Zweig MS 77

Autograph full score. Written in ink, on systems of up to 30 staves. Incomplete, comprising nos. I, III, IV and bars 1-16 only of no. V. No. I written jointly by Schoenberg and Stein, the remaining numbers entirely in the hand of the composer. As follows:

ff. 1-6r. No. I; tempo marking (f. 1r) ‘Sehr rasch ([quaver])’. In Schoenberg’s hand are all of ff. 1r-3r and the names of the instruments in the left margin of f. 3v; the music on f. 3v and all of the remaining pages are written out by Erwin Stein, with corrections by Schoenberg. ‘I’ in red crayon in the upper margin of f. 1r.

ff. 7r-10r. No. III; no tempo marking. An extra stave has been added at the foot of f. 9v to accommodate the solo double-bass parts. ‘III’ in pencil on f. 8. Bar 29 (f. 9v) has been ruled vertically in pencil and in red crayon to indicate each of the four beats and their semi-quaver divisions.

ff. 11v-15r. No. IV; ‘Sehr rasche ([crotchet])’ (f. 11v). ‘IV’ in red crayon in upper margin of f. 11r.

f. 16v. No. V; ‘bewegte ([crotchet])’. Bars 1-16 only, filling the whole of f. 16v. Rehearsal cue nos. have been added in pencil in no. IV. Later note in pencil on f. 16r identifying no. V as beginning overleaf on f. 16v.

The manuscript of no. II which formerly belonged with this manuscript has a note by Schoenberg (Kritischer Bericht, p.7) explaining that the entire copy was made when it became necessary for him to part with the original score - so certainly before the publication of the full score in 1912, and most likely before Stein’s period of study with Schoenberg came to an end in 1910. The Five Orchestral Pieces were first performed in London in 1912, and, again in London, this time conducted by the composer, in 1914 (Kritischer Bericht, pp. XIV-XV). After this performance Schoenberg decided to revise the pieces; a list of corrections was printed for insertion in copies of the first edition, and a revised score issued in 1922. (This was also the first edition to include the titles of the pieces, although these had been requested by the publisher in 1912.) Zweig MS 77 neither incorporates these revisions nor gives the titles. Kokkinis notes in the Kritischer Bericht that the fragment of no. V in Zweig MS 77 occupies a complete page, and breaks off at the end of it in a way which might suggest that the score once continued on pages now lost; O.W. Neighbour has pointed out that it is also possible that Zweig MS 77 may date from as early as the summer of 1909, before the composition of no. V was complete. The photocopy of the manuscript among the provenance papers (Add. MS 73179), apparently made at the time of or shortly before its acquisition for the Zweig Collection, contains no more than the pages now present in Zweig MS 77.