Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. [Facsimile full score] by WAGNER, Richard 1813-1883 - 1923

Wien: Tobias Haslinger [PN] T.H. 7061, 1837. Oblong folio. Unbound as issued. 10 pp. Engraved. With decorative vignette to title. Slightly soiled. First Edition. Weinmann p. 18. Schonherr & Reinöhl pp. 140-142.

5 pp. Folio (355 x 280 mm.). Notated in pencil with additional markings in coloured ink. Signed and dated 2007. Tsontakis studied with Hugo Weisgall, Felix Greissle, and Roger Sessions. His honours include the Charles Ives Living Award, the Grawemeyer, two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (1989, 1992), a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1995), a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, (1996) and numerous commissions. "[His] early works are written in a dissonant chromatic idiom not unlike that of Sessions. His musical language soon shifted, however, towards a classically-influenced style characterized by large-scale harmonic prolongations and what he calls 'the timeless gesture', a reference to the past through evocation rather than quotation. With the String Quartet no. 3 'Carragio' (1986) he arrived at an idiosyncratic tonal language propelled by a non-minimalist, Beethovenian use of repetition. Another primary feature of his work, particularly notable in the… Read More

Berlin: Adolph Fürstner [PN A.5654F.], 1935. Folio. Original publisher's full gray cloth. [i] (title), [ii] (blank), [iii] ("Dramatis Personae"), [iv] (blank), [5]-250 pp. Text in German. With illustration by Lovis Corinth to page [5]. Binding very slightly worn and rubbed. Trenner 223. Mueller von Asow p. 409. First performed on January 25, 1909 at the Königlichen Opernhaus in Dresden under Ernst von Schuch. "[Elektra] ... marked the beginning of [Strauss's] artistic association with Hugo von Hofmannsthal, whom he had first met in Berlin in 1899. Having seen Reinhardt's riveting production of Hofmannsthal's Elektra in the autumn of 1905, Strauss was convinced the play would make a compelling opera. Not entirely sure he should compose consecutive tragedies, he nonetheless gave in to Hofmannsthal's pleading and vigorously began composing Elektra in the summer of 1906. As he had with Oscar Wilde's Salome, he set the play to music, which was finished in 1908 and given its première in 1909 as… Read More

Folio (ca. 360 x 273 mm). [i] (title), 20, [i] (blank) pp. Notated in black ink on music paper with 20 printed staves per page. Scored for double choir and piano. The work begins in A minor, in 3/4, Très Allant (quasi Allo). Textual incipit: "Dans la forêt où rien ne bouge ..." The engraver's copy, prepared for the publishing house Alphonse Leduc et Cie. With the composer's autograph signature ("Henri Busser") and date ("Paris, Août 15") to p. 20. Occasional erasures and corrections in black ink in the composer's hand. Lower edge of title with publisher's handstamps and manuscript date ("[19]35") and plate number ("A.L. 19,198") in an early hand. Numerous editorial markings, minor annotations, and occasional corrections in one or more early hands in pencil and red crayon. Slightly worn and soiled; minor ink smudges to three pages slightly affecting notation. A piano-vocal edition of Le Petit Chaperon, with plate number A.L. 19,198, was published by Alphonse Leduc in 1935. Not in the Grove… Read More

1 page. Octavo (ca. 168 x 122 mm). Dated Thursday evening. On mourning stationery. In French (with translation). "I have to attend [?Louis] Laloy's premiere; naturally that is tomorrow, on Friday ... Would you change the enclosed tickets for Saturday? Thanks again ..." Slightly worn and browned; creased at folds and upper outer corner of final blank folio; small rust stain from paper clip to inner margin of final folio, not affecting text. "One of the most important musicians of his time, [Debussy's] harmonic innovations had a profound influence on generations of composers. He made a decisive move away from Wagnerism in his only complete opera Pelléas et Mélisande, and in his works for piano and for orchestra he created new genres and revealed a range of timbre and colour which indicated a highly original musical aesthetic." François Lesure and Roy Howat in Grove Music Online. "Laloy [1874-1944] was a noted defender of contemporary French music and was a close friend of, and mediator between,… Read More

Wien: Tobias Haslinger's Witwe u. Sohn. [PN T. H. 9651], 1844. Oblong folio. Unbound as issued. 1f. (title), 3-11 pp. Engraved. With small vignette to title. Spine reinforced. Slightly foxed and dampstained. First Edition. Weinmann p. 29.

Wien: Tobias Haslinger [PN T.H. 6706], 1834. Oblong folio. Unbound as issued. 1f. (title), 1-8 pp. Engraved. Decorative title with dedicatee's coat of arms. With Fischer overpaste. Minor dampstaining. First Edition. Weinmann, p. 15. Schonherr & Reinöhl, pp. 99-101. Composed following Strauss's visit to Hungary in 1833.

5 pp. Folio (355 x 280 mm.). Notated in pencil with additional markings in coloured ink. Signed and dated 2007. Tsontakis studied with Hugo Weisgall, Felix Greissle, and Roger Sessions. His honours include the Charles Ives Living Award, the Grawemeyer, two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (1989, 1992), a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1995), a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, (1996) and numerous commissions. "[His] early works are written in a dissonant chromatic idiom not unlike that of Sessions. His musical language soon shifted, however, towards a classically-influenced style characterized by large-scale harmonic prolongations and what he calls 'the timeless gesture', a reference to the past through evocation rather than quotation. With the String Quartet no. 3 'Carragio' (1986) he arrived at an idiosyncratic tonal language propelled by a non-minimalist, Beethovenian use of repetition. Another primary feature of his work, particularly notable in the… Read More

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel [PN 3610], 1824. Oblong folio. Contemporary paper boards. 1f. (title), 88 pp. Lithographed. With label of the late 19th century lending library of Fritz Möller of Hamburg, Germany to upper board and advertising to front pastedown. Binding worn and rubbed; partially detached; spine chipped; joints split; endpapers lacking. Moderately foxed throughout; title browned. Köchel 8, p. 720. Hirsch IV, 1227. RISM M5105. La Clemenza di Tito, an opera seria in two acts to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio adapted by Caterino Mazzolà, was first performed in Prague at the National Theatre on September 6, 1791, approximately 3 months before Mozart died on December 5, 1791. He had arrived in Prague on August 28 and, despite his illness, finished work on the opera on the eve of the performance. "Although mostly composed after Die Zauberflöte, La clemenza di Tito was performed first... The reception was modest until a triumphant last night was reported to Mozart (who had left… Read More

Folio (ca. 356 x 278 mm.). Unbound. 9 leaves notated in pencil on one side of each leaf of 18-stave AZTEC C-18 music manuscript paper. A working manuscript, with erasures, alterations and cancellations. Together with: A copy of the published full score of the movement, i.e., pp. 107-138, and a 1-1/2 page printed commentary by the composer discussing the background of the work and briefly describing the music: "I should say, however, that as I was working on the last movement, I found myself thinking as much about the fox as about the hunting hounds. This, coupled with the fact that I recently acquired a recording of background music from the old movie serials that I used to go to as a kid, probably accounts for the quite ungentlemanly, almost lurid quality of the chase music." "Thurber's Dogs was commissioned for the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and the Thurber House to commemorate the 100th birthday anniversary of author James Thurber. It was completed on August 13, 1994. The first… Read More