Camphuysen manuscript

The Camphuysen manuscript

Band van het Camphuysen manuscript uit de Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht

Since 1960 the Utrecht University Library (NL) possesses an important source of Dutch keyboard music from the second half of the seventeenth century. The manuscript (Ms. 20 A 5) has a parchment binding, and the scribe has written on printed blank music paper from the Amsterdam publisher Paulus Matthijsz († 1684). It has now been edited in its entirety for the first time.

The manuscript contains 36 anonymous pieces for keyboard instruments. Of these, 21 are based on melodies from the so-called Stichtelycke Rymen by Dirck Rafaelsz Camphuysen (1586-1627), nine are based on Genevan Psalm melodies, two on Balletti by Gastoldi and four on secular tunes. No composer names are mentioned. The carefully written manuscript was the work of one person, probably the composer himself. No other sources of the pieces exist. The manuscript was purchased in 1960 from the collection of the Bach-specialist Hans Brandts Buys (1905-1959), whose father had acquired it for his music library. The original provenance of the manuscript is unknown.

In 1961 a first selection of six pieces was published by the musicologist Alan Curtis (1934-2015) in his anthology Dutch keyboard music from the 16th and 17th centuries. It was he who gave the manuscript its name.

Camphuysens Stichtelycke Rymen

Although this name does neither refer to the composer nor to an owner, it was well chosen, because 21 of the 36 pieces are based on songs deriving from Camphuysen’s Stichtelycke Rymen, the most popular sacred song book of the seventeenth century in The Netherlands. No composers name, owner or date is mentioned in the manuscript; the reserved space on the engraved title page is left empty.

Titelpagina en eerste lied uit het Camphuysen manuscript uit de Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht

In the beginning of 2018 a new edition of the complete manuscript was published by Ut Orpheus (Bologna), as nr. 2 in the ECHOM series, a project by ECHO (European Cities of Historical Organs). It is the first complete scholarly edition of this important source of seventeenth-century Dutch keyboard music. The edition combines a facsimile of the manuscript with a transcription with modern musical notation.

Godt schiep den mens vol Eere (scan 23), uit het Camphuysen manuscript uit de Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht

 

Below is a list of compositions, with on the left their folio numbers and on the right the number of the scan with which it begins in the digital edition.

 

 

Inventory

Fol.1v-2r 

Fol.2v       

Fol.3v-4v  

Fol.4v-5r   

Fol.5v-6r  

Fol.6v-7r    

Fol.7v-8r    

Fol.8v-9r

Fol.9v-10r

Fol.10v-11v

Fol.12r

Fol.12v-13r

Fol.13v-14r

Fol.14v-15r

Fol.15v-16r

Fol.16v-17r

Fol.17v-18r

Fol.18v-19r

Fol.19v-20r

Fol.20v-21r

Fol.21v-22r

Fol.22v-25r

Fol.25v-26r

Fol.26v-27r

Fol.27v-28r

Fol.28v-29v

Fol.29r-31r

Fol.31v-32r

Fol.32v-33r

Fol.33v-34r

Fol.34v-35r

Fol.35v-37r

Fol.37v-43r

Fol.43v-44r

Fol.44v-45r

Fol.45v-46r

Fol.46v-48r

Fol.48v-50r

Fol.50v-52r

Fol.52v-78v

Titles

[1] De Mensch wiens Hert gelijck vruchtbaer aerd is

[2] Wanneer het hert

[3] Een dorstig hert

[4] Aij mij wat plagen

[5] Daer en is niet in mijn Leven

[6] Door eijgen liefdes

[7] Psalm 8

[8] Wel aen o alle vromen

[9] Alleen niet ’t kruijs van Godes Sone

[10] Hoe ongelijcken lot

[Blanco/blank]

[11] Aij mij wat plagen

[12] Wel aen o alle vromen

[13] Hoor na mij

[14] De Soete Meeremin

[15] De Mens wiens Hert

[16] Brabantse dragonders Mars

[17] Moetm: in alles Sich versaken

[18] Gij die uijt Swerelts droom

[19] Godt Schiep den Mens vol Eere

[20] Een dorstig Hert

[21] Godt Schiep den Mens vol Eere [3 versus]

[22] Psalm 74

[23] De Mensch wiens Hert

[Blanco/blank]

[24] Blijtschap van mij vliet

[Blanco/blank]

[25] Wel aen o alle vroomen

[26] Psalm 146

[27] Bewaert mij Godt

[28] De Engelsche Fortuijn

[29] Hoe ongelijcken Lot

[30] Daphne [3 versus]

[31] Psalm 65

[32] Psalm 116

[33] Psalm 23

[34] Psalm 100 [2 versus]

[35] Psalm 5 [2 versus]

[36] Psalm 8 [2 versus]

[Blanco/blank]

Scan

3

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

28

29

30

31

32

34

35

36

37

38

40

46

47

48

49

51

53

55

 

Author

Frank van Wijk, March 2018

Wel aen o alle vroomen uit het Camphuysen manuscript uit de Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht