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2 000 €

Réf : 64903

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Jean-Baptiste Joseph TOLBECQUE & Henri HERZ

[Partitions manuscrites] Recueil de contredanses et de valses

1820, In-18 oblong (15x22,5cm), 27 pp. ; 42-82 pp. ; 1 p. table et 35 pp., 2 volumes reliés.

Jean-Baptiste Joseph TOLBECQUE & Henri HERZ
Handwritten music scores.
Recueil de contredanses et de valses
[Collection of Contra Dances and Waltzes]
1820 | in-18 oblong (15 x 22.5 cm) | 27 pp. ; 42-82 pp. ;
1 p. table et 35 pp. | contemporary full morocco
Original manuscript created for the owner, Guillaume Garran de Coulon, or by his hand, finely calligraphed in black ink. The scores are perfectly clear and legible. All of the titles of the pieces are beautifully calligraphed. The first volume is paginated 1 to 82, with a gap between pages 28 to 42. There is a table of contents with 17 quadrilles arranged by Tolbecque based on operas and ballets: Robin des Bois by Weber, La Dame blanche by Boeldieu, Le Siège de Corinthe by Rossini, Moïse by Rossini, La Somnambule by Rossini, Adolphe et Joconde by Rossini, Masaniello by Carafa, La Muette de Portici de Weber. The second volume has pages 1 to 34 and is entitled Contredanses variées by Henri Herz. The author of the manuscript has brought together several pieces by Herz in quadrille form. Therefore, the first quadrille has five different pieces. The title of the original work is sometimes indicated at the bottom of the score. “Op. 15 primo divertimento,” “Op. 11 rondo brillant,” etc.
Contemporary binding in full straight-grained red morocco, spine decorated with blind tooling and fillets, blind tooled border strip of gilt fillet on the lined boards. The name of the owner in gold letters on the upper boards “G. Garron de Coulon” (Guillaume Garran de Coulon (1786-1842), Dragon captain granted on 20 February 1812 at the Élysée. Title piece on the first paste down: “Filon, Papetier. Rue Dauphine à Paris.” Some dark areas on the boards, otherwise a very beautiful copy.
The manuscript is addressed to a virtuoso or well-established pianist, the size of the scores indicating that it was necessary to be accustomed to reading music, and those composed by Herz are relatively difficult. This piano dance music was intended for salons, often it was accompanied by a flute or a violin. The composer Jean-Baptiste Tolbecque wrote these dances very early on in his career. With time, he became the most famous composer of his time in this field. This now forgotten and rarely performed music, mostly written in quadrille form, is an exclusively French genre intended for parties and was enormously successful in the nineteenth century. In its day, it was as famous as the Viennese waltz today. The pieces copied in the first collection are all arrangements from fairly popular works at the time; they are certainly among Tolbecque's first works in the genre. These pieces were published at the time in Soirées de famille in the pianoforte collection by Collinet in Paris. Robin des Bois, quadrille was also published in 1825. Also at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, across 15 issues, there is a collection dated June 1825, bearing the title: Quadrilles de contredanses et valses sur des motifs d'opéra by J. B. Tolbecque.
As for Herz, he was a famous pianist first during the Restoration, before being dethroned by Liszt and Chopin. He will also be a composer and piano-maker. The pieces in this collection are part of his first compositions; the composer was born in Vienna in 1803. These are superb dances in the fashion of the time.
We can genuinely think that these two collections were played by the owner himself, who must have been a pianist, during party receptions.
Very beautiful testimony to French dance music in Paris during the Restoration.

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