Bidspirit auction | [LITERATURE] - Mirabeau on Music:

[LITERATURE] - Mirabeau on Music: Revolutionary Thoughts on the Art of Sound - RIQUETI DE MIRABEAU Honore' Gabriel - Autograph fragment with corrections by the French writer and statesman, a prominent figure of the early stages of the French Revolution. Following his election to the Estates-General in 1789, he was recognized as a leader of the newly organized National Assembly. Among the revolutionaries, Mirabeau was an advocate of the moderate position of constitutional monarchy built on the model of Great Britain. He was also a leading member of the Jacobin Club. The document titled “Reflexions sur la Musique en general et sur la musique instrumental en particulier” it is presumably a fragment from the pamphlet of the 1777 publication of Mirabeau's defence of instrumental music, ”Le lecteur y mettra le titre”, published anonymously and giving London as a fictitious place of printing. The text was written in Amsterdam, just before Mirabeau's arrest and four-year imprisonment in Vincennes. We report an extract as a sample: “…Horace, qui souvent en se priant, embellit la raison a dit que c’etait une preuve d’ignorance ou de stupidite d’admirer trop facilement peut-etre penserait-il aujourd’hui que c’est le veritable appanage d’un sot orgueil que de n’etre content de tien. Cette ridicule severite est la manie du siecle. Chaque jour voit paraitre de nouveaux juges qui, trouvans, qu’il est plus facile de condamner d’un ton tranchant et decide que de produire meme de mauvais, preferent le premier role au second, decrient et decouragent les talens…”. 2 pp. In-4.