THOMPSON, Randall 1899-1984
Octavo. Original gray wrappers printed in dark red. 26 pp. + 1f. (advertisements). Program for performances scheduled for May 5-9, 1971 at Jordan Hall in Boston. With Thomson's autograph signature in black ink to head of p. 23 detailing a program presented on May 9th including for the first Boston performance of his Symphony No. 1 together with works of Still, White, Hill, Paine, and Hadley. An American composer and educator, "[Thompson's] chamber and orchestral works (the latter championed by Howard Hanson) are imaginative and substantial. The most popular of these is Symphony no.2; his other symphonies, his two string quartets, and the symphonic fantasy A Trip to Nahant also enjoyed considerable success." Frederic Woodbridge Wilson, revised by David Francis Urrows in Grove Music Online.
IVES, Charles 1874-1954
Large quarto. Original publisher's dark ivory wrappers with upper designed by Hazel Watrous printed in dark blue. [1] (title)-23, [i] (composer's printed notes in English and German). With separate piano parts for the first movement ("In the Cage," 1 page) and the second movement ("In the Inn," 8 pp.) in smaller format laid in. With list of "Compositions Published to Date by New Music" to recto of lower wrapper including works by Ruggles, Rudhyar, Ornstein, Weisshaus, Chavez, Crawford, Ives, Weiss, Copland, Slonimsky, Becker, Riegger, Webern, McPhee, Antheil, Brant, and Achron. Ex libris musicologist and Walt Whitman scholar Clifton Joseph Furness (1898-1946), with his signature to upper margin of title. Wrappers slightly worn and soiled; lower corner creased; spine slightly split; short tear to outer margin of lower. Minor internal wear and creasing. First Edition. Sinclair no. 20, pp. 80-85. ["Ives's] music is marked by an integration of American and European musical traditions, innovations in rhythm, harmony, and form, and an unparalleled ability to evoke the sounds and feelings of American life. He is regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the early 20th century." J. Peter Burkholder, James B. Sinclair and Gayle Sherwood Magee in Grove Music Online.
[THOMSON, Virgil 1896-1989] and [DALLAPICCOLA, Luigi 1904-1975]. Nathan, Hans
Large octavo. [1] (title), pp. [289]-310, [i] (blank). Reprinted from The Musical Quarterly Vol. XLIV, No. 3, July 1958. A presentation copy from the author to Virgil Thomson, with "For Virgil Thomson Hans Nathan October 5, 1962" in blue-black ink to title. Slightly worn and browned. Nathan (1910-1989) was a German-born American musicologist with a special interest in Dallapiccola, Virgil Thomson a noted American composer and music critic.
THOMSON, Virgil 1896-1989
Quarto. Original pink wrappers with titling in dark gold within black lace-patterned border to upper, advertisements to inner wrappers, list of benefactors, donors, and contributors to verso of lower. 24 pp., incorporating verse by Richard Crashaw "Upon the Book and Picture of the Seraphical Saint Teresa" with full-page illustration of Saint Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini; a reproduction of a portrait of Gertrude Stein by Christian Bérard; a reproduction of the autograph musical manuscript of Thomson's "Musical Portrait of Gertrude Stein;" an essay by Stein entitled "Portrait of Virgil Thomson;" "head shots" of Stein, Thomson, Austin, Smallens, Ashton, Grosser, Houseman and 8 cast members including Beatrice Robinson Wayne, Edward Matthews, Bruce Howard, Embry Bonner, Altonell Hines, Abner Dorsey, Bertha Fitzhugh Baker, and Eva Jessye. With Thomson's autograph signature in black ink to centerfold program dated 1986 along with that of the creator of the scenario, Maurice Grosser. Slightly worn and soiled; occasional light staining; minor creasing to corners. Thomson met Gertrude Stein in Paris in 1926 and she soon became his close friend and collaborator. Four Saints in Three Acts, Thomson's groundbreaking opera, is set to a libretto by Stein; the two also collaborated on Thomson's opera The Mother of Us All, first performed in 1947. "The first performance [of "Saints"], on 8 February 1934 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, was presented not by an established opera company but by an organization called the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music. There was an all-black cast, stage direction and movement by Frederick Ashton and John Houseman and cellophane décor by Florine Stettheimer. The same production was presented that year on Broadway and in Chicago, for a run of more than 60 performances." John Rockwell in Grove Music Online "The premiere attracted the smart set of art patrons, fanciers of the avant garde and the curious. After the triumphant Hartford run, the production moved to Broadway where it played for six weeks at first one then another theater, a breakthrough for an opera. This was a year before Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which was also conducted by Alexander Smallens and featured a black cast. Decades later, Philip Glass would cite Four Saints as the most important model that he and Robert Wilson had when they embarked on writing avant-garde operas. "[Thomson] produced a sizeable catalog of stylistically diverse compositions characterized by expressive directness and textural transparency, written in a language that drew from hymnbook harmony, popular song, and dance idioms of the late 19th century, and utilizing plain-spoken tonal procedures but also diatonic dissonance and polytonal elements. In his many vocal works, and his two path-breaking operatic collaborations with Gertrude Stein, Thomson demonstrated a mastery of prosody. . The wit, vitality, and descriptive precision of his writing, which demystified the complexities of music for lay readers, made him among the most influential and lasting critics of the 20th century." Anthony Tommasini and Richard Jackson in Grove Music Online.
Signed in full in white ink at lower portion: "Nanny Larsén-Tordsen (Brünnhilde) New York April 1925." From Atelier Jaeger in Stockholm, with their embossed stamp with decorative device to lower right corner. 233 x 172 mm. Very slightly silvered at margins. Together with: Autograph letter signed in full and dated New York 13 April 1925. 1 page. Quarto. To Miss Wolff, advising her that she has left the present photograph at the desk of her hotel, the Marie Antoinette at 67th and Broadway, for her correspondent, and saying that she will be coming back to New York in January of 1926. Creased at folds. Larsén-Todsen began her international career with lyric roles, later transitioning to Wagner repertory. She sang Isolde under Toscanini at La Scala in 1923-25 and was with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1925-27, making her debut there as Brünnhilde. "Most notable of her recordings are her Isolde, based on Bayreuth performances of 1928, and Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene from the same year, which show her strong, evenly produced tone and appreciable sensitivity." Leo Riemens, revised by Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online.
204 x 142 mm. Laid down to mounting sheet. A German-born American soprano, "[Hempel's] Metropolitan début in 1912, as Marguerite de Valois in a brilliantly cast Les Huguenots, began a period of seven years with that company, during which she settled in New York where she became a naturalized American. She sang Eva and Euryanthe there under Toscanini, besides many of the lighter Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti parts, in which she was regarded as the natural successor of Sembrich. After a farewell Metropolitan appearance, in Crispino e la comare, on 10 February 1919, she devoted herself mainly to a concert career. Her refined, exhilarating style is worthily represented on her many recordings." Desmond Shawe-Taylor in Grove Music Online Der Wildschütz, a comic opera in three acts by Lortzing to a libretto by the composer adapted from August von Kotzebue's comedy Der Rehbock, oder Die schuldlosen Schuldbewussten, was first performed in Leipzig on 31 December 1842.
3 measures in piano-vocal score of the recitative for tenor and bass from Act I of the opera, with text commencing "lo Pasquale da Corneto, possidente, qui presente." Signed in full and dated New York, 2 February 1914. Two file holes to right margin, not affecting autograph; laid down to mounting sheet. "[Pini-Corsi] made his début in 1878 at Cremona as Dandini in La Cenerentola, and for 15 years appeared throughout Italy, specializing in the comic operas of Rossini and Donizetti. . His last appearance was in 1917 in Rossini's Signor Bruschino at the Teatro Dal Verme, Milan, when his voice, if not as powerful as it had been 40 years previously, was still as agile as ever and used with the same keen intelligence that had distinguished his performances throughout his long career." Elizabeth Forbes in Grove Music Online Don Pasquale, a comic opera in three acts by Donizetti to a libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and the composer after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio (1810), was first performed in Paris at the Théâtre Italien on 3 January 1843.
Inscribed "To Miss Alice E. Wolff Souvenir of G Martinelli New York 1/7/15." 168 x 123 mm. With Mishkin copyright in the plate in white to lower left. Slightly worn; small crack to left margin just touching image. Martinelli, an Italian tenor, sang for thirty one consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan opera, appearing in 926 performances in a total of 38 operas there. "Over the years Martinelli developed an unimpeachable technique and scrupulous style, and after the death of Caruso became the leading exponent of such dramatic and heroic roles as Verdi's Manrico, Radames, Don Alvaro and, eventually, Otello. He displayed his skills as a singing actor in the roles of Samson and Eléazar (La Juive). The clarion ring of his upper register, the distinctness and purity of his declamation and the sustained legato phrasing made possible by remarkable breath control were the outstanding features of his mature style; he retained his vocal powers to an advanced age, making his final appearances as Emperor Altoum (Turandot) as late as 1967." Desmond Shawe-Taylor and Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online.