Kodály, Zoltán.

the unpublished 1906 version, the entire full score manuscript extensively revised by the composer in 1929, notated in black ink on one system, of up to twenty staves per page, most of the dynamic markings added in red ink, with the majority of Kodály's 1929 revision and additions made in pencil, with extensive sketching in pencil on many of the originally blank staves, with additional autograph markings in red crayon and a number of (probably autograph) markings in pink and blue crayon, the 1929 drafts and sketches containing extensive deletions and alterations, some corrections written on pasted down strips of manuscript paper; the original pages 39/40 and 41/42 excised and replaced with a later autograph version; a further three pages of autograph pencil sketches follow at the end of the manuscript



58 pages in all, folio (c.33.5 x 25.5cm), 20-stave paper ("J.E. & Co...No.6 20 linig"), contemporary half cloth, no place, August 1906 and 1929, binding worn, splitting at gutter, light browning at edges, thumbed

M. Houlahan & P. Tacka, Zoltán Kodály. A Guide to Research (1998), p.25: "Note Original score not extant".  

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing where appropriate.
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This is by far the most important Kodaly manuscript to be offered at auction for over twenty years. Indeed, we have no record of any substantial musical manuscript of his being offered for sale within this period.

This is a Kodály discovery: the original version of "Nyári Este" was believed lost.  As the 1906 version was unpublished, this manuscript contains a hitherto lost original composition.  The composer has then used and heavily annotated this manuscript with drafts and sketches for the 1929 revision.  However the revised version eventually became an essentially recomposed work. Except for the few pages excised and replaced in 1929, the original version here survives almost complete. 

Nyári este was Kodály's first large orchestral piece. Written in the summer of 1906, it was first performed in Budapest on 22 October that year.  The composer revised the work for Toscanini in 1929 creating a rather heavier score in places, though not all the additions sketched here are maintained in the final published version. Kodály did not merely reorchestrate Nyári este, however, the work was extensively recomposed in 1929, with many thematic differences from the old version.  This reworking is vividly displayed in this manuscript, although it contains Kodály's drafts and sketches for his revision, rather than the final version itself.  Under its new title, "Summer Evening", it was performed by Toscanini with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on 3 April 1930 and published by Universal of Vienna.  However, the original version remains unpublished.

In addition to the original autograph dating "1906 augusztus" at the end of the score there are a number of other, presumably autograph, datings in pencil ("1906. okt." and "1912?") and one possibly autograph dating in ink ("1907 oktober"). It is likely that some or all of these later datings refer to performances of the work.