Lot 79: SCHUBERT, FRANZ.

SCHUBERT, FRANZ. ERLKÖNIG. BALLADE VON GÖTHE, IN MUSIK GESETZT UND MORITZ GRAFEN VON DIETRICHSTEIN...GEWIDMET VON FRANZ SCHUBERT, 1STES WERK, VIENNA: IN COMISSION BEY CAPPI UND DIABELLI, [1821] First edition, bearing Schubert's control mark on the back of the last leaf ("Sch[paraph] 75"), written by him or on his behalf, 15 pages, oblong 4to (c.24 x 32.5cms), early ownership inscription on title ("M.D."), engraved, without metronome marks, modern half calf, tear to title repaired, a few leaves strengthened at hinge and corners remargined [Hoboken 1; O.E. Deutsch, Schubert's Goethe-Lieder (Vienna, 1926), 1a.]

This is the first issue of Schubert's Opus 1, published without metrnome markings, or publisher's number 766.

Schubert's control marks have aroused much debate and speculation, some scholars opining that these markings were not written by Schubert himself, but by his brother Ferdinand or Leopold von Sonnleithner. A study of the early Schubert editions in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna, which houses important collections deriving from Spaun, Sonnleithner, Brahms, Witteczek and Hoboken, shows that the situation is, in fact, a good deal more complicated, since a number of early hands are involved. A few of the markings, for example, in Brahms's, Spaun's and Sonnleithner's copies do strongly recall Schubert's own hand: indeed Brahms himself identifies Schubert's hand on his copies of "Gretchen am Spinnnrade" op.2 and "Der Wanderer" Op.4. The positive identification of the composer's hand from such short inscriptions is always open to question, but we can say that the control marks are present only on the earliest issues of the songs published as Opus 1 to Opus 14, dating from 1821-1822, and confirm these are among the earliest copies issued directly on behalf of the composer.