Add MS 47839 A-H

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: chorus parts for the St Matthew Passion; 1827-1829. Eight part-books, containing the Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass parts of Chorus 1 and Chorus 2 respectively, all except B and C in different hands; one leaf containing the chorale 'Wer hat dich so geschlagen' has been added to all the books. The part-books were among those used for the first public performance since Bach's death of the St Matthew Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin on 11 March 1829 under Mendelssohn's direction. Mendelssohn formed a small choir of sixteen voices to rehearse the work at his house in the winter of 1827 (J. Schubring, 'Reminiscences of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy', The Musical World, 19 May 1866, p. 318; E. Devrient, My, Recollections of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 1869, p. 38); after the permission of Carl Zelter, Director of the Berlin Singakademie, for a public performance had been obtained the choir was augmented by members of the Singakademic 'to such an extent that the copyist could not supply parts quickly enough' (Devrient, op. cit., p. 55). Mendelssohn's source for the St Matthew Passion was a transcript made by the violinist, Eduard Rietz, with Zelter's permission, and presented to him at Christmas 1823 by his grandmother (Devrient, op. cit., p. 14). The present part-books may derive from this score or from Bach's original (partly autograph) set of parts for the St Matthew Passion owned by the Singakademie before 1855 (now Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Mus. MS. Autogr. Bach St. 110); there is, however, at least one divergence from these (cf. 47839 H, f. 2, and the introduction to the Bach-Gesellschaft edition, Johann Sebastian Bach's Werke, Leipzig, iv, 1854, p. xxii, note relating to p. 18). The part-books were sent to England for use in the preparation of the first English performance by William Sterndale Bennett on 6 April 1854 (cf. F. G. Edwards, Musical Times, December 1896, p. 799); despite Edwards's statement to the contrary none of the numerous annotations in pencil appears to be in Mendelssohn's hand. Some of the annotations, in English interspersed with German (see particularly 47839 C, G), give page references to a printed edition (or possibly to a manuscript) which has not been identified; the references agree closely but not exactly with the Schlesinger piano reduction of 1830. Paper; ff. 16, 14, 18, 14, 15, 17, 15, 17. Oblong quarto. 1827-1829. Numbered respectively on the covers 2, 10, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1. Miscellaneous pencil notes on the covers include: 'J(?)AA' (47839 A): 'R' (47839 C, G). Presented by Novello and Co., Ltd.