The Notation of the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book

Extract

I have been asked to tell you something about the contents and the peculiarities of notation of what is, perhaps, the most important collection of virginal pieces in existence—the book formerly known as “Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,” which is preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. That title, it has been amply proved, is altogether false and misleading, and indeed that it should have ever arisen is only an illustration of the carelessness with which musical manuscripts were examined in past times. For against one of the pieces, the “Ut, Re, Mi,” of Sweelinck, on p. 216, there occurs the date 1612, when Queen Elizabeth had been dead nine years. And another piece, “Dr. Bull's Juell,” exists in a manuscript in the British, museum, where it is dated December 12, 1621. Probably the name, for which Hawkins is responsible, arose from the fact that all the composers represented rank among those of the Elizabethan era. I may assume, I suppose, that the general outline of the history of the book, as brought to light by Mr. William Chappell and latterly by Mr. W. Barclay Squire, is known to you all.