George Kirbye (c. 1565–1634): Two Important Repertories of English Secular Vocal Music Surviving Only in Manuscript

Abstract

P RESERVED in two sets of early seventeenth-century manuscript part-books in the Bodleian Library (Oxford) and the Library of the Royal College of Music (London) is the largest surviving body of manuscript secular works by a single English madrigal composer. (The sources are, respectively, MSS Mus. f.20-241 and MS 684.2) The composer in question is the Suffolk madrigalist George Kirbye, whose first set / of English / Madrigalls / to 4. 5. & 6. voyces was published in 1597.3 The corpus of music with which this article is concerned comprises eighteen items, variously scored in four, five, and six parts, of which all except the four-part madrigal Farewell, false Love (in MS 684-see Plate I) are incomplete. None of these works was included in Kirbye's first set,4 and, though