Nov 07, 2017 - Sale 2461

Sale 2461 - Lot 173

Price Realized: $ 2,860
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
INVITATION TO THE MUSICIANS' CONGRESS LISZT, FRANZ. Autograph Letter Signed, "F. Liszt," to publisher of the Allgemeinen deutschen Musikzeitung Otto Lessmann, in German and French, offering to dedicate a symphonic Canone perpetuo in thanks if only he himself were more familiar with the canon form, inviting him to accompany him to the Musicians' Congress in Zürich, and adding that he is reading and recommending his paper. 2 pages, 8vo, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; inlaid, faint scattered staining, horizontal fold. With the address panel from the original envelope, mounted to a larger sheet. Weimar, 23 April 1882

Additional Details

". . . If the form of a canon were not so unfamiliar to me, I would dedicate to you a symphonic thanksgiving Canone perpetuo. . . .
"This year the Musicians' Congress will take place at Zürich--where I will be present as a man who is superfluously necessary (in the superfluous manner which is necessary according to Voltaire ), since the establishment of the Musicians' Congress with Brendel 20 years ago--that is to say, this time it will take place in Zürich from July 9 to 12.
"Let us go there together . . . ."
In 1859, the first Musicians' Congress (Tonkünstler-Versammlung) met in Leipzig, where Karl Franz Brendel, editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, delivered a speech commemorating that magazine's 25th anniversary; in that address, Brendel introduced a name for the recent developments in the music being made in Germany and elsewhere: the "New German School."
From the Jimmy Van Heusen Collection.