Schubertiade Music Archives - Rare Book Insider

Schubertiade Music

  • Showing all 25 results

book (2)

Thanksgiving Day, 1965″ – Original “Cultural Care Endeavor Package” Mail Art

Ruscha, Edward. (b. 1937) & Williams, Mason. (b. 1938) Original multicolor holograph mail art broadside lettered and designed on both sides of a blank sheet of musical orchestral score manuscript paper. A bit of toning to sheet, some fading to lettering in various colors; overall in fine condition. 10.5 x 13.25 inches (26.5 x 33.8 cm.); set in a floating glass frame to an overall size of 12.5 x 16.5 inches (32 x 42.3 cm.). Written in the hands of Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams and signed by them as "Masie Bunny" and "Eddie P" (short for Eddie Poo, sometimes even Eddie Pooo). Call it mail art, call it as they do on the verso, a "cultural endeavour care package", call it what you will. This 1960's artifact was sent to Marilyn McCorkle, erstwhile model for Ed Ruscha at The Chouinard Institute of Art and friend to both Ruscha and Mason Williams. The artists note that it would be 4 a.m. in McCorkle's Iowa City, making it 2 a.m. in Los Angeles when this piece was accomplished, various messages written in different inks, sometimes with added faux musical notations (including with letters written in place of note-heads) in contour around and on the printed ledger lines, which in one place they identify as "these are telephones lines and we are talking to you." Other pieces itemized in the "cultural endeavour care package" listing on page 2 include some of Ruscha's and Williams's published books such as Bicyclists Dismount, Next to the Windows, Some Los Angeles Apartments, and Various Small Fires.Most closely associated with the pop art movement, American artist Ed Ruscha has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film and is also noted for creating several artist's books. In 2023, the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are staging a full-dress Ed Ruscha retrospective to include 250 works. The American classical guitarist, composer, singer, writer, comedian, and poet Mason Williams is best known for his triple-Grammy-winning 1968 instrumental "Classical Gas" and for his work as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live.
  • $9,775
  • $9,775
Manifiesto Blanco 1946. Spazialismo. SIGNED BY FONTANA

Manifiesto Blanco 1946. Spazialismo. SIGNED BY FONTANA

Fontana, Lucio. (1899â€"1968) [and Ugo Mulas] Elephant Folio with color and b/w illustrations. Limited to 2000 copies, this copy boldly signed in black ink by the artist on second front free endpaper. Unpaginated (39 leaves, some printed on verso and recto, some on verso only),  including a facsimile of the original "Manifiesto Blanco" published in Spanish in Buenos Aires in 1946 in which he sets forth the parameters for his art movement, "Spatialism," together with translations of the manifesto into Italian, German, French, and English, an homage by Alain Jouffroy, poems by Michel Fougares, Raffaele Carrieri, and Leonardo Sinisgalli, a statement by Fontana, 4 small illustrations, 5 large portrait photographic illus., and 17 large plates (12 in color or tint) showing details of Fontana's work.  Some leaves loose or separated from the block. Bound in publisher's binding, cloth backed, with slipcase (upper and lower panels largely separated, reinforced within).  Literature: Harry Ruhà & Camillo Rigo: "Lucio Fontana - graphics, multiples and more .", Tuja Books, Amsterdam 2006, mentioned and ill. p. 197.This important book is the last publication of Fontana for a retrospective/homage at the Galleria Apollinaire to his work, reproducing in full his original Manifiesto Blanco from 1946 in which he set forth the parameters for his art movement, “spatialism” which was going to revolutionize post-war Italian art."Lucio Fontana’s respect for the advancements of science and technology during the 20th century led him to approach his art as a series of investigations into a wide variety of mediums and methods. As a sculptor, he experimented with stone, metals, ceramics, and neon; as a painter he attempted to transcend the confines of the two-dimensional surface. In a series of manifestos originating with the “Manifesto blanco” (White manifesto, 1946), Fontana announced his goals for a “spatialist” art, one that could engage technology to achieve an expression of the fourth dimension. He wanted to meld the categories of architecture, sculpture, and painting to create a groundbreaking new aesthetic idiom."  (Jennifer Blessing, Guggenheim Online)
  • $3,220
  • $3,220
book (2)

1919 Russian Program including the Double Bass Concerto

Koussevitzky, Serge. (1874-1951) & Golovanov, Nikolai Semyonovich. (1891 -1953) A rare 1919 Russian program featuring the eminent Russian conductor, composer and double-bass virtuoso, before his immigration to the US and his long tenure as Music Director for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1924-1949), founding of the Tanglewood Festival and mentoring to many American musicians, including Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland. 4 pp. The program featured Koussevitzky in the first half, performing his own Double Bass Concerto, Op. 3 under the baton of the young Nikolai Golovanov, who also lead performances of Rimsky-Korsakov's Introduction & Wedding March from the Golden Cockerel and his own Prelude to Oscar Wilde's Salome. The second half was conducted by Koussevitzky, leading Scriabin's Le Poà me de l'extase, Op. 54. Small tear to left edge, general toning, overall fine condition. Although known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, Koussevitzky started out as a touring double-bass virtuoso. Sometime between 1902 and 1905, he composed a concerto for his instrument, possibly with the help of Reinhold Glià re.  The work, instead of following the most progressive tendencies of its time is a ripe example of Russian romanticism. Koussevitzky dedicated the concerto to his fiancà e and gave its premiere in Moscow, and he played it subsequently in Germany, Paris, and Boston.
  • $288
book (2)

Les Offrandes Oubliees” – Signed and Inscribed Musical Score

Messiaen, Olivier. (1908â€"1992) Miniature score (22 cm). Lithograph, Title (vb); half title; instrumentation; 1 -30 pp.  Signed and inscribed 20 August, 1969 on the half title, translated from the French "with the hope that my colors of rhythms and chords will not seem to him too unworthy of their marvelous subject and will make him love more the mysteries of Christ. Very warmly, Olivier Messiaen" ["avec l'espoir que mes couleurs de rhythmes et d'accords ne lui paraitront pas trop indignes de leur merveilleux sujet et lui feront aimer d'avantage les mysteres du Christ. Tres amicalement. Olivier Messiaen"] Paper covers toned, some separation along the spine but still attached and in otherwise fine condition throughout. In 1930, when he composed Les Offrandes Oublià es, Messiaen, at age 22, was newly graduated from the Paris Conservatory, which he had entered as something of an 11-year-old wonder child.  He wrote the following note on Les Offrandes Oublià es:“The Offrandes Oublià es, written in 1930, was first performed on February 19, 1931, at the Thà atre des Champs Elysà es in Paris, under the direction of Walter Straram. I had just turned 22. It was my first work played by an orchestra and my first contact with the public at large.“The work is in three parts:“The Cross: lamentation of the strings, the sorrowful ‘neumes’ of which divide the melody into groups of uneven duration, cut by long mauve and grey wailings.“The Sin: presented here as a kind of ‘race to the abyss’ in an almost ‘mechanized’ speed. You will notice the strong flexional ending accents, whistling of the harmonics in glissando, the incisive calls of the trumpets.“The Eucharist: long and slow phrase of the violins, which rises over a blanket of pianissimo chords, with reds, gold, blues (like a faraway stained glass window), in the light of muted solo chords. The sin is the forgetting of God. The Cross and the Eucharist are the Divine Offerings. ‘This is my Body, given for you â€" this is my Blood, spilled for you.’ "
  • $920
Wine

Wine, Women, and Song – THE COPY OF ISADORA DUNCAN

[Duncan, Isadora. (1877â€"1927)] Symonds, John Addington. (1840-1893) WINE, WOMEN, AND SONG. Medieval Latin Students Songs Now First Translated into English Verse with an Essay by John Addington Symonds. The copy of the pioneering modern dancer and choreographer, signed by her to the front free endpage "Isadora Duncan."  One of 725 copies of Van Gelder handmade paper. Small 8vo. 190 pp. Half leather with marbled boards and marbled endpapers, decorative title and design to spine. Endpages browned and slightly stained, otherwise clean internally throughout, boards and front marbled paper splitting from spine approx. 2 inches from head, otherwise fine. An intriguing association copy of John Addington Symonds' translations from the Carmina Burana, a Medieval Latin manuscript of 254 poems, songs and dramatic texts from the 11th-13th centuries, being the work of the Goliards, a group of clerical students from France, Germany Spain, Italy and England, who protested the growing contradictions within the Church and satirized it through song, poetry and dramatic performances. The original manuscript contains 55 songs of morals and mockery, 131 love songs and 40 drinking and gaming songs. Symonds' selection is dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson and is prefaced by an essay on Goliardic literature.John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married a woman and had a family, he was an early open advocate of male love, which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible (love of the impossible). A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies about writers and artists. He also wrote much poetry inspired by his homosexual affairs.
  • $1,380
  • $1,380
Les Cinq Doigts pour Piano" - SIGNED BY THE COMPOSER WITH A HAND-TRACING

Les Cinq Doigts pour Piano” – SIGNED BY THE COMPOSER WITH A HAND-TRACING

Stravinsky, Igor. (1882â€"1971) "8 mà lodies trà s faciles sur 5 notes" ("8 very easy melodies on 5 notes"). Upright folio. 10 pp.  [PN] 2090. Signed on the front cover in blue ballpoint ink by the composer with a tracing of his own five fingers and "I Str." With ownership signature to upper right corner ("Ellis B. Kohs"), spine and front and rear interior joints reinforced with archival tape over older tape stains, internally otherwise fine and overall very good.  A most unusual and special example of the great composer's signature.From the Collection of Ellis B. Kohs, longtime professor of composition at the University of Southern California School of Music, thence to the Executor of his Estate. Kohs and Stravinsky were acquaintances and would often run into each other at concerts in Los Angeles, especially the acclaimed Monday Evening Concerts held once a month during its concert season where many new pieces were premiered and many works by Stravinsky were regularly performed.  Kohs had Stravinsky sign this work on one such occasion. Stravinsky completed the eight easy piano miniatures of Les Cing Doigts ("The Five Fingers") in 1921. The melody of each piece is based on a different five-note series, the five fingers of the right hand remain in nearly the same position throughout each piece. The left hand plays either a simple harmonic accompaniment or a similarly uncomplicated contrapuntal figure. These pieces contain echoes of form and mood from such earlier works as Pulcinella.
  • $2,875
  • $2,875
book (2)

Il Codice Squarcialupi [Codex] Facsimile edition

Complete facsimile edition in full 8-color (+ gold) reproduction of the complete original manuscript in original format. Publisher's hardcover binding (29 x 41cm., facsimile of the original binding), 442 pp., together with a text volume (287 pp. edited by F. Alberto Gallo, with contributions by John Nádas, Kurt von Fischer, Luciano Bellosi, Margherita Ferro Luraghi, Nino Pirrotta, Giuseppe Tavani, Giulio Cattin, and Agostino Ziino) printed on handcrafted paper and bound in Fabriano paper. Limited edition of 998 numbered copies only, this example number 555/998, protected by a publisher's box (18" H x 13.5" W x 4.75"; 46 x 32cm) cloth boards with gilt stamping, spine in leather. Interior and texts in very fine condition, box with some nicks and scrapes, overall very good. Rare. Long ago sold out by the publisher (original price was 2400 Euro). The Squarcialupi Codex is the largest and unquestionably the most beautiful produced manuscript anthology of Italian music compiled in Florence during the first two decades of the Quattrocento and the present 'Squarcialupi Codex' is most probably the finest produced and most refined facsimile of a music manuscript ever. The codex contains an anthology of Italian music compiled in Florence (Firenze) during the first twenty years of the 15th century, with over 350 pieces of music â€"madrigals, ballatas, and cacciasâ€"150 of which are unique to this manuscript, from the 14th till early 15th century by composers Giovanni da Cascia, Jacapo da Bologna, Gherardello da Firenze, Vincenzo da Rimini, Lorenzo Masini, Paolo Tenorista, Donato da Firenze, Niccolà da Perugia, Bartolino da Padova, Francesco Landini, Egidio and Guglielmo da Francia, Zacara da Teramo, Andrea dei Servi and Giovanni Mazuoli. Pieces in the codex are arranged roughly chronologically by composer, with some pages left blank for the later addition of works. Its name is derived from the previous owner Antonio Squarcialupi, Florentine organist 1417-1480, attested by an inscription on the opening leaf. Later on it passed to Giuliano de Medici, then it passed to the Palatine Library and at the end of the 18th century it went to the Laurentian Library where it has remained. The magnificent miniatures and illuminations in color and gold were produced in the Florentine scriptorium of Santa Maria degli Angeli around 1410-'15. An indispensable source of early Renaissance music in Italy.
Cinq Concerts Historiques Russes

Cinq Concerts Historiques Russes, 1907.Quatrià me Concert” – Concert Program including a performance by the composer of the Piano Concerto No. 2

Rare original program from the historic 1907 performance series at the Thà âtre de l'Opà ra in Paris, "Cinq Concerts Historiques Russes," this being the fourth program, from Sunday, May 26, and including From the Middle Ages, Op. 79 by Alexander Glazunov, Thamar by Mily Balakirev, the fifth act of Modest Moussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina and Le Printemps and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, the former conducted by and the latter with the solo piano performed by the composer himself.  Camille Chevillard conducted the other works, joined also by singers Zbroueff, Smirnow and Chaliapin.  2 pp. 8.5 x 10.75 inches (22 x 27.5 cm.). Overall toning, with a block of darker toning to right verso upper corner, else fine. During the 1906 exhibition of Russian Art in Paris, impresario Sergei Diaghilev was acquainted with the Parisian music publisher Gabriel Astruc, who encouraged him to organize a series of concerts with music by Russian composers. On May 16th, 1907 the first concert with works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka and Tchaikovsky launched the series of 5 concerts.  The present program, the fourth of the series, is particularly notable for the performance by the composer himself of what has become one of the most widely performed and adored works in the piano concerto literature. "It is hard to believe that music as confidently athletic and effusively lyrical as Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto could be the product of low self-esteem and writer’s block.  But following the excoriation his Symphony No. 1 received after its 1897 premiere (in a terrible performance led by a reportedly drunk Alexander Glazunov), Rachmaninoff became increasingly depressed about composing.  After many fruitless attempts to pull himself out of this deepening despondency, Rachmaninoff began daily sessions with a Dr. Nikolai Dahl in January of 1900.  Dahl was an internist and hypnotist â€" and not at all incidentally a fine amateur musician â€" who had treated one of Rachmaninoff’s aunts.  Dahl’s therapy, a combination of sensitive, understanding discussion and hypnotic suggestion, proved successful again."That April, Rachmaninoff went on holiday to the Mediterranean, returning to Russia with "a portfolio of newly composed music, including sketches for his Second Piano Concerto.  He finished the second and third movements of the Concerto in time to play them on a benefit concert in December; the full work â€" dedicated to Dahl â€" was completed the following summer and premiered in November 1901.  The Concerto was ecstatically received at that premiere, and has been a staple of heroic pianists ever since. Like many of the composer’s other popular scores, it has been pillaged for both style and content by film composers and songwriters."Besides its big tunes, other aspects of this concerto include imaginative treatments of the piano-orchestra relationship in texture and color as well as the highly evolved, thematic give-and-take.  The great outpourings of melody are balanced by brutal dances and a sardonic subtext.  In this fabulous showpiece, the musicianship always motivates virtuosity â€" an interpretive virtuosity as much as a mechanical virtuosity, one that intensifies musical developments rather than replacing them." (John Henken, LA Phil)
book (2)

Autograph title-page for part of Gà tterdämmerung

Autograph title-page for part of Gà tterdämmerung, entirely in the hand of the composer and signed: "Fortsetzung des Klavierauszuges der 'Gà tterdämmerung' Zur Fortsetzung des Stiches eingesandt von Richard Wagner Bayreuth 14 Febr. 1874", being for Karl Klindworth's piano score of "Gà tterdämmerung", sent to the publishers Schott for the continuation of work on the engraving of that score. 1 page, cut down from a larger leaf of music manuscript paper, 23.8 x 18.8cm, laid down on card, together with an autograph letter by Carl Armbruster to the organist John Lott, dated 31 May, 1900, elucidating Wagner's autograph, laid down on the verso of the card.  Bayreuth, 14 February 1874, light browning, else fine.  Contained in a deluxe custom red morocco folder, lined with satin and silk (edges rubbed, one panel of the satin cracked, container else fine). A letter by Carl Armbruster to the Lichfield Cathedral organist John Lott, laid down on the verso of the card bearing Wagner's autograph, elucidates the composer's note thus: "It is an autograph of Wagner's and was by him placed round a packet of music written by C. Klindworth, who arranged the piano score from the full score of the "Ring". - The words, translated, are these: Continuation of the Pianoforte score of the "Dusk of the Gods" sent in for the continuation of the work of engraving.". Gà tterdämmerung or Twilight of the Gods, WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the Ring. The first edition of the vocal score of Gà tterdämmerung, prepared by the German pianist and teacher Karl Klindworth (1830-1916), was sent to the printer in batches and was published by B. Schott's Sà hne in April 1875.  At this time, Cosima Wagner wrote in her diary: "part of the piano arrangement of Gà tterdämmerung arrives and is unplayable and ununderstandable, the middle voices too prominent, so that the main theme is obscured" (i.732).
book (2)

Typed Letter Signed to Edna Ferber after the Premiere of “The Sound of Music”

A heartwarming letter from acclaimed composer Richard Rodgers to author, longtime friend and neighbor, the novelist and playwright Edna Ferber, only days after the Broadway premiere of his classic musical, The Sound of Music. New York, November 24, 1959. One sheet, 10 1/2 x 7 in. (267 x 178 mm). Typed letter, signed by Richard Rodgers, on his personal 488 Madison Avenue office stationery, to American novelist, friend, and neighbor, Edna Ferber, concerning his play, The Sound of Music: "Your heartwarming/note about THE SOUND OF MUSIC did exactly/that--it warmed my heart. I think and/hope that there's a large public for some-/thing essentially decent in the musical/theatre and you, as well as other people, seem to think that that is what this play/is. Anyway, we'll see, but in the meanwhile/I am deeply grateful for your sweet words./Much love from/Dorothy and me./Always affectionately,'Dick". Creasing from original folds. In fine condition.A warm and intimate letter, written by acclaimed American composer, Richard Rodgers, to his longtime friend, American author, Edna Ferber, thanking her for her kind words about his and Oscar Hammerstein II's now classic musical, The Sound of Music. The show premiered on Broadway, for the first time, only eight days before this letter, on November 16. This production would go on to win five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This would be Rodger and Hammerstein's last collaboration together, as Hammerstein would die the following year.Richard Rodgers and his wife Dorothy were longtime friends with Edna Ferber. According to Julie Gilbert's Ferber: A Biography, Dorothy and Edna "met in 1928, before Dorothy was married to Richard Rodgers, but she knew of Ferber prior to their first meeting. Ferber had taken an apartment at the Lombardy Hotel in New York, and while she was vacationing in Europe, Richard Rodgers rented the apartment right next door to hers. The news reached her, whereupon, she sent a scathing letter to the management. She stated that of all the discourteous things they could do, putting a songwriter (not a composer, but a common songwriter) on her floor right next door to her was the worst. The lambasting went on and on, practically demanding that they evict him. The management showed the letter to Rodgers, who got the general idea that Miss Ferber was not pleased. He asked to know the date of her return, and arranged to have her living room filled with flowers. Ferber was a sucker for flowers; it was just the touch, and Rodgers kept the apartment, becoming 'the Composer next door.' A bit later, Rodgers invited her to a party, where she meet Dorothy, and the three of them remained friends for the duration of her life. Had Rodgers not filled her bower with flowers, he probably would have remained, according to the Ferber lexicon, 'that songwriter.'" (p. 32)Edna Ferberwas an acclaimed author, most known for her novels So Big (1942), for which she won the Pulitzer Prize; Show Boat (1926), the basis for the wildly successful 1927 stage production by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II; Cimarron (1930), the basis for the 1931 Academy Award-winning Best Film; and later, Giant (1952), adapted to film in 1956, and starring James Dean in one of his last roles. Ferber was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table.  Ferber lived in the Lombardy Hotel in the early 1930s to 1934, and then at 730 Park Avenue--where this letter is addressed to--from 1950 until her death in 1968. During the time of this letter, the Rodgers's lived a few floors below Ferber in a co-op. Dorothy was responsible for finding this apartment for Ferber, to which Ferber later recorded in her diary, "Dorothy always seems to find me exactly what I didn't know I was looking for."According to Frederick W. Nolan in his The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein (2002), it was through Ferber's novel Saratoga Trunk (1941), that Rodgers and Hammerstein began their correspondence that would blossom into their
book (2)

Menuetto” – Autograph Musical Quotation Signed

Detailed autograph musical quotation of 8 measures, titled "Menuetto" and in the tempo "all[egro]," from the German pianist and composer, who has signed and dated in the year before his death, London, 13th May, 1848. Block of subtle toning, light foxing, overall in fine condition. 9.25 x 3.15 inches (23.5 x 8 cm.). Uncommon.German by birth, the pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer studied at the Paris Conservatoire starting at a young age and eventually settled in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. For these reasons, many historians refer to Kalkbrenner as being a French composer. At his peak, Kalkbrenner was considered to be the foremost pianist in Europe and was a prolific composer of a multitude of piano works (altogether more than 200), piano concertos, and operas.  Author of a famous method of piano playing (1831) which was in print until the late 19th century, he ran in Paris what is sometimes called a factory for aspiring virtuosos and taught scores of pupils from as far away as Cuba. His best piano pupils were Marie Pleyel and Camille-Marie Stamaty. Through Stamaty, Kalkbrenner’s piano method was passed on to Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint-Saëns. One of the few composers who through deft business deals became enormously rich, Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to him and Kalkbrenner published transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies for solo piano decades before Liszt did the same.  He was the first one to introduce long and rapid octave passages in both hands â€" today so familiar from 19th century piano music - into his piano texture.
book (2)

Les Cinq Doigts pour Piano” – SIGNED BY THE COMPOSER WITH A HAND-TRACING

"8 mà lodies trà s faciles sur 5 notes" ("8 very easy melodies on 5 notes"). Upright folio. 10 pp.  [PN] 2090. Signed on the front cover in blue ballpoint ink by the composer with a tracing of his own five fingers and "I Str." With ownership signature to upper right corner ("Ellis B. Kohs"), spine and front and rear interior joints reinforced with archival tape over older tape stains, internally otherwise fine and overall very good.  A most unusual and special example of the great composer's signature.From the Collection of Ellis B. Kohs, longtime professor of composition at the University of Southern California School of Music, thence to the Executor of his Estate. Kohs and Stravinsky were acquaintances and would often run into each other at concerts in Los Angeles, especially the acclaimed Monday Evening Concerts held once a month during its concert season where many new pieces were premiered and many works by Stravinsky were regularly performed.  Kohs had Stravinsky sign this work on one such occasion. Stravinsky completed the eight easy piano miniatures of Les Cing Doigts ("The Five Fingers") in 1921. The melody of each piece is based on a different five-note series, the five fingers of the right hand remain in nearly the same position throughout each piece. The left hand plays either a simple harmonic accompaniment or a similarly uncomplicated contrapuntal figure. These pieces contain echoes of form and mood from such earlier works as Pulcinella.