Foerster string quintet op 3

[euphoniuman]

I'm searching for the parts and/or score of Josef Bohuslav Foerster's string quintet with double bass. I wrote to the editor but it is not longer available.
If anyone can help me (I guess it's PD)
Thanks

[Eric]

Published in 1914 by Urbanek (opus numbers and publication dates with Foerster...er... argh. Though it's possible that an earlier publication is just unknown to me, of course - as it is, I had trouble finding _this_ one, almost failed to find it after going through Worldcat ,NKP Czech library catalog, ÖNB Austria, then Worldcat again!).

Copy available at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Free Library URL Record.

Fleisher Collection, In Library Use Only. Does not interloan. Still, contact the librarians...
(This one says it's only two movements. I do not know if that's the original, or if it's only an excerpt from the original that reprinted only 2 movements of it. So caveat! But perhaps better than nothing all the same. If I can find an earlier publication, or manuscript, with more information, or a publication about Foerster that I manage to interloan (or a downloadable dissertation- those are great...) that says more about the piece, at least how many movements it originally had, where the ms is, etc.- that I'll follow up with. Sorry about the 9 month delay...)

[bicinium]

I commissioned a digitization from the Free Library but received this response:

"Unfortunately, this is part of the Fleisher Collection, which only rents score and parts for performance or studio recording. As a matter of policy, our Digital Collections do not scan music from the Fleisher Collection."

How disappointing!

By the way, I don't see much reason for why these two movements wouldn't be the whole piece. It might seem strange for a string quintet, but insofar as it doubles as a piece for string orchestra, not so much...

[Eric]

Certain parts of the Free Library will even interloan, but not Fleisher or MCH (the Chamber Music collection)- mainly their main section (which does have a fair amount of chamber music. Also has the full score of Karl Weigl’s 1st symphony, 1st edition which they loaned to me awhile back via my local library, etc...)

[Eric]

The CD recording of the quintet has 2 movements. Viola odorata (Andante cantabile) and Rosa mystica (Allegretto) for 6 minutes in all.

[bicinium]

Necro of a very old thread but it's never stopped being on my mind and I found out there is a copy in the Wakayama Prefecture Library in Japan, linked through from the National Diet Library. Anybody who knows Japanese want to try and request a digitization?

[Eric]

If Japan follows EU rules of death+70 (I should check.) he might be in (c) until 2032 and they may be reluctant to copy complete works that are in-c…

[DBMiller]

Your math is off, Eric — Foerster died in 1951... he is PD in Life+70 countries since 2022, so his works should be PD in Japan.

[bicinium]

Hear ye, hear ye! After a mere eight years of turnaround time on this IMSLP score request, Foerster's Op.3 has been added! Now euphoniuman can play this rather unremarkable early work of a lesser known (but very good!) composer with their string quintet... (the name is rather uncharacteristic for somebody playing string quintet music, though)

The kicker, though, is that it doesn't look like a string quintet at all, with all the divisi; and there's lots of voice doubling too, which is indicative of writing for string orchestra. The premiere recording - by a string quintet! - seems to get around it by leaving out one of the two voices in each divisi, except in the cello part, where they have the double bass play the lower line if it has rests at that point. That seems like more of a transcription to me. Unless they based themselves on some manuscript source which is for string quintet but I highly doubt it.

[Eric]

Belatedly: (1) thanks!!
(2) Why doubt it- happens all the time actually- in this case -perhaps- a manuscript for quintet, a manuscript arrangement, only the arrangement was published but the title page says quintet, and like many a creator the composer is more interested in what he's up to next than going back and fixing that at possibly great expense... it's possible, anyway, that it worked out like that.
Makes me want to see the sort of excellent Foerster Life & Works that I've already had the pleasure of reading for/re Hans Huber (by Refardt), Robert Fuchs (by Adalbert Grote (1994)), (Grimes?' on Dohnanyi...- and so forth!) others that covers each work with as much provenance information as exists, etc etc ...