Music
Contact Alex Day or Donovan Rees
We stock a range of antiquarian music, books on music, manuscripts and autographs, with an emphasis on early printed editions and manuscript scores of important composers.
Recent catalogues have included one of a very few surviving lifetime manuscripts of Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas; a remarkable collection of vocal and instrumental music from the library of the duchesse de Berry; and inscribed first editions of works by Berg, Janacek, Poulenc, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schumann, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Vaughan Williams.-
[FOPPA, Giuseppe.] Francesco PANORMO, translator.
Aci e Galatea, a pastoral Opera, as represented at the King’s Theatre...
London: Printed by C. Clarke … 1795.
First edition, very rare, of the dual-language libretto for Foppa’s Acis and Galatea (première Venice 1792) – in Italian verse and English prose. The translation was by Francesco Panormo, the eldest son of the instrument-maker Vincenzo Panormo.
£650
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CESAROTTI, Melchiorre, librettist.
Adria consolata festa teatrale nel solenne giorno natalizio della sacra R.I. Maesta’...
Venice, Vincenzo Rizzi, [1803].
First edition, very rare, of this libretto of Adria consolata, performed at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice on 12 February 1803 in honour of the birthday of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (1768–1835).
£275
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[ANTIPHONAL.]
Antiphonal, with neumes, containing music for the blessing of the Paschal Candle on Holy Saturday.
Southern Germany or Bohemia, mid-fifteenth century.
An unusual and striking antiphonal leaf written entirely in red and notated entirely in burnished gold, signalling the importance of the text for Holy Saturday.
£4250
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RIDOLFI, Luca Antonio.
Aretefila, dialogo, nel quale da una parte sono quelle ragioni allegate, le quali affermano, lo amore...
Lyons, Guillaume Rouillé, 1562.
Annotated copy, once owned by a music book collector, of the third edition (first 1557) of a remarkable Renaissance philosophical dialogue on the nature of love which marked the culmination of the very divisive ‘questione d’amore’ hotly debated in sixteenth-century literature.
£2800
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BROWN, Arthur Henry.
Autograph manuscript notebook mainly of Christmas carols.
[Brentwood?, 1864–87].
An autograph manuscript notebook composed primarily of Christmas carols, compiled carefully over some twenty-five years from various sources including manuscripts in the British Museum, early printed books, and contemporary books and periodicals.
£450
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HALÉVY, Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie.
Autograph musical quotation, signed.
Paris, 15 May 1846.
Fromental Halévy (1799–1862) showed musical promise at an early age and entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1810, becoming a pupil of Cherubini for composition the following year. In 1827 he became professor of harmony and accompaniment there, in 1833 of counterpoint and fugue, and in 1840 of composition....
£750
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CHERUBINI, Luigi.
Autograph note signed ‘L. Cherubini’ regarding the cellist Auguste Franchomme.
[Paris,] 19 December 1825.
A short note in which the composer and director of the Conservatoire de Paris Luigi Cherubini records that ‘Mr. Franchomme’ has been admitted into the class of ‘Mr. Seuriot’ and that he will begin there on 22 December 1825.
£350
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[PLAYING CARDS.]
Cartes Magiques Musicales. 1001 Danses pour Piano. / Magical Musical Cards or Thousand and one Dances for Piano.
Paris, Bass, c. 1830.
The complete Piquet deck of these rare and unusual musical playing cards including the English rules for the game, a delightful example of a nineteenth-century parlour game produced for the Anglo-French market.
£3000
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DELLOYE, H.-L. (editor).
Chants et chansons populaires de la France [– notices par M. du Mersan], première [– deuxième;...
Paris, Félix Locquin [– Dondey-Dupré; – Félix Locquin] for Garnier, 1843.
First edition of a finely illustrated, serially published collection of French music, broad-margined, extra-illustrated, and accompanied by the later fourth series. Formed of four series of twenty-eight issues, sold individually at sixty centimes from February 1842, the Chants et chansons populaires...
£450
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WILSON, David (editor).
A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, &c. in three Parts …
[Edinburgh:] Sold by the Editor at his House … and by J. Hamilton, Music Seller … [c.1800?].
Second(?), expanded edition of this collection of (mostly) hymn tunes scored for treble, tenor, and bass. Though for most hymns the tunes only are printed, there are words for Cowper’s ‘Hark, my Soul!’ and one other, and at the end are the words and tunes for seven secular catches (in three...
£500
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ELISABETH, Empress of Austria.
A collection of six manuscript scores from the library of Elisabeth (‘Sisi’), Empress...
1850–60s.
Elizabeth Amalie Eugenie of Bavaria (1837–1898), or ‘Sisi’, married Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria at the age of 16, on 24 April 1854. Her first child, a daughter, was born 11 months later but died as an infant (see below), and a male heir had to wait until the birth of Crown Prince Rudolf...
£3750
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[PRELLEUR, Peter.]
The Compleat Tutor for the Harpsichord or Spinnet wherein is shewn the Italian Manner of Fingering with suits...
London, Peter Thompson, musical instrument maker [1755?]
First edition thus?, an abridgment of part 6 of Prelleur’s Modern Musick-Master (1731) but with different musical examples. The examples, printed on pp. 5–32, include popular tunes and dances alongside pieces adapted from Handel and Corelli.
£1250
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[ROUSSEAU, Pierre.]
Considérations sur le théatre de l’opéra. Novembre 1822.
[Paris,] de l’imprimerie de Rignoux, [1822].
Very rare proposal for a new opera house in Paris by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751–1829), annotated by the author and accompanied by an autograph letter.
£475
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SACCHI, Giovenale.
Del numero e delle misure delle corde musiche e loro corrispondenze. Dissertazione del P. D. Giovenale...
Milan, [Giuseppe Mazzucchelli (colophon),] 1761.
First edition of Sacchi’s first work: a theoretical study of music and acoustic from a mathematical and physical perspective built upon the most innovative eighteenth-century physics.
£850
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[VOGEL, Johann Christoph.]
Démophon.
[France (probably Paris), c. 1787].
A contemporary scribal manuscript of Johann Christoph Vogel’s opera Démophon, from the library of Christoph Willibald Gluck.
£5250
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[MENESTRIER, Claude François.]
Des representations en musique anciennes et modernes.
Paris, René Guignard, 1681.
First edition. A Jesuit professor at Lyons and later Paris, Menestrier developed ‘a special interest in the history and organization of public festivals and ceremonies’. He devised ballets for the visit of Louis XIV to Lyons in 1658 and published a series of works on the subject. ‘The four...
£600
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MILHAUD, Darius, and Stéphane MALLARMÉ.
Deux petits airs …
[Paris, Éditions de la nouvelle revue française, 1921.]
First edition of Milhaud’s polytonal musical setting of two poems by Mallarmé, published as a New Year supplement for La revue musicale.
£750
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HOFMANNSTHAL, Hugo von.
Die Aegyptische Helena. Oper in zwei Aufzügen.
[Leipzig, Mainzer Presse for Insel-Verlag, 1928.]
First edition of Hofmannsthal’s text for Richard Strauss’s opera – Hofmannsthal himself considered it to be his finest libretto. The opera was first performed on 6 June 1928 in Dresden, five weeks before Hofmannsthal’s death. The plot is a free adaptation of Euripides’ Helena, which introduces...
£750
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MAJER, Andrea.
Discorso sulla origine, progressi, e stato attuale della musica italiana …
Padua, ‘dalla Tipografia e Fonderia della Minerva’, 1821.
First edition of Majer’s treatise on Italian music, ‘a conservative defence of tradition as part of a backlash against the popularity of Rossini’s reforms’ (Baragwanath, p. 29).
£450
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BLANKENBURG, Quirinus Gerbrandszoon van.
Elementa musica of niew licht tot het welverstaan van de musiec en de bas-continuo. Door...
The Hague, Laurens Berkoske, 1739.
First edition, very scarce.
£1500