Revising Records for Post-1600 Printed Anthologies: There is an End in Sight!
Thursday, July 2, 2020
The project that began in November 2018 to revise the B/I records for printed music anthologies from 1601 to 1700, of which the printed editions up to 1610 have been online since March 2019, is slowly but surely coming to an end. Entries up to 1650 are completely online and the second half of the century, up to the early 1690s, are mostly done.
In general one can observe, starting in the late 1620s, a clear decrease in the number of printed editions that appeared per year (about 10 on average instead of the previous 25), which can be attributed to the turmoil caused by the Thirty Years’ War. Around the end of the century, in contrast, we see a clear increase in the number of editions containing works by a single composer, which results in a relatively low number of new anthologies per year. Around 80% of the anthologies from this time are from England and France. Frequently, these are series such as the Airs sérieux et à boire from the Parisian publisher Christophe Ballard, which appeared between 1695 and 1724.
The collection Neder-Landtsche Gedenck-Clanck, which was printed in Haarlem in 1626, also bears witness to the wartime conditions: the 79 songs and settings for lute or cittern by the poet and composer Adriaen Valerius served as a musical illustration of the history of the Eighty Years War (1568–1648), in which the Netherlands fought for independence from the Spanish crown. The collection was published by Valerius’s heirs after he died on 27 January 1625.
Any information about errors, copies we don’t have, or important secondary literature is most welcome. You can reach us at contact@rism.info or send a message directly through the record on the catalog page (the orange message box next to the RISM ID number).
Image: Adriaen Valerius, Neder-Landtsche Gedenck-Clanck (Haarlem, 1626). A/I: V 147, B/1 1626|14. RISM ID no. 990065182. Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent (B-Gu) BHSL.RES.0673. Available online.
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