"WOVEN TOGETHER OUT OF MUSIC AND LIFE WITH MONUMENTAL THOROUGHNESS"

(MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus) JAHN, Otto. Life of Mozart. London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1882. Octavo, 20th-century three-quarter green morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $1850.

First edition in English, with five engraved portraits, four folding manuscript facsimiles (three musical) and numerous musical quotations throughout the text, handsomely bound.

Jahn's biography helped set a new standard in musical biography and criticism. "The book has been long familiar to me, and I regard its appearance in English dress as an event in our musical history… an epoch-making work" (from the preface by George Grove). Where earlier biographies were just "pleasant gossipy accounts of the outward life of the composer," Jahn's reliance on original material, much of it new, and his critical method (which predated the advent of modern musicology) together with his attention to historical and social background and lucidity of phrase, established his Mozart as a model for future music historians. It is "woven together out of music and life with monumental thoroughness" (Biancolli, xiv). First published in German between 1856 and 1859; this first English translation, done by Pauline D. Townsend, also appeared in New York the same year as the London edition (no priority established). Bookplates.

Spines evenly toned. A very attractive set.