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. CAVALCANTI, Bartolomeo.

    La retorica … divisa in sette libri,...

    Venice, Gabriel Giolitto, 1559.

    Second edition, published in the same year...

    £2250

  2. ARISTIDES, Aelius.

    Orationum tomi tres, nunc primum latine...

    Basel, Peter Perna and Heinrich Petrus, 1566.

    First edition in Latin, a remarkable copy...

    £2750

  3. PLAYFORD, John.

    Psalms & Hymns in solemn Musick of foure...

    London, Printed by W. Godbid for J. Playford,...

    First edition of the first harmonised Psalter...

    £1850

  4. [MENESTRIER, Claude François.]

    Des representations en musique anciennes...

    Paris, René Guignard, 1681.

    First edition. A Jesuit professor at Lyons...

    £600

  5. FABRIZI, Pietro.

    Regole generali di canto fermo raccolte...

    Rome, Mascardi, 1708.

    ‘Fourth’ edition of a small practical...

    £500

  6. D’URFEY, Thomas.

    Wit and Mirth: or Pills to purge Melancholy;...

    Pearson for J. Tonson, 1719 [– 1720].

    The first complete edition, second issue...

    £2250

  7. COLLIN DE BLAMONT, François.

    Les festes grecques et romaines, ballet...

    Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard, 1723.

    First edition of the first ‘Ballet-héroïque’,...

    £3500

  8. [PREDIERI, Luca Antonio, composer; Apostolo ZENO, librettist.]

    La tirannide vendicata, drama per musica,...

    Pesaro, Gavelli, 1726.

    First edition, very rare, of the libretto...

    £1250

  9. GAY, John.

    The Beggar’s Opera. As it is acted at...

    London, John Watts, 1728.

    First edition, first issue, of the greatest...

    £975

  10. MALCOLM, Alexander.

    A Treatise of Musick, speculative, practical...

    London, J. Osborn and T. Longman, F. Fayram,...

    First London edition of the first history...

    £1100

  11. [CAROLS.]

    Noels et cantiques nouveaux, où l’on...

    Metz, Jean Antoine, 1732.

    Very rare collection of carols and canticles...

    £575

  12. BLANKENBURG, Quirinus Gerbrandszoon van.

    Elementa musica of niew licht tot het welverstaan...

    The Hague, Laurens Berkoske, 1739.

    First edition, very scarce.

    £1500

  13. GRASSINEAU, James.

    A Musical Dictionary; being a Collection...

    … London: Printed for J. Wilcox … 1740.

    First edition, based largely on the Dictionnaire...

    £650

  14. GREENE, Maurice.

    Forty select Anthems in Score composed...

    London. J. Walsh, 1743.

    First edition. Greene was organist and...

    £850

  15. [SAINT-LAMBERT, Monsieur de.]

    ‘Les principes du clavecin contenant...

    Namur, 1743–4.

    Manuscript copy of Saint-Lambert’s celebrated...

    £6750

  16. RAMEAU, Jean-Philippe.

    Zoroastre, tragedie, mise en musique par...

    Paris, Boivin, Leclair, Castagneri and...

    First edition; rare. Despite a strong cast...

    £5000

  17. TANS’UR, William.

    The Royal Psalmodist compleat: or, the...

    [St Neots?,] Printed by the Author, 1750.

    Unrecorded edition of Tans’ur’s Royal...

    £850

  18. CLARI, Giovanni Carlo Maria.

    Manuscript score of a collection of six...

    Italy, mid-eighteenth century.

    A collection of secular madrigals for two...

    £1800

  19. [PRELLEUR, Peter.]

    The Compleat Tutor for the Harpsichord...

    London, Peter Thompson, musical instrument...

    First edition thus?, an abridgment of part...

    £1250

  20. BLANCHET, Joseph.

    L’art, ou les principes philosophiques...

    Paris, Augustin-Martin Lottin, Michel...

    First edition, though designated as the...

    £750