MUSIC OF TUDOR TIMES
OLD ENGLISH JISS. TUT INTO SCORE. If any very important manuscripts of music have boen found in the great cathedral libraries whoso existenco was not generally known, and composers havo been discovered whoao names havo been wholly forgotten, but whose works appear to bo in no wise les3 distinguished than those of other musicians whose reputation had been established. Tho C'arnegio Trust', which mentions these interesting dis.covaries in its report, speaks also , of the kindness of tho cathedral authorities in placing all facilities at the disposal of Dr. Terry and his committee. Dr. Terry is the organist and director of musio at Westminster Cathedral. Hβ explained recently to a representative of tho "Observer that it would be wrong to suppo6o that all tho manuscripts have only juet been discovered, because with some few exceptions tho are known land catalogued in the various libraries. Tho "discovory/' he said; would be more correctly described in this way, namely, "that the contents of thoso manuscripts have been put into score, and wo are now getting to know somothing about the musio of composors who havo hitherto been only namee to us." The principal manuscripts were already well known to scholars, but they had not been scored. They are all in separate parts, and in obsolete notation, j nvhich needs translating into modern notation; they are unbarred, and so forth, and need putting together into score, in order to mako them intelligible to persons toJay. Their dates cover the reigns from Henry VII to tho end of Elizabeth. Some of them are the work of men whoee names aro well known in musical history, but whose actual mueio is unfamiliar, such as Fayrfax, Whyte, Tallis, and Tye. Others aro the work of such men as Ludforde, Perslyo, nnd Aston, whose admirable music may be said to bo wholly unknown. .Emphasising the fact that tho "discoveries" aro not in all senses new, Dr. Terry recalled that ae long ago as 1895 Henry Davey, of Brighton, gave us for tho first time within a small compass, in his "History of English Music," a very fair working idea of what manuscripts thoro were, and whero they were to be found, and mentioned many things that had never been recognised by historians before "The pioneer in this work was O. E. P. Arkwright. I look upon his Old English Edition as the beginning of a reasonable appreciation of old English composers. It was the first edition which was edited in anything like a scholarly spirit." "It has been nu acrceablo surprieo to find what a largo public wo havo created at Westminster for this kind of music, for wo arc using in (ho cathedral, nnd havo been doing bo for years, such contents of these old manuscripts as Masses. Motets, Lamentations, and so on. Wo hnvo tried to show that this old music is not a dead but a living thins;. For it is live music, and not a mcro nntiqnarinn curiosity. There is a popular impression that, although it may bo very interesting and oven alive, somehow or other this music is out of touch with modern vocal possibilities. On the contrary, it is tho most perfect music for the voice that, bus ever been written, and it was written, moreover, by men who had vocal teohniquo at their i fingere' ends."
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 193, 4 May 1918, Page 9
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559MUSIC OF TUDOR TIMES Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 193, 4 May 1918, Page 9
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