Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Autograph manuscript signed ('Arnold Schoenberg'), the first nine bars of Kol Nidre, op. 39, September 1938
The opening of Schoenberg's only liturgical work.

Full score. Fair copy on onionskin paper, one leaf, 426 x 315mm, in two systems, the first of 10, the second of 7 staves, on 26-stave paper, erasures (especially to the B-flat trumpet), some annotations in an editorial hand, autograph copyright notice, pagination '1' at upper right; [with] retained carbon copy of a letter by Schoenberg to the editor Nathan Broder at G. Schirmer Inc, 8 March 1947, cancelling the contract for Kol Nidre and asking for 'all the material I gave Schirmer's' to be returned.

Provenance:
(1) Jacob Lateiner (1928-2010), concert pianist. His collection sold by:

(2) J & J Lubrano, music antiquarians, 2015, part VI, cat. 74, item 1.

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 5549.

The manuscript corresponds with the autograph source C* listed in the Gesamtausgabe, the 'Lichtpausreinschrift' (photoprint copy) : the editorial corrections reproduce Schoenberg's autograph emendations in red to his copy of the first printing from the photoprint (source D). This may be a discarded copy, perhaps because of the paper damage caused by the composer's erasures.

Kol Nidre is one of the most notable compositions of Schoenberg's last period. Based on the traditional Jewish prayer sung on the eve of Yom Kippur, the work was written at the suggestion of the Los Angeles rabbi Dr Jacob Sonderling and first performed on 4 October 1938, the eve of Yom Kippur, at the Fairfax Temple, Los Angeles, under Schoenberg's baton.