Zweig MS 31

Autograph. In score. Written in black ink on systems of four and five staves, one stave for the most part left blank; some clefs and key signatures in Part I (ff. 3v-8r) are in red ink. With a few annotations and corrections in pencil on. ff. 10r and v, 11r, 16r. Contents as follows:

f. 3r. Title-page: ‘(Piano) / Fantaisie, piano et orchestre / (1er Partie)’.

ff. 3v-8r. Part I: ‘Andante’. Orchestral part only partially written in on one or two staves beneath the piano part; cue letters added in blue crayon throughout. The orchestral introduction and orchestral passages at cue letters E, H and I (in the published full score) are omitted but the number of bars they occupy marked in; following cue letter L the orchestral part is omitted until the last 7 bars, without indication.

f. 9r. Title-page: ‘(Fantaisie / 2: Partie)’.

ff. 9v-19r. Part II: [no tempo marking] - ‘Même mouvement - Allegro Moto - Un peu retenu - a Tempo - Piu Mosso poco a poco - Vivace’. Orchestral part given on a single stave only, written above the solo part, on ff. 9v-11v; thereafter as a complete piano reduction below the solo part. There are cancelled passages of 7 bars (f. 11r and v), 1 bar (f. 15v) and 4 bars (f. 17v). At some time the order of two leaves has been reversed, and the present binding preserves that error: the content of the present f. 18 precedes that of the present f. 17.

Partially erased title in pencil on f.1r apparently added later; ‘9296’ added in pencil in upper margin of f. 1r. With an inserted note in ink (f. 2) by René Chansarel stating that the manuscript, ‘celui du premier jet sur lequel j’ai travaillé avec Debussy’, was presented to him by the composer in 1890.

Debussy began work on the ‘Fantaisie’ in October 1889, intending it as one of his Prix de Rome works, though it was in fact never submitted. The work is dedicated to his friend the pianist René Chansarel, who was to have given the first performance at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique on 21 April 1890. At the last moment Debussy withdrew it from the programme, apparently because Vincent D’Indy, who was conducting the concert, had decided to perform only the first part (see Vallas, Lesure). Chansarel’s note inserted in the present manuscript states that it is the copy with which he and Debussy worked in preparation for this concert, and the presence of cue letters in Part I only suggests, at least, that Part II had not been prepared in such detail. Though Debussy thought of revising the work at various times, it remained unperformed during his lifetime, and the first performance was given, not in Paris but in London, by Alfred Cortot at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert on 20 Nov. 1919. Briscoe identifies the present manuscript with that listed by Lesure as being formerly in Marguerite Long’s collection, but ‘Esquisses pré-orchestrales’ for the work from her collection were included in the 1962 exhibition at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Samazeuilh’s piano reduction of the orchestral part differs from the fully realized sections of Zweig MS 31. Zweig had acquired a Debussy manuscript as early as 1926, presumably the Banville setting ‘Les baisers’ sold from Hinterberger cat. IX (no. 246). Zweig MS 31 provides yet another example of his seeking in the later 1930s what might be considered as replacements - and often far better replacements - for items sold off through Hinterberger.