Beschreibung:

Viola da gamba Important c.mid-seventeenth-century manuscript of divisions for solo bass viol by Daniel Norcombe, Christopher Simpson and others, also including a later collection of English songs and poems from around the 1680s the bass viol music occupying folios 1-33 and comprising 17 sets of divisions by Norcombe (numbered 1-6, 10-11, 15-16, 18-[20], [22], [26-28]), the composer's name variously indicated ("Daniel Norcom"; "Nor"; "D: Norcomb"; "Dan: Norcom"; "Mr Daniell Norcombe"; "D: N:" etc.), 3 sets of divisions by Simpson (numbered 7, 9 and 21), his name variously indicated ("Mr Simpson"; "C Simpson" and "C: S:"), and 16 unattributed sets, three of which identified by a later hand as by William Young (nos.[29]-[31]), another three of which simply entitled by the scribe "Preludium" (no. [8]), "Ffantazia" (no.12) and "Pole Wheele" (no.[25]), and one of which on "Tregian's Ground" (no. [13]: later manuscript identification), notated in staff notation on up to ten single-stave systems per page by apparently one scribe; the English songs and poems added from the reverse end on fols.34-48, in apparently the same hand as that of the bass viol music, comprising over 20 items, many with highly political, Royalist-inspired, texts ("...let buggering Oates be damned...and let us be merry, since Kg James & Queen Mary are comd to ye Crown..."), some songs provided with just the melody, others with the melody and bass together, one song containing at the end the inscription "hic precor JCW [?]", the concluding verses of the last song tipped in before fol.1 48 leaves, folio (c.35 x 23cm), 10-stave paper, rubricated margins, some later pencil annotations, pencil annotation ("From Dr. Maunces Library") with later autograph note by Arnold Dolmetsch ("Exchanged for a copy of the First Edition of Purcell's "Lessons for the Spinet" in December 1898 A. D.") on a paper strip laid down on front pastedown, manuscript leaf of pencil notes concerning Norcombe, in Dolmetsch's hand, partially laid down on front free endpaper, Dolmetsch library stamp and pencil shelfmark ("II C 24") on paper strip affixed to front pastedown, conservator's label (June 2005) to lower pastedown, black morocco label with gilt Dolmetsch shelfmark to foot of spine, twentieth-century calf retaining centre panels from the original late seventeenth-century panelled calf binding, most likely by the Spaniel Binder, with gilt roll-tooled border and leafy cornerpieces, no place or date [the viol music acquired c.1650s, the later poems and music dating from the c.1680s], browning to edges, some worming, some gatherings strengthened at hinge, some corners strengthened SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MANUSCRIPT MUSIC FOR THE BASS VIOL IS OF GREAT RARITY AT AUCTION. THE PRESENT VOLUME IS A MAJOR SOURCE FOR THE BASS VIOL REPERTORY AND MANY WORKS CONTAINED HERE - OVER HALF THE TOTAL - ARE NOT FOUND IN ANY OTHER SOURCE. WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE MANUSCRIPT HAS NOT BEEN WIDELY STUDIED OR PUBLISHED IN ITS ENTIRETY. In addition to the recorder and the lute, the instrument most associated with Arnold Dolmetsch was the viol, the golden age of whose family of instruments was the latter part of the C16th and the early part of the C17th (from the mid C17th the bass instrument of this family was the one most commonly played, and after this time the Italian term for the viol, 'viola da gamba', gradually took on its modern specific meaning of bass viol). Following his 'startling discovery' of a repertory of English concerted music for viols in the Royal College of Music library and in the British Museum, supposedly in 1889, Dolmetsch was the first person to assemble a viol consort for the performance of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century consort music - a key date in the developing British early music movement being the public debut of Dolmetsch's consort, at the Princes Hall, London, on 27 April 1891, at which his thirteen-year-old daughter Hélène played divisions by Simpson on the viola da gamba. The present