F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Autograph manuscript of the vocal duet "Sonntagslied", for female voices and piano

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Autograph manuscript of the vocal duet Sonntagslied, for female voices and piano, op.77 no.1

notated in black ink on up to four four-stave systems per page, with autograph title ("Sonntagslied"), a few autograph deletions, corrections and revisions

2 pages, folio (c.28 x 19.8cm), 16-stave paper, modern quarter cloth folder, edges trimmed, horizontal and verticals folds

AN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF A COMPLETE WORK BY MENDELSSOHN.

This is the first of three duets for women’s voices published posthumously as op.77 in 1848. The published title, where it is given as "Sonntagsmorgen", is slightly different from this autograph. It was completed apparently on 3 December 1836, though the present manuscript is undated. The text is by Ludwig Uhland, whose name Mendelssohn enters above the piano part in the last two bars.

The style is decorously Victorian, the sort of music her Majesty would have loved and possibly sang when Mendelssohn accompanied her on the piano on several of his visits to these shores. Mendelssohn’s music became incredibly popular in England and, for better and for worse, influenced many of the local composers in the 1840s and for many years afterwards.

PROVENANCE:

Otto Haas