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A unique
manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven that was lost for more than
a century will go on sale in London in December priced
at over one million
pounds. | |
A unique manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven that
was lost for more than a century will go on sale in London in December
priced at over one million pounds.
Discovered in July at the bottom of a dusty filing cabinet at a
religious school in Philadelphia, the manuscript is a work in progress for
the composer's Grosse Fuge in B flat major -- one of his most
revolutionary works.
"This is an amazing find," said Stephen Roe, head of auction house
Sotheby's manuscript department. "The manuscript was only known from a
brief description in a catalog in 1890 and it has never before been seen
or described by Beethoven scholars."
Not only is the 80-page document a working manuscript for the only
piano version of a major work by Beethoven, it is one of his few
compositions for a piano duet.
Sotheby's, which will auction the document on December 1, said it was
the most important Beethoven manuscript to have come to market in living
memory and would prompt a complete reassessment of his works.
It is the second time very rare musical documents have been found by
chance at the former Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary -- now renamed
the Palmer Theological Seminary. A Mozart manuscript was discovered there
in 1990.
The German composer who continued to work as he went slowly deaf, wrote
the work in 1826 -- one year before his death -- as the finale for his
String Quartet in B flat major.
The manuscript is written in brown and black ink
and includes annotations in
pencil and red crayon
.
The document contains multiple deletions and corrections and has places
where the paper is rubbed through as Beethoven continuously tried and
rejected different variations.
Because it is so obviously a working document, it is not easy to read
and has no printer's marks. Sotheby's said it was clear this was not the finished version and
as such would give deep insight when compared with the published
work.
(Agencies) |
一份遺失了一個多世紀的貝多芬僅存的手稿今年12月將在倫敦拍賣，拍賣價將超過100萬英鎊。
這份手稿是今年七月在美國費城的一所教會學校滿是灰塵的檔案柜底部發現的，是貝多芬創作的降B大調大賦格曲中的部分手稿，降B大調大賦格曲是貝多芬最有創造性的作品之一。
“這個發現太驚人了。這份手稿僅在1890年的一份目錄中略有記載。在此此前，研究貝多芬的學者們從來沒有見過或描述過這份手稿。”紐約蘇富比拍賣公司手稿部負責人斯蒂芬·羅說。
這份長達80頁的手稿不僅是貝多芬的一部主要作品的唯一鋼琴演奏版，也是他創作的為數不多的鋼琴二重奏樂譜之一。
紐約蘇富比拍賣公司將于今年12月1日拍賣這份手稿。拍賣行表示這是記憶中至今為止面世的最重要的貝多芬手稿，這份手稿的出現將促進研究者們對貝多芬作品做全面的再評估。
這已經是前美東浸信會神學院第二次偶然發現非常罕見的音樂手稿，這所學院現已改名為帕爾默神學院。1990年，這里發現了一份莫扎特的手稿。
盡管聽力越來越差，這位德國作曲家仍然堅持工作，并于1826年創作了這部作品。一年后他就離開了人世。他的最后一部作品是降B大調弦樂四重奏。
這份手稿是用棕色和黑色墨水寫的，還有一些用鉛筆和紅色粉筆做的注解。
這份樂譜中有許多刪減和修改的地方，還有些地方由于貝多芬反復嘗試和舍棄不同的變調，把紙都擦破了。
這份手稿顯然是創作時留下來的，因此讀起來非常費力，而且也沒有打印的痕跡。蘇富比拍賣公司表示這很明顯不是已經完成的版本，就這一點而言，它比已經出版的作品更有意義。
（中國日報網站薛曉文譯） |
Updated: 2005-10-17 09:07
