Appendix A - The Minstrels Manuscripts

Summary

A-1. Facsimile of Hartmann/Debussy Concert Program, 5 February 1914

A-2. Facsimiles of the Minstrels Manuscripts

Introduction

We are including in Appendix A two manuscripts of the transcription for violin and piano of Debussy's Minstrels: a Debussy autograph dated 17 January 1914 at the Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music and an undated (circa 1944) Hartmann autograph at the Free Library of Philadelphia. For Arthur Hartmann, these were two extraordinary documents of a musical friendship. They bear witness to his joy in knowing Debussy, but they also reveal the conflict and sorrow Hartmann had experienced.

Hartmann first met Claude Debussy on 6 October 1908. Hartmann had earlier attended a performance of Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris and had been deeply moved by the music. He had written to Debussy for permission to make transcriptions of his music. This initial meeting was for the purpose of showing the fruit of Hartmann's labor. With Debussy at the piano, Hartmann played his violin transcription of Il pleure dans mon coeur from the song cycle Ariettes oubliées. After several hearings Debussy gave his enthusiastic approval. In Hartmann's own words:

Thoughtfully turning toward me he said: “There is only one little place,” and pointing to it continued, “You see this? Well, this is yours and you put it in the violin, and this is mine, and in the piano part, and instead, I would ask of you to permit me to change that so that I become the violin and you the piano, this way, we will become more … this way,” and he made a gesture of clasping his hands tightly, with fingers interlaced, and then he impulsively held out his hand to me in our first and long handclasp!1

Thus began a collaboration which would produce two more transcriptions, La fille aux cheveux de lin (1910) and Minstrels (1914), both from Debussy's Préludes, Book I, for piano. On 5 February 1914, Debussy and Hartmann gave a public performance of all three transcriptions at the Salle des Agriculteurs.

La fille aux cheveux de lin was instantly popular, frequently presented in recitals by Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, and many other violinists.