A Selection of Irish Melodies: With Symphonies and Accompaniments

Philadelphia: G.E. Blake's Musical Library and Circulating Library, C [1810]. First American Edition. Folio [35cm x 26cm].10 parts bound into one volume; the 9 parts of the Irish Melodies,comprising 6 "volumes", with title pages, and one volume of Moore's Sacred Songs bound in at the rear. A rather nice, heavily gilded old sheep half binding over marbled boards, rubbed with some fraying and incidental cosmetic splitting to the spine head, corners scuffed and rounded. A binding that has done well to travel 200 years intact, but which hasn't simply strolled all the way here. The rather low grade pastedowns and flyleaves have foxed, but the text block is largely clear of anything other than occasional, mostly marginal foxing. Internally clean, with some occasional creasing and the odd page of slightly faded printing, probably more testament to Blake's eagerness to get the individual parts out than any subsequent wear, the impression on the two full page plates is a little hit and miss too, most notably the "After The Battle" engraving by Pocock and Kearny. Remnants of the original blue paper wraps linger in the gutters of some volumes. A strong and solid collection.
George Blake, a British emigree to Philadelphia, began his music publishing venture in 1802, from the address where he had previously taught flute on South 3rd St. His obtaining the rights to publish the fabulously successful Moore and Stevenson Irish Melodies, already a bestseller on the streets of London and Dublin, was a tremendous coup that very much made his name in the early years of his extensive career. Between 1808 and 1825 he continued to distribute the Melodies in various forms and formats, and during this period he also branched out into the works of Handel (he was the first US publisher of "The Messiah" in 1830), a number of pro-American/Anti-British printings of camp songs and marching songs were also produced, and by the 1820's Blake was claiming to offer the largest selection of printed music in the US. The rapidity and vigour of his output means that the majority of his work is undated, and can only be pinned into a time period by factors like textual changes and the address at which he was based. In 1813 Blake expanded out of his 3rd St. address, and into a larger property at 13 South 5th Street. These printings of Irish Melodies, lavishly decorated and densely printed, all bear the 3rd St. address on their engraved title pages, indicating that they were printed between 1808 and 1813, placing them in the first run of publication; the Sacred Songs volume bound in at the rear bears the 5th St. address, indicating it was printed sometime after (although it is noticeable that the price of $4 per issue remains consistent). The first four issues are numbered by hand to the title pages, which looks to have been a Blake in-house convention to allow for printing of general rather than specific title pages for each issue. Each issue contains an index of songs and a description of where they fit into the canon. There is a definite case to be made that the popularity and accessibility of "Irish Melodies" contributed strongly to a cohesive sense of Irish cultural identity within the US. Any issues of the Phildelphia printings of Irish Melodies are thin on the ground, a complete collection even more so.