Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) - photo 1
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) - photo 2
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) - photo 3
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) - photo 4

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

Lot 61
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1349660
Lot 61 | Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Estimate value
£ 7 000 – 10 000
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Autograph manuscript signed (at end, 'C. Saint-Saëns'), 'Fantaisie pour Orgue-Eolian', 1906
Title and 38 pages, 340 x 268mm and 355 x 255mm, paginated, a few erasures and emendations, a passage cancelled at the foot of p.25, autograph instructions in English from p.31 onwards ('Cut for Both manuals', 'Bells off'), a few annotations in another hand in lead and red pencil. Provenance: Sotheby's, 21 November 1978, lot 366, bought by: – Otto Haas.

A fantasy for automated organ. Having been commissioned by the Aeolian Organ & Music Company of New York to write an original work for their automated organs, Saint-Saëns may well have experienced the instrument installed in their eponymous Aeolian Hall off New Bond Street during his visit to London for the premiere of the second Cello Sonata in July 1906. The work was completed by October that year, when he delivered the finished manuscript to Frank Taft, director of the Aeolian Company, during his American tour: it was issued by the Aeolian Company in the following year, with their programme note boasting 'The Fantaisie was composed especially for the Aeolian pipe organ and in it Saint-Saëns has availed himself of the privileges afforded by the technical facilities of the instrument … [he] has disregarded the limitations of the human performer and has embraced the opportunities of the enormous technique of the Aeolian pipe organ'. The composer himself more drily described the work to his biographer Jean Bonnerot as 'unplayable by the fingers and feet'. It was published only in 1988 in a version reconstructed in part from the perforated rolls by Rollin Smith. The composition is notable for sections intended to take advantage of the unusual adaptations of the Aeolian Organ, including its harp (achieved by striking tuned metal bars) and chimes.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
11.12.2024 – 11.12.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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