THE ‘SCOTTISH’ SYMPHONY
MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, Felix.
Symphonie No. 3, componirt und Ihrer Majestät der Königin Victoria von England zugeeignet … Partitur, Op. 56.
Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, [1843].
8vo, pp. [4], 240; plate no. 6823, lithographed title-page, engraved music; some light spotting throughout, small water-stain to upper margin towards end; contemporary ownership signature to title and discreet stamp of the Carlsbader Musikverein at regular intervals; a good copy in contemporary half roan, spine lettered gilt, a little rubbed.
Added to your basket:
Symphonie No. 3, componirt und Ihrer Majestät der Königin Victoria von England zugeeignet … Partitur, Op. 56.
First edition of Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony. It was first conceived when Mendelssohn visited Scotland during 1829, but the composer only began work in earnest ten years later.
The first performance took place in Leipzig on 3 March 1842; after its London première on 13 June Mendelssohn dedicated the work to Queen Victoria. The public reception in London was most enthusiastic with Mendelssohn receiving storms of applause not only at his own concerts but also at the concerts which he attended.
Hirsch M.287; P. W. Jones, Catalogue of the Mendelssohn Papers in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, vol. III, Tutzing, 1989, no. 784.
You may also be interested in...
SACCHI, Giovenale.
Del numero e delle misure delle corde musiche e loro corrispondenze. Dissertazione del P. D. Giovenale Sacchi Bernabita.
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. Galilei, Kapler, Newton, Mersenne, and contemporary works on the nature of air form the basis of Sacchi’s study of strings and their number, ratio, length and correspondence, as the basis for the solution of the problem of temperament. Sacchi’s innovation takes the cue from Newton’s parallel treatment of optics and acoustics and his matching of the seven musical tones with seven light bands obtained from a prism. Sacchi suggests matching the seven colours with eleven strings (the twelfth corresponding to the first) instead of seven, to outline a major and minor mode, and provides for each of them a fractional formula.
SPRÜNGLI, Johann Jacob, editor.
Männergesänge von Freunden der Tonkunst gesammelt, dem Liederkranze zu Franfurt a. M. in Liebe geweihet und zu Gunsten der dortigen Mozart-Stiftung herausgegeben …
First edition, the partbook issue. The work was also issued in score. Both are very rare, OCLC locating a copy of the 1st Bass part at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and a set at the Swiss National Library. There are apparently no copies in Germany: KVK shows the British Library copy (in score) only.
Among the 46 pieces included are works by Mozart, Just, Speyer, and some minor German and Swiss composers, but the surprise comes in three English glees, translated into German, by Samuel Webbe, ‘one of our greatest glee composers in every sense’ (Baptie), ‘Mr’ [Richard?] Wainwright, and Reginald Spofforth, his ‘Hail, smiling morn’, ‘possibly the most popular glee in the entire repertory’ (New Grove).