New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-08

The musical collection in the New-York Pub
~ 1ihr.rv-.s not comparable in bulk with ahat
IN the rtbrary of Congress which has alrea oy
bAen described IN this journal. but it is far allo
ax-.v rnore interesting. The entire collection -
rov housed In the Lenox Library Bupoanss
where a good card catalogue makes its consul
satson easy Before the union Of the As'ols
Ienox and Tflien Foundations In 1857 tnere
were separate collections in the Astor and lsenox
buildings That of the former was chiefly OF q
practical character. It contained few rarities,
but many publications like the collections fhaae
ny the antiquarian societies Of Europe Inc
Lerox collection. the contrary, was noSsce-
able for its wealth of rare and costly works. II
came to the library the beQuest OF joseph W.
Drezel. OF Philadelphia, who had made its ac-
cunaulation one of his hobbies for nearly gener-
alton Unfortunately. excellent as the COM
bined collection is now that each Of its factors
compliments the other. additions are made to 1t
very slowly and it will not be long before IL
viii be outstripped by the collections IN Wash
tngton and Boston. unless theirs Is a change OF
policy fnrespect of purchases
THE hooks paunphiets and musical ,publca-
lions row in the library number about 1oooo
There are about 125 volumes on the philosophy
and aesthetics of music. about 1eoo perloolcais'
ITO dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc; ooo Voi-
Yf17eS of
saws GOO treatises. 100 volumes on singing IL
volumes on church music. etc. In the Depart
mont of practical music there are 40 volumes OF
coliactad compositions of great musicians. 100 Of
,,ational music. about 500 volumes Of church
,nusic 2f5 operas and dramas, about Zoo or
s,astrap scores and nearly 400 hbrettos
Frar4icallv ell the rarities in the collection
s.s,r,a- through the DrexeI bequest. Mr.. DreXel
began collecting books on music in leoS' when
he keughx the library of German musician
named H F. Albrecht, man OF scholarly 'a5'es'
who had come to America decade oefofe WIN
the e;ermania orchestra. To this nucleus he
s7sed the collection of r. La Roche about the
same time. and finally large number OF DOCKS
ana manuscripts which he bought at the auctloh
sale of the library of DIR. Edward r. RiinDauIV
IA London in 1871. Among the books orlslndIs
purchased were the rarities in the shape %
,nesta.zal publications AS early as 1859, when
Mr DrexeI published check list, ne hao eisii'
or len volumes printed in the fifteenth century
Twelve printed in the sixteenth. forty-elsht III
the seventeenth and 453 in the eighteenth me
;,,as &c +baSe works would interest only the
..,,-;o,,s student Mr. Drexel made no particular
ffor ia, aeat1fi,e autographs. but there are IN the
..oIlection in addition TO score or more OF let
sers the following original pieces OF music IN
the handwriting of their composers; A Sketch
yor Beeffloven's quartet in G. op. Is; two move
snents of a symphony and song by Haydn a
leaf of sketches and piece for organ by IAeil-
5leisschn. composition by Bach and SYM
4bony and aria by Mozart. Concerning other
treasures of the library the following account
svia be given in the forthcoming Volume II of
The new edition of Groves Dictionary of Music
and Musicians proof sheets of the article on
4 musical libraries having been placed at our dis
Y posal:
Among the written books two of great
beauty and value. though more from an anti
uuarian ana artistic point of view than an his
toricaL The first is a magnificent Gradual on
veurn, on which the caligrapher, monk VINO
called himself Brother Leonard of Aix-la-Cha-
pel,e Leonardo di Aquisgrano), labored, accord
ing so his owa statement. seven years. It bears
the date 1884, and is supposed to have been com
1nissioIed by one OF the princes who assisted at
the coronation of Macmillan King OF the
Romans The second is an antiphoner OF 16So
the property Of Charles y of France whose
signature ii bears. A valuable historical col
lection of sacred and secular music of the six
teenth century is contained in a MS. volume
entitled francis Sambrook his book, which
came from the RiTnoault collection. A note in
the book attributed TO DR.. Alcock, says that
The music was wrote out of the Vatican (or
I,one'sl Library at Rome" Francis Sambrooke,
seys DR.. RiTnbault. died in 1860, aged seventy
years. and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral.
Some pages are damaged by water. but the
hook contains three hundred compositions
by Orlando Lasso and a score of other famous
masters.
The new edition of Grove will also contain the
Public Library of Boston:
.aThe general library is one of the largest in
the United States, its only superior in the num-
her Of volumes being the Library Of Congress.
dJntil 1894 music not feature of special
Fssnificance in the library, though efforts had
been making toward that end for a generation.
sIfle most fruitful of these efforts was made in
1855 when Mr.. Bates gave the de KondeIka col
lection containing five hundred volumes some
Of them dating from the fifteenth, sixteenth and
Eexenteeuth centuries. These were purchased in
f1Erepe for Mr. Bates through A. ". Thayer,
s<Ylo added one hundred volumes on his own &C
count. Soon thereafter tWenty-eight quarto vol
tunes Of manuscript scores were selected and
copied by s w Dehn at Mr. Batess request,
end there were additions from time to time. till
there WIS a reasonably good representation of
musical literature. Still in 1872 a committee
reported thai the collection Of music had hardly
kent pace with the new conditions Of the city,
Hacking as it is in orchestral scores" In 1894
Afr Alien-A. Grown came forward with gift Of
{ .3S2 volumes, which at once raised the collec-
sior IN 4 high rank and made If in one resnect
unique IN the world. Two conditions were
Imposed or the library with the gift. One was
that the volumes were not TO be taken from the
library building, the other that Mr.. Brown
should retain the privilege OF extra illustrating
sshe volumes as he had been doing for years, by
kdetths Into them programmes and criticisms-a
feature which ne has continued down to the
Present writing. besides adding about three hun
0leo Folulnes annually. The result of his benef-
ENG devoted industry is that the collection
oHers e contemporary record of musical culture
Is Illustrated by the performances of high class
~ 80 ~ ..iscalculable value From the begin
s1il,is OF Ills eWn collection Mr. Brown made a
point or neV1rS works that existed only in nartc
reduced 70 score that they might better serve
the purposes Of study. In 1889 he secured forty
Symphonies by Haydn which had thus hes, co,o
piled by Deioenez, and the collection now ron.
tains e,ghty-seven Haydn symphonies To aug
ment the department Of opera and orcbaet-oo1
works he secured IT'S scores in rnanTscTsTt a.
1903 and there is now, in consequences almost
q full representation of the opera con1nosaro -
Importance of the latter part OF t1s ajeI., ~
and nineteenth centuries. An item which Ter