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Cambridge. Cambridge University Library, MS Add.8844

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Source
Cambridge Digital Library
Library
Cambridge. Cambridge University Library
Shelfmark
  • MS Add.8844
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • c. 1595
Title
    • Fantasia
    • The hunt is up
    • The hunt is up
    • What if a day
    • Sacred end pavan
    • Now to bed
    • The passing messieurs' galliard
    • Clark's galliard
    • Delight pavan
    • Pavan
    • In nomine galliard
    • New Medley
    • Pavan
    • Galliard
    • Pavan
    • Galliard
    • Stanes Morris
    • Flat pavan
    • Quadrant pavan
    • Galliard to the quadrant pavan
    • Pavan
    • The Earl of Essex's measure
    • Pavan
    • Galliard
    • Flat pavan
    • The Queen's almain / Une jeune fillette
    • The new hunt is up
    • In nomine
    • Pavan
    • Flat pavan
    • Passion galliard
    • Galliard
    • Fragment of tablature
    • Si vous voulez
    • Spanish pavan
    • Proveribus
    • Aloe
    • Rogero
    • Rogero
    • Tablature fragments
    • Fantasia (fragments)
    • Galliard
    • Galliard
    • Galliard
    • see more
Agent
Description

  • The Trumbull lute book (MS Additional 8844) is a rare example of a personal lute book made and used by an English government official and diplomat. Apart from one item at the end, it was almost certainly copied c.1595 by William Trumbull (1575?-1635), secretary and later envoy to James I and then Charles I at the Brussels Court of Archduke Albert of Austria from at least 1605 to 1625.

    The manuscript was never bound and so the edges of the pages are badly eroded and 8 folios have been cut out from the original 33 (66 pages). What survives contains 38 items of music, all but two for 6-course renaissance lute, mainly solos plus 10 duet parts, often only one of the two, and 2 ensemble parts, which permit a glimpse into how William may have used the lute book.

    The repertory almost exclusively comprises English dance forms, mainly pavans, and galliards, and only a few arrangements of vocal music and popular tunes. He must have been quite an accomplished lutenist as the majority require an intermediate standard of technical ability. He seems to have copied it during his formative years when he probably took lute lessons as part of his education and hopefully was diligent enough to practise lute solos for personal recreation. His lute book may also have served the important function of providing him with parts to use for social music making, playing duets or in a consort, a practice that he might have continued during the time he was working in Brussels.

    When he was compiling his anthology he seems to have had access to lute music of English court composers spanning much of the reign of Elizabeth I, as the manuscript includes examples by Philip van Wilder (1), Augustine Bassano (1), Alfonso Ferrabosco (fragments only of 1), Nicholas Strogers (2), John Johnson (8), Richard Allison (1), Francis Cutting (1), Anthony Holborne (5), Thomas Morley (1) and John Dowland (1).

    John H. Robinson, Lute Society

Place
  • Preferred form
    • England (United Kingdom)
    Original form
    • England
    Other form
    • Angleterre
    • Angleterre (?)
    • Angleterre.
    • Angleterre ?
    • Anglaterra
    • Inglaterra
    • Engeland
    • Angleterre (Salisbury ?)
    • Anglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • Inglaterra (Salisbury?)
    • England (Salisbury?)
    • [Oxford?]
    • [England]
    • England, Norwich?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's Abbey?
    • England, Cornwall?
    • England, St. Albans?
    • England, North?
    • England, York?
    • England, Witham?
    • England, Winchester or St. Albans
    • England, Reading or Leominster
    • England, Cirencester?
    • England, Sherborne?
    • England, Worcester?
    • England, Bury St. Edmunds?
    • England, Tewkesbury?
    • England, East Anglia?
    • England, Peterborough?
    • England, Mercia?
    • England, Canterbury, Christ Church?
    • England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's?
    • England, Winchester?
    • England, Oxford?
    • Flanders (possibly executed in England)
    • England and Netherlands
    • England, Canterbury?
    • England, West Midlands?
    • England, London?
    • England, Crowland?
    • England, Wessex?
    • England, Reading?
    • England, Northeast?
    • England, Southeast?
    • England, Ely?
    • England, Winchester or Hereford?
    • England, Salisbury?
    • England, Oxford or Salisbury
    • German (but made in England)
    • England, South East (?)
    • England. Peterborough (?) or Lincoln (?)
    • Hereford?, England
    • England, Durham ?
    • England, Durham?
    • England, probably Durham
    • England, Oxford (?)
    • England, possibly Oxford
    • England (?Oxford)
    • England, Durham (?)
    • England, London/Westminster
    • Unknown, possibly London and Cambridge
    • Royal Chancery, London; Cambridge
    • Engeland (?)
    • England (II)
    • I. England
    • [Engeland]
    • see more
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Rights
  • Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © Cambridge University Library, All rights reserved. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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