A partbook is a format for printing or copying music in which each book contains the

part Part, parts or PART may refer to: People *Armi Pärt (born 1991), Estonian handballer * Arvo Pärt (born 1935), Estonian classical composer *Brian Part (born 1962), American child actor *Dealtry Charles Part (1882–1961), sheriff (1926–1927) a ...

for a single voice or instrument, especially popular during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. This format contrasts with the large

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 ...

, which included all of the voice parts and could be shared by an entire

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

. The choirbook still followed the convention to notate the parts separately, but within a double page, likewise part books were arranged that they show the one extract of the composition on the same page. The production of partbooks appears to have been a cost-cutting measure, as large-scale printing was much more expensive. For example, by 1529,

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...

had replaced almost all of its choirbooks with partbooks. The reduced cost also allowed each performer to have his own copy, and partbooks were more portable than a choirbook. They were, however, flimsy, and originals do not survive in large numbers. Choral scores completely replaced individual vocal parts during the 19th century. While instruments continue to use parts for ease of page turning, these are rarely bound into "books" and are no longer so called.

References

The Forrest-Heyther Partbooks: Lesser Composers

External links

* *
Tudor Partbooks project
a UK-based project to digitise, restore, reconstruct and analyse Tudor partbooks Musical notation {{manuscript-stub