Elegant Extracts from the early 1800s

Sorting through a shelf of assorted old music volumes, we found a tatty and comparatively uninviting old book which had never been catalogued.  However, the individual piano pieces and songs inside merited further investigation.  We invited our work-experience guest, Isla, to take a look at the contents. Here's Isla's report:- 

A Book Celebrating the Art of Composers in the early 1800s

 

Consisting of Airs with Variations, Rondos, Marches, Waltzes & Duets, this book is a truly valuable collection. The works within this compilation were bought separately by the original owner and then bound - so this book is unique, and the contents had never before been made into a collection to then be sold. 

Printed beautifully, this bound collection of music commemorates Haydn, Pleyel, Mozart, Kozeluch, Gyrowitz, Hofmeister and other talented composers, many of which had never before been published in Great Britain. 

Read a blogpost by Emma Greenwood, about historic bound music collections at Trinity Laban Conservatoire Library, here:-
 On the Pleasures and Sorrows of Cataloguing 19th Century Sheet Music

(Trinity Laban call these books "bound-with" volumes.  We call them Sammelband (plural, Sammelbände) or Collectors' volumes.  They're lovely, but hard work and often in rather dilapidated condition!)