Music
& Letters,
88 (2007), includes:
An Annotated
Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts in the Folger
Shakes[eare Library, Washington, D.C.,
by Richard Charteris.
pp. xxix + 747. Annotated Reference Tools in Music,
no. 6. Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2005.
ISBN 978-1-57647-115-9.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to many American
industrialists. Having acquired fine libraries,
many of them ensured that in due time their collections
were made available to scholars at large. One was
Henry Clay Folger (1857–1930), not forgetting
his wife Emily (1858–1936), whose collection
became the Folger Shakespeare Library, opened in
1932. This has continued to acquire materials,
and only a third of the current holdings formed
part of the original bequest. Its holdings are
much wider in scope than the ‘Shakespeare’ in
the title would suggest, for although it does indeed
house a unique collection of Shakespeariana produced
over the last 400 years, there is also a particularly
fine assemblage of early English printed books.
For many years Richard Charteris has scoured
the world’s libraries seeking out unknown
or neglected music manuscripts, and our debt to
him in this regard is immense. The Folger Shakespeare
Library has been part of his trail since the 1970s,
and he has gradually worked on cataloguing the
music manuscripts there. He begins his Preface
with the statement that ‘A complete catalogue
of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s music
manuscripts has not been available until now’ and
continues: ‘The great bulk of [them] have
hitherto escaped examination, and many compositions
are not recorded in relevant work lists in New
Grove II Online.’
This handsome and comprehensive
list of 168 items, presented on 747 pages, now
puts matters to rights.
It is difficult to imagine the work being better
done. Cooperation between compiler and the librarians
has resulted in a detailed examination of all aspects
concerning the make-up and history of the manuscripts
and any attached printed books and of material
in their bindings. Arrangement is in press-mark
order, and individual descriptions are compiled
under whichever are relevant of the following headings:
Description: incorporating information on the number
of partbooks, their measurements, covers and flyleaves,
the number of copyists, inks, and make-up of staves;
Imprint: for printed material and references to
them in catalogues and databases; Paper: watermarks
and paper makers; Provenance: the known history
of sources, including when and where the item was
acquired by Henry Folger or subsequently by the
Library; Accession Number and Former
Pressmark:
both current and any former numbers are shown;
Commentary: (as required); Microfilm: the number
of the Library’s master microfilm where this
exists (as it does in most cases); Literature:
a list of any previously published descriptions;
Inventory: a detailed list of contents, often with
further commentaries for individual pieces.
A series of thirty-three plates illustrates a wide
cross-section of the manuscripts. Among the hands
shown are those of the seventeenth-century scribes
Thomas Hamond, John Playford, Benjamin Cosyn, and
John Dowland. An astonishing array of later ones,
including Berlioz, Clara Schumann, Gounod, and a
wealth of British composers and performers, appear
in William Henderson’s Scrapbook collection
relating to music on the British stage from the mid-eighteenth
century to c.1900—twenty-three volumes containing
manuscript letters and documents as well as playbills
and other ephemera. Charteris has listed 389 music-related
items in Henderson’s books in great detail,
summarizing the contents and identifying the persons
involved. His sources 160–8 were formerly uncatalogued
in ‘Black Boxes’ and, with the exception
of the Henderson Collection, mostly comprise instrumental
parts and songs used in productions of Shakespeare’s
plays in America and elsewhere.. . .
. . . In short this is a very thorough and detailed
listing of the Folger’s current music holdings
and scholars can turn to it in confidence.
Andrew Ashbee
For the
complete review, click here: http://ml.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/88/1/166
Viola da Gamba
Society of America News, 39 (2002), includes:
Thomas Lupo, The
Three-Part Consort Music, ed. Richard
Charteris.
Fretwork Editions no. 18. London: Fretwork
Editions, 2001. pp. xxx + 55 +36 + 39 + 32.
ISBN 1-898131-29-5. ...In the Lupo, we have works of the highest quality and import by a composer of the second rank (at least in reputation) ... The Lupo includes 25 fantasias and four pavans. Reading through the collection offers the very considerable pleasure of following one of the early geniuses of instrumental chamber music through a wide-ranging exploration of the possibilities of three-voiced texture. A stimulating variety of scorings, textures, structures, themes and moods are presented. A great deal of satisfaction to be had in this music derives from Lupo's exquisite sense of color. This is nowhere more evident than in the unusally lush pieces apparently scored for such odd close-voiced combinations as two trebles and one tenor, or one treble and two tenors or three like instruments. Charteris has given eight of the fantasias the additional title "Air." This group of pieces is scored for two trebles and one bass instrument. The structure of each piece is highly sectional, often including a section in triple meter. These pieces bear comparison with the treble-treble-bass fantasias of Gibbons, long considered to be early examples of the Italianate trio-sonata style in England, possibly intended for violins with bass and continuo. My impression of the Lupo airs is that the music is even more theatrical than the Gibbons, with clear echos of the witty dances that Lupo and the other members of Coprario's Music provided for the court masques. Richard Charteris's edition is a model of its type, painstakingly collated from a daunting array of sources all carefully described with variants noted in the critical notes. The introduction is informative and interesting with footnotes leading to a wealth of fine secondary literature on the repertoire. Because of the high quality, volume, and variety of music in this publication, I would consider it a valuable item for any gambist's personal library. This music varies considerably in difficulty. The pavans and slow fantasias are good entry-level items for beginning consort players. Professionals may find themselves challenged by the abstractions and syncopations of some of the more conservative fantasias. Charteris notes that keyboard accompaniment may be appropriate for this repertoire ... ... I am already teaching and performing from the Fretwork edition of Lupo. John Mark Rozendaal American Reference Books Annual, 28 (1997), includes:
Giovanni
Gabrieli (ca. 1555-1612): A Thematic Catalogue
of his Music with a Guide to the Source Materials
and Translations of his Vocal Texts, by
Richard Charteris. Thematic
Catalogues Series, no. 20. Stuyvesant, N.Y.,
Pendragon
Press, 1996. pp. xxvi + 597. ISBN 0-945193-66-1.
An
important addition to music library reference collections,
this new thematic catalogue updates and greatly
expands the thematic listings in Egon Kentons Life
and Works of Giovanni Gabrieli (American
Institute of Musicology [AIM], 1967). It contributes
previously unpublished information and brings together
extensive information on Gabrielis works
and editions of those works. Charteris brings a
high level of scholarship to this work, as he has
published extensively on Gabrieli and is the editor
of a new 12-volume edition of Gabrielis complete
works published by AIM and Hänssler Verlag.
As in most thematic catalogues,
details on early editions, manuscript sources,
modern editions, sources of texts, and a commentary,
as well as an incipit, are provided for each work.
In addition, appendixes offer a description of early
prints and manuscript sources, a chronological
listing of modern editions, a concordance to Kentonsthematic
listing, a discography, and a bibliography. This
book is a must-have for academic collections. It
offers extensive information on Gabrieli in a single
volume ...
Allie Wise Goudy
Another
review of the above book can be found in the following: The Historic Brass Society Journal, 8 (1997). Follow the link to read this extra review >> ^ Back to top of page |