Printed music before 1801 in the Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1980, Page 93

Printed music before 1801 in the Alexander Turnbull Library

D. R. HARVEY

Approximately eighty items of pre-1801 printed music, illustrating the range of music printing activity from its inception in about 1473 until the end of the eighteenth century, are held in the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. There is a particular strength in items printed in the British Isles, as might be expected given the Library's interest in early printed books and English literature. Other items include examples from one of the great music presses of Venice in the first decades of the sixteenth century, and from the Parisian firm of Ballard, whose music publishing activities spanned three centuries.

The strength in British imprints deserves particular mention. Most strongly represented are the publications from the London firm of John Walsh, whose influence on music publishing in the first half of the eighteenth century was overwhelming. These Walsh items include many examples of the music of Handel, whose association with Walsh was a major reason for the latter's success, and five items represent the work of the successors to John Walsh's business. There is one example of the work of the first of the 'commercial' English music publishers, John Playford, with another from his successor Henry Playford. Single items are held exemplifying the work of other important eighteenth century English music publishers such as Robert Bremner, John Cox, William Smith, Peter Welcker, Richard Meares, and Robert Birchall, all of whom, however, were overshadowed by Walsh in the first half of the century. John Watts, a principal publisher of the ballad opera genre which enjoyed a huge success for several of the decades of the eighteenth century, is represented by a number of items. Several holdings illustrate work from Edinburgh, another main centre of British music publishing.

The history of music printing is dominated by the search for suitable techniques to cater for the special needs of music notation. Between 1513 and 1800, the period encompassed by Turnbull’s holdings, there were many changes in music notation and in the needs and the intentions of both the composer and the audience. Music printing reflects these changes through its application of different technologies at different periods. The earliest music printers dealt primarily with liturgical music and with the short musical

examples required in theoretical works. A fount of music type was an expensive outlay for the printer, requiring many more pieces of type than a fount used for printing text, and this factor, in combination with the severe difficulties of accurate alignment of staves and notes, resulted in printed music being an expensive and scarce commodity. In the earliest printing of music the staves were separately printed (often in a different colour from the notes and text, if present) and this double impression added to the cost and slowness of the process. Double impression was used until the second decade of the sixteenth century, when suitable methods were developed to facilitate the casting of a single piece of type which combined both stave and note. The increasing use of single impression printing, however, brought with it problems. Difficulties of alignment of type result in the typically uneven, disjunct appearance of most music printed from type before the nineteenth century.

The use of engraved copper plates was first applied to music printing in Rome in 1586 and slowly spread throughout Europe in the seventeenth century. 1 By the start of the eighteenth century printing from engraved plates was the main process used for music, and this was to be the case until the 1870 s, although moveable type was still in use for the more conservative publications, especially church music. Engraving has many advantages over typesetting to represent music notation. Because it is basically a process of writing onto metal plates unusual notations can be readily indicated, and decorative features are easily added. Corrections and alterations are relatively simple to make. Engraved plates are simpler to store than standing type, with a marked lessening of importance of the size of print runs, and with a related ease of reprinting if a publication proved popular, significant because paper costs were the printer's largest outlay during this period. Publishers using engraved plates, then, could afford to experiment, and they did. The ease of reprinting accounts for the disappearance of the imprint date from printed music, because no longer appropriate. Plates were frequently sold (even from one country to another) and were often re-used years after their initial appearance by a different publisher at a different address. The eighteenth century music historian Dr Burney recognised this fact, even if he placed an incorrect interpretation on it:

The late Mr Walsh, finding that old music-books were like old almanacks, [i.e. rapidly became unsaleable] ceased very early in this century to ascertain the time of their birth by dates, which have ever since been as carefully concealed as the age of stale virgins. 2 The dating of early printed music is, in fact, regarded at present as the major bibliographical research problem in this field. 3

The two sixteenth century items held by the Turnbull Library are examples of double impression printing and of liturgical music. The Compendium Musices Confectum ad Faciliorem Instructionem Canturn Choralem Discentum . . . (Nichol, 8) 4 is a plainsong manual with instructions on singing and music theory. It has the 1513 Venice imprint of L. A. de Giunta and is a fine example of printing, with staves and some text in red, and the rest of the text, ligatures and initials in black. De Giunta was a contemporary of Ottaviano dei Petrucci, whose output from Venice from 1501 until 1520 is of startlingly high quality and beauty. Information about the publishing house of Lucantonio de Giunta is elusive. It appeared to issue in Venice from 1498 a series of carefully edited and lavishly illustrated liturgical books. These liturgical editions were the firm's specialty, although it was involved with a wide range of other publications, including the issuing of polyphonic music from the presses of Andrea Antico. 5

Sixteenth century English printing is represented by a Manuale ad Usum per Celebris Ecclesie Sarisburiensis . . . (Londini, 1554), (Nichol, 54). Although the Salisbury rite was officially abolished by Rome in 1547, its printing continued for some years in England, despite the increasing production and use of the Book of Common Prayer. This example is competently printed by double impression with red staves, black notes, and text in both colours. When compared with the de Giunta example the workmanship is less fine, particularly with regard to the alignment of type pieces. The colophon names lohannis Kingston and Henricus Sutton as printers: Kingston worked in London from 1553 to ca. 1584, and was active for several years around 1554 in the production of manuals, processionals and hymnals. Little is known about Sutton. 6

Four seventeenth century items are worthy of note. All include music printed from type, as was standard in this period despite the slowly increasing use of engraved plates. Thomas Ravenscroft's The Whole Booke of Psalmes . . . (London, 1633), (Nichol, 60) includes settings by Tallis, Dowland, Morley, Farnaby, Tomkins, and sixteen others. The Psalm book had become, in the preceding century, 'an integral part of Protestant domestic and congregational worship' 7 and patents for its printing were lucrative and eagerly sought after. The psalm books were typically produced in modest format, as required by their essentially functional nature, and this Ravenscroft example is no exception: it is a small octavo, printed in a small lozenge-shaped type face (Krummel has designated this as 'Nightingale' type 8 ) which was in common use for most of the seventeenth century. All four parts for each setting are printed on one opening, cantus and tenor on the left and medius and bassus on the right, to facilitate singing from one copy. The imprint reads

'Printed by Thomas Harper for the Company of Stationers'. Harper's importance for music printing lies in his association with John Playford from 1650 to 1655, although his career began as early as 1614. 9 By 1633 the Company of Stationers had gained control of the psalm book patent, once so lucrative that it had been the cause of several lengthy legal actions. 10

A seventh edition of An Introduction to the Skill o/Musick (London, 1674), (Nichol, 57) represents the output from the firm of John Playford. Playford is viewed by present-day scholars as having 'single-handedly re-established music printing and publishing in England.' 11 He was not a printer or engraver, but rather a musician and successful businessman who was able to take advantage of the changing tastes and interests in the music of the period. A total of nineteen editions of his An Introduction were produced between 1654 and 1730. It quickly became a standard text of music theory and practice. Turnbull's seventh edition covers singing, performance on the violin and bass viol, and composition in addition to the theoretical background necessary to the musician. It contains many musical examples printed from a lozenge-shaped type. The printer was W. Godbid, who produced most of Playford's publications

after Thomas Harper's death in 1656, and who was indeed responsible for the bulk of Playford's printing. Turnbull also holds a seventh edition ofjohn Playford's The Whole Book of Psalms . . . Composed in three Parts . . . published by Henry Playford, John Playford's son and business successor, in 1701 (Nichol, 58). These settings were another of the successful Playford publications, reaching a total of eighteen editions before 1730. Like the Ravenscroft psalm book, it uses the 'Nightingale' type. A copy of Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment . . . includes a section-title for New songs Sung in The Fool's Preferment (London, 1688), (Nichol, 59) which precedes sixteen pages of typeset music containing eight songs with musical settings attributed to Henry Purcell. These settings illustrate the varied texts set by Purcell, ranging from the 'pastoral' to such gems as:

There's nothing so fatal as woman, to hurry a man to his grave; you may think, you may plot, you may sigh like a sot, she uses you more like a slave: But a bottle, altho' it be common, the cheats of the fair will undo; it will drive from your head, the delights of the bed, he that's drunk, is not able to woo.

The remaining seventeenth century example is a French-published item from the dynastic firm of Ballard. It is the Traite de la Viole . . . of Jean Rousseau, an important treatise on the French technique of playing the bass viol (Nichol, 61). Many musical examples printed from type are included in it. The imprint reads: 'A Paris, par Christophe Ballard, seul imprimeur du Roy pour la musique. MDCLXXXVII. Avec privilege de sa majeste.' The firm of Ballard almost completely monopolised French music printing from 1552 until 1766, as it held a Royal privilege during this period. The firm was still family-owned in the 19205, although it no longer published music. 12

Any discussion of eighteenth century British Music publishing must take account of the business ofjohn Walsh and his successors, which has been called by William C. Smith, whose monumental bibliographies of the firm are indispensable to the student of music printing, 'one of the greatest in music-publishing history.' 13 Walsh, like Playford, was in the right place at the right time. Music was rapidly becoming the concern of the general populace; the popular press, with its facilities for advertisement, was waxing strong; engraving techniques were becoming more widely used for music printing; and the almost overwhelming popularity of Handel's

music gave great financial benefits and publicity to his principal publisher. John Walsh issued his first work in 1695, and after his death in 1736 his son, also John Walsh, continued the business until 1766. The firm then continued in various hands: William Randall with John Abell, Randall alone, E. Randall, H. Wright, and on. Some of Walsh’s plates were still in active use, with modifications, early in this century. The output of the firm from 1695 to 1766 (the death of John Walsh the younger) totalled over 2,200 items, 14 and this figure excludes the considerable number of Handel works issued by the firm. 15 Walsh was not without rivals, and the Turnbull Library’s holdings of some of these imprints will be considered below.

Non-Handel works published by Walsh and held by Turnbull include two separate editions of Arcangelo Corelli's XII Sonatas of three Parts . . ~ one being the ca. 1730 edition (Nichol, 9-12) and the other being what is probably the edition printed from re-engraved plates, ca. 1740 (Nichol, 13-16). For this later edition Turnbull holds all parts except the "Organo", which is held by Victoria University of Wellington. XII Sonata's or Solo's for a Violin a Bass Violin or Harpsicord ... by the same composer is the edition of ca. 1711 (Nichol, 18). The titlepage states: 'This edition has ye advantage of haveing ye graces to all ye Adagio's and other places where the author thought proper by Arcangelo Corelli', and so is of particular interest to performers of this music who are interested in authentic performance style.

More Walsh-published Handel items are held than are works by other composers issued by this firm. The earliest of these can be dated at 1740, and the latest which falls within the scope of this survey is dated ca.lßoo. The 1740 example is Songs in I'Allegro ed II Penseroso . . . (Nichol, 45), distinctive for its use of a passe-partout frame by I. Collins on the titlepage. Walsh first used this frame in 1698, although it had been used in an earlier work of ca. 1690, and was to use it for twenty-one other publications up to 1720. 16 Alexander's Feast is held in an issue of ca. 1750 (Nichol, 31) and a re-issue from the same plates, probably of 1769 (Nichol, 32). Comparison of the two titlepages shows that the plates used are identical except that the two lines below the rule near the bottom, formerly reading 'Printed for I. Walsh . . .', have been re-engraved to read 'Printed for William Randall successor to the late Mr Walsh . . .'. These two examples, incidentally, illustrate well the superiority of engraving over type for accurate vertical alignment necessary to print music in score.

Two issues of Messiah are held (Nichol, 38-39), probably engraved from basically the same plates, dated ca. 1769 ('Printed by Messrs Randall & Abell') and ca.lßoo ('Printed & sold by H. Wright'). A ca. 1785 issue of Judas Macchabaeus (Nichol, 37) is of interest because the same plates were used as late as 1850 by the publisher J. Alfred Novello. 17 XXIV Overtures Fitted to the Harpsicord or Spinnet . . . (Nichol, 48) gives examples of the many arrangements for domestic use of popular pieces by Handel. This edition is probably that of 1730, and is made up of prints from the plates of four earlier collections to which has been added a collective titlepage. Eighteenth century publishers apart from Walsh and his successors are well represented in the Turnbull Library's holdings. Twelve items issued by John Watts have been identified. Watts published a large number of ballad operas and plays, including

those of John Gay. Gay's Achilles and The Beggar's Opera (Nichol, 25-26) are held, as is Polly (Nichol, 27), although this 1719 item is not attributed in the work to Watts's press. The Beggar's Opera is the third edition of 1729, which contains 'The ouverture in score, the songs, and the basses (the ouverture and the basses compos'd by Dr. Pepusch) curiously engrav'd on copper plates' in forty-six pages of music at the end of the text. This music is very neatly and regularly engraved and gives a different effect from the Walsh 'house style' of about that period. Other works published by Watts include Theophilus Cibber's Love in a Riddle, 1729 (Nichol, 7), which contains music on pages 75-96, and Charles Johnson's The Village Opera (Nichol, 50) where the music is interspersed throughout the text.

Francesco Geminiani's Sonate a Violino, Violone, e Cembalo (Nichol, 29) gives no imprint date but has a dedication dated 1716. The imprint reads 'Printed for and sold by Richard Meares' and the lower right of the titlepage is signed 'Tho: Cross sculpsit'. Richard Meares and his son, also Richard, were active from ca. 1669 till the 17205, and were among the principal rivals to the firms of Playford and Walsh. Thomas Cross, son of a Thomas Cross who engraved portraits, frontispieces, and possibly some music for works issued by John Playford, was the chief music engraver in England, being active from ca. 1683 to 1733, and working mainly for other publishers but also issuing some music on his own account. 18 His work is characterised by usually being totally engraved rather than punched (as was the case with the later Walsh editions) and typically gives an impression of regularity and precision. The Geminiani publication is no exception to this. Another holding 'lngrav'd by T. Cross' is the Basso part of Obadiah Shuttleworth's Two Concerto's, 1726 (Nichol, 62), an arrangement of two of Corelli's sonatas. M. C. Festing's Eight Concerto's in Seven Parts, 1739 (Nichol, 21) is unusual in that it is a late manifestation of a royal privilege for printing music, a feature more commonly associated with the preceding two centuries: the verso of the titlepage gives the text of a privilege issued by George II which grants 'sole printing and publishing' rights to Festing for his own works for fourteen years.

The Vocal Magazine Containing a Selection of the Most Esteemed English, Scots, and Irish Songs . . . (Nichol, 63) provides a useful point to end this survey. Turnbull holds volumes 1 (1797) and 3 (1799) of this Edinburgh-published work, a collection of songs intended for amateur use. The 'Advertisement' illustrates the extent to which engraving had come to dominate music printing, and shows the direction which new developments in this field were to take:

The purchase of engraved music and the choice and selection of proper pieces are obstacles in the way of many performers . . . the engravers of music are generally illiterate . . . the invention [!] of printing the music with moveable types enables the editors to afford it at a price infinitely below that of engraved music.

REFERENCES 1 A. Hyatt King, Four Hundred Years of Music Printing, 2nd ed. (London, 1968) P-17. 2 Charles Burney, A General History Music 789) (New York, 1957) 11, p. 487. 3 D. W. Krummel, Guide for Dating Early Published Music (Hackensack, N.J., 1974) p.ll. 4 Elizabeth F. Nichol, Printed Music Published before 1800: a Bibliography of the Holdings of some Wellington Libraries (Wellington, 1979). A Library School bibliography. I am deeply indebted to Elizabeth Nichol for much of the information in this survey. All items referred to here are given a reference to her bibliography in the form 'Nichol, item number'. 5 Lillian Pruett, 'Music research in Yugoslavia', Notes, 36 (Sept. 1979) 38-43. 6 Charles Humphries and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in the British Isles from the Earliest Times . . . 2nd ed., with supplement (Oxford, 1970). 7 Diana Poulton, John Dowland (London, 1972) p. 43. 8 D. W. Krummel, English Music Printing, 1553-1700 (London, 1975) p. 68-9. 9 Humphries and Smith, p. 172. 10 Krummel, English Music Printing. Chapter II contains a concise summary of the patents. 11 Krummel, English Music Printing, p. 115. 12 Cecil Hopkinson, A Dictionary Parisian Music Publishers, 1700-1950 (London, 1954) p. 6. 13 William C. Smith, A Bibliography of the Musical Works Published by John Walsh During the Years 1695-1720 (London, 1948) p.vi. 14 See 13 and also William C. Smith and Charles Humphries, A Bibliography of the Musical Works Published by the Firm of John Walsh During the Years 1721-1766 (London, 1968). 15 These are listed in William C. Smith, Handel: a Descriptive Catalogue the Early Editions, 2nd ed., with supplement (Oxford, 1970). 16 Smith, A Bibliography, entry 15 and plates 3-4. 17 Smith, Handel, p. 114, no. 6. 18 Humphries and Smith, p. 122.