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Add MS 57950
- Record Id:
- 032-002000126
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002000126
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000036.0x000336
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 57950
- Title:
-
Collection of English polyphonic mass settings and motets ('The Old Hall Manuscript')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
An important collection of English sacred music of the late 14th to early 15th centuries, including works by the named composers (with scrolls and inscriptions in contemporary hands) Leonel Power, Pycard, Typp, Byttering, Oliver, Chirbury, Excetre, Cooke, Roy Henry (Henry IV or Henry V?), Queldryk, Tyes, Aleyn, Fonteyns, Gervays, Lambe . . . Pennard, Rowlard and Swynford, and the foreign composers Mayshuet and Zacar (the latter added on the strength of concordances). Near-contemporary additions include compositions by Thomas Damett, N. Sturgeon, Cooke, Burrell, Forest and Dunstable.
'First layer' consisting of three-quarters of the manuscript compiled by a single scribe circa 1415-1421, with 'second layer' additions by some seven scribes (possibly including the contributors Damett, Sturgeon, Cooke and Burrell or their agents) made in the early 1420s on blank or inserted leaves.
The date of the original compilation is indicated by the inclusion of works by Leonel Power (active from around 1410), although much of it could have been composed in the preceding 20 years. The range of composers included does not indicate a provincial bias and the nature and interruption of the original plan make it unlikely that it was initially associated with the Chapel Royal, although the biographies of many of the 'second layer' composers indicate the Chapel Royal association at this stage.
The collection is arranged by liturgical category and most of the music notated in score is in English discant style.
See M. Bent, 'The Old Hall Manuscript. A Palaeographical Study', PhD diss. (Cambridge, 1968); M. Bent and A. Hughes, eds, The Old Hall Manuscript (1969-1973).
Decoration:
Major decorated 6-line initials in tooled gold, blue, green or red, with penwork foliate and grotesque flourishing in black, purple, red or green, some with partial foliate borders. Some excised (e.g. f. 109v). Similar minor 2/4-line initials. Litterae notabiliores of 1 line, some flourished and with grotesque and anthropomorphic decoration, or blue with red flourishing, some highlighting in yellow and cadels. A bas-de-page red penwork grotesque occurs on f. 106. Some decorative line-fillers in red and black upon the staves. Some initials added in 19th century, e.g. the upper 'S' on f. 89v.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002000126", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 57950: Collection of English polyphonic mass settings and motets ('The Old Hall Manuscript')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002000126
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002000126
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 112 folios
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_57950 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1405
- End Date:
- 1420
- Date Range:
- c 1410-1420
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to consult this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: parchment.
Dimensions: 415 x 280 mm (text space: 338 x 225 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 112 (Marbled endpapers and single paper flyleaves to front and back).
Collation: uncertain, many lacunae, according to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians there were originally at least ff. 121 planned, of which 98 survive (15 of which were used for later additions); 14 of at least 16 inserted leaves remain, making an original total of ff. 137 of which 112 remain; reconstructed according to Bent as 17 gatherings of 8, except i10 (lacks 1, 2, 5, 7), ii6 (lacks 2), v8 (lacks 2), vi8 (lacks 2, 4, 5, 7, 8), vii10 (lacks 1, 7), viii8 (lacks 7), ix6, x10 (lacks 1, 2, 3, 7), xii8 (lacks 6), xiii10, xiv4 (lacks 4), xvi8 (lacks 1, 8), xvii10 (lacks 1, 5, 6, 10). Gatherings ii, ix and xiv are second layer insertions, according to Bent. Guideletters.
Layout: Pricked and ruled (single bounding lines) in metal-point and purple ink for single columns with 12 sets of red 5-line staves.
Script: Gothic textualis rotunda and bastard secretary, by several hands.
Binding: 19th-century binding of tooled red leather over card.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
? Thomas, Duke of Clarence (b. 1388, d. 1421), brother of Henry V (r. 1413–1422): the 'first layer' may have been originally commissioned for his chapel (see Bowers, 'Some Observations' (1975-1976), pp. 109-10).
? Chapel Royal of Henry V (r. 1413–1422): the biographies of the composers in the 'second layer' of the manuscript suggest the Chapel Royal association (see Bent, 'Sources of the Old Hall Music' (1967-1968)).
? Thomas Dackomb (1496-c. 1572), petty canon of Winchester Cathedral: see Digital Archive of Medieval Music.
? James Strangman (d. c. 1595), of the Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries: 'Strangman' inscribed in the margin of f. 92.
? John Alcock (b. 1715, d. 1806): see Digital Archive of Medieval Music.
Reverend John Parker (b. 1776, d. 1812): one of the manuscripts sold at the posthumous sale of his library in 1813.
John Stafford Smith (b. 1750, d. 1836), musicologist and composer: purchased by him at the sale of the Reverend John Parker's library in 1813.
Edward Wolferstan Tordiffe: inherited the manuscript from his great-grandfather John Stafford Smith and donated it in 1893 to St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire
St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, Ware, Hertfordshire: ownership inscription on f. i.
Purchased by the British Library, with the aid of contributions from the Shaw Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries, 20 July 1973.
- Publications:
-
M. Bent, 'Initial Letters in the Old Hall Manuscript', Music and Letters, 47 (1966), 225-38.
M. Bent and A. Hughes, 'The Old Hall Manuscript: An Inventory', Musica Disciplina, 21 (1967), 130-47.
M. Bent, 'Sources of the Old Hall Music', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 94 (1967-8), 19-35.
M. Bent, 'The Old Hall Manuscript. A Palaeographical Study', PhD diss. (Cambridge, 1968).
M. Bent and A. Hughes, eds, The Old Hall Manuscript, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, vol. 46, 3 vols (American Institute of Musicology, 1969-1973).
M. Bent, 'The Old Hall Manuscript', Early Music, 2 (1974), 2-14.
Roger Bowers, 'Some Observations on the Life and Career of Lionel Power', Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 102 (1975-76), 103-27.
M. Bent, 'The Progeny of Old Hall: More Leaves from a Royal English Choirbook', in Gordon Athol Anderson (1929-1981) in Memoriam, Musicological Studies 49, 2 vols (Henryville, Ottawa, and Binningen: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1984), I: pp. 1-54.
M. Bent, 'Pycard's Double Canon: Evidence of Revision?', in Sundry Sorts of Music Books: Essays on The British Library Collections Presented to O.W. Neighbour on his 70th birthday, ed. by Chris Banks, Arthur Searle and Malcolm Turner (London: The British Library, 1993), pp. 10-26.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn, 29 vols (2001), XVIII: pp. 376-9.
- Exhibitions:
- British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
The Wonders of Rome from a Northern Perspective: From Antiquity to the Present, Diözesanmuseum, Paderborn, 31 March 2017 - 13 August 2017 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)