Otto Singer

[Gareth Vaughan]

Does anyone know where the MSS of Otto Singer (the elder) are - or if, indeed, they are still extant? He is supposed to have written 2 Piano Concertos, but only one seems to have been published, Op. 8 - score & parts in Fleisher. There is also a Rhapsodie for piano & orchestra, available in the 2 piano version from IMSLP. If all the performance materials could be found the 2 PCs and the Rhapsodie might make up a CD for Hyperion. Fleisher also has a violin concerto. A symphony is supposed to have existed in MS.

[Alan Howe]

Sorry, Gareth, that I can't help; but for the purposes of information, here's a link to the Wikipedia page about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Singer

[eschiss1]

Though this doesn't answer the question directly, a few other works were published- an andante & variations for 2 pianos (Op.1) which is in the possession of a few libraries, a Festival Ode published in vocal score in 1877 (I'm guessing by Otto Singer I since his son was fairly young at the time?... it's mentioned in the Singer Wikipedia article. Hrm...)  The cantata mentioned @ Wikipedia, the Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, is also @ some libraries (hrm. Ah, I see. He did spent a fair amount of his life in the USA, especially in New York. Interesting...)

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks, Eric. I know about these. Singer died in New York but there is nothing of significance of his in the online catalogues of either the NYPL or the Juilliard.

[eschiss1]

Yale University Library, according to Worldcat.org, has a few things, and so do a couple of other places - Buffalo & Erie County Library , Carnegie Library Pittsburgh, Tufts University Library, Denison University's Library, Washington University (St. Louis - this one turns up in a fair number of searches I've done; unfortunately I don't think they interloan to my local library... Buffalo & Erie Co. does, for a fee; Peabody Conversatory does (or did?), without the fee... (for example)), some others... etc. ...

Chicago Public Library has a violin/piano version (Klavierauszug mit solostimme) of Singer's Opus 6 Konzertstück.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks very much, Eric. I will check these out. I am extremely grateful.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Alas, no luck. At least as for as works for piano & orchestra are concerned.

[Wheesht]

The Staatsbibliothek Berlin lists works in their filmed card catalogue:
http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/die-staatsbibliothek/abteilungen/musik/recherche-und-ressourcen/imagekataloge/
(Katalog der Musikbücher und Noten I), for example a Concertstück f. Viol. m. Orcc. op. 6 publ. by Leuckart or the Piano concerto in A minor, op. 8 - unless they are works by Otto Singer Jr.?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you. However, these may be only piano scores and, in any case, the performance materials for both these works (pub. Leuckhart) are in Fleisher.

[edurban]

According to my (ca. 1984) notes on Singer, his son, the afore-mentioned Otto Singer Jr. died in Leipzig on Jan 8, 1931, where he had been active since 1922.  There is also a mention of Jr. arranging Wagner and Strauss vocal scores, composing and conducting.  With Jr.'s strong German ties, perhaps searching Leipzig probate records could lead to further clues?  Alas, the little matter of WWII may have obliterated everything...

David

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you. Yes, I did try that route some years ago, but got nowhere. No records seem to have survived. That does not mean the MSS themselves don't survive somewhere, of course, but it doesn't make them any easier to find if they do.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Re the concertstück and the piano concerto...
Otto Singer's Op.1 was published in 1856, before Jr. was born; HMB lists works by "O. Singer" (listed by libraries - here one has to wonder if the library cataloguers are filling in the gaps or if the first names are on the scores, and the wondering is worrisome, since it doesn't really follow that an "O." is "Otto", and just because it's likely doesn't let one forget the issue entirely; for a dissimilar case that has -some- points in common however, consider "J. Raff") -
according to HMB (not the only source I should be checking!) - Fantasie Op.2 by O. Singer- pub.1869.
Grand duo for violin and piano Op.3 by same - pub.1869.
The Concertstück Op.6 doesn't appear in HMB until 1893 (Leuckart plate 4617).  Still in Singer I's lifetime but by now Singer II is in his 30s (haven't seen his first 5 opp announced anywhere offhand but that doesn't mean they aren't anywhere. After all , I don't see opp.4&5 - then again, as noted above, Singer Sr. moved to the US and may no longer have been using opus numbers, publishing odes etc. in the 1870s. Maybe Op.6 & 8 are indeed by Singer Jr. ; alternately maybe they're almost-posthumous (1893) publications by Singer Sr. (of earlier works?...) Don't know alas...

[eschiss1]

Actually, since the new publications by Singer, including his Op.7 Musikalische Plaudereien, were published during Jr.'s lifetime but not Sr.'s, and at a time when "Otto Singer" meant I think fairly unambiguously Otto Singer II/Jr. the arranger (composer?), I'm going to put my chips in and say that Op.6, 8, etc. really are probably by Otto Singer Jr. About the 1881 rhapsodie I'm much less sure.

[Wheesht]

The life of a researcher would be made considerably easier if folk didn't go around giving their children their own first names AND letting them choose the same occupations as their parents'...
I'm afraid I cannot help with op.6 and op. 8, but – to add to the confusion – the Kalliope database of letters and other autographs held in German libraries used to have Otto Singer Jr. and Otto Singer (not individualised), whereas the new version

(http://kalliope-verbund.info/en/index.html)

lists a letter to Joseph Joachim from 1882 by Otto Singer (no dates given) from Cincinnati and one to Joachim from Otto Singer Jr. 1883 from Berlin. Both letters are held by the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin. It does not look as though they have any mss scores that are not listed in the various online catalogues.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you very much. I do agree about the names - can be frustrating sometimes!