Ch. Gounod. Autograph manuscript of "Saint-François d'Assise", in a fine "Gothic" binding by Gruel, 1891

GOUNOD, CHARLES

Autograph manuscript full score of the unpublished cantata "Saint François d'Assise", signed and inscribed to Carolus-Duran, in a fine binding by Léon Gruel, 1889-1891

inscribed on the title: "Saint François d'Assise. Ch. Gounod Janvier/ 91. Représenté au Conservatoire les Vendredi et Samedi Saints/ 91. Offert à mon ami Carolus Duran, un souvenir des heureux moments passées devant lui en Février-Mars/ 91"

the full score of the cantata for voices and orchestra, notated in dark brown ink on up to twenty-six staves per page, with solo parts for "S^t François" (tenor) and "Le Crucifix" [i.e."Jésus"] (bass), with four-part male chorus and orchestra, including harp and organ, comprising two movements, "Le Cellule" (signed and dated on f.35^bis: "25 août/ 89") and "La Mort", with a revised ending to the first movement inserted on different paper, alterations to the orchestration and additional markings by the composer in blue crayon (some not recorded in the contemporary copy in Paris), including rehearsal numbers (not letters), careful erasures, corrections and alterations,

75 pages including title (foliated 1-67, including 33^bis to 35 ^bis), folio (c.35 x 26.5cm), mainly 26-stave paper (10 pages on 24-stave paper are inserted at the end of part one), FINE "GOTHIC" BINDING BY GRUEL, brown panelled morocco, rolls and fillets in light and dark brown, elaborate gilt initial "C" central feature, gilt turn-ins, spine lettered and signed "Gruel" in gilt, brown-gilt silk doublures, maroon silk chemise, [Paris], 1889-1891

UNPUBLISHED: This is a substantial choral work by one of the foremost nineteenth-century French composers.

Saint François d'Assise was premiered at the Paris Conservatoire on 27 and 28 March 1891, but has remained largely unknown to Gounod scholars.  It was not included in the worklist in Grove's Dictionary until the 2001 edition. There also exists a copyist manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (RES VMA MS-1205), which was copied from this one after the ten-page ending to "Le Cellule" were inserted (unlike this manuscript, it uses uniform paper throughout). The cantata comprises two "tableaux", the first portraying Saint Francis's ecstasy at the foot of the Cross and his dialogue with Jesus, the second narrating the death of the saint himself. Gounod presented this manuscript to the leading portrait painter of his era, Carolus-Duran, who later made a fine posthumous portrait of the composer, now at Versailles. The fine retrospective "Gothic" binding by Léon Gruel (1841-1923) incorporates Carolus-Duran's initial as the central feature.

PROVENANCE:

Charles Auguste Émile Durant, known as Carolus-Duran (1837-1917), a gift of the composer.  

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