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Musicology

Editor: Ake Davidsson and Chris Walton.

1st supplement to the 4th cumulative catalogue


The New Year's Pieces of the Zurich Music Societies
In 1685, the Musikgesellschaft ab dem Musiksaal in Zurich began publishing so-called Neujahrsgeschenke (New Year’s Pieces) at the beginning of every year; the Musikgesellschaft auf der deutschen Schule followed suit in 1713. This tradition lasted until 1812, when the remaining two societies were amalgamated to form the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft (General Music Society), and the New Year’s Pieces were replaced by a publication of a quite different format. The New Year’s Pieces of the two societies were similar in content from the outset, and changed little during the course of the 18th century. There was an engraved frontispiece – often allegorical, sometimes with a view of the city of Zurich in the background; this was followed by a poem that was either religious in content, patriotic or both, and then by a religious song, usually in three or four parts. Both text and music were especially written for the occasion.

The New Year’s Pieces of the Zurich music societies had very small print runs, never enjoyed second editions, and are very scarce today. They document a period in Zurich’s history when it was renowned in the German-speaking world for the richness of its intellectual and artistic life. As the German poet Ewald Christian von Kleist wrote in 1752, ‘Zurich is truly an incomparable place . . . while you will only find three or four men of taste and talent in Berlin, little Zurich has twenty, thirty or more’. These Pieces offer a unique insight into the musical, social, religious and political life of the city of Zurich across the whole of the 18th century.

Music Reference Books of the 19th Century
This collection brings together the most significant 19th century German-language reference works on music and musicians, from Gustav Schillling’s Universal-Lexicon der Tonkunst down to the first editions of Riemann. They are well nigh impossible to find on today’s antiquarian market, and are made available here to the general public for the first time at a mere fraction of their current market price.

We all know that every new edition of a dictionary includes additional names. Many of us do not realize however, that adding new names also means discarding old ones. Editors do not just have the pleasant task of adding to their list those composers and performers newly deemed worthy of inclusion, but are also forced to make far more difficult decisions regarding who is no longer considered to be worthy. Tastes change however. Someone may be judged unimportant today and be cast out into that wilderness where forgotten composers lie weeping and grinding their teeth. But in fifty years’ time, he or she might be brought in from the cold by some enterprising conductor or CD producer, and thereafter achieve a popularity undreamed of. This may seem far-fetched, but in fact it happens time and again today. Recording companies are always on the lookout for composers worthy of resurrection, and there are performers today who are proud to specialize in the music of men and women whose names have long disappeared from the books.

If one seeks information on these innumerable obscurities, today’s reference works are not enough. One has to hunt out those older dictionaries and encyclopaedias for whose editors these men and women were not yet persona non grata. The series of music reference works offered here on microfiche allows one to do just that, for they are a veritable goldmine of information on composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Anyone who has the newest edition of Riemann’s Dictionary on his bookshelf will be astounded at the plethora of names to be found in the scarce early editions of the dictionary reproduced here, but which were jettisoned by subsequent editors in our own century. The multi-volume dictionary of Mendel & Reissmann is perhaps the most famous, most comprehensive German music dictionary of the 19th century, but it was never reprinted, and is highly sought after by antiquarian dealers today. It is an essential reference work for scholars. But even the CD collector with only a basic grasp of German will find much information here on composers he is vainly seeking in the music lexica of the past fifty years – names that are however, surfacing with increasing regularity in CD catalogues. Wilhem Furwängler's Annotated Conducting Scores
The time that has passed since the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954) has done nothing to diminish his fame. On the contrary: every newly discovered radio recording is immediately brought out on CD, and his interpretative art is revered by many as a sign of a lost golden age. The list of books and articles on him grows apace, his compositions have almost all been recorded, his writings translated into several languages, and Furtwängler Societies exist all over the world.

Until now, those wishing to study Furtwängler's conducting methods have had to rely on his recordings alone. However, Furtwängler's widow Elisabeth has kindly consented to the microfiche publication of her husband's annotated conducting scores that are held by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. They provide fascinating insights into Furtwängler's interpretative practice. Besides adding expression markings, bowing and tempo instructions, on occasion Furtwängler also altered the orchestration of the works he conducted - in some cases heavily.

These scores are essential source material for any study of Furtwängler's art, and are now available for the first time to scholars, conductors and music lovers alike. Annotated conducting scores in this collection:
Bach: Triple concerto BWV 1064.
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy; Leonore overture No. 2; Symphonies No. 1, 6, and 9.
Händel: Concerto grosso HWV 323 & HWV 328.
Locatelli: Concerto grosso in f minor.
Schumann: Symphony No. 4.