Ricordi’s Solo Vocal Music, 1808–1857

This study examines fifty-four scores from the collection of Ricordi materials held at the Northwestern University Music Library in Evanston, Illinois (US-Eu). The scores are music for solo voice and accompanying instrument printed in oblong quarto format, and were issued between 1808 and 1857. Most of the pieces are opera arrangements, but some of the earliest Ricordi scores in this study are original pieces or small collections of pieces for voice and a keyboard instrument or guitar. This study covers the career of the firm’s founder, Giovanni Ricordi, who died in 1853, as well as the trajectory of the firm through the publication of a major catalog in 1857. After some remarks about Ricordi’s business practices as evidenced in the material at hand, I take a close look at the scores to comment on the firm’s use of paper (including a study of the watermarks), its application of engraving and lithography, and the design of the scores. At the end of the discussion, a detailed checklist of the scores under consideration is presented. Using a chronological limit and a focus on vocal music, Ricordi’s printing techniques can be examined in detail, and light can be shed on the music available to the growing market of amateur singers and pianists at the time.