Manuscript Music

The world's musical culture is represented in the Manuscripts Department through a large quantity of very valuable materials. This collection reflects the most important advances from the beginning of musical notation to the present day. It includes more than 300 thousand composers' music manuscripts, letters from musicians as well as a wide range of papers belonging to the 13th - 20th century composers.

Pieces of music, written by the 18th-20th century authors, are the major part of the manuscript musical materials. Of great value are the few autograph scores by composers of the eighteenth century: Dmitry Bortniansky, Stepan Davydov, J.S. Bach, Haydn and Mozart.

The musical treasures from the nineteenth century are considerably more numerous. Autograph manuscripts by Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner, Liszt, Rossini, Bellini, Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Beethoven make the collection very wealthy. A number of manuscripts came to the Imperial Public Library through the efforts of Alexei Lvov, Maestro of the Imperial Chapel. Thanks to his mediation, the Library obtained the presentation manuscripts dedicated to the Russian emperors: the score of Joseph Haydn's opera The Unexpected Encounter (L'incontro improviso) written by the composer in 1777, and Felix Mendelssohn's Festival Song (Festgesang). In 1855, Emperor Alexander II donated to the library the autograph score of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Oberon, presented to him by the son of the composer Max Weber.

Some Western European composers themselves spent much time in Russia — Liszt, Schumann, Berlioz and Wagner.

The music manuscripts by Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz came to the Library through their personal relationships with Russian musicians. Both composers repeatedly gave concerts in Russia. The Russian pianist Alexander Siloti who had been Liszt's student, kept his teacher's manuscripts and donated them to the Library. In St. Petersburg, Liszt met many music lovers, including Count M. Vielgorsky. Liszt arranged Vielgorsky’s romance I Loved for piano. Hector Berlioz visited Russia three times. His surviving correspondence evidences that he dealt and later developed friendships with prominent Russian composers Mikhail Glinka, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexei Lvov and music critics Vladimir Stasov and Vladimir Odoevsky. Berlioz presented the library with the autograph orchestral score Te Deum with a dedication inscription.

Some Western European composers themselves spent much time in Russia. Among them are Liszt, Schumann, Berlioz and Wagner.

The music manuscripts by Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz came to the Library through their personal relationships with Russian musicians. Both composers repeatedly gave concerts in Russia. The Russian pianist Alexander Siloti who had been Liszt's student, preserved his teacher's manuscripts and donated them to the Library. In St. Petersburg, Liszt met many music lovers, including Count M. Vielgorsky. Liszt arranged Vielgorsky’s romance I Loved for piano. Hector Berlioz visited Russia three times. His surviving correspondence evidences that he dealt and later developed friendships with Russian composers Mikhail Glinka, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexei Lvov, prominent music critics Vladimir Stasov and Vladimir Odoevsky. Berlioz presented the library with the autograph orchestral score Te Deum with a dedication inscription.

The music of the eighteenth century is also represented in the library collection by handwritten copies of works by Western European composers. It was a common practice at that time to duplicate sheet music in this way for the musical theatre or for use in the home and this facilitated the survival, sometimes in a single copy, of compositions by such prominent masters as Giovanni Paisiello, François Boieldieu, Giuseppe Sarti and Nicola Piccini.

Autograph scores and papers by Russian composers of the 18th – 20th centuries are particularly well represented in the Manuscript holdings.

In 1855, the works of Dmitry Bortnyansky, created in honor of the Grand Duchess (future Empress) Maria Fedorovna, were handed over to the Library by Lvov.

The numerous sets of papers connected with different figures in the nineteenth-century Russian music give the best possible picture of that "Golden Age" in Russian musical life. The critic Vladimir Stasov actively advocated the formation of the New Russian School. Through his agency, the Library obtained a collection of autograph manuscripts by Glinka, scores and letters by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Anatoly Lyadov, the collections of Mussorgsky and Mily Balakirev. In addition, the library possesses manuscripts by Sergei Taneev, Eduard Napravnik, Anton Rubinstein and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, as well as collections of manuscripts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, his librettist Vladimir Belsky and his pupil and friend Vasily Yastrebtsev, which add to our understanding of the musicians belonging to Balakirev's circle.

The work of turn-of-the-century composers is represented in the form of autograph scores by Sergei Rachmamnov and Alexander Skriabin.

The material connected with twentieth-century musicians is extremely varied in both form and content. Noteworthy are Sergei Prokofiev's opera Betrothal in a Monastery and ballet Cinderella, both written in the last decade of the composer's life, Shostakovich's letters, the archives of the pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky and the Akhron brothers, prominent emigre musicians (to name just a few).

Manuscripts Collections

Manuscripts. Brief Summary

Collections