The Musical Miscellany (6vols) Zaehnsdorf : Violin & Flute : Watts 1729-1731

The Musical Miscellany; 
Being a Collection of Choice Songs Set to the Violin and Flute by the Most Eminent Masters. Volumes I and II.

The Musical Miscellany; 
Being a Collection of Choice Songs And Lyrick Poems: With the Basses to each Tune, and Transpos'd for the Flute by the Most Eminent Masters. Volume III to VI:

London: Printed by and for John Watts at the Printing-Office in Wild-Court near Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 1729-1731. First Edition. Six volumes., 8vo., Bound by Zaehnsdorf with the binder's mark to the base of the front end paper. Each with an engraved frontispiece (two designs - half with the harp on the right (III, IV, V), the other on the left (I, II, VI), not alternating in this set), and woodcut head- and tailpieces; title-pages printed in red and black with wood-cut music throughout. Pagination: Vol I – [xii], 175pp; Vol II – [viii], 179pp; Vol III – [xii], 200pp; Vol IV – [viii], 204pp; Vol V – [xii], 208pp; Vol VI – [xii], 208pp.

Volumes I and II are melodies only, with volumes III-VI being melodies with basso continuo (unfigured). The flute part is printed separately after the tune and verses of each song.

An influential collection of over 450 songs and ballads published in the years of the brief flowering of English ballad opera subsequent to The Beggar's Opera (1728). For each song, Watts prints the melody (and from volume III on a bass continuo), the lyrics, and a flute or violin setting.

Eleven of the songs have been attributed to Handel, including two printed here for the first time; "Dull Bus'ness hence" and "As on a Sunshine Summer's Day" (Smith, p. 167). In volume VI, an early contribution by Fielding: 'A dialogue between a Beau's Head and his Heels', as well as songs by Gay, Prior, Pope, Theobald, and settings by Handel, Daniel Purcell, Pepusch, Galliard etc.

The music was printed from woodcuts rather than copperplates, unusual by this date but particularly useful for Watts, as it allowed him to set lyrics within the music, and to re-use the musical settings (perhaps with different lyrics) in his publication of ballad operas.

Watts was responsible for the printing of almost all the ballad operas with music in the late 1720s and 1730s. Many used song settings that first appeared here, and the choice of songs used in these operas was often heavily influenced by whether Watts had woodcuts of the music. 

CONDITION
All 6 bindings in very good condition with all boards securely attached All text blocks good throughgout. Overall a very good set in handsome Zaehnsdorf bindings

(BS1/7UP)