Poésie

1779 · 2334 — <p>I. Large 8vo pp. 4; printed within decorative border with woodcut head- and tailpieces; clean and crisp in contemporary Italian decorative wrappers; II. Large 8vo pp. 7 1 blank; decorative border to p. 2 woodcut head and tailpieces; ink blot to foot of second leaf but otherwise clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary Italian decorative wrappers.</p><p>Lovely copies both in Italian block-printed paper wrappers of these two poems printed for the marriage of Heinrich XLII 1672-1818 and Caroline Henriette of Hohenloe-Kirchberg 1761-1849 which took place at Kirchberg in Thuringia on June 10th 1779. </p><p>Both take the form of brief cantatas with the first consisting of a short air followed by a longer recitative and a duet and concluding with a further recitative and a chorus "Fromme Wünsche bringen wir für die Neuvermählten"; this was according to the title-page to be performed at the Musik-Collegium in Kirchberg although neither the librettist nor the composer is named. The second similarly anonymous is divided into sections on joy married love and hope interspersed with interventions from 'Der Kirchbergische Genius' and concluding with alternating duets and chorus sections the latter to be performed by children of both sexes. Both are printed in Schwäbisch Hall.</p><p>The alert may be surprised at Heinrich's regnal number; the house of Reuss of which he was a member had a convention that rather than giving sons different names they would all be called Heinrich and numbered whether or not they had any expectation of becoming the head of the house.</p><p>Neither work recorded by OCLC or VD18.</p> Johann Christophe Messerer