Scan 33
A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889), 1890
29 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 21. See the scan on archive.org.
1ACCOMPANIMENT.
3known Te Deum in F of Gibbons (1583-1625), appears in this shape:—
5The headings or 'Indexing' of these versions stand as follows, and are very suggestive:—'Tall's in D, organ part varied'; 'Te Deum, Mr. Tallis, with Variations for the Organ'; 'Gibbons in F, Morning, with Variations'; 'Te Deum, Mr. Orlando Gibbons, in F fa ut, varied for the Organ'; and so forth. There is little doubt therefore that the versions under notice were not intended as accompaniments at all, but were variations or adaptations like the popular 'Transcriptions' of the present day, and made for separate use, that use being doubtless as voluntaries. This explanation of the matter receives confirmation from the fact that a second old and more legitimate organ part of those services is also extant, for which no ostensible use would have existed, if not to accompany the voices. Compare the following extract from Gibbons's Te Deum ('The noble army of Martyrs') with the preceding.
7An early specimen of a short piece of 'obligato' organ accompaniment is presented by the opening phrase of Orlando Gibbons's Te Deum in D minor, which appears as follows:—
9Tenor Solo We praise Thee.
10Organ soft
11God: we know-ledge Thee to be the Lord
13ACCOMPANIMENT.
15The early organ parts contained very few if any directions as to the amount of organ tone to be used by way of accompaniment. Indeed the organs were not capable of affording much variety. Even the most complete instruments of Tallis's time, and for nearly a century afterwards, seem to have consisted only of a very limited 'choir' and 'great' organs, sometimes also called 'little' and 'great' from the comparative size of the external separate cases that enclosed them; and occasionally 'soft,' as in the preceding extract, and 'loud' organs in reference to the comparative strength of their tone.
17Other instruments were used besides the organ in the accompaniment of church music. Dr. Rimbault, in the introduction to 'A Collection of Anthems by Composers of the Madrigalian Era,' edited by him for the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1845, distinctly states that 'all verse or solo anthems anterior to the Restoration were accompanied with viola, the organ being only used in the full parts;' and the contents of the volume consist entirely of anthems that illustrate how this was done. From the first anthem in that collection, 'Blow out the trumpet,' by M. Este (about 1600), the following example is taken—the five lower staves being instruments:—
19VERSE.
201st TREBLE.
212nd TREBLE.
22MEAN.
23TENOR.
24Bass.
26Blow out the trumpet, blow
28The resources for varied organ accompaniment were somewhat extended in the 17th century through the introduction, by Father Smith and Renatus Harris, of a few stops, until then unknown in this country; and also by the
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