Folio. Quarter red calf, brown marbled boards with five raised bands on spine in decorative compartments. Gilt-stamped plate to front board "N. York Handel & Hayden [sic] Society." 1f. (recto blank, verso fine engraved bust-length frontispiece portrait of the composer by Houbraken), 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. ("A List of the Subscribers"), 1f. (recto index, verso blank), 188, 35 (Appendix) pp. Engraved throughout. Boards quite worn, rubbed, and bumped; lower third of front and rear joints splitting, with losses to the lower spine compartments. Slightly worn, browned, and soiled; upper area of title (above any printed text) perished and with an early paper repair, this with an early unidentified ownership signature in pencil ("H. Sage) . With occasional contemporary markings in pencil and one printed leaf (p. 145/146) lacking and replaced in meticulous period ink manuscript copy. Subscribers include Samuel Johnson, King George III, and other persons of note and including "Dr. Samuel Arnold" before the alteration to "Mr." An attractive, tall, and wide-margined copy, with the portrait in fine state.
FIRST EDITION, FIFTH ISSUE of Handel's most celebrated work, not published in full until 25-years after its initial performance in 1742. The very rare first issue was published in 1767, though the present issue (the fifth of six in all) is only the second to contain the fine Houbraken portrait. This a particularly interesting copy in that it was evidently used in some of the earliest American performances of the work: the New York Handel and Haydn Society was founded in 1817 but gave its last concert in 1821. Smith p. 127, no. 5. BUC p. 436. RISM H718.
The English-language oratorio was composed in 1741, the text compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April, 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Handel's "Messiah retains the iconic status it had acquired by 1750 and has never relinquished, and will no doubt continue to do so while the great Christian festivals are celebrated, but it now takes its place alongside many other peaks of Handel’s achievement which a happy combination of scholarly advocacy and the enthusiasm of practical musicians has, after much struggle, revealed." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online
Folio. Quarter red calf, brown marbled boards with five raised bands on spine in decorative compartments. Gilt-stamped plate to front board "N. York Handel & Hayden [sic] Society." 1f. (recto blank, verso fine engraved bust-length frontispiece portrait of the composer by Houbraken), 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. ("A List of the Subscribers"), 1f. (recto index, verso blank), 188, 35 (Appendix) pp. Engraved throughout. Boards quite worn, rubbed, and bumped; lower third of front and rear joints splitting, with losses to the lower spine compartments. Slightly worn, browned, and soiled; upper area of title (above any printed text) perished and with an early paper repair, this with an early unidentified ownership signature in pencil ("H. Sage) . With occasional contemporary markings in pencil and one printed leaf (p. 145/146) lacking and replaced in meticulous period ink manuscript copy. Subscribers include Samuel Johnson, King George III, and other persons of note and including "Dr. Samuel Arnold" before the alteration to "Mr." An attractive, tall, and wide-margined copy, with the portrait in fine state.
FIRST EDITION, FIFTH ISSUE of Handel's most celebrated work, not published in full until 25-years after its initial performance in 1742. The very rare first issue was published in 1767, though the present issue (the fifth of six in all) is only the second to contain the fine Houbraken portrait. This a particularly interesting copy in that it was evidently used in some of the earliest American performances of the work: the New York Handel and Haydn Society was founded in 1817 but gave its last concert in 1821. Smith p. 127, no. 5. BUC p. 436. RISM H718.
The English-language oratorio was composed in 1741, the text compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April, 1742 and received its London premiere nearly a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.
Handel's "Messiah retains the iconic status it had acquired by 1750 and has never relinquished, and will no doubt continue to do so while the great Christian festivals are celebrated, but it now takes its place alongside many other peaks of Handel’s achievement which a happy combination of scholarly advocacy and the enthusiasm of practical musicians has, after much struggle, revealed." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online