IMSLP Forums

Hi all - there is an almost complete set of band parts to Offenbach's Orfée aux Enfer (Orpheus in the Underworld), but it is missing the 2nd Violin part, anyone able to rectify this as it is useless without that.

As an update to this, there is in fact a 2nd violin part, after a little sleuthing from the uploader and a reference to the library in Geneve where it's housed. Bingo.

I actually saw this post a while back and e-mailed the library to ask if they had a second violin part. It took a while, but they did scan it, and I forgot about it. If you noticed, for some reason they removed the alternate copies of the first violin parts. I asked about their future digitization projects, and they said they were doing other French composers (along the lines of what they have been doing presumably).

Hey romanov

Yes, I did notice they removed the unnecessary copies of the first violin part. This is a wonderful resource from the library in Switzerland.

Some of the manuscripts are so beautiful as to be easily read, there are rare exceptions, for example the flute part for Orpheus is horrific. I'd be very hard pressed to read off it.

Also, thanks for contacting the library and the resulting 2nd violin part - much appreciated.

p.s. I find it interesting that the larger version of Orpheus is not represented (it was basically the same as the two act version but set [from memory] in three acts).