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two gambas and theorbo by the harpsichordist Pietro Giuseppe Sandoni; 22 and, of
course, Handel’s two gamba parts from about 1724. A viola da gamba is in the onstage
band in the Parnassus scene, Act II, Scene 2, of Giulio Cesare in Egitto
(1724), 23 and Handel authorised a gamba version of the violin sonata in G minor
HWV364 by writing out the first bar of the solo part an octave lower in the alto
clef, labelling it ‘Per la Viola da Gamba’. 24 He presumably intended it to serve as an
instruction for a copyist to write out the whole piece in that form.
The other group of gamba sources is connected with, and derived from, the
traditional English repertory of divisions on a ground. Several of them, such as
GB-Lcm, C41/1, and GB-Ob, Printed Book, Mus. 184.c.8, are bound in with
copies of one of the editions of Christopher Simpson’s Division-Violist. Others,
such as GB-Ob, MS Mus. Sch. C.61, and GB-Cfm, MU. MS 647, are stand-alone
manuscripts but are also concerned largely with the division repertory, at least in
their early layers. The practice of playing or improvising divisions on a ground was
still current in the early eighteenth century, as is shown by the publication of Chelys
/ The Division-Viol (London, 1712), a third edition of Simpson’s treatise, though all
these manuscripts show a gradual move from divisions (and original gamba music
in general) towards arrangements, particularly of violin music. 25
What a study of these manuscripts reveals is that they were in use rather longer
than has been thought. GB-Lcm, C41/1 is bound with a copy of The Division-
Violist of 1659. 26 It was probably started soon after, and the first section contains
divisions from the early seventeenth century, including pieces by Henry Butler and
Daniel Norcombe. However, the manuscript also contains violin and recorder
grounds apparently taken from publications from around 1700, including one by
Gottfried Finger, published in 1701, 27 and another by Johann Gottfried Keller
Bononcini 1670-1747, ed. L. Lindgren, The Italian Cantata in the Seventeenth Century, 10 (New
York and London, 1985); C. Timms, ‘The Dissemination of Staffani’s Operas’, Relazioni musicali tra
Italia e Germania nell’età barocca / Deutsch-italienische Beziehungen in der Musik des Barock, ed. A. Colzani,
N. Dubowy, A. Luppi and M. Padoan (Como, 1997), 325-349, at 336, 349. See also a handout,
‘Italian Cantata MSS in London, Conjecturally Copied 1697-1706’, compiled by Lowell Lindgren
for a paper given at the seventh Biennial Conference on Baroque Music, Birmingham, 4-7 July
1996.
22 See P. Holman, ‘A New Source of Bass Viol Music from Eighteenth-Century England’, Early
Music, 31 (2003), 81-99, at 88-89.
23 For discussions of the role of the gamba in this piece, see Sadie, ‘Handel: in Pursuit of the
Viol’, 16-19; R.J. King, ‘Handel and the Viola da Gamba’, A Viola da Gamba Miscellanea, ed. S.
Orlando (Limoges, 2005), 62-79, at 70-71; Holman, Life after Death.
24 See in particular T. Best, ‘Handel’s Chamber Music: Sources, Chronology and Authenticity’,
Early Music, 13 (1985), 476-499, at 479, 485; King, ‘Handel and the Viola da Gamba’, 71-72. A
modern edition arranged for gamba is G.F. Handel, Sonata in G minor, ed. T. Dart (London, 1950).
25 For editions of Simpson, see RISM B/VI, ii. 785-786.
26 Formerly II.F.10(2). There is a nearly complete edition as 19 Divisions for Bass Viol by Simpson,
Norcombe, Young etc. and Eight Divisions for a Treble Instrument by Banister, Keller and Finger, and Arias and
Ritornelli by Carlo Pallavicino, 2 vols., ed. S. Heinrich (Oxford, 2001).
27 The F major ground, ff. 39v-40, is no. 10 of Finger’s Dix sonates à 1 flute & 1 basse continue,
op. 3 (Amsterdam, 1701), and The Second Part of the Division Flute (London, 1708), no. 1. For the date
of Finger’s op. 3, see F. Lesure, Bibliographie des éditions musicales publiées par Estienne Roger et Michel-
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