Vic Mizzy: The Addams Family Theme

It seems almost inexplicable today, but an autograph musical quotation, signed, of Vic Mizzy's iconic theme song to "The Addams Family" television show based, of course, on the classic New Yorker drawings of Charles Addams, did not find a buyer in 2014 at RR Auction. As a result, the presale estimate has been deleted from the auction house's website, so it's hard to say whether the lot was offered at a reasonable price. Whatever the case, though, there's no disputing that series has one snappy theme:

Vic Mizzy
RR Auction
June 26, 2014

https://rrauction.com/PastAuctionItem/3325019

"The Addams Family" Theme

Season 1 (1964-1965)

03776

A Shostakovich Autograph Musical Quotation, Signed

I have commented before here that a drawing by an artist is more desirable than a simple autograph, while a writer's thoughtful inscription is more meaningful than a plain signature. In the case of composers, one of the great collectibles is the autograph musical quotation, signed.

I understand how artists draw and how writers write much better than I understand how composers compose. While I could sit at a piano and compose an unadorned theme in C major with mostly quarter notes and eighth notes, I can't conceive of composing a syncopated, polyphonic score such as the one below. Dmitri Shostakovich is one of my favorite composers and his Fifth Symphony is perhaps his most popular work. Can composers just write out their music like this from memory? Probably quite easily, but it's beyond me.

The score:

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 Score

http://www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Symphony-No-5-in-D-minor-Op-47-Hawkes-Pocket-Scores-series/603275

The auction listing from Swann Galleries:

Sale 1965 Lot 253

SHOSTAKOVICH, DIMITRI. Autograph Musical Quotation Signed, the opening two bars from his Fifth Symphony, one system written in piano score with both treble and bass lines, Signed and dated below the quotation, written in blue ink. 1 page, 31/2x51/2 inch sheet of pink paper apparently removed from an autograph album. Leningrad, 1 April 1938

Estimate $1,200-1,800

Sold for $3,910

Apr 03 2003 10:30

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=1965+++++253+&refno=++522172&saletype=

Valery Gergiev conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra:

Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5

217

 Apr 03 2003 10:30