Essais sur les Principes de l'Harmonie, où l'on Traite de la Théorie de l'Harmonie en général, des Droits respectifs de l'Harmonie & de la Melodie, de la Basse Fondamentale, et de l'Origine du Mode mineur
- SIGNED
- Paris: Chez Prault Fils, 1753
Paris: Chez Prault Fils, 1753. Octavo. Full vellum with titling and decorative to head and tail stamped to spine in black. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [iii] ("Avertissement), [iii] ("Table"), 159, [i] pp. + 2 engraved plates of musical examples and diagrams.
Provenance
With the autograph signature in brown ink of German-British music theorist Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) to upper outer corner of title; inscription in ink to front pastedown "Mount Esqre. From R. C. Jenkins - March 1867."
Binding slightly worn, soiled, and bumped. Some minor internal soiling, browning, and foxing; final "m" of "Kollmann" trimmed by binder. First Edition. Cortot p.181. Gregory-Bartlett I, p. 252. Wolffheim I, 1016. Hirsch I, Appendix 47. RISM Écrits p. 780.
"[Serre was a] Swiss painter and music theorist. From 1723 to 1727 he studied natural sciences at the University of Geneva. After working as a miniaturist in Vienna, he went to Paris in 1751, where he published criticism of the theories then being expounded by Blainville, Rameau and Euler... Serre’s writings on music dealt primarily with the philosophical and methodological aspects of the important theoretical ideas of his day. His arguments attempted to clarify theoretical principles and develop them through critical, analytic and scientific procedures. His most significant contributions concerned the foundations of harmonic theory, Rameau’s basse fondamentale, temperament and resonance, combination tones, the derivation of the minor mode and related topics." Albert Cohen in Grove Music Online
"Kollmann related German and English musical cultures. He corresponded with J.N. Forkel and gathered English contributions for Gerber’s Neues Lexikon. He persistently advocated the music of J.S. Bach and printed in his treatises a number of Bach’s compositions and in 1806 a separate edition of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy. In 1799 he proposed an edition of the ‘48’, but after Forkel remarked on this, three European publishers proceeded to print it and Kollmann withdrew. He provided, however, a manuscript from which the Wesley–Horn edition of this work was prepared and lent other Bach material to Samuel Wesley when the latter’s interest in Bach was roused. Kollmann translated excerpts from Forkel’s life of Bach for his magazine the Quarterly Musical Register (1812) and may have assisted with the first complete English translation published in 1820." Michael Kassler in Grove Music Online
A very good copy, with distinguished provenance.
Provenance
With the autograph signature in brown ink of German-British music theorist Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) to upper outer corner of title; inscription in ink to front pastedown "Mount Esqre. From R. C. Jenkins - March 1867."
Binding slightly worn, soiled, and bumped. Some minor internal soiling, browning, and foxing; final "m" of "Kollmann" trimmed by binder. First Edition. Cortot p.181. Gregory-Bartlett I, p. 252. Wolffheim I, 1016. Hirsch I, Appendix 47. RISM Écrits p. 780.
"[Serre was a] Swiss painter and music theorist. From 1723 to 1727 he studied natural sciences at the University of Geneva. After working as a miniaturist in Vienna, he went to Paris in 1751, where he published criticism of the theories then being expounded by Blainville, Rameau and Euler... Serre’s writings on music dealt primarily with the philosophical and methodological aspects of the important theoretical ideas of his day. His arguments attempted to clarify theoretical principles and develop them through critical, analytic and scientific procedures. His most significant contributions concerned the foundations of harmonic theory, Rameau’s basse fondamentale, temperament and resonance, combination tones, the derivation of the minor mode and related topics." Albert Cohen in Grove Music Online
"Kollmann related German and English musical cultures. He corresponded with J.N. Forkel and gathered English contributions for Gerber’s Neues Lexikon. He persistently advocated the music of J.S. Bach and printed in his treatises a number of Bach’s compositions and in 1806 a separate edition of Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy. In 1799 he proposed an edition of the ‘48’, but after Forkel remarked on this, three European publishers proceeded to print it and Kollmann withdrew. He provided, however, a manuscript from which the Wesley–Horn edition of this work was prepared and lent other Bach material to Samuel Wesley when the latter’s interest in Bach was roused. Kollmann translated excerpts from Forkel’s life of Bach for his magazine the Quarterly Musical Register (1812) and may have assisted with the first complete English translation published in 1820." Michael Kassler in Grove Music Online
A very good copy, with distinguished provenance.