Loeb Music Library

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 While the first version was withdrawn after 13 performances, a second opened in 1817 with a revised libretto to suit the political climate of the Bourbon Restoration – and with greater success.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

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).

The Music Treasures Consortium proudly announces a new site designed to give access to selected music manuscripts and printed editions from six institutions in the United States and United Kingdom. The site is hosted by the Library of Congress on its Performing Arts Encyclopedia, and is available at:

http://loc.gov/musictreasures

(The scores pictured in this post represent a tiny fraction of the items available on the Music Treasures Consortium site; click any thumbnail to view the uncropped images.)

The Consortium’s goal is to further music scholarship and research by providing access in one place to digital images of primary sources for the performance and study of music. Two examples may help to demonstrate the connections researchers can make through the site:

• The 1741 autograph manuscript of Handel’s Messiah, from the British Library, can be easily compared with both the first published edition of the score, from the Loeb Music Library, and a copyist’s manuscript, ca. 1743-46, from The Morgan Library and Museum.
• Scores from the Loeb Music Library’s extensive collection of Schubert first editions can be studied in tandem with manuscripts from the Library of Congress, the Morgan, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Library at Juilliard (Schubert in the Music Treasures Consortium).

In this initial launch, online items range from the 13^th century – the British Library’s manuscript Harley 978, Musical, medical and literary miscellany, including ‘Sumer is icumen in’[...] – to the 20^th, by composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy, Georges Bizet, Arnold Schoenberg. The site will continue to grow as Consortium members add more items.

Read more about Harvard’s contributions to the Music Treasures Consortium in this Harvard College Library News article.

Members of the Consortium include:

• The British Library
• Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University
• Lila Acheson Wallace Library at the Juilliard School
• The Library of Congress
• The Morgan Library and Museum
• New York Public Library

Initial planning for the Consortium was funded by Bruce Kovner. The MTC Advisory Board includes Christoph Wolff, Jeffrey Kallberg, Philip Gossett, and Laurent Pugin.

-Kerry Masteller

Our latest collection of digitized scores focuses on early 20th century works of musical modernism: operas by Busoni, Schreker, and Zemlinsky. As always, these and many other scores from our special collections can be found in our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti.

Ferruccio Busoni

1. Die Brautwahl. Klavier-Auszug von E. Petri [Leipzig? Breitkopf & Härtel? 1914?]. Mus 633.5.621

Busoni’s first opera, with a libretto by the composer based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s short story of the same title, from Die Serapions-brüder. This copy of the vocal score contains numerous cuts, corrections, and annotations – some pasted over the original score – which may represent a conductor’s revisions for performance.

2. Die Brautwahl: Orchester-Suite: Op. 45. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [c1917]. Mus 633.5.623

3. Arlecchino: ein theatralisches Capriccio in einem Aufzuge. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, c1917. Mus 633.5.615

A vocal score of Busoni’s Mozartian one-act number opera, centered on the acrobatic Harlequin figure of the Commedia dell’arte: his first stylistic foray into Junge Klassizität (Young Classicality). The work premiered on May 11, 1917, with Busoni’s Turandot.

Franz Schreker

4. Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin: Oper in einem Vorspiel und zwei Aufzügen. Wien: Universal-Edition, c1912. Mus 800.42.621

Schreker’s third opera, strongly influenced by Symbolism and later extensively revised to become Das Spielwerk. This copy of the score includes the spoken interlude “Des Burschen Traum in der Hütte des Meisters Florian” (“The Boy’s dream in the cabin of Meister Florian”), performed only for radio broadcast and not included in the libretto published in 1913.

Alexander Zemlinsky

5. Eine florentinische Tragödie: Oper in einem Aufzug : Op. 16. Wien: Universal-Edition, c1916. Mus 887.575.621

As he would do several years later in commissioning Georg C. Klaren’s libretto for Der Zwerg, Zemlinksy based his own libretto for Eine florentinische Tragödie on a work by Oscar Wilde: in this case, his unfinished play A Florentine Tragedy.

6. Kleider machen Leute; musikalische Komödie in einem Vorspiel und zwei Akten. Wien, New York, Universal-Edition, c1922. Mus 887.575.616

A vocal score of the revised version of the comic opera, based on Gottfried Keller’s novella Kleider machen Leute. Originally produced as a three act opera in 1911, this two-act revised version premiered in Prague in 1922.

- Kerry Masteller

We’ve added a number of scores to our collection of Digital Scores and Libretti, including this set of late 18th and early 19th century operas:

Johann Christian Bach

Amadis des Gaules: tragedie lyrique de Quinault reduite en trois actes … Représentée pour la premiere fois au théatre de l’Académie royale de musique le quinze decembre 1779. Mise en musique par Jean Chretien Bach. Paris.: Sieber, [1780?].
Merritt Room Mus 627.3.604, RISM A/I, B 167

Johann Christian Bach’s only French tragédie lyrique was premiered by the Académie Royale de Musique on December 14, 1779, to virtually universal distaste. As Friedrich Melchior Grimm wrote in an issue of the Correspondance littéraire, a journal covering the cultural events of Paris,

The Amadis of Mr. Bach…appeared for the first time this Tuesday the 14th and has not fulfilled our expectations….while it’s always good enough, it’s never more, and one cannot hide that, in this work at least, the whole of the composition lacks heat and effect. The Gluckists found it had neither the originality of Gluck, nor his sublime élan; the Piccinists, that his song had neither the charm nor the variety of melody of Piccinni.¹

Luigi Cherubini

Lodoïska : opéra en 3 actes / paroles de Filette Loraux ; musique de Cherubini ; partition de piano et chant. Paris : M. Schlesinger, [1837?].
Merritt Room Mus 637.1.627.5

The first French edition of the vocal score.

Lodoïska, which premiered at the Théâtre Feydeau on July 18, 1791, was a great success. Based on an episode from the popular novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas, Lodoïska is notable not only for its music but also for its spectacle: the third act ends as a troop of Tatar soldiers burn the castle in which Lodoïska has been imprisoned by the villain Dourlinski.

Medea : Oper in drei Akten / Musik von L. Cherubini. Vollständiger Klavierauszug. Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel [1855?].
Merritt Room Mus 637.1.643.3

A vocal score, in German and French, of the opéra comique Médée, premiered at the Théâtre Feydeau, 13 March 1797. While the opera was not especially popular in France, it was given multiple German-language revivals in Berlin, Vienna, and other cities. This edition, though it dates from around 1855, does not include the recitative settings of the dialogue composed by Franz Paul Lachner for the 1855 Frankfurt production. (It may be worth noting that its extended passages of dialogue, not its subject, cause Médée to be classified as an opéra comique.)

Anacréon, ou, L’amour fugitive : opéra ballet en deux actes / par le C.R. Mendouze ; mis en musique par Chérubini. A Paris : Au magasin de musique dirigé par MMrs. Chérubini, Méhul, Kreutzer, Rode N. Isouard et Boieldieu rue de la Loi, no. 268 vis-à-vis celle Ménars ; A Lyon : chez Garnier, Place de la Comédie no. 18, [1803].
Merritt Room Mus 637.1.602, RISM A/I, CC 2028 I, 79

A full score of Cherubini’s first, and unsuccessful, opéra-ballet, premiered at the Opéra on October 4, 1803. While the opera itself is rarely performed (the first revival didn’t occur until 1971), the overture – borrowed from his cantata Amphion – remains a popular concert piece.

-Kerry Masteller

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1. See Friedrich Melchior Grimm, Correspondance, littéraire, philosophique et critique par Grimm, Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc…., (Paris, Garnier frères, 1880), 12:350.

The latest release of Harvard’s Page Delivery Service (PDS) – the system through which we share our digital scores with the world – is live, and there are a few enhancements to share with you.

We spend a lot of time writing a structural outline for every score we digitize, to make it easier to find works, movements, scenes, and even single arias. While we’ll keep adding that full indexing, it’s now possible to navigate using thumbnail images of each page, as well: when you’re looking at a digitized book or score, click “Expand All,” then “Show Thumbnails” in the left-side navigation frame. This might be an interesting way to get a simple visual overview of a work’s structure, and I have to admit that for some scores, it’s just fun; take a look at the thumbnails for this copy of Debussy’s La Boîte à Joujoux: Ballet pour Enfants, and I think you’ll see what I mean.

The next addition is a “Cite this Resource” button: click this to get descriptions and persistent links for both the entire score and the single page you’re looking at. These aren’t perfectly-formatted citations, but they gather a lot of the information you’ll need in a bibliography or caption. Here’s a screenshot, using a page from La Boîte à Joujoux as an example:

Screenshot: PDS "Cite This Resource" Tool (click to enlarge)

And finally, the full print-to-PDF option is back! Requests for 10 or fewer pages are delivered in real time; if you request more than 10 pages, you’ll be sent a link to the PDF once it’s been processed (those links remain available for 7 days).

Ready to start exploring? Digital Scores and Libretti is, of course, my favorite, but check out other Digital Collections of Harvard College Library and Web-Accessible Collections at Harvard University for photographs, pamphlets, manuscripts, books, maps, and other rare materials ranging from Digital Papyri to Latin American Pamphlets.

- Kerry Masteller