Armide. Tragedie Mise en Musique, par Monsieur de Lully, Escuyer Conseiller Secretaire du Roy, Maison, Couronne de France & de ses Finances, & Sur-Intendant de la Musique de Sa Majesté. [LWV 71]. [Full score]

LULLY, Jean Baptiste 1632-1687

Verlag: Christophe Ballard, seul Imprimeur du Roy pour la Musique, ruë Saint Jean de Beauvais, au Mont-Parnasse. Et se vend a la Porte de l'Academie Royalle[!] de Musique ruë Saint Honoré. . Avec Privilege de Sa Majesté, Paris, 1686

Folio. Full contemporary dark brown calf with raised bands on spine in compartments gilt, titling gilt. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (dedication), lxii (Prologue), 271, [i] (blank) pp. With decorative head- and tailpieces throughout. Music and text typeset, music in diamond head notation. With rastrum-ruled blank staves added to many leaves. With Lully's control paraph to final page of music and his monogrammatic handstamp to foot of final page of Prologue. Elaborate woodcut device to title incorporating horticultural and architectural motifs with central image within oval border depicting allegorical personifications of Fortune and Virtue with "Virtuti Fortuna Cedit" (Fortune Yields to Virtue) at Virtue's head with cherubs playing lute and viol and Orpheus with lyre; a satyr playing a panpipe flanks the central image, with two additional cherubs displaying a short musical phrase above. With numerous early performance markings in manuscript including early figured bass, phrasing, and corrections in both ink and sepia pencil to a number of leaves. Provenance With small printed ownership label ("A. Dethou") to front pastedown, possibly that of the French musician Amédée Dethou (1811-?), author of a plain chant method. Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped with minor abrasions and loss to upper board and spine; dampstaining to inner margins of front pastedown; free endpapers lacking. Slightly worn, browned, and soiled; cockled; dampstaining to blank inner margins of a number of leaves; minor creasing to title and several additional leaves. Quite a good copy overall. First Edition. Schneider p. 465. Sonneck Dramatic Music p. 99. Lesure p. 405. BUC p. 634. Hirsch II, 530. RISM L2955. Armide, in a prologue and five acts to a libretto by Quinault after Torquato Tasso s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, was first performed in Paris at the Opéra on 15 February 1686. "Lully s manner of building long scenes out of a mosaic of tiny units, some of which recur, takes on a particularly high degree of symmetry and unity in many of the divertissements and prologues. Recurring passages and patterns of scoring (such as récit followed by chorus followed by dance) combine to make large-scale complex designs, for example the sommeil scene of Atys (3.iv) and the Prologue to Isis. The entire pattern of small units is sometimes superimposed on variations in paired phrases over a ground bass, as in the passacaille of Armide (5.ii). The normal reprise of the overture at the end of the Prologue further demonstrates Lully s concern for large-scale symmetry." Lois Rosow in Grove Music Online The iconic Passacaille d'Armide proved popular among 17th century instrumentalists. Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (1629-1691), harpsichordist in Lully's orchestra, published a celebrated keyboard arrangement of the piece in 1689. An attractive lifetime first edition of one of Lully's most powerful and enduring operas, with interesting early performance markings. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 39589

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Armide. Tragedie Mise en Musique, par ...
Verlag: Christophe Ballard, seul Imprimeur du Roy pour la Musique, ruë Saint Jean de Beauvais, au Mont-Parnasse. Et se vend a la Porte de l'Academie Royalle[!] de Musique ruë Saint Honoré. . Avec Privilege de Sa Majesté, Paris
Erscheinungsdatum: 1686
Einband: Hardcover
Signiert: Signatur des Verfassers
Auflage: 1. Auflage