue for over a quarter of a century, Gille’s promotion of his work ensuring prominence for some of his lesser-known choral and orchestral pieces. In a letter to Gille of 17 November 1869, Liszt enclosed his recently-finished work, explaining to Gille that it may be performed in three ways (orchestra alone, male chorus and orchestra, or mixed chorus and orchestra), mentioning additional lyrics – which Gille supplied; Sancta fac Caecilia , for the choir and four soloists – and informing Gille that the work is to be published [in 1871]. Not only does this represent the public reappearance of a manuscript not recorded for almost 90 years, but at 22 pages this extensively annotated and revised score is one of the lengthiest Liszt autograph manuscripts to come to the market in recent years. Christie's is grateful to Professor Rena Charnin Mueller for her advice on the present lot.