Early Autograph Signature and Autograph Quotation on Music Manuscript Paper

Large ink signature, “F. Liszt,” on a 12.5 x 2.5 inch sheet slip bearing hand-ruled music lines and a line of text in his hand reading "le jour .. .. et commence et finesse le jour et que notre..." Liszt may be recalling and misquoting the lines in Jean Racine's 'Bérénice, which read: "Que le jour commence et qui le jour finisse / Sans que jamais Titus puisse voir Bérénice." The writing and signature is evidently very early, almost certainly from the early 1830s. Sold together with a later vintage portrait photograph postcard.
Liszt used other texts by Racine for the first two of his Cinq Choeurs (S. 18; R. 506) and "may have been familiar with Racine as early as the 1830s." (Michael Short, "Liszt and the Birth of Modern Europe," p. 282) (12562)

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Autograph Letter

Classical Music

AMQS

• Sold