The Filmer Manuscripts: A HandlistAuthor(s): Robert FordSource: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Jun., 1978), pp. 814-825Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/898046 .

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THE FILMER MANUSCRIPTS: A HANDLIST

By Robert Ford

The Yale Music Library possesses thirty-seven manuscripts which,

together with a number of early prints, comprise the Filmer Collection. Purchased intact from the Kentish estate of the last Baronet Filmer in 1945, these documents have only recently been appreciated for their

importance, both individually as sources and collectively as a chronicle of the history of English music between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries. This article constitutes the first systematic descrip? tion of the collection's contents and the only printed overview since Brooks Shepherd's paper, "A Repertory of 17th-Century English House

Music," was summarized in Journal ofthe American Musicological Society 9 (1956): 61. The author plans eventually to prepare a more detailed

catalog and to report fully on some of the most important aspects of these materials.

The Filmer family was one of the more prominent among the gentry of Kent, though they seldom, if ever, had any marked influence on the national level. Counting among them knights and local political figures since the first Elizabeth's days, the Filmers acquired their

baronetcy during the reign of Charles II, in recognition of their loyalty to the crown during the civil wars. Perhaps the most notable early members of the family were Sir Robert Filmer (1588-1653), the author of Patriarcha and other works of political philosophy; Edward Filmer

{fl 1700), a play wright and defender of the stage against the accusation that it was immoral; and Edward Filmer, esq. (brother of Sir Robert, d. 1650), the compiler of French Court Aires with their ditties Englished (London: Stansby, 1628). Although no Filmer other than the last mentioned appears to have been a professional musician, the collection described here provides ample evidence that they patronized and associated with musicians to a great extent and were thoroughly "alamode," to use the term current then. It might be noted, however, that not all of the volumes originated with the Filmers; many were

I would like to thank Kathleen Moretto, Assistant Music Librarian; Alfred Kuhn, Rare Book Librarian; and Harold Samuel, Music Librarian?all of the Yale University Music Library?for their patient assistance and encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Craig Monson, of the Yale University Department of Music, for his thoughtful suggestions and criticism.

Mr. Ford is currently a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley.?Ed.

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obtained from previous owners by a number of different avenues?most

prominently marriage. Upon their arrival at Yale, both the manuscripts and prints were

divided between the music and university libraries, reflecting the two different book funds used for the original purchase. The portion assigned to the university library was transferred to the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library when that unit was constructed a decade or so later. The Beinecke volumes were recently moved to the music

library, where the entire collection now resides. The new call number for the manuscript portion of the Filmer materials is Miscellaneous

Manuscript 170, Filmer MSS 1-37. Since about a third of the entries below were assigned call numbers when they were received

(Ma21 /F48/Al 1-21), these are given in parentheses for the convenience of those who have dealt with the better-known items. The new numbers

arrange the documents in a more rational order than had previously been the case. The printed works have been classified as part of the rare book collection; provenance cards in the public catalogs relate them to the manuscripts.

Although the Filmer manuscripts display a variety of sizes, formats and bindings, ranging from the duodecimo of manuscript 32 to the

large folio of manuscript 31, few are particularly interesting from the

bibliographical point of view. Manuscripts 1 and 2 are bound in leather and vellum, respectively, and are both handsomely decorated with gold leaf, while the binding of manuscript 33 reflects its different origin. Otherwise, the remaining manuscripts are either unbound or protected by the most utilitarian sorts of paper, parchment, or leather covers. That most of the manuscripts are in various stages of deterioration is not surprising, since they remained packed in a storage trunk from the middle of the eighteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth

century. Manuscript 7 has come unbound; manuscript 8 has suffered

greatly from both fire and water, and so forth. Steps are being taken to put the volumes into better repair and to insure their future well-being.

The following catalog of the manuscripts outlines their contents and indicates some of the points of greatest interest. Speculation has been avoided where possible. Nor has it been thought necessary to dwell on biographical details concerning the composers represented; most are noted in the standard dictionaries.

Manuscripts 1 through 5 constitute the first major group of Filmer

manuscripts; aside from the prints, they are the only prerestoration items in the collection and bear no inherent relationship to the later materials. These five manuscripts are linked by a series of common

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handwritings, the last of which apparently belonged to the man who

brought together all five sets. Only the latest repertory could possibly have been associated with the Filmer family itself; the many flyleaf scribblings indicate only the numerous earlier owners. The evidence that this portion of the collection was connected with Sir Edward Filmer

(d. 1668), son of the Sir Robert mentioned above (and nephew to the compiler of French Court Aires), is more slight than might be wished; the presence of a piece entitled "Sir E. F. his French Ayre" in manuscript 3 provides almost the only clue. For this reason, the date and circum? stances of the Filmers' acquisition of these books must remain to some extent hypothetical.

MS 1 (o/tmAll)

Assuredly the best known in the collection, this set of five partbooks, already missing its sixth part when acquired, is one of the major sources for the works of the Italian composer Alfonso Ferrabosco (1543-1588). Ferrabosco was for some time one of Queen Elizabeth's musicians and seems to have been one of the key figures in the spread of continental musical ideas to England. The "Filmer Partbooks," as they have been

called, can reasonably be dated to the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's

reign (1588-1603) and clearly show the importance of ultramarine music in Britain. Besides the music of Ferrabosco, they contain a large number of motets, madrigals, and chansons by Lasso, Marenzio, de Monte, Palestrina, Wert and other continental musicians?as well as a few works

by William Damon, a musician from the low countries who also served the queen. Various native pieces have been added by later hands (notably those in manuscripts 2 through 5 below).

MS 2 (olim Beinecke MS 469)

The original portions of this set of three partbooks (the treble and

perhaps one other voice are missing) contain dance music and untexted villanelle from the first two decades of the seventeenth century. Through concordances it has been possible to ascribe many of the dances to

composers such as Jeronimo Bassano, James Harding, Anthony Hol-

borne, and Thomas Lupo, most of whom are identified only by their initials in the manuscript. The set of four-part fancies by Lupo and the anonymous canzonets for three voices and continuo found in these volumes are copied in the same hand as that of manuscripts 3 through 5.

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MS 3 (olim A16)

The principal scribe of this manuscript appears to have owned

manuscripts 1 through 5 and to have worked from about 1635 to 1665. The name Francis Block, inscribed on a blank leaf in the bass

part, may refer to the copyist or the owner, as many of the unique (but very poor) pieces in this and the following manuscript are signed "FB." This particular set of three partbooks includes dance music in two and three parts by many of the best composers of Caroline times: Charles Coleman, Simon Ives, John Jenkins, William Lawes, et al. The

spare pages of the tenor/second treble book also contain a number of Italian and English songs, dialogues, and other vocal pieces?mostly with basso continuo only, but occasionally with bandora accompaniments. Sections of country dances with primitive accompaniments (apparently composed by the scribe) and pieces for division and lyra viols also find place in the treble and bass parts.

MS 4 (olim A13)

This set of three volumes begins with what may well be prepublication copies of the vocal trios in John Wilson's Cheereful Ayres (Oxford, 1660). Among the three-part instrumental pieces in this group of partbooks are found both the earliest and the latest segments of the repertory copied by the latest scribe of manuscripts 1 through 5. The music of John Banister, William Clayton, and Matthew Locke?all basically late commonwealth or early restoration composers?has been added on the blank pages between pieces by "Mr. Cormacke," John Drew, Michael East, and Alfonso Ferrabosco Junior, all active primarily during Jacobean or early Caroline times. The bass part of this set also includes some violin divisions.

MS 5 (olim A15)

This lone partbook is the only concordant source to the collection of Italian basso continuo madrigals, by the recusant composer Richard

Dering (d. 1630), found in Tenbury manuscript 1016. It also contains various parts to some of the more widely circulated sacred works by Dering and two pieces by Thomas Ford and John Wilson, for which this manuscript supplies hitherto missing parts.

Manuscripts 6 through 14 are sources of instrumental entr'acte music for restoration drama; their repertory spans over three decades (1670- 1700) of London stage activity. Though containing the contributions

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of many hands (both earlier and later), manuscripts 7 and 9 through 14 share writings in the hand of one particular scribe. The accretionary nature of this situation is further emphasized by scattered entries in the handwritings of manuscripts 15 through 24. It is, however, impossible to do justice here to the intricate relationships among these manuscripts and their connection with the Filmer family. Suffice it to say that, after a certain amount of collecting had been done by intermediate

owners, these all passed from the hands of professionals into those of the Filmers.

MS 6 (olim A12)

These three partbooks share no hands with any of the other materials. As such, they represent a notable exception to the associative tendencies of the restoration manuscripts. Though the instrumental music in these volumes is known to have been written for the theater by Solomon

Eccles, Thomas Farmer, and John Lenton, only a few sets of play music can be assigned to specific dramas. These do, however, support a date in the early 1680s for the copying of these volumes. The name "Rob: Filmer" is written on the back pastedown of the first treble book and probably refers to the second baronet of the line (d. 1720).

MS7

Manuscript 7 is an isolated bass book consisting, like manuscript 6, mainly of instrumental music to be inserted between the acts of

restoration plays. The repertory copied by the first of this manuscript's several hands is, however, much earlier than that of the previously mentioned item. The presence of such composers as John Banister and Matthew Locke, both of whom had been active in the commonwealth

period, suggests that copying began not later than the early 1670s.

Other composers represented include Eccles, Farmer, Forcer, King, Pack, Peasable, and Turner. Many of these were active somewhat later

than Banister and Locke, indicating that through a number of changes in ownership the book remained in use until at least the 1680s.

MS8

Another bass part of play music, manuscript 8 contains a repertory

typical of the late 1670s or early 1680s. It includes music by Lully, Smith, and others, as well as a suite of theater music by Henry Purcell. Aside from the Overture, these Purcell pieces are not known elsewhere,

making the loss of the other parts particularly regrettable.

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MS 9 (olim A19)

Not only do these three instrumental partbooks comprise the largest of the Filmer theatrical sets, but they also embrace the most substantial

span of time. The dates of the plays, many of which are named in the parts, range from 1682 to 1700. Especially interesting is the

apparently chronological order in which the five major scribes have

copied these pieces. A few of the many composers represented are the following: Ackroyd, Bullamore, Compton, S. and J. Eccles, Farmer, Finger, Forcer, Grabu, Peasable, and Tollett.

MS 10

This and the four following manuscripts are similar in that they are all single gatherings, bifolia, or pages which appear never to have formed parts of larger volumes; all are in the hand of the first scribe of manuscript 9. Manuscript 10 is entitled "Senior Torellos Airs." We have only the first and second treble parts. These are not to be identified with any of the known works of Giuseppe Torelli, and thus must be

unique, spurious, or the works of some obscure composer with a similar name.

MS 11

This is a set of seven theater tunes by "Mr. (Robert?) King," of which only the first and second treble parts survive.

MS 12

Three parts (two trebles and a bass) to play music by John Lenton, each written on a single bifolium, constitute this entry.

MS 13

In this manuscript are found the second treble and bass parts to

twenty-one instrumental pieces extracted from the play tunes and operas of Henry Purcell (Abdelazar, Amphitryon, Dioclesian, The Fairy Queen, King Arthur, and The Married Beau). This set demonstrates both the

popularity of its composer's music and the free manner in which instrumental suites were formed during this era.

MS 14

This single sheet contains, on one side, the last few numbers of the treble part to an unidentified theatre suite and, on the other side

(entered in a much later hand), three song tunes for a solo treble instrument: "Red House," "Under the Greenwood Tree," and "The

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Rumer." All three of these were used repeatedly in the ballad operas ofthe 1720s and 1730s.

Many of the scribes of Filmer manuscripts 15 through 24?among them the composers William Turner and Francis Forcer?were

apparently employed as music teachers for the Filmer children at various times in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The jottings by Turner and others in manuscripts 7 through 14 attest to the goodly library of music already at the Filmer residence when they paid their visits. The blank pages between and following their own additions to this corpus later provided scratch paper for much less professional eighteenth-century music enthusiasts.

MS 15 (olim A22)

Perhaps the most important aspect of Filmer manuscript 15 is the

precision with which it can be dated. All fourteen of the pieces in this keyboard volume (written on six-line staves) were probably copied within a year or two of the date on the front flyleaf: "Amy Filmer Her Booke/ 1678." Included are transcriptions of songs by Henry Purcell and William Turner, as well as keyboard dances by John Blow and Francis Forcer. Forcer was the principal scribe of this and the following manuscript.

MS 16 (olim A20)

These partbooks, a second treble and a bass, have had a long and varied career. Both begin with the grand choeur instrumental parts to

Lully's Acis et Galatee (1686). In addition, the bass book contains didactic notes and instructions (in an eighteenth-century hand) on how to tune

a harpsichord, while the treble serves as the repository for dances,

play music, and song tunes (with or without words) entered by a

half-dozen or more copyists.

MS 17 (olim A21)

This is perhaps the most complicated manuscript in the collection.

Although it displays the work of over a dozen hands, this musical

commonplace book is most closely associated with the restoration

composer William Turner (1652-1740), who has inscribed here two of his anthems (arranged for solo voice, violin, and continuo) and many of his vocal and instrumental works, as well as those by composers such as Purcell and Handel. The beginning portion of the volume,

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consisting in part of sheets removed from the body of the book, contains

songs, keyboard music, and treble lines written in sundry other seven-

teenth-century hands, while scripts from the early to mid-eighteenth century occupy whatever pages had not already been utilized.

MS 18

Although not ascribed, this suite of three pieces for treble and figured bass?copied entirely in Turner's hand?may be of his composition.

MS 19

Like the preceding item, this suite of three keyboard works is in Turner's hand but is not ascribed.

MS20

The sacred song with three-part ritornello titled "When Israel was from bondage led," again in Turner's hand but anonymous, occupies one side of this single folio. The other side of the leaf reveals the treble part only to a sonata (or "fantasia suite") in B-flat minor (!) by "JR." The hand which copied this piece appears in manuscript 17 and several other volumes.

MS21

Written in the hand which copied a song, a keyboard ground, and some treble tunes in manuscript 17, this manuscript is a bifolium which has been removed from a restoration choirbook. It contains the tenor

parts to two chants, "Out of the deep" and "Give ear O Lord" by Aldrich, and a seldom-encountered Purcell anthem, "The Lord is King." Since Aldrich is styled "Dr.," the manuscript must have been copied after 1682, the year he received that degree.

MS22

This single sheet contains anonymous settings of the songs "Long from the force of beauty's charms" and "When Delia on the plain appears" in an early eighteenth-century hand which was among the latest in manuscript 17.

MS23

Written in the same hand as manuscript 22, this simple folio contains the "Graces in Camilla" (from the opera // Trionfo di Camilla by Bononcini, produced in London in 1706). Seven sets of embellishments for various arias in that opera may have been prepared for a performer

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by a singing coach, much as such ornaments must be prepared for modern singers of baroque opera today.

MS24

This keyboard manuscript belonged to "Elizabeth Filmer" and was in use sometime before 1710. Aside from an anonymous "mineway" (minuet) and the song "Ianthe the lovely" by John Barrett (transcribed for harpsichord), the remainder of this volume consists of fragments and pedagogical aids.

Manuscripts 25 through 27 apparently entered the Filmer household

by marriage; their lack of concordant hands sets them outside the

previously described groups of manuscripts. Each new bride brought with her the musical training and, at least in some cases, the music she had received as part of her genteel education. The keyboard lesson books of Amy and Elizabeth Filmer find their vocal equivalents in

the interesting song books of "Miss Wallis" and Elizabeth Beversham.

MS 25 (olim A14)

The owner of this book, "Miss Wallis" according to the cover,

apparently sang her secular and sacred songs in French, Italian, Latin, and English with lute accompaniment (in tablature). This revealing?

though casually copied?source contains music by such composers as

Antoine Boesset, Sebastien le Camus, and Luigi Rossi, as well as later

additions of movements from instrumental works by Corelli and Gemin- iani. The manuscript is probably the product of the 1660s, though an earlier date is not out of the question.

MS26

This commonplace book contains only the tunes to a number of

songs from John Playford's publication Choice Ayres and Songs (volume I, 1676). The music, however, shows many divergences from the printed

copies and in one case supplies a completely different melody for one

of the printed song texts. The book may date from slightly before

the publication, but certainly not long after. Also present are the treble

parts to a number of popular instrumental pieces, such as the "Vigo Minuit," "Farinel's ground," Purcell's "Sybell," and an anonymous "The

Battell."

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MS27

Inscribed "Elizabeth Beversham, her Booke. July the llthe, 1679," this manuscript, like the preceding one, contains only treble parts. Its

repertory, however, is nearly as cosmopolitan as that of the "Miss Wallis"

book, including songs in French, Italian, and English. The native pieces are by a number of authors and include some which are apparently unique, though unascribed. The French and Italian works are primarily by J.-B. Lully and Luigi Rossi, respectively.

The remainder of the Filmer manuscripts forms the miscellany of the collection. There are no scribal concordances between these and the foregoing (and few among themselves), and in many instances it is difficult to place them accurately in a chronological position.

MS28

The single sheet catalogued under this number contains, on one

side, the song "To silent groves" by Greene and, on the other, an as yet unidentified instrumental minuet (treble part only). Neither is

likely to have been written before 1725.

MS29

This folio, written in an early eighteenth-century hand, supplies the music to the treble part of an overture and set of theater tunes. The

composer has not yet been identified.

MS30

"See! from silent groves," whose vocal line (only) occupies both sides of this single page, is entitled "Alexis" in J. C. Pepusch's Six English Cantatas (first set) published after 1710. Its text makes reference to the opera Camilla, alluded to in manuscript 23.

MS31

This large-folio sheet contains two catches by William Smegergill, alias Caesar, written in an elegant mid-eighteenth-century script.

MS32

The tunes to a number of metrical psalm and canticle settings are found in this tiny volume entitled (on its last page) "Robert Filmer His Booke: of psalmes."

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MS33

This manuscript, perhaps the most interesting of these later volumes, originated not in England but in France. The title page of each of the three partbooks informs us that it is a "Livre de triots appartenants a Dieupart, Fluste et Cromorne ordinaire de la chambre du Roy. 1680." As such, it predates the greater part of the surviving sources for the music of the court of Louis XIV, since most of these stern from the

collecting and copying activities of Philidor l'aine, appointed royal librarian in 1684. Made up primarily of pieces taken from the ballets and operas of Lully, the present volumes also contain pieces of his known only in manuscript (for which this is likely to be the best source) and music by Lebegue, Louis Grabu (who spent part of his time in

Paris, part in London), and the virtually unknown composer de la

Grange.

MS34

Entitled "Secondo Violino del Libro di Nichola Matteis," this lone

part contains almost the entire contents of Matteis's A ires in Three Parts

(London, 1703) and may have been copied from that print.

MS35

Dating from the mid-eighteenth century, this bass book consists of

parts to instrumental sonatas by Corelli and his school, arias and other

pieces by Handel and Hasse, and music extracted from the various musical magazines of the time. Almost all seem to have been copied from printed material.

MS36

This is another bass part in the same hand and similar in nature to the preceding.

MS37

Entirely blank, this "Bassus" partbook?many pages of which have been torn out?may date to the end of the sixteenth century. On the cover are written the names "Robert" and "William More."

Since the printed books are not included in the list above, some account of them must be given here. Unlike the manuscript collection? the diverse contents of which span a period of over 150 years?the published works all date from the late sixteenth century (with one

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exception). None of these earlier sets is complete, and in some cases but a single part survives. The following were included in the original acquisition:

Anerio, Felice Canzonette a qvattro voci . . . Libro primo. (Venice: Vincenti, 1597) Three parts.

Ardesi, Carlo IIprimo libro de madrigali a qvattro voci.. . . (Venice: Vincenti, 1597) Two parts.

Barera, Rodiano IIprimo libro de madrigali a qvattro voci. . . . (Venice: Gardano, 1596) Two parts.

Lassus, Orlando di Mellange d'Orlande de Lassus. . . . (La Rochelle: Haultin, 1576- ) Four volumes, one part only.

Marenzio, Luca // qvarto libro de madrigali a sei voci. . . . (Venice: Gardano, 1593) Three parts.

Yonge, Nicholas Musica transalpina . . . The second booke. . . . (London: Este, 1597) Five parts.

The Anerio, Ardesi, and Marenzio are bound together in pages from an illuminated psalter. The copy of Musica transalpina (which has been

completed by the addition of an alto part from another set) is notable for its fine leather binding and ornamental tooling. In addition to these partbooks, the collection also contains under one cover the first six volumes (the last imperfect) of Gabriel Bataille's Airs de differents autheurs . . . (Paris: Ballard, 1612-1615). While these are precisely the

publications on which Edward Filmer drew for his French Court Aires, there is no evidence that these particular copies were ever in his

possession. Thus the Filmer Collection, though smaller than collections in English

libraries with similar holdings, offers many unique opportunities to the student of British music and its history. In its manuscripts we witness the flux of continental influence, Italian and French, as it advances or retreats in the face of native traditions. Nearly every major sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century genre is to be found in one of its manuscripts. And, as a model for the transmitting and

assembling of music in the seventeenth century, the collection's value can scarcely be overestimated. It is hoped that this handlist will provide some guide to those involved and interested in English music history.

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