Preface.

THE increased attention which has of late been given to all matters connected with the ritual of the Anglican Church, has had its beneficial influence on the musical portion of the service. This has manifested itself, in many places, not only by the introduction of harmonized responses, with the intonation by the Priest or Minister of the versicles, suffrages, &c., but also by a return to those sublime strains of our venerable church writers, which have been too long superseded by the flimsy compositions of modern times. Hence, despite the objections of those whose judgment is regulated solely by that which best pleases their fancy, the simple sublimity of the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century is rapidly gaining the consideration to which it is so justly entitled.

This return to former usage, as might naturally have been expected, has called forth a numerous list of works on various portions of the church service; but one still appeared to be wanting, which should contain, in as small a compass as possible, not only the complete choral mode for the order of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, and the office of the Holy Communion, but also such rubrical and other directions as relate to its performance. Conceiving, therefore, that this want could not be better met than by the republication of Tallis's Service, the Editor cheerfully undertook to prepare it for the press, with such additions as the Prayer Book, in its present form, necessarily required; and happy

will he be, if his humble endeavours should tend in the least to the restoration of the choral service in our sanctuaries.

The present edition comprises a reprint of the Service as published in 1760 by Dr. Boyce, in the first volume of his Collection of Cathedral Music, together with the additions above mentioned; but it will be the object of this Preface to show that certain portions of it have been incorrectly ascribed to Tallis in that work. Before entering on this subject, however, it may be as well to give an account of such ancient publications relating to the choral service as appeared during the progress of the Reformation and afterwards, and also to notice some of the revisions which the Prayer Book has undergone.

That part of the Prayer Book which appeared first, nearly in its present form, was the Litany. It was published in 1544, by authority of Henry VIII, in a work bearing the following title :-" An Exhortacion into Praier thought mete by the Kynges Majestie and his Clergie to be read, &c. Also a Litany, to be sayd or sung, &c. T. Berthelet, May 15, 1544.” The plain-chant given with this Litany is almost identical with that in use at the present day in our cathedrals; but the Priest's part in Tallis's Service is, in some places, different.

On the 26th of June, in the same year (1544), the above Litany was republished by Grafton, with harmonies in five parts," according to the notes used in the Kynges Chapel*.”

In the year 1549, the first English Prayer Book appeared. It was published by Whitchurch, on the 4th of May, and was in substance the same as that we now use, though several additions were made to it,

*The account of these two works is taken from the Preface to Mr. Dyce's edition of "The Order of Daily Service, &c. with Plain-tune,

and some parts of it altered in successive reviews*. This is usually called the first Prayer Book of Edward VI, as being the first of two published during his reign.

In 1550, the work which forms the basis of our cathedral service was printed by Grafton, under the following title, "The Booke of Common Praier noted." It contained the Order of Morning and Evening Prayer, together with the office of the Holy Communion, and the Burial Service, all adapted to music compiled from the Latin service books by John Marbeckt, who, according to Dr.Burney and others,was organist of Windsor. The statement of Sir John Hawkins, that Marbeck composed the music in the above book, is incorrect. All that he appears to have done, was to simplify the music of the Te Deum and other portions, allotting but one note to each syllable, in conformity, perhaps, to the wishes of Archbishop Cranmer and others; and to apply the rules of ecclesiastical accent in the termination of the suffrages, &c. making such slight changes in the music as the English words required. This may be seen by comparing his notation of the Te Deum with that published by Meibomius (Antiquæ Musicæ, Auctores Septem, Amsterdam, 1652, vol. i), and from several examples in the Preface to Mr. Dyce's edition of the Prayer Book. The Litany was omitted by Marbeck, probably because it had already appeared in print, and was sufficiently known to render its republication unnecessary+.

1843;" but the Editor of this work has himself seen a MS. copy of the Litany above mentioned. Mr. Rimbault, in the introduction to his reprint of Lowe's work, hereafter mentioned, gives May 16, 1544, as the date of the "Exhortacion into Praier," &c.

#

See the Venerable Edward Berens's History of the Prayer Book. † So his name is usually spelt; but at the end of his work it stands thus-Merbecke.

Copious extracts from Marbeck's book may be seen in Burney's

In 1552, the second Prayer Book of Edward VI, as it is called, issued from the press. It contained the important addition of the Sentences, Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, at the beginning of the Morning Service, which previously began with the Lord's Prayer*.

During the reign of Queen Mary, the Roman service was again restored; but, upon the accession of her sister Elizabeth to the throne in 1558, steps were speedily taken to carry on the reformation; for, in 1559, a new edition of the Prayer Book was printed by her authority, which, however, differed but slightly from Edward VI's second book, except in the Calendar, which received several additions†.

The next year, the following choral work appeared:-" Certaine notes set forth in foure and three partes, to be song at the Morning Communion, and Evening Praier, very necessarie for the Church of Christe to be frequented and used and unto them be added divers Godly Praiers and Psalmes, in the like forme, to the honour and praise of God. Imprinted at London, over Aldersgate, beneath St. Martins, by John Day. 1560." The authors of these

History, vol. ii, p. 579-582; and in Hawkins's History, vol. iii, p. 472-478. The entire work is now being reprinted by Pickering,

of London.

* See Berens's History, before mentioned. This invalidates Hawkins's assertion (Hist. vol. iii. p. 471, in note), that the sentences, exhortation, &c, formed no part of King Edward's Liturgy, but were first inserted in that of Queen Elizabeth. Such is true only of the Evening Prayer, to which the sentences, &c. were not added until the last review in 1662.

See a long article on the "Revisions of the Book of Common Prayer in the reign of Queen Elizabeth," in the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal, No 34, April 25, 1843; in which several other editions of the Prayer Book, during the above reign, are mentioned. But, as these differ but little from each other, it will be unnecessary to notice them in this work.

compositions were Tallis, Causton, Johnson, Oakland, Shepard, and Taverner. No versicles or suffrages with their responses, occur in this work; but a "Letanie in foure partes" is given, without the name of the composer, and having the plain-chant in the tenor. The Lord's Prayer is also harmonized in four parts.

The following is the first clause of the above "Letanie:"