[Rarebooks] fa: c1770 English SECULAR Music Album_Handel_ Early British Grenadiers

[r.azzi at comcast.net]

Presently on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2200&item=270140041310

An early and rare hand bound collection of English Secular Sheet Music.  Several pieces by Handel, including a selection from the Messiah. 97 titled pieces of music by prominent composers of the day, in many cases with the performers noted. An index to the volume is written in fading ink on the inside of the back cover. Many of the pieces were published by Robert Falkener (see below). All of the pieces are printed pieces EXCEPT the last song, which is written out by hand in ink (see scan).

There is a full page of a SCARCE and Important printing of "The British Grenadiers." NOTE: The version in this book differs considerably from the text versions available online. In an article in The Musical Times in 1913, entitled “Fresh Light on Old English Airs” W.H.Grattan Flood writes about “The British Grenadiers” and compares an old text dating from mid 1700s to the text in an article written by Chappell in 1838. The text in the version I am selling is the earlier and presumably original text and not the one found commonly on line. The Redcoats are known to have played "The British Grenadiers" on the battlefield at Brandywine in September of 1777. There is a mention of it being played on June 1769, at Boston’s Concert Hall. More seriously, the actual British Grenadiers fired into a violent crowd on King Street—the event known as the Boston Massacre. 

Thank you for Looking.

Robert Azzi
Exeter Nh
1.603.264.6564