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Saturday, May 5, 2012

Performance of a lost fragment of psychic sonata attributed to the spirit of W. A.Mozart (by Érico Bomfim).


The spirit of Mozart has just finished to dictate to the medium, Mr. Bryon-Dorgeval, a fragment of sonata. The piece was perrformed by him in the presence of several artists and, as way of control, he did not mention the origin but rather asked them how the piece sounds like. Without hesitation they recognized Mozart´s style. The piece was also executed in the presence of many experts in our society on last April 8th by Miss De Davan, a Chopin's former student and distinguished pianist. As a way of comparison, Miss De Devan first performed a known Mozart's piece. They all agreed not only on regard to the perfect identity of styles, but also on the superiority of the psychic composition. Then, with her usual talent, the pianist performed a piece by Chopin (A. Kardec, Revue Spirite, May 1859) 
In commemoration to the first edition of the Spirit´s book on April 18 (1857), we present a new performed by Érico Bomfim of a lost fragment of sonata attributed to the spirit of W. A. Mozart. The composition was psychically obtained by the medium Brion D'Orgeval and executed by the first time by Miss De Davan in a session of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies on April 1859. The group was coordinated by Allan Kardec at the time.

This fragment (it is not a complete sonata) corresponds to the sheets that were burned during one of the last acts of the Catholic Inquisition (auto da fe) in Barcelona (Spain) on October 9th 1861 (A. Kardec, Revue Spirite, November 1861).


The manuscript

The original manuscript was printed and worth 2 francs at the time (1860) as several excerpts of the Revue Spirite describe (January 1860):
Mr. Oscar Comettant (see 'le Siècle' on last October 27th and our answer in the Journal on December 1859) printed in a few days more than 50 copies of the famous Mozart's sonata that can be purchased at Ledoyen house (sold  for 2 Francs net price, according to the important and witty observation of Mr. Comettant ).  
Or, in another passage:
Note: the fragment of sonata dictated by the spirit of Mozart has been just published. You can found it either in the Revue Spirite office or the Spiritist library of Mr. Ledoyen, Palais Royal, Orléans gallery, 31. Price: 2 francs. 
Nowadays, the original manuscript (what remained thereof) can be found for thousands of ponds in some European antique dealers (See remark and figures below).
Original manuscript cover.
Fragment de Sonate, dicté par l’Esprit Mozart à 
Monsieur Brion d’Orgeval, médium (Année 1859)


Part I of a fragment image with numbered bars  (click on the image to enlarge).
Part II of a fragment image with numbered bars  (click on the image to enlarge). 

References
  1. All references to the Revue Spirite are English translations of the version in Portuguese published by IPEAK
  2. Interview with Enrique Eliseo Baldovino, by Júlia Nezu. Published in Revista Internacional de Espiritismo (in Portuguese), January 2011.
  3. TV CEI Report (2011) First performance by Mrs. Enrique Baldovino. (in Portuguese) 
    About Érico Bomfim.

    Born in 1991 in Rio de Janeiro and now (2012) finishing a bachelor's degree in piano at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). 






    Remark

    A copy of the manuscript can be found in a recent version in Spanish of the Revue Spirite, volume 2, p. 366-369 (1859). Published by FEB (Brazilian Spiritist Federation).