Severinus Press Catalogue - Musical Sources
The Fountains Fragments
(London, The British Library, Add. MSS 62132A and 40011B)
The surviving parts of three late-medieval music manuscripts
formerly at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire. Introduction by Margaret Bent.
Colour reproduction of Add. 62132A, black and white of 40011B.
|
Add. 62132A: 8 settings (some incomplete) of sequences or cantelinas, including Victime paschali laudes, to which were later added 5 settings of the responsory verses Constantes estote and Spiritus domini and associated doxologies notated with black/red notation in score and copied during the later fourteenth century.
Add. 40011B: 8 parchment strips recovered from the binding of Add. MS 40011A and containing fragments of polyphonic motets dating from c.1300, including Rota versatilis. Black notation in parts. Followed by 3 bifolia from a paper gathering copied c.1400 and containing 18 polyphonic settings: 6 Glorias, 1 Credo, 4 Sanctus, 5 Agnus settings and 2 motets, mostly complete and several concordant with the Old Hall manuscript. White notation with black colour, the Sanctus and Agnus settings in score, the rest in parts.
All three fragments were to be found at Fountains Abbey in the mid-fifteenth century, although it is likely that none, except perhaps Add. 62132A, was copied there.
|
 |
| Musical Sources 26 | 13 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches | xii+26 pp |
| Full buckram | ISBN 0 86314 018 1 | £46 |
Two Fifteenth-Century Song Books
(Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 5943, ff. 161r-173v;
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 381, ff. 20r-23v).
2nd, expanded edition, of A Fifteenth-Century Song Book (Boethius, 1973)
Songs and mass movements, mainly English, from c.1400, in one to three parts.
Introduction by Richard Rastall. Black and white reproduction of the musical parts
of both collections, with betaradiographs of watermarks from Add. 5943.
Add. 5943: 18 compositions, 8 settings English text, 4 French, 6 Latin (three of these mass movements). An important source of early settings in English, compiled for use in Winchester College by Thomas Turke, Fellow of the College from 1395-1401, and probably used for after-dinner recreation in Hall on winter feast days. The texts range from the liturgical (a Benedicamus domino and Gloria in excelsis deo) through devotional and moralistic songs in Latin and English (including two three-voice rounds and a monophonic carol), to wholly secular texts in English and French (including the most fully underlaid version of Esperance qui en mon cuer). Also included are the poems and other texts added to the unused music pages. The manuscript is also important as a very early source of void notation with black coloration.
Douce 381: 8 compositions forming a related repertory to that of Add. 5943, with five songs in English, two in French, and one plainchant setting possibly for keyboard. One composition (I rede) is also present in Add. 5943. All but one piece (Mon cur en averoye) are written in void notation.
| Musical Sources 27 | 9 x 7 inches | xxxvi + 27 pp |
| Hard covers | ISBN 0 86314 152 8 | £28 |
Processionale ad Usum Sarum
(Pynson, 1502)
(From St John's College, Oxford, b.1.19)
The earliest known printed processional for the Use of Salisbury
Introduction by Richard Rastall. Black and white reproduction, with red reproduced as grey, of the complete book including flyleaves (with manuscript musical additions) and binding. Colour frontispiece reproducing f.142v. List of feasts and index of musical settings.
| The book is of great bibliographical interest, surviving in only one copy. It contains the texts, music and ceremonial for processions throughout the year as celebrated according to the Salisbury rite at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Deletions in accordance with proclamations of 1535 and 1538 and a subsequent reinstatement suggest that it remained in use until at least the Reformation and perhaps beyond.
|
 |
| The frontispiece (f.142v) |
| Musical Sources 16 | 8 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches | xxxii + 375pp |
| Full buckram | ISBN 0 86314 012 2 | £45 |
Thomas Tallis and William Byrd: Cantiones Sacrae
(Vautrollier, 1575)
(from London, Royal College of Music, I.E.9)
31 (represented as 34) Latin motets for five to eight voices
Introduction by Richard Rastall. List of contents.
One of the most famous early printed collections of English music. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I, Cantiones Sacrae was the first publication by Tallis and Byrd after they obtained the royal patent for music printing, and offers a retrospective selection of Tallis's own work alongside precocious compositions from his most gifted pupil. One of the 15 works by Byrd is split into three separately numbered sections, and one of the 16 by Tallis into two, in order to bring the apparent total to 17 pieces by each composer, corresponding to the length of the dedicatee's reign.
The works are arranged (with increasing exceptions) by mode in groups of three, and include Responds, Hymns, Antiphons, Prayers, an Introit and several texts apparently assembled especially for these settings. Some, particularly the earlier works by Tallis, originated as liturgical items, but many were composed after the demise of the Latin rite as devotional works for more private use or perhaps, in the case of some of Byrd's contributions, as student exercises in both old and new compositional techniques.
Contents include Tallis's Dum transisset Sabbatum, O nata lux and Salvator mundi, and Byrd's Emendemus im melius and Attollite portas; and most can be sung without difficulty from the original notation.
| Musical Sources 8 | Oblong, 6 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches | xiii + 345 pp |
| Six part-books in a slipcase | ISBN 0 86314 003 3 | £32 |
Thomas Weelkes: Keyboard Music
(Extracted from London, The British Library, Add. MS 30485;
London, Royal College of Music, MS 2093;
New York Public Library, Drexel MS 5612)
The 4 authentic keyboard works by Weelkes plus a fifth attributed to him
Introduction and editions by Desmond Hunter.
Reproductions from microfilm of all the manuscript sources followed by modern transcriptions.
Appendix containing reproductions of the sources of a further piece possibly by Weelkes, with a modern transcription.
Thomas Weelkes (1576?-1623) is best known today as a composer of piquant madrigals and anthems. His unhappy career as a cathedral organist increasingly blighted by alcoholism may account for the rarity of his surviving keyboard music. Only five works can be associated with him, and of these only one is likely to have been written originally for keyboard, namely the Galliard for virginals surviving, possibly in Weelkes' hand, in Add. 30485. The three Voluntaries are likely to be organ arrangements of vocal originals, while the Pavan is probably an arrangement of a consort piece.
| Musical Sources 24 | 13 x 9 inches | viii + 28 pp |
| Hard covers | ISBN 0 86314 103 X | £24 |
Thomas Ravenscroft: A Briefe Discourse
(Adams, 1614)
(Collection of Robert Spencer, previously Alfred Cortot's copy)
Manual on music notation with 20 songs for four voices.
Introduction by Ian Payne.
Reproduction of text, front and back covers and Cortot's Ex Libris.
Note on this copy by Robert Spencer
Ravenscroft's Discourse combines a treatise on mensural notation with observations on the forms of musical recreation. These are preceded by a floridly expressed Apologie to the reader, itself supported by Approbations, in the form of poems, by distinguished contemporaries including Nathaniel Giles, Thomas Campion and John Dowland. The second half of the book consists of twenty light-hearted part-songs on subjects as diverse as Hawking for the Partridge, Ale and Tobacco, and Enamouring. Of these, five are by John Bennet, two by Edward Piers, and the remainder by Ravenscroft, and are chosen to illustrate the mensural principles outlined in the treatise.
| Musical Sources 22 | 10 x 7 1/2 inches | x + 114 pp |
| Hard covers | ISBN 0 86314 098 X | £25 |
Narcissus Marsh's Lyra Viol Book
(Dublin, Archbishop Marsh's Library, MS Z3.5.13.)
60 pieces for lyra viol
Introduction by Richard Rastall.
Black and white reproduction of the complete manuscript including covers,
excluding blank pages (but the position of these are indicated)
The manuscript is notated in tablature (French lute style) on six-line staves, beginning with 33 pieces in Harp-way Sharp tuning; the book is turned back to front to read 20 pieces (the twentieth incomplete) in High Harp-way Sharp followed by 7 in High Harp-way Flat. Composers represented include Lawes, Jenkins, Mace, Ives, Steffkins and (Silas) Taylor, the latter possibly known to Narcissus Marsh who, according to his signature on the first and last pages, acquired the manuscript in 1666, the year he began to hold weekly musical meetings in his rooms at Exeter College, Oxford. Marsh himself added 25 of the manuscript's 60 items together with all the ascriptions; and such a wide knowledge of the repertory may indicate that the unascribed pieces copied by him are his own compositions.
| Musical Sources 10 | Oblong, 6 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches | viii + 88pp |
| Section sewn, laminated card cover | ISBN 0 86314 236 2 | £20 |
The Harpsicord Master II and III
(1700, 1702)
Black and white reproduction of
The Second Book of the Harpsicord Master (Walsh, 1700)
and The Third Book of the Harpsicord Master (Walsh, 1702)
(From the copies in The Royal College of Music, London)
26 and 25 pieces for harpsicord or spinet with rules for learners.
Introduction by Richard Rastall, with a list of contents.
The title-page of volume II announces A Choice Collection of LESSONS for the HARPSICORD or SPINNETT as Almands, Corants, Sarabands, Ayres, Minuetts and Jiggs By Dr Blow, Mr Courtivall, Mr Clarke, Mr Barrett & Mr Croffts To which is added Plain & Easy Rules for Learners. The whole Fairly Engraven.'
Volume III is a similar collection, prefaced by the same rules for learners ascribed to Purcell.
| Musical Sources 15 | Oblong, 7 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches | xiv + 108pp |
| Hard covers | ISBN 0 86314 009 2 | £26 |
Anne Brontë's Song Book
(Haworth, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Bonnell MS 133.)
34 songs and hymns with piano accompaniment.
Introduction by Richard Rastall. List of Contents.
Monochrome reproduction of complete manuscript including covers and fly-leaves.
Anne Brontë's musical commonplace book was compiled in 1833 and 1834 for use at Thorp Green, near York, where she was governess to the children of Edmund and Lydia Robinson. Half the pieces are hymns, reflecting the predominantly religious tone of her poetry at the time; the other half is made up of adaptations of Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven together with popular songs and the words of a hymn by Anne.
Anne probably began piano lessons at about the same time as Branwell took up the organ (about 1834) and with the same teacher, A. S. Sunderland. Although her book suggests that she never reached a high level of accomplishment it does offer an invaluable sample of a level of musical entertainment which must have been typical of her age and background.
| Musical Sources 17 | Oblong, 6 1/4 x 9 3/4 inches | xvi + 102 pp |
| Cased in deep yellow library buckram | ISBN 0 86314 010 6 | £28 |
Branwell Brontë's Flute Book
(Haworth, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Bonnell MS 56.)
21 hymn-, song- and dance-tunes for solo flute.
Introduction by Richard Rastall. List of contents.
Monochrome reproduction of complete manuscript including covers and flyleaves.
Branwell Brontë, brother of Emily, Charlotte and Anne, took up music in about 1831 when he was 14 years old, later progressing far enough to play the organ for services in Haworth Parish Church. His flute book includes dates from November 1831 to January 1832 and probably records his early progress at the instrument. Most of the entries appear to be in his hand, although four (signed J R) are entered by a more experienced writer, perhaps his teacher.
Branwell's repertoire is a typical mixture of well-known hymns (including Old Hundreth and All Through the Night), traditional Scots tunes (Auld Lang Syne and Ye Banks and Braes), military marches and contemporary favourites (including Home Sweet Home).
| Musical Sources 18 | Oblong, 4 3/4 x 8 inches | x + 22 pp |
| Section sewn, laminated card cover | ISBN 0 86314 011 4 | £12 |