Folio. Mid-brown wrappers with printed title label to upper ("Society of British Musicians") with titling and "Presented By" Mr. Josh. Coggins in manuscript; "Regulations for the Government of the Library" to verso of upper. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-29, [ii] (blank), 30-31, [i] (blank), 33-45, [i] (blank), 47-49, [i] (blank) pp. With elaborate engraved title incorporating musical instruments including theorbo, violin, lute, bassoon, recorder, and harp, signed "A.K." in the plate. Stamps of Society of British Musicians and Italian musicologist Alessandro Kraus (1853-1931) to a number of pages throughout, including upper margin of title. Wrappers worn, soiled, and creased; spine reinforced with blue cloth; title label creased with minor loss to left edge. Minor internal wear, browning, and soiling; dampstaining to upper outer portion of first and last leaves. BUC pp. 44 (Arne) and 862 (Purcell). RISM P5894. Arne's 1770 revision of Purcell's King Arthur included ten of his original compositions. Selections from this updated King Arthur were published in two installments, ca. 1770 and ca. 1773, of which this is the first. Purcell (1659-1695), composer and organist, "was one of the most important 17th-century composers and one of the greatest of all English composers. . King Arthur, is often considered the most successful on account of its more complete integration of music and drama, though this perception owes as much to modern expectations of musical theatre as to the relative quality of the music in different works: its libretto, a reworking by John Dryden of dark-age legend that owes little to history or even medieval romance, was written specifically for a semi-opera, and Dryden understood much better than Betterton how to provide Purcell with opportunities for significant musical episodes." Peter Holman and Robert Thompson in Grove Music Online Arne (1710-1778), an English composer, violinist and keyboard player, "was the most significant figure in 18th-century English theatre music." Peter Holman and Todd Gilman in Grove Music Online "The 'improved' Purcell of the late eighteenth century is clearly of historical interest and, like Mozart's revisions of Handel, not without musical interest as well. Just as the authenticity movement of this century depends on historical reconstruction but also reveals much about the taste and culture of our times, so King Arthur's eighteenth-century journey reveals a methodology of revision that links this work theatrically through Dryden and Garrick to late seventeenth-century revisions of Elizabethan drama and musically through Arne and others to late eighteenth-century taste." Harris: "King Arthur's Journey into the Eighteenth Century" in Purcell Studies, Cambridge University Press, 1995. An important document of early Purcell reception history, revealing how a prominent 18th century composer recast an older theatre music work for audiences of his time.
