The Lambeth Choirbook – also known as the Arundel Choirbook – is an

illuminated Illuminated may refer to: * "Illuminated" (song), by Hurts * Illuminated Film Company, a British animation house * ''Illuminated'', alternative title of Black Sheep (Nat & Alex Wolff album) * Illuminated manuscript See also * Illuminate (disambi ...

choirbook A choirbook is a large format manuscript used by choirs in churches or cathedrals during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The book is large enough for the entire choir to read from one book. Choirbooks were generally put on a stand with the smaller ...

dating to the sixteenth century. It contains music for 7 Masses, 4 Magnificats, and 8 motets. Much of the music is by Tudor-period composers. The major contributors are

Robert Fayrfax Robert Fayrfax (23 April 1464 – 24 October 1521) was an English Renaissance composer, considered the most prominent and influential of the reigns of Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII of England. Biography He was born in Deeping Gate, Linco ...

and

Nicholas Ludford Nicholas Ludford (c. 1485 – 1557) was an English composer of the Tudor period. He is known for his festal masses, which are preserved in two early-16th-century choirbooks, the Caius Choirbook at Caius College, Cambridge, and the Lambeth Choirb ...

; between them they contributed at least ten of its nineteen pieces. Only three of Fayrfax's works have his name attached to them, but five other pieces are known as his; these, along with two by Ludford, are known from

concordance Concordance may refer to: * Agreement (linguistics), a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase * Bible concordance, an alphabetical listing of terms in the Bible * Concordant coastline, in geology, where beds, or la ...

s in the

Caius Choirbook The Caius Choirbook is an illuminated choirbook dating to the early sixteenth century and containing music by Tudor-period composers. The book appears to originate from Arundel in Sussex, and to have been created sometime in the late 1520s; the ...

and other manuscripts. Seven anonymous pieces exist in the book: *''Ave Dei Patris filia'' *''Ave mundi spes Maria'' *''Gaude flore virginali'' *''

Salve regina The "Salve Regina" (, ; meaning 'Hail Queen'), also known as the "Hail Holy Queen", is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. The Salve Regina ...

'' *two ''

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for "

y soul Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or sevent ...

magnifies

he Lord He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Eastern Christianity, Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated ...

s'' *''Vidi aquam egredientem de templo'' (

antiphon An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...

at the Aspersion before Mass during

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

tide). No concordances for any of these have been traced, and it seems possible that further works by Fayrfax and Ludford might exist among them. The book also contains music by older composers, such as Edmund Stourton and Walter Lambe, whose music may also be found in the

Eton Choirbook The Eton Choirbook (Eton College MS. 178) is a richly illuminated manuscript collection of England, English sacred music composed during the late 15th century. It was one of very few collections of Latin liturgical music to survive the English R ...

. The book is now housed in

Lambeth Palace Library Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite ...

under the reference MS 1.

Sources

HOASM.org

Bibliography

*Skinner, David: ''The Arundel Choirbook (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 1): a Facsimile and Introduction'' (London:

Roxburghe Club The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. Origins The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 days ...

, 2003) *Curtis, Gareth; Wathey, Andrew: "Fifteenth-Century English Liturgical Music: A List of the Surviving Repertory" ''Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle'', 27 (1994), 1–69 *Benham, Hugh: ''Latin Church Music in England c.1460–1575'' (London, 1977), 22–24, passim *Chew, Geoffrey: "The Provenance and Date of the Caius and Lambeth Choir-Books", ''Music and Letters'', 51 (1970), 107–17 *Bray, Roger W: ''The Interpretation of Musica Ficta in English Music, c.1490–c.1580'', Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Oxford University (1969), I, 115ff; II, 43-68 *Warren, Edwin B.: ''Life and Works of Robert Fayrfax'', Musicological Studies and Documents vol. 22 (

American Institute of Musicology The American Institute of Musicology (AIM) is a musicological organization that researches, promotes and produces publications on early music. Founded in 1944 by Armen Carapetyan, the AIM's chief objective is the publication of modern editions ...

, 1969), 42, 59–60, passim *Kirsch, Winfried: ''Die Quellen der mehrstimmigen Magnificat- und Te Deum-Vertonungen bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts'' (Tutzing, 1966), 145 *Todd, Henry J: ''A Catalogue of the Archiépiscopal Manuscripts in the Library at Lambeth Palace. London, 1812'' (London, 1965), 1 *Bergsagel, John D. (ed.): ''Nicholas Ludford (c.1485–c.1557): Collected Works'', Corpus mensurabilis musicae vol. 27 (Neuhausen nr. Stuttgart:

, 1963–), Il, xiv–xv, 1–38, 130–79 *Harrison, Frank Ll. (ed.): ''Early English Church Music'' (London: Stainer & Bell, 1963–), 4, 1–48, 130–31 *Harrison, Frank Ll.: ''Music in Medieval Britain'' (London, 1963), 263–69, 307, 329–30, 335 *Warren, Edwin B. (ed.): ''Robert Fayrfax (ca. 1464-1521): Collected Works'', Corpus mensurabilis musicae Vol. 17 (Neuhausen nr. Stuttgart:

, 1959–66), I–II *Lyon, Margaret Elizabeth: ''Early Tudor Church Music: The Lambeth and Caius Manuscripts'', Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Berkeley (1957), I–II *Westrup, J. A., et al. (eds.): ''New Oxford History of Music'' (London, New York, and Toronto, 1954–), 3, 308, 321ff *Blume, Friedrich (ed.): ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik'' (Kassel, 1949–79) ited by volume and column number 2, 1347; 6, 378; 8, 1173 * James, Montague Rhodes; Jenkins, Claude: ''A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Lambeth Palace'' (Cambridge, 1930–32), 1 *Collins, H. B.: "Latin Church Music by Early English Composers", ''Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association'' 39 (1912–13), 55–83; 43 (1916–17), 97–121 (XLIII), at 98–101, 104–6 * Frere, Walter Howard: ''Bibliotheca Musico-Liturgica: A Descriptive Handlist of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical Mss. of the Middle Ages Preserved in the Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland'' (London, 1894–1932; reprint Hildesheim, 1967), 1, 4

External links

*Free access to high-resolutio
images of this manuscript
from Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
Playlist of available works
from the Lambeth Choirbook on Spotify
Lambeth Palace Library Catalogue entry
for the Arundel Choirbook
Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music
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