Loeb Music Library

Recently added to our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti is this first edition of André Campra’s Hésione:

Hesione: tragédie mise en musique par Monsieur Campra: representée par l’Academie Royale de Musique le vingt-uniéme jour de Decembre 1700. Paris: Ballard, 1700.
Merritt Room Mus 635.582.625

Le Cerf de la Viéville ranked Campra first among the post-Lully composers of French opera and held up his Tancrède (1702) as deserving of particularly high praise. Campra was second only to Lully in the number of tragédies en musique he composed, with ten such works in his oeuvre. His first tragédie en musique, Hesione, was performed at the Opéra on 21 December 1700. The libretto was by Antoine Danchet.

Viéville cited Hesione as being “full of new and brilliant things” and that it offers proof that “since the death of Lulli there has still been something beautiful in France.”¹ Though his tragédies retained the general outlines of the genre as established by Lully, he departed from Lullian convention by employing more contrapuntal textures and vocal coloraturas. To the critics most faithful to Lully this was sign of the encroachment of Italian music in France. Campra acknowledged his tendencies when he set out his personal musical credo in the preface to his first book of cantatas (1708): “to the best of my abilities I have endeavoured to temper the delicacy of French music with the liveliness of Italian music.”²

(With thanks to Dr. Sarah Adams, Acting Richard F. French Librarian, for text slightly modified from her exhibition of French Baroque opera, in which this score appeared.)

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1. “Hésione…qui est plein de choses neuves & brillantes[.] Il me suffit de cela pour montrer à Mr. l’Abbé que, depuis la mort de Lulli, on a encore fait quelque chose de beau en France.” Comparaison de la musique italienne et de la musique françoise, 2nd ed. (Bruxelles: F. Foppens, 1705-1706), 1:98.

2. “J’ay taché autant que j’ay pû de méler avec la delicatesse de la Musique Françoise, la vivacité de la Musique Italienne…”. Cantates françoises, melées de symphonies… Livre premier (Paris: C. Ballard, 1708).

We’ve recently added to our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti a trio of volumes by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: a collection of easy keyboard sonatas for popular consumption; settings of sacred songs by the Hamburg paster Christoph Christian Sturm; and chorales from the Schleswig-Holstein hymnal.

[Sonatas, keyboard instrument. Selections]
Sechs leichte Clavier Sonaten / von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Leipzig : Bey Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf und Sohn., 1766.
1st ed.
H. 162, 180–82, 163, 183; Wq. 53
Merritt Room Mus 627.2.426.6

[Geistliche Gesänge, H. 749]
Herrn Christoph Christian Sturms … Geistliche Gesänge : mit Melodien zum Singen bey dem Claviere. [Erste]-Zweyte Sammlung / vom Herrn Kapellmeister Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Musikdirektor in Hamburg. Hamburg : Jahnn Heinrich Herold, 1780-1781.
Wq. 197; RISM A/I, B 0133; B0134.
Merritt Room Mus 627.2.582.3

[Litaneyen aus dem Schleswig-Holsteinischen Gesangbuche]
Zwey Litaneyen aus dem Schleswig-Holsteinischen Gesangbuche mit ihrer bekannten Melodie, für acht Singstimmen in zwey Chören und dem dazugehörigen Fundament in Partitur gesetzt, und zum Nutzen und Vergnügen Lehrbegieriger in der Harmonie bearbeitet / von Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach ; herausgegeben von Niels Schiørring. Kopenhagen : In Commission bey Chr. Gottl. Prost ; Gedruckt bey Aug. Fr. Stein, 1786.
1st ed.
H. 780, 871; Wq. 204; RISM A/I, B 117
Merritt Room Mus 627.2.542

Coming soon, much more French opera…and just a little bit of German song.

-Kerry Masteller

Happy New Year! In this group of digital scores, you’ll find operas from the first half of the 19th century, by Cherubini, Meyerbeer, and Spontini (as well as one early Donizetti libretto). Get these, and nearly 600 other scores, in our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti.

Luigi Cherubini, 1760-1842.
[Deux journées]
Les deux journées: opéra en trois actes / par le c.en Bouilly …; mis en musique par le c.en Chérubini. Paris: Gaveaux, rue St. Marc N. 10, [181-?].
Merritt Room Mus 637.1.675.2

A full score of Cherubini’s popular rescue opera (see our earlier post for a digitized copy of the vocal score).

Guillaume Gaveaux (Gaveaux ainé) was one of a family of music publishers and merchants active in Paris between 1794 and 1832; the full imprint in this copy is covered by a label reading “Chez Mme. Duhan & Cie. … Boulvard Poissoniere No. 10.” One of a number of women in the Parisian music business, Jeanne-Elisabeth Duhan was also associated with manufacture and sale of early lithographed music printed by Louise-Gabrielle Vernay’s Imprimerie Lithographique.¹

Gaspare Spontini, 1774-1851.

[Vestale. Vocal score]
La vestale : tragédie lyrique en trois actes / de mr. de Jouy; mise en musique par Gaspard Spontini; réduite pour piano. Paris: Melles. Erard, [1822?].
Mus 813.2.608

A vocal score, with some instrumental cues, of Spontini’s first grand opera and greatest success, premiered – with the Empress Josephine’s patronage – at the Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique on December 15, 1807.

Soon after, Jouy wrote a parody of his own work for the Théatre du Vaudeville. Read the libretto, and his account of its creation, in his collected works: La Marchande de Modes: parodie de La Vestale (full text online).

[Fernand Cortez. Vocal score]
Fernand Cortez: opéra / par G. Spontini; arrangé pour le piano. Paris: Imbault; Melles. Érard, [1809?].
Mus 813.2.623

A vocal score of the first version of Spontini’s second grand opera, premiered November 28, 1809. Napoleon had commissioned the libretto, loosely based on Cortez’s 1520 invasion of Mexico, as a propaganda piece in support of his Spanish campaigns during the Pennisular War. While the first version was withdrawn after 13 performances, a second opened in 1817 with a revised libretto to suit the political climate of the Bourbon Restoration – and with greater success.

Giacomo Meyerbeer, 1791-1864.
[Emma di Resburgo. Vocal score. German & Italian]
Emma von Roxburgh: grosse Oper in zwei Aufzügen / componirt von J. Meyerbeer; vollständiger Klavier-Auszug mit deutschem und italienischem text von J.P. Schmidt. Berlin: in der Schlesingerschen Buch- und Musikhandlung; Schlesinger, [1820?].
Mus 743.3.676

Meyerbeer’s first Venetian commission (premiered at San Benedetto, June 26, 1819), and his first international success. A German-language production opened in Berlin in February of 1820.²

Gaetano Donizetti, 1797-1848.
[Elisir d’amore. Libretto]
L’elisir d’amore: melodramma giocoso in due atti: da rappresentarsi nel Teatro Carlo Felice, l’autunno dell’anno 1833. Genova: Stamperia Arcivesovile, [1833].
Merritt Room ML51.D683 E42 1833

A libretto from one of the earliest performances of L’elisir d’amore, performed at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice. Donizetti’s popular melodrama had opened the year before at Milan’s Teatro alla Canobbiana and was quickly produced at opera houses throughout Europe.

-Kerry Masteller

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1. On 18th and 19th century music publishing in Paris, see Anik Devriès and François Lesure, Dictionnaire des èditeurs de musique français (Genève: Éditions Minkoff, 1979-1988); Cecil Hopkinson, A Dictionary of Parisian Music Publishers, 1700-1950 (London: 1954). On the Imprimerie lithographique, see Michael Twyman, Early lithographed music: a study based on the H. Baron Collection (London: Farrand, 1996): 247-254.

2. On production histories, see Alfred Loewenberg, Annals of Opera: 1597-1940, 3rd rev. ed. (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978).

This group of first and early Schubert editions begins with twelve songs first published as supplements to the Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode (Harvard’s set lacks only Im Frühling, D. 882, published September 16, 1828):

• Erstausgaben aus der Wiener Zeitschrift, [1820-1832]. [Wien]: A. Strauss, 1820-1832.
  Merritt Mus 800.1.703 PHI

The other songs in this batch are settings of Schiller, Goethe, Rückert, and others, including settings of songs from Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem The Lady of the Lake and his novels A Legend of Montrose and The Pirate.

• Sieben Gesänge aus Walter Scott’s Fräulein vom See: Op. 52 in Musik gesetzt mit Begleitung des Pianoforte und der Hochgebornen Frau, Frau Sophie Gräfin v. Weissenwolf, geborne Gräfin v. Breunner hochachtungsvoll, gewidmet von Franz Schubert. Wien: Bey Math. Artaria, [1826].
  First edition
  Merritt Mus 800.1.711.15 PHI
• Greisen-Gesang: aus den östlichen Rosen von F. Rückert; und Dythyrambe von F. v. Schiller; in Musik gesetzt für eine Bassstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte von Franz Schubert; 60tes Werk. Wien: bey Cappi und Czerny, [1826].
  First edition
  Merritt Mus 800.1.722.10 PHI
• Lied der Anne Lyle: aus Walter Scott’s Montrose; Gesang der Norna: aus Walter Scott’s Pirat: für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte: op. 85 in Musik gesetzt von Franz Schubert. Wien: A. Diabelli, [1828].
  First edition
  Merritt Mus 800.1.731.10 PHI
• Die Sterne von Leitner. Jägers Liebeslied von Schober. Wanderers Nachtlied von Göthe. Fischerweise von Schlechta; in Musik gesetzt für eine Singstimme mit Begleit. des Pianoforte von Franz Schubert; op. 96. Wien: A. Diabelli und Comp., [1837].
  Neue Ausgabe. [2nd ed.]
  Merritt Mus 800.1.740.12 PHI
• Die Erwartung Gedicht von Fr. von Schiller; in Musik gesetzt mit Begleitung des Pianoforte … von Franz Schubert; op. 116. Wien: M.J. Leidesdorf, [1829].
  First edition
  Merritt Mus 800.1.736.20 PHI
• Sechs Gedichte, 118tes Werk Musik gesetzt für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte von Franz Schubert. Wien: J. Czerny, [1829].
  Merritt Mus 800.1.714.10 PHI

Find these works, and others, in our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti.

-Kerry Masteller

After, I confess, a somewhat longer pause than anticipated, we return with the first of a series of posts on recently-digitized items from the collection. As always, these and many other scores are available in our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti.

To begin, I’ve selected a set of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: published editions, as well as copyist’s manuscripts, likely made from first or early editions. They’re assembled in a volume of music that may have been prepared for Count Anton Georg Apponyi, a member of the Gesellschaft der Associierten, the Viennese musical society founded in 1786 by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. It includes:

[Sonatas, piano, K. 533/494, F major]. Sonate pour le clavecin ou piano-forte, oeuvre 44 composé par W.A. Mozart. Vienne: Artaria, [1798].

RISM A/I, M/MM 6849

Artaria’s reissue of K. 533 and K. 494, from Hoffmeister’s first edition of 1788.

XIV. différentes pieces pour le piano forte par W.A. Mozart. A Paris: Chez Pleyel, [1805?].

RISM A/I, M/MM 7458

Volume 5 of Pleyel’s Collection complette des œuvres de piano par W.A. Mozart, containing 14 pieces for piano.

[Rondos, piano, K. 511, A minor]. No. 2o Rondeau pour le forte piano, ou clavicembalo composé par Mr. W.A. Mozart; J. Gyenis [copyist?]. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

Manuscript music notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons and the letters “FA.” Originally composed in 1787; this manuscript probably derives from the 1st or a very early edition: the notation in measure 161 in the left hand corresponds to the autograph. Includes early (possibly contemporary) manuscript fingering to the bass line of measures 122-124. Some notation to measure 40 is lacking, and added in pencil in an early hand.

The last 2 pages of music are in a different hand, with the initials “MA.” This unidentified piece – arpeggiated passages over a chordal progression – consists of a simple tune, possibly for violin with piano accompaniment, with a correction and one measure crossed out, indicating that it may have been composed as a teaching piece.

[Sonatas, violin, piano, K. 454, B♭ major]. Sonata pour le clavecin ou piano forte avec un violon, no 21 par Mr. W.A. Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part only, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons and the letters “BAC.” K. 454 was composed in 1784 and published by Christoph Torricella in July; this copy was probably made from the first or an early edition.

On the verso of a the final leaf is a 1 page song notated in both ink and pencil, in a different hand.

[Trios, piano, strings, K. 496, G major]. Trio in G per il cembalo ò fortepiano, violino e violoncello del sig: W:A: Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part of the Piano Trio in G major, K. 496, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark incorporating a canopy over the letter “A” countered by “GF” over “C.” At the bottom of the title page, in different ink, is written “Graf Anton Nr. 21 [crossed out, with "19" substituted] Sonate uman.”

This trio was composed in 1786 and published in Vienna by Hoffmeister in the same year; this copy was likely made from the 1st or an early edition.

[Quartets, piano, strings, K. 478, G minor]. Quartetto per il clavicembalo o forte piano accompagnement violino, viola, e violoncello del sig: W:A: Mozart. Manuscript, ca. 1795-1800.

A manuscript of the keyboard part of the String Quartet in G minor, K. 478, notated in ink on 8-stave paper with a watermark of 3 crescent moons over “Real,” a canopy, and the letters “GL,” similar to the watermark on paper Mozart used in 1791 for sketches of Die Zauberflöte. The quartet, composed in 1785, was published by Hoffmeister in December of that year; this copy was probably prepared from the 1st or an early edition.

“Graf Anton Apponyi” is written in light pencil at the right hand corner of the title page; at the bottom of the title page, in ink, is “Graf Anton” is scratched out, and “angefangen den 2. December N17 (corrected from 19) Anton” written below. In the score, early penciled annotations include fingering, accidentals, and dynamics.

The Loeb Music Library holds multiple copies of the other two pieces in this volume, and had already digitized these copies:

[Sonatas, violin, piano. Selections]. Six sonates pour le clavecin, ou pianoforte avec l’accompagnoment [sic] d’un violon, oeuvre II par Wolf. Amadee Mozart. Vienne: Artaria, [1781].

First edition, 1st issue, RISM A/I, M 6492

Mozart’s first works to be printed in Vienna, after his arrival in the city in March of 1781.

This copy is part of the Biblioteca Mozartiana Eric Offenbach (BMEO); digitized along with the score are a photocopy of a letter from Alexander Weinmann to Eric Offenbacher regarding the edition and Weinmann’s speculations about a possible earlier publication by Torricella, and a typewritten note containing information on this work.

[Symphonies, K. 543, E♭ major; arr.]. Wolfg. Ama. Mozarts grosse Sinfonie ins Claviergesetzt und dem verdienstvollen Tonküstler und Verehrer dieses unvergesslichen Meisters … von Johann Wenzel. Prag: Zu haben beÿm Verfasser; Leipzig: In der Breitkopfischen Buchhandlung, [ca. 1794].

First edition, RISM A/I, M 5540

- Kerry Masteller

It’s time once again for a quick tour of the latest additions to our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti. For this week’s post, I’ve chosen one 18th century collection of keyboard works and four vocal scores by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Enjoy!

Keyboard works

C.P.E. Bachs, Nichelmanns und Händels Sonaten und Fugen fürs Clavier. 2. Aufl. Berlin : Wever, 1774.
Merritt Room Mus 460.69

A collection of keyboard works by C.P.E. Bach, Nichelmann, Handel, and Kirnberger, first published in 1762 as Tonstücke für das Clavier.

Giacomo Meyerbeer

• Margherita d’Anjou : opera semiseria in due atti / Composto e ridotto per il cembalo da G. Meyerbeer. Paris : M. Schlesinger, [1827?].
  Mus 743.3.610 B

  Meyerbeer’s first opera for La Scala, premiered on November 14, 1820. This edition includes the title vignette: “Salvi amico la regina, salvi il figlio del tuo re,” from Act I, scene XV.

• Il crociato in Egitto; opera seria. Ridotto con accompagniamento de pianoforte. Paris, Chez Pacini, [18--].
  Mus 743.3.650
   
• Le pardon de Ploërmel : opéra comique en trois actes / paroles de J. Barbieret M. Carré ; musique de Giacomo Meyerbeer ; partition chant et piano. Paris : G. Brandus et S. Dufour, [1859?].
  Mus 743.3.692.5
   
• Les Huguenots : opéra en cinq actes / paroles de Scribe ; musique de G. Meyerbeer ; partition chant et piano. Ed. définitive et complète. Paris : Ph. Maquet, [1888?].
  Mus 743.3.624
   

Stay tuned for our next batch of scores, featuring early editions and copyist’s manuscripts from a 19th-century album of Mozart’s works.

-Kerry Masteller

As we near our goal of digitizing the Music Library’s collection of first editions and notable variants of Giuseppe Verdi’s operas, these vocal scores and libretti have been added to the digital scores collection:

• Giovanna d’Arco: dramma lirico in quattro parti da rappresentarsi nel regio Teatro il carnovale del 1845-46, alla presenza delle LL. SS. RR. MM. Torino: Tipografia dei fratelli Favale, [1845].
  Merritt Room Mus 577.322.11

  An early edition of the libretto, published with two ballet scenarios by Luigi Astolfi: Alma, ossia, La figlia del fuoco and Il consiglio di Recluta.

• Il finto Stanislao: melodramma giocoso in due atti / de Felice Romani; posto in musica dal maestro Giuseppe Verdi; riduzione per canto con accompagnamento di pianoforte dei L. Truzzi, A. Rajneri e C. Dominiceti. Milano: G. Ricordi, [1846].
  Mus 857.1.605.5
  Hopkinson 38B(a)

  The first complete edition of the vocal score. After one performance at La Scala in 1840, with the title Un Giorno di Regno, Il Finto Stanislao was next produced in 1845 in Venice.

• Attila : dramma lirico in tre atti con prologo / poesia di T. Solera ; musica di Gius. Verdi ; canto con accompto. di piano forte. [1st ed.]. Milano : F. Lucca, [1846].
  Mus 857.1.616.5
  Hopkinson, 45A(a)

  The first complete edition of the first version, premiered at La Fenice in 1846.

• L’assedio di Arlem: tragedia lirica in quattro atti / posta in musica del maestro Giuseppe Verdi; riduzione per canto con accomp. di pianoforte di E. Muzio. Milano: G. Ricordi, [1850].
  Mus 857.1.621.5
  Hopkinson, 50A A(b) 

  The confusing production and publication history of L’Assedio di Arlem/La Battaglia di Legnano reveals some of the changes that could be made to accommodate the political climates of different cities (and the demands of censors). When premiered in 1849 in Rome – as La Battaglia di Legnano – this patriotic opera was set in 1176 during the struggles of the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa and the Holy Roman Empire. In the aftermath of failed revolutions against the Austrian Empire, however, such an obviously nationalistic subject was viewed with suspicion: while this variant of the first complete edition, published in Austrian-governed Milan, preserves the original music, it moves the action of the work instead to 16th-century Haarlem, during the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch provinces and the Spanish Habsburg Empire.¹

• Rigoletto : melodramma di F.M. Piave ; musica del maestro G. Verdi ; riduzioni per canto con accomp. di pfte. di Luigi Truzzi. Milano : G. Ricordi, [1852].
  Merritt Room Mus 857.1.559 

  A variant of the first complete edition, not listed in Hopkinson.

• Un ballo in maschera : melodramma tragico in tre atti / musica di G. Verdi ; riduzione per canto e pianoforte di Luigi ed Alessandro Truzzi. Milan : Ricordi, [1860].
  Merritt Room Mus 857.1.678.7 PHI 

  An early edition of the vocal score, not listed in Hopkinson.

• Simon Boccanegra : melodramma in un prologo e tre atti / di F. M. Piave ; musica di G. Verdi. Milano : R. Stabilimento Ricordi, [1881].
  Merritt Room Mus 689.630.360.9 PHI 

  The first edition of the revised version of the libretto, from the La Scala staging of 1880-1881.

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1. For more information about the composition and publication of L’Assedio di Arlem, see Cecil Hopkinson, A Bibliography of the Works of Giuseppe Verdi, 1813-1901 (New York: Broude Brothers, 1973-1978) and Roger Parker, “La Battaglia di Legnano“, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie, Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online (access restricted to Harvard affiliates).

- Kerry Masteller

Hardened operetta fans have good reason to feel lucky this Friday the 13^th: it is the 169^th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose music put wings on the House of Lords, enchantment in the Vicar’s teapot, and wind in the sails of the Pinafore.  Those who love W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan and the fourteen operas they wrote together remain as passionate as they were a century ago, as a glance at Savoynet or the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive will tell you.

Savoy scholarship has recently flowered: the past two years alone have seen The Cambridge Companion to Gilbert and Sullivan, Carolyn Williams’ landmark Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody, Regina B. Oost’s Gilbert and Sullivan: Class and the Savoy Tradition 1875-1896 (a thorough examination of the commodification in, of, and around the operas) and The Japan of Pure Invention, in which Josephine Lee considers the racial implications of The Mikado‘s production history.

Sullivan himself always longed to be appreciated for his serious compositions.  If you wish to explore his depth and range, the Loeb’s record stacks offer recordings of his grand opera Ivanhoe and his cantata The Golden Legend.  Among the Victorians, this setting of Longfellow’s poem of true love, evil and redemption was second in popularity only to Handel’s Messiah.  For more Sullivan without Gilbert, try The Beauty Stone or The Emerald Isle or The Contrabandista.  Or sample his wildly popular parlor songs, including his setting of Kipling’s Boer War appeal “The Absent-Minded Beggar” and the inevitable “Lost Chord.”

If only Sullivan’s entire legacy had had as faithful a guardian and as staunch a promoter as his work with Gilbert did.  For over a hundred years the family-run D’Oyly Carte Opera Company staged the Savoy operas in accordance, as nearly as possible, with Gilbert’s directions, providing an enduring link with the original productions.   Performance styles may have evolved a little: we invite you to compare, say, the 1928 Yeomen of the Guard with the 1958 and 1964 versions, and then hear a non-D’Oyly Carte interpretation, like the 1993 recording with Bryn Terfel and Thomas Allen.  The 1966 taping of The Mikado offers a chance to see John Reed, Kenneth Sandford, and other D’Oyly Carte stars in their prime.  Sadly, rising costs and the Arts Council’s infamous denial of funding caused the D’Oyly Carte to close in 1982, and  it is hard to hold the LP of the company’s final concert without a sigh and a tear in the eye.

If you need a fix right now and cannot make it to the library to hear our G & S discography, Naxos Music Library offers subscribers a variety of goodies while the Internet Archive’s treasure trove (which includes the notorious Groucho Marx Mikado) is available to all.  I cannot let the occasion pass without mentioning With Words and Music, a bizarre but entertaining B movie about a bookie who mounts a comeback for a washed-up troupe of Savoyards.  You imagine a team of desperate screenwriters, robbed of their rest in some dingy, labyrinthine studio basement, cranking out the script at 4 am after discovering a mutual love of melodious topsy-turvydom.  Interesting recordings and sheet music (scroll down for all the Sullivan: they have him under “Arthur” and “Arthur S.” and just “Sullivan” and everything) are free to all at the Library of Congress, as well.   Sullivan did his duty; I have done mine.  Go ye and do yours!

-Sarah Barton

These operas by Cherubini are among the latest additions to our digital scores collection; find them, and many others, in Digital Scores and Libretti:

Les deux journées : opéra comique en 3 actes / paroles de J.N. Bouilly; musique de Cherubini; partition de piano et chant. Paris: M. Schlesinger, [1837?]. Mus 637.1.663

A vocal score of Cherubini’s most successful opera, premiered in 1800 at the Théâtre Feydeau and repeatedly revived during the first half of the nineteenth century. Bouilly purportedly based his libretto – a story of political persecution, disguises, narrow escapes, and eventual reconciliations – on events he witnessed during the French Revolution, but the action of Les deux journées is shifted to 1647, during Cardinal Mazarin’s time as Chief Minister.

Faniska

Cherubini’s only Singspiel, written for the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna and premiered on February 25, 1806. Joseph Sonnleithner’s libretto, based on Pixérécourt’s melodrama Les Mines de Pologne, bears some similarity to the captivity and rescue plot of Lodoïska, down to the dramatic third-act attack on the villain’s castle.

• Faniska : eine grosse Oper in drey Akten ; vollständiger Klavierauszug von A. E. Müller. Leipzig : A. Kühnel, [between 1806 and 1809]. Mus 637.1.690

  This copy of an early vocal score has a two-page manuscript of Oranski’s part of the 1st act Terzetto, in an unidentified hand, tipped in following the printed score.
   

• Faniska : opéra en trois actes : représenté à Vienne le 25 Février 1806 : paroles italiennes / musique de Cherubini ; avec accompagnement de piano par A. Fessy. Paris : Chez tous les editeurs de musique ; Leipzig : Chez Breitkopf et Haertel, [184-?]. Merritt Room Mus 637.1.685

  An Italian full score of the opera.

Medea : tragedia in trè atti / di L. Cherubini. Milano : R. Fantuzzi, [1910?]. Mus 637.1.645.5

While Médée was revived in several German productions during the nineteenth century, its first performance in Italy did not occur until December 30, 1909. La Scala used an Italian version by Carlo Zangarini, with Franz Paul Lachner’s recitative settings of the dialogue, composed for the 1855 Frankfurt production.

This edition of the vocal score features a title page illustration by the painter and theatrical designer Giuseppe Palanti, known to La Scala audiences for his set and costume designs, as well as the advertising posters he created for the publishing house Ricordi.¹

- Kerry Masteller

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1. See Vittoria Crespi Morbio, “Il teatro,” in Giuseppe Palanti: Pittura, teatro, pubblicità, disegno, 66-84 (Torino: U. Allemandi, c2001).

Next Stop is Vietnam: the War on Record 1961-2008

We just received this beautifully produced box set from Bear Family Records documenting the recorded legacy of the Vietnam War. The collection contains 13 CDs and a 300 page book that features the label’s typically rich detail about the music, an essay about soldiers’ preferred songs, and a foreword by Country Joe McDonald. Besides well-known songs by Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Edwin Starr, John Lennon and others, one finds here many lesser-known tracks and songs written by soldiers themselves. Archival recordings range from Anita Bryant’s PSA for Patriotism to an excerpt from Jane Fonda’s Hanoi press conference on August 14, 1972.

Find it here: Loeb Music Library AC 36778

Bill Evans on DVD

Just in are two DVDs featuring Bill Evans in trio recordings taken from several different points in his career. The first DVD, Waltz for Debby, includes television broadcasts from London in 1965 and New Jersey in 1971. The other, But Beautiful, comes from 1979 and highlights Evan’s final regular trio with Marc Johnson on bass and Joe La Barbera on drums. That trio is the same group he played with at the Harvard Jazz Band concert in 1980, a performance which Tom Everett recently recounted during the 40 years of Jazz at Harvard celebrations.

Find them here:
But Beautiful, Loeb Music Library DVD 1866
Waltz for Debby, Loeb Music Library DVD 1867

(Selections from the Tom Everett Collection of Jazz Manuscripts, including John Lewis’ The Gates of Harvard, composed for that 1980 visit, are on display in the Music Library through September 30.)

Music for Merce 1952-2009

Another box set, this time 10 CDs on New World Records of music written for dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham. Besides his work with John Cage, Cunningham collaborated with many other experimental composers and this set includes music by David Tudor, Takehisa Kosugi, Earl Brown, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, Gordon Mumma, Pauline Oliveros and others. The collection also includes a lengthy essay by music historian Amy Beal entitled “A Short Stop Along the Way: Each-Thingness and Music for Merce.”

Find it here: Loeb Music Library CD 37520

People Time… Stan Getz and Kenny Barron

And finally, we recently acquired the complete set of recordings made by Stan Getz and pianist Kenny Barron at the Café Montmartre in Copenhagen on March 3-6, 1991. Made just months before Getz’s death in June of that year, some of these performances were originally issued on two Verve CDs in 1992. Now Sunnyside Records via Universal Music France has put out the entire four nights (7 CDs of music), and the set includes both the original 1991 notes by Kenny Barron and new notes written by Gary Giddins.

Find it here: Loeb Music Library CD 38539

-Peter Laurence