Songs for voice and bass viol, poems, and solo lute music : Miscellany 1643-c.1649.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fife (Scotland).

London (England).

Title pages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2008.

Summary:

Hand B notes on fol. ii r that the manuscript was begun on 5 June 1643. On fol. i r Margaret Wemyss wrote the date 1644. She died in 1648 or 1649. It does not appear that Hand B continued to compile the manuscript after Wemyss's contributions.

Notes:

AMDigital Reference:Deposit 314/23

Margaret's family lived at Wemyss Castle from 1639. Margaret probably lived there until her death since she was unmarried. The second hand in the manuscript notes that it was "Begunne june 5 1643," (fol. ii r). Margaret Wemyss died sometime between 17 May 1648, when she was seriously ill, and 10 November 1649, the date of her mother's death.National Library of Scotland Dep. 314/23was compiled by Lady Margaret Wemyss and at least one other hand, probably that of a music teacher, from 1643 (when Wemyss was 12) until her death in 1648 or 1649. The manuscript contains 17 songs for voice and bass viol, 27 poems, and 91 pieces or fragments of pieces for a 10-course lute (two of those pieces are for a 12-course lute). The manuscript could usefully be called a songbook because of its strong musical content. Dep. 314/23 was compiled during the civil war in Scotland. The Scottish equivalent of court culture had moved to the castles after James I and VI moved his court to London in 1603; Wemyss Castle, in Fife, where this manuscript was probably compiled, was possibly one of these centres of culture. Margaret and her siblings must have had several tutors (in music and general schooling, since they were literate), and she seems to have had access to some of the most popular songs and poems of the day, from both manuscript and print sources. The subject matter of the songs and poems (many of which have known musical settings) is primarily romantic love. The lute music is mainly French and Scottish in origin, with very few English tunes, not surprisingly given that the links between the Lowlands of Scotland and France were strong, and that the French were the primary purveyors of lute music. The first section of the manuscript consists of 17 songs with instrumental accompaniment (fols 1r-11r, msItem 2-2.17), and has been written by a hand which may have been that of Margaret's teacher. That hand has also written on the second flyleaf: "A Booke/ Containing some pleasant aires/ of Two, Three, or fowre voices/ Collected out of diverse Authors/ Begunne june 5 1643" (where slashes indicate new lines). Margaret has signed her name below this. Margaret has also signed the bottom of a song on fol. 2v, the only song of the 17 which is spoken in a woman's voice. The next section of the manuscript (8 poems, fols 11v-16r, msItem 3-3.9) has been written in Margaret's hand, fairly neatly, prefaced by a title page on which she has written, "This boke containss som Lesons/ for the Lutt and som fine werses/ And Lines" (fol. 11v). The next section (msItem 4), which contains solo lute music, has been written in two parts: Matthew Spring has suggested that the music at the beginning and end of the lute section (fols 17r-27r and 37v-50r) was written by Margaret and that the middle section (fols 28r-37r) was written by a more skilled hand. Margaret has entered all of the titles for the lute tablature, suggesting that she worked closely with a teacher. The final section of the manuscript (19 poems, fols 74v rev.-51v rev., msItem 5-5.19) has been written upside down and reversed (Wemyss has started again from the back) and has been entered by two hands: Margaret's and likely the teacher of the first section of the songs (the teacher has written poems eight to ten and sixteen in this section). Margaret has doodled her name on the front and back flyleaves. The manuscript combines several functions. The first part (fols 1r-11r) consists of neatly transcribed songs by Thomas Campion and Thomas Morley, with cantus voice part and an inverted bass viol accompaniment. The position of the accompanying line indicates that the volume could have been used by the singer and instrumentalist at the same time, facing each other; the manuscript was probably a performance copy. This is probably also the case for the solo lute music. The title pages on the second flyleaf and fol. 11v may suggest some kind of presentation copy. But the doodling by Margaret on the front and back flyleaves, and the reversing of the manuscript to begin a new poetry section suggests that it became more of a rough notebook. Several Wemyss family manuscripts are on deposit in the National Library of Scotland. MS 3031 is a medical and cookery receipt book of Anna, Lady Elcho, Margaret's mother, which passed to Margaret's sister Jean, and to later female family members. Dep. 313/502 is Jean's account book from 1650-54, in her own hand. Dep. 313/501 contains letters and inventories of Jean and her second husband George Gordon, later fourteenth Earl of Sutherland. Further letters survive written by Jean, and also by Margaret Countess of Wemyss, the third wife of David second Earl of Wemyss. Many other Wemyss manuscript items are described and transcribed in William Fraser's Memorials of the Family of Wemyss of Wemyss, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1888), such as wills and letters. The manuscript has been foliated by a later hand (from fols i-ii and 1-75) but the existing foliation does not account for blank leaves (for example there are 12 blank leaves between fols 27 and 28), and a leaf has been missed between fols 62 and 63. In total there are 104 blank leaves, most of which appear after the solo lute music (msItem 4) and before the final section of poetry (msItem 5, which was written from the back of the manuscript, largely on versos), between fols 50 and 51.

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