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Mus. 1013-15

Manuscript. Set of three partbooks apparently of Dutch origin, originally meant for a collection of 'Liedekens' (according to annotations on the covers); early 17th century. Subsequently used in England for the addition of vocal works by Richard Dering, Henry Lawes and others; mid 17th century. Mus. 1013: 'Cantus'; Mus. 1014: 'Altus'; Mus. 1015: 'Bassus'.

The partbook are arranged in three layers, which were prepared for copying in the following ways: (1) index-pages, with alphabetic finding-tabs; these pages were subsequently used only for indexing items 1 and 8; (2) music pages ruled with 5-lined staves for polyphony; these were paginated in advance of copying; (3) in Mus. 1014 only, a third layer ruled with 6-lined staves for tablature; these were separately paginated alphabetically as 'a-zz', again before any copying took place.

  • Items 1 and 8: apparently copied by the person who assembled the partbooks for copying and laid out the alphabetical contents-pages.
  • Items 2-7: unidentified English copyist 1. Items 4-7 = Dering's Canzonette a tre voci con il basso continuo (first published in Antwerp in 1620), nos. 1-4.
  • Item 8: possibly by Rogier Michael. According to an an anonymous 20th-century annotation in Mus. 1014, this is a 'setting for bass viol in ordinary (ffeff) tuning of the Lord's Prayer chorale'.
  • Item 9: unidentified English copyist 2. Copied at the rear of Mus. 1015 with the volume inverted. The copyist of this item was probably also responsible for writing out a three-stanza poem on the rear flyleaf of Mus. 1015; it opens with the lines 'They that strongly can importune / And will never yeeld nor tire'.
Table of titles and composers in modern form. Display form found in manuscript.
 Mus. 1013Mus. 1014Mus. 1015
1 Nicolas Vallet Tanneken p. 1   p. 1
2 Henry Lawes Laudate Dominum omnes gentes p. 2 p. 1 p. 2
3 Richard Dering Gloria Patri et Filio pp. 2-3 p. 2 pp. 2-3
4 Richard Dering Filli, se gl'occhi giro p. 3 pp. 2-3 p. 3
5 Richard Dering O vagh'o care stelle p. 4 pp. 3-4 p. 4
6 Richard Dering Giunt'è pur p. 5 p. 4 pp. 4-5
7 Richard Dering Se nel partir da voi p. 6 p. 5 pp. 5-6
8 'Mr Rogier' Onse Vader in Hemelrijck (tablature)   a  
9   Preces and responses; bass part, in plainchant notation     pp. 96-94

Upright format, 185 x 115 mm. Collation not researched. Early 17th-century bindings of vellum over thin boards; remnants of green ribbon ties at the fore-edges. The outside upper cover of Mus. 1014 is annotated 'Liedekens [then an erasure]'; equivalent annotations appear to have been removed from the upper covers of Mus. 1013 and 1015, and replaced with the part-names 'Cantus', 'Altus' and 'Bassus'. Bookplate 2. 19th-century shelfmarks: G.23-5.

Provenance: from the Aldrich bequest, listed in Archives 1717, item F11, as 'A Set of Lat. Anthems' (to which a later hand has added '3 Books'), and in Dowding (main hand) as 'A short beginning of a collection in 3. Pocket Volumes'. In Mus. 1013-15 themselves, the shelfmark 'F.11' is written on the inside upper covers of all three partbooks.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 36.