Albi Rosenthal collection of letters between composers and music publishers
Overview
Collection of 18th, 19th, and 20th-century autograph manuscript letters between composers and music publishers, collected by music antiquarian Albi Rosenthal from the early 1970s through about 2002.
Dates
- Creation: 1704-1966
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in German, French, Italian, Latin, and English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
1.5 linear feet (3 boxes)This collection of autograph manuscripts includes letters, postcards, contracts, receipts, lists of works, portrait engravings, a few scores, declarations of copyright, biographical sketches, music notation, and other associated documents compiled by the music antiquarian Albi Rosenthal, and concerns the relationship between composers and their publishers.
The collection is centered on important composers, including Bellini, Berlioz, Boccherini, Chopin, Elgar, Joseph Haydn, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Puccini, Rossini, Schumann, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Verdi and Wagner, as well as some lesser-known composers such as Bianchini, Martin Gerbert, Guglielmi, Gyrowetz, Onslow, Pleyel, and Steibelt. Music publishers include Breitkopf & Härtel, Haslinger, Hoffmeister & Kuhnel, Kistner & Siegel & Co., Lucca, Ricordi, Schlesinger, Simrock and many others.
Biographical / Historical
Albi Rosenthal was born in Munich, Germany on 1914 October 5 and died in Oxford, United Kingdom on 2004 August 3. He was an English antiquarian music dealer who founded A. Rosenthal Ltd., Oxford.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.
Physical Location
b
Provenance:
Collection originally compiled by music antiquarian Albi Rosenthal from the early 1970s through about 2002. Purchased in 2007 by John Milton Ward from J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2007TW-2150. Deposit of John Milton and Ruth Neils Ward; received: 2007 November 30.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt, with the assistance of Andrea Cawelti.
Collection was received with translations, transcriptions, and dealer's notes of some letters. Some of the information for the notes below was taken from these materials. These papers have been retained in the Curatorial file. The collection also arrived in the repository with item numbers already established, and we have attempted to retain those numbers.
- Title
- Rosenthal, Albi, 1914-, collector. Albi Rosenthal collection of letters between composers and music publishers: Guide.
- Author
- Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00368
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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