SIGNED BY HAYDN: FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST SET OF CANZONETTAS

HAYDN, Franz Joseph. Dr. Haydn’s Original Canzonettas, for the Voice with an Accompaniment for the Piano Forte. Dedicated to Mrs. John Hunter. London: for the Author, Corri & Dussek & Co., [1794]. Folio, disbound; pp. 31. Housed in custom clamshell box. $13,500.

First edition, fully engraved, signed on the title page by Haydn, his signature fine and bold with a fine flourish.

Haydn's English songs, composed during his residence in London, are mostly settings of lyrical texts by the dedicatee, Mrs. John Hunter. "[The English canzonettas] are on a higher level than his two German collections. He may have had difficulty in composing to words in a language which he was far from mastering; but the character of the songs is different and the musical setting clearly more ambitious. The accompaniment is much more elaborate, the texture and harmonies more refined and the melodies themselves more expressive than in the earlier songs" (New Grove, 8:357). RISM H2656. Hirsch III: 799.

Bottom third of final leaf reinforced on verso, with minor loss to music text on recto; a few tiny tears to preceding leaf. Light offsetting. A very good copy.