Image from Freedman Collection, cover of "Plainte!" (Op. 17, No. 1) By Teresa Carreño, published by Heugal.
During her lifetime, Carreño composed approximately eighty works, including a piece for string orchestra, a piece for string quartet, some vocal works, and many works for piano, including a piece that is kept in BW’s Freedman collection. This is a character piece for piano entitled “Plainte!” written shortly after Carreño’s mother died in 1866. This piece was published in 1869 by Heugel, a French publishing company. On the document itself is a portrait of a youthful Carreño surrounded by text, including the title, dedication, and the composer’s name. The top of the first page of the score denotes the dedicatee as French pianist Francis Planté, who lived around the same time as Carreño. However, the title page incorrectly names Planté as the dedicatee of Carreño’s piece “Partie!” instead.