THE MUSIC COLLECTION AT CHRIST CHURCH:

John Milsom

QUICK LINKS to two of the sub-collections discussed in detail below:

• To view a list of items largely from the ALDRICH bequest, follow this link. Please note that this page assumes familiarity with the following terms, all of which are discussed below: Archives 1717, Dowding, Hind, Burney, Malchair, Havergal, and 'Aldrich binding'.

• To view a list of items from the GOODSON bequest, follow this link.

General introduction

Two major 18th-century bequests form the core of the music collection at Christ Church. The first, which was also the larger of the two, was given by Henry Aldrich (1648-1710), a keen amateur enthusiast of music, and Dean of Christ Church from 1689 until his death. The second, acquired by the college in 1743, represents the collection assembled by two professional musicians both named Richard Goodson, who were father (c.1655-1718) and son (1688-1741); in succession, both men jointly held the positions of organist of Christ Church Cathedral and professor of Music at Oxford University. A few items of music entered the Christ Church collection by other acts of donation (through, for instance, the bequest of Archbishop William Wake, who died in 1737); some were apparently owned by the college before the 18th century, or have been transferred from Christ Church Cathedral; several are recent purchases; but the majority were given either by Aldrich or by Goodson Jr.

At first the two bequests were housed in the college's Old Library in the Cloisters, in an unidentified area called the 'Archives', and shelved apart from one another. They were still kept separate after the relocation of the collections in c.1763 to the college's New Library in Peckwater Quadrangle (the current library building); but from that point onwards, a gradual process of merging took place, and by the mid 19th century the Aldrich and Goodson bequests had been conjoined, so that their arrangement on the shelves no longer reflected the provenance history of the items. At every stage in this process, manuscript and printed materials were randomly mixed on the shelves; this remains the case today. The collection is now ordered within a single numerical sequence, each item bearing a call-number that begins with the prefix 'Mus.'. In order to avoid confusion with the wholly separate non-musical manuscript collection at Christ Church, the prefix 'MS' is omitted in call-numbers for manuscripts within the Mus. sequence.

Neither Aldrich nor the Goodsons made any attempt to label items in their collections (through the use, for example, of bookplates), nor did they draw up lists of what they possessed. For that reason, the provenance of any item in the Mus. sequence must today be deduced from other kinds of evidence. Of these, the most important are the 18th-century shelf-lists and catalogues.

The earliest shelf-list was created collaborately by or for the librarians at Christ Church, in or soon after 1717; it is cited below as Archives 1717. Made apparently by non-specialists in music, it seems principally to address the Aldrich bequest, although it makes no claim to do so, and may in fact include some music that had been given by earlier donors. Archives 1717 was subsequently used as the basis of a second shelf-list, cited below as Dowding, which was evidently made by a musician in the second quarter of the 18th century; his identity is not yet known. For the Goodson bequest, the earliest description is a partial catalogue made in 1747 by a singing-man at Christ Church Cathedral, William Clement, who had been a colleague of Goodson Jr. Between them, these three catalogues are the most important records of the foundation bequests. None of them, however, is comprehensive; in particular they omitted piles or bundles of unbound sheet music; and for reasons that are unknown, even some bound volumes were not included in them. In c. 1750, in his capacity as Librarian of Christ Church, Richard Hind made some additions to Archives 1717 and 'Dowding'. Up to that point, both of those shelf-lists had excluded Goodson music, but Hind's expansions of them seem to draw in material from the Goodson bequest and elsewhere. His work therefore takes the first step along the path of merging the two foundation collections.

Towards the end of the 18th century (and following the removal of the collections to the New Library), two new shelf-lists were independently drawn up, both by musicians for their personal use. The first, by Dr Charles Burney, was made in 1778, and takes account only of the items reckoned to have been bequeathed by Aldrich; an undated autograph fair copy of this list was subsequently given to Christ Church by Burney. The second, by John Malchair, is dated 'July 31 1787', and is by far the most detailed and comprehensive of all the early catalogues. Divided into separate sections for the Aldrich and Goodson bequests, Malchair's list gives the impression of being the single most important witness of provenance history. However, by 1787 a degree of cross-contamination between the collections had already taken place, and Malchair's connection of items variously with Aldrich or Goodson is sometimes demonstrably incorrect. His shelf-list is now MS 2125 in the Royal College of Music, London; a photocopy is kept at Christ Church.

During the first half of the 19th century, the music collection was substantially reorganized by unknown hands, and placed in a sequence that is largely preserved today. The new arrangement is reflected in three manuscript catalogues, dated 1845-7, made by the Rev. Henry E. Havergal, who at that time was Chaplain of Christ Church Cathedral. The first two of these, splendidly calligraphed and illuminated, are impressive both for their scholarship and their appearance. One is a catalogue of the printed music, the other of the manuscript music; both are arranged alphabetically by composer, with a summary listing of anonymous texted music. Havergal's third volume, a more modest-looking book made for the eyes of librarians rather than visitors, is a shelf-list; it includes for the first time a mention of the previously uncatalogued sheet-music, variously of Aldrich or Goodson provenance, some of which in the mid/late 18th century had been bundled together in Portfolios.

At the start of the 20th century, an intensive period of re-cataloguing and rebinding was initiated by Frederick York Powell (Librarian, 1899-1904), and carried out partly with the aid of Sir John Stainer (d. 1901); little is currently known about Stainer's contribution to the project. York Powell's successor, Francis Haverfield (Librarian, 1904-8), updated Havergal's 1845-7 catalogues, partially re-ordered the Mus. sequence, and probably commissioned the task - carried out by Florence Weedon - of sequentially listing the contents of every manuscript; Weedon's lists are either pasted into the front of relevant volumes, or entered into her 'Hand index to MSS Music 945-1001' (held at Christ Church Library; currently without shelfmark).

In 1919 a catalogue of the printed music was published, ostensibly edited by Aloys Hiff, but in fact derived substantially from Havergal's 1846 catalogue. It was intended to complement a set of three catalogues of the manuscript music, all of them the work of G.E.P. Arkwright. The first of these, published in 1915, covers 'works of ascertained authorship'; it too is based on Havergal, but was substantial expanded by Arkwright. The second, published in 1923, is of the anonymous vocal music, and again uses Havergal as its foundation, though with the important addition of music incipits, ordered by Mus. call-number. Arkwright's third catalogue, of the anonymous instrumental music (with incipits), was completed in 1935 but never published, no doubt on account of its very considerable bulk. Its current whereabouts is unknown; a photographic reproduction of it is held in Christ Church Library (2 vols., without shelfmark).

The first phase of systematic microfilming of the collection covered the manuscript holdings, and was completed in 1982 . Published initially by the Harvester Press, its 60 reels were complemented by a printed 'Listing and Guide' in three volumes (Parts 1 and 2: 1981; Part 3: 1982), compiled at the University of Lancaster by Roger Bray and Tim Carter; their work draws to a large extent on the lists created by Florence Weedon. The printed music has also now been filmed, in 76 reels. Both series are available for purchase from World Microfilms (e-mail: microworld@ndirect.co.uk). A small part of the collection is omitted from these films, mostly 20th-century donations of printed and manuscript music, and those few items that have been added to the Mus. sequence in recent years.

The current Online Catalogue attempts to chart the provenance history of every item in the Mus. sequence, both by referring to the early shelf-lists and catalogues in which they appear, and by drawing attention to markings made by users, owners and librarians. Bindings are individually described; an important sub-group of them, in the so-called 'Aldrich binding' style, is discussed in detail below. Various forms of the 18th-century Christ Church Bookplate are present in many of the volumes, and these are currently under investigation for the light they may shed on material that is still of unknown or uncertain provenance. The Online Catalogue will in time be supplemented by summary catalogues of the Aldrich and Goodson bequests themselves, as they existed at the time of their donation. These will take into account items described in the early catalogues that are now missing from the Christ Church collection, some of which have since found their way into other collections.

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Aldrich bequest

The central core of the music collection at Christ Church was donated by Henry Aldrich (1648-1710), Dean of Christ Church from 1689 until his death. It reached the college as part of a benefaction that included books on a wide variety of subjects, and many albums of prints. Aldrich himself was aware of the unique importance of his music collection, which included 'things of value in themselves and to be found in very few Libraries'. The minutes of the Dean and Chapter for 26 September 1713 reveal some of the steps that were needed to accommodate and account for the bequest: 'At a Chapt[e]r then held It was orderd that Two persons be employd to make a Catalogue of the Late Dean Aldrichs Books. And that a Room be fitted upp at the Neither end of the Library for the reception of the s[ai]d Late Deans prints & Musick Books' (Christ Church Archives, D&C i.b.5, f. 5v). The 'Catalogue' to which this refers is almost certainly the one cited below as Archives 1717. Aldrich's ownership of an item is rarely easy to prove, for he left no list of his collection, and never identified his books with either bookplates or handwritten marks. Some, however, can be linked with him from the presence of a so-called 'Aldrich binding'. The majority of Aldrich's volumes of printed music bound in tracts have contents lists compiled by an unidentified colleague, who is cited below as the Aldrich Associate.

For background information about Aldrich's music collection, see in particular W. G. Hiscock, A Christ Church Miscellany (Oxford, 1946); the preface by T. B. Strong to the 1915 catalogue by Arkwright; and the 'Aldrich' entry in the current edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

The extent and nature of Aldrich's bequest is currently being researched; the results are posted on a separate web-page. For a link to this, and to other pages that identify 'collections within the collection', scroll down to the bottom of this page.

'Aldrich binding'

More than 100 volumes of Aldrich provenance within the Christ Church collection have a semi-uniform binding of dark brown leather over boards, blind-tooled on the covers with fillets and bud-like ornaments, sometimes with blind- and gold-tooled decoration on the spines. A wide variety of items have been bound and decorated in this fashion: manuscripts and printed material; volumes in upright and oblong format, both large and small; sets of partbooks and single-volume items. In particular the bindings are associated with three parallel sequences of volumes arranged by Aldrich in the categories of 'fantasias' ('FANT'; manuscript material only), 'madrigals' ('MAD'; almost all printed), and 'motets' ('MOT'; almost all printed). The most elaborately tooled spines are found in volumes from the 'MAD' and 'MOT' sequences, many of which feature a monogram-like tool, symmetrical and oval-shaped, that appears to superimpose the component letters of the name 'HENRY ALDRICH'. (For an image of this monogram, follow this link.) In the past the term 'Aldrich binding' has been used to denote all these bindings, irrespective of whether or not the Aldrich monogram itself is present. In the Online Catalogue, that terminology has been retained. There is, however, considerable variety within the appearance of general uniformity, and it is possible to distribute the bindings into a large number of sub-groups (or 'Types'), based upon the specific tools used (or their combination), and the watermarks of the sheets that serve internally as endleaves. For an interim report on these various sub-groups, and on the 'FANT', 'MAD' and 'MOT' sequences, follow this link. For a handwritten variant of the Aldrich monogram, see the entry for Mus. 331.

Aldrich Associate

An unidentified late 17th-century hand, referred to here as the 'Aldrich Associate', added short-title contents lists to many volumes of printed music bound in tracts. This hand occurs only in books that appear to derive from the Aldrich bequest; the majority of them are now encased in an 'Aldrich binding'. Usually the lists occur on the front flyleaves of volumes, or in the case of partbook sets at the front of one partbook from the set, most commonly the Bassus. In at least one instance (Mus. 493) the contents list must have been written before binding took place, since it was subsequently cropped by the binder. In another case (Mus. 916) the indexer's work was later annotated by Aldrich.

Archives 1717

A manuscript shelf-list compiled during the period c. 1717-1762; now Christ Church, Library Records 15 (ff. 1-15). Titled 'A Catalogue of the Books contain'd in the Archives' (inscription on the cover) and headed 'Liber Ædis Christi AD. 1717' (f. 1), this shelf-list was made apparently by librarians at Christ Church, and is devoted to music and other items of special interest that were at the time shelved in the 'Archives', an unidentified area within the college's Old Library. No new entries were added to it following the transfer of the collections to the New Library in c.1763. The music listed in Archives 1717 appears to derive largely from the Aldrich bequest, but the shelf-list itself does not specify that, and some items included in it may have entered the collections from other sources. Several hands contributed to early layers of this shelf-list; all remain unidentified. (An image of a sample page is available here.) Many of the entries appear to have been generated collaboratively by two people working together, one orally describing the item in hand, the other writing down the details as best he understood them - hence some of the more exotic spellings of composers' names. Entries are arranged alphabetically by shelf (A-Q, A2-C2), and within shelf by number. No information is provided for items on shelves M-Q, which are given the blanket description 'A Large Collection of Music in 262 Vol: beside loose papers'. During the second quarter of the 18th century, this shelf-list served as the copy-text for the Dowding catalogue, which expands the entries with additional information. Between 1748 and 1753, additions were made both to it and to 'Dowding' by Richard Hind, including music that appears to derive from the Goodson bequest and elsewhere. Archives 1717 probably remained in use until the mid 19th century, when it would have been superseded by the Havergal catalogues.

An annotated transcription of Archives 1717 is available on a separate web-page devoted to the Aldrich bequest. For a link to it, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

'Dowding'

A manuscript shelf-list of music principally from the Aldrich bequest, dating from the second quarter of the 18th century, with later additions; now Christ Church, Library Records 12/3. According to the heading on f.1, it was envisaged as a 'Catalogue of Music in Dr Aldrich's Collection at Christ Church College Oxon, extracted from the General Catalogue of his Books, Prints &c [= Archives 1717], with some further description of some of the Music'. The cataloguer, who remains unidentified, appears to have had both an interest in and some understanding of music. His work is based on Archives 1717, but it omits all non-musical items, and also the majority of books dealing with music theory. Entries are arranged in two parallel columns; the first of them (labelled on f. 1 as 'Catalogue') reproduces shelfmarks and summary descriptions as given in Archives 1717; the second column adds more detailed 'Further descriptions', evidently devised by the cataloguer himself. (An image of a sample page is available here.) Unlike Archives 1717, 'Dowding' gives details of items on shelves M-Q, under the heading (f.9; heavily deleted in ink) 'A large Collection of Music in 262 volumes beside loose papers lately catalogued by Mr Dowding as follows:'. The identity of 'Mr Dowding' has not yet been established, and it is possible that this catalogue is in fact entirely his work. Additions to the catalogue were made between 1748 and 1753 by Richard Hind, including music that appears to derive from the Goodson bequest and elsewhere. 'Dowding' probably remained in use until the mid 19th century, when it would have been superseded by the Havergal catalogues.

A fair copy of 'Dowding' was made during the 2nd quarter of the 18th century, before Hind's expansions; it is now Christ Church, Library Records 12/2. It too has the heading (f. 1) 'Catalogue of Musick in Dr Aldrich's Collection at Xt Church Oxon'. A note on the inside front cover records that 'This Catalogue, I found amongst Doctor Willm Boyce's papers, after his death, and am happy to have it in my power, to restore it to the College. Philip Hayes. 1779'. Deriving as it does from 'Dowding', this shelf-list has been reckoned to have of no independent value as a witness, and it has not been taken into account during research into the history of the collections.

An annotated transcription of 'Dowding' (aligned with equivalent entries in Archives 1717 is available on a separate web-page devoted to the Aldrich bequest. For a link to it, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

Wake

The library of William Wake (1657-1737), Archbishop of Canterbury (and canon of Christ Church, 1689-1702), was bequeathed to Christ Church on his death. It contained a few important items of music, both printed and manuscript, all of which are readily identifiable from the presence of Wake's Bookplate.

Goodson bequest

Music from the collections of the two Richard Goodsons, father (c.1655-1718) and son (1688-1741), is richly represented at Christ Church. (Some of their books are, however, now in other libraries, including the Bodleian Library and the British Library.) Both men held the posts of professor of Music at Oxford University and organist of Christ Church Cathedral. The bulk of their accumulated library of bound volumes and sheet music was donated to Christ Church by Richard Goodson Jr, presumably with the aim of complementing the Aldrich bequest. The first evidence of its receipt comes from the Christ Church library accounts for December 1743, in a payment for 'Removing the late Mr Goodson's Music-Books' (Christ Church, Library Records 16, f. 28v). Four years later, sixty bound items from the Goodson bequest were listed by William Clement in Clement 1747; however, a considerable quantity of Goodson material evidently evaded him: bound books, teaching material, and probably a substantial number of loose performers' parts in unbound sheets. For comments on the subsequent absorption of Goodson music into the Christ Church collection, see below. For further information about the Goodsons themselves, see the entry in the current edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. To view a list of items from the Goodson bequest now at Christ Church, follow this link.

Clement 1747

A manuscript catalogue of part of the Goodson bequest, dated 1747; now Christ Church, Library Records 15, reversed. According to the title on its cover, this was intended to be 'A catalogue of Mr Goodsons Books contain'd in the Archives 1747'. It was compiled by William Clement, a singing-man at Christ Church Cathedral and a former colleague of Goodson Jr's; his handwriting has been identified from a match with the college's disbursement book for 1747 (Christ Church Archives, xii.c.190, unpaginated). His catalogue describes a total of sixty items from the Goodson bequest, arranged not by call-number but rather alphabetically by the nature of their contents; thus a volume of cantatas by Rossi is listed under 'C' for 'Cantatas', not 'R' for 'Rossi'. (An image of a sample page is available here.) Evidently Clement began his task by arranging the volumes by size and format, in broadly decreasing dimensions from largest to smallest, starting with items in upright format and ending with ones in oblong format. Many of these sixty items still bear number-labels written in Clement's own hand, or have glue-stains from pasted labels that are no longer in place. For reasons that are now unknown, Clement's catalogue lists only part of the Goodson bequest; some items clearly of Goodson provenance were subsequently appended to items from the Aldrich bequest by Hind, while others ended up in the Portfolios of unbound sheet music. Clement's catalogue probably remained in use until the mid 19th century, when it would have been superseded by the Havergal catalogues. To see a list of items known or believed to have been bequeathed to Christ Church by Goodson Jr, including the sixty items in Clement's catalogue, follow this link.

Hind

Richard Hind was Librarian of Christ Church between 1748 and 1753, i.e. after receipt of both the Aldrich and Goodson bequests, but at a time when both collections remained shelved in the 'Archives' area of the college's Old Library. Hind's handwriting, which is well documented in the college Library Accounts (Library Records 16), can be detected in Archives 1717 and Dowding, two catalogues that initially served principally to document music from the Aldrich bequest (and which excluded Goodson music). Hind's additions to them, however, include items that derive variously from Aldrich and Goodson, from elsewhere within the college's collections, and possibly even from other donors. Some of those items reveal or imply their origins from outward signs. The rest must now be reckoned to be of uncertain or unknown provenance.

Burney

The music historian Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814) made extensive use of the music collections at Christ Church during the period c. 1776-89, in the course of researching his A General History of Music (4 vols.; London, 1776-89). His debts to both Aldrich and the college are acknowledged in vol. III (London, 1789, p. 602): 'This worthy and most accomplished divine [= Aldrich] bequeathed to his college, at his decease in 1710, an admirable collection of Music, to which, by the indulgence of the dean and canons, I have not only been honoured with frequent access, but been liberally allowed to transcribe and make extracts from some of the most curious books, out of the college. Having, in 1778 and 1779, made a catalogue of these musical works, I can venture to say, that for masses, motets, madrigals, and anthems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the collection is the most complete of any that I have had an opportunity of consulting.' Burney donated an undated autograph fair copy of his 'catalogue' (which is correctly a shelf-list) to Christ Church; it is now Christ Church, Library Records 12/1. (An image of a sample page is available here.) Created from first-hand examination of the books rather than from any existing shelf-list, Burney's is the first list to reflect the arrangement of the collections following their transfer to the New Library in c.1763. It specifies the shelves on which the volumes were kept (e.g. 'Arch. Sup. K, 3d shelf'), but does not assign them numbers, implying that the Old Library shelf-numbers were by this stage obsolete, and had not yet been replaced by a new system. Burney's list covers much of the Aldrich bequest, although it omits almost all the volumes of printed music bound in tracts. No mention is made of the Goodson collection, although by this date a few stray items of Goodson provenance had infiltrated the Aldrich books. Burney's correspondence with Christ Church, with details of the various items he borrowed and returned while researching his History, is now Christ Church, Library Records 45(13). The library also holds the copy of A General History of Music donated by Burney; it was not annotated by the author.

Malchair

The most comprehensive and detailed of the 18th-century lists of the music collections at Christ Church was compiled by the German-born violinist and artist John Malchair [= Johann Baptist Malscher] (1730-1812), who was resident in Oxford between 1759 and 1792. Drawn up evidently for Malchair's own use, and dated 'July 31 1787', it is now London, Royal College of Music, MS 2125. It is essentially a shelf-list, describing the music collection as Malchair himself found it 'in its present order or arrangement' on the shelves of the New Library at Christ Church. Unlike the shelf-list made by Burney, however, Malchair's sets out to cover both the Goodson and the Aldrich bequests - or rather, the two sub-collections of music that continued to be shelved separately from one another, even though some transfer between them had by this time taken place. Malchair was evidently responsible for some further transfers and rationalizations. For those reasons, his seemingly confident placement of items under 'Goodson' and 'Aldrich' headings cannot be taken at face value, and for the purposes of tracing provenance history his list is a less reliable witness than Archives 1717, Dowding and Clement 1747. A photocopy of the Royal College of Music MS is kept at Christ Church (without shelfmark). For information about Malchair, see Colin Harrison, John Malchair of Oxford: Artist and Musician (with essays by Susan Wollenberg and Julian Munby) (Oxford, 1998), and the entry for 'Malchair' in the current edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Bookplate information

During the mid 18th century, engraved bookplates bearing the college's arms were pasted into many items from the Aldrich bequest, and selectively into other bound volumes of music. Three distinct forms of the bookplate were used; they are currently under investigation for the light they may shed on material that is still of unknown or uncertain provenance. Books donated by Wake have a different bookplate. For images, follow the links below.

Bookplate 1 (reproduced from Mus. 31)
Bookplate 2 (reproduced from Mus. 997)
Bookplate 3 (reproduced from Mus. 992)
Bookplate 4 (Wake) (reproduced from Mus. 1236)

Portfolios

Apparently in the mid or late 18th century, a substantial quantity of unbound sheet music at Christ Church was gathered together into 'portfolios'. Much of this music must derive from either the Aldrich or the Goodson bequests, but very little of it is listed in the 18th-century shelf-lists, and provenance is uncertain in the majority of cases. Items placed in the portfolios were (and still are) marked with call-numbers in red crayon; these always include a Greek letter (e.g. 'I.2.α'). A summary listing of the contents of each portfolio is given in Havergal Summary. The portfolios were dismantled in the early 20th century, as part of a systematic programme of binding and rebinding begun by York Powell. To see a list of the original contents of each portfolio (with hypertext links to full descriptions of the items themselves), follow this link.

Havergal

In 1845-7, three manuscript catalogues of the Christ Church music collection were prepared by the Rev. Henry E. Havergal, who was Chaplain of Christ Church Cathedral during those years. Little is known about his research methods, other than that he made liberal use of two 18th-century shelf-lists, Archives 1717 and Dowding, both of which include annotations by Havergal, including mention of items that were by that stage missing from the collection.

Havergal 1846. Christ Church, Library Records 31. Titlepage: 'An alphabetical catalogue of printed musick in the library of Christ Church ... Mdcccxlvi [1846]'. This handsome volume, a testament to Havergal's calligraphic skills, lists the printed music alphabetically either by composer or, for anthologies, variously under generic headings such as 'Madrigali' and 'Moteta', or by printer or title (for example, 'Phalesius', 'Mercurius Musicus'). (An image of a sample page is available here.) This is the first catalogue to make use of the 19th-century shelfmark system (e.g. 'K.6.24-8'), references to which are given by Havergal in red ink. (Cross-references to the current call-number system (e.g. 'Mus. 931-3') were added in blue ink in the early 20th century.) This catalogue subsequently served as the model for Hiff.

Havergal 1847. Christ Church, Library Records 32. Titlepage: 'An alphabetical catalogue of manuscript musick in the library of Christ Church ... Mdcccxlvii [1847]'. A companion volume to the above, marginally less grand in appearance than its predecessor, but by far the more impressive achievement in terms of research and organization. It opens with attributed works, listed by composer, usually with further subdivisions by genre (such as 'Anthems', 'Cantatas', 'Fancies' and 'Motets'). Unattributed vocal music follows, listed in four categories: '1. English Anthems & Motets etc.'; '2. Latin Anthems & Motets'; '3. English Cantatas &c.'; '5. [sic] French & Italian Cantate, Madrigali, Motetti, Serenate &c'. Anonymous instrumental and untexted music is excluded. The 19th-century shelfmark system is used (e.g. 'I.1.20-24'), with references given in red ink; page/folio numbers are not given. (Cross-references to the current call-number system (e.g. 'Mus. 56-60') were added in blue ink in the early 20th century.)

Havergal Summary. Christ Church, Library Records 30. Titlepage: 'A Short Numerical Catalogue of the Manuscript and Printed Musick in the library of Christ Church chiefly in the collections of Dean Aldrich and Professor Goodson. 1846'; the dedication page (verso of the titlepage) is dated 1847. Calligraphically this is the plainest of Havergal's three catalogues, having been made for use by the college librarians rather than by visitors. It opens with listings for the three principal presses in which the collection was shelved (H, I, K), moves on to the remaining presses (E, F, G), and closes with a brief description of the contents of the Portfolios (kept at shelf I.2). (An image of a sample page, showing entries for the Portfolios, is available here.) For each item, two numbers are given: (1) a shelfmark (e.g. 'I.4.44-6') corresponding to the 19th-century system of letters and numbers that are 'marked inside [the] covers according to their position on the shelves'; and (2) a call-number (e.g. 'CCCXXXII-IV'), which refers to 'the corresponding [printed] numbers they bear on the outside labels as belonging to the whole collection.' The latter system survives in outline in the 'Mus.' call-numbers still in use today (e.g. 'Mus. 332-4'). Havergal's entries give brief descriptions of the nature of each item, including date or dates of publication (for printed items), or the approximate date of copying (manuscript), and also sometimes a suggestion about the item's likely provenance (such as 'Aldrich's Collection' or 'MS. by R. Goodson'), some of which are demonstrably incorrect.

York Powell

Frederick York Powell, Librarian of Christ Church for the five-year period 1899-1904, was largely responsible for the appearance and organization of the music collection as it exists today. Under his supervision, many items were rebound or repaired, usually in ways that preserved or protected older bindings and wrappers. He also began the complex task of sorting the unbound sheet-music - especially items from the Portfolios, and uncatalogued sheets that remained rolled in bundles - in order that they might be mounted on guards or cords within protective covers. For advice he turned to Sir John Stainer (d.1901), Heather Professor of Music at Oxford University; their collaboration awaits investigation. York Powell's successor, Francis Haverfield (Librarian, 1904-8), re-ordered some items within the Mus. sequence, and supervised the annotation of the 1845-7 Havergal catalogues, which at the time remained the principal sources of information about the collection. Further cataloguing of the manuscripts by Florence Weedon was undertaken during the period of Haverfield's librarianship.

Weedon

Florence Weedon (ARAM, ARCM, Mus. Bac.), about whom little is known at present, was responsible for the contents-lists pasted into manuscripts within the Christ Church music collection; she also created the 'Hand index to MSS Music 945-1001' (Christ Church library, MS currently without shelfmark). Her work dates from c. 1906, and was part of a broader reorganizational project initiated by York Powell. Her 'Report on the Library of Music in Christ Church, Oxford', dated 'May 1906', is now part of Christ Church, Library Records 13. This reveals a plan to sell duplicate copies of printed music; it was never carried out.

Hiff

Aloys Hiff's Catalogue of Printed Music Published Prior to 1801 now in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford (London, 1919) is based on Havergal 1846. It addresses only items in the Mus. sequence, and therefore omits the many music-related items to be found elsewhere on the shelves of the libraries at Christ Church, on the grounds that they lie 'beyond the scope of this catalogue' (p. iv). His work selectively includes listings of the contents of volumes, and adds alphabetical entries for composers whose works appear within anthologies. Hiff (b. 1889) subsequently matriculated Oxford 24 April 1920 as a non-collegiate student.

Arkwright

Godfrey E. P. Arkwright (1864-1944) was responsible for the first comprehensive catalogue of manuscript music in the Christ Church collection, undertaken during the Librarianship (1908-28) of H.W. Blunt. Three volumes were envisaged. The first two were printed under the general heading Catalogue of Music in the Library of Christ Church Oxford; Part I (1915) covers 'Works of Ascertained Authorship'; Part II (1923) covers 'MS. Works of Unknown Authorship, (i) Vocal'. Part III, which was completed in 1935, is a 'thematic list of anonymous music without words'. It was never published, no doubt on account of its very considerable bulk, and the current whereabouts of Arkwright's MS is unknown; a photographic reproduction of it is held at Christ Church (2 vols., without shelfmark). The two published catalogues, Parts I and II, are based upon the 1846-7 catalogues made by Havergal, entries being arranged alphabetically by composer or incipit rather than by manuscript call-number; but Arkwright's Part I does very significantly expand upon Havergal by identifying some of the unattributed music, and his Part II adds music incipits where Havergal 1847 has none. Arkwright's Part III is arranged in shelf order by Mus. call-number, and is principally helpful today for the fact that it gives incipits in score notation. Correspondence with other scholars relating to Arkwright's catalogue is now Christ Church, Library Records 45(13); it includes material from Percy Buck, W.H. Grattan Flood, Margaret Glyn, Charles Van den Borren, and Arkwright himself.

'COLLECTIONS WITHIN THE COLLECTION'

• The ALDRICH bequest. Two separate web-pages are envisaged that will attempt to identify and locate all the items of music and music theory donated to Christ Church by Henry Aldrich. The first of these web-pages consists of an annotated transcription of two early shelf-lists, Archives 1717 and 'Dowding', and is now available in interim form; to view it, follow this link. Please note that this page assumes familiarity with the following terms: Archives 1717, Dowding, Hind, Burney, Malchair, Havergal, and 'Aldrich binding'. The projected second page will list further items that appear to have reached Christ Church from Aldrich, but which cannot be matched against entries in Archives 1717 and Dowding; this page will be posted at a later date, probably during 2009. Both of these pages will eventually include hypertext links to descriptions of the items themselves.

• The GOODSON bequest. To view a full list items from the Goodson bequest, follow this link.