Hawkins, in his account of the book, makes a curious mistake on this point. He says, 'It is observable that the author has made the plainsong or Church tune the cantus part, which part being intended as well for the lute or cittern, as the voice, is given also in those characters called the tablature which are peculiar to those instruments.' That the exact opposite is the case,[1] will be seen from the translation of a fragment of the lute part, here given:—
The next Psalter to be mentioned is one which seems to have hitherto escaped notice. It was issued without date; but since collation with Este's third edition proves it to be later than 1604, and since we know that its printer, W. Barley, brought out nothing after the year 1614, it must have been published in the interval between those two dates. Its title is as follows:—
The whole Booke of Psalmes. With their woonted Tunes, as they are sung in Churches, composed into foure parts. Compiled by sundrie Authors, who have so laboured herein, that the unskilful with small practise may attaine to sing that part, which is fittest for their voice. Printed at London in little S. Hellens by W. Barley, the assigne of T. Morley, and are to be sold at his shop in Gratious street. Cum privilegio.
From this title, and from the fact that Morley was the successor to Byrd, whose assignee Este was, it would be natural to infer that the work was a further edition of Este's Psalter: and from its contents, it would seem to put forward some pretence to be so. But it differs in several important respects from the original. Este's Psalter was a beautiful book, in octavo size, printed in small but perfectly clear type; the voice parts separate, but all visible at once, and all turning the leaf together. Barley's Psalter is reduced to duodecimo size, becoming in consequence inconveniently thick; it is badly printed; and the parts, though separate, do not always turn the leaf together. Worse than this, in almost all the settings, the two upper voice parts are omitted, and the remaining parts—the tune and the bass—being separate are rendered useless even to the organist, the only person who could have turned two parts to any sort of account. The work, therefore, is so unsatisfactory as to be scarcely worthy of notice, did it not contain ten new and admirable settings, of which four are by Morley himself, five by John Bennet, and one by Farnaby. These not only save the book, but render it valuable; for in Ravenscroft's Psalter, published a few years later, only five of them—two by Morley, and three by Bennet—survive. This work therefore contains six compositions by eminent musicians which are not to be found elsewhere. They are of course printed entire, as are also the settings of the two established and often repeated favourites above referred to, Oxford and Cambridge tunes, and a few others, which, however, though they have escaped mutilation, have not escaped alteration, considerable changes being sometimes made in the parts. In some of the mutilated settings, also, the bass part has been altered, and in some a new bass has been substituted for the old one, while the editor has allowed the name of the original composer to stand above the tune. Examples of extreme carelessness in editing might also be given, were it worth while to do so. On the whole, the book is somewhat of a puzzle. There would be nothing surprising in its peculiarities had it been some unauthorized or piratical edition of Este; but when we remember that the printer was working under the royal patent granted to Morley, and that Morley himself, and another musician almost as distinguished, contributed to it some of the best settings of church tunes ever composed, it becomes difficult to account for its badness.[2] Besides the new settings of old tunes, it also contains one new tune set by Blancks, afterwards called by Ravenscroft a Dutch tune.
Ravenscroft's Psalter, which comes next in order, was published in 1621, with the following title:—
The whole Booke of Psalmes with the Hymnes Evangelicall and Songs Spirituall. Composed into four parts by sundry authors, to such severall tunes, as have been, and are generally sung in England, Scotland, Wales,
- ↑ Hawkins has evidently been misled by the clumsily worded title.
- ↑ One explanation only can be suggested at present. The work may never have been intended to rank with four-part psalters at all. The sole right to print Sternhold's version, with the church tunes, had just passed into the hands of the Stationers' company; and it is possible that this book may have been put forward, not as a fourth edition of Este, but in competition with the company: the promoters hoping, by the retention of the complete settings of a few favourite tunes, and the useless bass part of the rest, to create a technical difference, which would enable them to avoid infringement of the Stationers' patent. The new settings of Morley and Bennet may have been added as an attractive feature. If, however the announcement in the title of the third edition of Este (1604), 'printed for the companie of Stationers,' should mean that the company had acquired a permanent right to that work, Barley's publication would seem no longer to be defensible, on any ground. Further research may make the matter more clear.
