Books on Music

• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Familienbriefe von Richard Wagner, 1832-1874 Alexander Duncker: Berlin, 1907. Small quarto. 304 pp. Frontispiece Portait. Many plates. Gold-stamped linen. Fine. BKS-00160 $50Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen von Richard Wagner E. W. Fritzsch: Leipzig, 1897. Third edition. Octavo. Ten volumes bound in five. Scattered musical examples and 6 fold-out plans for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Three-quarter leather with original marbled boards. Gilt decorative compartments at spine. Marbled fore edges. Edges of bindings a little shelf worn and one volume rubbed on cover. One folding plate with tape repair. Internally fine otherwise, though, and overall a very attractive set.

  Volumes 1-9 were first issued by E.W. Fritzsch between 1871 and 1873, with volume 10 appearing in 1883.
  BKS-14313 $375More Images/Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Mein Leben F. Bruckmann: Munich, 1911. First public edition. Quarto. Two volumes: 870 pp. Gold-stamped cloth. Very good. BKS-05312 $100Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Richard Wagner and the Seamstress: A Collection of Letters for the First Time Published in English Frederick Ungar: New York, 1941. Small octavo. 63 pp. Several caricatures. Buckram. Very good; top border of d/j frayed. BKS-09629 $20Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Richard Wagner's Briefe an Theodor Uhlig, Wilhelm Fischer, Ferdinand Heine Breitkopf & Härtel: Leipzig, 1888. Quarto. 408 pp. Gold-stamped decorated cloth. Edges rubbed.
  Ink on faintly lined blue paper.
  BKS-05319 $40Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen Breitkopf & Härtel, C.F.W. Siegel: Leipzig, nd. Fifth edition. Quarto. Vol 1 only. Deluxe binding, half-vellum. Very good clean copy.
  BKS-05321 $30Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Tagebuchblätter und Briefe: Richard Wagner an Mathilde und an Otto Wesendonk Th. Knaur Nachf: Berlin, nd. Octavo. 375 pp. Leather. Edges rubbed, cover cracked; internally very good.
  BKS-05324 $15Inquire
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  Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg. Große romantische Oper in drei Akten. [Libretto]. C. F. Meyer: Dresden, 1845. first edition. 12mo. 48 pp. Paper wrappers, front not present and back detaching. A somewhat delicate but very nice and clean copy. Marginal spotting to pp. 37-43; tiny chips to corners of pp. 1-2.

  Wagner began work on a prose draft of Tannhäuser in 1842 and completed the libretto in 1843; the finished opera premiered under his baton in 1845. As the work traveled across Europe in subsequent decades Wagner would revise it heavily; in Paris, for instance, it was translated into French and gained a ballet.
  BKS-15255 $150Inquire
• Wagner, Richard (1813-1883) and Friedrich NIETZSCHE The Nietzsche-Wagner Correspondence (Introduction by H.L. Mencken) Edited by Elizabeth Goerster-Nietzsche. Translated by Caroline V. Kerr. Duckworth & Co.: London, 1922. Quarto. 312 pp. Cloth. Fine. BKS-05330 $40Inquire
• Wallace, William (1860-1940) Richard Wagner: As He Lived Harper & Brothers: New York, 1925. Octavo. 313 pp. Cloth. Spine tips ragged, otherwise fine. BKS-05331 $20Inquire
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  Warburg, Aby (1866-1929) I Costumi Teatrali per gli intermezzi del 1589. Tipografia Galletti e Cocci: Firenze, 1895. Quarto. 43 pp. + xxii pp. [eight plates of costumes]. Half-calf with marbled paper boards and red label at spine. Gilt top edge and decorative end papers. Original blue wrapper bound in. In excellent condition and attractively bound. Plates very clean except for some minor foxing to Plate VIII.

  A fine copy of this scarce book.

  Aby Warburg was a German art historian whose work explored the representation of classical subjects in later art. He founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warbug, a private library that would later furnish the holdings of London's Warburg Institute.

  BKS-14692 $350More Images/Inquire
• Wasielewski, Wilh. Jos. von (1822-1896) Die Violine und ihre Meister Breitkopf & Härtel: Leipzig, 1883. Second edition. Large octavo. 567 pp. + a four-page list of violin methods. 3/4-leather. Corners rubbed, otherwise good. BKS-05261 $90Inquire
• Weaver, William The Golden Century of Italian Opera, from Rossini to Puccini Thames & Hudson: New York, 1980. Large quarto. 256 pp. Many illustrations, color and black-and-white. Red Buckram. Excellent. BKS-09701 $30Inquire
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  Weber, Carl Maria von (1786-1826) Reise-Briefe von Carl Maria von Weber an seine Gattin Carolina. Edited by seinem Engel. Alphons Dürr: Leipzig, 1886. first edition. Small octavo. vii pp. + 224 pp. Printed in Fraktur. Olive green buckram boards with gilt embossing. Spine with gilt embellishment. Decorative end-papers and red edges. In excellent condition. First free end-paper detached. Inscription to former owner on half-title page, dated 1891.

  A charming and beautifully bound little volume of Weber's travel letters to his wife. Many modern reprints and online versions exist but the first edition is quite scarce.
  BKS-04523 $125More Images/Inquire
• Wechsberg, Joseph The Glory of the Violin Viking: New York, 1973. first edition. Large octavo. 314 pp. 8 pages of illustrations. As new. BKS-01142 $40Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Donizetti Pantheon Books: New York, 1963. first edition. Large octavo. 453 pp. Many plates. Cloth with d/j. Fine. REF-07375 $60Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Rossini: a Biography Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1968. Large octavo. 560 pp. Color portrait, many plates. Cloth with d/j. Fine. REF-04433 $60Inquire
• Weinstock, Herbert Vincenzo Bellini: His Life and His Operas Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1971. first edition. Large octavo. 546 pp. Many plates. Cloth with d/j. As new. BKS-09315 $75Inquire
• Wenberg, Thomas James Violin & Bow Makers of Minnesota Thomas James. The Schubert Club Museum: St. Paul, MN, 1988. Quarto. 82 pp. Extensive b/w illustrations. Paper wraps. Fine. BKS-05065 $60Inquire
• Werfel, Franz Verdi: a Novel of the Opera Translated by Helen Jessiman. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1925. Octavo. 438 pp. Buckram. Fine. BKS-04987 $15Inquire
• Westerman, Gerhart von Knaurs Opernführer: eine Geschicht der Opera, mit einem Geleitwort von Hans Knappertsbusch Droemersche Verlagsanstalt: Munich, 1952. Octavo. 545 pp. Plates. Musical examples. Cloth with chipped d/j, otherwise very good. BKS-04988 $15Inquire
• William Lewis & Son The Lewis Collection: Works of the Makers of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries William Lewis & Son: Chicago, 1953. Octavo. 52 pp. 7 b/w plates. Lacks wrappers. Cover pulling at bottom staple, otherwise fine. BKS-05141 $30Inquire
• Winternitz, Emanuel Gaudenzio Ferrari, His School and the Early History of the Violin / Gaudenzio Ferrari, la sua scuola e la protostoria del violino Società Conserv. Opere Arte Monumenti Valsesia: Varallo Sesia, 1967. Octavo. 64 pp. 20 b/w plates of paintings showing stringed instruments. Wrappers. Fine.
  In English and Italian.
  BKS-05267 $50Inquire
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  Winternitz, Emanuel Musical Instruments of the Western World McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York, 1966. Folio. 259 pp. Magnificent color plates throughout by photographer Lilly Stunzi. Cloth with orignal d/j (slight wear to edges). As new except for d/j.

  Winternitz was the curator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and selected examples from that famed collection for this book. Includes a wide variety of instruments.
  BKS-10760 $150Inquire
• Worsthorne, Simon Towneley Venetian Opera in the Seventeenth Century Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1954. Quarto. 194 pp. Many b/w plates, including fold-out map of Venice, and musical examples. Cloth. Fine. BKS-09708 $100Inquire
• Wotquenne, Alfred Thematische Verzeichnis der Werke von C. Ph. E. Bach Breitkopf & Härtel: Wiesbaden
  2 copies
  BKS-11803 $100Inquire
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  Wotquenne, Alfred Thematische Verzeichnis der Werke von Chr. W. v. Gluck Breitkopf & Härtel: Leipzig, 1904. Octavo. 249 pp. Paper boards, some shelf wear, very slightly sprung. Very good condition.
  BKS-10335 $100Inquire
• Wurlitzer, Rudolph Rare Violins, Violas and Violoncellos of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.: Cincinnati, 1931. 210 pp. Many black and white plates plus one color plate of the "Chant du Cygne". Wrappers. Spine a little frayed but otherwise an unusually fine copy. BKS-10310 $350Inquire
• Wurlitzer, Rudolph Co. Masterpieces of the Great Violin Makers Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.: New York, 1917. Second edition, the "the instruments mentioned in red have been acquired since our first edition of 1917". Quarto. 63 pp. 11 colored plates 2 little b/w photos of Wurlitzer shops. Cloth. Stained boards and chipped spine. Scarce. BKS-05269 $150Inquire