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Engraved title, letterpress 1p. List of Subscribers, 6 engraved sheets. 4to. "By one of those strange coincidences which delight the historian and at the same time provide the essayist with convenient points of departure, the year 1787, which saw the writing of the Constitution of the United States, saw also the solid beginnings of music publishing in this country as a separate and independent enterprise. The scene of these beginnings was Philadelphia, the publisher and composer a certain William Brown, the engraver John Aitken; the publication itself bore a dedication to no less a person than Francis Hopkinson, signer of the Declaration of Independence and our first native composer. Three Rondos for the Piano Forte or Harpsichord. Composed and Humbly Dedicated to the Honourable Francis Hopkinson, Esq. by William Brown. Philadelphia. Printed and Sold by the Author. Price Two Dollars. J. Aitken Sculp so runs the full title of this musical landmark, which the composer-publisher himself, in inviting subscribers, had called 'the first attempt of the kind in America'" (Oliver Strunk, "Early Music Publishing in the United States" The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 31, no. 2, 1937, pp. 176 79). Dunlap & Claypoole's Daily American Advertiser of 23 January through 10 February 1787 announced that subscriptions were being gathered for William Brown's Three Favorite Rondos Adapted to the Harpsichord. Subscriptions were being gathered both by Mr. Brown and Mr. Reinagle for the work. Among the notables on the subscriber list here are Alexander Reinagle, four members of the Penn family, and the dedicatee Francis Hopkinson. Very scarce, with only four examples in OCLC. Evans 20246; Sonneck, p. 361 Loose sheets, trimmed close at the gutter margin Engraved title, letterpress 1p. List of Subscribers, 6 engraved sheets. 4to.
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