Civic Minstrels in Late Medieval England: New Light on Duties and Careers

The publications of the ongoing Records of Early English Drama project since 1979 have made available for the first time much early documentation about minstrels, including the civic minstrels or town waits. While this material leaves many questions unanswered, a more detailed picture of the early history of civic minstrels is emerging. This article focusses on three aspects of that history that have not previously been studied as such: the towns that employed civic minstrels by 1509, the minstrels’ possible special duties in ports, and their employment mobility.

Adolph Hummel: Music Publisher in Eighteenth-Century London

Adolph Hummel, from Hesse, established in Soho a music publishing business that lasted 12 years (1760–1772). His publishing strategy differed in several ways from that commonly adopted by London publishers: he published only foreign-born (mostly German or Italian) composers; he did not issue vocal music; and, while taking the common routes of advertising his publications by notices in contemporary newspapers and listing issues in the imprints to title pages, he was highly unusual in that he produced no catalogue. He was also unusual in obtaining a royal licence to protect his copyright. He was the first publisher in London to issue a string quartet, and possibly the first to add violin accompaniments to already-published solo harpsichord sonatas to create accompanied sonatas. He was probably related to the Hummel music publishing brothers of the Netherlands. Personal information about him is hard to come by, but we know that Frau Anna Maria Mozart was godmother to his youngest child; he was a particular friend of J. C. Bach; he was prosecuted, for an undisclosed reason, by the musician Rudolf Straube; and he was the founder of three generations of the musical ‘English Hummells’. The final part of this article comprises a detailed catalogue of Hummel’s publications.

‘With sound of lute and pleasing words’: The Lute Song and Voice Types in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century England

The Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song (1597–1622) represents one of the most iconic genres of all early music. Although much literature has been dedicated to this repertory, the issue of the voices for which this music was probably intended still remains surprisingly underexplored. This subject has, moreover, acquired greater significance in light of research undertaken by Simon Ravens (2014) and Andrew Parrott (2015), which has challenged the plausibility of the falsetto voice in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, particularly in sacred music.This paper explores the issue of the types of voices that most likely performed the Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song in three ways. Firstly, contemporary English evidence for lutes and viols is analyzed together with information regarding tuning and transposition. Secondly, the music itself is investigated, including the part names and clefs used alongside the tessitura of the melodic line. Finally, a detailed examination of evidence for the tenor and falsetto voice is presented, including a critical examination of the word ‘faine’ (usually assumed to mean ‘falsetto’). The collective results are then brought together to refine current ideas regarding the voices used in the Elizabethan and Jacobean lute song.

The Cheney Flute Sonatas Manuscript: An Early Collection for the Traverso, Containing Music by Pepusch and Others

This article describes and evaluates a manuscript album of English provenance from the early eighteenth century containing 24 anonymous solo sonatas for the transverse flute (traverso) and continuo. These are especially interesting in that they date from a period when this still rather novel instrument had, in England, very little purpose-written repertory within that genre. A study of concordances and contextual factors reveals that a large number of them, plus some movements in pasticcio sonatas, are by J. C. Pepusch, whose musical style in solo sonatas is examined in detail. The article includes an inventory with musical incipits of the individual compositions.