Anne Dawson Her Book (1716) ed. by Jon Baxendale, and: Toccatas, Suites and Preludes for Harpsichord by William Babell ed. by Andrew Woolley

Abstract

Reviewed by: Anne Dawson Her Book (1716) ed. by Jon Baxendale, and: Toccatas, Suites and Preludes for Harpsichord by William Babell ed. by Andrew Woolley Graydon Beeks Anne Dawson Her Book (1716). Edited by Jon Baxendale. Tynset: Lyrebird Music, 2021. [302 p. ISMN 979-0-796670-14-0. €58.99] Toccatas, Suites and Preludes for Harpsichord. By William Babell, edited by Andrew Woolley. Tynset: Lyrebird Music, 2021. [302 p. ISMN 979-0-706670-16-4. €48.99] Lyrebird Music, the project of harpsichordist and musicologist Jon Baxendale, began publishing in 2020 and has already produced a remarkable body of work—at least twenty-two editions to date. It is not related to Editions L'Oiseau-Lyre, but like that series, is committed to making available practical editions of keyboard music that take advantage of the latest and best scholarship. Repertoire is heavily weighted toward French music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, both familiar and little-known, but there are also volumes of works by Georg Muffat (Apparatus musicoorganisticus) and J. S. Bach (Die Kunst der Fuge), together with a projected edition of the complete organ works of César Franck. All volumes have a detailed critical apparatus with an emphasis on providing supporting information for the performer. The two volumes under review here contain music composed or circulated in England during the first two decades of the eighteenth century. They complement new editions of The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and My Lady Nevells Book, which contain English music from the previous century. The first to be considered is Anne Dawson Her Book (1716), an edition of manuscript BRM 710.5 CR 71 in the Henry Watson Music Library in Manchester that Baxendale, the editor of the volume, has studied for some twenty years. The contents include keyboard transcriptions of instrumental works, idiomatic keyboard pieces, and songs with basso continuo accompaniment, most with obbligato instrumental lines. It has not been possible to identify the original owner of the book, but the editor suggests that she was likely a young 'cultured gentlewoman' and that it was prepared as part of her musical education, presumably at the behest of an unidentified music master who could possibly have also been the primary scribe. The bulk of the transcriptions are of concertos by Italian composers, primarily Antonio Vivaldi, but also Domenico Alberti and Francesco Manfredini. The overture to Bononcini's popular opera Camilla is included, as are sonatas by Arcangelo Corelli and Johann [End Page 348] Christoph Pepusch, who was active in London at the time, and Jean Baptiste Lully's famous 'Choeur de Cybèle' from his opera Atys. Of the five keyboard toccatas, at least one is by William Babell, while another is attributed to 'Sr. Hendel'. The final toccata is attributed elsewhere to Henry Purcell, Michelangelo Rossi, and J. S. Bach, but Baxendale suggests it is more likely to be by a North German composer, perhaps someone in the circle of Dietrich Buxtehude. Among the shorter pieces by French and German composers, John Weldon's three-movement Suite in F Major is the only piece definitely written by a native English composer. The transcribed arias, some of which have been transposed, are all apt for a soprano or tenor voice and are largely taken from Italian operas that were performed in London in the years preceding 1716. Because the continuo bass is so extensively figured, Baxendale suggests that these transcriptions may have been used to teach Ms. Dawson how to accompany at the keyboard. The second volume, Andrew Woolley's edition of Toccatas, Suites and Preludes for Harpsichord by the harpsichordist, organist, and composer William Babell (1688–1723), connects us with the life of a busy professional musician in early eighteenth-century London. Born in Germany into a family of French musicians, both he and his father acquired positions at the English Court, and both joined the orchestra of the newly established Italian opera in 1707. William presumably continued playing with that orchestra until 1717, but he became better known for his activities in public concerts. He also made keyboard arrangements of opera arias that were published by John Walsh. In later years, he became increasingly active as a church organist and...