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.-
[FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.]
Psalms, Hymns & Anthems used in the Chapel of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of exposed &...
[London], 1774 [but c. 1780?]
The Foundling Hospital was established by Thomas Coram in 1739 as Britain’s first charity for the care of orphaned or abandoned children. ‘The Hospital chapel, in use by 1749 and officially opened in 1753, soon became well known for its music as well as for its elegant architecture and adornments’...
£750
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FREZZA DALLE GROTTE, Gioseppe.
Il Cantore ecclesiastico breve, facile, ed essatta notizia del canto fermo per istruzzione de’...
Padua, Stamperia del Seminario (Giovanni Manetti), 1698.
First edition of an uncommon plainchant manual published for the use of the Minorites (Conventual Franciscans). The two striking woodcuts depict a book of plainchant on a cantor’s lectern, and the famous Guidonian hand, a medieval mnemonic device to assist with sight-singing.
£1250
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[GEORGE V.]
The Form and Order of the Service that is to be performed and of the Ceremonies that are to be observed in the Coronation...
London, Novello & Company, 1911.
A handsome copy of the Coronation service, with choral settings of the music sung, including (among others) Parry’s ‘I was glad’, Handel’s ‘Zadok the Priest’, and ‘God save the King!’, arranged by Sir Frederick Bridge (1844–1924), organist at Westminster Abbey.
£450
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[GOETHE.]
REICHARDT, Johann Friedrich. Goethe’s Lieder, Oden, Balladen und Romanzen mit Musik von J.F. Reichardt. Erste...
Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, [1809–11].
Very rare first complete edition of Reichardt’s musical settings of Goethe’s poetry, comprising 128 settings of which thirty-nine appear here for the first time.
£6500
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GRASSINEAU, James.
A Musical Dictionary; being a Collection of Terms and Characters, as well ancient as modern; including the historical,...
… London: Printed for J. Wilcox … 1740.
First edition, based largely on the Dictionnaire de Musique of Sébastien de Brossard and the musical articles in Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, with some original material. One of two variant issues, this has ‘A’ on the title-page above the ‘i’ in ‘Dictionary’.
£650
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GREENE, Maurice.
Forty select Anthems in Score composed for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Voices … Volume first [– second].
London. J. Walsh, 1743.
First edition. Greene was organist and composer to the Chapels Royal, and an admirer and sometime friend of Handel (their friendship expiring on the occasion of Handel’s quarrel with Buononcini). Forty Select Anthems, setting Psalms and other Biblical texts, is ‘the work on which his...
£850
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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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[HOARE, Prince.]
Songs, Duets, and Chorus, in the Prize; or, 2, 5, 3, 8. A Farce, in two Acts. The Music composed by Mr. Storace.
[London,] 1793.
First edition, scarce, of the libretto to The Prize by Prince Hoare, scored by Stephen Storace.
£350
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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, one of 200 numbered copies – Hofmannsthal himself considered it to be his finest libretto.
£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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MALCOLM, Alexander.
A Treatise of Musick, speculative, practical and historical. Containing an explication of the philosophical...
London, J. Osborn and T. Longman, F. Fayram, and E. Symon, 1730.
First London edition of the first history of music in English by a British author; it is a reissue of the Edinburgh-printed first edition of 1721 with a cancel title-page and the dedication removed.
£1100
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MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, Felix.
Symphonie No. 3, componirt und Ihrer Majestät der Königin Victoria von England zugeeignet …...
Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, [1843].
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.
£1500
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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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[MILAN, province of.]
Ordo admittendi virgines ad monasterii ingressum habitumque regularem suscipiendi ritus item servandus...
Milan, Tamburini and Valdoni, 1843.
Scarce edition of this set of rites for the admission of women to convents in the province of Milan, covering their investiture, tonsure, and vows, with instructions printed in red, texts to be spoken and sung in black, and with printed music for hymns and blessings. The first edition appears...
£200
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MILHAUD, Darius.
Le boeuf sur le toit, ou The nothing doing bar. Farce imaginée et réglée par Jean Cocteau – costumes de G....
Paris, Editions de la Sirène, 1920.
First edition of Milhaud’s Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58 (The ox on the roof, or The nothing-doing bar), a surrealist ballet-farce which became extremely popular in 1920s Paris.
£2400
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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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MOZART, et al.
A volume of twelve piano duets adapted from overtures by Mozart, Rossini, and others by J. F. Burrowes, J. Mazzinghi,...
London, mostly Birchall & Co., 1810s–1820s.
A good collection of late Georgian piano duets, including adaptations from The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia, along with a few original compostions by Dussek, Mazzinghi, etc. A full list is available...
£350
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NAPIER, William, publisher and music-seller.
Three part-books of trios (complete) and three (of four) of quartets (lacking...
Mostly London, 1769–1775.
An impressive collection of string trios and quartets, including compositions by Giordani, Boccherini, J. C. Bach, Abel, and the virtuoso Maddalena Sirmen, as well as the first publication in England of any work by Haydn (the quartets Op.1 and 2).
£1250
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[PALACE THEATRE, SCUNTHORPE.]
‘Benefit to A. E. Dobney, Thursday, February 19th, 1914.’
[Scunthorpe, 1914.]
A rare broadside programme for a benefit performance at the Palace Theatre in Scunthorpe, printed on crepe paper with a charming block-printed floral border.
£185
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PLAYFORD, John.
Psalms & Hymns in solemn Musick of foure Parts on the common Tunes to the Psalms in Metre: used in Parish-Churches....
London, Printed by W. Godbid for J. Playford, at his Shop … 1671.
First edition of the first harmonised Psalter after the Restoration, a landmark work in the re-introduction of part-singing into churches.
£1850