Digitised music manuscripts made available online
Thursday, October 24, 2024
The following originally appeared on the Music Blog of the British Library and is posted here under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
Following the cyber-attack on the British Library last year, staff have been working behind the scenes to restore access to the Library’s digitised manuscripts. The Library has now made an initial batch of 1,000 digitised manuscripts available online. Among them are about 60 music manuscripts.
Major English music manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are included, along with two Bach treasures from the eighteenth century. A highlight is the keyboard manuscript My Ladye Nevells Booke (MS Mus. 1591, f. 1r see image above).
This manuscript dates from 1591 and contains music by the English composer William Byrd. The manuscript was probably a gift from Byrd to Elizabeth Nevell of Hambledon in Buckinghamshire. Byrd evidently composed some of the pieces especially for her, and her family’s coat of arms is included at the front of the book. Elizabeth seems to have had an abiding interest in music. Under her later married name of Lady Periam she was the dedicatee of music by Thomas Morley.
The music in My Ladye Nevells Booke was copied out in a beautiful calligraphic style by the ‘singing man’ and scribe John Baldwin. This elaborate style of writing was very suitable for a manuscript being presented as a gift. Baldwin was also the scribe of another newly available manuscript, the Baldwin Commonplace Book (R.M.24.d.2). This was his ‘file copy’ of almost 200 sacred and secular works, by various composers. It is written out in a much plainer style.
Another highlight among these digitised music manuscripts is the so-called Henry VIII Manuscript (Add MS 31922). This was compiled in about 1518 and contains music composed by Henry VIII. The other music in the manuscript is also likely to be repertoire that was performed at Henry’s court. There is no evidence that the King owned the manuscript himself, though. It may have belonged to a noble individual associated with the court.
‘Pastime with good company’ by Henry VIII. Add MS 31922, ff. 14v-15r.
Also included from the sixteenth century is the Mulliner Book (Add MS 30513), a collection of over 100 pieces for keyboard compiled by Thomas Mulliner. Seventeenth-century composers featured in this first batch of digitised content include William Lawes and John Eccles. There are also several miscellanies containing music by many different composers.
Finally, a small number of music manuscripts from the eighteenth century are included. The highlights are two manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, written in his own hand. They are the second book of Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ (Add MS 35021) and his cantata ‘Wo soll ich fliehen hin?’ (Zweig MS 1).
J.S. Bach, autograph manuscript of the Prelude in C major, from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Add MS 35021, f. 1.
As further digitised music manuscripts become available online, we will post updates about them here. You can browse a list of all currently available on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts pages.
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