The Viola da Gamba Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, Vol. 2. Compiled by Andrew Ashbee, Robert Thompson, and Jonathan Wainwright.

Abstract

This second instalment in a very open-ended project begins to show more clearly the extent of its ambitions. It has the same focus as the first, on sources belonging to English copyist-collectors of instrumental repertories for the viola da gamba. They range from solo music (including—an anomaly by the general terms of reference—a single bandora ensemble book inherited by a collector of ensemble music, then expanded with lyra viol parts) to six-part ensemble with keyboard accompaniment. For the moment, though, the three compilers have bypassed most of the outstanding collections not yet listed from the earlier seventeenth century, to pursue trends in its second half, after the decline in larger-scale chamber polyphony. A more disparate period is spanned, from c.1590 to 1739. Owners were still often copyists, but the two tend to be more distinct in the later, generally more cosmopolitan repertory, French and German as well as Italian. There is greater genre diversity, and more donkey work for single-line basso continuo. In the well-known quip, the horse designed by a committee is the camel; but here a camel is the ideal vehicle for a cargo of exotic goods conveyed from inaccessible areas. No other combination of talents could have given such personal scrutiny to the far-flung sources or achieved so serviceable a result. Listings of content are supplemented (as in vol. 1) by extensive sections on hands and watermarks in facsimile, both produced to higher standards than before. Its value can only accumulate as extra volumes are added. Assessing the scope of this combined expertise adequately has to be selective for any single reviewer.