Strauss, Johann II

the title written by the composer in pencil at the start of the music, the words beginning "Die Lerche in blaue Höh entschwebt", notated by Strauss for soprano and orchestra in pencil and blue crayon on seven systems per page of two staves each (marked "Gesang" and "orchestra"), the orchestral line sometimes omitted, with expression marks, and instructions by the composer to the copyist ("come sopra 1te Theil...NB Platz für Eingang frei zu lassen..."), the German text written into the score in red ink by the author and composer Richard Genée, the final sixteen bars of music also written by Genée, a few later revisions to the words by the author in black ink, and some Italian words apparently added by Franz von Suppé in pencil

9 pages, folio (c.33.5 x 26.5cm), 14-stave paper ("Nr.379"), together with two title-pages ("Joh Strauss, op.410 Frühlingsstimmen Singstimme Autograph von Joh. Strauss u. R. Genée"), with notes authenticating the manuscript on the title and at the foot of the third page, and an autograph manuscript by Genée of the text of the song "Frühlingsstimmen Walzer von Johann Strauss, textirt von Richard Genée", 13 pages in all, no place or date, [Vienna, c. 1883], the leaves separate, in acid-free sleeves, modern green folding box, gilt titles (overall size: c.44 x 38.5cm), creasing, dust-marking and splitting at folds, slightly affecting the text but without loss, small tears to margins

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT BY JOHANN STRAUSS TO HAVE APPEARED AT AUCTION FOR TWENTY YEARS.  It is the composition-draft of one of his best-loved works, and one of the few manuscripts of a Strauss waltz to have been offered for sale. 

This manuscript contains Strauss's original vocal version of the Waltz-Song: published editions usually present piano or orchestral arrangements, the piano versions omitting the striking vocal coda present here. We have traced no other autograph score by Strauss for this work: the full score is contained in a copyist's manuscript in the Stadtbibliothek in Vienna.

Frühlingsstimmen ("Voices of Spring"), was composed as a virtuoso Waltz-Song for the coloratura soprano Bianca Bianchi, who sang it at the Theater an der Wien on 1 March 1883. It was published as Strauss's Op.410 later that month (see Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, p.607-608). The composition is famous for its abundance of melody, with a succession of fine tunes for each verse of the text: "Die Lerche in Blauen Höh", "Schmerz wird milder", "Da strömt auch der Liederquelle", "Voller schon erschallt die süsse Ton", "Liebedurchglüht tönet das Lied" and "Kaum will entschwinden die Nacht". Some later published versions have different words.

This is an intensively worked manuscript, and a colourful one, with several layers of composition present written in red, blue, black and grey. It seems to be Strauss's original draft of the song; later he added an orchestral introduction of some forty bars. The composer has written the whole of the vocal line in pencil, occasionally adding words, and subsequently the orchestral accompaniment line in blue crayon for the first two sections and the repeat of the first. He has also made some revisions in blue crayon. The librettist Genée has written the whole text in red ink (very occasionally over Strauss's originals). Genée was a conductor and composer as well as a librettist, and here he has completed the manuscript with a sixteen-bar codetta, an early version diverging somewhat from the final published versions, and the title of the "Coda". Genée's hand can be seen in other autograph manuscripts by Strauss, most notably in the opera Die Fledermaus, whose libretto he also wrote. Strauss was at first unfamiliar with vocal writing and used Genée not just as a lyricist, but for the detailed working out of his melodic ideas (Andrew Lamb in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera).