BACH, C. Ph. E.: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen mit Exempeln und achtzehn Probe-Stücken in sechs Sonaten erläutert. Erster Theil, Zweyte Auflage und Zweyter Theil. Enclosed: Exempel nebst achtzehn Probe-Stücken in Sechs Sonaten ... mit sechs neuen Klavierstücken vermehrt auf XXXI. Kupfer-Tafeln Zweyte Auflage. 2 Teile und 31 Kupfertafeln (Notenteil). Leipzig, Schwickert 1780 Quarto. 4 ff, 118 pp.; 5 ff, 341 pp., 4 woodcut vignettes in the text, 1 folded plate of music. Vol. 2 with some waterstaining at the margin. Part of "Exempel: title, 25 pp. Sonatas, 6 pp. plates, all in facsimile on matching paper. Nice half leather binding and half leather case in the style of the time.

ORIGINAL IN TITLEEDITION - Rare title edition of the two parts, part 1 in title edition of the second edition of 1759 and part 2 as title edition of the first edition of 1762. So many copies of the edition published by Winter in Berlin were left lying around that the remaining stocks were taken over by Schwickert in Leipzig and both parts were given a new title in 1780. In his letter of April 10, 1780, Bach offered the publisher Schwicker in Leipzig to take over remaining stocks for 180 louis d'or. In doing so, however, he expressly emphasized the togetherness of both parts, which he wanted to be maintained. "One must play from the soul, and not like a trained bird" (I/p. 89). - Influenced by Quantz' "Versuch die Flöte traversiere zu spielen", Bach published his theory of piano playing, which according to Bitter: "had no other goal than the dissemination of the true rules of piano playing and the rejection of everything that was merely formal in nature or documented as charlatanism" (p. 95). The title is chosen analogously to the title of Quantz's work. The treatise was written after the death of the father Joh. Seb. Bach, to whose teaching and testimony the author repeatedly refers. "It is here an account of the principles of Seb. Bach's lessons in playing the piano, and in this respect this book, even apart from its material content, is of the highest value in art history. Above all, it contributes to the understanding of the way in which Seb. Bach's piano pieces must be played" (Bitter, p. 95). The mostly missing "Six Sonatas" as "eighteen sample pieces" are enclosed in facsimile after the original print in folio. - RISM BVI, 1, p. 106; Damschoder/Williams p. 17; Hirsch I, 44-45; Helm 868.