19. Burney, Charles.
Vol. I. THE / PRESENT STATE / OF / MUSIC / IN / GERMANY,
/ THE NETHERLANDS, / AND / UNITED PROVINCES.
/ OR, / The JOURNAL of a TOUR through those / Countries, undertaken
to collect Materials for / A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC.
/ By CHARLES BURNEY, Mus. D. F.R.S. / IN TWO VOLUMES. /
VOL. I. / Auf Virtuosen sen stolz, Germanien, die du gezeuget; / In
Frankreich und Welschland sind grosere nicht. / Zacharia. / THE
SECOND EDITION CORRECTED. / LONDON, / Printed for
T.
Becket, Strand; J.
Robson, New Bond-/Street; and G.
Robinson,
Paternoster-Row. 1775.
8vo. Title page (i); introduction (iii-viii); text (1-372); index (37380).
Vol. II. THE / PRESENT STATE / OF / MUSIC / IN / GERMANY,
/ . . . / VOL. II / . . .
8vo. Title page (1 leaf); advertisement (1 unnumbered p.); proposals
for printing by subscription a general history of music (1 unnumbered
p.); text (1-344); index (345-52).
For information about Dr. Burney and his relationship with Jefferson,
see No. 18a.
This present work was written almost as a continuation of the preceding
volume. Burney says,
as I have, in a late publication, endeavored to do justice to the talents and
attainments of the present musicians of France and Italy, I shall now make
the same attempt, with respect to those of Germany, hoping that the testimony
of one who has himself been witness of the particulars he relates, will have a
weight which integrity itself cannot give to hear-say evidence, and that the
mind of the reader will be more entertained, in proportion as it is more satisfied
of the truth of what is written. For if knowledge be medicine for the soul,
according to the famous inscription on the Egyptian Library, it seems as
much to concern us to obtain it genuine, as to procure unadulterated medicine
for the body. [P. iv]
Though Italy has carried vocal music to a perfection unknown in any
other country, much of the present excellence of instrumental is certainly
owing to the natives of Germany, as wind and keyed instruments have never,
perhaps in any age or country, been brought to a greater degree of refinement,
either in construction or use, than by the modern Germans. [Pp. vi-vii]
This work follows the same organization as that on France and
Italy. It was first published in 1773.
Jefferson ordered the work for the University, in the section on
"Gardening. Painting. Sculpture. Music" of the want list, without specifying
the edition, though his general instructions to Hilliard would
certainly have produced the corrected edition if they had produced either.
No copy of this, however, is known to have been acquired in Jefferson's
lifetime. The copy Jefferson sold Congress was the 1773 edition. The
library's present copy of the 1775 edition is in the Mackay-Smith Collection.
U. Va.?
*ML195.B963.1775
M [1773]
Sowerby 4254
