Finding Aid for Rafael Joseffy Music and Personal Papers, 1812-1915 | The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Title: Rafael Joseffy Music and Personal Papers, 1812-1915

ID: 12/9/116

Primary Creator: Joseffy, Rafael (1852-1915)

Extent: 26.5 cubic feet

Arrangement: The collection is arranged in three series: Series 1) Personal Papers, Series 2) Original Music Manuscripts, and Series 3) Personal Piano Music Library. Series 2 includes manuscripts written in Joseffy's hand, including chapters from his method books and research from the School of Advanced Piano Playing. PS refers to piano score. Series 3 is arranged alphabetically by composer. Individual titles are listed in the description with the format: Title, arranger/editor if applicable, (Publisher), and date.

Date Acquired: 05/15/1944

Subjects: Concert tours, Music - Instruction and study - Hungary, Music teachers, New York City, Piano, Teaching Methods

Formats/Genres: Music instruction, Sheet music

Languages: English, Hungarian, German

Consists of published solo piano music and orchestral scores, music manuscripts, and vocal music from 1870 to 1915; research notes; and personal papers, documenting the career of the Hungarian pianist Rafael Joseffy as well as compositions by his contemporaries. Of note are Joseffy's research notes for his School of Advanced Piano Playing, clippings related to his US tours with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, and his original compositions and method books.

Rafael Joseffy was born in Hunfal, Hungary on July 3, 1852 and died in New York on June 25, 1915. His youth was spent in Miskolcz, where he began to study the piano at the age of eight. After further studies in Budapest he entered the Leipzig Conservatory (1866), where he was taught chiefly by E.F. Wenzel, though he also had a few lessons from Moscheles. From 1868 to 1870 he studied with Tausig in Berlin, and he spent the summers of 1869 and 1870 in Weimar, taking lessons with Franz Liszt. He first performed publicly in Berlin in 1870; soon he was giving concerts in most of the large European cities. In a review of 1874 the Austrian music critic Eduard Hanslick admired his brilliant technique but found his playing cold.

Joseffy made his American debut in New York in 1879, playing concertos by Chopin and Liszt in addition to solo items, and then settled in the USA. He toured with Theodore Thomas and his orchestra, and gave many recitals, being one of the first to perform Brahms' works regularly. Joseffy received an endorsement from Steinway Pianos in 1891, but failed to perform or endorse the product during that engagement. According to historian Mark Radice, critics noted that he suffered from performance anxiety, but he was also overshadowed by rival pianists like Ignacy Jan Paderewski. From 1888 to 1906 he taught the piano at the National Conservatory in New York.

In his youth he composed some salon pieces, a set of lieder and numerous arrangements of works by Bach, Haydn, Chopin and others; but he was much better known for his editions of Chopin's works (15 volumes) and of studies by Czerny, Henselt, Schlozer and Moscheles; he also wrote a valuable of School of Advanced Piano Playing (New York, 1902). While some of Joseffy's manuscript scores burned in a fire in 1895, several scores and methods survived. These materials were donated to the Music and Performing Arts Library at Illinois by Marie Joseffy in 1944.

Concert tours
Music - Instruction and study - Hungary
Music teachers
New York City
Piano
Teaching Methods

Repository: The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music

Acquisition Source: Marie Joseffy

Acquisition Method: Gift original given to the Music Library and the collection was later transferred to the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music for processing 2010.

Related Materials:

For the most complete record of the Joseffy Collection, refer to the card catalog (Series 3, Boxes 73-74) which includes card for both this finding aid and Special Collections indivdual items. Cards that refer to items that remain in the MPAL Special Collections include a call number for location.

Also refer to the "Musical Library Owned by Rafael Joseffy 1853-1915" (Series 3, Box 72, Folder 7) which is another index to the collection and includes some further description. Items with hash marks have been removed from Joseffy's Papers, and most were interfiled in the circulating collections at MPAL. See MPAL Special Collections for more information.

Other Note: Some of the published scores in Series 3 are autographed to Joseffy from the composers. Some items have marginalia and fingerings in Joseffy's hand.