Sibelius, Jean

the complete work in five movements, notated in black ink on three systems per page, a working manuscript in places, with deleted passages, many other alterations, revisions and erasures, the original title ("Quatuor II") deleted in pencil and replaced by him with the definitive title ("Voces intimae...comp von Jean Sibelius Op.56") at the head of the first page, on the wrapper, the first movement marked "attacca" at the end; the Stichvorlage for the miniature score, marked up by and for the printer in pencil and crayon, including the plate no. "S.9497" and the rehearsal numbers

80 pages, including autograph title-wrapper (paginated by the composer 1-79), with 3 blanks at end, folio (c.35.5 x 26.5cm), 14- and 16-stave papers (largely B & H Nr.3.C. 12.08.), [London and elsewhere, spring 1909], light overall browning, and to edges throughout

F. Dahlström, Jean Sibelius Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke, (2003), pp.257-259.

T. Virtanen and T Mäkelä, in Jean Sibelius and his World, edited by D. Grimley (2011), pp.62-63 & 104-108;  

J. Hepokoski, The New Grove, 2nd edition (2001), 23, p.332;

E. Tawaststjerna, Sibelius. Volume II 1904-1914, (1986), pp.105-127;

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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THIS IS THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF SIBELIUS'S GREATEST CHAMBER WORK, HIS STRING QUARTET. Composed between the Third and Fourth Symphonies it is regarded as one of his greatest achievements, on a par with the quartets of Debussy and Ravel and the early essays of Bartok.  

This mature chamber work occupies an important period in Sibelius's development from his earlier Romantic works into the concise and distinctive style of his maturity.  James Hepokoski echoes Sibelius himself in claiming this quartet as a "milestone in his compositional development".  The earliest sketches apparently date from c.1906 and appear on the same leaves as work on Pohjola's Daughter (1906) and the Third Symphony (1907). This was in fact the fourth string quartet Sibelius composed, although he originally titled it as the second (the three earlier quartets date from 1885-1890).  This work comes between the Third and Fourth Symphonies, composed immediately after finishing his revolutionary tone-poem Night Rise and Sunrise, op.55.  The austere and brooding language already foreshadows certain features of the Fourth Symphony (1911).  The quartet was completed in London on 15 April 1909 and published by Lienau in September; the first performance was in Helsinki on 25 April 1910. 

Although this manuscript was used by Sibelius's publisher to set up the first edition in 1909, it contains important differences from it.  Two months after sending his manuscript to Lienau in April 1909, Sibelius asked for corrections to be made to the ending.  The final twenty-one bars here differ markedly from the printed scores and were evidently completely rewritten on a later manuscript.  It is clear from this manuscript that Sibelius's preferred title for the work was "Voces intimae" rather than String Quartet no. 2 in D minor.  He deletes the old title "Quatuor II", and inscribes his new one on a new sheet of music paper enclosing the whole manuscript; indeed that wording comes first on the title page of the first edition too. However, it appears from annotations on the title-wrapper, that the publisher at first preferred the title "Zweites Quartett" to the composer's "Voces intimae".  Sibelius later inscribed these words into a copy of the miniature score, above three E minor chords in the third movement 'Adagio di molto' (at the "più adagio", bars 21-22).

This is the sole surviving manuscript of the whole work, apart from fragments of the score and the sketches in Helsinki.  Sibelius may have intended this manuscript to serve as a fair copy for the printer, but he makes extensive alterations throughout.  He seems to have had a very clear idea of the continuity of the music; there must have been an earlier draft of the score, now lost. Remarkably, the first seventy-one pages (and initial blank) appear to have originally comprised a single gathering of eighteen bifolios, of which only the central bifolio remains intact, the rest having separated into thirty-four single leaves.  Thus the paper maker's imprint "B & H Nr.3.C. 12.08" appears on the rectos of all the first eighteen leaves, but not thereafter.  These leaves still retain their original positions around a central bifolio (containing pages 34-37), judging by their inner margins.  Sibelius's original ending (pages 72 to the end), is written on different paper: a single gathering of three 14-stave bifolios rather than the 16-stave paper used before, with the imprint "B & H. Nr.2.C.".  He then used this same paper for the wrapper, upon which he inscribed his definitive title for the work: "Voces intimae".