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.
  1. [ADOLPHUS, Prince, later Duke of Cambridge.]

    Manuscript collection of fifty-four songs...

    [Hanover?, 1796.]

    The seventh son of George III and Queen...

    £2850

  2. ANTIPHONAL,

    with neumes, containing music for the blessing...

    Southern Germany or Bohemia, mid-15th century.

    An unusual and striking antiphonal leaf...

    £4250

  3. ARISTIDES, Aelius. 

    Orationum tomi tres, nunc primum latine...

    Basel, Peter Perna and Heinrich Petrus, 1566. 

    First edition in Latin, a remarkable...

    £2750

  4. AUDEN, Wystan Hugh, and Chester KALLMAN.

    The Magic Flute.

    London, Faber & Faber, [1957].

    First UK edition. Auden composed...

    £125

  5. BERARDI, Angelo.

    Documenti armonici …

    Bologna, Giacomo Monti, 1687.

    First edition, an exhaustive study of counterpoint...

    £1750

  6. BLANCHET, Joseph.

    L’art, ou les principes philosophiques...

    Paris, Augustin-Martin Lottin, Michel...

    First edition. The designation ‘IIe edition,...

    £750

  7. BLANKENBURG, Quirinus Gerbrandszoon van.

    Elementa musica of niew licht tot het welverstaan...

    The Hague, Laurens Berkoske, 1739.

    First edition, very scarce.

    £1500

  8. BROWN, Arthur Henry.

    Autograph manuscript notebook mainly of...

    [Brentwood?, 1864–87].

    An autograph manuscript notebook composed...

    £450

  9. [CALLIGRAPHIC SCORES.]

    Two anonymous manuscript scores.

    London, 1820s.

    Two charming productions, sent as anonymous...

    £850

  10. CAVALCANTI, Bartolomeo. 

    La retorica … divisa in sette libri,...

    Venice, Gabriel Giolitto, 1559. 

    Second edition, published in the same...

    £2250

  11. [CHANSONS.]

    Manuscript collection of arias, chansons,...

    c. 1795.

    A fascinating manuscript collection of...

    £2400

  12. CHERUBINI, Luigi.

    Autograph note signed ‘L. Cherubini’...

    [Paris,] 19 December 1825.

    A short note in which the composer and...

    £350

  13. CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.

    Manuscript score of a collection of six...

    Italy, mid-eighteenth century.

    A collection of secular madrigals for two...

    £1800

  14. CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.

    Manuscript score ‘VI Duetti Madrigaleschi’.

    [Italian, late eighteenth century?]

    A collection of six madrigals for two voices,...

    £850

  15. [CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY OF ST PHILIP NERI.]

    A collection of seven componimenti sacri...

    Venice, 1746–1787.

    A collection of seven libretti for sacred...

    £375

  16. DELLOYE, H.-L. (editor).

    Chants et chansons populaires de la France...

    Paris, Félix Locquin [– Dondey-Dupré;...

    First edition of a finely illustrated,...

    £450

  17. ELISABETH, Empress of Austria.

    A collection of six manuscript scores from...

    1850–60s.

    Elizabeth Amalie Eugenie of Bavaria (1837–1898),...

    £3750

  18. ESSER, [Karl?] Michael, Ritter von.

    Sei Quartetti per due violini viola, e...

    [Venice, Marescalchi e Canobbio, 1774?]

    First edition, very rare, of a complete...

    £1750

  19. FABRIZI, Pietro.

    Regole generali di canto fermo raccolte...

    Rome, Mascardi, 1708.

    ‘Fourth’ edition of a small practical...

    £500

  20. [FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.]

    Psalms, Hymns & Anthems used in the Chapel...

    [London], 1774 [but c. 1780?]

    The Foundling Hospital was established...

    £750