Wyeth, John. Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music. Selected from the most Eminent and Approved Authors in that Science, for the use of Christian Churches of Every Denomination, Singing-Schools & Private Societies. Together with a plain and concise Introduction to the Grounds of Music, and Rules for Learners. Harrisburgh, Penn.: Printed (typographically) at Harrisburgh, Penn. by John Wyeth, Printer and Bookseller, and sold by him, and by the principal Booksellers in the United States, 1810. First Edition. [8771]
Full leather with old crude hand-sewn repairs, front detached and in two pieces (once sewn together but now again separated), all very worn. Oblong 13.5 cm (5 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches), contemporary notes in several hands on the end papers. 120 pp., text complete. Lacks the rear free end papers. Good. Hardcover.
Stanislaw 296. "Widely copied by the German four-shape book compilers."
Britton, Lowens & Crawford, American Sacred Music Imprints 1698-1810, no. 541. "129 compositions, incl. 5 anthems & 3 set pieces, for 4 voices, some for 3 & a few for 2; full text."
"John Wyeth (b. Cambridge, Mass., 31 March 1770; d. Philadelphia, Pa., 23 Jan 1858) was a publisher, real estate developer, and first postmaster of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Wyeth left New England as a young man, traveling briefly to Santo Domingo, then to Philadelphia, before settling in Harrisburg (1792). There he became publisher of a newspaper, The Oracle of Dauphin, that ran until 1827. Wyeth, a Unitarian, was a leading citizen of Harrisburg before moving to Philadelphia around 1826. His musical compilations were highly successful: according to one report, 125,000 copies of the many editions of Wyeth's Repository were sold and 25,000 of Wyeth's Repository, Part Second." - ibid.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.