James Tobin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>What other composers have famously destroyed their own works?

A spectacular example is Geirr Tveitt's "Prillar," since it was not only
destroyed, but resurrected after his death.  The notes for the BIS CD
of this music by Hallgjerd Aksnes state that "Tveitt had probably become
so frustrated with the work and its fate the he had ripped the score to
pieces." The piece was written in 1931 but never performed.  Tveitt
himself did not know of its continued existence after he destroyed it,
since his daughter told me Tveitt used to reminisce to her when she was
a girl (c.  1950) about how important and beautiful a piece it was but
was lost forever.

Again from the CD notes, Tveitt wrote that Prillar is one of the works
"that refuse to go down on their knees for intellectual fads, throwing
themselves freely and playfully like the Norwegian mountain brook from
tall cliffs, through black gorges and playfully singing their song to
the lonesome mountain birch!"

Tveitt tried to get it performed in Germany and Norway in the 30s but
was unsuccessful, although he himself postponed a performance in Oslo
because he wanted to revise the score.

Examining the score in the National archives in Oslo, it seemed to me
that it had been actually stabbed in the upper right hand quarter, then
torn in 4-8 pieces per page before being consigned to the trash.  I would
guess that it was Tveitt's mother who saved the shreds, because a box
containing a bag of them was found among her effects in the family barn
ten years after Tveitt's death.  Fortunately, the barn escaped the fire
that burned 80% or so of Tveitt's manuscripts in 1970

The composer Jon Oivind Ness reconstructed the score after it was
reassembled by curators (a few holes were left).  It was first performed
in 1992.

I think it's a fabulous piece of music (literally, it's a fable in itself
about why one may not always be right in destroying one's work).  It is
perhaps too long and sectional, but if its multitude of melodies speaks
to you, you won't mind hearing them in altered form over and over again.
I am grateful his mother or another angel tucked them away for us!

Jeff Dunn
[log in to unmask]
Alameda, CA