Christ Church Library music catalogue: Mus. 6

Mus. 6

Manuscript. Organ accompanments for services and anthems; copyist unidentified; English, c. 1620-35. Possibly a partner to the set of four vocal partbooks now New York, Public Library, MS Mus. Res. *MNZ (Chirk), which were compiled by the same copyist, and which substantially overlap in contents. The volume is incomplete, lacking ff. 25-42, 55, and an unknown number of leaves at the rear. This is one of the many manuscript sources of keyboard music at Christ Church.

Table of titles and composers in modern form. Display form found in manuscript.

1	Thomas Tallis	Short Service (V/T/B/K/C/O/M/N)	ff. 1^r-4^v
2	William Mundy	O Lord, the maker of all things	ff. 4^v-5^r
3	William Parsons	Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting	f. 5^r
4	William Deane	Short Service [T/B/K/C/M/N]	ff. 5^v-9^r
5	William Deane	Lord, in thy wrath	f. 9^r
6	Orlando Gibbons	Short Service [T/B/K/C/M/N]	ff. 9^v-12^r
7	Thomas Tallis	If ye love me	f. 10^r
8	Christopher Tye	Blessed are all they that fear the Lord	f. 12^v
9	John Sheppard or Christopher Tye	Haste Thee, O God, to deliver me	f. 13^r
10	Christopher Tye	Save me, O God, for thy name's sake	f. 13^v
11	John Sheppard	O God, be merciful unto us	f. 14^r
12	Nicholas Strogers	Short Service [T/B/K/C/M/N]	ff. 14^v-18^r
13	Christopher Tye	O God, be merciful unto us	ff. 18^v-19^r
14	[John?] Boyce	If ye love me	f. 19^r
15	John Lugge	Short Service [T/B/K/C/M/N]	ff. 19^v-23^r
16	William Parsons or Thomas Tallis	Out from the deep I call to thee	f. 23^r
17		(later sketch, in pencil)	f. 24^v
18	Thomas Tallis	I call and cry (= O sacrum convivium)	f. 43^r
19	William Mundy	O Lord, I bow the knees of my heart	ff. 43^v-44^r
20	Edmund Hooper	Behold, it is Christ	f. 44^r
21	Thomas Morley	Out of the deep [I]: first accompaniment = EECM 38/12	ff. 44^v-45^r
22	Thomas Tomkins	Thou art my king, O God: first accompaniment	ff. 45^r-46^r
23	Richard Farrant	When as we sat in Babylon	ff. 46^v-47^r
24	William Byrd	Hear my prayer, O Lord, and consider	f. 47^r
25	William Byrd	Thou God, that guidest both heaven and earth	f. 47^v
26	William Byrd	Teach me, O Lord [from Second Preces and Psalm 119:33]	f. 48^r
27	John Amner	The king shall rejoice	ff. 48^v-49^r
28	John Amner	O magnify the Lord our God	ff. 49^v-50^r
29	John Amner	Lord, in thy wrath reprove me not	ff. 50^r-51^r
30	John Amner	My shepherd is the living Lord	ff. 51^r-v
31	Thomas Morley	Out of the deep [I]: second accompaniment = EECM 38/3	ff. 51^v-52^r
32	Orlando Gibbons	Glorious and powerful God	ff. 52^v-53^r
33	Thomas Tomkins	Thou art my king, O God: second accompaniment	ff. 53^v-54^r
34	John Ward	Let God arise [opening only]	f. 54^v
35	John Mundy	O Lord our governor [ending only]	f. 56^r
36	Michael East	When Israel came out of Egypt	f. 56^v
37	William Deane	Blessed are those that are undefiled	f. 57^r
38	Adrian Batten	O Lord, thou hast searched me out	ff. 57^v-58^r
39	Robert Parsons (ii)	How many hired servants [opening only]	f. 58^v

Upright format, 405 x 277 mm. Structure: i+39 leaves. Collation: originally ten or more gatherings, foliated by the copyist, each of three quired bifolia. Of these, the following survive: ff. 1-24 (= A6, B6, C6, D6, all intact); ff. 43-54 (= H6, I6, both intact), and ff. 56-8 (leaves 2-4 of gathering J, wanting J1 and 5-6). Mid 17th-century binding of vellum over stiff card; the volume appears to have been bound without gatherings E-G (ff. 25-42) or any gatherings after J. There are four pastedown cancels on f. 54r; these have not been lifted. Bookplate 2. 19th-century shelfmark: H.1.6.

Provenance: if directly connected with the New York partbooks mentioned above, then probably compiled for use in the chapel of Chirk Castle (Clwyd); otherwise possibly for Wrexham parish church. The volume had reached Christ Church by the mid 18th century, probably as part of the Aldrich bequest. A deleted shelfmark on the recto of the front flyleaf begins with the letter 'C'; this may link Mus. 6 with the otherwise unidentified volume listed in Archives 1717, position C20, as 'A Collection of Services'. This entry was subsequently deleted in Archives 1717, implying that the volume had been re-shelved. The earliest explicit catalogue entry for Mus. 6 is by Hind in Archives 1717, item H65, where it is listed as 'Mr Tallis's Short Service &c Fol. MS' (this entry subsequently deleted, then recopied without change); in Mus. 6 itself, the shelfmark 'H.65' is written on the front flyleaf (with several deleted alternatives), and on the spine.

Microfilm: manuscript music, reel 1.

Select bibliography:

John Morehen, 'The Sources of English Cathedral Music, c.1617-c.1664' (Ph. D. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1969), 457-63.
J. Bunker Clark, Transposition in Seventeenth Century English Organ Accompaniments and the Transposing Organ (Detroit, 1974), 39ff, 55-6 and 115-16.
Peter le Huray, 'The Chirk Castle Partbooks', Early Music History, 2 (1982), 17-42.
William Reynolds, 'Chirk Castle Organ and Organbook: An Insight into Performance Practice Involving a Seventeenth-Century "Transposing" Organ', Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, 21 (1997), 28-55.