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Aylward music scores

Davidson's musical miracles: Two hundred and fifty Welsh airs for a shilling, adapted for the violin, flute, accordion, or any treble instrument.

Sacred, dramatic and orchestral scores and concert programmes owned by Theodore Edward Aylward (1844-1933).

Aylward was cathedral organist at Llandaff and Chichester, conductor of the Cardiff Musical Society, and chorus-master for the Cardiff Triennal Festival. The collection consists mainly of printed material from the 17th-19th centuries. It includes sacred works, songs, dramatic music, orchestral music, solos and studies, and music for organ and harmonium, and concert programmes (1836-42).

The works of major composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Wagner are well represented, but many of the pieces are by composers popular in their day but now perhaps less well known, such as Ignaz Pleyel and Joseph Mazzinghi. Caroline Lowthian's Mother Hubbard Polka is an unusual example from a female composer. One of the strengths of the Aylward collection is that several original covers of collection items have been preserved, containing ownership annotations and bookplates that reveal important information about their provenance. In certain cases, the information goes all the way back to their first owner. The collection is interesting as a social document as well as for its music.

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