Scan 260
A dictionary of old English music & musical instruments 1923, 1923
4 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 230. See the scan on archive.org.
1wind-instruments, stringed-instruments, or sung. Giovanni Coperario (né John Cooper), Alphonso Ferabosco III, and their numerous contemporaries, were writing true Viol music, intended for this one purpose only, under the very next sovereign.
3The State Papers preserved in the Record Office and a few public and private collections of manuscripts afford all the information necessary to give us a good idea of the instrument's English history. In 1526 the list of the royal musicians of Henry VIII contained fifteen trumpets, three lutes, three rebecks, three taborets, a harp, two viols, four drumslades, a fife, and ten sackbuts; but whether these instruments were ever used in combination is very open to doubt. The moral to be drawn from this list lies in the fact that only two viols appear in a list containing a great amount of percussion and brass. And even these two viols were played by foreigners—two Flemings named Hans Hossenet and Hans Highorne—at a salary of "xxxiiis. iiijd. paide monethly" each (Egerton MS. 2604; 17 Henry VIII). Only six years later mention is made of "three of the Viols," a remark that would point to the probability that there were more than three of them by then. The new names are now Italian. During the reign of Henry VIII a constant stream of embassies passed between England and Italy—and particularly Venice—and it is not at all surprising that many Italian musicians should be preferred to positions in the royal music. Henry had a very highly developed taste in the art, and his discrimination was well known. Therefore he rarely allowed a good player to enter any other service once he had formed a good opinion of the foreigner's performance. The Audit Office accounts for 1540 state that "Alberto da Venitia, Vincenzo da Venezia, Alexander, Ambroso, and Romano da Milano, and Joan Maria da Cremona" were appointed as "Vialls" during the king's pleasure at a wage of twelve pence per day. Henry's collection of viols was of very respectable size and quality (v. Harleian MS. 1419A). Exactly when English players first appear in the royal band cannot be fixed with certainty; but the first native name I have come across in the State Papers is that of Thomas Kentt "lately admitted to the Vialles in place of greate Hans deceased" (1549; Lord Chamberlain's Records). In 1554 (December 23) Thomas Browne was engaged as one of the
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