ABSTRACT
A variety of signatures for a single keynote exists in English keyboard music throughout the seventeenth century. The consistency of varied signatures is remarkable and implies an understanding of key-not mode-that differs significantly from later ones. As suggested by Jessie Ann Owens in "Concepts of Pitch in English Music Theory" (this volume), Charles Butler allows the possibility of various signatures in his Principles of Music (1636). The following analyses will show that the application of Butler's ideas concerning "Tone" (or "Air") to English keyboard music c. 1640-1707 yields some distinguishing characteristics in tonal structure as indicated by key signatures and keynote. MS 1179 in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, provides a unique starting point for an investigation into the reasoning behind these signatures, for its copyist labeled ten pieces, using such classifications as "In G ~," "In G ~ ~," "In G ~," and "G ~." These labels roughly coincide with the "keys" defined by Christopher Simpson in his Compendium of Practical Music (1667). No other English keyboard source from the seventeenth century contains labels that so clost:ly match those described by theorists.' These labels, which I believe reveal something about the tonal structure of the inscribed works, are given in Table 1.
