The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173882 Message #4217162
Posted By: GUEST,Julia L
13-Feb-25 - 08:57 PM
Thread Name: Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia
Subject: RE: Thomas Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia
They are all available online both as facsimile and transcribed to modern notation.
https://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ravenscroft/modern/
His early publications represented secular songs he heard around him; later work is original and more religious
From Grove's dictionary RAVENSCROFT, Thomas, Mus.B., bom about 1582, was a chorister of St. Paul's under Edward Pearce, and graduated at Cambridge in 1607. In 1609 he edited and published * Pam- melia. Musickes Miscellanic : or Mixed Varietie of pleasant Roundelayes and delightful Catches of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Parts in one '—the earliest collection of rounds, catches, and canons printed in this country. A second impression appeared in 1618. Later in 1609 he put forth *Deutero- melia ; or the Second Part of Musick*s Melodie, or melodius Miisicke of Pleasant Roundelaies ; K. H. mirth, or Freemen's Songs and such delightfull Catches' ; containing the catch, ' Hold thy peace, thou knave,' sung in Shake- speare's 'Twelfth Night' In 1611 he published 'Melismata. Musicall Phansies, fitting the Court, Citie, and Countrey Humours, to 3, 4 and 5 Voyces.' In 1614 he published 'A Briefe Discourse of the true (but neglected) use of Charact'ring the Degrees by their Perfection, Imperfection, and Diminution in Mensurable Miisicke against the Common Practise and Cus- tome of these Times ; Examples whereof are exprest in the Harmony of 4 Voyces Concerning the Pleasure of 5 vsuall Recreations. 1. Hunt- ing. 2. Hawking. 8. Dancing. 4. Drinking. 5. Enamouring ' — a vain attempt to resuscitate an obsolete practice. The musical examples were composed by Edward Pearce, John Bemiet, and Ravenscroft himself. [Much of the material is found in a MS. in the Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19,758 (Diet, of Nat. Biog.), In 1618-22 he was music -master at Christ's Hospital (Mus. Times, 1905, p. 580.)] In 1621 he published the work by which he is best known, *The Whole Booke of Psalmes ; With the Hymnes Evangelicall and Spirituall. Composed into four parts by Sundry Authors with several! Tunes as have been and are usually sung in England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.' Another edition was pub- lished in 1683. Four anthems or motets by Ravenscroft are among the MSS. in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. [For other music by him see the Quellen-Lexikon.'] The date of his death is not known. It is said by some to have been about 1630, and by others about 1635. w. H. u.