Zweig MS 40

Autograph score. Written in ink on systems of four staves. In two movements, as follows:

ff. 1v-5r. ‘Andante’; instrumental lines marked ‘Violino’, ‘Cembalo o p:f:’ and ‘Violoncello’ (f. 1v). Headed ‘In Nomine Domini’ and ‘di me giuseppe Haydn m[anu] p[ro]pria / 795 [line over]’ on f. 1v.

ff. 6r-9v. ‘Allegro’; instrumental lines marked ‘Violin’, ‘Cembalo’ and ‘Violoncello’ (f. 6r). At the head of f. 6r, all partially erased, the composer has written ‘Sonata’, ‘Jacob’s Dream ! by Dr Haydn’ and ‘794’ [line above]. At the end f. 9v is the composer’s ‘Laus Deo’.

On f. 1r is Haydn’s title ‘Sonata’; beneath are three brief passages from the piano part, numbered 1-3, added by the composer as corrections or clarification. Two of these are from movement I of half a bar each, the other from movement II of a bar and a half; the place in the text to which the first of these corrections refers is indicated (f. 2v) with ‘No. 1.’. Smudges of printer’s ink are visible on f. 4r, and there are offset impressions on the last page (f. 9v) of music and of part of a printed title. Annotation of authenticity signed ‘André’ (Johann Anton André, see Irmgard Becker-Glauch (ed.), Joseph Haydn. Werke, XVII:3, Klaviertrios iii, p. 365) added on f. 1r. Later pencil annotations on f. 1r include ‘No. 2’ and ‘J. Haydn’ in the upper margin, and identifications in German of the points in the text to which the three passages of corrections refer.

The partially erased heading on f. 6r identifies movement II as the ‘Jacob’s Dream’ Sonata, long thought lost. It appears as ‘The Dream’ in Haydn’s list of his compositions written in England (see Robbins Landon, Correspondence and London Notebooks), and as ‘Jacobs Dream. Ein Allegro fürs Pianoforte’ in Johann Elssler’s catalogue of Haydn’s library (Add. MS 32070, f. 23v). The London notebook list states that the manuscript has 5 leaves, presumably referring to the present second movement and a separate title-page now lost. This in turn suggests that, though on English paper, movement I was composed, or completed, after Haydn’s departure in August 1795.