MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus (1756 - 1791)

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Lot n° 140
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80000 - 100000 EUR
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Result : 546 000EUR
MOZART Wolfgang Amadeus (1756 - 1791)
autograph manuscript of sketches, [1788]; 1 oblong page in-4 (ca. 21.5 x 28.5cm; split at centerfold, traces of adhesive repair at spine). Beautiful page of sketches for a fugue and two canons. This 12-stave sheet, written on the recto alone in various brown inks, bears a fi ligree listed by Alan Tyson in his WasserzeichenKatalog as no. 95 (Neue Mozart Ausgabe X/33/2, p.44-45). The page has been indexed by Ulrich Konrad (NMA X/30/3, Skizzen, p. 46) under the reference Skb 1788b [KV6 626b/2; see also Ulrich Konrad, Mozarts Schaff ensweise (Göttingen, 1992), pp. 187-188 and 333 At the top of the 12-stave page, Mozart wrote, under the title Overture, 4 bars of two horn parts "2 Corni in B alti", with the indication Presto (the work has not been identified; it is probably a theme copied from another composer's score; hence the mention "Pag. I" ). Below, occupying staves 2 to 5 and 6 to 9, the exposition of a four-part fugue in C [K 626b/2], occupying 28 bars, with the four subject entries (without the countersubject), close to the thematic material of the Finale of the Jupiter Symphony (K 551), whose manuscript is on the same paper as this sheet. On staves 6 to 9, Mozart then wrote down the theme sketch (without words) of the 4-part canon "Bona nox! bist a rechta Ox" (K 561), with erasures and corrections On staves 10 to 12, Mozart wrote down the theme sketch of the 3-part canon "Diffi cile lectu mihi Mars" (K 559). These two canons are part of a group of ten canons recorded by Mozart in his own thematic catalog on September 2, 1788, less than a month after the Jupiter Symphony. We have here the very first idea of these two works, in a condensed form combining the thematic cells of all the parts (four for K 561 over 4 bars; three for K 559, over 8 bars), conceived in reversible counterpoint, and presenting differences with the final realization (NMA II/10 nos. 13 and 15). These canons were reserved for a circle of intimates; the lyrics (by Mozart himself) are in fact very rude, even scatological, in a mixture of kitchen Latin, Italian, French, English and Viennese dialect; when published in 1804 by Breitkopf & Härtel, the lyrics were toned down at the request of Constanze Mozart. At the bottom of the page, a certificate of authenticity by the Viennese musicologist and collector Aloys FUCHS (1799-1853): "Die vollkommene Aechtheit dieser Handschrift des unsterblichen W. A. Mozart bestättigt Aloys Fuchs. Mitglied der k.k. Hofk apelle in Wien. Wien 2. Juli 1846"; on the reverse, autograph note by Max BRUCH, confirming Fuch's opinion: "Ich schließe mich der Ansicht des Herrn Aloys Fuchs unbedingt an. Max Bruch. Coblenz, 23. Novbr. 83". Alfred Einstein had listed (Köchel 3) the manuscript in 1935 in the collection of the musicologist Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme (1871-1956), It then disappeared until its reappearance at a sale in 2011. PROVENANCE [Constanze Mozart (1762-1842)]; Aloys Fuchs; Max Bruch (1838-1920); J.G. Prod'homme (1871-1956); Sotheby's sale, London November 30, 2011, lot 137.
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