Women’s day is of course, every single day and not just today. However let’s take this opportunity to briefly mention only a few of the many many great women composers represented in our Music Collections. 

Ethel Smyth (b. 1858, d.1944) was an English composer and one of the leading figures of the Suffragette Movement. Against the wishes of her father, she went to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. Smyth composed in a wide range of formats: symphonies, operas, choral and chamber works. Her second opera Der Wald (1899–1901), whose manuscript is shown below, was premiered in 1902 in Berlin. The following year it was performed at the New York’s Met, remaining until 2016 the only opera by a woman to be staged there.

In 1910 Ethel Smyth put her music career aside to concentrate fully on the Suffragette Movement, spending two months in prison in 1912 for breaking the window of a politician that opposed women’s suffrage. Her composition The March of the Women became the anthem of women's suffrage movement.

^{Smyth, Ethel (1902), Der Wald. Autograph Manuscript. British Library Add MS 45938} 

Francesca Caccini (b. 1587 ,d. 1641) was an Italian composer, singer, music teacher and poet. Her opera La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall'Isola d'Alcina (c. 1625) was not only the first opera to be written by a woman, but it is also thought to have been the first opera to be staged outside of Italy. Pictured is the first edition, printed in Florence in 1625.

^{Caccini, Francesca(1625). La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall'Isola d'Alcina Firenze: Pietro Cecconcelli. British Library K.8.g.17.}

Thea Musgrave (b.1928) is a Scottish-American composer whose career spans seventy years. She has written both vocal music (especially operas) and instrumental pieces. Her works are performed in major concert halls, festivals, and broadcast on the radio both in Europe and America.

Thea Musgrave studied composition with Hans Gal and Nadia Boulangier, among others. In 1970 she became a guest professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and has resided in the United States ever since. In 2008 the British Library acquired her archive and continues to acquire subsequent papers as they are completed.

^{Thea Musgrave Archive at the British Library.}

Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (b.1665, d.1729) was French harpsichordist and composer. She was a child prodigy and played for Louis XIV at the age of five. Then she was accepted into the French court where she continued her musical studies before becoming a well known composer.

The item below is a 1644 edition of Céphale et Procris, an opera in five acts taken from the myth which appears in in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It was staged  in 1694 at the Académie Royale de Musique, a first for a French woman composer.

^{Jacquet de La Guerre, Elisabeth-Claude. (1644). Cephale et Procris, tragedie mise en musique. Paris: Christophe Ballard. British Library I.298.a.}

British composer and violinist Ethel Barns (b. 1874 d.1948) studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Emile Sauret. In 1911 the Society of Women Musicians was conformed and she served on its first council.

Among her compositions is included her Violin Concerto, for which the manuscript of a piano and violin arrangement is at the British Library. The full orchestra concerto was performed in 1907 at a Promenade Concert with herself as the soloist.

^{Barns, Ethel (1904) Violin Concerto, reduction for piano and violin Manuscript. British Library Add MS 65038}

The Benedictine abbess, writer, philosopher, composer (and of course, Saint) Hildegard de Bingen (b.1098, d.1179) was one of the most fascinating and multifaceted personalities of the High Middle Ages.

One of her musical compositions, the Ordo Virtutum (c.1511) is a 'morality play' which eschews biblical stories for the allegorical struggle of the human soul. This 1487 manuscript in our collection is a copy of this work, said to have been taken directly from a Manuscript in the hand of St Hildegard.

^{Saint Hildegard (1487), Liber Epistolarum Manuscript Copy. British Library Add MS 15102} 

Rebecca Clarke (b. 1886, d. 1979) was a British composer and violist best known for her chamber music works. She is considered one of the most important interwar female composers. Her setting of the motet Ave Maria, for unaccompanied women’s voices, was her first published choral work and its manuscript is in our music collections.

^{Clarke, Rebecca (1937?) ‘Ave Maria’, for unaccompanied women’s voices. Autograph Manuscript. British Library MS Mus. 1694 A} 

Germaine Tailleferre (b. 1892, d. 1983) was born Germaine Tailefesse although she changed her name as a young woman in defiance of her father, who was against her musical studies. She was a pupil of Ravel and became part of the denominated Group des six French modernist composers along Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud and Georges Auric.

The Royal Philharmonic Society Archive includes a manuscript copy with annotations by Tailleffere of the soprano vocal part of the The Cantate du Narcisse (1938), for soprano and baritone soloists, women’s chorus and orchestra. Unlike the Greek myth this work shows Narcissus insensitive to the charm of nymphs and lovers of his only reflection. The nymphs end up putting him to death.

^{Tailleferre, Germaine. Cantate du Narcisse. Manuscript copy with autograph annotations. British Library RPS MS 236} 

English composer Elisabeth Lutyens (b. 1906, d.1983) began her musical studies in 1922 at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, before accompanying her mother to India in 1923. Upon returning she studied with John Foulds and later continued her musical education from 1926 to 1930 at the Royal College of Music. Lutyens is credited to have brought the serial technique of Schoenberg the UK , although through a very particular personal interpretation.

The extensive catalogue of his work includes compositions in various fields: pieces for solo instrument, chamber music (including thirteen string quartets), works for orchestra and for the stage. She also wrote the music of twenty-two films, many of which for the Hammer Production Company. The British Library holds an important collection of her manuscripts, among which is the soundtrack for the horror film The Skull (1965).

^{Lutyens, Elisabeth (1965). The Skull. Autograph Manuscript. British Library Add MS 64762-64764}

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D op 61 is regarded as one of the greatest achievements of the violin repertoire: a rite of passage for all violinists against which they measure their maturity as musicians. But the early life of the work was rather chequered, both before and after its premiere. Let’s have a brief overview to understand more:

^{Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1804-1805), Portrait of Ludwig Van Beethoven (detail). Beethoven Pasqualatihaus, Vienna}

 In early 19th century Vienna, public performances of music looked very different. They were usually considerably longer than what we are used to today, often with more than one session featuring many works in each. For instance, on 22 December 1808 Beethoven premiered his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, his Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy… and that was just half of the programme! 

These types of performances were mostly single events like charity or benefit concerts organised by a musician to raise funds for his upkeep. A Great Musical Academy was then announced for 23 December 1806 for the benefit of the virtuoso violinist Franz Clement. This was the occasion on which Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was premiered.

The Violin Concerto shares that particular characteristic with other chef d’oeuvres in the sense that it was not appreciated as a masterpiece during the composer’s lifetime. A few weeks after the performance, the critic Johann Nepomuk Möse wrote on the Wiener Zeitung:

“With regard to Beethofen’s [sic] concerto, the opinion of all connoisseurs is the same: while they acknowledge that it contains some fine things, they agree that the continuity often seems to be completely disrupted, and that the endless repetitions of a few commonplace passages could easily lead to weariness. It is being said that Beethofen ought to make better use of his admittedly great talents....”¹ 

One of the reasons that could explain this kind of reception lies in the process of composition, whose circumstances were far from ideal. This was perhaps reflected in the performance. Carl Czerny, a friend of the composer and celebrated musician himself, recounts that Beethoven finished the work barely two days before its premiere². If this was the case the musicians wouldn’t have had enough time to prepare.

The myth tells us that Franz Clement, as the soloist, had to sight read his part during the premiere. Although this could have been partially true, particularly in the later passages of the concerto, in reality Clement would have seen much of the violin part before the concert, acting perhaps as an advisor to Beethoven. Another doubtful detail of the story says that Clement interrupted the performance of the Concerto between movements to show off his virtuoso skills. His motivation for this would have been to prove what he was capable of when able to rehearse a piece. As we can see above in the poster for the premiere this had been previously included in the programme, albeit with the same intention, as a ‘Sonata on a single string played with the violin upside down’.

^{Beethoven, L. (1806) Violin Concerto op 61 Autograph Manuscript.. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Mus.Hs.17538}

Only in November 1806, a few weeks before the premiere, did Beethoven start the first full scale writing down of the work in his autograph manuscript, which is part of the Music Collections of the Austrian National Library. There is a digital version which can be seen in full on their website.

The dedication to Clement contains a humorous pun pleading the violinist to show his clemency to the composer. Particularly in the last movement, we find signs of how hurried the creation of this masterpiece was.

^{Beethoven, L. (1806) Violin Concerto op 61. Autograph Manuscript, f 104v. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Mus.Hs.17538}

The violin part was written six staves from the bottom, under which we have the cellos (when they are not playing ‘col bassi’) and the double basses. The last three staves are left blank but interestingly in several passages they show alternative melodies for the violin. The variants in darker ink in seem to have been added after the premiere.

^{Beethoven, L. (1806) Violin Concerto op 61. Autograph Manuscript, f.122. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Mus.Hs.17538}

What was the immediate cause for these revisions? At least in part they were carried out because of a music publisher from London, eager to publish some of Beethoven works, took a somewhat tangential interest in the Violin Concerto.

^{Clementi, M. (1830). Gradus ad Parnassum Op. 44. Frontispiece.  British Library g.323.} 

The Italian-born English composer, pianist and music publisher Muzio Clementi met Beethoven in 1807 as a partner of the firm Clementi, Banger, Collard, Davis & Collard.  He managed to obtain the English publishing rights of six works, among which was the Violin Concerto. Clementi was probably aware of its frosty reception the previous year and wanting to reap its commercial potential asked Beethoven to create a piano version. The composer obliged and an agreement was signed in April 1807.

Autograph manuscripts are often too messy for engravers to use as a reference against which to prepare the plates that produce a printed score. For that matter a copyist is employed to transcribe the work by hand from the original to a more legible document. We call this a manuscript copy. One such manuscript was prepared in mid-July 1807 for the first printed edition. The resulting document is held in the British Library, coming into our Music Collections almost 65 years ago as part of the Meyerstein Bequest. For the sake of clarity we’ll adopt Alan Tyson’s terminology and call this manuscript the ‘Meyerstein Copy’ from now on.

 ^{Rondo, bars 77-82. Beethoven, L. (1806) Violin Concerto op 61. Autograph Manuscript, f 104. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Mus.Hs.17538}

^{Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto in D op. 61. Manuscript Copy. f86v British Library Add MS 47851}

After it was completed, the Meyerstein Copy was returned to Beethoven who added corrections, mainly in pencil which were subsequently inked over by the engraver. There are several additions by Beethoven in characteristically Red Rottel, however not all of these are in the composer’s hand.  Almost exclusively these rectifications concern expression, dynamics, phrasing and accidentals. No notes are modified by Beethoven. This makes evident that between both manuscripts there was at least one more document where both the solo violin (especially for the first and third movements) and its piano transcription took their final form. Since this document hasn’t survived the Meyerstein copy has the significant value of being the primary source for the solo parts of one of the most highly regarded Violin Concertos.

  ^{Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto op 61. Meyerstein Copy, ff.43,16v. Add MS 47851}

Beethoven’s skills at the piano are beyond dispute, but whether he was skilled at the violin is not well documented. As proposed above, it is plausible that a violinist would have advised him during the composition of the Violin Concerto. In the Meyerstein Copy there are signs of a similar collaboration. Franz Clement is, of course, a possible candidate. However, at the end of the Meyerstein Copy we find the message in French (not in Beethoven’s hand) “Pössinger Pressant [Urgent]”, perhaps a clue that the violinist and personal friend Franz Alexander Pössinger was also involved in these revisions.

^{Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto op 61. Meyerstein Copy, f.120v. Add MS 47851}

A clear instance of a violinist’s advice in the final form of the solo part is evident on several long slurs –seemingly unplayable- which appear in the autograph manuscript. In the Meyerstein Copy these have been split into bar-long segments.

  ^{Beethoven, L. (1806) Violin Concerto op 61. Autograph Manuscript, ff. 11,11v. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Mus.Hs.17538}

^{Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto op 61. Meyerstein Copy, f.33. Add MS 47851}

It is through the composer’s association with another violinist, George Bridgetower, that the British Library Music Collections holds one of its most fascinating items: Beethoven’s tuning fork. You can read more about it in another post of this blog.

^{Beethoven’s tuning fork, Add MS 71148 A}

The business relationship with Clementi’s firm wasn’t the best: Beethoven didn’t receive payment for almost two years. War in Europe was partly to blame. The Violin Concerto and its piano arrangement were instead printed first by the Viennese publisher Bureau des Arts et de l'Industrie around 1808/1809.

One of the signs that the Meyerstein copy was used as the Stichvorlage (engraver’s copy) are the brackets in red crayon (not by Beethoven) that appear throughout the score. These mark the page ends of the printed parts of the first edition:

<sup>The Pianoforte staves with a number 23 bracket. Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto op 61. Meyerstein Copy, f.81v. Add MS 47851

Viennese first edition (piano arrangement). Beethoven, L, (1807) Violin Concerto in D op. 61. Piano part, p.23 Hirsch IV.301</sup>

A few mistakes that survived from the Meyerstein Copy through to the first edition provide evidence of the direct relationship between these documents. They also show that Beethoven and his collaborators weren’t the most diligent proof readers.

In bar 301 of the allegro, Beethoven adds the marking “Espressivo”. However the writing is not clear and the engraver understood sempre fortissimo, which is what was published in the first printed editions

^{The Pianoforte and Violin staves with the expression mark espressivo. Beethoven, L. (1807) Violin Concerto op 61. Meyerstein Copy, f.35. Add MS 47851}

^{Viennese first edition (piano arrangement). Beethoven, L, (1807) Violin Concerto in D op. 61. Piano part, p.11. Hirsch IV.301}

 A 1822 reprint of the Vienna first edition shows the mistake corrected. The image featured below is taken from a rather special score that belonged to Ferdinand David. He was a violinist who worked with Felix Mendelssohn in the composition of his own Violin Concerto. There are numerous bowing and fingering indications annotated in his handwriting throughout the score, reflecting performance practice of the mid-nineteenth century.

^{Espressivo mark on the 8th staff. Beethoven, L. (1827) Violin Concerto in D op. 61. First Violin part, p 6. British Library Tyson P.M.46.(1.)}

Another instance of not-so-careful proofreading appears in the second violin part of the first edition. If we look closely there is a 5/4 bar! Can you find it?

^{Viennese first edition (piano arrangement). Beethoven, L, (1807) Violin Concerto in D op. 61. Second Violin part, p.2. Hirsch IV.301}

The Violin Concerto remained in relative obscurity until a crucial performance took place during the Philharmonic Society Concert on the 27 May 1844 in the Hanover Square Rooms in London, with the 13-year-old virtuoso Joseph Joachim making his debut as the soloist. The orchestra was conducted by no other than Felix Mendelssohn himself, who composed his own Violin Concerto in E minor op.64 shortly after his return from London.

^{Illustrated London News, 23 June 1843. British Library P.P.7611.}

By 1844, musical tastes had changed and audiences were more receptive to the scale and melodic qualities of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. The tremendous success of Joachim’s performance steered the piece into the musical repertoire, helping it to be recognised as the masterpiece we consider it to be today.

   

 

Many thanks to Andrea Harrandt  and Peter Prokop from the Austrian National Library for kindly granting us permission to feature images from the autograph manuscript on this blog post.

 

  Notes

       1. Wiener Theater-Zeitung, 8 January 1807
       2. Carl Czerny, Pianoforte-Schule op.500, Part IV, p117

 Primary Sources:

• Autograph Manuscript: Musiksammlung, Austrian National Library (Vienna) Shelfmark Mus.Hs.17538 MUS MAG
                  Available online: http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/10040AE1
•  Meyerstein Copy: British Library Shelfmark Add MS 47851
                  Available online: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_47851 
• Viennese first edition (Piano arrangement): British Library Shelfmark Hirsch IV.301
• London first edition (Orchestral parts only): British Library Shelfmark 383.a.(1.)

Bibliography:

    Tyson, A. (1962). The Text of Beethoven's Op. 61. Music & Letters, 43(2), 104-114. London : Oxford University Press British Library Shelfmark P.P.1946.bd.
    Beethoven, L.; Clarke, R (ed) (2007). Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major = D-Dur : Op. 61 / London: Eulenburg. British Library Shelfmark:  D.856.j./30
    Beethoven, L, & Del Mar, J (ed). (2010). Konzert in D für Klavier und Orchester : Nach dem op. 61. Kassel: Bärenreiter. British Library Shelfmark h.383.vv./1-3
    Stowell, R. (1998). Beethoven: Violin concerto (Cambridge music handbooks). Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press. British Library Shelfmark YC.1999.a.2995 

Are you a PhD student with an interest in contemporary British music? Would you like experience of working behind the scenes at the British Library? If so, then make sure to apply for this opportunity in the Library’s PhD research placement scheme. The deadline for applications is Monday 19 February, 4pm - so fast approaching!

 

You will join a small team of curators in the British Library’s Music department with responsibility for the collections of music manuscripts (ca. 100,000 items) and printed music (ca. 1.6 million items). Our work is primarily concerned with developing, conserving, and promoting access to these collections for the benefit of music scholars and the wider public.

The placement will involve helping us to improve access to our holdings of 20th-century British composer/musician archives through input into one particular uncatalogued collection, the content of which could range from notated scores and sketch material through to correspondence and other personal papers. The specific focus is open to discussion between the student and placement supervisor, depending on experience.

More information about the placement scheme and how to apply can be found here.

 

Note on Funding

The British Library PhD research placement scheme has been developed in consultation with UK Research Funders, universities and Doctoral Training Partnerships.

The research placements offered through the scheme are opportunities for current PhD students to apply and enhance research skills and expertise outside of Higher Education as part of their wider research training and professional development. They are training and development opportunities to be undertaken within this specific context – and are therefore different to the paid internships or other fixed-term posts that the Library may occasionally make available. See the Application Guidelines for further details and background.

Please note that – unlike for an internship or a fixed-term post – the British Library is unable to provide stipends or payment to PhD placement students. It is therefore essential that applicants to the placement scheme obtain the support of their PhD supervisor and Graduate Tutor (or someone in an equivalent senior academic management role) in advance and that, as part of their process, they consult their HEI to ascertain what funding is available to support them.

After the interview stage, students who have been offered a placement and are not able to cover the costs through funding from their university or other sources may apply to the Library’s PhD Placement Travel Fund to request help to cover day-to-day commuting expenses or one-off relocation travel costs only. Please note that this Fund is limited and the success of an application to it cannot be guaranteed.

To support self-funded and part-time students, most placements can be done on a part-time basis, with some remote working also sometimes possible – see the individual projects for details.

Any questions?

Contact [email protected] for all queries or to be added to our placement scheme mailing list.

Some music manuscripts in the British Library collections have made an important contribution to tonight's concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at City Halls in Glasgow (also broadcast live on BBC Radio 3). On the programme is the first performance in over 80 years of Michael Tippett’s Symphony in B-flat. The piece was withdrawn by the composer and never published, but a new edition has been prepared (with the permission of the Tippett estate) from the only surviving sources here at the British Library – one recently catalogued score in Tippett’s own hand (MS Mus. 1757/2) and one prepared by a copyist in 1934 (Add MS 72010).

Title and dedication for Michael Tippett's unpublished Symphony in B-Flat. British Library, MS Mus. 1757/2

 

Tippett composed the symphony in 1933 shortly after studies with R.O. Morris and commentators have previously noted the strong influence of Sibelius in the structure and style of the piece. The composition also coincided with the Tippett’s work at Morley College, leading a course for unemployed professional musicians - some former ‘pit’ players from theatres and cinemas that no longer needed them. The orchestra formed from that course - the South London Orchestra - performed the symphony with Tippett conducting in 1934, after which it was revised. Ultimately Tippett became unhappy with it, considering it immature in comparison to his rapidly developing style. As a result the symphony was rejected and his next piece in that genre, completed in 1945, is the one he labelled his ‘no. 1’.

The autograph manuscript for this Symphony in B-flat was purchased by the British Library from the Michael Tippett Foundation in 2004 and joins a large collection of manuscripts relating to the composer here. The contents of these are listed in our online catalogue, but the links below will allow you to browse volume by volume.

 

Tippett collection part I (Add MS 61748-61804). 57 volumes, purchased 1980

Manuscripts of Sir Michael Tippett, covering 1934-1977

Tippett collection part II (Add MS 63820-63840). 21 volumes, purchased 1986

Manuscripts of Sir Michael Tippett, covering 1977-1983

Tippett collection part III (Add MS 71099-71103). 5 volumes, purchased 1992

Manuscripts of Sir Michael Tippett, covering 1988-1991

Tippett collection part IV (Add MS 72001-72065). 65 volumes, purchased 1994

Manuscripts and notebooks of Sir Michael Tippett, covering ca. 1923-1994

Tippett collection part V (Add MS 72066-72071). 6 volumes, purchased 1994

Early works, supplementing the collection above

MS Mus. 289-292. 4 volumes

Music manuscripts and correspondence of Sir Michael Tippett, covering 1939-[1990]

MS Mus. 1757. 6 volumes

Misc. manuscript material

 

 

To mark the 500^th anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses and the beginning of the German Reformation, the British Library is hosting a free exhibition in its Treasures Gallery which looks at Luther’s life, works and influence.

The cantatas of J. S. Bach are, of course, among the most widely known works of the Lutheran musical tradition, so it is entirely fitting that the exhibition should include Bach’s own manuscript score of one such work, Wo soll ich fliehen hin (BWV 5).

The two pages of Bach’s manuscript of Wo soll ich fliehen hin (BWV 5) currently on display in the Treasures Gallery. British Library Zweig MS 1 ff.2v-3r.

The autograph score for this work forms part of the Zweig collection (shelfmark Zweig MS 1), a large collection of manuscript treasures collected by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) which was donated to the British Library by his heirs in 1986.

Austrian author and collector Stefan Zweig in 1912. From British Library Add. MS 73185.

Bach’s autograph (Zweig MS 1) consists of twelve folios, with the first two movements crammed onto just eight pages and additional staves ruled to accommodate loose ends. The following image shows how Bach ran out of space at the end of the bass aria, completing the final phrase with the separate parts side by side.

Phrase ends copied at the bottom of the page. Zweig MS 1 f.6v.

The manuscript has been fully digitised and is available to view on the British Library’s digitised manuscripts page.

The cantata was composed in the early years of Bach’s employment as the Cantor at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, with the first performance taking place on 15 October 1724. The cantata’s text is derived from a hymn of the same name by Johann Heermann (1584-1647), the first line of which roughly translates as ‘Where shall I flee’; however the identity of the librettist of the full text used by Bach remains unknown.

In Leipzig, the congregation of the Thomaskirche clearly did not sing the original chorale melody first printed with Heermann’s Wo soll ich fliehen hin. Instead, the melody quoted by Bach in the soprano part is a tune more commonly associated with Auf meinen lieben Gott by Jacob Regnart.

Beginning of the chorale melody in the soprano part, opening chorus of J. S. Bach’s Wo soll ich fliehen hin (BWV 5). Zweig MS 1 f.3v.

The cantata is scored for four-voice choir, strings, basso continuo, oboes and, slightly unusually, ‘Tromba da tirarsi’ or slide trumpet. In addition to doubling the chorale melody in the opening chorus, the trumpet is most prominently heard in the aria Verstumme, Höllenheer (Be still, hordes of hell!), where the player must negotiate the long passages of triplet semiquavers described by John Eliot Gardiner as ‘ferociously demanding’.[1]

Excerpt from the Tromba da tirarsi part of the bass aria Verstumme, Höllenheer. Zweig MS 1 f.7v.

 In Bach’s time, the Lutheran cantata had taken the place of the motet which was traditionally sung after the gospel reading appointed for the day. In the tradition of these motets, the cantata was supposed to draw out themes and meaning from the gospel, fulfilling an exegetical role in the understanding of the word of God. Bach’s Wo soll ich fliehen hin is clearly composed in this tradition, taking its scriptural starting point from the prescribed passage in the Gospel of Matthew. This passage for the 19^th Sunday after Trinity recounts the story of the man who is sick of the palsy, healed when Christ forgives his sins. Bach’s libretto is therefore largely concerned with sin and forgiveness, adapting the text of Heermann’s chorale to include references to the healing and atonement of sin by Christ’s blood.

The exhibition label accompanying this manuscript in the Treasures Gallery makes an interesting note of the fact that Heermann, whose chorale formed the textual basis for Bach’s libretto, is commemorated in the Lutheran calendar of saints along with fellow hymn writers Philipp Nicolai and Paul Gerhardt. Bach himself is, of course, commemorated in the same calendar on 28 July, the day of his death: his inclusion is undoubtedly well deserved on account of his great contribution to the Lutheran musical tradition, and is not simply for canonic variation.

 

 

By James Ritzema, Collaborative PhD student, Royal Holloway, University of London, and British Library

  

 References
[1] John Eliot Gardiner, Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, (London: Allen Lane, 2013), p270.

   We continue our series of blog posts serving as accompaniment to the current V&A exhibition: ‘Opera: Passion, Power and Politics’ which features several items from our Music Collections. On this occasion we focus on ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District’ Op 29 by the soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich. The dramatic events surrounding this work compete with those taking place on stage.

Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda…,( Moscow, 1935) British Library G.1435

    Lady Macbeth was composed between 1932 and 1934, with a libretto by Shostakovich and Alexander Preys. The story is based on a novel by Nikolai Leskov which takes place in the Russian pre-revolutionary days of serfdom. The unlikely heroine is Katerina Ismailova, the wife of a rich merchant from a bleak provincial town. Consumed with the crushing boredom of her empty life she becomes the mistress of one of her husband’s servants. When found out she murders her father–in-law and later, her husband. They are then sent to Siberia, where her lover forsakes her for another woman. In mad desperation, she kills her rival and then herself. 

Titlepage from the first edition of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District’, (Moscow, 1935) G.1435

    The British Library holds a rare vocal score of the opera, published in 1933 before its premiere and two years before the first regular edition shown in the image above.

  Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda…,( Moscow, 1933) British Library D.337.

Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda…,( Moscow, 1933) British Library D.337.

    Its rudimentary printing method and paper quality are indications that it may have been intended for limited rather than wide distribution. These were copies that perhaps circulated among musicians and collaborators during rehearsals for the Moscow production.

“The corpse of Zinoviy Borisovich! Oh! Oh! Get the police!". Dmitriĭ Dmitrievich Shostakovich, Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo uezda…,( Moscow, 1933) D.337.

    Lady Macbeth was premiered on 22 January 1934 in the Leningrad Malyi Opera Theatre with Samuil Samosud, who had been a close collaborator of Shostakovich in the latter stages of the production, as conductor. Two days later it opened in the Nemirovich-Dachenko Theatre in Moscow.

    The London premiere took place at the Queens Hall on the 18^th of March 1936, under the baton of Albert Coates. Among the audience there was a 22-year-old Benjamin Britten who was especially impressed by the entreact music. One can only speculate whether he was equally impressed by the tenor singing the minor part of '2^nd Foreman'. It wasn’t until later on that year that Britten formally met Peter Pears, who would become a lifelong personal and professional partner. 

 Programme of the Premiere in the Queen’s Hall, 18 March 1936, British Library X.0431/534.

    Our Music Manuscripts collection has a manuscript copy of the full score which appears to have been used in the preliminary stages of the London production. The music was copied by Soviet hands while the text was added later on in England. It follows the English translation prepared by the musicologist Michel Calvocoressi, while the music reflects earlier versions of the opera. Several pencilled cuts and annotations, probably by the conductor himself, are present throughout the score

Dmitrii Dmitrievich Shostakovich, ‘Lady Macbeth (Katerina Izmaylova)’, op.29, British Library  MS Mus. 148

    While there was some initial criticism regarding the naturalist use of the music and the choice of subject, Lady Macbeth was a firm success. It was performed hundreds of times in its first two years, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. The Daily Herald called it ‘the Best modern opera since ‘Wozzeck’, while the Sovetskaia Muzyka praised it as “the chef d’ouvre of soviet creativity”. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District was hailed as the first great proletarian opera.

Conductor cut mark. Dmitrii Dmitrievich Shostakovich,  ‘Lady Macbeth (Katerina Izmaylova)’, op.29,  MS Mus. 148

    Shostakovich’s fortunes would be dramatically reversed on the evening of 22 January 1936. The composer was requested to attend the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow for a production of the opera. Upon reaching his seat, he saw in the box across the stage were three of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union, Andrei Zhanov, Anastas Mikoyan and none other than Joseph Stalin himself. As the opera progressed, Shostakovich witnessed with horror how they winced and laughed every time a loud note emerged from the orchestra pit. Before the end of the third act, they had left the theatre.

    Two days later the Communist Party’s official newspaper, Pravda, published an article which has since been considered as one of the most prominent examples of art censorship.

Pravda, (vol 27, no 6633), p3, 28 January 1936, British Library NEWS13616

    This page comes from the Pravda issue of 28^th January 1936, a copy of which is in our Newspapers Collections. On the bottom left we can see the fateful article, which was titled 'Сумбур вместо музыки – Об опере Леди Макбет Мценского уезда’, or 'Muddle Instead of Music: On the Opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'. Here Shostakovich is condemned as formalist, while giving in to bourgeois tastes. The music, on the other hand, “quacks, grunts, growls and suffocates itself.” His status as the foremost soviet composer rapidly dissolved into the paranoia and repression of the Great Purge, which unravelled that year.

    His peers from the Leningrad Composer’s Union unanimously voted to support the Pravda article. Shostakovich had no other choice than to buckle under party pressure and withdraw his Fourth Symphony shortly before its premiere. He would never write another opera again and it was not until 1963, after Stalin’s death, that Lady Macbeth was performed again, revised, and under a different name and opus number: Katerina Ismailova, op. 114
Excerpt from the March of the Convicts. Dmitrii Dmitrievich Shostakovich,  ‘Lady Macbeth (Katerina Izmaylova)’, op.29,  MS Mus. 148

    This would be the first of two public denunciations of Shostakovich's music, the second of which took place in 1948. From both he was officially rehabilitated after managing to court back regime favour. This resilience and artistic conviction are captured in a 1943 letter to his friend Sir Henry Wood¹

^{Letter from Dimitri Shostakovich to Sir Henry Wood, 1 September 1943, British Library Add MS 56426 f 45.}

 (…) I am sure that the hour is near when our common enemy will be smashed and when our peoples will be able to resume their upbuilding of culture and art. With all my heart and soul I believe that after the war our art, to which we give all our efforts and abilities, will flourish with redoubled glory and magnificence.

With kindest regards.

Yours very Sincerely,

Dmitry Shostakovich . 

 

 We would like to thank Ms Shostakovich and Mirjam Eck-Yousef from Sikorski Music Publishers for their kind authorization to feature some of the images above.

Have you recently started a PhD in Music? Alternatively, are you Master's student thinking of going on to study at doctoral level? If so, the British Library's doctoral music open day on 8 December 2017 is for you.

The music collections at the British Library are unparalleled in their scope and diversity, providing a wealth of material to aid and inspire researchers and performers. The Library’s holdings of written musical sources (printed music and music manuscripts) and related literature (books, journals, concert programmes) encompass all genres and countries from the Middle Ages to the present day. Equally valuable for researchers is the rich body of private papers, correspondence, and business archives relating to composers, performing musicians, music publishers and performing institutions.  Our sound and moving image collection is similarly extensive, covering commercial discs, pop videos and ethnographic field recordings from across the globe, as well as radio sessions, interviews, documentaries and live performances. These materials are relevant to students in music and many other disciplines.

With this amount of material on offer, it can be difficult to know where to start, which is where our open days come in.

Browse the draft programme (significantly revised from last year), and then book your place online.  

Comments from last year include:

“The day was excellent and demystified the British Library. ”

“It was not just about the library but also gave me lots of ideas. Very inspiring. Thank you.”

“Not to belittle the excellent and useful sessions, but the (carrot) CAKES!!!!”

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

A number of British Library collection items are on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum at the moment for their blockbuster exhibition, Opera: Power, Passion and Politics. Based around seven operatic premieres, the exhibition explores the relationship between those works and the cultural and political events of their time. A selection of books, pamphlets, maps and manuscript scores recently made the short trip from St. Pancras to South Kensington and are now on display alongside an amazing selection of artefacts from collections around the world. To mark the exhibition we will be posting a series of short articles here over the coming months, delving further into our collections to find more related to each of the composers represented.

'The Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera Robert le Diable', Edgar Degas (1876). The famous painting, from the V&A's own collection, is also exhibited.

Verdi’s Nabucco, first performed in Milan in 1842, is one of the featured operas in the V&A's exhibition (as Verdi’s birthday was earlier this week it seems appropriate to focus on him in this first blog post!). The audience at that opening night may or may not have found resonances with their political situation in the famous ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves’ (Va, pensiero), but the piece's associations have certainly become well established since.

A handwritten copy of the vocal line appears in a collection of political songs used by the twentieth-century experimental composer Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981). The back of this single page reveals the chorus included in a set list of songs to be performed at an event in the 1970s, sitting alongside more overtly political songs such as the Red Flag and El Pueblo Unido.

Set list, including 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves'. Cornelius Cardew Collection, British Library, Add MS 70772, f.1v

For a later performance Cardew talks of the piece being "an allegory of the plight of the modern composer, isolated from the broad masses (whose activity should be his main source of inspiration) in the Establishment's Ivory Tower for New Music".*¹

Nabucco is often described as a key work in establishing Verdi’s reputation. That reputation grew relatively quickly – Ernani, his first opera to be performed in Britain, was given at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1845. Nabucco followed the next year but theatre licensing rules of the time dictated that biblical characters were not allowed to be represented on the stage. This meant some changes to the story, and the name of the title character (and the whole opera) was altered from Nebuchadnezzar (/Nabucco) to Nino.

We are lucky to have performance materials from some of these nineteenth-century productions of Verdi’s operas in London. The image below gives some impression of the perils the scores and instrumental parts have faced over the years, most notably escaping a fire at the theatre in 1867.

Fire damage. Chorus score for Nabucco from the King's Theatre Archive. British Library, MS Mus. 1715/65/1

An annotated chorus part, possibly from those first London performances in 1846, shows some of the minor changes to text that Va, pensiero was given as a result of the plot and character changes: Giordano (Jordan) became Eufrate (Euphrates), while Sione (Zion) became Babele (Babel).  

Chorus part for Nabucco. From the King's Theatre Archive. MS Mus.1715/65/1

A manuscript score for the chorus master, probably from a slightly later 1850s performance, gives intriguing insight into the personalities of musicians involved – this caricature appears throughout the score, but looms especially large at the opening of the chorus. 

Chorus master's manuscript for Nabucco. From the King's Theatre Archive, MS Mus. 1715/65/2

While Verdi’s operas were described as popular with the public in London, critical opinion seems to have been divided. Massimo Zicari’s book on Verdi’s reception in London at the time discusses plenty of examples of this, but a review of Nabucco from 1846 by James Davison, editor and owner of the influential periodical, The Musical World, is particularly eye catching:

“the choruses are nothing but the commonest tunes arranged almost invariably in unison – perhaps because the composer knows not how to write in parts”

Whatever the critics said, the popular appetite for Verdi’s operas helped feed a sub-industry of associated tie-in publications – arrangements of tunes from the operas for piano and other instruments in the form of paraphrases, pot-pourris and fantasies. Even, as in this case, arranged as a quadrille for dancing. 

Quadrilles on tunes from Nabucco, by P. Pavini. British Library, h.937.(23.)

Franz Liszt’s operatic paraphrases are perhaps the pinnacle of the form. Below is a page from an autograph manuscript of his paraphrase on themes from Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Liszt’s endless process of revision, rethinking and reworking of his pieces is particularly apparent in this score.

Franz Liszt, Paraphrase on Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'. Egerton MS 2735

Last but certainly not least in this brief show-and-tell of Verdi-related items in the British Library collections is a complete opera in Verdi’s hand! This is his ninth opera, Attila, which was premiered in Venice the same year Nabucco was first given in London (1846). The manuscript was purchased by the British Museum in 1898 from Josef Coen, and an inscription inside tells us that at some point it was also owned by an F. Goring in Florence. Beyond that, its provenance - and the route it took from Verdi’s desk to us - remains something of a mystery.

Autograph score of Verdi's Attila. British Library, Add MS 35156

Chris Scobie, Curator of Music Manuscripts

 

 References

^*1 quoted in Tony Harris, The Legacy of Cornelius Cardew (London, 2016). ELD.DS.53926.