Sibelius, Jean. (1865-1957)

"Symphony VI" - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed

Autograph Musical Quotation Signed, three bars from his Symphony No. 6 notated on a hand-drawn stave, with holograph title, signed "Jean Sibelius" on verso of his printed visiting card. 1 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches [8.5 x 4.5 cm]; adhesive from mount covering most of printed verso text, else fine. Autograph musical quotations from Sibelius are very uncommon.

The Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104, was a work of long gestation completed by Jean Sibelius in 1923. Although the score does not contain a key attribution, the symphony is usually described as being in D minor; much of it is in fact in the (modern) Dorian mode. The composer called the work "cold spring water" in opposition to many contemporary "cocktails"—a reference to the modernist gestures in post-war music. The symphony was premiered by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the composer, on 19 February 1923 and had other performances under his direction in the following months. In his interview in the Svenska Dagbladet after a performance of the Sixth in Stockholm in March 1923, the composer stated: "I do not think of a symphony only as music in this or that number of bars, but rather as an expression of a spiritual creed, a phase in one's inner life."

From the collection of William Kozlenko (1907 - 1984), playwright, screenwriter, and editor of multiple stage-play compilations and anthologies, as well as being a founding editor of One-Act Play Magazine, which published from 1937–1942, and a co-founder of the One-Act Repertory Theater. His best-known editorial compilations include The Disputed Works of William Shakespeare and the 1938 collection The Best Short Plays of the Social Theater, which included contemporary works such as Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty, Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, and W.H. Auden's and Christopher Isherwood's The Dog Beneath the Skin. (19720)