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• Blankes, Edward: 6 Fantasies

Blankes, Edward: 6 Fantasies

for 3 instruments.

These six short fantasies survive in a single source: British Library Add. MS 34800. little is known of Edward Blankes (c. 1550-1633), except that he was a London wait from 1582 to 1594. He also composed a considerable number of psalm settings and other pieces for the reformed church. Apart from a five-part fantasy, the present six pieces are the only instrumental works of his to survive complete; four other pieces have parts missing in the only source.
All but one of these pieces (Fantasia IV), like some other contemporary Italian and English 3-part instrumental pieces of the time (e. g. Michael East´s The fift set of books of 1618 and the instrumental pieces of Valerio Buona in LPM IM8) are written for two high parts of equal range, with a third part lying on average an octave lower. This kind of writing is almost certainly derived from the 3-part canzonetta of the time, in which it was almost de rigueur.
As the style - if not the texture - of these pieces is somewhat conservative, we have halved the note values in the present edition. A few editorial accidentals have been added, printed small above the stave, and applying to a single note only.
These pieces are very suitable for both recorders and viols. In preparing this edition, I resisted the temptation to transpose the five high-lying pieces. But the written pitch is by no means sacrosanct, and performers should feel free to experiment in this area. If recorders are used ' they can be at either 4-foot or 8-foot pitch; for instance the first piece can be done on two tenors and a bass, and one possibility for many of these is two tenor recorders or flutes and a single viol.
The present edition contains all the six pieces in BL 34800, but the order has had to be changed to avoid turns: our six pieces are nos. 2, 3, 4, 1, 6 and 5 respectively in the manuscript.