Theodore Stefkins

3 Annotations

First Reading

JWB  •  Link

aka Ditrich Stoeffken
"Few people today know the name of Ditrich Stoeffken, but he was one of the most brilliant viol-players in the seventeenth century. Despite his German origin, he seems to have spent a great part of his life in England. He was appointed 'musician for the consort in ordinary' at the court of Charles I, and was entrusted with the task of choosing the King's viols. Jenkins was a great friend of his, and at the age of 80 sent him 'kind tokens which were pieces of music'. Stoeffken's Sarraband [4] is a profoundly beautiful piece, which exploits to the full the resonance of the particular tuning it calls for."

http://jonathan.dunford.free.fr/h…

dirk  •  Link

Just a note

"Theodore" is an attempt at translation of the German name "Di(e)trich" -- but strictly spoken it's etymologically incorrect!

Theodric =
From Late Latin "Theodricus", from Gothic "ruler of the people," cf. Goth. þiuda "people" + *reiks "ruler." German: Dietrich. Dutch: Diederik, Dirk.

Theodore =
From Latin "Theodorus", from Gk. "Theodoros", lit. "gift of god," from theos "god" (see Thea) + doron "gift."

See:
http://www.etymonline.com/

Both names sound more or less alike, and "Theodric" was not exactly a common name any more in the 17th c, hence the mix-up.

Second Reading

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1663