C. Gounod. Autograph manuscript of the duet "The Message of the Breeze" signed, c.1871

Charles Gounod

Autograph manuscript of the duet "The Message of the Breeze", signed ("...Charles Gounod"), for two sopranos and piano

THE PRINTER'S COPY, a complete fair-copy autograph, notated in brown ink on up to five four-stave systems per page, with autograph title-page ("Dedicated to and Sung by M^rs ['Weldon': erased] and M^lle Nita Gaëtano The Message of the Breeze Duett. The Words by Francis Turner Palgrave. The Music by Charles Gounod..."), marked up by and for the printer in pencil, with numerous later pencil additions, a number of erasures, deletions and corrections

5 pages, plus title-page and two blanks, folio (34.5 x 26.7cm), 24-stave paper, unbound, no place or date [c.1871], dust-staining to outer pages, some inky finger marks

An attractive manuscript of a complete work by Gounod, written in London, as a companion duet to 'La Siesta', at the height of his infatuation with the singer Georgina Weldon, to whom the song is dedicated (jointly with Nita Gaëtano) and whose name was later tellingly erased on the title-page.

PROVENANCE

Pencil note to title: "Parmi la musique vendue le 25 novembre 1925"