The Dow Partbooks

DIAMM FACSIMILES 
No. 2 
The Dow Partbooks 

Full-colour facsimile edition of Oxford, Christ Church Library, MSS 984-988 produced by DIAMM Publications. 
Published in collaboration with the Viola da Gamba Society (UK): 5 partbooks + introductory study volume with indexes and finding lists (limp binding) in hard slipcover. 

Detailed Description

DIAMM has published the Dow Partbooks in partnership with the Viola da Gamba Society (UK).

Robert Dow’s partbooks, copied in Oxford around 1580, rank among the most beautiful of all Tudor music manuscripts, and are also an important and authoritative source for the works they contain. Conceived with both singers and instrumentalists in mind, they contain a varied repertory suitable for voices and viols, including Latin-texted motets, English-texted anthems and consort songs, and a selection of In nomines and textless chansons, scored mainly for five-voice texture. Featured composers include William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Robert White, Robert Parsons, Philip van Wilder and Alfonso Ferrabosco Sr.  Dow was a trained calligrapher, and his exquisite penmanship, executed in black ink on printed red staves, is unusually accurate and easy to read.

Composers include:

  • William Byrd
  • Robert White
  • Robert Parsons
  • Alfonso Ferrabosco
  • John Shepherd
  • Thomas Tallis
  • William Mundy
  • Christopher Tye
  • Orlandus Lassus
  • John Taverner
  • Richard Farrant
  • Peter Phillips

Five partbooks (Discantus and Medius - 186 pages each, Altus and Tenor - 200 pages each, Bassus - 178 pages, each measuring 165 x 220 mm), plus comprehensive introductory volume (100 pages) containing a historical study and comprehensive indexes and finding lists for the books. They are published in open-flat soft covers and contained in a hard slipcase.

Delivery time approx 1 week


Prices

Purchase Regular Price £200
Purchase Seconds £100