Mus. 1083-4, 1083a-b

Printed. Set of four partbooks, assembled from two different sets. Two tracts.

Mus. 1083-4(1) Daman, William, ca. 1540-1591 The former booke of the musicke of M. William Damon, late one of Her Majesties musitions: conteining all the tunes of Davids Psalmes, as they are ordinarily soung in the church: most excellently by him composed into 4. parts. In which sett the tenor singeth the church tune. London: Published ... by W. Swayne Gent. Printed by T[homas]. Este, the assigné of W[illiam]. Byrd, 1591 RISM A/I D830 Mus. 1083: Cantus; Mus. 1083a: Altus; Mus. 1083b: Tenor; Mus. 1084: Bassus. See other copies of this work.

Mus. 1083-4(2) Daman, William, ca. 1540-1591 The second booke of the musicke of M. William Damon, late one of Her Majesties musitions: conteining all the tunes of Davids Psalmes, as they are ordinarily soung in the church: most excellently by him composed into 4. parts. In which sett the highest part singeth the church tune. London: Published ... by W. Swayne Gent. Printed by T[homas]. Este, the assigné of W[illiam]. Byrd, 1591 RISM A/I D831 Mus. 1083: Cantus; Mus. 1083a: Altus; Mus. 1083b: Tenor; Mus. 1084: Bassus.

Provenance: a mixed set, assembled during the mid 19th and early C20th. Only two partbooks are listed in Havergal 1846: the Cantus (Mus. 1083) and Bassus (Mus. 1084); the entry is a late addition to that catalogue, and the books are not assigned call-numbers. Fragments of what appear to have been the original bindings of these two partbooks, cut from unidentified medieval manuscripts, were detatched probably in the early C20th, and are now Christ Church MS 378 ('The Book of Orts'), fragments 16-17 ('Bassus', = Mus. 1084) and 18 ('Triplex', = Mus. 1083). The name 'Tho.kele' is written on fragments 17 and 18 in a C16th hand; fragment 18 also has the name 'Robert Symons'. Within Mus. 1084, the names of 'Robert Haker' and 'Elner Puercel' are written on the verso of the titlepage of tract 1. The Altus and Tenor partbooks (now Mus. 1083a-b) must have been added to the collection by 1919, since they are included in the catalogue entry by Hiff. (Reference to them in Havergal 1846 has been added by an early C20th hand.) These two partbooks have been annotated by a different C16th owner: 'John Turke' (last page of Mus. 1083b; and Mus. 1083a, tract 2, sig. E1, p. 25).

Upright format, 230 x 173 mm. The current bindings (early C20th tooled rough brown leather over boards), which have been made to appear standard across all four partbooks, were in fact made at two different times. No early pressmarks.

Microfilm: The printed music of Christ Church, Oxford, reel 76.
View microfilm details.

For an incomplete copy of the Cantus partbook from an otherwise lost set, see Mus. 1290.