Score copy of Tallis's Spem in Alium with the English words, Sing and Glorify.
In forty parts with accompaniment for a thorough bass. Adapted to English words 'Sing and glorifie heavens high Majesty' in honour of Princes Henry and Charles, sons of James I. Arranged in full score in five groupings of eight similar voices (and not in choirs of five different voices) with the thorough bass in the middle. The complete Latin text is written on f. 1 immediately above the thorough bass; the complete English text is immediately below the latter, and is written again under each part throughout. For other manuscripts in the hand of the same copyist see Pamela J. Willetts, 'Musical Connections of Thomas Myriell', Music and Letters, xlix, 1968, pp. 38-41. The occasion for which the English adaptation was made was probably the creation of Henry, eldest son of James I, as Prince of Wales, 4 June 1610 (see J. Nichols, The Progresses ... of King James the First, iii, 1828, p. 213, for a reference to a performance at the creation of Charles, afterwards Charles I, as Prince of Wales, 4 Nov. 1616). On the front cover (f . i) are the words 'Mr Tho: Tallis's Song of 40 Parts', in the hand of Thomas Tudway, Mus.D., Professor of Music in Cambridge University (d. 1726), and the Egerton MS. is doubtless the copy, then in the possession of James Hawkins, organist of Ely Cathedral, to which reference is made in a number of letters from Tudway to Humfrey Wanley, 1 May-24 Aug. 1718, in Harley MS. 3782, ff. 95, 96, 98 and 102, where he proposed its acquisition for the library of Edward Harley, Lord Harley, afterw. 2nd Earl of Oxford. According to John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, i, 1776, p. 456, James Hawkins presented the MS. to the Earl but it could not then be found in the Harleian collection. Dr. Charles Burney states (A General History of Music, iii, 1789, p. 74) that after being in the possession of the Earl of Oxford, 'it was attracted into the vortex of Dr Pepusch', and was later acquired by Robert Bremner, the London music publisher. A copy made from this MS. in 1751 by John Immyns, amanuensis of Dr Pepusch was, in 1888, in the possession of the Madrigal Society (A. H. Mann, Motet for 40 voices by Thomas Tallis, 1888, p. ii) and is now in the Royal College of Music. Robert Bremner also owned a later copy of the work, made from the Egerton MS., now in the Royal Music Library (R.M. 4. g. 1). Other later copies, including Add. MS. 29968, are described ibid, pp. i-iii. A further MS. (not mentioned ibid), is G. Mus. 420 in the Library of Gresham College, which was copied in the early 17th century from the present MS. The Gresham College MS. was used as the source for the edition in Tudor Church Music, vi, 1928; the revised edition by P. Brett, 1966, is based on Egerton 3512.
from the British Library online catalogue, 2015
