a donizetti manuscript in the zweig · pdf filea donizetti manuscript in the zweig ... in d...

1 eBLJ 2014, Article 12

A Donizetti Manuscript in the Zweig Collection

Christopher Scobie

The British Library has in its collections an autograph manuscript of a piece of music by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), incomplete and seemingly hitherto unnoticed by scholars of the composer.1 The manuscript (catalogue number Zweig MS. 33) is described as a ‘Movement in D major/minor for string quartet’ and is part of the large collection of musical, literary and historical manuscripts given to the British Library by the heirs of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) in 1986.2

Zweig was also something of an obsessive collector. Beginning in youth when he procured signatures from famous actors and musicians at stage doors, his hobby matured to become a reflection of his artistic ideals as he purchased literary and musical manuscripts by illustrious names such as Goethe, Keats, Mozart and Beethoven. The manuscripts in his possession changed throughout his lifetime as they were sold or traded for (what he considered) better exemplars, and after Zweig and his wife’s joint suicide in Brazil in 1942 his heirs added further items. While this is the only piece by Donizetti in the BL Zweig collection (which, musically at least, is perhaps predictably biased towards Zweig’s Austro-Germanic compatriots), we do know that it previously included one other piece by the composer: the 6 Notturni a più istromenti,3 IN.617b.4

Zweig MS. 33 covers four full folios, gathered in a bifolio structure, and is written densely but legibly on both sides in four-stave systems, as shown in fig. 1. The paper is 231x291mm and has 20 staves to a page. A watermark shows three fleurs de lys within a decorated double circle and the name ‘D. Carm. Baccari’ appears beneath it.5 There is no title or instrumentation given on the first page of music, although a large tempo indication, ‘Larghetto’, does appear in front of the first bar of music and the name ‘Donizetti’ is written, seemingly in the composer’s own hand, towards the top left of the page. A mysterious ‘N3’ is lightly pencilled in the top right corner in a different, later, hand – possibly Zweig’s.

1 The piece is not listed in Luigi Inzaghi’s ‘Catalogo generale delle opere’, in Giampiero Tintori (ed.), Gaetano Donizetti (Milan, 1983), John Allitt’s catalogue in his Donizetti: In the Light of Romanticism and the Teaching of Johann Simon Mayr (Shaftesbury, 1991), or mentioned in any other literature on the composer known to me.

2 The Stefan Zweig Collection: British Library Zweig MSS. 1-215. The music manuscripts are Zweig MSS. 1-131, 204-205, and 207-215. See Arthur Searle, The British Library Stefan Zweig Collection: Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts (London, 1999) and the online catalogue <http://searcharchives.bl.uk> for full descriptions. Donizetti is also represented in the British Library’s collections by an autograph manuscript of three vocal duets (Music Loan 91.1), at least two of which seem to be similarly unrecorded.

3 This was sold, along with a large number of other manuscripts in Zweig’s possession, by the Austrian book dealer Heinrich Hinterberger in 1937. The notturni were in turn bought by the Swiss collector Martin Bodmer, in whose Foundation in Geneva the manuscript now resides. See Oliver Matuschek, Ich kenne den Zauber der Schrift: Katalog und Geschichte der Autographensammlung Stefan Zweig (Vienna, 2005) for details of all the manuscripts Zweig is known to have owned and their present locations.

4 I have used Luigi Inzaghi’s catalogue numbers (Catalogo generale, Milan 1983) throughout to refer to works by Donizetti, other than the operas.

5 See Searle, op. cit.

2


eBLJ 2014, Article 12

Fig.

1.

Brit

ish

Libr

ary,

Zw

eig

MS.

33,

f. 1

r.

3



The piece consists entirely of material familiar from two of Donizetti’s opera overtures. Beginning with a short Larghetto in D major also found in bars 20-49 of the Anna Bolena sinfonia (first performed in December 1830), the composition then proceeds to a main Allegro Vivace in D minor which corresponds to the equivalent part of the overture to Il diluvio universale (first performed in February 1830, rev. 1834). The Il diluvio overture, as it is generally known,6 uses a completely different Larghetto and launches into the Allegro material by way of a loud perfect cadence (see fig. 2a below). Zweig MS. 33, by contrast, begins the Allegro with a quiet descending D minor arpeggio in long notes (see fig. 2b).

Fig. 2a. Transition and beginning of Allegro Vivace from Il diluvio universale. Vocal Score published by Schonenberger (Paris, 1855)

Fig. 2b. Transition and beginning of Allegro Vivace in Zweig MS. 33.

6 Vocal scores were published in Milan (by Epimaco e Pasquale Artaria ) in 1840 and in Paris (by Schonenberger) in 1855 and at least two recordings have been commercially released: one on the Voce 100 label from 1985, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig, and another from 2006 on the OperaRara label, conducted by Guiliano Carella. There is also a manuscript copy of the 1834 version of the opera available online at <http://imslp.org/wiki/Il_diluvio_universale_(Donizetti,_Gaetano)> [accessed 27/02/13]

Fig. 2a. Transition and beginning of Allegro Vivace from Il diluvio universale. Vocal Score

published by Schonenberger (Paris, 1855)


Fig. 3. Third stave from Zweig MS. 33, bb.121-124.

Fig. 4. First stave of Zweig MS. 33, bb. 289-295.






4



The form of the piece is that typical of the overture/sinfonia as crystallized by Rossini: a slow introduction, followed by an exposition consisting of an ‘A’ theme, ‘B’ theme (usually in a different key) and crescendo theme, then a short transition before recapitulation of the exposition, this time presenting all the material in the tonic key (in this case D minor). At the end of the recapitulation (bar 270) the Zweig manuscript abruptly finishes, just before we would expect a concluding coda. Given that the music continues to the very end of the last page, there seems no reason to believe the piece was left incomplete – rather, it is perhaps most likely that a final page has simply been mislaid in the 100 years or so between its creation and its being sold to Zweig. An intriguing result of the bifolio gathering is that this last page would presumably have wrapped around in front of the first folio of music, perhaps supplying the currently unknown title information.

It was Zweig himself who thought the manuscript to be a movement from an unknown, incomplete, string quartet. He bought it in July 1938 from a Milanese dealer, Francesco Torrini, along with a Credo for soprano, alto and organ by Spontini (Zweig MS. 87) and a sketch for the vocal line of the cabaletta to ‘O contento desiato’ from Bellini’s Bianca e Fernando (Zweig MS. 16). Correspondence between Torrini and Zweig indicates that the Donizetti manuscript was sold as a ‘Larghetto, unpublished and unknown’ for 2000 lire.7 No more information than that seems to have been given, which would imply that the manuscript was not treated as particularly important or paid very close examination. If it had been, details such as the tempo marking changing to Allegro Vivace on the first page – and remaining like that for the rest of the piece – would surely have been noticed. Zweig evidently gave the manuscript more attention as amongst his notes and papers relating to the collection are a record card that refers to this again simply as ‘Larghetto’ (Add. MS. 73169, f. 23) and an envelope in which the manuscript was presumably originally kept. This has the composer’s name and ‘Larghetto’ written on the front in black ink; added later in blue ink (and in Zweig’s hand) are the words ‘Allegro Vivace’ and ‘(Quartetto?)’.

While it is obvious why Zweig may have thought that this might be a work for string quartet given the four stave layout, during preparation of the material for performance it has become apparent that there are several reasons why this cannot be the case:

1. There are repeated three note, close position chords that are not idiomatic, or even playable on single string instruments (see example below, fig. 3).


2. There are numerous double-stopped passages that are awkward and unidiomatic to play (fig. 4).


3. The lowest stave contains notes out of the range of the cello (fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Bottom stave of Zweig MS. 33, bb. 19 and 198.

7 British Library, Add. MS. 73172, f. 114.











Fig. 5. Bottom stave of Zweig MS. 33, bb. 19 and 198.

5



4. Clefs on the four staves comprise two treble clefs and two bass clefs – there is no alto clef, which might be expected for the viola part on the third stave down if this were a string quartet.

In addition to these more quantifiable examples, the character of the piece is not at all like most of the other quartets Donizetti wrote, which were largely composed earlier in his life and are less orchestral in sound and style. An exception is the last completed string quartet, in E minor (IN.645), which was written later than the others (in 1836) and reused in the overture to Linda di Chamounix (1843). The string writing in that quartet is entirely idiomatic however, and it seems as though the manuscript score and parts in Italy clearly indicate the instrumentation; neither of which, as we have seen, is the case with Zweig MS. 33.

It seems most probable that the manuscript in fact represents a work for piano-duet.8 Certainly the two treble clef and two bass clef layout would imply this, and the fact that the inner parts (i.e. what would be the left and right hands of the respective performers) do not clash further strengthens the argument. Textures and spacing of parts that would not sound as convincing on single strings work well on the piano, and there is nothing unplayable or awkward in the writing. Frequently, too, tempo and expressive markings are given between the first two staves and then duplicated between the bottom two (see the last system in fig. 1, for example): exactly where one might expect to see them on a piano duo score.

Donizetti wrote at least twenty-three works for piano duet, and Inzaghi’s Catalogo generale does, promisingly, list a ‘Seconda Sinfonia in re minore’, IN.704 (a title that certainly describes the Zweig piece) for piano, four hands, from 1820. But it is not the same piece of music, despite containing interesting structural and motivic similarities. Pietro Spada, writing in the preface to his edition of this 1820 duet9 (which he states is the only sinfonia Donizetti wrote for piano, four hands) describes it as ‘very important, amply structured with a vast development section which suggests, in general, an imaginary orchestra’ – a description that could fit equally well for Zweig MS. 33. The title ‘seconda sinfonia’ also implies the existence of a ‘prima sinfonia’ in that key too, and it is not clear if this is a piece now lost, or if it could be an orchestral Sinfonia in D minor (IN.596) from 1818 (which is also a different piece from Zweig MS. 33).

As mentioned earlier, the music in Zweig MS. 33 corresponds largely to the published form of the overture for Il diluvio universale, with just a different opening Larghetto and transition into the Allegro section. The opera was first presented in Naples in 1830, during Lent and although not entirely successfully received, it seems to have been held in enough esteem by Donizetti for him to revise the work (albeit quite heavily) for performance in Genoa in 1834. This revised version was far more successful, and is, as has already been established, the one by which the opera is generally known today. The autograph of the original 1830 version also survives however, and resides at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio ‘San Pietro a Majella’ in Naples. Dr Francesco Melisi has kindly made a comparison with an image of the first folio of Zweig MS. 33 and has indicated that they in fact both contain the same Larghetto material.10

This shows that the initial Larghetto section of the 1830 Il diluvio overture was reused by Donizetti a few months later in Anna Bolena, the hugely successful opera that made the composer famous, and was presumably jettisoned when Il diluvio was revised in 1834 because of its familiarity from the well-known predecessor. In fact it is interesting to note how Anna Bolena became the final home for material from a number of Donizetti’s less fortunate operas of this period, including Imelda di Lambertazzi and Enrico di Borgogna11 (further cross-fertilization

8 Correspondence with Ian Caddy and Alexander Weatherson from the Donizetti Society has helped in this research generally, but I would like to thank them particularly for first making this suggestion.

9 Gaetano Donizetti, Sinfonia in Fa Maggiore [actually D minor], ed. Pietro Spada (Rome, 1983).10 ‘Ho confrontato il ms. autografo di Donizetti (1830) con le pagine che mi avete inviato. Si tratta certamente

del larghetto iniziale e dell’allegro della sinfonia che ho riscontrato nella partitura. Ovviamente la sinfonia è in partitura.’ (correspondence 1/10/12).

11 See Philip Gossett, Anna Bolena and the Artistic Maturity of Gaetano Donizetti (Oxford, 1985), passim.

6



is evidenced by the motivic similarities between the main theme of the Il diluvio overture itself and the opening of the duet between Anna and Percy in Anna Bolena). Self-borrowing and re-use of material was of course still a common practice at the time, and William Ashbrook provides a neat summary that seems to fit this case perfectly:

The composers of Donizetti’s generation did not regard self-borrowing as a bad thing per se; to them an opera score was not a fixed entity, but rather a concatenation of interchangeable parts. With such a view, self-borrowing served a very pragmatic purpose, as long as it was done discreetly. Discretion lay in adherence to a few obvious rules of thumb. If a work failed or had had only a brief run and seemed unlikely to be given again, then effective parts of it could be safely salvaged.12

While it has not been possible to make a detailed comparison of Zweig MS. 33 and the autograph of the 1830 Il diluvio overture in Naples, two live performances of the opera posted on YouTube13 present an overture that does share the same Larghetto and so could be assumed to represent the 1830 version. However, these use the different transition into the Allegro used in the 1834 version of the overture (shown in fig. 2a above), and not that found in Zweig MS. 33 (fig. 2b) – which does not appear in either of the orchestral versions.

The context into which the manuscript fits poses a few final questions to ponder: in particular there appear to be several possibilities as to how the work sits in relation to the rest of the Donizetti oeuvre. Either, perhaps, the piece was written as a piano duet earlier than the first performance of Il diluvio universale in February 1830, but was later orchestrated and re-used in a modified form as an overture for the first version of that opera. Or, maybe the work is a transcription and (very slight) adaptation made after the first performance, but presumably before the premiere of Anna Bolena at the end of December the same year.

To take the first possibility: like his string quartets, most of Donizetti’s known works for piano duet were written early in his career, around the 1820s, but Zweig MS. 33 appears to be stylistically much more mature in comparison to those. That said, there is one known piano duo written later – a waltz from 1844 (IN.713) – and it is impossible to know whether there may be other examples yet to be discovered. Furthermore, the earlier ‘Seconda Sinfonia in Re minore’, mentioned above, also provides a precedent for Donizetti’s writing an original work for piano duet in an orchestral style.

Regarding the second possibility: there are numerous published scores of transcriptions of Donizetti’s operas – either whole or in extracts – for piano duet. While most of these seem not to have been made by the composer himself, it is also the case that they almost all appear after the success of Anna Bolena : before this he may have been more likely to undertake this kind of work himself.

We have seen that this is probably not a literal transcription of either version of the overture however, and so a third possibility arises: that it is a work which could be considered an original one for piano duet, albeit based (rather heavily) on the 1830 Il diluvio overture.

The event that occasioned the writing of the manuscript is a matter of even more speculation, although certain clues lead to some possible conclusions. It is fairly neat and clean and while there are a few signs of alterations these appear to be changes of mind regarding the stave on which to place material rather than anything more musically significant. While the music is quite cramped on the page, it does seem reasonable that the score might be considered a ‘fair copy’, most likely meant for performance. This could have been meant as a gift for a friend or a patron perhaps (a number of the other works for four hands at one piano have female

12 William Ashbrook, Donizetti and His Operas (Cambridge, 1982), p.54. 13 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy9Sb76Ub3I> (performance from Genova, 1985 conducted by Jan

Latham-Koenig) [accessed 12/03/13] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_PqDDHGkXc> (performance from Milan, 2008 conducted by Pierangelo Pelucchi) [accessed 12/03/13]

7



dedicatees, for example); for performance at a social function; or it could have been created to be presented for publication, perhaps within an anthology of works by a number of different composers (although no sign of it having been published has been forthcoming, it must still remain a possibility).

It is difficult to know how the purpose of this manuscript can be better established unless further evidence comes to light, but comparison with manuscripts of Donizetti’s other piano duets, mostly in Bologna, as well as a detailed comparison with the autograph manuscript of the 1830 version of Il diluvio universale may prove fruitful starting points. 14

Afterword

The piece was performed as a piano duet in October 2012 at the Esterházy Festival, using an edition prepared from the manuscript by the author: an ending was adapted from the vocal score of the 1834 Il diluvio overture. An arrangement for string quartet, with a newly composed ending, was also presented at the ‘Stefan Zweig and Britain’ conference at the British Library in May 2012, alongside other works for string quartet in the Zweig collection.

14 I am grateful to Alexander Weatherson, Ian Caddy, Nico Trees, Arthur Searle and Rupert Ridgewell for their help and suggestions during the writing of this article.

a donizetti manuscript in the zweig · pdf filea donizetti manuscript in the zweig ... in d...

Documents