Consort Music Manuscripts in Archbishop Marsh's Library, Dublin

Archbishop Marsh's Library, otherwise known as the Library of St. Sepulchre, is adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was founded in 1704 by Narcissus Marsh D. D. (1638–1713), Archbishop of Armagh. Today the library contains over 20, 000 books and 300 manuscripts; the manuscripts and special books, including some music books, are located in the manuscript room, which is on the main landing before entering the first gallery of the library - all items in the manuscript room bear the press mark ‘Z’. To be found among the general holdings is a small, but valuable, collection of music manuscripts and printed books on music; some of the items were collected by Marsh himself, and date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Among the seventeenth-century manuscripts is a group which contains instrumental consort music, and these are the ones which will be discussed in this article.

A Thematic Catalogue of the Orchestral Works of Giuseppe Matteo Alberti (1685–1751)

His contemporaries did not find Giuseppe Matteo Alberti a composer out of the ordinary. In the diary of the Bolognese apothecary Ubaldo Zanetti where his death is noted he is described prosaically as ‘secondo violino e compositore riguardevole di musica’. In England, where his music was especially well disseminated as a result of its publication by Walsh in London and Le Cène in Amsterdam, it was regarded as fodder for less advanced players. Burney remarks that his twelve Sinfonie a quattro, ‘being slight and easy, were much played in England about fifty years ago, particularly in provincial concerts’. Less kindly, Avison placed him among the lowest class of composers (his companions in ignominy being Vivaldi, Tessarini and Locatelli) – those ‘whose compositions, being equally defective in various harmony and true invention, are only a fit amusement for children’. In his Remarks on Mr. Avison's Essay on Musical Expression William Hayes did his best to salvage Vivaldi's reputation - at the expense of the other three composers, whose ‘servile, mean copy’ he contrasted with Vivaldi's ‘original’.

Dedications in Morley's Printed Music

Morley started to publish his secular music in 1593, and maintained an average of more than a volume per year seen through the press until his death in 1602. This article attempts to discover whether there were any discernible motives for dedicating works to particular patrons thereby invoking their support. Such motives may well not be apparent today removed as we are from the everyday pressures and needs of an Elizabethan musician, and Morley may even have wished to conceal his reasons for adopting certain particular patrons for his publications - possibly to avoid allegations of nepotism or unfair dealings - even if he wanted the outward display of their public support. But searching for motives behind some of the dedications is not totally futile even if it is, for lack of concrete evidence, necessarily mostly speculative.

A Catalogue and Bibliography of English Song From Its Beginnings to c1300

This catalogue lists all the twelfth- and thirteenth-century songs with English words known to exist, and is designed to be of interest to the transcriber, performer and general student of medieval English music. Although there are only nineteen items surviving from the period in question a number have never been published either in facsimile or transcription. A forthcoming appendix to this catalogue will include facsimiles of previously unpublished manuscripts to encourage work on new transcriptions and scrutiny of available ones. It is to be hoped that musicians who have already given much attention to the thirteenth-century repertoires of France and Spain will begin to perform these first English songs more frequently.

The Music of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Lincoln College Latin 89

Lincoln College MS Latin 89 is really two manuscripts bound together, the second of which is the remains of an early 15th-century choirbook. In Coxe's catalogue of manuscripts in Oxford colleges and halls, no mention is made of the leaves containing music, although the copy in the Bodleian Library has a supplementary entry for the music, handwritten at the bottom of the page and easily missed. It is perhaps Coxe's omission that is responsible for the manuscript's exclusion from Anselm Hughes's invaluable hand-list and subsequently even from RISM.

Jacobean Musicians at Hatfield House, 1605–1613

Among the Cecil Family and Estate Papers (hereafter referred to as C. F. E. P.) at Hatfield House, are a large number of bills, accounts and letters which help to cast new light not only on the musical life of an important aristocratic family, but also on the activities of a number of musicians already known for their association with other households and with the royal court. The references in the Papers to the years 1605–1613 are gratifyingly extensive. The same cannot be said for the years on either side of this period, a fact which reflects the scarcity of the available records rather than reduced enthusiasm for music and its cultivation. Consequently, this article confines itself to the period 1605–1613 which covers the last years of the life of Robert Cecil (1563–1612). Cecil's position as Secretary of State to Elizabeth I from 1596 and after her death to James I, brought him into regular contact with the royal court; it not only earned him the title of Earl of Salisbury in 1605, but required him to adopt a life style in which musicians were an integral part. Significantly, most of the musicians who appear among the C. F. E. P. were also active at court. Those mentioned in these papers include Thomas Campion, John Coprario, Thomas Dallam, Cormack Dermode, Nicholas Lanier, George Mason and Thomas Warwick.

The First Undoubted ‘Magic Flute’?

Which was the first reasonably complete and faithful performance of Die Zauberflöte in English?In common with other Mozart operas, and despite its unabated popularity on the Continent, Die Zauberflöte came late and haltingly to the English stage. The date of its introduction is somewhat problematic. Dennis Arundell has drawn attention to an advertisement in The Times of 29 March 1806. A comic opera, Adolf and Clara, was to be performed that evening at the German Theatre (or Sans Souci), Leicester Square: ‘After which, a Pantomime Dance: and, for the 1st time, a new Musical Piece, by Mozart, called The ENCHANTED FLUTE; and to conclude with the Optical Ballet.’ No more is known beyond the bald statement. The production was apparently in English, and admittedly there was music, but does it appear likely that this was a serious attempt at the whole work? Introduced into the programme as a mere afterpiece, sandwiched between other diversions, and so very modestly announced, it sounds at the best estimate a heavily truncated version. Indeed the probability is that the piece was got up hastily in order to capitalize on the interest aroused by the Haymarket's production of La clemenza di Tito two days earlier, that being the first time a Mozart opera had been performed in England.