N. LeFanu. Autograph manuscript of the String Quartet no.4, 2017

Sold in aid of the University of York Music Press (UYMP)

Nicola LeFanu (b.1947)

Autograph manuscript of the String Quartet no.4, signed ("Nicola LeFanu")

a fair-copy manuscript, written throughout in pencil, with an autograph title-page ("String Quartet no 4 2017"), signed on the title and at the head of the score, with a few erasures and corrections

14 pages, large oblong folio (29.7 x 42cm), 18-stave paper, dated at the end Farrera, 24 June 2017, central vertical crease; with some pencil autograph drafts for the opening of LeFanu's chamber opera Light Passing, signed ("Nicola LeFanu"), 3 pages, oblong folio, no place or date [2003] 

An impressive, elegantly written score of a complete work by the distinguished British composer and academic Nicola LeFanu.

A programme note by the composer describes the short, intense one-movement work thus: 

...A number of brief ideas and gestures recur and transform to weave a continuously unfolding tapestry. The surface of the music may appear volatile – pitch and rhythm shifting, and the harmony often intensified by quartertones – but the piece as a whole is unified by its underlying tempi and modality...The quartet was inspired by the following poem [of Andrei Voznesensky]:

With the open eyes of their dead fathers

Toward other worlds they gaze ahead –

Children whom wide-eyed, become

Periscopes of the buried dead...

The work received its first performance by the Bingham String Quartet in York, on 2 September 2016.

Manuscripts by living composers have become rare items, swept aside by technology. Few composers cultivate individual calligraphy when they can access sophisticated music notation on their ipads or computers. This sale of autograph manuscripts, sketches and scores composed in the last twenty years therefore represents a special opportunity.

The manuscripts comprising lots 82-93 are offered for sale by the University of York Music Press (UYMP), a charity that champions contemporary concert composers, with a focus on helping younger composers establish themselves.

The lots in this section encompass music for the concert hall, opera house and film by some of today's best-known composers: Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, James MacMillan, and Debbie Wiseman. Included too are those who continue to write an elegant calligraphy - Robert Saxton, Michael Finnissy, and Judith Weir. Most topical is John Rutter's anthem for Ukraine. Particularly fascinating is a sketch by the late Harrison Birtwistle (his initials at the foot of the manuscript were the last thing he ever wrote).

Altogether, twenty-two composers are represented in the sale, all of whom have donated their manuscripts for the support of UYMP's charitable activity.