Morley, Thomas

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

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Description

A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, Set Downe in Forme of a Dialogue: Devided into Three Partes, the First Teacheth to Sing with All Things Necessary for the Knowledge of Pricktsong. The Second Treateth of Descante and to Sing Two Parts in One upon a Plainsong or Ground, with Other Things Necessary for a Descanter. The Third and Last Part Entreateth of Composition of Three, Foure, Five or More Parts with Many Profitable Rules to That Effect. London: Peter Short, 1597
paper, ink, leather

Folio (10 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.; 267 x 184 mm). Elaborate historiated woodcut title-page (McKerrow & Ferguson 99), dedicatory epistle to William Byrd, verses by Anthony Holborne, type-set music throughout, including 7 double-page pieces printed in table format (one motet printed in red and black), some woodcut music and diagrams, woodcut head- and tailpieces and historiated initials; title-page soiled, creased and frayed with some marginal repairs, fore-edge of epistle re-margined with minor loss of text, marginal soiling and repairs to B1–3, light occasional paper discoloration, corners of last two quires soiled, dog-eared, and strengthened, with some musical notations slightly affected. Contemporary vellum; heavily stained.

Literature

STCF 18133; ESTC S111843; Grove 12:579–585; R. Steele, The Earliest English Music Printing (1903), no. 161

Catalogue Note

First edition and one of the most famous musical treatises in the English language. Thomas Morley was a celebrated composer in his own right whom Grove named “the true begetter of the English madrigal and the greatest influence on its subsequent development.” With an emphasis on "Practicall Musicke" rather than abstruse theory, the book nevertheless is a work of outstanding scholarship. It shows him to be fully conversant with all the Italian forms and with the aesthetic considerations behind them. His own compositions favored a lighter canzonet style, and what he achieved musically was ”a remarkable synthesis of Italian style and English training” (Grove).