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Egerton 3665 incorporates the bulk of their known five-part consort repertory
as well as the popular four-part fantasias by Ferrabosco the younger:
Ferrabosco II: fantasias a4 (19 of 21)
Coprario: fantasias a5 (46 of 50)
Lupo: fantasias a5 (21 of 32)
Ferrabosco II: In Nomines a5 (2 of 3)
Ferrabosco II: Pavans a5 (8 of 9)
Ferrabosco II: Almains a5 (3 of 11)
Augustine Bassano: Pavans/Galliards (5 of 5)
To these may be added two others employed by courtiers:
Dering: fantasias a5: (7 of 8)
Ward fantasias a5: (12 of 13)
And Michael East’s 1610 fantasia publication (8 of 8).
No other contemporary collection comes close to this in its
comprehensiveness. Maybe there is an element of ‘stamp-collecting’ in these
massive undertakings – for which we are eternally grateful.
As Monson points out, Myriell’s circle collects music of a different kind,
focussing on the viol-and-voice repertory. Nevertheless, pure consorts play
their part too with a fairly even spread between the scorings: three-part (18),
four-part (20), five-part (29) and six-part (13). Coprario, Ferrabosco, Lupo and
William White are all represented, as is Ward. The latter seems to have been
known to Myriell, and Milton and East are also ‘local’. Manuscript copies of
pieces from East’s 1610 publication were made by Tregian, Barnard,
L’Estrange, and the scribe of Och, Mus. 716-20. The five-part scoring seems to
have encouraged this, for virtually no manuscript copies are known of other
printed instrumental pieces
In conclusion the contents of ensuing manuscripts show links with the
repertory explored here. GB-Lbl, Add. MSS 40657-61, partbooks belonging to
Sir Henry Shirley (d. 1632/3), seem to have been copied in part by one of the
scribes who wrote the Ellesmere partbooks. Italian madrigals, though
diminished in number, feature in Shirley’s books and in those belonging to Sir
Christopher Hatton III. Hatton’s mother was Alice née Fanshawe, daughter of
Sir Henry Fanshawe, Prince Henry’s favourite who was well versed in all things
Italianate. On the other hand none are found in L’Estrange’s surviving
manuscripts.
Probably sometime in the 1620s John Barnard emerges as a collector (and
possibly copyist) of consort music. No less than 126 pieces from his ‘score
book’ were checked and sometimes copied by Sir Nicholas L’Estrange when
making his own collections. After a few years at Canterbury Barnard was
admitted as minor canon at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, on 5 July 1623. It is
unfortunate that so little documentation of the pre-Commonwealth musicians
at St. Paul’s has survived and attempts to identify copyists of important
manuscripts are thereby frustrated. Much attention has been paid to GB-Ob,
Tenbury 302 and the two sets of partbooks at Washington: US-Wc,
18