[Musical Score] Stabat Mater : for Soprano and String Quartet [Inscribed]

New York: Cos Cob Press, 1933. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. Fine-. Text, in French, by Max Jacob. Crown 8vo (180 x 133mm): 9,[1]pp. Publisher's original tan wrappers printed and decorated in red and black. Front wrapper inscribed: "love & faithfulness / Alfred / from / Virgil." "Alfred," according to a notation to front cover verso, is Alfred Barr (1902-1981), who was named director of New York's newly founded Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at age 27, in 1929. About Fine, fresh and bright (miniscule light stain to gutter throughout. Quite scarce, especially so inscribed. Stabat Mater is a medieval Latin hymn to the Virgin Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. According to the composer Ned Rorem, Thomson's rendition is one of his most moving pieces, with "a lean and ambiguously modal counterpoint and a heartbreaking coda." The text is not from the Stabat Mater poem, but a 15-line exchange among an angel, Saint John, Mary at the cross, and Jesus, and was written by Max Jacob, a Jewish poet turned to Christianity. Barr and Thomson likely met when both were in their twenties; they traveled in the same artistic circle, including Philip Johnson, Lincoln Kirstein, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, A. Everett "Chick" Austin Jr., and Julien Levy, most of them alumni of the "Hound & Horn" and the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).