deploring the absence of William Lawes from this anthology may be placated
by plans to give that composer his own conference on the 350th anniversary
of his death in September 1995.)

Much work is in progress on the manuscripts containing consort music;
indeed it is only through such studies that we can begin to assemble tentative
chronologies of the music and to assess its place in contemporary perform-
ance. Recent work on watermarks and the physical make-up of the paper,
spearheaded by Robert Thompson's research, is shedding new and some-
times surprising light on the manuscripts and their use. Andrew Ashbee,
Jonathan Wainwright, and Robert Thompson have planned An Index of
Manuscripts containing Consort Music, to be published in instalments under the
auspices of the Viola da Gamba Society of Great Britain. Their contributions
here set the scene for what it is hoped will prove a major resource for those
studying English consort music.

An Index of Manuscripts takes its inspiration from the Viola da Gamba Soci-
ety's Thematic Index of Music for Viols, compiled by Commander Gordon Dodd
, RN, and is intended to stand alongside it. In 1965 Gordon took over
the Society's card index of music for viols begun by Robert Donington and
subsequently maintained by Nathalie Dolmetsch. For nearly thirty years he
was the hub of an enterprise in which all the English (and some Continental)
manuscripts containing viol music were systematically recorded. Thematic
indexes composer by composer were drawn up by him and were published
first in the Society's Bulletin and later in the journal Chelys. Eventually the
Index took on loose-leaf format, with six instalments published between
1980 and 1992. The whole is a tremendous achievement and has proved of
immense value to all working in the field. But Gordon has been more than
mere editor and compiler; his kindness in answering queries, his encourage-
ment, enthusiasm, and companionship in consort playing have contributed
enormously to the network of consort performances now so firmly estab-
lished across the land. He has had a clear-sighted vision of what has been
needed to develop and nurture this network: instruments (he made his own
to get started); music (cheap, but carefully edited by him, as first editor of
the Viola da Gamba Society Supplementary Publications); a knowledge of
the repertory (defined by the Thematic Index); and of course the rewards
of performing some of the finest chamber music in the company of friends.
The contributors to this volume are unanimous in wishing to dedicate it to
him as a token of their gratitude for his unfailing support and as a measure
of their esteem for his achievement.

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