'Alphonso Ferrabosco. .. mastring all the spirits of Musique '

Alphonso Ferrabosco II, Consort music of five and six parts, ed. Christopher Field and David Pinto, Musica Britannica, lxxxi (London: Stainer & Bell, 2003), £89.50

From Christmas 1604 Alphonso Ferrabosco II (c.1575 - 1628) held the post of an extraordinary groom of the Privy Chamber 'in regard of his attendance uppon the Prince [Henry] and instructing him [in] the art of musick'; a month earlier he had been authorized to buy 'two vialls with cases, and one boxe of stringes' for his ten-year-old pupil, who is said to have 'loved Musicke, and namely good consorts of Instruments and voices joyned together'. On Twelfth Night 1605 Ferrabosco collaborated with Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones to present The Masque of Blackness. By this time Ferrabosco was established as a member of the brilliantly innovative and creative circle of court intellectuals that surrounded the prince. Later he would be joined in the prince's household by other musicians, including John Bull, Thomas Lupo, Angelo Notari and Robert Johnson. In 1616, when Charles became Prince of Wales, Ferrabosco headed the list of musicians chosen to serve him, in the company of Coprario, Thomas Lupo and Orlando Gibbons. Henry Peacham, in his Compleat gentleman of 1622, rated Ferrabosco as 'inferior to none'; Jonson credited him with 'mastring all the spirits of Musique'; and, fascinatingly, Marin Mersenne in his highly scientific Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636) chose a shortened version of his six-part Fantasia no.3 in preference to something French to illustrate the kind of music suitable for viols. Thus it is enormously welcome that we now have a modern score of Ferrabosco's seminal consort music of five and six parts, complementing Andrew Ashbee and Bruce Bellingham's edition of his four-part fantasias in Musica Britannica, lxii. And this new edition does not disappoint. It is not completed under the pressure of a university department panting for quick results; this is a real labour of love by two highly experienced musicologists. Every stone seems to have been turned to reveal countless gems of information, which together wonderfully enhance our understanding of Ferrabosco.

Ferrabosco's consort music in five and six parts consists of: six In Nomines (three each in five and six parts); nine five-part pavans; ten five-part and two six-part almaines; nine six-part fantasies; and two hexachord pieces (one in five parts and one in six). The six-part hexachord work is in fact anonymous but the editors feel it can be 'safely assigned to Ferrabosco' on stylistic grounds further backed up by its location in the only surviving source. In addition, this volume includes Ferrabosco's four-part hexachord composition, which appears to be the original version of the five-part Ut re mi fa sol la, as the latter seems to have been thoroughly reworked to take advantage of the extra treble viol part.

The introduction contains fascinating material on Ferrabosco and his relatives, not least his colourful father, Alfonso Ferrabosco I. In all likelihood Ferrabosco II was not only half Italian but also half Flemish; the evidence suggests that his mother was Susanna Symons, a native of Antwerp. The editors also argue that he might have been born up to four years earlier than the commonly presented c.1575, in which case his father could have been responsible for his earliest teaching before returning to Italy. The revised birth-date would make Ferrabosco II around 20 in 1592 , when he received his first court appointment from Elizabeth I as 'musician for the viols'. Close links are also traced with the Lupo, Lanier and Bassano families. Determining a chronology of the works poses some knotty problems, as no autographs survive, probably due to the Civil War; but this also gives rise to enthralling detective work as the backdrop to the works is pieced together. Parallels are drawn between Ferrabosco's daring exploration of remote tonal areas and the profound impact on Renaissance thought of the recent...