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Cronologia della «Brautwahl»
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Work on the music of «Die Brautwahl» occupied Busoni intermittently from the beginning of 1906 until autumn 1911. Here is a brief chronology of the various stages in the accomplishment of his project:
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1906 By February the first draft of the libretto was complete and work was begun on a short score. The first musical sketch (which was not incorporated into the score) bears the date 2.2.1906. The libretto was finished on 22 June, by which time the music for the opening scene of Act I was almost completely sketched. At the end of the summer, on holiday in Trent, Act II part 1 was written.
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1907 Little was added to the work of the previous year. The two scenes which had been begun in 1906 were completed. In December the 'Erscheinung' was written.
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1908 In April Busoni wrote: 'Our old friends Thusman and Leonhard are waking from their hibernation, stretch, yawn and turn over again before getting up altogether.' Work now proceeded at great speed. Act III part I was followed by Act II part 2 during May. By 26 June the short score was complete up to the end of Act III. The Epilogue (originally Act IV) was finished in England; the last page of the short score is signed '1.2.3 December, Hull-York-Doncaster'.
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1909 Work on the orchestration began at the end of March. Act I part I was finished on 16 July. The rest of the year was devoted to the composition of a number of smaller works in quite different styles (see Ch. VIII).
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1910 On tour in the USA Busoni met Arnold Dolmetsch in Boston who demonstrated a harpsichord to him. Delighted by the instrument, he at once decided to use it in the opera for Albertine's song in Act II part 2. After completing the «Fantasia Contrappuntistica» on 1 March, Busoni resumed work on the full score, finishing Act I part 2 on 11 July. Act III part 1 followed in October. During the course of the year arrangements were made with the Stadttheater Hamburg for the first performance and a contract to publish an engraved full score, vocal score and libretto was signed with the recently founded Harmonie Verlag. Egon Petri undertook the preparation of the vocal score.
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1911 During the course of the year the full score was completed: Act III part 2 on 12 January (in Chicago), the Epilogue on 14 June, Act II part 1 on 28 July and Act III part 3 (later to become the second half of part 2) on 22 October. Meanwhile disaster struck; having underestimated the cost of producing such an enormous score the publishers decided to postpone publication. Busoni, however, continued to send material to the engravers. The results were unpleasant: Busoni found himself in debt by over 10,000 Marks (a considerably larger sum at that time than now), and Harmonie began a protracted legal tussle with him.
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1912 As a result the vocal score was not ready in time for the critics and public at the first performance in May [13!] The publisher Cassirer, however, brought out a luxurious edition of the libretto illustrated by Karl Walser's designs (some of them hand-coloured) in an edition limited to 200 copies, signed by both composer and designer. In August, Busoni completed the Brautwahl Suite and produced a shortened version of the opera for the second production (Mannheim, 1913).
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