An Index of Polyphonic Chansons in English Manuscript Sources, c. 1530–1640
1988 ◽
Vol 21
◽
pp. 21-36
Much has been written about the Italian madrigal and its effect upon the musical life of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. That the Italian vogue was indeed strong can be observed most dramatically in English printed and manuscript sources of the period; yet the obvious and dazzling effect this foreign idiom had upon many aspects of Elizabethan and Jacobean music is balanced by the equally important and more deeply-rooted connection that England enjoyed with her nearer Continental neighbours, France and the Low Countries. The following index documents this musical connection by presenting a list of the Franco-Netherlandish chansons that appeared in English manuscript sources dating from c. 1530 to c. 1640.