Korngold, Erich Wolfgang (1891-1959).

the full score for soprano solo, mixed chorus and orchestra, including piano and organ, the words in English, notated in black ink and pencil on up to twenty-six staves per page, marked for performance in red crayon, with autograph title above the music "Passover-Psalm (Lyric--based on Hebrew prayers--by Jacob Sonderling"



48 pages, large folio (c.41.5 x 27cms), the leaves written on one side and then pasted back-to-back, with the composer's copyright notice at the foot of the first page (1941), some clefs stencilled, a few inked over, contemporary cloth boards, with title to cover, April 1941, trimmed by the binder, hinges reinforced with tape

Rare: We have no record of any autograph manuscript by Korngold being sold at auction. 

Korngold's "Passover Psalm" is apparently unpublished: performing materials were issued for hire, but we have traced no commercial editon. The words are taken from the Haggada, by Jacob Sonderling, chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Los Angeles, who commissioned the work.

The "Passover Psalm" is an impressive work, using large forces. It dates from the height of Korngold's highly successful career as a Hollywood film composer, which included scores such as Anthony Adverse (1936), Robin Hood (1938), Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940) and Kings Row (1941). Korngold won early fame as the composer of the opera Die tote Stadt (1920), but his most important works were written for Hollywood, where he won two Academy Awards and became one of the most successful composers in America.  

This is Korngold's orchestration manuscript: he has written the vocal parts in ink and added the orchestral parts in pencil.  The writing is fluent and detailed, the textures full and richly-textured.