MUSIC MANUSCRIPTS OF THE CLASSICAL AND ROMANTIC ERAS
Series One: Autograph Music Manuscripts from the Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig

Part 1: Music Manuscripts of Bach, Haydn, Handel and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Autograph Letters of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Robert and Clara Schumann

"The Music Library of the Leipzig City Libraries is a great treasure house containing autographs, manuscripts, and early and first printed materials. This abundance of musical riches is not the result of chance, but is directly related to the rich and variegated musical life of the city of Leipzig that has developed over many centuries. Out of these historical holdings of sheet music, composers from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras have been selected to form Series One, Part 1 of Music Manuscripts of the Classical and Romantic Era".
Brigitte Geyer
Consultant Editor and Head of the Leipzig Music Library

Leipzig, in Saxony, has been a major trade centre since the twelfth century. The University of Leipzig was founded in 1409 and printing came to the city by 1485. The city achieved prominence during the Renaissance and was also at the forefront of the Reformation. Martin Luther preached at the Thomaskirche in 1539 and this became a hub of Lutheran Church Music. The role of Thomaskantor, or music director at the Thomasschule, was a prestigious one.

It was to this post that Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was appointed in 1723. He made an immediate impact, composing and performing works such as the Magnificat (1723), the St John Passion (1724) and the St Matthew Passion (1727). Leipzig was to remain Bach's home for the next 27 years.

In 1729 Bach also took over the direction of the Collegium music group, which had been established by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), a law student at the university in 1702. The Collegium performed vocal and instrumental works in a variety of settings across Leipzig including regular Friday sessions at Zimmermans coffee house. Bach's Wohltemperierte Klavier was performed by the group. Bach filled this role for twelve years, between 1727-1736 and 1739-1741.

The next major figure to dominate Leipzig musical life was Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804). He founded the Musikübende Gesellschaft in 1775 and was the driving force behind the construction of the Gewandhaus in 1781. This was a much needed new musical venue in the city, seating 500, and it quickly established a reputation for performing important new works. Mozart appeared at the Gewandhaus in 1789 and Haydn's The Creation (1800) and The Seasons (1801) were given their premieres here. Beethoven's 1st, 3rd and 5th symphonies came to the Gewandhaus shortly after their premieres in Vienna. Schumann's 1st, 2nd and 4th symphonies and Schubert's great C Major symphony also received their first performance here.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) took over as Director of the Gewandhaus in 1835 and held the post until his death. It was here that he wrote and performed his 3rd symphony and the Ruy Blas overture. In 1840 he revived interest in Bach with a three clavier concert featuring Liszt, Ferdinand Hiller and himself as soloists. Mendelssohn also founded the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843.

Music publishing was established in Leipzig with the foundation of Breitkopf in 1719, C F Peters in 1800, Hofmeister in 1807 and Messeburger in 1849.

Part 1 begins with Johann Sebastian Bach, the most significant composer of the city of Leipzig. The Bach manuscripts that have been microfilmed belong to various collections and libraries that were combined in 1954 on the founding of the Music Library of the City of Leipzig. Some of the manuscripts originate from the Plitz collection. Karl Heinrich Ludwig Plitz, a professor at Leipzig University, presented this collection to the city of Leipzig in 1839. Other Bach manuscripts belong to the Becker collection. The Leipzig organist and lecturer, Carl Ferdinand Becker, sold this library to the city of Leipzig in 1856. A third group forms part of the Peters Music Library, a public music library founded and run by Max Abraham and Henri Hinrichsen and which, after the renewal of an agreement on permanent loan and safekeeping, made with the C. F. Peters publishing firm, is now preserved in the Leipzig Music Library. The Peters Music Library, by purchasing the Scheibner, Mempell-Preller and Rudorff collections in the early years of the twentieth century, acquired Bach compositions, some of which have come down in manuscript form only and are thus of the greatest value for the musical world.

Another composer included in this project is Joseph Haydn. The manuscripts held in the Leipzig Music Library come from the Plitz and Becker collections and the Peters Music Library, already mentioned, and also from the library of the musicologist Kurt Taut. Most of these manuscripts belong to the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

The third part consists of compositions by Georg Friedrich Handel. These manuscripts come from the Becker collection and the Peters Music Library. It is above all as Bach's contemporary that Handel is significant for the musical life of Leipzig, for, although they were never personally acquainted, they did nevertheless influence each other.

Part 1 ends with the three composers and musical personalities, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Robert and Clara Schumann. These three nineteenth century figures left their mark on the musical life of Leipzig, which continues to show their influence today: Mendelssohn as the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and founder of the first German musical conservatoire, Robert Schumann as a member of the founding committee of the conservatoire, as well as founder of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik [New Journal for Music], which reported not merely on regional but also on national musical life, and Clara Schumann as soloist in concerts in Leipzig. Besides some manuscript compositions by Mendelssohn, the letters of all three have been microfilmed.

We have used the following library catalogues as the basis of our detailed listings:

- Handschriften der Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs in der Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig (1964)
- Handschriften und ltere Drucke der Werke Georg Friedrich Handels in der Musikbibliothek der Stadt Lepzig (1966)
- Zeitgenssische Drucke und Handschriften der Werke Joseph Haydns in der Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig (1962)
- Autographen, Erstausgaben und Frühdrucke der Werke von Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipziger Bibliotheken und Archiven (1972)
- Erst- und Frühdrucke von Robert Schumann in der Musikbibliothek Leipzig (1960)

Scholars should note that a few manuscripts could not be filmed on account of their fragile condition. These were Poel mus Ms 355; Bach Sammlung Becker Ms 3 (s1-10); Bach Sammlung Becker Ms 9; Bach Sammlung Becker Ms Sx14 (Anh 57); Bach Sammlung Peters Ms a. R1*-R5*; Bach Sammlung Peters Ms a.1*; Haydn mss PM 4694 and III.2.77; Handel ms III.5.13. BWV numbers have been given for many of the Bach manuscripts, referring to W Schmeiders Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Johann Sebastian Bachs: Bach-Werke Verzeichnis of 1950.