Vincent Novello (1781-1861)
Autograph letter signed (‘V. Novello’) to Thomas Attwood, 67 Frith Street, Soho Square, London, 24 December 1830
3 pages, 186 x 228mm. With a letter from Christian Kramer signed (‘C. Kramer’) to Thomas Attwood, Bedford Square, London, 15 August 1831. Provenance: Sotheby's, 12 May 1981, lot 162.

‘May I request the favour of your looking over the annexed two editions of Mozart’s masses, and then saying whether you think they are the same?’: Novello requests Attwood’s assistance in confirming the differences between the two versions. Novello’s concerns centering around editions of the first fifteen masses previously published for him by W. Galloway. Noting that copyright was never given to Galloway, Novello complains that the publisher’s successor is not only continuing to sell the work but is ‘endeavouring to prevent the sale of my new arrangements of the masses, by procuring against me an injunction from the Court of Chancery, under the pretence that my new work is the same as the old edition’. Novello compares the two versions, discussing differences in the introductions, arrangements, number of plates, and orchestral parts. He warns against the implications of being confused by the two, ‘I have taken especial care to caution the public against mistaking the one for the other’. He makes references to the ‘undeniable differences’ and that other friends ‘whose judgement I highly esteem’ are also comparing the two. The letter by Cramer notes that Attwood's attendance at the coronation of William IV on 8 September 1831 will not be in his capacity as musician within His Majesty’s Band in Ordinary, but in his 'superior' capacity as 'Composer to the Chapel Royal'.

Novello edited and published seventeen of Mozart’s masses in vocal score with accompaniments arranged by himself for organ or piano. These editions are of great historical importance with regards to the reception of Mozart’s music in England in the early nineteenth century. Kramer was a performer, composer, and arranger; he served as Master of the King’s Musick (1829-1834), spanning the reigns of George IV and William IV, and led the former’s private band.