Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book

Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book is a manuscript keyboard compilation dated 1638.^[1] Whilst the importance of the music it contains is not high, it reveals the sort of keyboard music that was being played in the home at this time.^[2]

The manuscript

The upright quarto book originally contained 51 pages, five of which have been torn out. It retains its original calf binding with gold tooling, and the initials A.C. are stamped on both back and front covers. The verso of the title page bears a table of note values and four lines of verse:

Fouer moodes in musicke you shall find to bee
But two you only use which heare you see
Devided from the sembreefe to the quaver
Which you with ease may larne if you endevour

Each of the following 33 pages bears eight sets of six-line ruled staves on which are fifty short pieces of music, written in at least two hands. The remaining pages are blank apart from the last, on the verso of which is written:

This Book was my Grandmothers Ann Daughter and Coheiresse of Henry Cromwell Esq^r. of Upwood in Coun^t. Huntingdon & was dated 1638 But somebody has torn out þe [the] Leaf.

The book is currently in Museum of London

The author

Anne Cromwell was born in 1618, the youngest child of Henry Cromwell († 1630) of Upwood, now in Cambridgeshire. Henry was the brother of Robert Cromwell (c. 1570-1617), the father of Oliver Cromwell, making Ann a first cousin of the Lord Protector.^[1] Anne later married John Neale of Dean, Bedfordshire. Her Coheiresse (above) was her sister Elizabeth Cromwell (born 1616) who with Anne may have had a hand in the writing of the manuscript.

The pieces contained in the manuscript are relatively simple, and written for the amateur performer. Most are anonymous, and consist of songs, dances, psalms and symphonies (masque music). Only nine pieces are attributed, of which six are to Simon Ives (1600-1662),^[3] one to John Ward, one to Bulstrode Whitelocke and one to (possibly) Thomas Holmes († 1638). However composers of some of the other pieces can be identified from other sources, and include John Bull, John Dowland and Henry Lawes. The contents (maintaining the original spelling) are as follows:

A Preludium (John Bull)
A Psalme
Mrs Villers Sport:
Besse A Bell
Daphny
The Building of Polles
The French Balletto
A French Tuckato
Fortune my foe
In the dayes of old
Frogges Galliard (John Dowland)
[untitled]
M^r Wards Masque (? John Ward)
The Princes Masque
A Toy
The Queens Masque
The New Nightingall
The Meiry Companion
An Ayre
The Meiry Milke-maide
Simphony
The Queenes Galiard
Simphony
Simphony
A Corranto
A Masque
The Meiry old man:
The Healthes
The Sheepeard
The Duke of Buckeinghams Masque
The Milke maide
The wiches
Symphony
The Choyce by M^r Ives (Simon Ives)
[untitled]
M^r W: M: delight (Simon Ives)
The Scotch tune
The Blaseing Torch
M^r Holmes Coranto (? Thomas Holmes)
[untitled]
M^r Whitelockes Coranto (Bulstrode Whitelocke)
Simphony by M^r Ives (Simon Ives)
Among the Mirtills (Henry Lawes)
[untitled]
An almon by M^r Ive (Simon Ives)
A Coranto by M^r Ive (Simon Ives)
A Coranto by M^r Ive (Simon Ives)
The Maide
A Simphony by M^r Ive (Simon Ives)
al done

References

^ ^a ^b Austern, Linda Phyllis; McBride, Kari Boyd (2016-04-15). Psalms in the Early Modern World. Routledge. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1-317-07399-4.
^ Hinson, Maurice; Roberts, Wesley (2013-12-03). Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Fourth Edition. Indiana University Press. p. 1106. ISBN 978-0-253-01023-0.
^ Winkler, Amanda Eubanks (2020-06-04). Music, Dance, and Drama in Early Modern English Schools. Cambridge University Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-108-49086-3.

Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book

Contents

The manuscript

The author

Contents

See also

References

Further reading