1829 · Königsberg
by MARSCHNER, Heinrich 1795-1861
Königsberg, 1829. 2 volumes. Oblong folio (241 x 323 mm). Contemporary quarter dark tan leather with marbled boards, manuscript title labels to uppers.
Ca. 950 pp. in total, with Act I to Vol. 1 and Act II to Vol. 2. Notated in black ink on 12- to 18-stave rastrum-ruled paper.
Manuscript annotation to upper outer corner of title "zum erstenmal aufgeführt in Königsberg 1829 H. Dorn Musd." ["first performed in Königsberg by H. Dorn Musd."].
List of instruments and numbers in contemporary black into to front pastedown, possibly recording payments to orchestral musicians.
Handstamp of the Theater-Leihbibliothek Emil Richter, Hamburg to numerous pages.
Some later performance dates recorded in pencil to verso of front free endpaper including "8 October 1874" and "24 Juni 1892," indicating that the present score may have been used for these performances.
Dynamics and expression markings in blue pencil, most often reproducing what is in the score, but larger, to aid in conducting; some measures canceled (possible cuts); occasional numbers to aid in counting; small passages of music pencilled in as cues; ioccasional overpastes of ca. 4-12 bars. Trombone and timpani parts notated on three staves after Act 2; some loose leaves in varying formats at end of Vol. 2.
Binding quite worn, rubbed, and bumped. Some internal wear and soiling; numerous tears, primarily to lower margins, many with old repairs that have since split; some showthrough. The present manuscript would appear to pre-date other manuscripts of the work recorded in RISM Manuscripts Online. There is no location given for the autograph full score, which implies that one may not exist.
While a piano-vocal score was published in 1828, the first edition of the full score was not published until 1925.
Der Vampyr was first performed on 29 March 1828 at the Statdtheater in Leipzig.
Marschner, a German composer, "was the most important exponent of German Romantic opera in the generation between Weber and Wagner. ... The year 1826 saw the death of Weber, and since Könneritz’s successor, Wolf von Lüttichau, had no interest in hiring Marschner to replace him, Marschner was forced to travel, hoping to make a living by freelance appearances with his third wife, the singer Marianne Wohlbrück, whom he had married (1826) shortly after the death of Eugenie in 1825. After stops in Berlin and Breslau (now Wrocław) the couple arrived in Danzig (now Gdańsk), where they obtained a six-month contract with Marschner as music director and Marianne as leading soprano. Here Marschner completed and produced his first through-composed opera, Lucretia (1820–26), based on Sextus Tarquinius’s supposed rape in 509 bce of Lucretia Collatinus and her subsequent suicide. A weak attempt to emulate Spontini, Lucretia slipped into oblivion after only three performances.
When their contract expired in Danzig, the couple travelled to Magdeburg, where Marschner became acquainted with his brother-in-law Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, a popular actor. The two seized upon the idea of collaborating on an opera involving vampires. Such a topic fitted into the short-lived literary movement in Germany called the ‘Schauerromantik’, then at its peak of popularity. The first of Marschner’s three famous operas, Der Vampyr (composed in 1827) focusses on the efforts of the vampire to secure another year of life on earth in exchange for the murder of three virgins. Wohlbrück constructed an effective libretto from multiple literary sources and the work has held the interest of the opera-going public ever since the resounding success of its Leipzig première in 1828. Called a romantic opera, it is in many respects similar in musical construction to Weber’s Der Freischütz." A. Dean Palmer in Grove Music Online
Heinrich Dorn (1804-1892), a German conductor, composer and journalist, was important in the world of 19th century opera, pedagogy, and music criticism. "He studied the piano, singing and composition in Königsberg [where he was born], made several long journeys throughout Germany, during which he met Weber in Dresden, and completed his studies with Ludwig Berger, Bernhard Klein and Zelter in Berlin, where his first opera, Rolands Knappen, was produced successfully in 1826. At the same time he became a co-editor of the Berliner allgemeine Muzikzeitung, for which he wrote a spirited defence of the beleaguered Gaspare Spontini. Over the next two decades he built a solid reputation as a conductor of opera, holding theatre posts at Königsberg (1828), Leipzig (1829–32), where he taught counterpoint to the young Schumann, Hamburg (1832), Riga (1834–43), and Cologne (1844–8). He organized the first music festival of the Russian Baltic provinces in Riga (1836), and directed the Lower Rhine music festivals (1844–7). His most prestigious appointment (in 1849, after Nicolai’s death) was as co-conductor, with Wilhelm Taubert, of the Berlin Hofoper. Afer his retirement from that post in 1869, he remained active in Berlin for many years as a teacher and writer. Two of his sons, Alexander (1833–1901) and Otto (1848–1931), also made musical careers in Berlin." Adelyn Peck Leverett, revised by Christopher Fifield in Grove Music Online
It would seem quite likely that Dorn performed Der Vampyr in both Konigsberg and in Leipzig and that the markings are, in fact, in his hand.
A very early source for Marschner's seminal opera, dating to just a year after its premiere. The manuscript's extensive performance markings, annotations, and connection with Dorn render it invaluable to the study of the work and its performance history. (Inventory #: 40350)
Ca. 950 pp. in total, with Act I to Vol. 1 and Act II to Vol. 2. Notated in black ink on 12- to 18-stave rastrum-ruled paper.
Manuscript annotation to upper outer corner of title "zum erstenmal aufgeführt in Königsberg 1829 H. Dorn Musd." ["first performed in Königsberg by H. Dorn Musd."].
List of instruments and numbers in contemporary black into to front pastedown, possibly recording payments to orchestral musicians.
Handstamp of the Theater-Leihbibliothek Emil Richter, Hamburg to numerous pages.
Some later performance dates recorded in pencil to verso of front free endpaper including "8 October 1874" and "24 Juni 1892," indicating that the present score may have been used for these performances.
Dynamics and expression markings in blue pencil, most often reproducing what is in the score, but larger, to aid in conducting; some measures canceled (possible cuts); occasional numbers to aid in counting; small passages of music pencilled in as cues; ioccasional overpastes of ca. 4-12 bars. Trombone and timpani parts notated on three staves after Act 2; some loose leaves in varying formats at end of Vol. 2.
Binding quite worn, rubbed, and bumped. Some internal wear and soiling; numerous tears, primarily to lower margins, many with old repairs that have since split; some showthrough. The present manuscript would appear to pre-date other manuscripts of the work recorded in RISM Manuscripts Online. There is no location given for the autograph full score, which implies that one may not exist.
While a piano-vocal score was published in 1828, the first edition of the full score was not published until 1925.
Der Vampyr was first performed on 29 March 1828 at the Statdtheater in Leipzig.
Marschner, a German composer, "was the most important exponent of German Romantic opera in the generation between Weber and Wagner. ... The year 1826 saw the death of Weber, and since Könneritz’s successor, Wolf von Lüttichau, had no interest in hiring Marschner to replace him, Marschner was forced to travel, hoping to make a living by freelance appearances with his third wife, the singer Marianne Wohlbrück, whom he had married (1826) shortly after the death of Eugenie in 1825. After stops in Berlin and Breslau (now Wrocław) the couple arrived in Danzig (now Gdańsk), where they obtained a six-month contract with Marschner as music director and Marianne as leading soprano. Here Marschner completed and produced his first through-composed opera, Lucretia (1820–26), based on Sextus Tarquinius’s supposed rape in 509 bce of Lucretia Collatinus and her subsequent suicide. A weak attempt to emulate Spontini, Lucretia slipped into oblivion after only three performances.
When their contract expired in Danzig, the couple travelled to Magdeburg, where Marschner became acquainted with his brother-in-law Wilhelm August Wohlbrück, a popular actor. The two seized upon the idea of collaborating on an opera involving vampires. Such a topic fitted into the short-lived literary movement in Germany called the ‘Schauerromantik’, then at its peak of popularity. The first of Marschner’s three famous operas, Der Vampyr (composed in 1827) focusses on the efforts of the vampire to secure another year of life on earth in exchange for the murder of three virgins. Wohlbrück constructed an effective libretto from multiple literary sources and the work has held the interest of the opera-going public ever since the resounding success of its Leipzig première in 1828. Called a romantic opera, it is in many respects similar in musical construction to Weber’s Der Freischütz." A. Dean Palmer in Grove Music Online
Heinrich Dorn (1804-1892), a German conductor, composer and journalist, was important in the world of 19th century opera, pedagogy, and music criticism. "He studied the piano, singing and composition in Königsberg [where he was born], made several long journeys throughout Germany, during which he met Weber in Dresden, and completed his studies with Ludwig Berger, Bernhard Klein and Zelter in Berlin, where his first opera, Rolands Knappen, was produced successfully in 1826. At the same time he became a co-editor of the Berliner allgemeine Muzikzeitung, for which he wrote a spirited defence of the beleaguered Gaspare Spontini. Over the next two decades he built a solid reputation as a conductor of opera, holding theatre posts at Königsberg (1828), Leipzig (1829–32), where he taught counterpoint to the young Schumann, Hamburg (1832), Riga (1834–43), and Cologne (1844–8). He organized the first music festival of the Russian Baltic provinces in Riga (1836), and directed the Lower Rhine music festivals (1844–7). His most prestigious appointment (in 1849, after Nicolai’s death) was as co-conductor, with Wilhelm Taubert, of the Berlin Hofoper. Afer his retirement from that post in 1869, he remained active in Berlin for many years as a teacher and writer. Two of his sons, Alexander (1833–1901) and Otto (1848–1931), also made musical careers in Berlin." Adelyn Peck Leverett, revised by Christopher Fifield in Grove Music Online
It would seem quite likely that Dorn performed Der Vampyr in both Konigsberg and in Leipzig and that the markings are, in fact, in his hand.
A very early source for Marschner's seminal opera, dating to just a year after its premiere. The manuscript's extensive performance markings, annotations, and connection with Dorn render it invaluable to the study of the work and its performance history. (Inventory #: 40350)