The first printed book of English rounds was published in 1609 by Thomas Ravenscroft, but a manuscript written by Thomas Lant, dated 1580, is in the Rowe Music Library of King's College, Cambridge. It contains 57 rounds, and as far as I know it has never been published in facsimile. I have used the following partial transcription:
Vlasto, Jill. "An Elizabethan Anthology of Rounds", Musical Quarterly XL (1954) 222-234.
Many of these rounds (48 of 57) appear in very similar form in 3 books of rounds and songs by Thomas Ravenscroft, published 1609-1611. Ravenscroft's books have been reprinted several times in facsimile and are commonly available.
I have published a complete facsimile of Ravenscroft's books on the Internet; some friends of mine have contributed transcriptions into modern notation (and midi) of many of the pieces. This page is located at:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ravenscroft/
There are quite a few literary references to these rounds in 16th century literature. For example, Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night" has a reference to the round "Hold Thy Peace". Ravenscroft has a rather elaborate version of this round, which was generally assumed to be what Shakespeare referred to, but Lant has a much simpler version of this round, which I have included in this handout.
Three Blind Mice and London's Burning (Scotland's Burning) survive as rounds today. I have also included facsimiles from Ravenscroft of two rounds to the tune of "Oh my Love", which is the only part of the "Rose, Rose" cycle of rounds which I can put a date to. "Rose, Rose" is commonly taught at SCA events.
If you would like to correspond about rounds or any other pre-1600 music topic, please don't hesitate to write:
Gregory Blount (mka Greg Lindahl)
104 Berwick Circle
Charlottesville VA 22901
lindahl@pbm.com
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