Franck, César

the Stichvorlage, notated in brown ink on up to nineteen staves per page, a fair copy for the publisher, with rehearsal letters in orange crayon, marked up for performance in blue crayon and pencil, by and for the engraver in pencil, with an autograph instruction by the composer at the bottom of the first page: "pendant toute la durée de ce morceau la partie de cymballe doit être jouée avec une baguette à tête de peau" (usually marked "bacchetta di spugna" in printed scores)

65 pages, folio (c.34 x 26.5cm), 20-stave paper, paginated by the composer, contemporary dark green calf-backed patterned boards, gilt titles to cover and spine ("Les Eolides / Orchestre / César Franck"), Paris, 7 June 1876, modern green folding case (overall size: c.36 x 30cm),  some browning to first page and to lower corners throughout, boards very worn at corners .

J.-M. Fauquet no. 127a (p.875); FWV 43

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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THIS IS THE COMPLETE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF A MAJOR ORCHESTRAL WORK BY CÉSAR FRANCK.  Les Eolides is one of his characteristic symphonic poems, important as a precursor of musical impressionism.

This is the only autograph source for Franck's full orchestral score, used by the publisher Enoch for the first edition in 1893, after the composer's death.  The Bibliothèque nationale holds only the composer's autograph of his later reduction of the work for two pianos, dating from September 1882, which Enoch first published along with one for piano duet (rather than the orchestral score) in 1884. 

Les Éolides was Franck's first mature orchestral work, based on the poem by Leconte de Lille (1852) depicting the ebbing and gusting of the wind.  The orchestration is advanced and imaginative, calling for strings divided into many parts, doubled especially by the flutes, with a prominent part for harp, but dispensing with heavy brass.  Franck's evocation of the winds is atmospheric and sensuous, a great contrast to the emphatic gestures found in the Symphony and Piano Quintet.  The opening themes are clearly modelled on the chromatic progressions, themes and harmonies in the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, which Franck heard at a Pasdeloup concert 1874, although the chromaticism here is colouristic rather than structural. 

The first performance of Les Éolides was given at the Salle Érard on 13 May 1877, conducted by Édouard Colonne and given again on 4 April 1881.  Among the many conductor's markings are deletions to the harp part on pages 48 & 50.   It was performed in Brussels in 1879, by Lamoureux in 1882 and eventually in London at the Promenade Concerts in 1914.