Autograph manuscript, seeking musicians for a concert, London, 2 pages, circa 1848 June

Donated in 1994, the Leon Robbin Collection of Music Manuscripts and Letters of Composers consists of over 800 autograph music manuscripts and letters by composers, musicians, and conductors, several dozen signed musical quotations, and a small amount of ephemera including portraits and cartes de visite. Collection highlights include autograph manuscripts by many of the most important Romantic era composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven’s sketches for his Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor "Appassionata," a previously unknown work for solo piano by Franz Liszt, a full set of handwritten parts for Robert Schumann’s String Quartet in A minor op. 41 no. 1 (heavily edited by the composer, the first edition of the work was printed from this set), and unpublished works by Ignaz Moscheles.

Other notable composers whose musical materials are represented in the collection include Hector Berlioz, Sir Edward Elgar, Charles Gounod, Franz Liszt, Jules Massenet, Ignaz Moscheles, Jacques Offenbach, Gioachino Rossini, Camille Saint-Saëns, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss II, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner.

Additionally, the collection includes autographed correspondence by Johannes Brahms, Max Bruch, Cécile Chaminade, Gustave Charpentier, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Puccini, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maurice Ravel, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

It also includes approximately 50 signed musical quotations by such composers as by Franz Abt, Michael William Balfe, Ole Bull, Charles Wakefield Cadman, Rudolph Ganz, Aleksandr Glazunov, José Iturbi, Joseph Joachim, Fritz Kreisler, Jan Kubelík, Pietro Mascagni, Jules Massenet, Pablo de Sarasate, John Philip Sousa, Arturo Toscanini, and an interesting example with signed quotations by both Theodor Kullak and Charles Wehle.