Laura Horsford

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Frédéric Chopin, Grande valse brillante E flat major op. 18, title page of the first edition, 1834, with the dedication “A Mademoiselle Laura Horsford”

Laura Alice Horsford (* 1814 in Bermuda , † December 1894 in Fareham ) was an English student of Frédéric Chopin .

Life

Laura Horsford was a daughter of General George Horsford , who was Lieutenant Governor of Bermuda from 1812 to 1814 . She later lived with her family in Paris , where Chopin dedicated the Grande valse brillante in E flat major op.18 to her in 1833 . Laura Horsford married the clergyman Beresford Lowther (approx. 1809-1892) in 1849, with whom she last lived on his country estate in Fareham, Hampshire . He was house chaplain to the Earl of Lonsdale.

The autograph of the waltz was owned by Allen Rowland in the USA for a long time , whose ancestors had acquired it in the 19th century - presumably from Laura Horsford personally. It bears the handwritten inscription: “Valse. dediée à Mlle Laura Horsford par Frédéric Chopin - Paris, le 10 Juillet 1833 ”. It was on deposit at Yale University from 1957 to 1992 and was auctioned on June 24, 1992 for £ 60,500 through Christie's auction house. The current owner is unknown.

Another autograph was discovered in October 1967 by the American pianist Byron Janis in Thoiry Castle in the Yvelines department near Paris , where it is still located today, together with the autograph of the waltz in G flat major op. 70 No. 1. Chopin's fair copy, the was used as an engraving model for the first edition, came to the Musée royal de Mariemont in Belgium in 1917 . It also bears a dedication to Laura Horsford, but is not dated.

Chopin also taught Laura's sister Emma Hilbert Horsford (1810-1891) and in 1833 dedicated his Variations brillantes sur le rondeau favori "Je vends des Scapulaires" de "Ludovic" de Hérold et Halévy in B flat major op. 12. In 1851 she married Robert Prescott Appleyard.

literature

  • Anonymous, George Horsford , in: The Gentleman's Magazine , New Series, Vol. 14, London 1840, p. 430 ( digitized version )
  • Maurice Brown, Chopin: An Index of his Works in Chronological Order , London, 1960, p. 90 No. 92
  • Krystyna Kobylańska, Frédéric Chopin. Thematic-bibliographical catalog raisonné , Munich 1979, pp. 38–40
  • Fryderyk Chopin, Letters , ed. by Krystyna Kobylańska, Berlin 1983, pp. 241 and 451

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the life data on familytreemaker.genealogy.com
  2. ↑ Description of the work on www.ourchopin.com ( accessed December 30, 2014)
  3. ↑ myheritage website
  4. ^ Edward Walford, The county families of the United Kingdom , London 1879, p. 399 ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ Byron Janis , Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal , Hoboken, New Jersey 2010, p. 14 ( digitized version )
  6. ↑ Description of the manuscript at Christie's
  7. ↑ Website heraldic shields in the parish church of Vowchirch (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Horsford, Laura
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Horsford, Laura Alice (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English student of Frédéric Chopin
DATE OF BIRTH 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Bermuda
DATE OF DEATH December 1894
Place of death Fareham