Michael William Balfe | Autograph score of the Fantasia in E for horn and orchestra, 1841

Michael William Balfe.

Autograph manuscript score signed of the Fantasia in E for horn and orchestra

the composing manuscript of the complete work, scored for piccolo, flute, oboes, clarinets, trumpets, horns, bassoons, trombones, drums, solo horn and strings, notated in brown ink on systems of up to 15 staves per page, with autograph title ("Fantasia"), signed twice and also inscribed and dated on the first page ("MW Balfe...All' amico Puzzi. M. W. Balfe Londra Giannajo 19 1841"), the appearance of the tune at the beginning of the 'andante cantabile' section (b.34) marked by Balfe "Ballade / The Peace of the Valley", with extensive deletions, corrections and revisions, including the cancellation of the first bar, replaced with a 19-bar revision written on a separate, loose and signed, bifolium, a revised version of the horn cadenza written on a 6-stave strip of manuscript paper and affixed to the score, the final page containing four bars of music for the horn, apparently rejected from the "Rondò" section of the work

44 pages, 4to, and 4 pages, oblong 4to, plus blanks, 20- and 14-stave paper, some later entries in pencil, modern half morocco, gilt lettering to spine ("Balfe Fantasia"), London, 19 January 1841, upper margin slightly cropped in places, slightly affecting title and one of the signatures, some dust-staining to edges, pinholes, a few tiny tears, tears to the separate bifolium repaired

together with: a set of contemporary scribal performing parts for the work, 6, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 3, 4, 4, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 pages, 4to, title to each part ("Fantasia Introducing the Popular Ballad "The Peace of the Valley" and The Echo Rondò From Balfe's Opera: Falstaff Composed expressly For his Friend Puzzi by M. W. Balfe"), transmitting the original (shorter) version of the opening section, and also a shorter version of the original cadenza, ties, no place or date [c.1840s?], without the solo horn part, browning to the leader part

This is a substantial, multi-layered autograph manuscript by the Irish singer and composer Michael William Balfe (1808-1870), the nineteenth century's most successful composer of operas in English (TNG). Based on popular tunes from one of Balfe's finest operas, Falstaff (1838), the fantasia was specially composed to showcase the virtuosity of Giovanni Puzzi (1792-1876), principal horn of Her Majesty's Theatre, a former child prodigy who had been brought to England by Wellington after the defeat of Napoleon. He would later become the first professor of horn at the newly founded Royal Academy of Music in London, enjoying the reputation of the most celebrated horn virtuoso in Britain in the nineteenth century. A number of his own compositions survive in manuscript at the British Library.

The fantasia was one of three works written by Balfe for Puzzi, the other two being a 'Fantasia per corno da caccia' probably written in the 1830s, and a 'Potpourri per corno' dated London 1855. The form of the present work is not unlike a two-part operatic rondò, with a slow and a concluding fast section (Andante cantabile - Allegretto: Rondò) prefaced by a recitative, expanded by Balfe on a separate bifolium, whereby the entry of the soloist is delayed - to dramatic effect - by nineteen bars.

LITERATURE:

Elizabeth Bradley Strauchen, Giovanni Puzzi: His Life and Work. A View of Horn Playing and Musical Life in England from 1817 into the Victorian Era (c. 1855) [D.Phil, University of Oxford, 2000], p.194