Mus. 1125

Manuscript. Guardbook containging a miscellany of vocal and instrumental music; various copyists, English, late 17th and early 18th century. 12 discrete items can be discerned, occupying 17 sheets or bifolia bound in random order within an early 20th-century guardbook of stiff card and vellum (oblong format, 480 x 310 mm). The leaves are paginated '1-38' in modern pencil.

Principal contents: copies, drafts and sketches of instrumental movements and sets of movements a2-4; English, probably early 18th century; probably part of the repertory of the Oxford city/university waits or 'musick'. The copyists/composers, who have not been identified, are here designated as Copyists 'Z', 'Y' and 'X'; they were also responsible for other scores and/or sets of performing parts within the Christ Church collection. For further details, see the entry for Mus. 34-6. In the descriptions of contents below, sets of movements in the same key are distinguished from one another by means of roman numerals (I, II, etc), using and extending the numbering sequence of Mus. 34-6. Within each set, the number of movements is shown in round brackets: '(1-5)', etc.

Mus. 1125 also contains the following: item 7: an aria opening 'Bella Cinthia', copied collaboratively by Copyist Z and an unidentified hand; items 8-9: music from Henry Purcell's Dioclesian, and an unidentified 'Curtain Tune' headed 'Calo', both copied by Copyist X; and item 10: three dances in G major for violin in scordatura by Thomas Baltzar.

• Item 1 (pp. 1-2): single sheet in oblong format, 423 x 280 mm. Contents: fair copies of two movements a3 in D major, copied by Copyist Y. Neither of these movements appears to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set, and this is their only known source.
• Item 2 (pp. 3-4): originally a bifolium, folded horizontally; now presented as a single sheet, with a portion cut away from the foot of the sheet; oblong format, 380 x 330 mm. Contents: fair copies (with minor revisions) of two movements a3 in G major, copied by Copyist Z. Neither of these movements appears to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set, and this is their only known source.
• Item 3 (pp. 5-6): single sheet in oblong format, 465 x 297 mm. Verso: draft with revisions of a movement in c minor, copied by Copyist Y, then crossed out by him. Recto: fair copy of the same movement with further minor revisions, again copied by Copyist Y, and this time numbered '2', as if to denote its place within a multi-movement suite or 'set'; however, this movement appears not to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set, and this is its only known source. (For two further miscellaneous movements a3 in c minor by Copyist Y, see item 5 below.)
• Item 4 (pp. 7-8): single sheet in oblong format, 463 x 297 mm. Contents: fair copies of two movements a3, copied by Copyist X. Recto: 'Grave' in e minor; there is a set of performers' parts for this movement, copied by Copyist W, in Mus. 1141a (ff. 12-14). Verso: 'Largo' in B flat major; there is a score of this movement, copied by Copyist Y, in Mus. 1137, sheet 5 recto; also a set of performers' parts, copied by Copyist W, in Mus. 1141a (ff. 12-14). Neither of these movements appears to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set.
• Item 5 (pp. 9-10): single sheet in oblong format, 460 x 295 mm. Recto: fair copies of two movements in c minor, copied by Copyist Y, and numbered '7' and '1', as if to denote their places within a multi-movement suite or 'set'; however, these movement appear not to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set, and this is their only known source. (For another miscellaneous movement a3 in c minor by Copyist Y, see item 3 above.) Verso: unused ruled staves.
• Item 6 (pp. 11-12): single sheet in oblong format, 400 x 297 mm. Recto: fair copy of a movement in E flat major, copied by Copyist Y; there is another score of this movement, again copied by Copyist Y, in Mus. 1137, sheet 5 verso; also a set of performers' parts, copied by Copyist W, in Mus. 1141a (ff. 12-14). This movement appears not to have been subsequently incorporated into a single-key set. Verso: unused ruled staves.
• Item 7 (pp. 13-16): two sheets in oblong format, 475 x 300 mm. Rectos of both sheets (i.e. pp. 13 and 15): fair copy in score of a da capo aria in A major for 'Violin'. 'Voice' and 'Harp[sichord]', beginning 'Bella Cinthia L'arco e L'armi'; copied collaboratively by Copyist Z (opening 25 bars) and an unidentified second hand. Versos (i.e. pp. 14 and 16): unused ruled staves.
• Item 8 (pp. 17-18): single sheet in oblong format, 470 x 297 mm. Recto: 'First Musick in Dioclesian by Mr. Hen[ry] Purcell' [= Z.627 (1a-b)], copied in score by Copyist X. Verso: unused ruled staves.
• Item 9 (pp. 19-26): four sheets in oblong format, c. 460 x 300 mm. Five-voice score of a 'Curtain Tune' in D major, scored for 'First Treble', 'Trumpet', '2nd Treble', 'Tenor' and 'Basse', headed 'Calo', copied by Copyist X. The score occupies pp. 19 and 21-25; pages 20 and 26 are blank.
• Item 10 (pp. 27-8): single sheet in upright format, 327 x 210 mm. Recto: 'A Set of Tunings by Mr Baltazar' = three dances in G major for violin in scordatura by Thomas Baltzar; copyist unidentified. The movements are named as 'Almand', 'Almand' and 'Sarabrand'. Bibliography: Peter Holman, Four and Twenty Fiddlers: The Violin at the English Court 1540-1690 (Oxford, 1993), pp. 268-7. Modern edition: Thomas Baltzar, Works for Violin, ed. Patrick Wood Uribe (A-R Editions, 2012). This sheet is not connected repertorially to the other contents of Mus. 1125, and may have found its way into the volume by chance.
• Item 11 (pp. 29-30): segment of a larger sheet, cut down to oblong format, 470 x 190 mm, with a single vertical fold-mark. Almost certainly part of the sheet otherwise located at Mus. 1128, sheet 8. Contents: sketches and exercises by Copyist Y. The sheet appears first to have been used to sketch part of a movement a 4 in e minor (p. 29); no fair copy of this movement has been located elsewhere (but see the two movements a4 in e minor by Copyist Y in Mus. 1128, sheet 16, which may be related to this one). The sheet was then used for copying an exercise in sequential movement a3 (p.30), and trimmed in size in order to accommodate only this music.
• Item 12 (pp. 31-8): two bifolia, previously discrete from one another, but now quired together; upright format, 300 x 230 mm. Contents: two instrumental parts for a set of movements in d minor, copied by Copyist X, and apparently left incomplete. The outer bifolium (pp. 31-2/37-8) has parts in G2 clef (violin?) for seven movements, copied on pp. 37-8; unused ruled staves on pp. 31-2. The inner bifolium (pp. 33-6) has unfigured bass parts for the first four movements only, on pp. 33-4; unused ruled staves on pp. 35-6. It is unknown whether or not further instrumental parts are now missing from this work.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 37.