Despite the unexpected onus of having to transfer my teaching online during the COVID 19 lockdown, I have managed to complete two articles for publication. The first of these appears in Journal 14 of the Viola da Gamba Society and can be accessed here:

Titled Richard Cobb and Domestic Music in the Household of Henry Bourchier, 5th Earl of Bath, 1638-1655, it is a detailed examination of the musical provision within an aristocratic domestic household during the civil wars period, based on the extensive accounts that survive from Tawstock House in Devon. Additionally, the article identifies the composer Richard Cobb, known for his consort and keyboard works in a handful of surviving manuscripts, not as the servant of Archbishop Laud, as has hitherto been thought, but as the domestic organist of the Bourchiers at Tawstock.

The Tawstock accounts paint a vivid and detailed picture of the musical provision in the Bourchiers’ household, including the purchase of instruments, music and materials (including several consort organs, of course!), the engagement of professional musicians and tutors, and also the involvement of the wider household, including family and servants, in the music-making there. The narrative reveals that the Bourchiers, although sited remotely in rural Devon, were very much up-to-date with the latest musical trends being developed at the court in London.