Noteworthy 16-2006
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F.A.P. December 2OO7 Note-Worthy Music Stamps, Part 16 by Ethel Bloesch (Note: Part 16 describes stamps with musical notation that were issued in 2006.) ANTIGUA & BARBUDA Scott 2887 Michel 4353-4356 A sheet issued July 3, 2006 for the 250 th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- 1791). On the left side of the sheet are four stamps (three portraits of the young Mozart and a violin). The right side features a page of music superimposed on the unfinished portrait of Mozart by Joseph Lange, 1789. The music is the first page of the solo horn part to Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, KV 447, now thought to have been written in 1787. The orchestration (clarinets and bassoons, rather than oboes and horns) and the lyrical musical style make this work more intimate and less extroverted than Mozart's three other horn concertos. ARMENIA Scott 730 Michel 540 A stamp issued March 28, 2006 for the 125 th anniversary of the birth of the Armenian musician Spiridon Melikian (1880-1933). His contributions to the musical culture of Armenia were wide- ranging: he engaged in expeditions to study Armenian folklore, wrote text-books and other musicological works, taught in the conservatory in Yerevan, and was one of the founders of the Armenian Choral Society. He also composed two children's operas, choral works, and songs. The stamp features a portrait of Melikian, with unidentified music in the background. AUSTRIA Scott 2067 Michel 2617 This stamp has been issued jointly by Austria and China on September 26, 2006. Each country issued a two-stamp set featuring representative musical instruments: a Bösendorfer piano made in Austria and a traditional Chinese instrument, the seven-stringed guqin. The background of the piano stamp shows a scène of the city of Salzburg and an excerpt from the autograph score of Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), KV 492, composed in 1785/86. This opera was a daring political step on the part of Mozart, since the original play by Beaumarchais was banned in France at the time. In the play the dramatist criticized the faults of the aristocracy. While the libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte is not quite as revolutionary as the play, it was still an affront to the nobility. The musical excerpt on the piano stamp shows the opening bars of the cavatina (Act l, No. 3) "Se vuol ballare" (If you want to dance). It is sung by Figaro, who is aware of Count Almaviva's womanizing and seeks to thwart the Count from sleeping with Figaro's intended bride Susanna. BELGIUM Scott 2128 Michel 3518 A stamp issued January 23, 2006 for the 250 th anniversary of Mozart's birth. The musical excerpt on the stamp is taken from his Requiem in D minor, KV 626, Mozart's monumental last work, which he did not live to complete. The stamp faithfully reproduces the notes in the manuscript score. Shown are measures 7-10 of the violin 1, violin 2, and viola parts in the "Recordare, Jesu pie" (the 4 th movement of the Dies Irae sequence). The original manuscript of this work is owned by the Austrian National Library in Vienna. A facsimile edition was published in 1990. BELGIUM Scott 2131 Michel 3519-3523 A booklet pane of five stamps issued January 23, 2006 to honor great polyphonic composers of the Renaissance. Six Franco-Flemish composers are pictured (two are shown on the first stamp and one on each of the others), with each stamp representing one generation of composers who lived in this region between 1420 and 1600. The stamps are faithful reproductions of 15 th - and 16 th -century portraits and miniatures. They depict these composers: Guillaume Dufay (ca. 1400-1474) and Gilles Binchois (ca. 1400-1460), Johannes Ockeghem (ca.1410-1497), Jacob Obrecht (ca.1450-1505), Adrian Willaert (ca.1490-1562), and Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594). Surprising is that Josquin des Prés, one of the most notable Renaissance composers, is only shown on the stamp margin. The reason, perhaps, is that although Josquin was Flemish by birth, he spent much of his life working in Italy. Music notation is shown on the Ockeghem stamp, which reproduces a miniature now in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. The scene depicts a group of singers reading from an open music score. Tradition has it that the miniature depicts the performance of Ockeghem's 36-voice motet, which was celebrated in a poem by Nicole Ie Vestu. However, according to the scholar whom I consulted, the musical notes accompanying the words "Gloria in excelsis Deo" are only decorative. If the notation is meant to be real music it is almost certainly plainchant and not a motet at all. Further, there is some disagreement as to which person in the painting represents Ockeghem. He is sometimes identified as the singer with hood and glasses in front on the right, but at least one scholar has speculated that Ockeghem is the person in the red robe in the center of the picture. During his lifetime Ockeghem was held in great esteem, even though he did not leave a large body of works. His mass cycles are particularly notable. This stamp booklet won the PMC Yehudi Menuhin Trophy for the most beautiful music stamp issued in 2006. Addendum: The cover of the Belgian booklet issued January 23, 2006 to honor great polyphonic composers of the Renaissance shows music notation by Alexander Agricola. Alexander Agricola (born Alexander Ackerman; 1445 or 1446 – 15 August 1506) was a Dutch composer of the Renaissance writing in the Franco-Flemish style. He was a prominent member of the Grande Chapelle, the Habsburg musical establishment. He was a renowned composer in the years around 1500 and his music was widely distributed throughout Europe. He composed music in all of the important sacred and secular styles of the time. The score shown on the cover of the booklet is not yet identified. Peter Lang, January 2014 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA (Serbian Administration) Scott 271 Michel 358 A stamp issued January 27, 2006 for the 250 th anniversary of Mozart's birth. The music in the background of the stamp (behind the posthumous portrait of Mozart by Barbara Krafft) is an excerpt from the manuscript score of Mozart's Apollo et Hyacinthus, KV 38. This youthful work, composed when Mozart was 11, was commissioned by the grammar school attached to Salzburg University. Set to a Latin text, Apollo et Hyacinthus is a short opera in three acts. In the performance, each act was sung in alternation with a spoken drama, also in Latin. The music on the stamp shows the first page of Apollo's aria "l am pastor Apollo”, the third number in the opera. BULGARIA Scott 4374 Michel 4736 A stamp and label issued January 27, 2006 for the Mozart anniversary. A three stave musical score appears in the background of the stamp and continues on the attached label. Another sheet of music appears in the bottom corner of the label. Thus, there are two separate works of music to identify. It presents a real challenge to this philatelic sleuth – the notes are legible, but the identification has proven elusive. The two-page score appears to be a piece for violin (or flute) and keyboard in the key of D major and in 4/4 meter. An exhaustive search through the relevant volumes of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe has not yielded an answer. It is quite possible, of course, that the music is not by Mozart at all. The smaller excerpt (from an orchestral score) is said by the Bulgarian postal authority to be from Le Nozze di Figaro . It seems to have the words "Scena XI" written at the top, but the music doesn't match that portion of the opera. lts identity thus remains a mystery at this time. BULGARIA Scott 4398 Michel 4760 A stamp issued July 18, 2006 for the 65 th anniversary of Ghena Dimitrova's birth and the first anniversary of her death. The Bulgarian opera singer was born in the village of Beglezh in 1941 and died in Milan in 2005. She had an international career, performing in the major opera houses of the world. The stamp shows Dimitrova in her role as Elizabeth in Verdi's opera Don Carlos . The music shown in the background of the stamp also relates to this opera, but it is not any music sung by Elizabeth. Instead, the stamp shows the opening notes of the famous aria "O don fatale" sung by the Princess Eboli in Scene l of Act 3 (in the 4-act Milanese version of the opera, known in Italian as Don Carlo ). The notation has been altered, perhaps to make a more pleasing stamp design. The 32nd- note figures in the accompaniment actually come before Eboli sings "O don fatale," not afterwards, as shown on the stamp. CHINA (People’s Republic of) Scott 3532 Michel 3796 This stamp issued jointly by Austria and China on September 26, 2006. Each country issued a two- stamp set featuring representative musical instruments: a Bösendorfer piano made in Austria and a traditional Chinese instrument, the seven-stringed guqin. The background of the piano stamp shows a scène of the city of Salzburg and an excerpt from the autograph score of Mozart's opera Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), KV 492, composed in 1785/86. This opera was a daring political step on the part of Mozart, since the original play by Beaumarchais was banned in France at the time.