John Birchensha

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N Pauline on Fri 14 Jan 2005, 04:15am

(d.1681). Composer, musical theorist, and viol player. No copy of his ‘Plaine Rules and Directions for Composing Musick in Parts’, alluded to by Wood, is know to survive. A proposed theoretical treatise, “Syntagma Musicum”, never materialized.
N Alan Bedford on Fri 14 Jan 2005, 04:37pm

The following was posted by Dan on 14 Jan 2005:

Composing:
N language hat on Mon 28 Feb 2005, 06:28pm

Birchensha

This unusual name is presumably the same (in origin) as the more common Birkenshaw; I assume it has southern -ch- instead of northern -k- (cf church/kirk). I found a Russian page of composers’ births and deaths that lists the alternate spellings Birchensha, Berchenshaw, Berkenshaw, Birkenshaw, but I don’t know if they were all used for John B. or if they’re just alternate versions of the family name in general:
http://www.practica.ru/365/14-05.htm
N dirk on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 01:54am

Birchensha - etymology

birchen-
from Old English birce = birch (tree)

-shaw
from Old English sceaga (Celtic origin?) = thicket
N Jenny Doughty on Sat 10 Sep 2005, 06:56pm

See also http://theowljournal.com/article.php?issue=7&number=1&type=print&comments=1