Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg [...] Partitur. Als Manuscript von der Handschrift des Componisten auf Stein gedruckt. Dresden: C.F. Meser (for the composer), 1845

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg [...] Partitur. Als Manuscript von der Handschrift des Componisten auf Stein gedruckt. Dresden: C.F. Meser (for the composer), 1845
First edition of the full score. Very rare: of the hundred copies produced by Wagner, only twenty-nine are now known, of which only 6 in private hands.

Folio (350 x 275mm). Pp. [4], 450. Lithographed throughout with signature and date at end 'Richard Wagner, Dresden, 13 April 1845' (first three leaves repaired at head of gutter affecting blank stave with this replaced in pencil facsimile, pp.3-4 repaired at foot of gutter just into stave area, pp.11-12 sometime creased and with associated repairs some affecting staves and one bar with slight loss, old tape repairs at head of gutter to pp.27-34 into beginning of staves and with loss to a single clef, the end of the overture on p.79 is a cancel pasted onto the recto of the cancelland, a few page numbers trimmed by the binder, occasional faint finger-soiling). Modern half calf; contained in a slipcase.

Provenance:
(1) Contemporary manuscript corrections in brown ink to 66 pages, some probably by the composer, rehearsal letters in orange crayon.

(2) Erased inscription at head of title.

(3) Sotheby's, 6 June 2009, lot 132.

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 5429.

The lithographing of Tannhäuser was a heroic task. Unable to get his operas performed, Wagner published them himself, issuing lithographed full scores through the small Dresden publisher C.F. Meser. Wagner wrote the full score of Tannhäuser on specially treated paper, which was then destroyed through the process of lithographing the one hundred reproductions of it. He recalled in Mein Leben, 'Early in April 1845, I succeeded in completing my score of Tannhäuser. In writing down the orchestration I made things particularly difficult for myself by using the specially-prepared paper which the printing process renders necessary, and which involved me in all kinds of trying formalities. I had each page transferred to stone immediately and a hundred copies printed from each'. Wagner sent these full scores to the leading opera houses, hoping that they would buy them and stage his works; in fact all the copies were returned, sometimes unopened.

In common with all known copies, the present copy has numerous manuscript corrections and annotations throughout the text. While most are in a copyist's hand, the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (1986) indicates certain places where the annotations may be in Wagner's autograph, including pp. 319 (bassoon), 335, 342-348 (double bass), and 442-443 (string parts); to these may perhaps be added the rests inserted in the present copy on p.35. Although in some copies the final twenty pages are replaced with a manuscript revision, Wagner's original lithographed pages are here present throughout.

WWV 70 XX (p.281: 'Alle ... Exemplare enthalten zahlreiche handschriftliche Ergänzungen und Änderungen, zum Teil möglicherweise von Wagner selbst eingetragen ...'); Fuld p.428; Hirsch, ii 955; Hoboken vol. 16, no.293 (with manuscript revision of the ending).