[A BOUND COLLECTION OF TWENTY EARLY 19th- CENTURY AMERICAN MUSIC SHEETS]

[Mainly New York, Philadelphia, & Boston, 1810. [38]pp. Folio. Modern backstrip over contemporary marbled boards, label and endpapers renewed. Corners worn, boards rubbed. Minor foxing and toning, some dampstaining. The second page of "The Moment is Sad" is lacking, otherwise complete. Good. A wonderful collection of early American sheet music, mostly American imprints, most printed on two pages. The printers of these early sheets include some of the most notable names of the period, such as Hewitt, Graupner, Blake, and Paff. Dichter & Shapiro, in the Introduction to their EARLY AMERICAN SHEET MUSIC, include these four publishers in a list of (truncated) names they deem "eminently worth while." The highlights of the songs within the book are as follows:

1) Fortune, Michael: "Jefferson & Liberty. A New Song. To the Air of Jefferson's March." Philadelphia. 1801. First edition. The most notable music sheet in this collection. Fortune, an Irish immigrant, wrote the song to commemorate Jefferson's election and sent Jefferson a copy of the song. The music was published by the first American antiquarian bookseller, N.G. Dufief, who at the time he published this was trying to sell Jefferson Benjamin Franklin's library for the Library of Congress. For whatever reasons (jealousy? self-interest?) Jefferson turned him down, and Dufief auctioned it in 1803. Perhaps Dufief hoped to advance his sale by sponsoring this publication. Very rare, with only one copy listed in OCLC, at Oxford University. WOLFE 4607. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 734.

2) "The Downfall of Paris." Boston. [1806]. First state, with no page number. One printed page of music, with no lyrics. WOLFE 2737.

3) "The Battle of the Nile: A Favorite Patriotic Song." Philadelphia. [ca. 1804]. First printing by this publisher. A paean to Nelson's victory over Napoleon in Egypt. WOLFE 461.

4) Mozart: "Away with Melancholy." New York. [ca. 1795]. An early printing of this song, an excerpt from THE MAGIC FLUTE. SONNECK & UPTON, p.35.

5) Briggs, Edward Smith: "A Hindustani Girls Song. Tis thy will and I must leave thee." New York. [ca. 1800]. "Soon a british fair will charm thee, thou, alas! Her smiles must woo / but tho' she to rapture warm thee, don't forget thy poor HIN-DOO." SONNECK & UPTON, p.188.

6) [Gaveaux, Pierre]: "La Pipe de Tabac. A Favorite French Song." New York. [ca. 1800]. Not in Wolfe. SONNECK & UPTON, p.332.

7) [Gaveaux, Pierre]: "The Dish of Tea or Ladies Answer to the Pipe Tabac." [New York. 1802]. WOLFE 2896. SONNECK & UPTON, p.110 (Inventory #: WRCAM49175)