Forkel, Johann Nikolaus. (1749 - 1818)
1789 Göttingen Musenalmanach
Goettingen: J. Ch. Dietrich. 1789. First edition. Small 12mo, 272 pp. In original green printed boards, inside lined with hand-stamped colored paper. Including six foldout songs. Paper on spine curling, but binding solid and overall in remarkably fine condition.The Göttinger Musenalmanach (“Göttingen Muses Journal”), published from 1770, was the first German publication to follow in the steps of the Parisian “Almanach des Muses,” founded in 1765. As with its French counterpart, music was often presented on special fold-out sheets, such as those found in the present example. J.N. Forkel, represented here by two songs, was an important German music historian, theorist, composer and bibliographer who as J.S. Bach's first biographer and author of the Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik, is generally regarded as one of the founders of modern musicology. After entering the Gottingen University as a student in 1769, he went on to be appointed the university music director in 1779, a post he still held at the time of the present volume's publication. Apart from a series of keyboard sonatas with and without string accompaniments, OCLC records no copies of these songs or any other Forkel compositions worldwide.
Volume begins with a frontise portrait of the publication's founder, the poet/playwright Friedrich Gotter (1746 - 1797), whose own poetry was set by Haydn and Schubert. Following an astrological report on the year, the volume is primarily devoted to the publication of numerous poems and six songs for voice and keyboard, each printed on a single fold-out page as follows:
Forkel, Johann Nikolaus. (1749 - 1818): “Treue” and “Trost im Herbste”
Groenland, Peter. (1761 - 1825):
“Wechselgesang am Jugendfeste” and “Edmund an Fanny.”
Naumann, Johann Gottlieb. (1741 - 1801): “Sehnsucht” and “Hymn an die Liebe.” (3157)
Printed Music Song