Music by a Queen

This is a copy of the first published edition (c.1817) of the twelve romances Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837) wrote for her brother, Eugène, originally privately printed (with French text only), in limited numbers for presentation while she was still Queen of Holland, after which the plates were destroyed.  What may be a proof copy, inscribed to the duchesse de Bassano, is in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor.  Later commercial editions were published in London in 1824 and 1832. 

While the first edition was engraved, with aquatint illustrations, the present (unillustrated) version is lithographed, as the title-page says, by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig.  ‘The music writing of Breitkopf & Härtel’s best lithographed publications displays a sense of style not matched by any contemporary publisher using lithography.  Whereas André’s early music is heavy and cramped in appearance, Breitkopf & Härtel’s is light in spirit and generously spaced along the stave.  With a few exceptions, Breitkopf & Härtel’s staff lines are finer than those found in André’s early work and, because their note stems are also thin, their noteheads stand out particularly clearly.  Naturally, there is a wide range of quality in [Breitkopf & Härtel’s publications], but among them are to be seen in some of the finest lithographed music pages of the first quarter of the nineteenth century’ (Twyman, Early Lithographed Music, p. 309).

‘The daughter of Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, guillotined during the French Revolution, and Joséphine Tascher de La Pagerie, whose second husband was Napoleon Bonaparte, Hortense married Louis Bonaparte in 1802.  When he was made King of Holland in 1806, she became queen.  After separating from her husband in 1810, she returned to Joséphine at Malmaison, and acquired the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu in 1814 after Napoleon’s abdication.  In 1817 she bought a property at Arenenberg in Switzerland [Liszt, Dumas, and Byron were among her visitors], where she lived from 1832 until her death.

‘Hortense’s musical output consists of romances composed at Malmaison and Arenenberg.  In 1867 the complete collection of 124 romances, published by Vialon, was exhibited by Napoleon III at Malmaison.  The best known of them, Partant pour la Syrie (originally entitled Le beau Dunois [and No. 1 in the collection here]), became a national anthem under the Second Empire, and provided the subject for many piano variations, including those of Hummel (1811) and Schubert (1818).  Her romances are generally in the troubadour or pastoral genre, the voice supported by a simple piano or harp accompaniment.  Most of the texts were written by Count Laborde, and the queen’s melody was then developed by a professional such as Dalvimare, harp master to Empress Joséphine, the composer Plantade, or the singing master J. F. N. Carbonel.  This unpretentious music exemplifies the taste of contemporary society for light, pastoral, sentimental subjects.  Although simple and naive, they are expressive and elegantly written, thanks to the skill of her musical colleagues’ (New Grove).

Both editions are very rare. I shall be exhibiting this copy next week at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. For full details, please see my fair list.