Glasgow University Library has material emanating from three members of the Czechoslovakian Zavertal family - brothers Joseph (1819-1893) and Wenceslas (1821-1899) and Ladislao (1849-1942), son of Wenceslas. Compositions by Ladislao include several operas and cantatas, about 20 part-songs and some 50 songs, over 60 items for orchestra or military band, over 60 pieces of chamber and instrumental music, and a number of arrangements of works by other composers. There is a considerable amount of archival material, including numerous letters. Among the correspondents are Dvorák, Sir Edward German, Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. The holding of music by Wenceslas Zavertal comprises songs and part-songs, a number of pieces for orchestra or military band (mostly with parts), and about a dozen chamber and instrumental pieces. On the literary side are notebooks, diaries, a partial autobiography and letters, including one from Dvorák and a postcard from Grieg. There is one piece of piano music by Joseph Zavertal.
There are a number of Mozart relics which had belonged to Wenceslas Zavertal, who was a friend of Mozart's son Karl. Of these, the portrait of Mozart’s wife Constanze, by Josef Lange, is in the care of the Hunterian Art Gallery, while the remainder, including Mozart's penultimate letter mentioning the first performance of the Magic Flute, are in the Library. The arrangement of this material reflects the original order in which it was received. The collection will primarily be of interest to researchers.

• Manuscript music
• Printed music
• Private papers/diaries/letters

Mozart relics ; manuscripts of Ladislao Zavertal ; manuscripts of Wenceslas Zavertal

1819 - 1942

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Not Specific

• Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus -
• Sullivan, Arthur -
• Farmer, Henry George -
• Zavertal, Ladislao -
• Dvorak, Antonin -
• Mackenzie, Alexander Campbell -
• Zavertal, Wenceslas -
• Zavertal, Joseph -
• German, Edward -

• Czechoslovakia
• Prague
• Glasgow
• Scotland

• Nineteenth century
• Twentieth century
• Composers
• Military band
• Czechoslovakia
• Western Classical

Hillhead Street Glasgow GL2 8QE United Kingdom

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m.mackie@lib.gla.ac.uk

0141 3306797

0141 3304952 

Membership fee for external readers; photocopying

Glasgow University Library has been in existence for over 500 years and as such holds a number of important special music collections. The majority of the collections relate to Scottish composers and musicians or musicians associated with Scotland, e.g. Sir John Blackwood McEwen and Hamish MacCunn. The collections include important historical material, in particular the material held in the Euing Collection, which includes manuscripts of two medieval liturgical works, an early 17th century lute book, a set of part-books belonging to the publisher John Playford, and biographical documents and letters sent to John Sainsbury for use in his Dictionary of musicians which appeared in 1824. The general music collection includes books, scores and AV material.

• H.G. Farmer and Herbert Smith, New Mozartiana: the Mozart relics in the Zavertal Collection at the University of Glasgow (Glasgow, 1935)