tenor) has been added to the responsive portion of the Gloria Patri; not only for the sake of uniformity, but also because it is given in five parts in the Preces as published by Barnard.

The seven supplications at page xxvii are chanted similarly to that commencing "From all evil and mischief, &c." and the twenty at page xxix, like "We sinners do beseech thee to hear us, &c." observing, in both cases, to apply the F#, near the end of each chant, to the syllable immediately following the little bar in each supplication.

The Te Deum, Jubilate, &c. sung after the Lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer, having been set to music by various authors, are not given in this work. Such compositions, together with the Nicene Creed, Sanctus, &c. in the Communion Office, are technically called Services; and in order to render this edition as complete as possible, those of Tallis have been published separately, in five books,-treble, alto, tenor, bass, and organ accompaniment*. It may be as well to observe, in this place, that, in all the ancient compositions to the Te Deum, the Priest chants the half of the first verse alone, the key-note of the Service being previously given out on the organ. Thus, Tallis's Te Deum is commenced by the Priest in the following manner, which will serve as an example for others:

Throughout this work the rubrical extracts have been clearly pointed out, by inverted commas and paragraphs; and the utmost care has been given to make it correspond with the book of Common Prayer in the proper application of the words Priest and Minister to the several portions of the Service.

At page vií, and again in the Litany, at page rrri and following, it will be observed, that the words have been distributed between the Minister and People as represented by the Choir, in a different manner to that which usually prevails. But as this arrangement contradicts no Rubric, "the ancient musicians," says Mr. Jebb, "are surely as valid authorities as the printers*," from the difference in whose type alone, and not from any positive direction, the ordinary mode of performance has arisen.

Before concluding this Preface, the Editor has a duty to discharge, which is to him one of the most agreeable description, namely, the public acknowledgment of the kind assistance he has received from his sincere friend Mr. Joseph Warren, of London, well known for his researches in musical antiquities; who, both by the loan of valuable manuscripts and printed books, as well as copious remarks on various subjects connected with the present edition of Tallis's Service, has shown as great an interest in the work as he could have done upon one on which he himself had been engaged; and in consideration of which (as the particular parts where assistance has been rendered by him cannot be minutely specified), the Editor will with pleasure divide with him whatever merit this publication may be considered to have.

* See remarks on this subject in the above author's Lectures on the Cathedral Service, pages 10 and 11. Also in his work On the Choral Service of the Church, pages 359 and 444.

The Editor's best thanks are also due to the Reverend Alexander Watson, for the use of whose congregation at St. John's Church, Cheltenham, this publication was primarily designed, for affording access to his library, and evincing, at all times, a cheerful willingness to assist by his kind advice, in matters unconnected with the musical profession.

J. B.

Cheltenham, November 1843.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

OF

Thomas Tallis.

66

THOMAS TALLIS, one of the greatest musicians of the sixteenth century, is supposed to have been born about the year 1520. It is probable that he was one of the children of the Chapel Royal, under William Crane, then master of the children, in the reign of Henry VIII; and, from a MS. list of payments to musitians, players, and officers of the Chappell," in the reign of Edward VI, in the British Museum, it appears that "Thomas Tallis, Richard Farrant, Thomas Birde (the father of William Bird), J. Shepherde," and 28 others, were "gentlemen of the Chappell," at 7d. per day each; and also, from a MS. list of payments to "revellers, musitians, and players," in the succeeding reign (Queen Mary), in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries*, that he continued in the same office, as follows:-" The Chappell.-Thomas Birde, Thomas Tallis, George Edwards, William Hynnus" (or Hunnis), "Thomas Palfreyman, Richard Farrant, John Singer, and thirty others, £409 3s. 4d."

It has generally been supposed that Tallis was organist of the Chapel Royal during the reigns of

* Quoted by J P. Collier, in his History of Dramatic Poetry, vol. i, p. 165.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

xxxiii

Edward VI and Queen Mary. This is only in part correct; for as there was no separate appointment as organist until the time of Elizabeth, it appears to have been the custom for the gentlemen of the Chapel to take it in turns to play the organ*. In Queen Elizabeth's reign, however, we find that both Tallis and his pupil Bird were appointed organists independent of their being gentlemen of the Chapel. This is clearly ascertained from the following title of a work published jointly by them in 1575:-"Cantiones, quae ab argumento Sacrae vocantur, quinque et sex partivm, avtoribvs Thoma Tallisio & Guilielmo Birdo Anglis, Serenissimæ Reginea Maiestati à priuato Sacello generosis, & Organistis. Com Privilegio. Excudebat Thomas Vautrollerius typographus Londinensis in Claustro vulgo Blackfriers commorans, 1575.”

Appended to this work, is a copy of a singular patent granted by Queen Elizabeth to the authors, for the term of twenty-one years, for the sole publication of vocal and instrumental music, as well as for the ruling and vending of music-papert.

That this was formerly the practice, is ascertained from "The Regulations and Establishment of the houshold of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, at his Castles of Wresill and Lekingfield, in Yorkshire, begun 1512," printed in 1770; where we find the following :-" The orduringe for kepinge weikly of the orgayns one after an outher as the namys of them hereafter followith weikly— "The maister of the childer, yf he be a player, the first weke. "A counter-tenor that is a player, the ijde weke.

"A tenor that is a player, the thirde weike.

"A basse that is a player, the iiijth weike.

"And every man that is a player to keep his cours weikly."

It also appears, from the “Liber Niger Domus Regis," temp. Edward IV, that the "chaplenes and clerkes of the Chappelle" were required to be "shewinge in descante, clean voyced, well releshed and pronouncynge, eloquent in readinge," and "suffytyente in organes playinge," &c.

+ See Burney's Hist. Mus. vol. iii, p. 73; or Hawkins's Hist. Mus. vol. iii, p. 259.