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Prelleur, Peter (1705-1741)
The Modern Musick-Master or, the Universal Musician, containing, I. An Introduction to Singing...II. Directions for Playing on the Flute...III. The Newest Method for Learners on the German Flute...IV. Instructions upon the Hautboy...V. The Art of Playing
Printing-Office in Bow Church Yard: London, 1731. 47 + 48 + 48 + 48 + 48 + 48 + 20 + 4 pp. Modern full brown pebbled morocco. Spine with gilt lines and raised bands with titles on red leather. In very good condition with a handsome binding. Small stain on frontispiece. Occasional spotting. One folding plate fully detached. (Use scrollbar beneath thumbails to see all seven images).Peter Prelleur’s major legacy consists of this work which was a complete guide to playing all the popular instruments of his day. The singing manual alone was considered by many for as long as three hundred years to be the most important singing manual. According to Alexander Hyatt King in the 1964 facsimile, the compendium provides a useful guide to English performance practice of the 1730's, especially in the matter of grace-notes. He also notes that it was published in 1730 but only one copy of this issue is known. Thirteen copies are recorded of the 1731 reissue and thus, this copy is thus apparently one of those thirteen.
Prelleur himself was an important musical figure in the early 1700s in London. He was an organist, composer, tutor, and author. Of French Huguenot extraction, he changed his original name of Pierre to Peter. He held the position of organist at Christ Church which was one of the grandest positions in London; its organ, built for the church in 1735 by Richard Bridge, was the largest in Georgian England, with more than a thousand pipes and it is known that Handel had played on it.
Prelleur however, also led a curious double music life. In the evenings, he played in pubs, in particular at the Angel and Crown tavern in Whitechapel. An advertisement in the London Daily Post of August 21 1739 gives a flavor of those evening shows: Rope dancing, posture masters, singing and dancing, serious and comic. The whole to conclude with a new entertainment called Harlequin Hermit or The Arabian Courtezan … with a complete band of music, consisting of kettle drums, trumpets, French horns, hautboys and violins. The music by an eminent master. That master was Peter Prelleur of course.
