MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix. Manuscript of the choral tenor part of “Jagdlied” op.120 no.1 [MWV G 21], in part autographed by the composer and a scribe, c.1837.
£13,000
297 x 237mm; 1 page; folio; ruled with 16 staves, no place or date, c.1837.
Underlinings and words, some of Mendelssohn’s added musical notes and markings interspersed throughout the score in brown ink, including the title “Jagdlied”, tempo marking “Presto”, and treble clefs, all in Mendelssohn’s hand; a total of 38 bars and circa 160 words; the musical notation in black ink occupying eight staves, in addition to the vocal designation “Tenore 1”, in a scribal hand.
A chorus and four solo voice hunting song written for the Frankfurt senator Franz Bernus, composed in November 1837. Created as payment for a bet made earlier that summer in Bingen, the music is accompanied by the poetry written by the senator himself, an amateur poet, after Walter Scott. The music was published posthumously in Leipzig and London in 1873, as the first of the Vier Lieder op.120 in a collected edition.
MWV, pp.106 (source d), & 450 (‘Sammelhandschriften’ no.38 (source b))