Add MS 71244

MICHAEL FESTING AND MAURICE GREENE: Music manuscript; circa 1733-1736. Partly autograph of both composers. ff. 1-10 are in Greene’s hand, ff. 16v-30 and 31v-35 in Festing’s hand, both in ink, with many of the remaining blank staves filled in pencil by a hand similar to Greene’s, hand A, which is found on ff. 7, 10v-14v, 15v-16, 32v-34 and 35-36v. In addition, three further hands are found on ff. 14v-15 (B, in ink), 17 (C, pencil) and 30v-31 (D, ink), and there are pencil sketches of human forms on ff. ii and iii v. It seems that the book began life as an elementary keyboard tutor, written by Greene for one of his pupils; in this respect it is very similar to another of Greene’s autographs, Bodleian Library, MS Mus.Sch.d.262, which also begins with an explanation of the gamut and a group of simple keyboard pieces, and remained blank beyond the first 8 folios. The remainder of Add. 71244 was then used by Festing to record, amongst other things, his ornamented versions of the solo violin parts of several of Corelli’s Sonatas, op. 5, which were very widely used as a basis for practising ornamentation (see N. Zaslaw, ‘Ornaments for Corelli’s Violin Sonatas, op. 5’, Early Music, 24 (1996), pp. 95-115). Festing and Greene were close friends, and it has been suggested in an article about this manuscript by H. Diack Johnstone (‘Yet More Ornaments for Corelli’s Violin Sonatas, Op. 5’, Early Music, 24 (1996), pp. 623-633) that the book may have been used by Greene ‘for the instruction of Festing’s son (another Michael, born 1725), who later married Greene’s daughter, Katherine’. The only other known Festing autograph is MS 193 in the Royal College of Music. Inscribed on f. iii ‘Mr Festing in Angel Court Windmill Street’: Festing appears to have lived in Angel Court from 1731 until about 1740. From this, and the inclusion in a later part of the MS of two pieces by Handel both dating from 1735, it seems most likely that the book was compiled in circa 1733-6. On f. iv: ‘John Wilson at the golden faulcon fetter Lane harpschord [sic] maker’: this inscription also appears in pencil on the flyleaf of MS C. 11 in the Gerald Coke Collection, another Greene autograph. Wilson was apprenticed to John Player and became a Freeman of the Joiners’ Company in 1711: see D. H. Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840, 3rd ed., rev. C. Mould (Oxford, 1995), p. 208. Purchased from Lisa Cox (Catalogue 27, item 132), 1993.

Paper; ff. iv+36. A previous (modern) foliation differs at several points. 227 x 283mm. Gatherings of 8, with folios removed between ff. 10 and 11, 15 and 16, 31 and 32, and 33 and 34. The lower half of f. 10 has been removed with a knife, and f. 33 is detached. 8 staves per page, drawn with a two-stave rastrum. Contemporary full leather binding with simple gilt tooling. Marbled endpapers. Gilt edges.

1. f. 1-1v. Explanation of the gamut, the significance of accidentals, fingerings, note and rest values, ornaments and time signatures, in Greene’s hand.

2. ff. 2-10. 11 elementary keyboard pieces in Greene’s hand, and one addition (f. 7) in pencil. Including: f. 2: a piece also found in Bodleian Library, MS Mus.Sch.d.262, f. 7v, there titled ‘Trumpet Tune’; – ff. 2v-3: two keyboard arrangements, transposed from the original keys, of arias by Ariosti: ‘Piu benigno. Aria di Coriolano. Traposta per il Cembalo’, from Coriolano (Richard Meares, [1723]), p. 38 and ‘Con Forza ascosa’, from Vespasiano (I. Walsh and Ino. & Ioseph Hare, [1724]), p. 17 (These arrangements are also found, in different keys and in the hand of John Travers, in Bodleian Library, MS Mus.Sch.d.224, pp. 11 and 7); – ff. 5v-6: a piece in C major, published in 1733 by Daniel Wright and by Walsh in their pirated editions of Greene’s Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet, and also found (in D major) in Add. 31467, f. 104v; – ff. 7v-10: a four-movement suite by Greene, also found in Add. 31467, ff. 84v-85v (there titled ‘Sonata per il cembalo’) and in National Library of Wales, MS 10929 D (in the hand of Martin Smith, with a short prelude). The end of the last movement of this suite is missing.

3. ff. 10v-14v. Sketches for an aria in C minor (hand A), ‘Va, mancator di fè’, for soprano, violin and continuo, the words also set by Caldara, Martin and Porpora.

4. ff. 14v-15. Duo in A major for two solo instruments (hand B).

5. ff. 15v-16. Sketches for a piece in G major (hand A).

6. ff. 16v-17. ‘8th. Solo of Corelli’: ornamented versions of the first three movements of Corelli’s Sonata, op. 5, no. 8 (only the last four bars of the second movement). In Festing’s hand, with two additions in hand C.

7. ff. 17v-18. 5 minuets for keyboard (or violin and keyboard), in Festing’s hand. The first three (on f. 17v) are all printed in Festing’s collection of Minuets with their Basses for Her Majesty Queen Caroline’s Birth Day 1734 (I. Walsh, [1734]), and the fourth (on f. 18) is in the 1735 collection; the fifth is entitled ‘Tower Street Menuett’.

8. ff. 19-25v. 3 pieces from Festing’s Eight Solos for a Violin and Thorough-Bass, op. 4 (William Smith, 1736), each titled ‘Violino Solo’ and signed ‘M. F.’. In Festing’s hand. ff. 19-20v: an early version of no. 4; – ff. 21-23: no. 2; – ff. 23v-26: an early version of no. 5.

9. ff. 26v-28. 3 minuets in G major, D major and D minor in Festing’s hand, probably also by Festing.

10. ff. 28v-30. Ornamented versions of movements from Corelli’s Sonatas, op. 5, in Festing’s hand. ff. 28v-29: no. 9 (complete); – f. 29v: ‘Largo’, the third movement of no. 7; – f. 30: the first and third movements of no. 5.

11. ff. 30v-31. ‘And[an]te’ in D major for violin (hand D).

12. ff. 31v-32v. Miscellaneous pieces in Festing’s hand: f. 31v: 3 pieces for violin solo, ‘Boscombe Bucks’, ‘Adagio’ and a minuet; – f. 32: a keyboard piece in F minor; – f. 32v: ‘Air in the Overture of Alcina’ by Handel, for solo violin.

13. ff. 34v-35. Two lines of music deleted, then, in Festing’s hand, ‘Mr Handels Organ Menuett’, the fourth movement of Organ Concerto in B flat major, op. 4, no. 2, for violin solo.

Reversing the volume:

14. f. iii. Inscribed ‘Mr Festing in Angel Court Windmill Street’, and 8 tallies, in pencil and ink, each signed ‘Festing’.

15. ff. 36v-35 and 34-33v. Compositional sketches (hand A) for an aria in F minor, ‘Infelice tortorella’, for soprano, violin and continuo, and other pieces.

16. f. 33v-33. In Festing’s hand, the bass parts of two pieces in A major and C major, and a table of notes.

17. ff. 33-32v. Compositional sketches for two movements in D minor (hand A).