PADEREWSKI, IGNACE JAN. (1860-1941). Polish pianist and composer. AMusQS. (“I. J. Paderewski”). ½p. 8vo. N.p., March 1908. Four measures marked “Fugue” from his Variations and a Fugue, Op. 23.

After studying at the Warsaw Conservatory and in Berlin, Paderewski’s career as a pianist was launched when Polish actress Helena Modjeska organized a concert in Krakow to raise funds for him to study in Vienna. The same year, 1884, Paderewski completed his Variations and a Fugue, Op. 23. He made his musical debut in Vienna in 1887 and his virtuosity became known through his numerous concert appearances around the world. His compositions include the 1893 Fantasie Polonaise, which incorporated Polish folk music and his 1908 Symphony in B minor “Polonia”, Op. 24, after which he effectively stopped composing. In 1910 Paderewski embarked on a political career that culminated in his January 1919 appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs to a newly independent Poland, recognized in the Treaty of Versailles, which he signed on his country’s behalf. Paderewski resigned the post less than a year later and, by 1922, had returned to concertizing.

Elegantly penned and signed on the lower half of a trimmed sheet with a slightly irregular left edge and facsimile musical quotation in the upper left corner. Pasted onto a sheet of black paper with a reproduction of a sketch of Paderewski. In very good condition.