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BEMETZTRIEDER (ANTON): Music made Easy to every Capacity, In a Series of Dialogues; Being Practical Lessons for the Harpsichord, laid down in a new Method, So as to render that Instrument so little difficult, that any Person, with common Application, may play well; become a th
London: Printed by R. Ayre and G. Moore...and sold by W. Randall..., 1778, 1779. FIRST EDITION. Large 4to (272 x 205 mms.), pp. vi, vi, iv, 87 [88 blank], [2], [89] - 198, [2], [199] - 249 [250 blank], including list of subscribers and drop-titles (with complete imprint and dated 1779) for Part II and Part III, numerous music illustrations in text, contemporary marbled boards (rubbed and worn), recent calf spine, morocco label; corners worn. The copy of one of the subscribers, William Mitford, with his autograph "W. Mitford" at the top margin of the front free end-paper. This is possibly the historian of ancient Greece, William Mitford (1744–1827). Anton Bemetzrieder (1743 - 1817) was trained as a Benedictine monk but went to Paris at an early stage to teach music. There, he made the acquaintance of Diderot no later than November, 1769, when his name appears in Diderot's correspondence. Diderot's interest in Bemetzrieder was no doubt prompted in part by his admiration for his musically gifted daughter, Angelique and by his own love of music. He liked Bemetzrieder's practical teaching approach and offered to put into literary form his method. Lecons de clavecin et principles d'haromonie was first published in 1771, and, despite Diderot's disclaimers, that he did more than act as redacteur. Charles Burney also met Bemetzrieder and thought well enough of his book to use it for the musical education of his daughters. Bemetzrieder left Paris to live in London, settling there in 1781. New Grove notes that his "principal contribution to theory lay in his practical, systematic and pedagogical presentation of the prevalent music ideas of the time. He divided the learning process into five basic parts, which he intended to serve as a framework for musical training: the art of reading music, accompaniment, execution, musical composition and (later) musical erudition. His harmonic theory was built on a firm knowledge of acoustics and mathematics, and on the work of Rameau, but compromised to embrace the thinking of other theorists of the day." A second edition of the work was published in 1785. ESTC T96492 locates copies at the BL, Cambridge, Bodleian (2) Queen's University of Belfast, Durham Cathedral Library, Glasgow University Library, Manchester Central Library; and in North America, the Huntington Library. University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University Music Library, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Baylor University Moody Memorial Library. There are also copies at Yale and the Spencer Library, Kansas.
Offered for GBP 1925.00 = appr. US$ 3149.30 by: John Price Antiquarian Books - Book number: 5494
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