ORPHEUS; OR MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY: A COLLECTION OF ELEGANT PAPERS, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED, ON THE SCIENCE AND LITERATURE OF MUSIC. INTERSPERSED WITH POETRY, ANECDOTES, ETC., ETC.
Book Details + Condition: Fitz and Hobbs (Boston). First Edition, 1850. Extremely scarce (no copies for sale). Hardcover with embossed and gilt-decorated red boards; decorative gilt and titling to spine. 330 pages. Illustrated throughout with engravings of antique musical instruments. The work is a 19th-century collection of essays, papers, and poems focused on the science and literature of music. It is an anthology that blends scholarly articles on music theory with lighter content like anecdotes and poetry. Essays and papers include:
- The Harp
- The Voice
- The Epithalamium
- The Lituus
- Nature of Music
- Milton
- Violoncello
- Ancient Music
- The Language of Music
- Turkish Musical Gusto
- The Bow
- Bad Sentiment
- Ancient Irish Music
- The Rebee
- Prussia
- The Bagpipe
- The Serpent
- Origin of Yankee Doodle
- George the Third
- Consecration of Bells
- Welsh Bards and Minstrels
- The Fife
- The Music of Nature
- The Sackbut
- The Alpine Horn
- And much more.
Firm binding; rubbed corners and edges; normal wear and aging to boards; spine ends worn, with cloth covering missing; inked name and stamp to ffep of Charles J. Carlotti - businessman, inventor and collector (whose stamp also appears on title page); toning to pages, with intermittent light age-toning; interior is otherwise clean and free of markings. All books are carefully packed, and shipped in boxes.
