Rare books from J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC

Small folio (302 x 220 mm.). 1 page. Notated in pencil on 12-stave music paper "Archives 12S-12 Stave." 4 measures of the beginning of the Kyrie. Scored for mixed chorus, vibraphone, xylophone, bongos, tam-tam, and two pianos. With autograph signature to lower right margin. The Missa Latina, composed in 2006, was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra. The work is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, SATB chorus, and orchestra. The present excerpt appears to be part of a 2-piano reduction. "[Born in Puerto Rico], Sierra continued his studies abroad, first at the RCM (1976-8) and then at the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht (1978-9). From 1979 to 1982, he worked with Ligeti at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik ... [In 1992], he began to teach at Cornell University. As Sierra's style has evolved, he has synthesized European modernism - with Ligeti, he developed an abstract thought process - with elements of Puerto Rican and Latin American folksong, jazz, salsa and African rhythms, a… Read More

[?Paris]: Printed by M & N Hanhart. 442 x 340 mm. + wide margins. Signed by the artist in the stone. Oval. A fine impression on chine-appliqué, laid down. With printed titling to mount: "Arthur Napoleon The Young Portuguese Pianist, Eight Years & Half Old. Honorary Member of The Philharmonic Societies of Lisbon & Oporto." Some foxing to mount; inscription slightly faded; remnants of hinges to upper corners of verso. Very rare. BNF Catalogue Générale Inventaire 8454338. "[Napoleão] made his first concert appearance in Lisbon at the age of seven and then toured Europe, playing for kings and Napoleon III. In London he studied with Hallé, and in Paris with Herz. In Berlin Meyerbeer presented him at court in 1854 and in Weimar he was praised by Liszt." He first toured Brazil in August of 1857, made another concert tour which included the U.S., the settled in Rio de Janeiro in 1866. He founded the publishing house Narciso and Artur Napoleão in 1878, and "provided a significant stimulation to… Read More

1930. In black and red chalk and watercolour, titled "Casals" in pencil at upper right. Sheet size ca. 302 x 215 mm. Signed by the artist at lower right. Abrasions to lower blank margin with slight loss; right margin slightly uneven; verso with paper tape repair. Signature indecipherable. A Catalan master cellist, conductor, pianist, and composer, "Casals performed Lalo's Concerto at the Crystal Palace on 20 May [1899], played to Queen Victoria at Osborne, and to Lamoureux in Paris; here he made his début with the same concerto and started his international career. Never a flamboyant performer, he sought tirelessly in practice and rehearsal for the truth and beauty he felt to be an artist's responsibility, and used his formidable powers with a simplicity and concentration that allowed no compromise. His artistry led to a new appreciation of the cello and its repertory." Robert Anderson in Grove Music Online.

1993. Large oblong folio. Spiral bound. 44 pp. Notated in pencil on 18-stave paper. A working manuscript with instrumental cues, directions, etc., throughout and with brief sketches to final leaf. Additional annotations in red crayon. Slightly worn and soiled. Written for Yo-Yo Ma, the work was commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Symphony in 1994. A recording of the work (Sony Classical, 1996), with Yo-Yo Ma and the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor David Zinman, won three Grammy awards. "Danielpour's Cello Concerto shows the composer in his most compelling voice. Danielpour mixes the wails of a Jewish cantor, Messiaen's chirping, metal-hitting-metal percussion effects, and the high-energy swagger of Bernstein's Broadway music... It's a finely crafted work, [with] lovely sonorities, rhythmically catchy and tonally attractive on a moment-by-moment basis. It was exhilarating to hear [Ma], a top soloist, pressed to the limits of his considerable abilities." Pierre Ruhe, Washington… Read More

Folio. [1] (title), [2]-[3] pp. Notated on 16-stave music paper. A working manuscript. Together with: - Autograph manuscript fair copy dated Philadelphia April 11, 1952. 3 pp. Notated in ink on 10-stave onionskin paper. Together with a dye-line copy with autograph annotations and corrections in pencil and red ink and a note "revised 1979." - Autograph musical manuscript. Undated, but ca. 1987. Folio. 2 pp. Notated on 14-stave music paper. A working manuscript sketch of the song. - Autograph musical manuscript dated "(Revised) Jan. 27, 1987." Folio. 2 pp. Notated on 16-stave music paper. A working manuscript. "As a composer Hoiby was a modern Romantic from the lineage of Barber and Menotti. The influence of the former is evident in his warm lyricism, while that of the latter is found in a propensity for light, genial humour. Though much of his music is characterized by a disarming diatonic simplicity, his ambitious works tend towards greater harmonic and textural complexity. Interest in his music… Read More

All watercolors executed on quality watercolor paper. Summer and Smoke. Play by Tennessee Williams 5 original watercolor and graphite costume designs with fabric swatches attached for the character Alma. Titled and signed by the artist in pencil. Undated, but ca. 1980s. Sheet size 380 x 275 mm. each. Together with 11 preparatory costume design sketches in graphite, also for the character Alma. Sheet size 355 x 270 mm. each. Some minor wear. Good Woman of Setzuan. Play by Bertolt Brecht 4 original watercolor and graphite costume designs with fabric swatches attached for the characters Wang, God, Mrs. Young, and Mrs. Shin. Titled, signed, and dated by the artist 4 [April] [19]83. Sheet size ca. 380 x 275 mm. each. Sleeping Beauty. [?]Burlesque with Phyllis Diller 2 original watercolor and graphite costume designs for the characters The Lilac Fairy and the Fairy of the Crystal Fountain. Titled and signed by the artist in pencil. Undated. Sheet size ca. 386 x 305 mm. each. The somewhat risqué… Read More

1903. 2 volumes. Folio (350 x 285 mm.). Uniformly bound in full dark green cloth boards with titling gilt to upper boards and spines, marbled endpapers. Volume I: Bon chevalier: [1] (manuscript title), 42 pp. With corrections, annotations, and performance markings in lead and blue pencil and with a short 4-measure sketch to verso of final leaf. Volume 2: Les faux beaux jours: [1] (manuscript title), 27 pp. + 8 pp. orchestral sketches in pencil and ink laid in (these do not appear to relate to this particular song, although they may relate to one of the other 12 songs in the cycle). Both manuscripts notated in black ink on 28-stave music paper with the small embossed stamp of "H. Lardesnault Ed. Bellamy Sr. PARIS" to upper inner margins. Binding slightly worn, rubbed, and bumped. Some internal wear and browning, heavier to margins of first and last leaves. Each leaf guarded at inner edge. Sagesse is both the title of Verlaine's book of 12 poems and the title of the group of song settings of these… Read More

Milano: Emilio Bestetti, 1941. Large oblong folio. Full red pebbled cloth with titling gilt within blindstamped rules and decorative cornerpieces to upper, raised bands on spine in decorative compartments gilt with decorative titling gilt, top edge gilt, dark red endpapers reproducing blindstamped design to upper in gilt. 1f. (recto blank, verso with three-quarter length colour reproduction of a painting of Donizetti, his hand resting on a keyboard with a partial view of an open score, flanked by the composer's birth and death dates), 1f. (recto title printed in red and black, verso limitation statement), 1f. (recto biographical note on Treccani degli Alfieri by Guido Zavadini, Curator of the Donizetti Museum in Bergamo, verso blank), pp. 7-8 (biographical note on Donizetti), 9-14 (commentary on the opera including reproductions of several of Donizetti's letters, etc.), 15-17 (notes on productions of Donizetti's works), [i] (blank), [i] (half-title printed in red), 373 pp. autograph musical… Read More

3 measures of the main dramatic theme sung by Butterfly in Act I ("d'amor, d'amor venni alle soglie"). Identified as "Butterfly" at head in Puccini's autograph, signed in full, and dated Sept. 1920. On an album leaf 210 x 132 mm. Slightly browned from previous matting; very minor creasing overall and with central vertical crease. Madama Butterfly, to a libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica after David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly, itself based on John Luther Long's short story, which in turn was based partly on Pierre Loti's tale Madame Chrysanthème, was first performed in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala on 17 February 1904 and in a revised version in Brescia at the Teatro Grande on 28 May of that same year. "Puccini was seized with the subject after seeing Belasco's play performed in London in June 1900, and he immediately applied to Belasco for the rights. ... No other Puccini opera testifies more strongly to his ability to discern the possibilities for music drama. ... By making… Read More

4 pp. of a bifolium (2-1/2 pp. in purple ink, 1-1/2 pp. in pencil). Octavo. Addressed to "Eldosha" (nickname). Dated Gaspra, Crimea, 16 July 1924. In Cyrillic (with translation). A very colorful, personal, cryptic, and at times somewhat obscene, letter, from the not quite 18-year-old composer in which he writes to his best friend, telling him that he misses him very much and sending his "review of Crimea," where he was sent to the spa town of Gaspra to recuperate after contracting tuberculosis in 1923. The composer details his visit to the Vselenskii Cathedral where he admired the frescoes, stating "This artist deserves attention as an example of powerful and original talent." He then goes into detailed descriptions of each fresco in something of a stream-of-consciousness style, replete with wordplay and strong sexual references, including to Leonid Nikolayev, his piano teacher in Leningrad, as a homosexual. With several minor autograph corrections. Slightly worn and browned; creased at folds… Read More

Folio. Quarter dark green cloth with lighter green boards with "Copeland[!] Gip's Song" gilt to spine. 1f. (recto autograph title, verso blank), 3 pp. music, 1 p. autograph text of 5 verses (20 lines) of the song by librettist Edwin Denby. Notated in black ink on 24-stave printed music paper. Housed in a custom-made full dark green cloth clamshell box and matching slipcase. The Second Hurricane, an opera scored for young voices in two acts, was first performed in New York City at the Henry Street Settlement playhouse on 21 April 1937 in a production designed by Orson Welles (1915-1985) and conducted by Lehman Engel (1910-1982), with the small speaking role of Mr. Maclenahan performed by noted American stage and film actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994). The opera was Copland's first attempt at composing in the genre; the present number, Gyp's Song, is the first of the opera's four solos. "A fashionable audience of artists and patrons turned out for opening night. ... Critics mostly received the work,… Read More

Folio. Dark red pebbled leather boards with "Victor Herbert Manuscript" gilt to upper. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 4-1/2 pp. autograph music. 84 measures notated on 12-stave "T.B.H. No. 2" music paper. With "Born Feb. 1, 1859 in Dublin, Died May 26, 1924 in New York" in another hand at conclusion and annotations in pencil, possibly relating to additional works (including "Serenade"), to verso of final leaf, all most probably in the hand of Herbert's copyist, Charles Miller. With autograph titling ("Tiller Girls March"), Herbert's initials, and tempo indication ("Tempo di Marcia") to head of page 1, and "Trio" to head of page 4. With note laid in: "This mans. was given to me by Victor Herbert for my collection. [?]Irene [...]." Disbound. Boards slightly worn, rubbed, and bumped; spine defective; split at hinges. Minor wear and browning to manuscript; miniscule chip to blank lower outer edge; short tear to blank upper margin of final leaf repaired with archival tape to verso. An Irish-born… Read More

2 measures notated in black ink from the composer's noted song at head, identified as "Élégie," signed and dated Paris, 1900 at lower portion. Inscribed to the American composer, violin collector, and banker Louis M. Teichman (ca. 1855-1934) "a Mr. Louis M. Teichman trés sympathiquement" at right margin. On a cabinet card with a bust-length photograph of the composer laid down to studio mount, with "van Bosch ... Paris" printed to lower margin. Photograph lightly browned; mount more heavily browned with remnants of adhesive to lower margin; slightly bumped at right corners; remnants of former mount to verso, with annotations in pencil and ink and stamp of "Meyer Bros. & Co." in New York to lower margin. Élégie, a song to text by Massenet's long-time librettist Louis Gallet (1835-1898), was composed in ca. 1872 and published in 1875. Massent was one of the most prolific and successful composers of opera in late 19th-early 20th century France; in addition he composed over 200 songs. "The… Read More

4 measures from Act II. Notated in black ink on an ivory album leaf, 133 x 203 mm. Very minor remnants of adhesive to upper corners of verso. Samson, an opéra in three acts and four tableaux to a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire, was first performed in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches Theater on 2 December 1877. "His technique is unmistakably operatic, both in the skilful deployment of a large orchestra and in the application of motifs. At the time of Samson et Dalila Saint-Saëns still admired Wagner enormously, and the influence of Der fliegende Holländer and Lohengrin can be heard in the strong closing scene of Act 2. Echoes of Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ and Les Troyens are also to be heard, and the work treads paths marked out by Meyerbeer and Gounod too. ... It is certainly his most imaginative opera score, and it reveals an instinct for theatrical emotion that any opera composer would be proud of. It allows us to savour some of the brilliance and intellectual vigour that even his enemies… Read More

13 measures in piano-vocal score for "Julia" (a soprano, the young Vestal Virgin) and "Clavecin" boldly notated in dark black ink. Titled at head "Prière de la Vestale de Spontini," marked "Andante espressivo" at head, and signed and dated at conclusion "Berlin, de 22 avril 1837 Spontini." With text commencing "O des infortunés, déesse tutélaire," the prayer from Act II of the opera. La Vestale, a tragédie lyrique in three acts to a libretto by Victor-Joseph-Etienne de Jouy, was first performed in Paris at the Opéra on 15 December 1807; it is regarded as Spontini's masterpiece, evidencing the influence of Gluck and anticipating the works of Berlioz, Wagner, and French Grand opera. "The opera, mostly composed in 1805 but repeatedly revised, was performed only after the intervention of the Empress Josephine. However, it turned out to be not only the most successful work of Spontini's unsteady career but also the one serious French opera to achieve lasting and international fame between 1789 and… Read More