A printed or manuscript collection of musical works selected from a particular repertory. Most anthologies contain works by more than one composer. Certain types of collection, which may be anthologies in the broadest sense – folksong collections, tune books, songsters, hymnals, psalters, pasticcios, ballad operas, organ and lute intabulations, and theory or performance manuals with music examples – are not considered in this article, which is confined to printed anthologies of music roughly contemporary with date of publication and containing works by different composers. For manuscript anthologies, see Sources, MS; for printed anthologies, see Editions, historical.
The value of printed anthologies for the musical scholar and performer goes beyond the individual musical items contained, for the entire make-up of each one reflects the judgment of a knowledgeable contemporary, its compiler, of the interests, tastes and needs of the musical public of that time and place. Thus anthologies can suggest many aspects of social usage. Sometimes the very wording of an anthology title can offer a surprisingly vivid picture of the circumstances of its intended use, as in Apollonian Harmony: a Collection of … Glees, Catches, Madrigals, Rounds, & Canons … Sung at the Nobleman’s Catch Club, London, c1790, ‘the words consistent with female delicacy’; or Parlor Gems: a Choice Selection of Music, Instrumental and Vocal, edited by C.M. Cady, New York, 1875, ‘to which is added original charades for parlor performance’.
Throughout the 16th century, beginning with the earliest printed anthology (Petrucci’s Odhecaton, 1501, which contains for the most part French polyphonic chansons), it is most common for anthology contents to be chosen from a specific and cohesive repertory, as in Petrucci’s other early publications devoted entirely to masses, motets, frottolas or settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Relatively few anthologies offer mixed contents, so that collections such as Motetti novi e chanzoni franciose (Venice, 15203) remain exceptional, while collections of separate popular forms proliferate. Attaingnant alone published over 70 separate chanson collections between 1528 and 1552. Publication of madrigal collections began in 1530 (Madrigali de diversi musici, 15302) and grew to dominate the secular music anthologies of the second half of the 16th century and the opening decades of the 17th. Instrumental anthologies, among which those for solo lute predominate, are far fewer than vocal ones, but it is not uncommon for titles to state that the vocal contents are also suitable for performance on instruments. Bicinia, especially instrumental ones, appeared frequently in the second half of the century, with one collection (155924, containing works by Bernardino Lupacchino, G.M. Tasso and anonymi) attaining an astounding publication record: 20 extant editions by 14 different publishers in six cities, appearing between 1559 and 1701.
In the last decades of the 16th century, and continuing well into the first half of the 17th, collections of religious but non-liturgical vocal music became more popular, such as the several books of laude printed by Gardane in Rome between 1583 and 1591. Many compilers assembled collections of favourite secular music which they supplied with new religious texts, one example of which is provided by the publishing history of the famous madrigal collection Il trionfo di Dori (159211). It became immediately popular and was reprinted by its original publisher, Gardane of Venice, in 1599, and published in Antwerp by Phalèse in 1595, 1596, 1601, 1614 and 1628. It also served as model for the English madrigal collection The Triumphes of Oriana (160116) in honour of Queen Elizabeth. In 1619 it appeared in Leipzig but with changed texts, entitled Triumphi de Dorothea (161916). Several extensive liturgical collections were also produced in the first half of the 17th century, one of the best known being the Promptuarii musici which appeared between 1611 and 1627, edited by Abraham Schadaeus. It is in four volumes, arranged according to the liturgical year, and contains 436 compositions by 114 composers.
Anthology publications of the second half of the 17th century clearly reflect a growing market for music suitable for domestic music-making, and especially for performers of modest technical attainment. Music of this sort had by no means been neglected earlier, but from this period onwards it began to occupy an increasing proportion of anthology publications. Collections of simple music for few parts became prominent, such as the several multi-volume publications by the house of Ballard in Paris, of which one, Airs de différents autheurs à deux parties, ran to 37 volumes between 1658 and 1694. It is significant that the medium alone gained this popularity, as the composers are not identified. The increasing attention of publishers to amateur needs is also shown in the greater tendency to include both vocal and instrumental works in the same collection, and in the frequent addition of instructional material to assist beginners, a practice that continued throughout the 20th century. Both tendencies are apparent in A Musicall Banquet (16516), which contains lessons for the lyra viol, a collection of dances for treble and bass viol, catches and rounds for three and four voices, and ‘some few rules and directions for such as learne to sing, or to play on the viol’.
In the last decade of the 17th century the demand for collections of new music was large enough to create a new type of publication: the periodical of music scores. The earliest was probably Mercurius Musicus: or, the Monthly Collection of New Teaching Songs (London, 1699–1702). Before this many successful publications had extended to cumulatively long series (such as the Ballard Airs cited above), but the continuation had probably not been planned in the first place. An ambiguous case, perhaps the first yearbook of music, was another Ballard publication, Airs sérieux et à boire. Irregular previous publications of this title were succeeded in 1694 by a volume ‘pour les mois d’octobre, novembre et decembre 1694’, and in 1695 appeared a volume ‘pour l’année 1695’, to start an annual series which continued until 1724. Throughout the 18th century many dozens of periodical publications of music were initiated, catering for a wide variety of musical interests and performing media. Only a small number of these ambitious starts, however, continued beyond a few years, and many ceased publication within a year. One of the most successful was Journal hebdomadaire ou recueil d’airs choisis dans les opéra-comiques (Paris, 1764–83), which continued as Journal hebdomadaire, composé d’airs d’opéra et opéra comiques from 1784 until 1808.
Separate anthologies in the 18th century show the same emphasis on music for home performance, with greater numbers of collections offering arrangements as well as, or often instead of, original compositions for favourite instruments, such as the flute, harp, violin and guitar. Collections of piano music and solo songs are prominent in publications of the later decades of the century, becoming the most common sorts of anthology in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the latter part of the 18th century Charles Burney and G.B. Martini published anthologies devoted to music of the past. Curiosity about early music had taken root in England when the Academy of Ancient Music was founded in the 1720s. Interest in early repertory had a gradual but increasing effect on anthology contents in the 19th century, which tended to include music from earlier periods along with contemporary pieces.
Music anthologies issued periodically remained a popular publication type in the 19th century, although most titles were short-lived. By the early 20th century Krehbiel (Grove2, iii, 687–8) could refer to a large number of periodicals ‘filled with music for choirs, brass bands, banjo and mandoline clubs, small dance orchestras and the like … Few are devoted to the art in its highest phases’. The periodical of music became virtually extinct during the later part of the 20th century (although several music literature periodicals include music scores occasionally or regularly). Among the few new ventures was the Journal of Music Scores, a publication of the American Society of Composers which began publication in 1973.
Throughout the centuries there have been many anthologies of special interest because of their selection of some particular focus for the contents. One type is the musical equivalent of the Festschrift or ‘In memoriam’ volume of essays. An early example is Le septiesme livre contenant vingt et quatre chansons … composées par feu de bonne memoire et tres excellent en musicque Josquin des Pres, avecq troix epitaphes dudict Josquin (154515). Another is In epitaphiis Gasparis Othmari (155430). Choice Psalmes (16484) includes ‘divers elegies, set in musick by sev’rall friends, upon the death of William Lawes’. This tradition has continued in the 20th century with such anthologies as Hommage à Gabriel Fauré (Revue musicale: supplement to Année iii, Oct 1922); Homage to Paderewski (New York and London, 1942); and Words and Music: the Composer’s View: a Medley of Problems and Solutions, Compiled in Honor of G. Wallace Woodworth by Sundry Hands (Cambridge, MA, 1972). There are also numerous examples of anthologies honouring non-musical figures, such as The Triumphes of Oriana (cited above), Choral Songs by Various Writers and Composers, in Honour of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (London, 1899) and Garland for the Queen (London, 1953). A new area of interest is demonstrated by the publication of Women Composers (Boston, 1996).
Another class of anthology centres on a single event, such as the one commemorating five Protestant martyrs: Suyte du premier livre des chansons spirituelles: contenant cinq chansons spirituelles composées par cinq escholiers detenus prisonniers à Lyon pour le tesmoignage de nostre Seigneur Iesus Christ, en l’an 1553, au moys de juing & qui depuis souffrirent mort cruelle soustenans constamment la querelle de l’Evangile (155419). There are many others whose entire contents are the music performed on a specified occasion, such as a funeral (e.g. Exequiae saxonicae, 160614); a wedding (e.g. Musiche fatte nelle nozze dello illustrissimo Duca di Firenze il signor Cosimo de Medici et della illustrissima consorte sua mad. Leonora da Tolleto, 153925); or a victory celebration (e.g. Breve racconto della festa o ballo fattasi in Napoli per l’allegrezza della salute acquistara della Maestà Cattolica di Filippo III. d’Austria, rè delle Spagne … al I di marzo, 1620, 162014). Broader but still specialized coverage is offered by a large number of anthologies which purport to present the repertory of particular places, organizations or individual performers, such as: Musica de’ virtuosi della florida capella dell’illustrissimo et eccellentis. S. Duca di Baviera (156919) or Farinelli’s Celebrated Songs (London, c1736–55).
Some vocal anthologies gain added literary interest by presenting a collection of texts by a single poet. Examples of such collections are Odes d’Anacréon, traduites en français, avec le texte grec (Paris, 1798); Herrn Professor Gellerts Oden und Liedern nebst einigen Fabeln (Leipzig, 1759); Songs from the Published Writings of Alfred Tennyson (London, 1880); and The Joyce Book (London, 1933). A small category of anthologies, but one of particular interest, presents settings of the same text or topic by different composers, as in L’amorosa Ero (158817); Sdegnosi ardori (158517); Rosetum Marianum (16047); Añgst der Helleñ und Friede der Selleñ, das ist: der CXVI. Psalm (162314); and Vierzehn Compositionen zu Schillers Ode an die Freude (Hamburg, c1800).
R. Eitner and others: Bibliographie der Musik-Sammelwerke des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1877/R)
F. Lesure, ed.: Recueils imprimés, XVIe et XVIIe siècles, RISM, B/I/1 (1960)
F. Lesure, ed.: Recueils imprimés, XVIIIe siècle, RISM, B/II (1964); suppl. in Notes, xxviii (1972), 397–418
S.E. Murray: Anthologies of Music: an Annotated Index (Detroit, 1987)
G.R. Hill and N.L. Stephens, eds.: Collected Editions, Historical Series & Sets, & Monuments of Music: a Bibliography (Berkeley, 1997)
SYDNEY ROBINSON CHARLES/R