The Hidden Editions of Thomas East

Abstract

Thomas East was a specialist in music printing during one of the richest eras of musical composition in England (1588-1608). In this span of twenty years, the English madrigal was born, great strides were taken in Protestant genres of psalm-tune settings and anthems, and William Byrd, the foremost composer of his day, brought forth his superb collections of English secular song, motets, and Mass settings. Like most of his London colleagues in the printing field, East was a member of the Stationers' Company, the London livery company empowered by the Tudor government to regulate the trade of printing and publishing.' East's work, however, was not fully controlled by this Company; as is well known, the Queen had granted a twenty-one year monopoly for music printing and printed music paper to Thomas Tallis and Byrd in 1575 (which was renewed by Thomas Morley for another twenty-one years in September of 1598). Thus, as a music printer, East also operated within the confines of the notorious Elizabethan system of patent monopolies.2 Due to the special protections of the monopolistic system, East enjoyed a nearly exclusive role as the printer for Byrd from 1588 to 1596. After Byrd's monopoly expired, East worked closely with composers as prominent as Morley, John Wilbye, and Thomas Weelkes among others; he also premiered many of the most acclaimed anthologies of English Renaissance music (see Table 1, Music Printed by Thomas East).