Die Blumen - Sextet for Voice and Strings

M-H 4/6-1

Autograph full score. A torn olive-brown paper cover 28cm x 38cm contains three sheets (6 pages) of 24-stave score paper. No imprint. Unpaginated. The front cover inscribed in black ink ‘(Die Blumen. Schuller). Flowers. Sextet for Voice, 2 Violins, Violoncello and Double-bass, Viola by George W.L. Marshall-Hall.’ The first recto is inscribed ‘Flowers. Die Blumen. G.W.L. Marshall-Hall 1886.’ A note in pencil on the right margin states that this is ‘not M-H’s handwriting.’ The final recto is signed and dated ‘GWL Marshall-Hall. 1886.’ The black inked score is certainly signed in Marshall-Hall’s hand. The work is scored for 1st violin, 2nd violin, viola, voice, cello, double bass. The text appears in German above the vocal line and in English below it. No amendments have been made.

The back cover holds a postage stamp for 2d. A duty stamp showing a purple facing, portrait of the young Queen Victoria and the word ‘Victoria’, indicating the state, rather than the Queen. A postal date appears in black in a circle: ‘Melbourne 14 S. SE 10 89.’ The cover has once been folded and used as an outer postal cover. It bears the address in black ink: ‘Otto Fischer, Esq. Marshall’s Warehouse, Rundle Street, Adelaide.’