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The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, Vol. 1
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is "the most remarkable, and in many respects the most valuable collection of Elizabethan keyboard music," according to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Of unknown origins, the previously scarce collector's item is now available at popular prices for the first time. The pieces herein, while composed for the virginal, can be played without difficulty on piano or any other keyboard instrument.
The nearly 300 airs, variations, fantasies, toccatas, pavanes, galliards, allemandes, and courantes in these two volumes include some of the finest examples of Elizabethan and Jacobean compositions by Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, Giles Farnaby, Thomas Warrock, Ferdinando Richardson, Peter Phillips, Thomas Tompkins, and practically every other composer of the virginalistic school. John Bull and William Byrd, two of England's greatest composers, are represented by over 100 works.
J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire set the music into modern notation, preserving faithfully the intent of the composers. The peculiarities of the original notation, time signatures, fingering, and the like as well as the ecclesiastical modes and accidentals employed by the composers are explained in a lucid introduction, which also discusses the history of the manuscript, the individuals connected with it, the composers, and the structure of the virginal.
For this extensively revised and corrected Dover edition, Blanche Winogron, noted musicologist and performer, undertook a thorough critical reexamination of the 1899 Maitland Squire edition by closely comparing it to a copy of the original manuscript (the original is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England) from which it was transcribed. Numerous minor errors, misprints, and misinterpretations in the Maitland/Squire transcription have been corrected, resulting in a new edition closer to the original than ever before.
The period of this music was one of transition from the older principles and systems of notation to modern theories. This, then, is a most important document for musicologists and others interested in the history of music. But it is also a source of delight, allowing for countless hours at the keyboard for all lovers of good music.
The nearly 300 airs, variations, fantasies, toccatas, pavanes, galliards, allemandes, and courantes in these two volumes include some of the finest examples of Elizabethan and Jacobean compositions by Thomas Morley, Orlando Gibbons, Giles Farnaby, Thomas Warrock, Ferdinando Richardson, Peter Phillips, Thomas Tompkins, and practically every other composer of the virginalistic school. John Bull and William Byrd, two of England's greatest composers, are represented by over 100 works.
J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire set the music into modern notation, preserving faithfully the intent of the composers. The peculiarities of the original notation, time signatures, fingering, and the like as well as the ecclesiastical modes and accidentals employed by the composers are explained in a lucid introduction, which also discusses the history of the manuscript, the individuals connected with it, the composers, and the structure of the virginal.
For this extensively revised and corrected Dover edition, Blanche Winogron, noted musicologist and performer, undertook a thorough critical reexamination of the 1899 Maitland Squire edition by closely comparing it to a copy of the original manuscript (the original is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England) from which it was transcribed. Numerous minor errors, misprints, and misinterpretations in the Maitland/Squire transcription have been corrected, resulting in a new edition closer to the original than ever before.
The period of this music was one of transition from the older principles and systems of notation to modern theories. This, then, is a most important document for musicologists and others interested in the history of music. But it is also a source of delight, allowing for countless hours at the keyboard for all lovers of good music.
464 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1963
About the author
J.A. Fuller-Maitland
71 booksJohn Alexander Fuller Maitland (7 April 1856 – 30 March 1936) was an influential British music critic and scholar from the 1880s to the 1920s. He encouraged the rediscovery of English music of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly Henry Purcell's music and English virginal music. He also propounded the notion of an English Musical Renaissance in the second half of the 19th century, particularly praising Charles Villiers Stanford and Hubert Parry.
Fuller Maitland was criticised for his failure to acknowledge the talents of the English composers Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius, and later it was shown that he had falsified the facts in a critique of Sullivan. He was also slow to recognise the worth of contemporary composers from mainland Europe such as Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss.
Fuller Maitland was criticised for his failure to acknowledge the talents of the English composers Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius, and later it was shown that he had falsified the facts in a critique of Sullivan. He was also slow to recognise the worth of contemporary composers from mainland Europe such as Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss.
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