“PRETTY WAYES: FOR YOUNG BEGINNERS TO LOOKE ON”

Abstract

MANUSCRIPT collection in the British Museum, classified as Add. 29996, contains a number of compositions of considerable interest to the student of 16th-century English keyboard music.' Among these are the Faburden Compositions, and the earliest known keyboard duets, by Nicholas Carleton and Thomas Tomkins.2 A third set of pieces in the same manuscript collection is the subject of the present article. This is a group of sixteen anonymous compositions entitled Pretty Wayes: for young beginners to looke on.