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expected to contain some of the new music of the 1650s, such as the consorts
of Matthew Locke.
A tentative dating before the Civil War nevertheless raises questions of its
own. Item 10, with covers bearing the Royal Arms, appears to have some
special link to Whitehall, and items 3 and 4 also belong to the court repertory:
this music [69] is unlikely to have circulated far beyond court circles in
peacetime, and may have come to Gloucester only as a result of the dispersal
of court music material after the outbreak of war, possibly some years later. 3
Perhaps the list combines exiled court partbooks with music already at
Gloucester, where before the Civil War the cathedral choristers were taught to
play the viol by John Merro (d. 1639) 4 and John Oker.
This reprint of the transcription is offered in the same spirit as the 1968
original, in the hope that other researchers might one day recognise the missing
material or offer a more complete explanation of the catalogue's contents.
Sadly, anecdotal evidence suggests that there is little chance of discovering any
of the missing music in Gloucester: a Purcell Society editor in pursuit of early
anthem sources recently reported that 'there is a strong tradition at Gloucester
that a canon of the cathedral made a bonfire of library holdings in order to
make more space in the cathedral library, arguing that the public no longer
liked early music but preferred Vaughan Williams and Elgar'. 5
When first published, the transcription was accompanied by notes identifying
the catalogued music as precisely as the original descriptions allowed. The
completion of the VdGS Index of Music for Viols means that readers can now
explore the work of the listed composers far more easily than was possible in
1968, and some of the text of the original notes has therefore been omitted.
Substantially unaltered notes by Richard Andrewes are marked (RA).
Editor
[70]
Musick Books belonging to the Cathedral of Glouc.r
[1] Derings Cantica Sacra in four Books in fol bound in Leather covers
entituled on the Covers with gilt letters (Altus) (Cantus) (Bassus) (Organ part). 6
[2] Three Bookes in fol. with Red-Leather Covers filletted with gold
marked in Gilt Letters on the Covers, (Cantus) (Bassus) (Ad Organum
composed by Cooperario. 7
3 Compare the possible travels of the Lawes theatre music autograph discussed in P.
Willetts, 'Who was Richard Gibbon(s)?', pp. 3-17 above.
4 See, for example, A. Ashbee, R. Thompson and J. Wainwright, The Viola da Gamba
Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, I (Aldershot, 2001), 9-10.
5 L. Pike, 'Purcell's "Rejoice in the Lord", All Ways', Music & Letters 82 (2001), 391-420,
at 420n.
6 A collection of two- and three-voice motets by Dering was published in 1662 as
Cantica Sacra. Ad duas & tres voces composita cum basso continuo ad organum. Dering died in
1630, however, and many manuscript sources of his motets pre-date the 1662 publication:
see Wainwright, Musical Patronage, 178-85.
7 These were undoubtedly Coprario's fantasia-suites for violin, bass viol and organ (RA):
the unusual (and revealing) spelling 'Cooperario' also occurs in GB-Lbl R.M. 241.3.