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song. 74 This change made necessary a new way of notating gamba music, in the
octave-transposing treble clef instead of the traditional alto and bass clefs. In
Edward Ferrar’s case, it was probably inspired or made necessary by his
acquisition of a copy of Ayres & Symphonys for y e Bass Viol, with its pieces in the
treble clef. Most important, the viol music in the Fitzwilliam collection is one more
piece of evidence that amateur gamba playing was still alive in England in the
second and third decades of the eighteenth century, much later than has
traditionally been thought. The discovery that it belongs to a hitherto unknown
part of the Ferrar papers throws new and unexpected light on the musical activities
of the family, and musical life in early eighteenth-century East Anglia.
Illus. 6: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MU MS. 647, p. 16. The possible hand
of Basil Ferrar. Reproduced by permission of the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge.
74 A similar change can be observed in the English lute and harpsichord repertories, see for
instance J. Harley, British Harpsichord Music, i: Sources (Aldershot, 1992), esp. 102-106; ii: History
(Aldershot, 1994), esp. 104; T. Crawford, ‘Lord Danby’s Lute Book: a New Source of Handel’s
Hamburg Music’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, 2 (1986), 19-50; M. Spring, The Lute in Britain: a History of
the Instrument and its Music (Oxford, 2001), 439-450.
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