Élémens de Musique Théorique et Pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau
Paris: Chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, Imprimeur-Libraire, rue Dauphine. A Lyon, Chez Jean-Marie Bruyset, Imprimeur-Libraire, rue Merciere, au Soleil, 1759.
Octavo. Full contemporary vellum with dark red leather title label to spine gilt. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [v]-xj ("Avertissement"), xii-xvi ("Table des chapitres"), 171, [i] ("Approbation"), [i] ("Fautes ..."), [iii] (blank) pp. + 10 folding plates of musical examples. Text typeset, music engraved.
Occasional contemporary cancellations and corrections based on the list of "Fautes." Small label of C.E. Rappaport, noted bookseller in Rome, to upper outer corner of front pastedown.
Provenance
Noted American harpsichordist Louis Bagger (1926-2024)
Binding slightly worn and soiled. Slightly browned; small wormhole to blank lower inner margins.
An attractive, wide-margined copy.
Second edition. Eitner I, p. 103. RISM Écrits p. 77.
"[D'Alembert's] most important musical publication was his Elemens de musique theorique et pratique ..., an outstanding work of elucidation which was widely read for over 50 years." TNG Vol. 5, p. 154.
"Drawing largely upon Rameau’s Démonstration (but also upon the Génération harmonique of 1737 for the rules of composition in Part 2), the Elémens was a stunning example of d’Alembert’s talent for conceptual synthesis and clarity; it quickly became the most widely read source for information of Rameau’s theory, both in France and in Germany (where it appeared in translation by Marpurg in 1757)." Thomas Christensen in Grove Music Online.
Item #41207
Price: $350.00 other currencies