[Ebenezer Prout, composer, musicologist, music critic of the Athenaeum.] Autograph Letter Signed explaining his inability to get the piece 'Christophorus' performed.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Forty-nine lines. Bifolium. On aged and worn paper, with the reverse of the second leaf laid down on cut-down remains of leaf of autograph album, with a number of autographs on slips laid down on the reverse, including that of Charles Hallé, cut from a letter. Prout’s letter is signed ‘Ebenezer Prout’, but the recipient is not named. He apologizes for not having written sooner about ‘Christophorus’: ‘The truth is that our programme was settled just as I was leaving town for Norway; and since my return I have been so busy, first with the Birmingham Festival, and this week with the Choral Competitions at the Albert Hall, where I have been one of the judges, that the matter quite slipped my memory.’ He states that he recommended the piece to ‘the Committee of the B. H. C. A., but after discussion, it was (to my own regret) negatived in favour of Handel’s ‘Te Deum’. I make it a rule to yield to the wishes of my committee - except in matters of principle - so I did not press it.’ He offers to either purchase or return the two scores he has been sent. ‘I have lent one of them to the librarian of our society, who, I should add, warmly supported my proposal to do it’. If they are to be returned there will be a delay, as he is going down to the Hereford Festival on the Monday. He ends: ‘Thanking you for your willingness to assist us, and regretting that my efforts to do ‘Christophorus’ have at present been unsuccessful’.