GEMINIANI, Francesco 1687-1762

Six Concertos ... Opera Seconda. The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, with some new Movements, by the Author; And now first Published in Score. [Op. 2]. [Concerti grossi]. [Full score]

London: Printed for the Author, by John Johnson, in Cheapside. Where may be had, The same Work in Parts; and also the Second Edition of Six Concertos, by the same Author, Op. 3, in Score and in Parts, [ca. 1755].

Folio. Gray paper boards with black leather title label gilt to spine. 1f. (recto title with woodcut vignette of foliage with seated warrior holding spear and portrait, verso blank), [i] (blank), 41, [i] (blank) pp. Title typeset, music engraved. With "Gravée par Melle Vandôme[!]" to foot of page 2.

Faint contemporary annotation to lower right portion of title.

Binding slightly worn, rubbed, bumped, and soiled. Light soiling and foxing to title; a few leaves slightly browned; occasional small stains; scattered foxing to blank lower margins; binder's holes to blank inner margins of numerous leaves.

In very good condition overall.

First Edition. Careri-Italian p. 256, 2f. BUC p. 366. RISM G1473 and GG1473 (no copies in the U.S.).

Engraved in Paris by a leading music engraver of the time, Marie-Charlotte Vendôme.

"The ‘classical’ period of Parisian music publishing, which began well before 1750, reached its peak in the 1770s and 80s. ... Many of the leading engravers of the period were women, among them Mme Leclair (wife of the composer) and Mlle Vendôme. This was the time when publishers’ catalogues – expandable lists engraved on separate plates which called attention to other available titles – were commonly added to their editions." Stanley Boorman, Eleanor Selfridge-Field and Donald W. Krummel in Grove Music Online

"Geminiani's concertos are characterized by firm harmonic stability. Modulations are frequent but usually transitory; however, they were perceived as individual and characteristic. ‘It is observable’, wrote Hawkins, ‘upon the works of Geminiani, that his modulations are not only original, but that his harmonies consist of such combinations as were never introduced into music till his time’. It was the variety of transitory modulations that surprised Hawkins, rather than the harmonic organization of the whole movement, which was in itself unoriginal. The perceived novelty was not so much in the choice of new keys as in the way of arriving at them and in preparing the modulations." Enrico Careri in Grove Music Online

The first full score of Geminiani's Op. 2, published within the composer's lifetime, and beautifully engraved for London's music-lovers by one the leading French music engravers of the 18th century.

Item #40013

Price: $1,500.00  other currencies