"A SAD SONG": AN ORIGINAL PENCIL MANUSCRIPT SCORE by the American Composer DOUGLAS MOORE of his composition "A Sad Song" with lyrics by Stephen Vincent Benet. SIGNED by MOORE. Together with Soprano LOUISE LLEWELLYN DE JARECKA'S ink copy of the score for Voice and Piano, and a LITHOGRAPHED COPY of the manuscript with the LYRICS PENCILED IN.

July, 1922., 1922.. Good. - Quarto, 14 inches high by 10-3/4 inches wide. Printed self-wraps. What is offered here is the American composer Douglas Moore's original pencil manuscript for his composition "A Sad Song" with lyrics by Stephen Vincent Benet, written in Moore's hand and signed by him. The composition for Voice, Violin, Cello, and Piano is written on a signature consisting of 4 pages of music paper. Titled by the composer at top left, the score is signed by him at top right. Halfway down the second page, Moore has penciled the word "probably" in the margin followed by dots above 3 bars of music. The pages are slightly soiled with creases to the edges and corners. Good.

Together with what appears to be an INK COPY of the score for Voice and Piano, with the 3-page score penned in an unknown hand and with a few pencil corrections on 2 sheets of GSNY music paper. Dated July 1922 under the composer's name at the top right of the first page, this is the Soprano's copy and is inscribed "A Sad Song to Louise Llewellyn de Jarecka" along the top. The pages are slightly soiled, particularly along the edges. The creased edges and corners are chipped with a small piece out from the bottom left corner of the first sheet, not affecting the score.

Also with a LITHOGRAPHED version of the copyist's holograph manuscript, "composed for The Chamber Ensemble", with the words added in pencil in an unknown hand. This is a 3-page score printed and penciled on a signature consisting of 2 sheets of G. Schirmer music paper. The pages are slightly soiled, particularly along the edges. There are creases with minor chipping to the edges and corners. Good.

These are the soprano Louise Llewellyn Jarecka's personal copies of the score which she first performed with the Chamber Ensemble of NY at the home of Mrs. Randolph Guggenheimer, located at 923 5th Avenue in NYC on November 25, 1922. The score was arranged for the Chamber Ensemble of NY by the composer. Jarecka subsequently performed the work with the Chamber Ensemble of NY at a Chamber Music Society of Cleveland concert in the Wade Park Manor Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio on November 6, 1923.

A review by James H. Rogers in the Cleveland Plain Dealer published on page 11 of the November 7, 1923 edition of the paper, reads: "Singer, with Trio, Shows Rare Gifts: Chamber Ensemble of New York Gives Pleasing Program at Manor". "At the concert on Nov. 6, 1923, Soprano Louise Llewellyn Jarecka sang Moore's 'A Sad Song'. [The song] is original, with a lot of sparkle to it, and it is cleverly and ingeniously put together."

Stephen Vincent Benet's poem "A Sad Song" was subsequently published in his book "Tiger Joy" in 1925. Douglas Moore met Benet at Yale in 1915. They became close friends which resulted in several collaborations in the 1930's. In a letter to his future wife Rosemary Carr, penned from Paris on February 19, 1921, Benet writes: "Dear Jane, ... Thanks for your letter. It was nice of you to write. Doug is going to put the poem about you & the pig ("A Sad Song") to music." Benet often celebrated his love for his wife in poems such as in "A Sad Song". In most of his poems, he referred to her as Rosemary, but he sometimes referred to her as Jane.

The American composer, educator, and author Douglas Stuart Moore (1893-1969) studied at Yale University under D.S. Smith and Horatio Parker. While at Yale, Moore composed several songs including Yale's "fight song" "Goodnight, Harvard". After serving in the First World War, Moore traveled to Paris where he studied with Vincent d'Indy and subsequently Nadia Boulanger and Charles Tournemire. A year before composing "A Sad Song", Moore became Director of Music and organist at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Moore was Professor of Composition at Columbia University from 1926 through 1962. As Secretary of the Alice M. Ditson Fund during the years of the Second World War, Moore helped numerous European musicians escape to the US and helped arrange stipends for composers such as Bela Bartok, who was paid to transcribe the folk songs in his collection. Among his compositions, Moore is best known for his operas "The Devil and Daniel Webster", "The Ballad of Baby Doe", and "Giants in the Earth", the latter of which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1951

The concert singer & writer Louise Llewellyn Jarecka (1880-1954), was the wife of the composer Tadeusz Jarecki. A student of Marcella Sembrich, Jarecka was invited by President Wilson to sing at the White House. During the 1920's and 1930's she sang with many European Orchestras and in the Polish Opera.

RARE.