Frédéric Chopin
Polish composer, 1810-1849
Frédéric Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era, who wrote primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading musicians of his era. All of Chopin’s compositions include the piano. Most are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and some songs to Polish lyrics. His innovations in style, musical form, and harmony, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.
Source: Wikipedia
Polish composer (1810-1849). Autograph letter signed „Ch“. „chateau de Nohant pres La Chatre. 8vo. 4 pp. With autograph envelope, with red seal, creased at folds.
$ 167,085 / 150.000 €
(74859)
To his beloved friend the cellist Auguste Franchomme, about his music, especially the Polonaise Fantasie Op.61. Writing from Nohant to Franchomme who was acting for him in Paris, he expresses his annoyance that his publisher [Brandus] is away and that there is no one to take possession of his manuscripts, he requests that the name of Madame Veyret be added as dedicatee of the Polonaise-Fantaisie Op.61, he discusses financial matters relating to the publication of his music, relays the best wishes of George Sand and asks to be remembered to Jane Stirling, his last love, ...Aussi aye la bonté de ne pas leur confier mes manuscrits sans toucher l'argent convenu, et envoye m'en aussitôt un billet de cinq cents fr.
dans ta lettre...Garde-moi tes millions pour autre fois...Ajoute...au titre de la Polonaise "dédiée à Madame A. Veyret"... This autograph letter has only been offered for sale at Sotheby’s in 2011, lot 230. It has come by descent through the Franchomme family. This letter is inaccurately published in Sydow (no.622), who silently corrects Chopin's grammatical mistakes and changes certain words..
polnischer Komponist, Pianist und Klavierpädagoge (1810-1849). Autograph musical quotation signed and inscribed. Paris. 2 pp. Querformat-gr.-8vo. 6-zeilig. Mit violettem Schmuckrähmchen. Am rechten Rand schwach gebräunt. Verso am rechten Rand Montagespuren.
$ 206,072 / 185.000 €
(78917)
Titled "Wiosna, paroles de Witwicki". - Complete piano score of the Polish song op. posth. 74 nr. 2 in g minor, indicated "All[egre]tto". With autograph dedication: "Madame Kiéné |hommage respectueux | de son devoué| Chopin". The autograph place name "Paris" on the left. - This composition, originally written as "Andantino" for one singing voice with piano accompaniment, probably in the spring of 1838, set to a text by Stefan Witwicki, is a typical Dumka, the melancholic counterpart of Polish idyllic song.
The oscillation between g minor and b flat major creates a nostalgic "senza-fine" mood. - Probably dedicated to the pianist Marie Catherine Kiéné, née Leyer, the mother of the pianist and composer Anne Marie Bigot de Morogues, who died at a young age, and taught the piano to Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. - Stefan Witwicki, who wrote most of the texts of the surviving Chopin songs, pressured him to compose a Polish opera. Chopin however, who only enjoyed improvising on Polish songs in a private circle, neither included them in his concert programmes, nor had them published. Some songs only existed as drafts and were to be burned, according to Chopin's last will. Up to date, a total of merely 19 songs are known. - The first edition of this song was published as late as 1856 by Aleksander Gins in Warsaw, set to the text of a poem by Stanislaw Jachowicz. - Right-hand edge slightly browned. Traces of mounting on right-hand edge verso. - Kobylanska, Chopin Werkverzeichnis (1971) S. 188, Autograph g..
Polish composer (1810-1849). Contract signed twice ("FChopin") and countersigned by Camille Pleyel. London. 20.07.1837. 1 page. Folio.
$ 38,987 / 35.000 €
(80885/BN52764)
Partly printed contract in English with Christian Rudolph Wessel & Co, importers and publishers of foreign music in London, for the sale of the present and future copyright and rights in Great Britain, of opus 25, "Twelve Etudes or Studies", dedicated to [the name is left blank; it will be the Countess d'Agoult] in two volumes to be published simultaneously in France and Germany on the 14th October 1837, for the sum of 16 livres sterling. Piano maker Camille Pleyel, who had accompanied Chopin to London, also signed as a witness. - Blindstamped in lower margin; slight traces of moisture and small tear to centerfold.
Polish composer (1810-1849). Autograph musical manuscript of two short works for piano: "All[egre]tto" (24 bars, in contrasting A major and A minor sections), and "Mazur" (14 bars in D minor), signed ("Ch") twice at the end of each piece. No place. Oblong 4to (287 x 228 mm). 1 page, meticulously notated in 38 bars on five systems of two staves. Annotated in a 19th-century hand "copié par Chopin", loosely matted. Stored in a custom-made red morocco portfolio with cut signatures of Arthur Rubinstein (.
$ 267,336 / 240.000 €
(82507/BN53632)
Two short piano works inspired by Polish folk music. Kobylanska considers that whilst both works are signed by Chopin, they are too unsophisticated to be his own compositions, and are perhaps transcriptions of Polish folk tunes: "Beide Stücke sind zwar mit Ch signiert, in ihrer ganzen Art jedoch zu primitiv, als daß man sie für eigene Kompositionen Chopins halten könnte. Wir ordnen sie in dieses Kapitel ein, da es sich vielleicht um Übertragungen von polnischen Volksweisen handeln mag." If so, it is fascinating not only to see Chopin in the posture of an ethnomusicologist some sixty or more years before the pioneering research of Bartók and Kodály, but also that the resulting works, notated with his characteristic exquisite neatness, should be granted the imprimatur of his discreet, repeated signature.
- Provenance: 1) collection of the actor, director and playwright Sacha Guitry (1885-1957); his sale, Drouot, Paris, 21 November 1974 (lot 15); 2) collection of the Canadian chemist and physician Frederick Lewis Maitland Pattison (1923-2010), with his bookplate on the portfolio's inside front cover..
Polish composer (1810-1849). Autograph letter signed ("Chopin"). N. p. o. d. 8vo. 3 lines.
$ 44,556 / 40.000 €
(92794/BN62348)
Rare and beautiful letter thanking a close friend or relative and announcing when he will pick him up: "Merci, merci, cher. J'irai te prendre à 9 ¾ précises. À toi de cœur". - On blindstamped stationery. Traces of folds.
Polish composer (1810-1849). Autograph letter draft signed twice ("Ch"). Paris. 8vo. 1½ pp. In French.
$ 51,796 / 46.500 €
(95536/BN63102)
Highly interesting and charming draft for a letter to the German pianist Anna Caroline Oury, concerning the dedication of his Waltz in F minor, op. posth. 70, no. 2, to her. Oury had apparently contacted Chopin on behalf of the English music publisher Beale, inquiring about new compositions. While Chopin could not give her a positive answer in that respect, as Christian Rudolph Wessel & Co held the exclusive publishing rights to his works in Britain since 1836, he asked her to keep for herself "the small waltz" that he would include with the letter.
A great admirer of Oury, Chopin only expresses the wish to hear her perform the piece at one of her "elegant reunions" during which she interpreted "the masters of us all, the great composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Hummel". In closing, he is enthusiastic about Oury's performance of an adagio by Hummel several years earlier in Paris that "still rings" in his ears and to him remains unsurpassed: "The Hummel adagio that I heard you play a few years ago in Paris at Mr Érard's still rings in my ears, and I assure you that there is no piano, despite the great concerts here, that can make me forget the pleasure of having heard you this evening". - Chopin had first heard the young Anna Caroline Oury (1806-80) perform in Warsaw in 1829 and was immediately delighted by her. Between 1831 and 1839 she toured Europe with her repertoire of Beethoven, Henri Herz, Hummel, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Ignaz Moschels, among others. In 1839 she settled in London with her husband, the violinist Antonio James Oury, to whom Chopin sends greetings in this letter. Together with several other works not intended for publication, the Waltz in F minor was published posthumously in 1855 by Chopin's close friend and collaborator Julian Fontana, with the permission of Chopin's family but against the composer's wish, stated in the draft at hand, that it might not see "the light of day". - Several words stricken out and other corrections. The half page on the verso is a slightly different version of the second half of the letter. Traces of folds and minimal browning..
sold
Exceedingly rare handwritten notes in French, unsigned
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
Document signed twice ("F. F. Chopin").
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
Rare partly-printed document: an assignment of copyright for his Op. 28 and Op. 30. In part: "I have this day sold to Messrs. Christian Rudolph Wessel & Co. Importers and Publishers of Foreign Music [...] all my Copyright and Interest, present and future [...] for the Kingdom of Great Britain [...] of and in the following Compositions (in M.S.) to be published conjointly in France & Germany in: Op. 28. Impromptu pour le Piano Solo dedie a Madame la Comtesse d’Agoult - to appear the 14th October 1837, Op. 30, Quatre Mazurkas being his 5th Set, dedicated to La Princesse de Wurtemberg." Signed twice at the conclusion by Chopin. - Wessel & Co. had the exclusive rights to publish Chopin’s works in England, and the company was taken over by Edwin Ashdown and Henry Parry upon his retirement. This document originates from the collection of the Ashdown family. The document notes that the first piece is dedicated to Marie d’Agoult, a friend of Chopin and the mistress of Franz Liszt. The second, dedicated to Princess Maria Anna Czartoryska (Maria Wirtemberska) of Württemberg, is a set of four pieces based on the traditional Polish dance. - A small repaired area of paper loss to right edge and chips to two corner tips, otherwise in fine condition.
Autograph letter signed „Chip“.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar