Beyond the Tregian Theory: Physical Analysis and Content of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book; Egerton Ms 3665; Drexel Ms 4302; and Christ Church Mus. 510-14, Layer 2

These four undated anonymously copied manuscripts total 2,242 pages, recording 1,898 music works by 148 English and European composers. By the mid-20c the 4MSS came to be ascribed to the Cornish recusant Francis Tregian. However, my extensive research did not confirm this assignation, liberating the music from the constraints imposed by Tregian’s biography. Visible incongruities, in the leaves and notation, demanded a lateral approach focusing on the 4MSS as historical artefacts. A comprehensive method to elucidate their physical features enabling impartial evaluation, started with the survey of the leaves' organisation and characteristics, and the identification of other dated manuscripts with similar watermarks. Ink records confirmed some significant organisational/scribal changes. Ruling measurements revealed the original generous page set-ups, and confirmed that a minority of now-separated copies once belonged together. Scribal analysis uncovered multiple distinct music scripts, and several literary text scripts. Prolific music corrections, interpretation marks, and annotations were identified. The identified physical structure and features of the 4MSS were correlated with their repertories. EG3665 and DR4302, Compendia compiled from independent projects in open score format, together with CHCH510-14, a truncated partbook set, are substantial records of contemporary taste for English and European, particularly Italian, polyphony. FVB is a single multi-genre unit prepared in two Parts to presentation standards. The total 359 unica are the most valuable asset of the 4MSS. Dated concordances of non-unicas, late death dates of many composers, and similar paper types used in court records, extend dating of the manuscripts to after 1617, when Tregian died, into the 1620s and beyond. Products of a professional, well-supplied enterprise, the 4MSS probably originated within English Court environs. The routes followed by these manuscripts after dispersal from mid-17c onwards, are suggested by their bookbindings, endleaves, and subsequent annotations. The methodology devised here could be replicated among other anonymously copied and undated music manuscripts.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Thompson, Ruby Reid

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Walton, Benjamin

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/e34e6fb6-bbc1-4f05-924b-b8688d89e2e4/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.112014

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/373680