Schoenberg manuscript to be auctioned

Autograph manuscript of String Quartet No. 10 goes under the hammer

Published: July 11, 2012 at 1:04 pm

An autograph manuscript of Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet Op.10 is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s Paris in October this year.

The piece, which was the first in which Schoenberg dispensed with a key signature and includes a soprano part in the last two movements, was dedicated to his wife. Schoenberg wrote the piece during a tumultuous period in his life when his wife had an affair with the artist Richard Gerstl.

The manuscript will be auctioned alongside around 450 other musical items and papers from the collection of André Meyer (1884-1974). Meyer dedicated his life to collecting music items, and other lots to be auctioned from his collection include a sketch leaf of Beethoven’s piano exercises once owned by Chopin, the first collected edition of Bach’s Six Partitas for keyboard, and a number of portraits of composers.

Sophie Gadd

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