Abstract
The so-called ‘Hamond’ partbooks (British Library, Add. MSS 30480-4) were copied over a period of c.40 years by multiple groups of collaborating scribes, resulting in a miscellaneous combination of service music, sacred songs, Latin motets, chansons, madrigals, an In nomine, and even Mass extracts. These partbooks are the only complete manuscript source of Protestant service music from the first decades of Elizabeth's reign. This first holistic study of this set of partbooks re-evaluates the stages of compilation and the copying practices of the scribes to offer new interpretations of the manuscripts’ history and contexts. The article argues that the partbooks began life as a liturgical and educational collection for the training of choirboys. These partbooks therefore offer a unique insight into the repertory and practices of one Protestant institution, highlighting the continued reliance on Edwardian repertories over a decade into Elizabeth's reign, as well as the growing availability of continental printed music. The transmission of these partbooks is then traced to a more domestic and recreational setting, exploring their relationship to the Hamond family. While Thomas Hamond of Hawkedon in Suffolk inscribed his ownership inside the covers in 1615, the re-evaluation of the compilation and history of these partbooks reveals that the books were in the possession of the Hamond family from at least the late 1580s/early 1590s. This family added new pieces, made repairs and engaged with the music copied by previous owners. Ultimately their preservation was assured by the younger Thomas Hamond's interest in older music, and they continued to be a source of historical interest for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music antiquarians.
Highlights
I argue that the partbooks began life as a liturgical and educational collection for the training of choirboys; secondly, I trace their transmission to a more domestic context and explore their relationship to the Hamond family who can be shown to have possessed the partbooks from at least the late 1580s/early 1590s
The copyists seem to have deliberately distinguished this group from the four-part sacred songs already copied in the mid-section of the manuscript, after which there were at least 13 blank folios still available in each partbook
The family’s care for these partbooks suggests a continued affection for early Protestant devotional music; much of the music added in Phase VI was similar in age and style to the original collection with sacred songs by Tallis, Tye and William Mundy
Summary
First Phase IIIa scribes added a few four-part sacred songs at the end of the mid-section (Table VI) These were a mixed bunch including a contrafact on a composite text and two psalms, one of which includes the doxology and both of which had had liturgical purposes in the past (but not in the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer). The five-part songs seem to have been copied during both halves of Phase III, with the two pairs separated by a page of blank staves in 30481 Of these the latter pair appear designed for liturgical use as both include the doxology and Tye’s My Trust O Lord is explicitly labelled as an ‘anthem’ 13–20) was inserted after the service music during Phase IIIb. The copyists seem to have deliberately distinguished this group from the four-part sacred songs already copied in the mid-section of the manuscript, after which there were at least 13 blank folios still available in each partbook.
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