Shostakovich, Dmitri.

a composing manuscript draft for the whole fugue, notated in ink on up to six two-stave systems per page, with numerous cancellations, revisions and corrections, 3 pages, folio (29.8 x 22cm), 12-stave paper, no place or date [c.1950-1951], very light discolouration at edges

Derek C. Hulme, Dmitri Shostakovich. A Catalogue, Bibliography, and Discography (Oxford, 1991), p.213

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This is an autograph of a complete draft of a fugue from one of Shostakovich's most important keyboard works, the Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, Op.87 - a central work of the twentieth-century piano repertoire.

Autograph manuscripts for major works by Shostakovich are of the utmost rarity at auction. This manuscript was given to the present owner by the composer.

The Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, Op.87, were written between October 1950 and February 1951 after a visit by the composer to Leipzig on the occasion of the bicentenary of Bach's death. Although texturally and motivically the influence of Bach looms large here, the work's organization follows the form of Chopin's Op.28 Preludes, resulting in a sequence of major and relative minor pairings, following the circle of fifths. 

The three-part E-flat major fugue is one of the most serious in tone of the set, a piece whose darkly chromatic, sinuous theme is worked out in compelling fashion in a movement of seamless textural beauty. The present manuscript differs in a number of small points of detail from the published score. According to Hulme, an autograph score of the twenty-four preludes and fugues is preserved in the Glinka Museum, Moscow.