Books on Music

• Tolbecque, Auguste L'Art du luthier Laffitte Reprints: Marseille, 1978. Reprint of 1903 edition. Quarto. 314 pp. Frontispiece portrait. Several b/w illustrations. Buckram with gilt. As new. BKS-05607 $100Inquire
• Tolbecque, Auguste L'Art du Luthier By the author: Niort, 1903. first edition (Regazzi: "printed for private publication only). 314 pp. Many illustrations and plates. Rebound in buckram with leather label, original covers bound in. Near fine. BKS-09479 $900Inquire
• Torri, Luigi La Costruzione ed i Costruttori degli Istrumenti ad Arco: Bibliografia Liutistica, Storico-Technica Guglielm Zanibon: Padua, [1920]. Second edition. Octavo. 43 pp. Wrappers. Very slight wear to cover, otherwise fine. BKS-05246 $100Inquire
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  Tovey, Donald Francis Essays in Musical Analysis Vols. I-VI Oxford University Press: London, 1964. Octavo. Vol. II: 212 pp. Blue linen boards with original D/J. Very good.

  Vol. II: Symphonies (II), Variations and Orchestral Polyphony

  BKS-14346 $10Inquire
• Toye, Francis Rossini, A Study in Tragi-Comedy Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1947. Octavo. 220 pp. Frontispiece portrait. 8 plates. Cloth with d/j. Stained endpaper, d/j slightly worn, otherwise very good.
  New edition, designed by W.A. Dwiggins, completely reset and printed from new plates.
  BKS-09687 $15Inquire
• Vannes, René Dictionnaire Universel des Luthiers. Vol. III, "Complément des Tomes I et II" Les Amis de la Musique: Brussels, 1985. Quarto. 181 pp. Cloth with d/j. Fine.
  Edited by Claude Lebet with a preface by Etienne Vatelot and 11 added photographs of modern makers.
  BKS-05139 $90Inquire
• Vatelot, Etienne Les Archets Français Sernor-M. Dufour: Paris, 1977. Second edition. Large quarto. 2 vols. B/w and color plates throughout. Cloth. As new.
  Text in French English and German.
  BKS-09577 $2,500Inquire
• VERDI, GIUSEPPE Verdi's Otello and Simon Boccanegra (Revised Version) in Letters and Telegrams & Documents Hans Busch, editor & translator. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1988. Large octavo. Two volumes: 419 pp, 472 pp. Photographs. Cloth with d/js. As new. BKS-09640 $50Inquire
• VICTROLA BOOK OF THE OPERA The Victrola Book of the Opera: Stories of the Operas With Illustrations & Descriptions of Victor Opera Records Victor Talking Machine Company: Camden. NJ, 1921. Sixth edition; revised and rewritten. Large octavo. Many plates. Decorated cloth. Edges bumped, otherwise fine. BKS-09645 $30Inquire
• Vidal, Louis Antoine La Lutherie et les Luthiers Broude Bros.: New York, 1969. Facsimile of the 1889 edition. Quarto. 347 pp. Frontispiece portrait of the author. 29 plates. Cloth. Fine. BKS-05254 $175Inquire
• Vidal, Louis Antoine La Lutherie et les Luthiers Maison Quantin: Paris, 1889. first edition. Quarto. 347 pp. Frontispiece portrait of author. 29 plates of labels. Full leather with decorative gold tooling, top edge gilt. Spine detached at top edge, otherwise fine. BKS-05615 $650Inquire
• Violinist Magazine The Violinist's Guide, Containing Information Pertaining to the Violin Making Industry... The Blue Book of the Violin Making Profession The Violinist Publishing Company: Chicago, 1916. first edition, reprinted from Vol. XX of the magazine. Quarto. 48 pp. Illustrated, mostly labels. Boards. Fine.
  Contains an important early listing of American makers.
  BKS-05259 $75Inquire
• Violinist Magazine The Violinist's Guide, Containing Information Pertaining to the Violin Making Industry… The Blue Book of the Violin Making Profession Violinist Publishing Company: Chicago, 1916. Vol. XX, July 16th. Octavo. 45 pp. Illustrated, mostly labels. Wrappers as issued. Very good.
  One of the earliest listings of American violinmakers.
  BKS-01765 $60Inquire
• VIOLIN-MAKING The Violin. How to Make it. By a Master of the Instrument Carl Fischer: New York, nd. Small octavo. 143 pp. Several illustrations: tools, plans, etc. Wrappers. Fine. BKS-07505 $25Inquire
• Vogt, Howard Flagstad: Singer of the Century Secker & Warburg: London, 1987. Large octavo. 300 pp. Many plates. Cloth with d/j. As new; d/j slightly torn. BKS-04938 $30Inquire
• Wagner, Cosima Liszt (1837-1930) Briefwechsel zwischen Cosima Wagner und Fürst Ernst zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg J.S. Gotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger: Stuttgart, 1937. Octavo. 403 pp. Cloth. Very good (minor water stains on spine, edge of back cover). BKS-05301 $20Inquire
• Wagner, Cosima Liszt (1837-1930) Cosima Wagner und Houston Stewart Chamberlain im Briefwechsel, 1888-1908 Philipp Reclam: Leipzig, 1934. Quarto. 713 pp. Frontispiece portrait. Linen boards. Cover sunned. BKS-05302 $45Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Auswahl seiner Schriften Insel-Verlag: Leipzig, nd. Octavo. 278 pp. Cloth boards. Spine tips ragged, otherwise very good.
  BKS-05305 $12Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Beethoven C.W. Fritsch: Leipzig, 1870. first edition. Octavo. 73 pp. Quarter-bound blue buckram with marbled boards. Red leather label at spine. Boards a bit rubbed with water stain to front. Title page dusty with minor chips at edges. Marginal water stain above text on all pages, but otherwise a clean copy in good condition.

  A first edition of this important essay written for the centennial celebrations of Beethoven's birth, in which Wagner develops his ideas about music and text as expressive mediums. Although he asserts that music is the more expressively powerful of the two, he ultimately concludes that music and text together yield a wider range of artistic possibilities than either can achieve on its own. These musings build on thoughts first set down in his earlier writings, Oper und Drama and Zukunftsmusik.
  BKS-05306 $150Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Die Walküre [Libretto]. Verlag Von B. Schott's Söhne: Mainz, 1876. 16mo. 84 pp. + 15 pp. [book catalogue]. Full black calf. Overall good condition. Covers shelf worn and rubbed on edges. Minor spotting on title page, but otherwise clean.

  Published the same year as the opera's premiere.
  BKS-12896 $50More Images/Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Familienbriefe von Richard Wagner, 1832-1874 Alexander Duncker: Berlin, 1907. Small quarto. 304 pp. Frontispiece Portait. Many plates. Gold-stamped linen. Fine. BKS-00160 $50Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Familienbriefe von Richard Wagner, 1832-1874 Alexander Duncker: Berlin, 1907. Small quarto. 304 pp. Frontispiece Portrait. Many black and white portraits. Gold-stamped cloth. Very slight spine end bumping, otherwise very good with original tissues on plates.
  BKS-05309 $40Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen von Richard Wagner E. W. Fritzsch: Leipzig, 1897. Third edition. Octavo. Ten volumes bound in five. Scattered musical examples and 6 fold-out plans for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Three-quarter leather with original marbled boards. Gilt decorative compartments at spine. Marbled fore edges. Edges of bindings a little shelf worn and one volume rubbed on cover. One folding plate with tape repair. Internally fine otherwise, though, and overall a very attractive set.

  Volumes 1-9 were first issued by E.W. Fritzsch between 1871 and 1873, with volume 10 appearing in 1883.
  BKS-14313 $375More Images/Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Mein Leben F. Bruckmann: Munich, 1911. First public edition. Quarto. Two volumes: 870 pp. Gold-stamped cloth. Very good. BKS-05312 $100Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Richard Wagner and the Seamstress: A Collection of Letters for the First Time Published in English Frederick Ungar: New York, 1941. Small octavo. 63 pp. Several caricatures. Buckram. Very good; top border of d/j frayed. BKS-09629 $20Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Richard Wagner's Briefe an Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, Ferdinand Heine Breitkopf & Härtel: Leipzig, 1888. Quarto. 408 pp. Gold-stamped decorated cloth. Edges rubbed.
  Ink on faintly lined blue paper.
  BKS-05319 $40Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen Breitkopf & Härtel, C.F.W. Siegel: Leipzig, nd. Fifth edition. Quarto. Vol 1 only. Deluxe binding, half-vellum. Very good clean copy.
  BKS-05321 $30Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Tagebuchblätter und Briefe: Richard Wagner an Mathilde und an Otto Wesendonk Th. Knaur Nachf: Berlin, nd. Octavo. 375 pp. Leather. Edges rubbed, cover cracked; internally very good.
  BKS-05324 $15Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg. Große romantische Oper in drei Akten. [Libretto]. C. F. Meyer: Dresden, 1845. first edition. 12mo. 48 pp. Paper wrappers, front not present and back detaching. A somewhat delicate but very nice and clean copy. Marginal spotting to pp. 37-43; tiny chips to corners of pp. 1-2.

  Wagner began work on a prose draft of Tannhäuser in 1842 and completed the libretto in 1843; the finished opera premiered under his baton in 1845. As the work traveled across Europe in subsequent decades Wagner would revise it heavily; in Paris, for instance, it was translated into French and gained a ballet.
  BKS-15255 $150Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) and Friedrich NIETZSCHE The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence (Introduction by H.L. Mencken) Edited by Elizabeth Goerster-Nietzsche. Translated by Caroline V. Kerr. Duckworth & Co.: London, 1922. Quarto. 312 pp. Cloth. Fine. BKS-05330 $40Inquire
• Wallace, William (1860-1940) Richard Wagner: As He Lived Harper & Brothers: New York, 1925. Octavo. 313 pp. Cloth. Spine tips ragged, otherwise fine. BKS-05331 $20Inquire
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  Warburg, Aby (1866-1929) I Costumi Teatrali per gli intermezzi del 1589. Tipografia Galletti e Cocci: Firenze, 1895. Quarto. 43 pp. + xxii pp. [eight plates of costumes]. Half-calf with marbled paper boards and red label at spine. Gilt top edge and decorative end papers. Original blue wrapper bound in. In excellent condition and attractively bound. Plates very clean except for some minor foxing to Plate VIII.

  A fine copy of this scarce book.

  Aby Warburg was a German art historian whose work explored the representation of classical subjects in later art. He founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warbug, a private library that would later furnish the holdings of London's Warburg Institute.

  BKS-14692 $350More Images/Inquire
• Wasielewski, Wilh. Jos. von (1822-1896) Die Violine und ihre Meister Breitkopf & Härtel: Leipzig, 1883. Second edition. Large octavo. 567 pp. + a four-page list of violin methods. 3/4-leather. Corners rubbed, otherwise good. BKS-05261 $90Inquire
• Weaver, William The Golden Century of Italian Opera, from Rossini to Puccini Thames & Hudson: New York, 1980. Large quarto. 256 pp. Many illustrations, color and black-and-white. Red Buckram. Excellent. BKS-09701 $30Inquire
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  Weber, Carl Maria von (1786-1826) Reise-Briefe von Carl Maria von Weber an seine Gattin Carolina. Edited by seinem Engel. Alphons Dürr: Leipzig, 1886. first edition. Small octavo. vii pp. + 224 pp. Printed in Fraktur. Olive green buckram boards with gilt embossing. Spine with gilt embellishment. Decorative end-papers and red edges. In excellent condition. First free end-paper detached. Inscription to former owner on half-title page, dated 1891.

  A charming and beautifully bound little volume of Weber's travel letters to his wife. Many modern reprints and online versions exist but the first edition is quite scarce.
  BKS-04523 $125More Images/Inquire
• Wechsberg, Joseph The Glory of the Violin Viking: New York, 1973. first edition. Large octavo. 314 pp. 8 pages of illustrations. As new. BKS-01142 $40Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Donizetti Pantheon Books: New York, 1963. first edition. Large octavo. 453 pp. Many plates. Cloth with d/j. Fine. REF-07375 $60Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Rossini: a Biography Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1968. Large octavo. 560 pp. Color portrait, many plates. Cloth with d/j. Fine. REF-04433 $60Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Vincenzo Bellini: His Life and His Operas Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1971. first edition. Large octavo. 546 pp. Many plates. Cloth with d/j. As new. BKS-09315 $75Inquire
• Wenberg, Thomas James Violin & Bow Makers of Minnesota Thomas James. The Schubert Club Museum: St. Paul, MN, 1988. Quarto. 82 pp. Extensive b/w illustrations. Paper wraps. Fine. BKS-05065 $60Inquire
• Werfel, Franz Verdi: a Novel of the Opera Translated by Helen Jessiman. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1925. Octavo. 438 pp. Buckram. Fine. BKS-04987 $15Inquire
• Westen, Walter Von Zur Musiktitel aus Vier Jahrhunderten. Festschrift Anlässlich des 75 Jährigen Bestehens der Firma C. G. Röder G.M.B.H. Leipzig. C. G. Röder: Leipzig, 1921. Large quarto. 116 pp. Book plate of Crosby Gaige on inside front cover. Marbled paper wraps with matching slip-case. In excellent condition. Slip-case somewhat worn.
  A book of title pages starting with the 16th and going to the end of the 19th century. With expensive commentary
  BKS-14676 $75Inquire
• Westerman, Gerhart von Knaurs Opernführer: eine Geschicht der Opera, mit einem Geleitwort von Hans Knappertsbusch Droemersche Verlagsanstalt: Munich, 1952. Octavo. 545 pp. Plates. Musical examples. Cloth with chipped d/j, otherwise very good. BKS-04988 $15Inquire
• William Lewis & Son The Lewis Collection: Works of the Makers of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries William Lewis & Son: Chicago, 1953. Octavo. 52 pp. 7 b/w plates. Lacks wrappers. Cover pulling at bottom staple, otherwise fine. BKS-05141 $30Inquire
• Winternitz, Emanuel Gaudenzio Ferrari, His School and the Early History of the Violin / Gaudenzio Ferrari, la sua scuola e la protostoria del violino Società Conserv. Opere Arte Monumenti Valsesia: Varallo Sesia, 1967. Octavo. 64 pp. 20 b/w plates of paintings showing stringed instruments. Wrappers. Fine.
  In English and Italian.
  BKS-05267 $50Inquire
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  Winternitz, Emanuel Musical Instruments of the Western World McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York, 1966. Folio. 259 pp. Magnificent color plates throughout by photographer Lilly Stunzi. Cloth with orignal d/j (slight wear to edges). As new except for d/j.

  Winternitz was the curator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and selected examples from that famed collection for this book. Includes a wide variety of instruments.
  BKS-10760 $150Inquire
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  Wood, Henry Joseph (1869-1944) About Conducting. 'Proms' Edition. Sylvan Press: London, 1945. first edition. 'Proms Edition.'. Small octavo. 124 pp. Blue buckram with brown D/J. Excellent condition.
  BKS-15796 $10Inquire
• Worsthorne, Simon Towneley Venetian Opera in the Seventeenth Century Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1954. Quarto. 194 pp. Many b/w plates, including fold-out map of Venice, and musical examples. Cloth. Fine. BKS-09708 $100Inquire