Mus. 531-2

Manuscript. Two partbooks from a set of three, containing works for three lyra viols notated in tablature; two unidentifed copyists; English, first quarter of 17th century. The third partbook is missing. Item 32 in the inventory below was added by a third unidentified scribe, and is notated in lute tablature with bass courses; it is copied at the rear of Mus. 532 with the volume inverted.

The partbooks are neither foliated nor paginated; but items 1-25 were numbered in ink by their copyist (Unidentified A), and items 26-31 (copied by Unidentified B) are numbered in modern ink. Comments on individual pieces:

• Works by/attributed to Coprario (items 9, 10, 12, 13, 17, 20, 22 and 25): modern edition in John Coprario, Twelve Fantasias for Two Bass Viols and Organ and Eleven Pieces for Three Lyra Viols, ed. Richard Charteris, Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 41 (Madison WI, 1982).
• Item 15 was formerly tentatively attributed to Alfonso Ferrabosco (ii), and is catalogued by VdGS as an arrangement of his Alman a5 VdGS 4; but the identification is rejected in Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger: Consort Music of Five and Six Parts, ed. Christopher Field and David Pinto, Musica Britannica 81 (2003), p. 246.
• Item 32 (for theorbo-lute with 9 free running basses): modern edition in Robert Johnson, Complete Works for Solo Lute, ed. Albert Sundermann, Music for the Lute, 4 (Oxford, 1972), no. 13.

Oblong format, 235 x 183 mm.

• Mus. 531: 44 leaves, unfoliated. Collation: A12, B12, C12, D12 (of which D5-8 have been excised). Unused tablature-staves between items 25 and 26 (one page), and on all pages after the last item.
• Mus. 532: 43 leaves, unfoliated. Collation: A12, B12, C12, D12 (of which D8-12 have been excised). Unused tablature-staves between items 23 and 24 (one page), between items 25 and 26 (one page), and then on all pages between items 31 and 32; the latter is notated across the last opening of the volume (= sigs D7r-D6v).

Provenance: probably from the Aldrich bequest, if Mus. 531-2 is to be equated with the item shelved at position K29 during the 18th century. The most explicit early reference to Mus. 531-2 is to be found in Burney (f. 2r): '2 Books of Ayres for the Lute in Entablature. MS.'; although the music in Mus. 531-2 is correctly for lyra viol and does not include 'Ayres', nonetheless the notation does resemble that of lute-accompanied ayres, a genre that Burney would have encountered elsewhere. Burney's entry for this item is placed between his entries for items formerly at shelfmarks K30 and K27. This suggests that the item in question corresponds to the item catalogued at position K29 in Archives 1717 as 'A Set of Music', and in Dowding as 'MS. 2 books'. Presumably the 18th-century cataloguers of the Christ Church music collections were defeated by the notation of Mus. 531-2, and the absence of either composer attributions or titles. The shelfmark K29 is not written into the partbooks themselves; but the presence of Bookplate 2 is suggestive of Aldrich provenance.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 22.

Bibliography

• Richard Charteris, John Coprario: A Thematic Catalogue of his Music (New York, 1977).