Collecting Roseingrave

Thomas Roseingrave (c.1690-1766) was undoubtedly one of the leading English keyboard composers of the early 18th century. His collected output for organ and harpsichord has long been an obvious candidate for a volume of Musica Britannica, and it is good to see it at last appearing in this series in a generally excellent and thoroughly scholarly edition.

The composer is perhaps best known for his enthusiastic support for the music of Domenico Scarlatti, who he met during a visit to Italy around 1710. This enthusiasm ultimately led to his editing in 1739 a collection of 42 harpsichord pieces by Scarlatti, to which Roseingrave contributed an introductory movement. His association with Scarlatti's music became even closer in 1750, when he published a Scarlatti sonata into which he had inserted some additional passages of his own, integrating them so effectively that the change of author is not obvious to the casual listener.

Roseingrave's main output for keyboard, however, consists of three single-composer printed volumes that appeared during his lifetime: Voluntarys and fugues made on purpose for the organ or harpsicord (1728); Eight suits of lessons for the harpsicord or spinnet, which appeared at the same time; and Six double fugues for the organ or harpsicord (1750). This last volume, which was published by subscription, is also the source for the Scarlatti-Roseingrave sonata mentioned above. Selections from these volumes have been published in some modern editions, and all three sources have also been available in facsimile for some years. But, as the present editors point out, these facsimiles are not easy to read fluently, because of 18th-century practices regarding alignment and stemming (and some poor proof-reading). One can grow accustomed to them, but it is certainly easier to read from a good modern edition.

Aside from these three volumes, little keyboard music survives that is ascribed to Roseingrave: an Allemanda in B♭; a 12-bar Introduction, in the form of an Allemande, to the aforementioned Scarlatti volume; and a manuscript 'Solo' that was evidently the keyboard part of a concerto, and was printed posthumously in modified form as A celebrated concerto. All these works have been included here. For the orchestral parts for the concerto the editors have drawn on an earlier reconstruction by Peter Holman that is eminently serviceable. Curiously omitted from the volume, however, is a voluntary in a manuscript in the Royal College of Organists. Voluntary 20 in this source is a composite three-movement work, ascribed to 'Dr. Pepush, & Rosingrave'. The first movement is actually by John Stanley, while the second movement is not known elsewhere; it looks like the first half of a sonata movement and is unlikely to be by Roseingrave, though it could be by Pepusch. The third movement, however, is a Fugue in C that could easily be a Roseingrave composition. Although the editors dismiss it on the grounds that it appears elsewhere in the same manuscript (at no.54) ascribed to (John) James, these two movements are not actually the same—the version ascribed to Pepusch/Roseingrave is about three times as long as the 'James' one. It could well be that the latter is an adaptation by James of Roseingrave's original composition. Thus the Fugue found at no.20 should surely have been included in the present volume, at least as a 'doubtful' work, so that it could be readily compared with fugues that are definitely by Roseingrave.

Much of Roseingrave's keyboard output as presented here can be seen as rather interesting and unusual. Although the influence of Scarlatti is not greatly in evidence, Roseingrave seems to have shared with his Italian counterpart the same love of the eccentric and quirky. Thus the music is rarely pedestrian, and shows many delightfully original touches—effects that sometimes horrified commentators of the time. The nine voluntaries and six fugues in the first collection are especially noteworthy in this respect. Of these 15 pieces, the first three seem to form a kind of three-movement sonata, in which two fast fugal...