SELECTION OF SACRED MUSIC, CA. 1800

This work, a compilation of pieces that were also issued separately as folio-sized sheet-music, lacks title-page, date, and continuous pagination. However, at the bottom of the tune called DARWALLS (1. [18]), the following explanation appears: "This Selection of Sacred Music is expressly Arranged for the Voice and Piano-Forte, and Intended to be Sung in Private Families, it will consist of Twenty-four Numbers at 25 Cents each, The Music shall be selected from the Works of the most Celebrated Composers of Devine Music, And calculated for Performers in general. Sold at I. and M. Paffs.' In addition, leaves [12], [16], [20], and [22] list the Paffs as sellers of the music. The copy of the 'Selection' in NRU-Mus, containing 20 compositions, can thus be seen to be part of a proposed 24-piece whole. (Wolfe 10194 describes a copy containing 10 of the 20 compositions in the NRU-Mus copy but gives no location.) Wolfe's Index of Publishers, Engravers and Printers, p. 1154-55, shows that the partnership of John and Michael Paff was located at 127 Broadway, New York City, from 1799 to 1803, and elsewhere in the city from 1803 to 1810. Music on leaves 9, [11], and [17] is marked as 'Arranged for the Voice and Piano Forte by P[eter] Weldon,' described by Wolfe as a 'musician, music teacher, music publisher, and composer' who was 'active in New York from 1797 until 1810' (p. 948). According to Wolfe, Weldon 'probably arranged' the 'Selection, presumably meaning that he also made the voice-and-keyboard arrange-ments of the rest of the pieces. In the absence of direct evidence that he compiled it, the 'Selection' is listed here under its fabricated title. Sonneck-Upton, p. 197, dates the Hymn on Death, 1. [19], as 'published possibly as early 1799.' Wolfe's dating of the whole collection 'ca 1800' is followed here.