Ferrabosco, Alfonso (II) (EN)

Ferrabosco Alfonso (II), * between 1572 and 1578 London (?), buried 11 March 1628 Greenwich, son of Alfonso (I), viol player, singer and composer. From 1592, he worked at the English court, initially as an instrumentalist, then for a time as music teacher to Prince Henry, and after his death (1612) to Prince Charles – later King of England, Charles I. In 1626 he was appointed composer in ordinary by the king.

The first of Alfonso’s (II) prints contains 21 solo songs (including two three-part songs) and three dialogues; many of them come from his masques. These works are similar to the songs of J. Dowland and his followers. The chamber works by Alfonso (II) are of great importance, which, alongside analogous works by Cooper, Dowland, and others, constitute a phenomenon typical of English music.

Literature: G.E.P. Arkwright Alfonso Ferrabosco, the Younger, in: Studies in Music, ed. R. Grey, London 1901; G.E.P Arkwright Notes on the Ferrabosco Family, “The Musical Antiquary” IV, 1912; P. Warlock The English Ayre, London 1926; W.L. Renwick Alfonso Ferrabosco, “Review of English Studies” XI, 1935; E.H. Meyer English Chamber Music, London 1946, 2nd edition 1951, German edition Die Kammermusik Alt-Englands, Leipzig 1958; R. Vaught The Fancies of Alfonso Ferrabosco II, dissertation, Stanford University, 1958; R. Vaught Marsenne’s Unknown English Viol Player, “The Galpin Society Journal” XVII, 1964; E.E. Lowinsky Echoes of Adrian Willaert’s Chromatic “Duo” in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Compositions, w: Studies in Music History: Essays for Oliver Strunk, ed. H. Powers, Princeton 1968; E. Doughtie Ferrabosco and Jonson’s “The Houre-Glasse”, “Renaissance Quarterly” XXII, 1969; I. Spink English Song, Dowland to Purcell, London 1974; J. Lejeune A. Ferrabosco II et ses oeuvres pour lyra-viol, “Revue Belge de Musicologie” XXVIII–XXX, 1974–76; G. Dodd Alfonso Ferrabosco II: the Art of the Fantasy, “Chelys” VII, 1977; M. Chan Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson, Oxford 1980; J. Duffy The Songs and Motets of Alfonso Ferrabosco, the Younger (1575–1628), Ann Arbor 1980; R. Charteris Autographs of Alfonso Ferrabosco I–III, “Early Music” X, 1982; C. Monson Voices and Viols in England, 1600–1650: the Sources and the Music, Ann Arbor 1982; J.M. Ward Newly Devis’d Measures for Jacobean Masques, “Acta Musicologica” LX, 1988; A. Otterstedt Die englische Lyra-Viol: Instrument und Technik, Kassel 1989; R. Charteris “Fuerunt mihi lacrymae”: Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder or the Younger?, in: Essays on Italian Music in the Cinquecento, ed. R. Charteris, Sydney 1990; P. Holman Four and Twenty Fiddlers: the Violin at the English Court 1540–1690, Oxford 1993, 2nd edition 1995; B. Bellingham Convention and Transformation in Ferrabosco’s Four-Part Fantasias, in: John Jenkins and his Time: Studies in English Consort Music, ed. A. Ashbee and P. Holman, Oxford 1996; C.D.S. Field Jenkins and the Cosmography of Harmony, in: John Jenkins and his Time: Studies in English Consort Music, ed. A. Ashbee and P. Holman, Oxford 1996; P. Walls Music in the English Courtly Masque 1604–1640, Oxford 1996; B. Bellingham Alfonso Ferrabosco II: the Art of the Fantasia, “Chelys” XXVI, 1998; A. Otterstedt Lawes’ Division Viol: Pedigree of an Instrument, in: William Lawes (1602–1645): Essays on His Life, Times and Work, ed. A. Ashbee, Aldershot 1998; C.D.S. Field The Composer’s Workshop: Revisions in the Consort Music of Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, “Chelys” XXVII, 1999; D. Pinto Marsh, Mico and Attributions, “Chelys” XXVII, 1999; B. Bellingham Harmonic Excursions in the English Early-Seventeenth-Century Four-Part Fantasias of Alfonso Ferrabosco, the Younger, “The Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society” XLI, 2004.