Haydn, Joseph

THE WORKING MANUSCRIPT OF THE COMPLETE CHORUS 'Scenda propizio un raggio', in full score, for 2 horns in A, 2 oboes, strings and four-part chorus, notated in brown ink on eleven staves per page, with Italian words, autograph title in the upper left-hand corner of the first page ("Coro"), comprising eighty-nine bars of music, with Haydn's autograph marking "Da Capo fin al Segno" at the end, unsigned, but with Haydn's customary subscription ("Laus Deo"), with a number of erasures and autograph corrections and emendations; the manuscript also has some discreet additions and revisions in another hand, dating from the early nineteenth century, written in a darker brown ink than Haydn's, including new Latin words (most of these erased)

10 pages, plus final blank leaf, folio (c.33.8 x 22.5cm), 12-stave paper, hand-drawn staves, paginated by Aloys Fuchs in red ink ("38"-"47"), no place or date [Eisenstadt, December 1764], the additions probably early nineteenth century, nineteenth-century cream wrappers, bearing Fuchs's elaborate note of authentication ("...Für die vollkommne Aechtheit dieser Handschrift bürgt Aloys Fuchs. Mitglied der K.K. Hofkapelle in Wien. 6/1 1851."), horizontal and vertical fold, light browning to outer leaves 

Aloys Fuchs--Julian Marshall (1836-1903)--sold through W.E. Hill & Sons in 1889 to William Howard Doane, Cincinnati--Marguerite Treat Doane--bequeathed in 1950 to the Eastern Baptist Theological College, Philadelphia (sale at Sotheby's 21 November 1990, lot 88).

Joseph Haydn-Werke, XXVII, volume 1 ("Esterházy-Kantaten"), edited by A. Friesenhagen & S. Gerlach (2000), pp.139-153 & 162; Diletto musicale no.200, edited by HCR Landon (1982); A. von Hoboken,  Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, volume 2 (1971), p.185.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOGRAPH MUSIC MANUSCRIPT BY HAYDN TO APPEAR AT AUCTION IN THE LAST TWO DECADES.  IT IS A COMPLETE MOVEMENT BY HAYDN; MANUSCRIPTS IN HIS HAND OF THIS LENGTH ARE AMONG THE RAREST BY ANY OF THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE CLASSICAL ERA.   

Until its emergence at Sotheby's in 1990, this manuscript had been lost and inaccessible to Haydn scholarship for over a century.  In the nineteenth-century, it belonged to the celebrated English collector Julian Marshall, much of whose music ended up in the British Library.  It did not appear at Marshall's sales at Sotheby's in 1889; instead it was sold privately to the American industrialist and philanthropist William Howard Doane, after which it disappeared from view and resisted several attempts by scholars to track it down.

The rest of the cantata (consisting of a fine long soprano aria with harpsichord obbligato and recitatives), survives in the Whittall Collection at the Library of Congress, Washington DC.  However, this final chorus was known to scholars such as Hoboken only through a copy by the celebrated early collector Aloys Fuchs (1799-1853).  The whole cantata remained in manuscript until 1982, when it was finally published from Fuchs's copy (now at Eisenstadt), then thought to be the only source.  Unfortunately that edition contained significant errors, due to defects in Fuchs's transcription.  This autograph is therefore the sole correct original source for this movement

The Cantata Qual dubbio ormai was written by the thirty-two year-old Haydn for Prince Nicolaus Esterházy's nameday (6 December) in 1764, only a short time after he had entered the Prince's service.  As with Haydn's other two surviving "Esterházy Cantatas" in Italian, it remained unpublished in his lifetime and was instead pressed into service as a sacred work with Latin words: a contrafactum.  The chorus 'Scenda propizio un raggio' is written in da capo form, with a middle section using only two singers and with reduced orchestration, without woodwind.  Including the indicated repeat of the first section, the movement is one hundred and fifty-eight bars in all.

It is in the brief middle section "De’ sudditi e del mondo" that parts for tenor and bass were added when an early nineteenth-century musician created the Latin contrafactum.  Fuchs apparently deleted the Latin himself, but failed to notice that the admittedly small notes were not by Haydn either, so his copy in Eisenstadt still contains these redundant parts.  As Fuchs's copy was then the only known source for this movement, the first edition of 1982 also contains tenor and bass parts in the middle section, which a number of recorded performances follow.  We can say that the Latin contrafactum was probably added before it came into the hands of Fuchs, as he apparently deleted much of it, and Haydn’s original version was finally published in the new Complete Edition in 2000.