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Letter by the famous musician and music historian Julius Röntgen elaborating on Telemann

[AUTOGRAPH]. RÖNTGEN, Julius.
[Signed autograph letter to Max Seiffert(?)].

Bilthoven (the house 'Gaudeamus'), 19 November 1926, Doubleleaf (21.5 x 13.5 cm). 4 pp.

Extensive personal letter written in German on all four pages of a double-leaf to a 'Lieber Herr Professor' to thank him for sending the 'Telemann'schen Duetten', a publication with a for- and afterword by his son: 'Ich wusste nicht dass Ihr Sohn Musikhistoriker war'. Probably the addressee is the eminent German musicologist Max Seiffert (1868-1948) who played also a prominent role in the 'Vereniging voor Nederlandsche muziekgeschiedenis' and the Dutch music scene of the interbellum. He taught at Berlin's Hochschule für Musik and at the Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik (from 1909). He served as provisional director of the Fürstliches Forschungsintitut für Musikwissenschaft in Bückeburg (from 1921). After it he became director of the Staatliches Institut für deutsche Musikforschung in Berlin (1935). Seiffert has published several duets by Telemann in the early '20s in the Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst.
Julius Engelbert Röntgen (Leipzig 1855-1932 Utrecht) was a German-Dutch composer of classical music. Born in Leipzig, Germany, to a family of musicians. His father, Engelbert Röntgen, was first violinist in the Gewandhaus orchestra in Leipzig; his mother, Pauline Klengel, was a pianist, the aunt of renowned Julius Klengel. In Leipzig, he and his parents were part of the musical circle around Heinrich von Herzogenberg, and it was at their house that he first met Brahms. Later Röntgen moved to Munich. At the age of 18 he became a professional pianist. During a concert tour through southern Germany he became acquainted with the singer Julius Stockhausen; at this time he also met a Swedish music student Amanda Maierwhom he would marry in 1880. In 1877 Röntgen had to make a decision whether to go to Vienna or Amsterdam. He chose Amsterdam, and became a piano teacher in the music school there.
Röntgen was instrumental in the foundation of the Amsterdam Conservatory and was heavily involved in the foundation of the Concertgebouw. He applied for the position of the director; however, to his great disappointment, the choice fell instead on the German Hans von Bülow, as the committee seemed to doubt Röntgen's abilities as a conductor. Nevertheless Bülow was not able to accept the appointment, and the position went in the end to the violinist Willem Kes. Röntgen turned with greater energy to composing chamber music and to his work for the Conservatory. He became a renowned accompanying pianist, working for the great violinist Carl Flesch, the singer Johannes Messchaert, and the cello player Pablo Casals. For some years, Röntgen and his sons performed together as a piano trio. After the death of his wife Amanda in 1894, Röntgen married the gifted piano teacher Abrahamina des Amorie van der Hoeven. The children of the second marriage also became professional musicians. At the end of the First World War, in 1919, Röntgen became a naturalized Dutch citizen. In 1924 Röntgen retired from public life.
He moved to Bilthoven, a small village near Utrecht, to the country house Gaudeamus. The unusual round music room in that house was constructed in such a way that its floor did not touch the ground. During the last eight years of his life Röntgen wrote about 100 compositions (some accounts put this nearer 200), mostly chamber music and songs. Gaudeamus became a meeting place for many important composers and musicians; among the visitors in that house were Edvard Grieg, Pablo Casals and Percy Grainger.

In very good condition.

Related Subjects: Manuscripts Music

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