THE HERITAGE OF JĀZEPS VĪTOLS IN THE MANUSCRIPT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH DEPARTMENT AT THE LIBRARY OF ST. PETERSBURG CONSERVATORY

Abstract

The article offers an overview of the documents of Jāzeps Vītols, stored in the St. Petersburg  Conservatory Library Manuscript Department. There are more than 100 items – composition manuscripts, letters, sheet music publication with written dedications, student works with notes by the professor, and other materials. Among Vītols’ musical manuscripts are instrumental as well as vocal works, the symphonic overture Sprīdītis, the cantata Ziemeļblāzma, Latviešu čigānu dziesmas (Latvian Gypsy Songs) for choir, and others. The Manuscript Department also includes Vītols collaborations with Russian composers: the instrumentation of Robert Schumann’s Carnival, Valsis (Waltz) for four-hand piano, Variācijas par krievu tēmu (Variations on a Russian Theme). The epistolary heritage consists of letters in Russian (to Mitrophan Belyaev, Angelika Hermann, and the Russian Composers’ and Musicians’ Support Curator Council) and in German (to Fyodor Groes), as well as copies of letters addressed to Vītols. The article contains analysis of the previously unpublished and unknown document typewritten by Vītols: Prof. Vītola Piezīmes mūzikas enciklopēdijā (Professor Vītols’ Notes on the Music Encyclopaedia), which includes lecture materials on the subject of music form. As a result, the St. Petersburg Conservatory Library collection can be considered a significant source for research of Vītols’ biography and work.