Atwill, Thomas H. The New-York Collection of Sacred Harmony, containing The necessary Rules of Music with a variety of Psalm & Hymn Tunes set Pieces & Anthems, Many of which are Original: Compiled for the use of Worshipping Assemblies & Singing Societies, From the most approved Ancient & Modern Authors. Albany: Printed by the Author, (ca. 1803). [8981]
The book is covered in a calf or buckskin wrapper, sewn to itself in a zig-zag pattern over the paste-downs. The covers appear to be card and not wood. Oblong 13.25 cm (5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches), lacks all free end papers. VIII., 1-72, 81-104. Defective: lacking the 4 center leaves. Fair. Hardcover.
6 leaves of manuscript music in round notes sewn in at back, with the tunes Cambridge, Ascension, China, North Salem, Watchman, Exhortation, Littleton, and Savannah.
"Published according to Act of Congress."
The first edition was "Engraved for the Editor, by Abner Reed, Lansingburg, 1795," with viii., 104 pp. A second printing was issued in 1802, using the same plates. Reed was also the engraver of this tunebook, identified at the bottom of the Index page.
The Second Edition (1804) had a new title, "The New York & Vermont Collection of Sacred Harmony..." It also had new pagination: viii., [9]-15, [1], 112. It has this prefatory note: "Hitherto known by the title of the 'New-york Collection', since it has been printed by the Author's own hands, have induced him to present to the public this second Edition enlarged and corrected..."
The printing offered to you here has the same page numbers as the 1795 & 1802 printings, uses the same plates, with the change in the imprint to "Printed by the Author." Since the 1802 printing had the Lansingburg imprint, and the Second edition of 1804 has a changed title & pagination, and with the note by Atwill that he had been printing copies "with his own hands," we deem this an 1803 printing, unrecorded. This printing is not in Britton & Lowens, American Sacred Music Imprints, 1698-1810, where the first & second editions are recorded in detail.
The Index claims that the following tunes included here were "never before published." Andover, Addison, Amanda, Brookfield, Boston, Etna, Gratitude, Hillsborough, Millennium, Messiah, Poughkeepsie, Pardoning-Grace, Pomfret, Ripton, Sounding Joy, Suffering Saviour, Spain, Troy, Torringford, Pobsfield, Westpoint, Warren, and Anthem from Isa. 1st.
Thomas H. Atwill (1760-1814), b. Pittsfield, MA; d. Rutland, VT. "A contract [dated Feb. 9, 1801] between the firm of Thomas and Thomas (Isaiah Thomas's branch in Walpole, New Hampshire) and Thomas H. Atwill for the printing of Atwill's New York and Vermont Collection specified that Atwill pay the firm $600 over the period of a year for 4,000 copies of his work. He was also required to furnish the paper! Since this tunebook was printed from engraved plates, supplied by Atwill, and not music type, the $600 figure apparantly represented only the labor and binding costs." - Karl Kroeger, Isaiah Thomas as Music Publisher, American Antiquarian Society.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.