Item Detail
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Ledsham, Ian
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A Catalogue of the Shaw-Hellier Collection in the Music Library, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the University of Birmingham
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Book
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Aldershot, Brookfield, Vt.
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c1999
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Ashgate
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xxx, 385 p. : ill., music ; 23 cm.
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English
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1859283861
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Music--Bibliography--Catalogs.
Music--Manuscripts--England--Birmingham--Catalogs. -
Compositions; Music Manuscripts; Music Libraries; Music Collections; Shaw-Hellier Collection; Barber Institute of Fine Arts; Birmingham
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ML 136 .B55 U64 1999
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Ledsham, Ian, comp. A Catalogue of the Shaw-Hellier Collection in the Music Library, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, The University of Birmingham. Aldershot, Brookfield, Vermont, Singapore and Sydney: Ashgate Publishing, 1999.
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A thorough catalog of the Shaw-Hellier collection from the Wombourne Wodehouse in the Staffordshire countryside collected by Sir Samuel Hellier (1738-1784), with a few additions made by his successors Reverend Thomas Shaw-Hellier and Colonel Thomas Brandon Shaw-Hellier. The entire collection was transferred to the University of Birmingham in 1986. Barring a very few scholarly surveys of the collection and an appraisal made in 1982 it has lain unaltered for the larger part of the last 200 years. As such it represents an interesting study in attitudes to music in an English country house.
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Sir Samuel Hellier had a particular affection for the works of Handel and therefore much of the collection is Handel manuscripts. However, Hellier's musical interests were by no means myopic. The collection includes sonatas by Corelli and Geminiani; Pleasure Gardens songs by the likes of Arne, JC. Bach and others; as well as some items which do not appear to have survived elsewhere. The other significant contributor to the collection was Colonel Thomas Brandon Shaw-Hellier, Commandant of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall from 1887-1892. He added to the collection a considerable amount of military music from the nineteenth century.
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The volume begins with a Foreword by Dr. Percy Young, which provides a brief biographical portrait of Samuel Hellier. Then an Introduction by the compiler describes the history of the collection. Next, a detailed section titled The Arrangement of the Catalogue explains in-depth the numbering system used, and the content of each entry. The catalogue follows, arranged in numerical order according to the system begun by Hellier himself. According to this system, each separately bound unit, (regardless of whether it is a single bound collection of several separate works or an individually bound orchestral part of a larger work,) is given a unique number. Because this system does not group works in any larger arrangement, such as by composer or genre, access is provided by the following series of indexes: 1. Index of composers, 2. Index of titles, 3. Index of publishers, printers, engravers etc., 4. Index of other names, 5. Index of manuscripts, and 6. Index of incipits (which are provided for works Ledsham has not identified, or which are unique to the collection).
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According to the review by David Hunter, Ledsham omitted an important research aid because he does not include any references to Nicholas Temperley's list of church-music publications in The Music of the English Parish Church (2 vols. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979]), now updated by Temperley's The Hymn Tune Index: A Census of English-Language Hymn Tunes in Printed Sources from 1535 to 1820 (4 vols. [New York: Oxford University Press, 1998]), even though Hellier subscribed to or purchased half a dozen such publications.
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Hunter, David. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 57 (March 2001): 610-11.http://www.jstor.org/stable/900806
Jones, Peter Ward. Music and Letters 82 (May 2001): 312-14.http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526074 -
BYU Mus Ref
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3694