Early Music Review EDITIONS of MUSIC Here Are Thirteen Works in the Present Volume
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Early Music Review EDITIONS OF MUSIC here are thirteen works in the present volume. The first two are masses by John Bedingham, while the others are anonymous mass movements (either New from Stainer & Bell T single or somehow related). Previous titles in the series have been reviewed by Clifford Bartlett, and I confess this English Thirteenth-century Polyphony is the first time I have looked at repertory from this period A Facsimile Edition by William J. Summers & Peter M. since I studied Du Fay at university! At that time I also Lefferts sang quite a lot of (slightly later) English music, so I am not Stainer & Bell, 2016. Early English Church Music, 57 completely unfamiliar with it. I was immediately struck 53pp+349 plates. by the rhythmic complexity and delighted to see that the ISMN 979 0 2202 2405 8; ISBN 978 0 85249 940 5 editions preserve the original note values and avoids bar £180 lines - one might expect this to complicate matters with ligatures and coloration to contend with, but actually it is his extraordinarily opulent volume (approx. 12 laid out in such a beautiful way that everything miraculously inches by 17 and weighing more than seven pounds makes perfect sense. Most of the pieces are in two or three T- apologies for the old school measurements!) is a parts (a fourth part – called “Tenor bassus” – is added to marvel to behold. The publisher has had to use glossy paper the Credo of Bedingham’s Mass Dueil angoisseux in only in order to give the best possible colour reproductions of one of the sources). Each is preceded by a list of sources, a many valuable manuscripts. The textual part of the volume note of any previous edition(s), general remarks about the gives detailed physical descriptions of each, with individual piece, specific notes on texting issues (most interestingly historical and bibliographical information, followed by where the editors have chosen to include several syllables or transcriptions of the (often fragmented) texts. Most words under long notes), and then musical discrepancies. are from British libraries, but some are from Germany, All in all an exemplary work of scholarship, beautifully Italy, France and the United States. Though much of the presented, and just waiting for someone to take up the material is accessible online, the publishers hope that a challenge of recording this intriguing and beautiful music. physical reproduction can help researchers and stimulate new interest in the repertory. It will certainly make an eye- catching centrepiece for an exhibition! In addition to giving scholars direct access to these invaluable source without Arne: Judith having to sit, staring at a computer screen for hours. For Edited by Simon McVeigh and Peter Lynan all of these reasons, this apparent luxury will readily justify Musica Britannica C, 2016. xlviii+254. its price tag. ISMN 979 0 2202 2488 1; ISBN 978 0 85249 947 4 £130 Fifteenth-century Liturgical Music, IX homas Arne’s fine oratorio is deserving of so Mass Music by Bedingham and his opulent an edition. The editors’ splendidly detailed Contemporaries introduction sets the scene and gives a wonderful Transcribed by Timothy Symonds, edited by Gareth T account of the work’s genesis and performance history. Curtis and David Fallows Most peculiarly, we learn that the various original soloists Stainer & Bell, 2017. Early English Church Music, 58 took on various roles (some both male and female!). A very xviii+189pp. useful table in the closing notes (with accounts of variations ISMN 979 0 2202 2510 9; ISBN 978 0 85249 951 1 in the musical sources and the libretti) suggests how £70 modern performers might re-allocate the various airs and duets. Arne’s music looks splendid. After a commanding December 2017 overture, the opening chorus is introduced by a pair of fabulous job in finishing off such a monumental task. 28 bassoons; a pair of cellos accompany a duet towards the pages of critical notes follow the music, including a most work’s conclusion; in between, there are secco recitatives useful table that lists the entire contents of the Fitzwilliam and accompagnati, coloratura arias, dramatic choruses and Virginal Book (which makes up the bulk of this MB much besides. English sacred dramas by Handel are rarely volume), detailing where in Musica Britannica each piece performed; hopefully this excellent edition will inspire can be found. I fear the editors’ concern that a larger book choirs to consider adding Arne’s work to their repertoire. might have been a serious damage to an early keyboard is more than justified; even this tome is far heavier than the Philips and Dering: Consort Music Dover edition of FVB which I had at university! Additional Edited by David J. Smith material from “Tisdale’s Virginal Book” is also included Musica Britannica CI, 2016. xlv+216. (though only if there is a valid reason, since a complete ISMN 979 0 2202 2489 8; ISBN 978 0 85249 948 1 edition was issued in 1966). Where possible, pieces are laid £115 out on a single page or opening, so performers as well as scholars will welcome this volume. volume devoted to these two composers is particularly sensible since, not only were both A Catholic converts who lived for a time in Belgium (Philips until his death, Dering returned to England when The Works of Henry Purcell: Volume 13 Charles I married Henrietta Maria), but they may well Sacred Music: Part I: Nine anthems with strings have known one another. The music is organised firstly Edited by Margaret Laurie, Lionel Pike and Bruce Wood by composer (the older Philips first) then broadly in the Stainer & Bell, 2016. sequence dances followed by fantasias in ascending size, ISMN 979 0 2202 2347 1; ISBN 978 0 85249 932 0 and finished off by two anonymous In nomine settings in xxxiii+253 pp. six parts, attributed to Dering. Smith (or the MB board?) £75 sensibly includes the Viola da Gamba Society numbers as part of each heading. In several Dering pieces, Smith has he anthems in question are: had to provide one or more of the parts; I had a closer look (randomly!) at no. 26 and found octaves between bass and part II in Bar 12 – the rest looks perfectly likely! With 38 T pages of detailed critical notes, this volume is worthy of its Behold, I bring you glad tidings predecessors in the MB series. Behold, now praise the Lord Blessed are they that fear the Lord Keyboard Music from the Fitzwilliam (John Blow’s organ part is in the appendix) Manuscripts I will give thanks unto the Lord Edited by Christopher Hogwood and Alan Brown My beloved spake (two versions!) Musica Britannica CII, 2017. xliv+202. My song shall be alway ISMN 979 0 2202 2512 3; ISBN 978 0 85249 952 8 O Lord, grant the King a long life £105 They that go down to the sea in ships Thy way, O God, is holy ontaining 85 works (six consisting of a pair of movements, one of two movements each with a This volume is the last of the revisions of the Purcell Cvariation), this volume had been in Christopher Society’s early editions of Purcell’s “symphony anthems”, Hogwood’s mind for decades, and was first offered by taking into account new sources and re-assessing all of the Musica Britannica in 1992. By the time of his death in old ones. In so doing, the slightly bewildering decision to 2014, proofs of the musical portion of the volume had been modernise all of the time signatures has been retained; are prepared but some editorial choices remained to be made, we not yet sophisticated enough to deal with the originals? and brief notes had been left for a preface and introduction; If the editors concede that there is some value in them enter Alan Brown who, as far as I can tell, has done a (perhaps in indicating relative tempi), why confine them 2 to the (added) keyboard part? Similarly contrary is the realized continuo, a second score without the cover but decision to place the later version of My beloved spake after with all of the introductory matter and just voice and bass the original. Less contentious is the lack of any means of lines, and a continuo part with loose sheets to allow all showing which text was extrapolated from the sources’ three pages to be on the stand at once, thus avoiding the idem marks – some publishers use italics, while others issue of impossible page turns. Similar care is taken over bracket added text. Essentially, anyone seriously wanting the layout of the score, though I would have tried to get to know what Purcell’s manuscripts actually looked like bar 25 of the Neapolitan version on the previous line, and will have to seek them out (easily enough done by using probably taken bars 77-78 on to the next line, but these are the British Library’s online manuscript pages), but surely purely for aesthetic reasons (although arguably, repeats are a revision of this nature ought to have addressed such more easily found at the beginnings of lines). issues? To be honest, I’m also slightly disappointed that My only difficulty was that introduction. Of course, the line about taking into account new sources seems not given that there are two divergent sources meant it was entirely to be the case, since the accompanying notes for always going to be a challenge, but I found it confusing, each anthem list those that were collated and those that for instance, that the two sources were referred to as weren’t..