[H. XX:2]. Die Worte des Erlœsers am Kreuze. [Piano-vocal score] de HAYDN, Joseph 1732-1809 - 1801

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1801. Folio. Half dark green morocco with matching textured paper boards, raised bands on spine in decorative compartments gilt, titling gilt, marbled endpapers, original publisher's wrappers bound in. 1f. (decorative title with engraved vignette), 1f. (Haydn's preface dated Vienna, March 1801), 68 pp. Text in German and Italian. Typeset.

Ex libris the noted English writer on music and collector Julian Marshall (1836-1903), with his decorative bookplate to front pastedown.

Binding lightly worn, rubbed, and bumped; small loss to tail of spine. Light uniform browning; some minor soiling to corners. A very attractive copy overall. First Edition. Very scarce. Hoboken 9, 1377.

Haydn's Seven Last Words was conceived as a purely instrumental work in 1787, and is regarded as one of his finest compositions. Upon hearing an arrangement with vocal lines added by Joseph Friebert (1724-1799), Haydn was inspired to write his own version as an oratorio. This would be his first collaboration with Baron von Swieten, who would later pen the librettos for The Creation and The Seasons. The oratorio version premiered on March 26, 1796 at the Schwarzenberg Palace in Vienna.

"The Seven Last Words, a success during Haydn's lifetime and beyond, is less popular today, in part because it is not a full-length work, in part owing to the succession of eight consecutive adagios which, paradoxically, seem more monotonous than in the orchestral version. Its most striking movement is the bleak, newly composed introduction to the second part, scored for wind alone and set in A minor, a key Haydn hardly ever used." James Webster in Grove Music Online.

Julian Marshall was one of the principal contributors to the first edition of Grove. His extensive collection of manuscripts is now held in the British Museum.