>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
[ Silence ]
>> Daniel Boomhower: Good evening
I'm Daniel Boomhower I'm the head
of reader services here in the music
division of the Library of Congress
and I want to warn you in advance
that the talk I'm going to give is,
if you wondered what it would be
like to hear an academic paper given
by a musicologist this is
your chance, but I also know
that our concert audience is
a very sophisticated audience
and will have no problem keeping
up with the arcane details
that I will kind of subject you
to and also one of the things
that I think is really a
great opportunity, you know,
having a concert series in
this fantastic concert hall
and the series we present here
at the Library of Congress
in a library is a fairly
unique thing,
and what most of our
concert audience may miss
in this process is the
fact that there's one
of the greatest library's
in the world surrounding during
this process and concerts are how we
in the music division make
our collections come to life,
but research in our collections
is really this sort backbone
of what we do and this is an
opportunity I hope to kind
of show you what the collections
here enable in terms of the kind
of information that we can
glean about music history
and music culture in previous
centuries as you will soon see.
So, tonight's concert features
Mahan Esfahani with music
of the Bach family, Johann Sebastian
Bach and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach,
as well as Carl Phillipp
Emanuel Bach.
There are also two pieces
of 20th century composers
on the program tonight.
The concert tonight is part of two
event series so to speak focusing
on the music of Carl
Phillipp Emanuel Bach
who was born 300 years
ago in Weimar, Germany.
To the extent that
he is known today,
C.P.E. Bach is primarily
remembered as one of several sons
of Johann Sebastian Bach, possibly
also remembered as the author
as of a treatise on the
keyboard and there is the chance
that an average concert goer has
heard some of C.P.E. Bach's music.
Yet, in his own day, the fame
of Carl Phillipp Emanuel Back
far exceeded that of his father,
and in fact, the music
collection here at the Library
of Congress reflects the
interest in C.P.E. Bach's music
that remains strong throughout
the 19th and early 20th century.
The story of the C.P.E. Bach sources
at the Library of Congress consists
of several different threads
each spun out of the interests
and motivations of musicians and
collectors over nearly 300 years.
As a whole, this collection
of C.P.E. Bach materials
documents the acquisition practices
and strategies of a fledgling
American research library
at the beginning of
the 20th century.
At the same time, separate groupings
of materials helped to fill
out a picture of 18th
century performance history
in Northern Europe, and
documents the music collecting
of individuals in the 19th century.
Besides the 85 examples
at the Library of Congress
of Bach's music printed
during his lifetime,
the collection includes
1 autograph manuscript
of a single keyboard fantasia,
and that's on display in the foyer
of the Coolidge Auditorium.
There are also 3 autographed
letters, and in my opinion,
most interestingly our holdings
include 74 copious manuscripts
and 5 more that are misattributed
to Bach and these offer evidence
of how individuals within and beyond
C.P.E. Bach's immediate circle
of colleagues engaged
with the composer's music.
So, tonight I will attempt to do two
things in this brief introduction
to a noteworthy portion of the
library's music collections.
First I'll explain how
this rich collection
of C.P.E. Bach materials came
to be held at the Library
of Congress then I will describe
how these materials reflect 18th
and 19th century musical
life, particularly in Berlin.
In doing this, I will risk like
I said, presenting an abundance
of scholarly detail, because in part
I know our concert audience will
appreciate such information,
but also because I want
to offer evidence of
the kind of research
that the collection here
at the library support.
Tomorrow evening I will be
joined by two of the editors
of the complete works of C.P.E.
Bach to discuss the composer's music
in further detail and
to explore the process
by which a scholarly
addition of music is prepared.
On about August 1ts, 1902,
Oscar Sonneck began his duties
as the second chief of the music
division at the Library of Congress.
He would conduct his initial work
while in Europe armed with letters
of introduction to European
libraries and book dealers
from the ambitious Librarian
of Congress Herbert Putnam.
Putnam had served as the Librarian
of Congress since April of 1899
and had embarked on a mission
proposed in 1896 by him
and 9 other witnesses before the
joint congressional committee
on Library of Congress.
In those recommendations, they
proposed to create something more
than a repository of copier of
records or legislative library,
but a true national library.
Sonneck embraced Putnam's
[inaudible], I'll show you,
here's a picture of Oscar
Sonneck he's the short fellow
in the very center of the front row.
He was fairly young, I
think he was under 40
when he was appointed Librarian of
Congress and then he is surrounded
by the division chiefs of
the library at that time.
Oscar Sonneck is pictured in this in
the second row and I'm going point
to him directly cause
it's hard to explain,
cause the rows aren't
quite as clear as you hope.
This is Oscar Sonneck,
right there, second.
I say that second from the right,
in the second row,
but it's hard to tell.
Anyways, Sonneck was
I believe hardly 30
when he was appointed the
chief of the music division.
So Sonneck embraced
Putnam's charge and sought
to "provide a reasonably
comprehensive collection
of all material bearing in
any way on music in America
and more particularly
on American music."
In this Sonneck held the view
as described by him in 1908 that
"American music as the
product of America brings
and American industry is deemed
to be a paramount importance
in our national library, yet the
peculiar development and status
of music in America being
mainly a reflex of music
in Europe compelled
the Library of Congress
to collect the musical product
of European brains and industry
in the same manner as European
libraries do, or would like to do."
Sonneck further stated
"Beginning with the 18th century"
and his article adds emphasis,
"The library of Congress aims
at a collection of music and books
on music sufficiently comprehensive
to ultimately relieve the
American scholar of the necessity
of consulting European libraries,
except for research not bearing
directly or indirectly on music
in America as a reflex
of music in Europe."
Later in the same essay, Sonneck
observes a result of this strategy.
"The Library of Congress
collection is growing rapidly
into something really
useful to the historian
and we already possess quite a few
things, particularly in manuscript
or of English imprint that
are not frequently found.
We appear to have, for instance,
some symphonies by that master
of strange epicurean tastes
Anton Filtz not mentioned
in Hugo Riemann's bibliography.
We have about 30 of the 45
[inaudible] of C.P.E. Bach
and we were able to supply some of
Haydn's unpublished divertimenti
to the editors of the complete
edition of his works now
in process of publication.
In building the collection at the
Library of Congress, Sonneck sought
to make available a
comprehensive reference collection
of the literature about music and
the existing musical repertory.
In this he would in general
only acquire single copy
of a composition even if additional
variant manuscript sources might
become available and he
seems to have been willing
to delay the purchase of printed
additions in order to take advantage
of the availability of
manuscripts of unpublished works
that presumably would
be far more scarce.
In any event, we have in the music
division collections an annotative
copy of the 1905 sematic
catalog of C.P.E. Bach's works
which demonstrates the
comprehensiveness of the efforts
of successive generations of
staff at the Library of Congress
to collect this composer's
music, and it's obvious
because it's annotated
with the things we have
and the things that we don't have.
Interestingly, the
existing collection
of C.P.E. Bach materials
has attained a relevance
that Sonneck might not
ever have imagined.
With the publishing of the complete
works of C.P.E. Bach well underway,
which we will discuss
here tomorrow evening,
access to this music will no
longer present the challenge it did
in the early 20th century
and scholarship can now more
successfully consider the music
in the broader context
of 18th century life,
and in fact a growing
body of scholarships seeks
to contextualize Bach's
compositions,
not only musically, but
also within society.
In this research the non-autographed
manuscript sources offer a lens
onto the musical interests and
practices of previous centuries
and the manuscript musical
sources at the Library
of Congress offer an entree
into musical and social settings
that often lack documentation
in other contemporary accounts.
In the early years
of the 20th century,
one specific Berlin antiquarian
book dealer played an essential role
in making it possible for
the Library of Congress
to acquire the collection we now
possess of C.P.E. Bach's music.
The firm Leo Leipmannsshohn operated
under its founder's name from 1874
until 1936; however, in 1903 at
about the time that the Library
of Congress began buying from the
firm, Leipmannssohn sold the company
to a young colleague by
the name of Otto Haas.
From Haas and the Leipmannssohn
firm the Library
of Congress acquired 18th century
C.P.E. Bach materials stemming
from a handful of important
19th century collections.
Tonight I want to focus on one of
these 19th century collections,
that of Eduard Grell a brilliant
composer, conductor, organist,
teacher, and director of the Berlin
Sing-Akademie from 1853 to 1876.
This collection, as I will
discuss, has deep roots
in Berlin musical life
in the 18th century.
The items from Grell's
collections generally bear a cipher,
this is an item from the collection.
They bear a cipher in pencil
containing the letters GR,
and you can see that towards the top
of the manuscript, it's fairly faint
in pencil and this GR is usually
followed by a 3 or 4 digit number.
The GR numbering was seemingly
added in preparation for the sale
of the music collection,
Grell's music collection,
by Liepmannssohn following
Grell's death in 1886.
The significance of the GR numbers
remains entirely allusive though;
the numbers do not
refer to the numbering
in Liepmannssohn's sales catalogs
and appear on items that originated,
not just in Grell's collection, but
also on items from the collections
of another Berlin, two other
Berlin musicians Franz Krommer
and also possibly Bill [inaudible]
whose music collections were sold
by Leipmannssohn alongside
of Grell's collection.
In fact, in some instances the
presence of a GR number on items
with Franz Krommer's owners mark
have led individuals to presume
that Grell acquired those items from
Krommer; that Grell died in 1886
and Krommer died in 1887 would
at least preclude the possibility
that Grell acquired items from
the estate of Krommer though.
Rather the frequent addition
in pencil, and I have,
so the frequent addition in
pencil of the time signature
and key signatures on
title pages as seen very,
very faintly in this example
, this is a sonata manuscript
of trio sonata by Johann
Gottlieb Graun and.
[ Inaudible ]
So, you can see on the right
hand middle third of page H
and then a lower case m and
then 4/4 that refers to h-Moll
and the time signature of 4/4
h-Moll would be German for B minor,
it would take a long time to explain
how h got to be used for B but.
So this numbering,
or this additional
information the key signature
and time signature conforms with
the descriptive practices found
in Liepmannssohn's catalogs and it,
because of this it's seems most
likely that someone working
at Liepmannssohn on the sale
of these collections applied
the GR numbers indiscriminately
to Grell's materials, as well as
Krommer and possibly [inaudible].
While occasionally objects from
Grell's collection also bear a stamp
with Grell's name, the modern
Bach scholar, the current director
of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig,
Peter Wollny has observed
that a different marking
might allow one
to distinguish items
from Grell's collection.
Most manuscripts presume to be
from Grell's collection have
a consistent numbering pattern
where the abbreviation NO appears in
the lower center to right hand side
of the title pages followed by a two
or three digit number and a period;
the distinctive cursive script
of the capital N easily
distinguishes this numbering scheme,
does everybody see that at
the bottom of the page there?
Based on the evidence at
the Library of Congress,
I believe that Wollny has correctly
identified this numbering scheme as,
in fact, Grell's own
personal numbering scheme.
Born in Berlin in 1800
into a musical family,
Eduard Grell studied composition
with Carl Friedrich Zelter
and Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen
who were successive directors
of the Sing-Akademie in Berlin.
In 1829, he began teaching at what
would become the Royale Institute
of Church Music and held
the position of organist
at the Berlin Cathedral from
1839, prior to which he had served
from the age of 18 as organist
at St. Nikolaikirche in Berlin.
In 1853, Grell succeeded his
teacher Rungenhagen as director
of the famous Berlin Sing-Akademie.
Until recently, Grell's work had
not garnered significant intention
since shortly after his death.
His student Heinrich Bellermann
produced two substantial
publications in the
late 1880's, a biography
and a collection of Grell's essays.
These two publications placed
great emphasis on Grell's promotion
of A cappella vocal music, and
in particular on compositions
in the style of Palestrina.
The abundance of instrumental music
from Grell's collection
now held Library
of Congress would however
seem to challenge the image
of Grell promoted among
his followers that of a,
one specifically and solely
devoted to this idea of A cappella,
Palestrina Lake vocal music and
that, so Bellermann's sort of image
of Grell was what gained traction;
however I think this large amount
of 18th century manuscript
material of instrumental music sort
of contradicts that notion.
While the significance of Grell's
Bach collection has received passing
mention by scholars with particular
reference to the need for more study
of it, the enormity and broad scope
of his entire music
collection remains unconsidered.
This C.P.E. Bach manuscripts
here at the Library of Congress
that can be confidently linked
to Grell's collection consists
of three groups of materials,
there are six concertos
of which three are
misattributed to C.P.E. Bach,
two chorales compositions
and 11 trio sonatas.
Following Grell's death, a
French collector by the name
of Lasserre appears to have
purchased the concertos
and trio sonatas from
Grell's collection
through Liepmannssohn in about 1889.
They came to Library
of Congress in 1907,
again through the agency
of Liepmannssohn.
Two manuscripts of C.P.E. Bach's
vocal compositions that come
from Grell's collection came
to the Library of Congress
in a large purchase again
from Liepmannssohn this
time in the year of 1908.
This was a large collection
of vocal music that belonged
to Julius Stockhausen the singer and
close colleague of Johannes Brahms.
Stockhausen presumably also
acquired these manuscripts,
the C.P.E. Bach manuscripts,
from the 1889 sale,
Liepmannssohn's sell
of Grell's collection.
In no instance, in the Library
of Congress manuscripts is
Grell's numbering, the NO pattern
at the bottom of the page,
in no instance is Grell's
numbering struck through;
however Grell's numbering
scheme appears
to replace an earlier scheme found
in the upper right hand
corner sometimes more
than one numbering scheme as
you can see in this instance,
and that's particularly evident
in the trio sonatas of
C.P.E. Bach's music.
The canceled numbering
scheme is also present in the
at least 32 other manuscripts
of trio sonatas
of 18th century Berlin
origin that are held here
at the Library of Congress.
This is one more example,
it's a trio sonata
by Johann Philipp Kirnberger,
you can see in the upper
right that 217 is crossed out.
As seen elsewhere in this
group of manuscripts,
this being one good example,
the C.P.E. Bach items bear clear
indication that the individual
that numbered the items
or had the items numbered
in the upper right hand
corner had acquired
or commissioned items in groups.
This is exhibited because there
are successive groupings of items
in the hand of different copyists,
so 5 manuscripts in the hand
of 1 copyist another 5 or 6 in
the hand of another copyist,
so it would seem that whoever owned
these before Grell, excuse me,
acquired a chunk of manuscripts and
then acquired another and another
and they are number sequentially so
you can see 1 group of manuscripts
and then the numbering flows
right into the next group
which is completely
distinct different copyists
and it's on different paper, so.
One fairly consistent
characteristic among all
of these tri sonatas manuscripts
that indicates the relationship
between these sonatas in addition
to the consistent numbering scheme
in the upper right hand corner, is
the recurring presence of materials
in the hand of, or that in some
can be linked with an individual
by the name of Johann Friedrich
Hering [assumed spelling].
Hering as you can see
signed his name
at the bottom right hand
corner of this manuscript.
Hering was maintained close
contact with C.P.E. Bach,
in addition to this he served
as an agent in the sale
of C.P.E. Bach's publications
after Bach had moved
from Berlin in 1768 to Hamburg.
Hering also appears to have served
as a private music
teacher in Berlin.
He himself would collect and copy
for his collection
sophisticated repertoire,
but the Peabody Conservatory
professor Andrew Tully has
documented that Hering
prepared manuscripts
of simpler repertoire presumably
for his students, otherwise,
little else is known about Herring
or the extent of the collection
of music he amassed for
rather than on commission.
A numbering sequence found
on the lower left hand side
of the C.P.E. Bach manuscripts
of the trio sonatas here
at the library appears
to be in Hering's hand
and offers one indication that
these items comprise a portion
of Hering's personal collection, so
it's number 10 in the bottom right
in parentheses, I'm sorry
bottom left in parentheses
under the musical [inaudible] of it.
If the numbering scheme on the
lower left is Hering's the numbering
in the upper right would presumably
represent an intermediate owner
between Hering and Grell.
In the instance of the C.P.E.
Bach manuscripts at the Library
of Congress, the practice
of preparing manuscripts
for students may converge with
Hering's own personal practice
of copying highly sophisticated
music
of the Bach family for
his own collection.
Hering's students included
an individual by the name
of Otto Von Haas a member
of a well-establish
noble oppression family
and eventually a prominent official
in the oppression government during
the late 18th and early 19th century
for about a year or two during the
Napoleonic wars the Prime Minister
of Prussia under Friedrich Wilhelm
III, but he didn't necessarily agree
with his King very well, so it
was a short lived relationship.
Otto Von Haas built,
in his free time,
built a noteworthy music collection
that in part supported an
active musical [inaudible]
in Berlin during the first
decade of the 19th century.
His son Otto Von Haas,
Jr. continued to refine,
expand and catalog the collection.
In a study of the Von
Haas collection,
the German scholar Bonita Faulstich
[assumed spelling] elaborates
on the relationship of Herring
with his noble family noting
that a member of the Haas
family served as a witness
to Hering last will and
testament dated September 1810,
and in addition to this, a
significant body of material
and the Haas collection
came from Hering's estate.
Eduard Grell's possession of
Hering's manuscripts may reflect
that the Haas family manuscripts
later came into the collection
of the Sing-Akademie though there's
no concrete evidence of this,
there are a lot of similarities
between the Haas collection
and material that is found in
the Sing-Akademie collection
that was only recently
rediscovered in Kiev of all places.
So along these same lines, I'd
like to discuss another collection
of manuscripts that may also
have comprised a portion
of Grell's collection, and prior
to that possibly Haas's collection.
This is an example actually before
I move on, this is an example
of Hering's musical hand that's
a fairly, actually you stare
at these pages for long enough
and they either become extremely
distinct or look all the same,
but this is a fairly good
example of Hering's hand
and I don't think anyone
would be confused about it.
We have other manuscripts
the 50 something trio sonatas
that all came from
Grell's collection.
I, again, you stare at these long
enough and you can't tell heads
or tails of anything, but it
really appears that even in items
that aren't in Hering's hand they
have his [inaudible] figurations
these numbers above the baseline
here which are for the chords
to be played above the music.
It really looks like Hering's hand
that, you know, if we got 20 people
to a rate 6's and 5's and 7's
and flat signs and sharps signs
and natural signs, I'm sure we
would all start to confuse all 20
of our numbers as well, so I'm
inclined to think that most
of these manuscripts were
emanated from either Hering,
Hering's collection, or were
works that Hering was selling;
like he sold printed
music in anyway.
This is an example of
another group of materials
that I want to talk about.
In these instant, in this
material there are none
of the tell-tell indicators
of Grell's ownership, that NO
and a number, not here; not of
what I think is presumably a sign
of the Haas family's
ownership, so those numbers
in the upper right hand corner,
there are no small numbers
in the upper right hand corner.
At the same time, these
manuscripts do display
yet a different consistent
numbering scheme strikingly rendered
in dark black ink with a
thickly drawn N followed
by successive numbers and
you can see that right
after the title Concerto in G.
The numbering appears to restart
with different composers
and different genre
by the same composer.
Among the C.P.E. Bach concerto
manuscripts baring this distinctive
numbering sequence two
different groups appear.
The first group reflects the work
of several professional Berlin
copyists closely associated
with C.P.E. Bach and even though
they're closely associated
with C.P.E. Bach, we absolutely
have no idea of their identity
and they continue to be
referred to in Bach's scholarship
as anonymous 302 and anonymous 303;
those are largely arbitrarily
assigned numbers, again I could go
on for a while about how they got
to be 302 and 303, but for intents
and purposes they're arbitrary.
Another Berlin copyist identified
as F. Baumann [assumed spelling]
also appears consistently among this
first group of manuscripts and
this in fact, this title page is
in the hand of F. Baumann,
again all we know of this guy is
that his name his first initial
was F and his last name Baumann.
There is a second group of concerto
manuscripts music of C.P.E. Bach
that also fall into
this numbering sequence.
The second group reflects
at least in part the work
of amateur copyists working
under the supervision
of a copyist referenced by the
scholar Rachel Wade this copyist K,
again entirely arbitrarily
assigned moniker for this copyist.
The grouping become discernable
not only by the presence
of specific copyists, so we've
got our professional copyists
on one hand and then those
amateur copyists on the other,
but they also have consistent paper
that used in the two groupings.
Additional manuscripts of the
Bibliotheque Nationale de France
from Lesserre's collection also
bear the same numbering pattern,
as well as at least
one in the collection
of the Berlin Sing-Akademie.
In the earlier of the two groups,
the group of concerto manuscripts
that were not prepared by
the professional copyists,
specifically anonymous 302,
their, so anonymous 302 is soft
of consistently present in these
and he is an individual who worked
for Bach between 1745 and 1759,
but anonymous 302 produced many
of these manuscripts offer
strong evidence for the dating
of the [inaudible] so they couldn't
have been prepared before 1745
or after 1759.
In addition, he and his
fellow copyist used the paper
for these manuscripts
shown today from the 1740's
and perhaps from the early 1750's.
Finally, the scholar and keyboard
player David Schoolenberg [assumed
spelling] has observed that the
versions of the concertos contained
in the manuscripts produced
by anonymous 302 document
intermediate versions
of the compositions
that date to about 1755,
and it was at this time
Bach was continuing
to revise these concertos; so
the versions of the concertos
that are here in the Library
of Congress collection
are not the final form
that the concertos would take.
Regardless of the inconsistencies
between these two groups
of manuscripts, not only
their sequential numbering,
but also their subsequent
transmission clearly reflect their
integrity as a covius of collection.
Leo Liepmannssohn's catalog number
75, which was published in 1889,
listed these manuscripts as
components of lot number 96
and now it appeared on
page 4 of this catalog.
The items correspond not only
in description to the items held
at the Library of Congress,
these manuscripts also
bear the exact numbering
in Liepmannssohn's catalog.
Small notes in the upper
left hand corner of several
of the Bach manuscripts
reflect the numbering
of the separate manuscripts
listed in Liepmannssohn's catalog,
so though Leipmannsohn's numbering
of the manuscripts does not maintain
the earlier numbering pattern,
so in this instance number 8 is
now number 4 you can see faintly
in the upper left hand corner
that's just a 4 and a period.
The grouping of these manuscripts
together by Liepmannssohn
and his sales catalog indicate
and obvious cohesiveness.
The lack of individual pricing for
the manuscripts listed for sale
as a group, and they were prices
at 16 marks for I think it was
about 12 manuscripts,
in 1889 that suggests
that Liepmannssohn sold these
as 1 single lot at that time.
This I know you can't, well
I don't want to you know.
[ Silence ]
You definitely cannot
see this in this photo,
but there on the library's
manuscripts these
in particular there's a very
faint oval shaped stamp that's
in purple ink and that's how
we know that this collector,
this French collector by the name
of Lesserre later owned these
manuscripts and other materials
from Lessarre's collection
are held at Harvard
and I think there are some at
Berkeley, there definitely some
at the Bibliotheque Nationale,
all of those the stamp,
oh and the University of Michigan,
the stamp is very clearly present
so it seems that the Library of
Congress scratched off the stamp
after they acquired the
items; why I don't know.
However, Lesserre's collection was
sold in 1907 and it was at that time
that this group of 12 or so
manuscripts that were sold as 1 lot
in 1889 were dispersed
and so the faint traces
of the collector's stamp
on our manuscripts suggest
that Lesserre acquired
these at the 1889 sale,
but that subsequently several
manuscripts that matched those
at the Library of Congress
but were turned
down by Oscar Sonneck became
incorporated into the holdings
of the Bibiotheque Nationale.
Despite the abundant information
about their 19th century owners,
the individuals who originally
placed the distinctive numbering
on these Bach concertos and, as well
as a group of C.P.E. Bach sonatas,
left no trace of his
or her identity.
However, another group of
concertos at the Library
of Congress may offer evidence of
the origins of these materials.
This group again displaying the
distinctive numbering pattern,
this is an example of
it, so here we have N4
in the top right hand corner,
they displayed a consistent
numbering pattern;
they contained key word concertos
by an individual named Christian
Friedrich Shaula [assumed spelling]
he was a Berlin contemporary of
C.P.E. Bach's and a colleague
of Bach's and Fredrick
the Great court orchestra.
No copyist or watermarks, well I
don't think the copyists are water,
I know the watermarks
are not consistent
between these Shaula manuscripts
and the Bach manuscripts,
I'm not sure about the
copyists cause I can't tell
if this Baumann or not.
In any event, there doesn't seem
to be the strong correlation
between the Shaula manuscript
and the Bach manuscripts.
The only consistent
trace of relationship
between these manuscripts is the
numbering scheme; despite the lack
of any discernable physical evidence
left by the earliest owner's,
the presence of Shaula's music
among these items offers a revealing
glimpse into the vibrant
musical cult life cultivated
in private societies in which
Shaula maintained a prominent role.
He was both a member of a group
known as the Musik uben Gesellschaft
which translates to Music Practicing
Society and also is the director,
this is in the 1750's, 60's,
and 70's he was the director
of the Musikalische Montage or
The Musical Assembly comprised
of his colleagues in both
instances most of the members
of these societies were also members
of the Fredrick the
Great's court orchestra.
Bach was not a member of
any of these societies,
but maintained close contact with
the musicians involved in them
and his music enjoyed frequent
performance in these settings.
The presence among these manuscripts
of 2 Bach's primary copyists
from this period legitimates
their authority and suggests
that they were prepared at Bach's
best were on commission for use
in Berlin where they remained
until late in the 19th century.
So important information has
begun to emerge about these
and related materials through
composer center research
and especially in the work of
the editors of the complete works
of Carl Philipp Emaneul Bach.
What is of particular interest to
me is what these sources reveal
when placed within the context of
their origin and dissemination,
as they offer insight not only
into the professional connections
C.P.E. Bach maintained in Berlin,
but also give evidence how these
musicians use the composer's music
as a public music culture developed
in the waning years
of the 18th century.
Given both its extraordinary
breath and depth, the collection
that Oscar Sonneck built here
at the Library of Congress has
as he had hoped created
the opportunity
for substantive historical
research in the United States.
However, given the important
connections this collection holds
with sources held at
many other institutions,
rather than freeing American
scholars from reliance
on European libraries, scholarship
utilizing our collection continues
to strengthen the bonds
of the Library of Congress
to its counterparts in Europe.
Given that our weekend concerts are
cosponsored by the Geothe-Institut
and the German Foreign Office,
I can't think of a better way
to conclude my remarks than
in making this observation.
So I thank you for joining us
here at the Library of Congress
for this evening's concert and
I would be happy to respond
to observations you may have.
[ Applause ]
And now that you've had a taste of a
musicological paper, I can only wait
to see you all at the meetings of
the American Musicological Society.
>> Yeah, I have a question for you.
>> Daniel Boomhower: Yes.
>> Does the library possess the,
any manuscripts from the most famous
of the Bach copyists anonymous 4?
>> Daniel Boomhower: Just so
you all heard of anonymous 4,
well anonymous 4 was a composer
working in 13th century Paris,
so anonymous 4 was definitely
not associated with C.P.E. Bach.
Oh, and there's a great
vocal, female vocal ensemble
in the United States by
the name of anonymous 4.
[ Inaudible Question ]
One musical manuscript
and 3 letters.
>> And what was the
name of the letters?
>> Daniel Boomhower: It's Fantasia
and I'm sorry to say I don't know
in what key I can give you the
sematic thematic catalog number
which is 61/3 but that
was, it's interesting
because C.P.E. Bach's kind of
signature musical style was sort
of improvisational music and the
Fantasia is sort of the hallmark
of that so it's particularly
nice example.
It's on display here in the lobby
and actually not even late in life,
but halfway through,
C.P.E. Bach's life,
his handwriting became very
shaky and it's very evident
in this manuscript, it's like he
was writing on a bouncing buggy
of something when he was copying.
[ Inaudible Question]
>> Daniel Boomhower: This would
be a late, I would say it's from,
if someone knows, I
don't personally,
but I would say it, 1784 or after.
There you go.
Yeah.
>> Oh, thank you.
This might be a little left
field, but could you talk
about the relationship
between Leip-Zig and Berlin
and you said Kiev was a little
bit, well so out of there,
but there were publishers that
published in the late 19th century
out of both Leip-Zig and Kiev
and [inaudible] publishers.
Daniel Boomhower: Right.
>> Do you know about this
and can you speak to this?
>> Daniel Boomhower: Well, I yes.
So, they Kiev piece of this
puzzle is purely the result
of 20th century geopolitics.
The Russian army occupied the
northeast quadrant of Berlin
in which the Berlin, well
at that time the Prussian State
Library existed and still exists
on Unter de Linden and
it's immediately adjacent
to the Berlin University
and the next building
over on Unter de Linden going east
is the Sing-Akademie building.
The Sing-Akademie collection
was housed
in the Prussian State Library,
but then all of the holdings
of the Prussian State Library
during the bombing raids were moved
to mines, various mines in
Germany; some of them were
in the western zone and
came into allies hands
and those were generally
returned to Germany.
The one's in the eastern
zones were generally retained
by the occupying force
and the Sing-Akademie collection
was presumed lost for decades
until in 1999 it was
revealed to be held
in Kiev that's the only reason Kiev
factors into this story, but the,
actually so that's 20th century
19th century Leip-Zig was the center
of music publishing
period and that is
where C.P.E. Bach's music
was being published primarily
in the 19th century, Johannes
Brahms edited C.P.E. Bach's music,
he own C.P.E. Bach autographed
manuscripts, but the,
and book publishing was always was
strong very much in the 18th century
in Leip-Zig but musically,
the sort of polls
in northern Germany were first
and foremost Dresden and then kind
of an imitation of Dresden, Fredrick
the Great developed his musical
establishment in Berlin,
so in the latter half
of the 18th century it was only
in the latter half of the 18th
that there was any musical
life to speak of in Berlin.
>> If you could wait
for the microphone
so we can make sure we
hear your questions.
>> Can you say something about the
type of paper that these are on
and has it been or undergone
any modern conservation efforts?
>> Daniel Boomhower: Yes, the
paper it's all manufactured paper,
mass produced paper was a
phenomenon of the 19th century,
so all of this is what actually, I
was dying to say something about all
of these hipsters in this photo,
so they're people who dress
like this today would be very
thrilled to be craft papermakers,
but just like they make Kraft beer.
The handmade paper is essentially
it's rag paper, it's linen, cotton,
and it's the fibers are dissolved
into this kind of gelatinous ooze
and then it's poured over a screen
and in the screens papermakers would
weave their, it's a wire screen
that looks not very dissimilar
from window screen today,
a metal not the nylon things,
and into the screens would be
woven often a decorative figure
that would be sort of a trademark of
a paper mill and it is a watermark,
so the watermarks that you
see in your copier paper,
your fancier copier paper purely an
imitation of this earlier practice
and so that's how you can
distinguish these different kinds
of papers.
The only reason conservation is
generally needed on this kind
of paper, is when there's
corrosion from the ink,
so inks were usually contained
some sort of iron in them
and the more iron there is the more
likely oxidation will cause the ink
to erode the paper or
corrode the paper; otherwise,
this paper is stunningly strong and
it survives in much better shape
than 19th century and
20th century paper.
So you'll see there are numerous
example and everything on display
in the foyer is 18th century
printed editions or manuscripts
so it's all inherently 18th
century paper and they're
in stunningly good condition.
>> I was just curious about
the cost in the purchasing
of these manuscripts, you mentioned
60 marks but I don't know how much
that is or in today's marketplace
and how valuable they might be
in the marketplace today.
>> Daniel Boomhower: So.
>> On auction or something
like that.
>> Daniel Boomhower: Yeah, so
it, when we shy away from talking
about money cause the
collections here are,
if we were to buy them today would
be shockingly expensive and the,
but not across the board but
even in like a copyist manuscript
of a C.P.E. Bach concerto would
not be shockingly expensive.
Shockingly expensive in my mind
depending on the music is 6
or 7 figures and there's definitely
music that sells for that.
The, 2 years ago, or
about a year ago,
a copy of the Goldberg
variations which was published,
one of the few pieces published
during J.S. Bach's lifetime,
sold at auction for a record for
a printed piece of music I want
to say it was 209,000 pounds, so
that would be around 300,000 dollars
but that's Goldberg variations
and that J.S. Bach and they're
about I don't know maybe 30
copies of the Goldberg variations
that survive in the
original printed edition.
C.P.E. Bach, I don't know, I'm
sure we could find examples
of things sold recently,
I would think that contemporary
printed edition depending
on what it was would be in
the neighborhood of maybe 8
to 15,000 dollars; manuscripts
it's a totally different ballgame,
but it doesn't mean that
that numbers are going
to be significantly
different it's just, you know,
something worth what someone's
willing to pay for it.
[ Silence ]
Any other questions?
Well, thank you for indulging me.
Like I said, it was kind of detailed
material that I was laying on you.
I hope you found that
part of the notion
of building the collections here
at the library to be interesting
at the very least, so
thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.