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The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson

O Sanctissima

By J.F.M. Russell ©2019

Robert Louis Stevenson began studying the piano and composition at age 36 and learned the penny whistle two years later. He played the flageolet, a version of the whistle equipped with keys, almost until the end of his life. His arrangements and compositions include more than 120 pieces. This site describes his complete works through facsimiles, transcriptions, recordings, quotations and commentary.

"An interesting chapter in his life will be written when all his scattered pieces are brought together, and the musical side of his character unexpectedly revealed to the vast public that knows him now only as the winsome versifier and the accomplished romancer."

Robert Murrell Stevenson in Robert Louis Stevenson's Musical Interests, 1957.

Facsimile:

Transcription:

Recording:

Manuscript Location:

Yale University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Gen Mss 664

Box 33, Folder 804

Edwin J. Beinecke Collection of Robert Louis Stevenson

Series II Manuscripts

Manuscripts of Robert Louis Stevenson

[Musical compositions] (6599) [4 of 4 folders] / undated

Sources:

Erk, Ludwig. Erk's Deutscher Liederschatz. Leipzig: Peters, [1883?]:

Significant References in Works of R.L.S.:

None.

Comments:

Except for two notes which are probably mistakes, the melody and rhythm are exactly the same as the first source, and even some of the slurs and expression marks are the same. The other two parts are original and the Bb clarinet plays the bottom line. Notice that Erk's melody and rhythm differ somewhat from Horetzky's. Stevenson used Horetsky as a source for Sul margine d'un rio but not for this arrangement.