The Fitzwilliam virginal book: historical background and performance practice issues

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in England in the late sixteenth-early seventeenth centuries, very repressive anti-Catholic laws were enacted by Parliament. Catholicism then became the illegal underground religion of the gentry, sustained primarily by a web of intricate family alliances. The aims of this paper include: (1) a discussion of how the anti-Catholic laws passed by Parliament during the 1570s and 1580s severely affected the Tregian family, specifically Francis Tregian Sr. and Francis Tregian Jr.; (2) an in-depth exploration of the Tregian family's relationships with other aristocratic Catholic recusant families and musicians within the larger context of late sixteenth-century Tudor England; and (3) a detailed examination of the facsimile of the manuscript of The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book as an aid in creating a more accurate modern performing edition of four pieces from this anthology that have not been reedited since the first printing by Breitkopf und Härtel in 1899.