A Cartoon of Mahler

 

 

Symphony No. 2

Sketch, first movement – S1.1

 

IL-J Ms. Mus. 35=4

 

Symphony No. 2 – Manuscript sources

Symphony No. 2 – Main page

Catalogue Homepage

 

 

 
1

Details of paper and dimensions from SHMMT, I, 399.

 
2

Reilly's 1979 description (ERDS, p. 271) described this as a bifolio; by the time of  Hefling's acount (1985, q.v.), it was a single sheet. See also the notes to this entry.

 
3

No unambiguous reference to this folio (or bifolio) appears in either of the inventories of Bauer-Lechner's collection of Mahler autographs: it may have been one of the unidentified manuscripts (Inv. I, IV; Inv. II, 10)

 
4

ASSZC, xxv, 65 gives the month as January.

 
5

In the past the reference number Music Department R 2007N 233=2=R was associated with this manuscript. From the current online catalogue records it appears that this manuscript may now be housed with OD1

 

 

 

Title
  [Top of 1r, pencil, ?Stefan Zweig:] Gustav Mahler Erster Entwurf zur Zweiten Symphonie / in eigener Handschrift

[in centre of page, ink, autograph:] 1. Satz

Date
  [January–July 1888]
Calligraphy
  Ink
Paper
  12 staves, no maker's mark, upright format, no watermark, 332 x 254 (r: not recorded)¹
Manuscript structure and collation
 

1 fol.:²  

 

1r

title

1v1–2

6 bars, deleted, leading to b. 427

1v3–4

bb. 428–34

1v6

bb. 435–41

1v7–8

bb. 442–45

1v9–12  

blank

Provenance
 

Gift from Mahler to Natalie Bauer-Lechner; passed from her heirs to V.A. Heck (autograph dealer),³ and subsequently acquired (before 1930) by Stefan Zweig who presented the manuscript to IL-J in February 1934 (OMIK, 375, no. 894; ASSZC, 65).

Facsimiles
  1v: OMIK, 376
Select Bibliography
 

SHMMT passim including a transcription of 1v: II, 22; ERDS, passim; OMIK, 375, no. 894, (where the manuscript is erroneously described as consisting of 12 pages (presumably referring to OD1 by mistake) and its location is given as the Schwadron Autograph Collection).

Notes
 

According to an anecdote reported by Natalie Bauer-Lechner (NBL2, 50; NBLE, 53), Mahler was working on the movement at the time of the first performances of his completion of Weber's Die drei Pintos, the première of which was on 20 January 1888. So, these sketches were probably written between January and, at the very latest, July 1888; the orchestral draft (OD1) is dated 8 August 1888.

Reilly (1979) described this as a bifolio (it was subsequently described as a single sheet by Hefling (1985)) and suggested it originally formed a wrapper for OD1 (also at IL-J), although the latter is oblong (not upright) format paper. This manuscript has not been examined, though the photocopy at A-Wigmg (Ph 72) and the facsimile have been consulted. When in June 2008 Dr Avior Byron kindly visited IL-J to confirm the manuscript description, the manuscript could not be located.

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© 2007 Paul Banks | This page was lasted edited on 10 March 2019