The manuscript and its repertory
British Library, Add MS 11608 is one of the most substantial surviving sources of mid-seventeenth-century English vocal music and an especially important witness to the practice of vocal ornamentation. Dated by the British Library to 1656–1659 and closely associated with John Hilton, the manuscript contains songs, dialogues, motets, catches, anthems, and other vocal pieces in English, Italian, and Latin.
Several pieces preserve unusually elaborate divisions or alternative ornamented passages. The manuscript is therefore particularly useful for examining how singers could expand comparatively simple melodic outlines and how more than one ornamented realization of a passage might circulate in performance.
Johannes Vermeer, The Music Lesson, c. 1662–1665, oil on canvas (Royal Collection).
Italianate ornamentation: “Qual musico gentil”
Nicholas Lanier’s ⏵︎ “Qual musico gentil”, preserved on f. 27v of Add MS 11608, sets stanza 43 of Canto XVI of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata. The text is itself strikingly musical: before Armida begins to speak, Tasso compares her to a skilled musician who prepares the listener with soft introductory gestures. Lanier responds with a comparatively simple melodic and harmonic framework that is extensively elaborated through written-out vocal divisions.
The ornamentation ranges widely across the voice and frequently expands individual syllables into long, flowing passages. The manuscript also places the sign t above the penultimate note at the two principal cadences, probably indicating a trillo. The written-out divisions make “Qual musico gentil” a particularly useful example of the Italianate vocal practices preserved in the manuscript.
Nicholas Lanier, “Qual musico gentil,” British Library, Add MS 11608, f. 27v. Text from Canto XVI of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata.
Florid English songs
The florid style of ornamentation in Add MS 11608 is not confined to its Italian repertory. Several English songs preserve extensive written-out divisions, including Robert Johnson’s ⏵︎ “Care-charming sleep” and ⏵︎ “Woods, rocks and mountains”, Thomas Brewer’s ⏵︎ “O that mine eyes could melt into a flood”, and John Wilson’s ⏵︎ “Take, o take those lips away”. These settings show that elaborate divisions had become an established feature of English solo song by the middle of the seventeenth century.
Among them, “Care-charming sleep” is particularly florid. Long ornamental figures expand a comparatively simple melodic outline, sometimes replacing the value of a crotchet with groups of seven or nine semiquavers. The rhythmic notation of such passages cannot always be interpreted with absolute literalness, but the underlying pulse generally remains perceptible. Rather than functioning primarily as word painting, the divisions intensify and extend the expressive character of the melodic line.
Robert Johnson, “Care-charming sleep,” from The Tragedy of Valentinian, British Library, Add MS 11608, ff. 16v–17r.
Alternative divisions and individual performance
Thomas Brewer’s ⏵︎ “O that mine eyes could melt into a flood” offers a striking example of expressive division writing. Sacred in subject, the song uses increasingly elaborate melodic expansion to heighten the intensity of the vocal line rather than to provide literal word painting. A closely related ornamented version also survives in Elizabeth Rogers’s manuscript, showing that this style of embellishment circulated beyond Add MS 11608.
John Wilson’s ⏵︎ “Take, o take those lips away” shows a more economical approach. The first verse contains only a small number of divisions, while the second offers several alternatives. The most elaborate passage is reserved for the final cadence, concentrating the florid writing at a structurally important moment.
Add MS 11608 also preserves ornamentation as a flexible practice rather than a fixed written text. In several songs, alternative divisions were entered at the end of the piece, sometimes in a different hand. A particularly clear example occurs in Nicholas Lanier’s ⏵︎ “No more shall meads” (Love’s Constancy). On f. 77r, four alternative versions of the final cadence are introduced by the note “as Mr. Elliston sings it.” The annotation connects written-out ornamentation with a named singer and suggests that distinctive cadential divisions could circulate as recognizable features of individual performance.
Alternative cadential divisions for Nicholas Lanier’s “No more shall meads,” annotated “as Mr. Elliston sings it,” British Library, Add MS 11608, f. 77r.
A record of flexible practice
Taken together, the ornamented songs in Add MS 11608 show that vocal divisions in mid-seventeenth-century England were neither uniform nor fixed. Some pieces preserve highly elaborate written-out ornamentation, while others offer only a few alternatives at cadences or other structural points. The manuscript is therefore valuable not only as a repertory source but also as evidence of how singers adapted, varied, and transmitted ornamented versions of songs in practice.
References
British Library. “Add MS 11608: A Collection of Songs, Motets, Duets, Canons, Anthems and Part-Songs.” Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue.
Chan, Mary. (1979). “John Hilton’s Manuscript British Library Add. MS 11608.” Music & Letters, 60(4), 440–449.
Huws Jones, Edward. (1989). The Performance of English Song, 1610–1670. Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities. New York and London: Garland.
Jorgens, Elise Bickford (ed.). (1986). English Song, 1600–1675: British Library Manuscripts, Part IV: Add. MS 11608; Add. MS 32339. Vol. 4. New York and London: Garland.
