Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 64
Scan 64
A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
17 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Manuscripts.
212th TO 13th CENTURY.
4PREFACE.
6The Manuscripts brought together in this Section serve to illustrate the development of musical notation from the twelfth century down to the present day.
8Before the introduction of staves and clefs, melodies were noted down in curious little strokes and figures known as neumes, which served roughly to indicate pitch and phrasing. Of these we have an example in the Roman Missal lent by Mr. Arkwright.
10A good example of two-part harmony, written about 1300 A.D., will be seen in the earlier of the two Manuscripts lent by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
12Next in order of date comes the remarkable Manuscript which formerly belonged to John Stafford Smith, and has only recently again been brought to light at St. Edmund's College, Old Hall. It contains a number of elaborate compositions by English musicians of the first half of the fifteenth century, including a setting in four parts of the hymn "Veni Sancte Spiritus" by John Dunstable.
14About a century later we have a fine specimen of the music books of the time of Henry VIII. in the folio Manuscript from Eton College, containing compositions by Robert Fayrfax and his contemporaries.
16Our collection is peculiarly rich in Manuscript music books for the virginals and late of the Elizabethan period. For the virginals we have the well-known books of Will. Forster and Benjamin Cosyn from Buckingham Palace, and of Lady Neville from Eridge Castle; for the late William Ballet's book from Trinity College, Dublin, in which the earliest
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