Subject: Missing page from Koenigsberg MS

From: Arthur Ness <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 May 95 11:19:10 EDT

I do wish to congratulate Rags for his discovery of the lost folio from the
Koenigsberg Manuscript, and thank Ms. Langley for the nice posted tablature
edition of "Love mee tendre, love me sweete."  I always thought there was
something missing from that manuscript.  Of course such a major discovery does
require the necessary scholarly evaluation, with concordances.  I am pleased to
report the preliminary, albeit tentative, results of a thorough examination of
likely sources.

To avoid duplication by others who may also wish to flit off to discover
additional concordances, I should report that I did check and was unable to find
any concordances in some "enigmatic," ... err elusive central European lute
manuscripts, such as the "Hans Kernsthock Lautenbuch" in the
Universitaets-Bibliothek in Lemberg (Austria), the "Micolay Strzeskowski
Commonplace Book of Polish Dances" in the Biblioteka Uniwersytecka in Lwow
(Poland), the "Joannes Tratkott Codex" at the Ivan Franko library in the
Gallician city of Leopoldius, not even is a concordance to be found in Ms.
1400/I at the Naucnaja Biblioteka in Lviv (note spelling) in the Ukraine. 

For additional information on these manuscripts, see Pohlmann (5th ed.), under
"Lemberg,"  and Boetticher's RISM volume, under "Lwow."

When stumped, as often happens, I checked with the in-house reference service,
and after much toil can report the unmasking another rip-off by the notorious
Lait de Pres. We have been successful in locating the original.  It is "Aura
Lee" with music by George R. Poulton (d. 1867), lyrics by William Whiteman
Fosdick (1825-1862). The first edition was dedicated to the Holley and Campbell
Minstrels, and published by J. Church, Jr., of Cincinnati. According to records
in the Library of Congress it was copyrighted by Church on May 1, 1861.  For
those who like to sing to the lute, here are the authentic lyrics (brought to
you, sparing no expense):

As the black-bird in the spring,__
'Neath the wil-low tree__
Sat and pip'd I heard him sing,___
Sing-ing Au-ra Lee.

[chorus] 
Au-ra Lee! Au-ra Lee!
Maid of gol-den hair;
Sun-shine came a-long with thee,
And Swal-lows in the air.

[2] On her cheek the rose was born;
'Twas mu-sic when she spake:___
In her eyes the days of morn,
With sud-den splen-dor break.

[chorus]

(I think I prefer Lait de Pres' text.<g>)

Arthur Ness (Boston) "...even Francesco Milanese, Alberto da Mantova [Albert de
Rippe] and my messer Marco da l'Aquila take pleasure in listening to the
strummings of a barber's lute." (Ltr. from Pietro Aretino to Paolo Manuzio, dtd
Venice, 9 December 1537.)