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View full screen - View 1 of Lot 92. R. Saxton. Autograph sketches and drafts for the song cycle "Time and the Seasons", 2012.

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

R. Saxton. Autograph sketches and drafts for the song cycle "Time and the Seasons", 2012

Lot Closed

December 13, 12:32 PM GMT

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

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


Robert Saxton (b.1953)


Collection of autograph sketches and drafts for the song cycle Time and the Seasons, for baritone and piano, signed in several places ("Robert Saxton")


written in pencil and red, blue and black ballpoint, with extensive erasures, corrections and revisions


29 pages in all, plus blanks, various sizes, some related leaves stapled together, no place or date [c.1990-2012] 


together with: a pencil autograph draft for the fifth movement of Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, for orchestra, signed ("Robert Saxton"), 1 page, oblong folio, the last quarter of the leaf replaced by new music written on a folded leaf and fixed to the original with translucent adhesive tape, no place, [2020-2022]


Robert Saxton is one of the most individual British composers active today, with a highly personal sound world, to which he brings a deep and humane cultural sensitivity.


He is represented here by a stunning collection of miscellaneous autograph sources for Time and the Seasons (2012), a seven-movement song cycle, with poetry by the composer, commissioned by Sholto Kynoch for the Oxford Lieder Festival and premiered by Roderick Williams and Andrew West at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, in 2013. We understand that some of the material here predates the Lieder Festival commission by many years, dating back to the 1990s. Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh will receive its world premiere at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, with the English Symphony Orchestra under Kenneth Woods, on 10 March 2023. 


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.