Posted 13 years ago
Leer1962
(1 item)
This book by William Little and William Smith,wooden veneer cover,published by Websters & Skinner and Daniel Steele
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This is a very old songbook. According to "The Musical Quarterly," Vol 23, No. 1, January 1937, article titled "The Easy Instruction" 'A bibliographical Study" by Frank J Metcalf, "partially available on the JSTOR website"
"Most of the copies of "The Easy Instructor" are undated so that it is impossible to ascertain when the first issues was printed." It was purported that the first edition was 1798 but that information came from a report.
source [cookies need to be enabled to read] : http://www.jstor.org/pss/738727
More info from the Eastman School of Music compiled by Standley C. Pekley II:
http://www.esm.rochester.edu/sibley/specialc/shapenotes/
Irving Lowens and Allen P. Britton published a thorough analysis of the different editions of the "The Easy Instructor" in the "Journal of Research in Music Education," Spring, 1953, pp. 30-55. The article is entitled "The Easy Instructor (1798-1831): A history and bibliography of the first shape note tune book." According to the publishing information on the title page that you have posted, this is the edition that Lowens and Britton have labeled "I." It was printed in 1810. Copies of this book seem to be quite scarce. Check WorldCat for the libraries that have it. The University of Michigan seems to have snared most of them.