'Elizabeth Rogers Virginal Book' is a musical commonplace book compiled in the mid-seventeenth century by a person or persons so far unidentified. Of all the so-called English "virginal books" this is the only one to mention the name of the instrument (the virginal) in the title, the others being so-called at a far later date.

The Manuscript

The manuscript is a folio volume of sixty pre-lined pages of six staves

Staff (music)

In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...

 containing 94 pieces for keyboard and 18 Voycall [vocal] Lessons. It was rebound using part of the original covers, in 1949. The first page bears the inscription Elizabeth Rogers hir virginall booke. Ffebruary ye 27 1656. However on the same page the name Elizabeth Fayre is written, and it has been suggested that these two Elizabeths are the same person, before and after marriage.

There are various other writings, including the name "John Tillett", who may have been a subsequent owner of the manuscript, some poetic fragments, and a note concerning the tuning of the viol

Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...

. There are also three incomplete tables of contents. Four different hands

Hand (handwriting)

A Hand, in calligraphy and palaeography refers to one of several historical varieties of formal, impersonal, generic and exemplary writing styles...

 have been discerned.

The manuscript is now in the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

, catalogued as Additional Manuscript 10337.

Contents

The pieces contained in the manuscript are relatively simple, and written for the amateur performer. There are settings of popular tunes, dance movements and vocal pieces. None of the keyboard pieces bear a composer's name, and only a few of the vocal pieces are attributed, but many are identifiable from other sources. These include: William Byrd

William Byrd

William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...

, with his Battel suite, dating from at least 1591; Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons

Orlando Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods...

; Henry Lawes

Henry Lawes

Henry Lawes was an English musician and composer.He was born at Dinton in Wiltshire, and received his musical education from John Cooper, better known under his Italian pseudonym Giovanni Coperario, a famous composer of the day...

 and his brother William

William Lawes

William Lawes was an English composer and musician.-Life and career:Lawes was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire and was baptised on 1 May 1602...

; Robert Johnson; and Nicholas Lanier

Nicholas Lanier

Nicholas Lanier, sometimes Laniere was an English composer, singer, lutenist and painter....

. Several pieces are attributed to Thomas Strengthfield, of whom nothing is known, but who may have been Elizabeth's music teacher. Other pieces are attributed to John Balls (died 1622), a wait

Wait (musician)

Waits or Waites were British town pipers. From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of Waites...

or public musician of the city of London; and John Wilson, who replaced him.

1. Sr Tho: ffairfax Marche
2. Nanns Maske (Orlando Gibbons)
3. Almaygne
4. The ffairest Nimphes the valleys or mountaines euer bred, & c.
5. The Scots Marche
6. Prince Ruperts Martch
7. One of ye Symphon(ies)
8. One of ye Symphon(ies) (William Lawes)
9. Selebrand (Sarabande)
10. When the King enioyes his owne againe
11. Almaygne
12. A Trumpett tune
13. Essex last goodnight
14. Almaygne per Tho: Strengthfield
15. The Corrant to ye last Alm(aygne) per Tho: Strengthfield
16. Ruperts Retraite
17. Almaygne per Tho: Strengthfield
18. Corrant to ye former Alma(ygne) per Tho: Strengthfield
19. [Untitled]
20. The Nightingale
21. Corrant Bear
22. Selebrand Beare
23. Corrant Beare
24. Almayne
25. Corrant
26. Corrant Beare
27. Corrant Beare
28. The Battaile (William Byrd): The Souldiars summons
29. The Martch of ffoote
30. (The) Martch (of) horse
31. The Trumpetts
32. The Irish Martch
33. Bagpipes
34. The Drum and fflute
35. The Martch (to) ye ffight
36. Tarra-tantarra
37. (The) Battell Joyned
38. Retrait
39. The Buriing of the dead
40. The Souldiers delight
41. Corrant
42. Selebrand
43. A Maske
44. Corrant
45. Selebrand
46. Ly still my Deare
47. The Chestnut
48. Cloris sight (sighed)
49. Now ye springe is comne
50. Oh Iesu meeke
51. Corrant
52. Corrant
53. Maske
54. Corrant
55. Almaygne
56. Lupus Ayre (Thomas Lupo?)
57. Could thine incomparable eye
58. Almaygne: Mr Johnson
59. Mock-Nightingale
60. What if the King should come to ye City
61. The Kings Complaint
62. Almaygne
63. Corrant
64. Selebrand
65. My delyght
66. A Scotts Tuen
67. An Irish Toy
68. Allmayne
69. The spaynard (Spaniard)
70. [Untitled]
71. Selabrand
72. The ffinex (Phoenix)
73. The faithfull Brothers
74. A Corant
75. This soldier loues
76. Carron o carron (Charon
    Charon (mythology)
    In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on...
    
    )
77. A horne pipe
78. Almaygne
79. Corrant per Tho: Strengthfield
80. Selebrand
81. Almaine
82. Corant
83. Almaygne
84. I wish noe more (Nicolas Lanier)
85. [Untitled]
86. Selebrand
87. Loue is strange
88. Almaygne Mercure
89. Glory of ye North
90. Almaine
91. Merceur (Mercury)
92. Corrant
93. Corrant
94. Phill: Porters Lamentation
95. Psalme 42 (William Lawes)
96. Must your faire
97. Since tis my fate
98. No flattring pellow
99. Baloo my boy
100. Ile wish no more
101. Deerest loue
102. No noe I tell ye no
103. O that myne eyes
104. Yes I could loue
105. Lett god the god of Battaile Rize
106. Sing to the king of kings (William Lawes)
107. Psalme 39. verse 12 (William Lawes)
108. I preethe sweete (Henry Lawes)
109. fyer (Nicholas Lanier: lyrics by Thomas Campion
     Thomas Campion
     Thomas Campion was an English composer, poet and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs; masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music.-Life:...
     
     )
110. Come you pritty (Thomas Campion)
111. All you forsaken louers
112. Think not deare (William and Henry Lawes)

See also

• The Mulliner Book
  The Mulliner Book
  The Mulliner Book is a historically important musical commonplace book compiled, probably between about 1545 and 1570, by Thomas Mulliner, about whom practically nothing is known, except that he figures in 1563 as modulator organorum of Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
  
  
• The Dublin Virginal Manuscript
• My Ladye Nevells Booke
  My Ladye Nevells Booke
  My Ladye Nevells Booke is a music manuscript containing keyboard pieces by the English composer William Byrd, and, together with the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, one of the most important collections of keyboard music of the renaissance.-Description:My Ladye Nevells Booke consists of 42 pieces for...
  
  
• Susanne van Soldt Manuscript
  Susanne van Soldt Manuscript
  The Susanne van Soldt Manuscript is a keyboard anthology dated 1599 consisting of 33 pieces copied by or for a young Flemish or Dutch girl living in London...
  
  
• Clement Matchett's Virginal Book
  Clement Matchett's Virginal Book
  Clement Matchett's Virginal Book is a musical manuscript from the late renaissance compiled by a young Norfolk man in 1612. Although a small anthology, it is notable not only for the quality of its music but also for the precise fingering indications that reveal the contemporary treatment of...
  
  
• Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
  Fitzwilliam Virginal Book
  The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816...
  
  
• Parthenia
• Priscilla Bunbury's Virginal Book
  Priscilla Bunbury's Virginal Book
  Priscilla Bunbury's Virginal Book is a musical commonplace book compiled in the late 1630's by two young women from an affluent Cheshire family. It is important more for its fingering indications than for the quality of the music it contains.-The Manuscript:...
  
  
• Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book
  Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book
  Anne Cromwell's Virginal Book is a manuscript keyboard compilation dated 1638. Whilst the importance of the music it contains is not high, it reveals the sort of keyboard music that was being played in the home at this time.-The Manuscript:...
  
  

Further reading

• Elizabeth Rogers hir Virginall Booke, edited by Charles J.F. Cofone. Dover Publications
  Dover Publications
  Dover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be...
  
  , New York 1975. ISBN 0-486-23138-0. Contains an introduction and transcription of the entire MS.