Mahler, Gustav

Containing very early drafts for two extended passages, the first in F minor and later D minor, comprising some fifty or more bars, containing material used eventually in the climactic section before and after bar 340, with numerous alterations and corrections and with details of orchestration in places: “Streicher unison G moll...antwort Blech...Volles Orchester...”, with many differences from the final version; the second passage comprising a draft of the “O glaube” section, beginning with the preceding orchestral section in G flat major, from bar 492 at the violin anacrusis, the first two entries of the chorus omitted (“Auferstehen...Wie der aufzublühn”), but suggested by Mahler (“...1 Strophe...2 Str[ophe]., nach der S. Str[ophe]; the whole passage considerably longer and rather different from the final version; with a cue for the choral section: “Was vergangen ist”; a passage of about seventy bars in all, notated in black ink and pencil, written on systems of between one and four staves, and in the margins, with autograph heading: “Neu”

2 pages, large folio (c.35 x 27cm), 28-stave, brownish paper, no place or date [c.1894], a little minor fraying at edges, otherwise in good condition; framed and glazed on both sides (overall size: 46.2 x 37.9cm), in a modern, de-acidified mount,  together with an autograph letter by Alma Mahler, presenting the manuscript

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Autograph working manuscripts by Mahler are becoming rare at auction.  We have not seen any sketchleaf by Mahler at auction for  five years.

The victory at the end of Mahler’s Second Symphony is hard-won and this manuscript shows the complicated processes to achieve this. The sketchleaf contains drafts of many famous passages, not least the “O glaube” section, with its searching melody and harmonies; and the uplifting string passages which precede the “Auferstehen” passages.

A letter from Alma Mahler about this manuscript is included in the lot, presenting it to Margarethe, eldest daughter of Mahler’s friend, the banker Dr Paul Hammerschlag, on the occasion of her wedding. It was later at one time in the possession of the pianist Martin Isepp.