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Chelys 7 (1977), article 4
assuming that both sources derive from the North household at Kirtling.
Although not directly associated with C.83, Add. 29290 might well have
belonged to another group of music manuscripts at Kirtling—after all more
than one household was in residence there—and in both sources, changes of
paper, quiring, or copyists suggests that the second group of pieces was
added to the first at a later stage. ‘Series I’ seems to make a unified group of
works all of the highest quality, though it is extremely restricted in choice of
keys. ‘Series II’ is more diverse and may include some earlier pieces,
though I think it would be unwise to state categorically that Series II is
earlier than Series I’. However, some of the second group, such as the G
minor fantasia (no. 11), seem technically more contrived than is usual in
Jenkins’s style and this may indicate that he was still struggling to full
maturity. Furthermore, there is not the same flexibility of treatment of
themes as elsewhere in the six-part series. Note, for instance, the regular sixfold
imitation at bars 13-14 of Fantasia no. 11 (Example 1)
Ex. I. Fantasia no. 11, bars 13-14
where a curious feature is the double-stopped note in the second basspossibly
an error and best omitted on purely harmonic grounds, but which
might be intended as a hint at a seventh imitation (which does not
materialize). There are also one or two uncharacteristic moves in the bass
parts (Example II). On paper, anyway, the first part [58] of this fantasia
Ex. II. Extracts from Fantasia no. 11: (a) bars 16-17; (b) 45; (c) 50; (d) 52
lacks the imaginative sparkle of the other works, though the second half is
very beautiful.
The E minor fantasia (no. 10) is a fine work. Joan Wess has kindly drawn
my attention to the similarity between Jenkins’s opening and that of
Palestrina’s five-part madrigal ‘Vestiva i colli’, printed in the 1588 edition
of Musica Transalpina where it is Englished as ‘Sound out my voice’
(Example III):