Mus. 940

Manuscript. Sixteen unattributed suites and a chaconne, all scored for scordatura violin and continuo, copied by an unidentified scribe; English, late 17th century. The violin parts are placed on the left-hand pages of the openings (i.e. versos), the figured basses on the right-hand pages (rectos). No composer's name is supplied, but a few movements from the suites were copied elsewhere by Thomas Britton with attributions to 'Mr Reading' (London, British Library, MS Add. 22098; dated 1697), and a variant version of the chaconne (item 17 in the inventory below) was published as 'Mr Readings ground' in The division violin . . . The second edition (London, 1685; RISM 1686/10, no. 1). According to Peter Holman (Grove Music Online, s.v. 'Reading, Valentine'), the string player Valentine Reading (fl. 1680s) is the most likely composer. Mus. 940 may be his holograph copy.

Mus. 940 is neither paginated nor foliated. Instead, the copyist has numbered individual movements consecutively from 1 to 61. In the violin part, each suite is prefaced by a table of the scordatura tuning.

Table of titles and composers in modern form. Display form found in manuscript.
The first column gives the modern numbering of the pieces; the second shows numbering used by the copyist(s).

Oblong format, 265 x 105 mm. 49 leaves; collation not ascertained because of the tightness of the binding. A leaf has been excised between the pages bearing movements numbered '57/8', but without any loss of contents; presumably the excision was made by the scribe during copying. Unused ruled staves on ff. [1r] and [47v-49v]. Late 17th-century binding of pale brown leather over boards, with fillets at the edges, now stained and worn. Bookplate 2. 19th-century shelfmark: E.1.5.

Provenance: from the Aldrich bequest, listed in Dowding at shelfmark Q2 as 'Airs in parts / 4 Vols'; this entry also covers Mus. 939, Mus. 954 and Mus. 955. In Mus. 940 itself, the shelfmark 'Q. 2. Vol. 3' is written on the front flyleaf.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 30.