“HIS GREATEST SONG”: FIRST EDITION OF ERLKÖNIG, SCHUBERT’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK AND HIS MOST FAMOUS LIED, INSCRIBED BY HIM AND WITH HIS AUTOGRAPH MARKINGS
SCHUBERT, Franz. Erlkönig. Ballade von Göthe, in Musik gesetzt… 1stes Werk. Wien: Cappi und Diabelli, [March 31, 1821]. Oblong quarto, original self wrappers; pp. 15. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.
First edition of Schubert’s first published work and most famous lied, fully engraved, inscribed by Schubert on the final leaf. From the collections of Schubert editor Eusebius Mandyczewski and Vienna musicologist Hugo Botstiber.
Schubert’s songs are among his greatest works, and stand at the pinnacle of the lieder tradition. In 1815 alone, at the age of only 18, he composed 145 lieder. “The range is tremendous and the accomplishment outstanding… He set 30 poems by Goethe, and some of these are among his finest and most famous songs… The last of the Goethe settings, the song by which the year will always be remembered, is Erlkönig, composed in late autumn 1815… when the song was eventually published, some six years later, it spread Schubert’s fame far beyond his native city. In his own lifetime and for generations afterwards it was considered his greatest song. Today, perhaps, some of the more subtle songs of his final years spring to mind before Erlkönig, but the wealth of harmonic resource, its masterly structure and the mounting tonal climaxes of the threefold lure will always keep it high among his masterpieces of song” (New Grove 16:755). “Of infinite variety and grace, [his melodies] have a quality of pathos, of direct appeal to the listener, which is a reflection of the sweetness and sensitivity of his own nature” (New Grove 16:774).
There are hand-written controlling numberings on the back of the last leaves of early Schubert first editions-“Sch[ubert] m[anu] p[ropria]-422” in this copy. Some have suggested that they were done by his brother Ferdinand Schubert or a few others on Schubert’s behalf, but Fuld says that they are by Schubert himself. Variant issue, with metronome marking on p. 4 (see Hirsch IV: 472). Fuld, 216. Deutsch 328. New Grove 3:88. From the collection of Eusebius Mandyczewski, editor of the standard edition of Schubert’s works, with his stamp on title page and his pencil markings throughout. Mandyczewski has noted on the title page that he has compared this copy with the autograph copy in Clara Schumann’s possession and marked the occasional discrepancies. “The decade of 1887-97 saw the appearance of Mandyczewski’s work on the Schubert Gesamtausgabe. His name is particularly associated with the ten volumes of songs, which he edited meticulously, sometimes printing as many as three or four variants of individual songs” (New Grove 11: 611). The copy then passed into possession of the Viennese music scholar Hugo Botstiber, who worked as Mandyczewski’s assistant at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde from 1896 to 1900.
Schubert’s signature slightly cropped at lower edge. Minor soiling to lower fore-edge, plates quite clean. An exceptional copy with significant provenance of one of the great rarities of 19th-century music.