Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Contemporary manuscript full score and orchestral parts for Der Freischütz, J.277, n.d. [c.1820s]
A contemporary manuscript of Weber’s most famous work, Der Freischütz, whose 1821 premiere catapulted the composer to international celebrity and defined his career.

Full score, in three volumes, comprising the overture and 16 numbers, written in brown ink on up to 16 staves per page. c.500 pages in total, c.230 x 320mm, on 10-16 stave paper, calligraphic title to first volume, text in German, cues for spoken dialogue in ink on un-ruled pages and in the margins, with 8 pages for the stage band notated at the end of the third volume on three- and five-stave systems, the score marked up for performance in pencil, including some additional cues (‘Ziemlich nach bey der Wolfsschluss’; ‘Das 3te Horn Extra’; ‘Nb Corni 3’). Contemporary boards, titled in ink on covers.

[and:] orchestral parts for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns in F and C, trumpets in C, timpani, and strings. 20 volumes, 245 x 330mm, 12-stave paper, some contemporary annotations corrections inserted on slips of paper affixed with pins. Paper wrappers, contemporary blue manuscript labels to covers.

Provenance:
(1) Sotheby’s, 1 December 2010, lot 96.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5475.

The overwhelming success of his opera Der Freischütz in 1821 changed Weber’s life: he became the leading exponent of German opera in the 1820s and an international celebrity. The full score did not appear in print until c.1849, with copies circulating in manuscript before this time.