Description
Bartók Béla: Unkown and unpublished autograph music manuscript Adagio molto con molto espressione, amoroso without signature – No place, 1907. okt. 1. One page (9-staves) in pencil (the manuscript contains numerous corrections, revisions, and erasures). 224×135 mm – Unpublished. The manuscript is not recorded in the 2024 publication „Geyer Stefi hegedűművész életútja – Levelezése Bartók Bélával” (Stefi Geyer: Her Life and Correspondence with Béla Bartók). The composition is in fact an occasional piece written by Béla Bartók in response to a postcard sent by Stefi Geyer on 29 September 1907, on which she enclosed a melody and asked: „How would you harmonize this?” Bartók’s musical reply therefore begins with the inscription „Így ni!” („Like this!”). The work contains four appearances of the so-called Stefi Geyer motif, each of which was specifically marked by the composer in the manuscript. As László Vikárius, Director of the Bartók Archives in Budapest, stated in his expert opinion: „The manuscript may be regarded as unique; while it does not constitute a new and previously unknown composition, it contains musical material hitherto unknown. Its performance and publication would therefore be fully justified.”
NB: The document was designated a protected cultural object by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Hungarian Ministry of Construction and Transport in October 2024. Consequently, it may be taken outside Hungary only temporarily and subject to a special export permit.
