Appassionata: Songs of Love
Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1913. First Edition. Hardcover : pp. [6] 126 [8 pp. adverts] [2 blank] : purple cloth boards with gilt music notes illustration and lettering : top edge gilt : signed in musical notation by Hart to Reg Ellery and dated 1919 [Serle p. 88].
Attractive bookplate of Melbourne psychiatrist and poet Reg Ellery; spine quite faded; tanning to block edge and page margins. Item #15422
''Fritz Bennicke Hart (11 February 1874 – 9 July 1949) was an English composer, conductor, teacher and unpublished novelist, who spent considerable periods in Australia and Hawaii.'' (Wikipedia). He spent most of his time in Australia in Melbourne, where medical student Reg Ellery returned after being discharged from the Australian Imperial Force at his own request late in 1918. Both men were there in 1919, when the book was inscribed. Hart was working for Nellie Melba's singing school where he had overall responsibility for her students' musical training. Reg went on to have a career in psychiatry and was peripherally involved with The Angry Penguins.
Price: $100.00