28 February 1765

A Hummel advertisement for Mozart’s op. 2

Oprechte Haerlemse Courant, no. 9, Thu, 28 Feb 1765

[2]
     Op heden word door B. Hummel, Muziekverkooper in ’s Hage, aan de Heeren Intekenaaren,
tegens teruggeevinge van de Quitantie, / afgeleverd: Schwinde, 6 Simph. Op. 2.; dit Werk is na
dezen Dag by gemelde en by J. J. Hummel t’Amsterdam à f 6 te bekomen. / Laatstgemelde geeft
heden mede uyt: 6 Sonaten pour le Clavecin accompagnées d’un Violon ou Flute Trav. & d’un
Violoncelle, / composées par Abel, Op. 5., à f 4·10. Nardini, Concerts pour le Violon, Op. 1., à f 7. Airs
Italiens des Operas Cleonice, / Leucippo & Siroe (executée à Londres) avec les Parties separées,
à f 5. Mozart. 2 Sonats pour le Clavecin avec l’accompagn. / de Violon, Op. 2., à f 2·10: Deze is de
Jongeling van 8 Jaaren, waarvan onlangs in de Haerlemse Courant, onder het Articul van / Londen,
is gemeld. Noch geeft dezelve gratis uyt eene nieuwe Muziek-Catalogus.

Oprechte Haerlemse Courant, 1765-02-28b

[translation:]

⁣     B. Hummel, music seller in The Hague, will now deliver to subscribers upon return of a receipt:
Schwinde, 6 Symphonies, op. 2; this work can be obtained from tomorrow at the aforementioned
and at J. J. Hummel in Amsterdam for 6 guilder. The latter also currently has on offer: 6 Sonatas
for keyboard with accompaniment of violin or flute, composed by Abel, Op. 5, for 4 guilder 10 stiver.
Nardini, Concertos for Violin, Op. 1, for 7 guilder. Italian arias from the operas Cleonice, Leucippo,
& Siroe (performed in London) in parts, for 5 guilder. Mozart, 2 Sonatas for Keyboard with
accompaniment of violin, Op. 2, for 2 guilder 10 stiver: This is the 8-year-old boy mentioned
recently in the London article in the Haerlemse Courant. The same [J. J. Hummel] is also offering
a new music catalog, gratis.

Commentary

The Thuringian Johann Julius Hummel (1728–1798), who settled in Amsterdam around 1748, became the most important music publisher and dealer in that city in the second half of the eighteenth century. His younger brother Burchard (1731–1797), the “B. Hummel” of the advertisement transcribed above, ran a music shop of his own in The Hague. Burchard is the “Hummel” mentioned in Leopold Mozart’s travel notes from The Hague (Briefe, i:214; Schurig 1920, 42–43), and it was J. J. Hummel’s shop on the Vijgendam in Amsterdam that sold tickets for the concerts given by the Mozart children in that city in Jan and Feb 1766 (Dokumente, 50–51). J. J. Hummel published Wolfgang’s 8 Variations in G Major for solo keyboard on the Dutch song “Laat ons juichen, Batavieren!” by Christian Ernst Graf (or “Graaf,” 1723–1804), K. 24, and B. Hummel published Wolfgang’s 7 Variations in D Major for solo keyboard on the song “Willem van Nassau,” K. 25; both pieces were written in honor of the installation of William V, Prince of Orange (1748–1806) as Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic on his eighteenth birthday, 8 Mar 1766. J. J. Hummel also published Wolfgang’s Six Sonatas for Keyboard with Accompaniment of Violin, K. 26–31, dedicated to William’s older sister Carolina, Princess of Nassau-Weilburg, the last of William’s four regents during his minority (his father had died in 1751, when William was only three).

K25, tp (adjusted)

Mozart, 7 Variations in D Major for solo keyboard on the song “Willem van Nassau,” K. 25
(collection of Richard Mackey)

At the time of this advertisement in the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant on 28 Feb 1765, the Mozarts were still in London; they returned to the continent on 1 Aug of that year, arriving in the Dutch Republic in early Sep. The sonatas mentioned in the advertisement are K. 8 and 9 (Wolfgang’s op. 2), first published in Paris in 1764 (see our entry for 9 Apr 1764). Leopold retained the plates for this edition and transferred them to the London publisher Bremner, who issued copies of op. 2 printed from the same plates, but under his own imprint (see the facsimile of Bremner’s title page in Haberkamp 1986, ii:7). J. J. Hummel is not known to have published an independent edition of op. 2, so he must have been selling copies printed from the original plates; given that he apparently had an ongoing connection with Bremner and sold other Bremner editions (see below), it seems most likely that he was selling copies from Bremner’s printing of Wolfgang’s op. 2.

The other composers and works mentioned in this advertisement are:

Friedrich Schwindl (also “Schwindel,” 1737–1786)

6 Symphonies, op. 2 (Burchard Hummel, 1764; RISM A/I, SS 2549a; Johansson 1972, ii:21–22)

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787)

Six Trios for Keyboard with Violin or Flute, op. 5 (J. J. Hummel, 1765; not in RISM; Johansson 1972, ii:23)

Pietro Nardini (1722–1793)

Six Violin Concertos, op. 1 (J. J. Hummel, 1765 [pdf]; RISM A/I, N 40; Johansson 1972, ii:22)

Arias from

• Cleonice (probably the version given in London in 1763 with music by Felice Giardini and Ferdinando Bertoni, probably in the edition for voice and keyboard by Bremner, RISM B/II)

• Leucippo (likewise probably in Bremner’s edition, RISM A/I, H 2256)

• Siroe (probably the version given in London in 1763 with music by Giardini, likewise probably in Bremner’s edition, RISM A/I, G 1865)

(None of the aria editions are mentioned in Johansson 1972.)

The catalog mentioned in the advertisement may be the one found with an exemplar of Hummel’s edition of C. A. Campioni’s Six sonates a deux violons & violoncello obligato, op. 7 (S-Skma, W2-R; RISM A/I, C 662), which probably dates from early 1765 (see Johansson 1972, i:22–23; Johansson does not include a facsimile of this catalog in her vol. 2).

Regarding the earlier article in the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant referred to at the end of the advertisement, see our entry for 16 Feb 1765.

The same page of the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant that includes the advertisement transcribed above also contains the earliest known announcement of the Dutch translation of Leopold Mozart’s Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (as Grondig onderwys in het behandelen der viool), published by Johannes Enschedé in Haarlem (see document 1 in our entry on that translation).

Notes

The Oprechte Haerlemse Courant was founded in 1656, and is said to be the oldest existing newspaper still in publication (it is now incorporated into Haarlems Dagblad). The form and spelling of the Courant’s title varied over the years. We give the spelling here as it appears in the masthead of the issues we cite from the 1760s; but one also sometimes sees “Haarlemse”, “Haarlemsche”, and “Opregte” in catalogs and reference works. At the time of the advertisement transcribed here, the newspaper appeared three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and the name of the weekday was incorporated into the title; thus the masthead of the issue cited here (no. 9, Thu, 28 Feb 1765) actually reads “Oprechte Donderdagse Haerlemse Courant.” Dokumente and Neue Folge retain the name of the weekday in titles for this newspaper and other Dutch newspapers that followed this practice, but in cataloging and scholarship today, it is more usual to omit the weekday, in order to clarify the newspaper’s identity; in other words, the “Oprechte Saturdagse Haerlemse Courant” is the same publication as the “Oprechte Donderdagse Haerlemse Courant,” which may not be immediately clear to non-Dutch speakers.

The unit of currency in the advertisement (abbreviated “f”) is the Dutch “gulden,” which consisted of 20 “stuiver” (also at that time “stuyver”, generally written in English as “stiver”). Because “gulden,” abbreviated “f” or “fl” (from “florin”), was also at that time a common denomination of currency and unit of account in the German lands, one could argue for retaining “gulden” in the translation here; however, we have opted to follow standard modern practice, translating Dutch “gulden” as “guilder.”

We are grateful to Rupert Ridgewell for his help in identifying the editions listed in this advertisement, and to Richard Mackey for providing a photo of his exemplar of K. 25.

Bibliography

Haberkamp, Gertraut. 1986. Die Erstdrucke der Werke von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 2 vols. Musikbibliographische Arbeiten, edited by Rudolf Elvers, vol. 10. Tutzing: Hans Schneider.

Johansson, Cari. 1972. J. J. & B. Hummel. Music-Publishing and Thematic Catalogues. 3 vols. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.

Schurig, Arthur. 1920. Leopold Mozart Reise-Aufzeichnungen 1763–1771. 27 faksimilierte Blätter. Dresden: Oscar Laube. [Hathi]

Credit: Kris Steyaert

Authors: Kris Steyaert, Dexter Edge

Link(s):

Delpher

Search Term: mozart

Source Library:

Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, KW C 37

Categories: Reception

First Published: Tue, 29 Aug 2017

Print Citation:

Steyaert, Kris, and Dexter Edge. 2017. “A Hummel advertisement for Mozart’s op. 2 (28 February 1765).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 29 August 2017. https://www.mozartdocuments.org/documents/28-february-1765/

Web Citation:

Steyaert, Kris, and Dexter Edge. 2017. “A Hummel advertisement for Mozart’s op. 2 (28 February 1765).” In: Mozart: New Documents, edited by Dexter Edge and David Black. First published 29 August 2017. [direct link]