R. Holloway. Autograph score and autograph first draft of "The Dwarf of Battersea", signed, 2020-2021

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

Robin Holloway (b.1943)

Autograph score of the ballad The Dwarf of Battersea, for voice and piano, signed ("Robin Holloway")

a beautifully-written fair-copy score of the entire work, with dedication and bold title at the head of the music ("to Ian Julier / The Dwarf of Battersea"), notated in black ink on up to six mostly two-stave systems per page, the verses numbered '1' to '20', with a number of emendations with correction fluid

7 pages, oblong folio (29.7 x 42cm), 18-stave paper, with a four-page photocopy of the printed ballad text by Mervyn Peake, no place, [April-May 2021]; together with a complete first draft of the work, in pencil and multi-coloured pens, and one fragmentary sketch for the ballad, 3 pages (one an irregularly-cut strip) 

Robin Holloway was appointed an assistant lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 1974, becoming a reader in Musical Composition in 1999 (until 2011). Many distinguished former students have beaten a path to his legendary teaching rooms at 'Finella', on Cambridge's Queen's Road, including Robert Saxton, Judith Weir, George Benjamin, Thomas Adès, Huw Watkins, and Peter Seabourne.

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.