Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Special Collections & Archives
The Richard Beattie Davis Music Collection
Published 2008!
The Beauty of Belaieff by Richard Beattie Davis
Scope & Content
Organization & Arrangement
Since the age of 17, Richard Beattie Davis was fascinated by music -- particularly the Viennese piano music apotheosized by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. A chance purchase of a secondhand volume of piano music by Mozart's celebrated pupil, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), awakened an ever-abiding interest in that outstanding but neglected figure. At the same time as Davis made the acquaintance of the music of Hummel, he found volumes of several of Mozart's piano concertos, elaborated by Hummel, who wrote for them difficult cadenzas, compendiums of Hummelian technique. Davis' initial interest was aroused in the way in which early nineteenth century piano technique was advancing.
The collection housed at Florida Atlantic University's Wimberly Library Special Collections & Archives department has its origins in 1943 when Mr. Davis was serving as an officer in the British First Army in Algeria. There he found first editions of piano concertos of J.N. Hummel and John Field (1782-1837) available for purchase off the shelves at a well-stocked music store in Constantine. Thus was born the nucleus of the antiquarian music collection as it exists today. In the manner of all collections, it has branched out into several directions, some far removed from the original progenitor.
The collection consists very largely of first and early editions of a wide variety of music, dating from the early 1790s to the first two decades of the twentieth century. There are full scores of first German editions of the nine symphonies of Beethoven and several other of his orchestral works, a miscellaneous collection of nineteenth century editions of choral, orchestral and piano music, and over 60 editions of piano works of Hummel . There are also over two hundred Russian scores, almost all first editions dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the years immediately preceding the Russian Revolution. The Revolution resulted in the elimination of music publishing, other than by the state. There is a separate ‘Bessel Collection’ of over twenty scores which are part of the Davis Collection by special permission of the granddaughters of the founders of this famous Russian publishing house. There are over 60 chamber works available for use. These are complete with parts and by a variety of composers. Additionally, various works of the English composer, artist and designer, Thomas B. Pitfield are contained within the collection.
The collection, which is in a continual state of expansion, is organized as follows:
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Over 35 items are contained within this group. It includes first German
editions of the full scores of the symphonies no. 1 to 6, the Haslinger full
scores of symphonies no. 7 and 8, and the first edition of the full score of
the 9th symphony (published by Schott), without the subscription list and with
the addition of metronome marks. The 5th symphony (published by Breitkopf and Härtel) is printed with the celebrated mistake in the third movement, for which Beethoven rebukes his publishers. (See Anderson collected correspondence.) The following additions and anomalies are worthy of mention: A. The first full score of Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto Op.37 (published by DUNST in 1837) (LVB14) B. The Men of Prometheus (piano arrangement) published in the German edition as Op. 43, appeared with Broderip and Wilkinson, London 1808, as Op. 24. The latter is in the collection (LVB15) C. The Mass in C, Op. 86, orchestral score (Breitkopf and Härtel pl. no. 1667). The "Anmerkung" is placed in the center of the score, unlike other copies examined that place it at the front or rear (LVB18). The Cadenzas For Beethoven Piano Concertos The Cadenzas For Beethoven Piano Concertos in PDF |
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This collection contains a total of 60 items; some duplicated in different editions (German, French or English in accordance with the practice of the day), but almost all appearing for the first time. Appropriately, the collection commences with Hummel's Op. 1, three sets of variations, which appeared "printed by the author" at the time of Hummel's first visit to London in 1791/92, with the composer's signature. The collection is arranged in chronological order of opus numbering and contains a representative cross section of works, both for piano solo, chamber ensemble and voices; including a rare "Offertorium," Op. 89, and Hummel's own arrangement for piano quintet of his septet, Op. 74. The celebrated piano method complete in two volumes is in the French edition, published by Maurice Schlesinger. The last work in the collection bearing an opus number is the Rondo for piano and orchestra, Op. 127, known as "Le retour de Londres." |
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More than 20 first and early editions are contained in this collection -some notable as curiosities or rarities. Amongst these are first editions of full scores of Mozart's arrangement of Handel's "Messiah" K572 (Breitkopf and Härtel) and Handel's "Alexander's Feast" K591 (Kuhnel); also an early edition of the full score of Mozart's "Requiem" K626 (Offenbach/André). There is a very rare first edition of Liszt's arrangement for piano solo of the "Grande Symphonie Fantastique" by Berlioz (Schlesinger), together with Liszt's later revision published by Leuck. An early Peters edition (1801/2), of three keyboard partitas of J.S. Bach (S.826, 828 and 830) refers to them as exercises. The collection also contains Muzio Clementi's arrangement for piano solo of Haydn's "Creation" (Purday), a first English edition (Ritter Biedermann) of the score for piano and voices of Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem," Op. 45. In addition there are other first editions of piano scores of Mendelssohn's "Elijah" and the four operas comprising Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen." |
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This contains more
than
220 scores by over 30 Russian and Russian domiciled composers, the earliest M.I. Glinka (1804- 1857), who is represented by first editions of the piano
scores of "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and "A life for the Tsar" (Stellovsky). The
latest, Stravinsky, is represented by the "Scherzo Fantastique" (Jurgenson).
The collection excludes any works (other than reprints) published after 1917 by the Soviet State Music Sector. It is dominated by the publications of M.P. Belaieff who commenced issuing the music of Alexander Glazunov in 1886, one year after the founding of his publishing house for this purpose. The prolific output of Glazunov is manifested by sixteen full orchestral scores and numerous arrangements for piano duet of orchestral and chamber works. Other full orchestral scores include that of Borodin's 1st Symphony (published by Bessel) with notations in the hand of Mahler. There are also works by N. Tcherepnin, Il'insky, Kalinnikov, Lyadov, Lyapunov, Skryabin, Vitol, Stravinksy, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. Publishers include Bessel, Jurgenson, and Zimmerman. All these works are believed to be first editions, though not necessarily first printings. There is an interesting first edition of Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto, Op. 23 (Jurgenson) which omits the very high octaves for the piano at the commencement of the 1st movement, added in all the several subsequent editions of this most famous Piano Concerto. The collection also contains interestingly a total of over sixty miniature scores published by Belaieff, mostly string quartets - many of them composed for Belaieff's "Pyatnitsy" (otherwise known as "Les Vendredis" or "The Fridays"). All the chamber works of Glazunov and string quartets of A.S. and S.I. Taneyev are contained therein, as well as other composers of the period unknown in the west. One of the great glories of the Belaieff publications between 1886 and 1901 was the adornment of so many title pages with chromo 1ithographed designs, superbly printed by C.G. Röder of Leipzig who handled nearly all of Belaieff's publications. A few were also printed by Jurgenson in Moscow during the First World War. A substantial number of these beautiful miniature works of art are contained in the collection and preserved on colored slides. The collection also includes a few books on related subjects, of which the most valuable is a volume of poetry by the Russian poet, Fet, formerly owned by Medtner whose incipits and notes are written at the side of the words.
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There is an outstanding facsimile of Tchaikovsky's final manuscript of his piano suite, known in English as "The Seasons," Op. 37B. It is complete except as to no. 4, of which no manuscript has been traced. It reproduces exactly the coloration of the original. As yet, only a portion of the total collection is housed within the SE Wimberly Library. The remainder, far more extensive, is still in England and additionally contains, besides music scores, an extensive library of reference books, including about 500 in Russian. A listing is available upon request. |
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The Bessel Archival Collection is
part of the Davis Collection by special permission of Marina (Bessel)
Baring and Dinette Bessel, granddaughters of the founders of Bessel &
Co. This famous Russian music publishing firm was founded in August
1869, in St. Petersburg, by the brothers Vasily and Ivan Vasilyevich
Bessel, children of Vasily Bessel senior and his wife, citizens of Riga,
in what is now Latvia.
Vasily Bessel senior died in Zurich in 1907, and the firm was carried on by his two sons who gallantly rescued it from being engulfed by the State Music Publishers after the revolution of 1917 resulted in nationalisation of the music industry. Richard Davis has had the good fortune to have known Basil Bessel, elder son of the founder, since 1959, until his death in London at a great age, and his daughters, Marina Bessel Baring and Dinette Bessel. It is to them the indebtedness is owed for permission to lodge, in perpetuity, over twenty scores published by Bessel & Co. Included in this collection is a numbered copy of the first edition of the full score of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, ‘The Story of Tsar Saltan’ (pictured here) and first editions of his three penultimate operas, Mussorgsky's ‘Boris Gudunov,’ ‘The Marriage,’ ‘Fair at Sorochinsky;’ also operas by A.N. Serov, A. Rubinstein and N. Tcherepnin. There are also additional Bessel publications in the Russian section of the ‘Davis Collection.’ |
| The costume design pictured here is by the Russian artist Bilibin and comes from a programme in this collection. It is for a 1929 performance of ‘Tsar Saltan’ in Paris. |  |
The Chamber Works
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The Thomas Pitfield Archival Collection is the most modern
component of the Richard Beattie Davis Music Collection. This collection came
about through Gillian Wimbourne Davis' career as a dancing teacher and her
exposure in the 1950s to Pitfield's music written for the Royal Academy of
Dancing in London.
After years of correspondence with the English_born composer, artist and designer, the Davises met Pitfield and his wife in the 1980s. From that time forth, the Davises looked for any Pitfield music that came up for sale, as well as collecting his books, and keeping his unique cards and beautifully calligraphic letters received in Florida and England. When Richard and Gillian Davis decided to commence lodging their extensive antiquarian collection at Florida Atlantic University, it occurred to them that it would be an unusual resource to include the growing number of Pitfield items. Mr. Pitfield confirmed that this is the only collection of his works in the United States. Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999) was a prolific artist in many disciplines. The Special Collections & Archives department houses a sampling of all of Pitfield's interests, with the exception of woodcarving and furniture building. There are over 60 pieces of printed music published between 1931 and 1996, some illustrated by Pitfield; a well_worn red ballet music book (the first item collected by Gillian Davis); several books; a 1955 lecture delivered by Pitfield at the University College of North Staffordshire, England; a box of letters, cards, prints, and programs, several CDs of his music and a cassette of Pitfield (at age 92) speaking and playing his compositions. |
There are close to five hundred books on music, mostly in Russian, some in Polish and other European languages. These have come to be located in the Davis music collection through the auspices of Mark Swiatlo (1915-2003), the Judaica Curator. When in Israel in the 1990s, Mark met Miriam Waldman, a former mezzo soprano from South Africa and widow of the pianist Roman Waldman. After the building which housed her library suffered damage from a nearby scud missile attack, Mark was authorised to pay for the repair in return for her donation of the books and music to Wimberly Library.
There are hundreds of music catalogues and English music journals dating from the 1940s to the present time. These have come from the Davis home in England. There are listings from many of Europe’s best known antiquarian dealers which are of inestimable value when dating music. There are runs of Gramophone and Musical Times for the same years, and more recently International Piano Quarterly (IPQ), Classical Music and Piano.
Published 2008!
The Beauty of Belaieff by Richard Beattie Davis
Photo Reproductions of Title Pages by Kay Gutierrez & Paul
Maserjian
of Florida Atlantic University's Visual Communications.
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Updated: 24 July 2002
Last Update 18 April 2008
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