The Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music

Volume 13 (2007) No. 1

A Note from the Editor

It is fortuitous that this issue of the Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music can present related articles about two important composers of the seventeenth century, both having had careers that crossed national borders, and the articles themselves being in three different languages. The articles by Michael Klaper and Alessio Ruffatti about Luigi Rossi bring new knowledge about his opera L’Orfeo and his cantatas. The three pieces related to Johann Jacob Froberger all deal in one way or another with the sources that transmit his keyboard music. We are very grateful to Sotheby’s in London for permission to reprint the brochure that the auction house produced on the occasion of the sale of a hitherto unknown—and unsuspected—holograph of Froberger’s. Where the manuscript was for the last 350 years is not public knowledge, nor is the identity of the private collector who now owns it. Although we all hope that at some point the manuscript will be made available for study, at the moment our knowledge is limited to the observations of a few people who were able to examine it while it was in Sotheby’s care: Stephen Roe and Peter Wollny, who assisted Simon Maguire in producing the brochure; David Schulenberg, who studied the manuscript when it was on display in New York; and Bob van Asperen, who similarly examined it in London. David Schulenberg’s essay was stimulated by a group of editions and recordings that came out before the new manuscript surfaced, but was completed after that discovery. Both it and Bob van Asperen’s article are wide ranging, and they consider the same sources of Froberger’s music from differing perspectives.

Complementing these articles is a group of reviews by leading scholars. They deal with important contributions about both sacred and secular music from Italy, Germany, England, and France.

We encourage communications from readers about issues that our articles and reviews treat. Such communications are published in a subsequent issue of JSCM, with a note and link appended to the original article. The present issue has two interesting corrections to information in the previous number.

New to the JSCM website is the first number in a series we have named “JSCM Instrumenta.” The series will consist of individual collections of data to provide resources that aid in the study and performance of seventeenth-century music. Unlike articles in JSCM, “instrumenta” are revised by the author when new information is discovered. The first number, published in 2007 has already had one revision as of this writing.

Proposals from authors for articles are always welcome at JSCM (see the Guidelines for Contributors). I call authors’ attention to the fact that we publish a Style Sheet, which can be downloaded from the Guidelines page. Another page on our site, Supporting JSCM, encourages financial support from readers who find JSCM useful. We have no intention of charging any fee to read this journal, but its production is not without considerable expense.

Since my last “note,” there have been a three changes in the team that makes JSCM possible. We warmly thank Mauro Calcagno, retiring from the Board. We especially thank Stephen Miller for his hard work during his term as Reviews Editor, and we welcome Beth Glixon, who has joined us in that position. The full listing of the editorial team can be seen in the new Masthead. Finally, I wish to thank Paul Arroyo and his staff at the University of Illinois Press for continued cooperative technical work in publishing JSCM for the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music.

Bruce Gustafson (Bruce.Gustafson@fandm.edu)
Editor-in-Chief