Dow Partbooks

The Dow Partbooks (Christ Church, Mus. MSS 984–988) are a collection of five partbooks compiled by Robert Dow in Oxford around 1581–88. The collection includes mostly choral but also some instrumental pieces. At the end is an instrumental La gamba and a canon, both a 3 and apparently copied from Vincenzo Ruffo's book printed in Milan in 1564.

The partbooks are an important source for Tudor music, and the sole known source for some of the pieces. Robert Dow was a trained calligrapher and the books are unusually easy to read among manuscripts of the Tudor period. All works were copied by him, with the exception of numbers 53–4, which were copied by John Baldwin (a singing-man at St George's Chapel), and nos. 99–100, which were copied by an unidentified person. The numberings following no. 54 were added by several other people at a later time (19th century), in sequences that do not coincide perfectly.

The collection was acquired by Henry Aldrich and donated to Christ Church, Oxford as part of his bequest to the college following his death in 1710.^[1]

Contents

No.	Title	Composer	Comments
1.	Lamentations. Heth. Peccatum peccavit	Robert White	(Heth, Teth, Iod, Caph, Lamed, Mem)
2.	Miserere mei Deus	Robert White
3.	Christe qui lux es et dies, I	Robert White
4.	Christe qui lux es et dies, II	Robert White
5.	Christe qui lux es et dies, III	Robert White
6.	Manus tuae fecerunt me	Robert White
7.	Portio mea, Domine	Robert White
8.	Justus es, Domine	Robert White
9a.	Ne irascaris, Domine	William Byrd
9b.	Civitas sancti tui	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 9
10.	O Domine, adjuva me	William Byrd
11a.	Tribulationes civitatum	William Byrd
11b.	Timor et hebetudo	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 11
11c.	Nos enim pro peccatis	William Byrd	Part 3 of no. 11
12.	Domine, exaudi orationem	William Byrd
13.	Domine, praestolamur	William Byrd
14.	Ad te clamamus	Christopher Tye
15.	Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus	Christopher Tye
16.	Esurientes implevit bonis	John Sheppard
17.	Angelus ad pastores ait	Orlando di Lasso
18.	Veni in hortum meum	Orlando di Lasso
19.	O salutaris hostia	Thomas Tallis
20.	Salvator mundi, I	Thomas Tallis
21.	Candidi facti sunt	Thomas Tallis
22.	Dum transisset Sabbatum	Robert Johnson
23.	Exaudiat te, Dominus	Robert White
24.	Tribulationem et dolorem inveni	Alfonso Ferrabosco
25.	Non me vincat, Deus meus	Nicholas Strogers
26.	Dum transisset Sabbatum, I	John Taverner
27a.	Tribulatio proxima est	William Byrd
27b.	Contumelias et terrores	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 27
28.	Appropinquet deprecatio mea	Robert White
29.	Christus resurgens	John Tailer
30a.	O quam gloriosum est regnum	William Byrd
30b.	Benedictio et claritas	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 30
31a.	Tristitia et anxietas	William Byrd
31b.	Sed tu, Domine	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 31
32.	Apparebit in finem	William Byrd
33.	Audivi vocem de caelo	William Byrd
34.	In resurrectione tua	William Byrd
35.	Retribue servo tuo	Robert Parsons
36.	Fac cum servo tuo	William Byrd
37.	Sive vigilem	William Mundy
38.	Christe qui lux es et dies, IV	Robert White
39a.	Deus venerunt gentes	William Byrd
39b.	Posuerunt morticinia	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 39
40.	Domine, tu jurasti	William Byrd
41.	Exsurge, quare obdormis	William Byrd
42.	O sacrum convivium	Thomas Tallis
43.	Salvator mundi, II	Thomas Tallis
44.	Effuderunt sanguinem	William Byrd	Part 3 of no. 39
45.	Christe qui lux es et dies	William Byrd
46.	Laetentur caeli	William Byrd
47.	Facti sumus opprobrium	William Byrd	Part 4 of no. 39
48.	Ave Maria	Robert Parsons
49.	Dum transisset Sabbatum	Roose
50.	Decantabat populus	Anonymous
51.	Mirabile mysterium	Alfonso Ferrabosco
52.	Miserere mei, Deus	William Byrd
53.	O bone Jesu	Robert Parsons
54.	Vestigia mea dirige	Nathaniel Giles
55.	Lord, who shall dwell	Robert White
56.	The Lord bless us and keep us	Robert White
57.	O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth	William Byrd
58.	Prevent us, O Lord	William Byrd
59.	How long shall mine enemies	William Byrd
60.	O that most rare breast	William Byrd
61.	For thee both kings	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 60
62.	The doleful debt	William Byrd	Part 3 of no. 60
63.	Come to me, grief, for ever	William Byrd
64.	In fields abroad	William Byrd
65.	Where fancy fond	William Byrd
66.	Susanna fair	William Byrd	(1588)
67.	While Phoebus used to dwell	William Byrd
68.	Why do I use my paper, ink and pen?	William Byrd
69.	La virginella	William Byrd
70.	I joy not in no earthly bliss	William Byrd
71.	Ah, golden hairs	William Byrd
72.	Lord, in thy wrath reprove me not	William Byrd
73.	Care for thy soul	William Byrd
74.	Browning	William Byrd	(instrumental)
75.	Browning	Clement Woodcock	(instrumental)
76.	Miserere	Mallorie	(instrumental)
77.	Ascendo ad Patrem	Jean Maillard	attrib. Tye in MS
78.	Rubem quem	Christopher Tye	(instrumental)
79.	Susanne un jour	Orlando di Lasso
80.	Madonna somm'accorto	Giacomo Fogliano	attrib. Tye in MS
81.	Pour vous aymer	Philippe van Wilder
82.	De la court	Robert Parsons	(instrumental)
83.	De la court	Robert Parsons	(instrumental), Part 2 of no. 82
84.	Je fille quand Dieu	Philippe van Wilder
85.	In nomine	Robert Parsons	(instrumental)
86.	In nomine, V	William Byrd	(instrumental)
87.	In nomine, I	Nicholas Strogers	(instrumental)
88.	In nomine, III	Nicholas Strogers	(instrumental)
89.	In nomine, II	Nicholas Strogers	(instrumental)
90.	In nomine	John Bull	(instrumental)
91.	In nomine	Robert White	(instrumental)
92.	In nomine "Follow me"	Christopher Tye	(instrumental)
93.	In nomine, I	Clement Woodcock	(instrumental)
94.	If that a sinner's sighs	William Byrd
95.	If women could be fair	William Byrd
96.	Prostrate, O Lord, I lie	William Byrd
97.	Even from the depth unto the Lord	William Byrd
98.	When I was otherwise than now I am	William Byrd
99.	In nomine, I	Brewster	(instrumental)
100.	O God, wherefore art thou absent	Anonymous
101.	When I look back	Robert Parsons	in Tenor partbook only (Mus. 986)
102.	Come Holy Ghost / In nomine	Anonymous
103.	O Lord of whom I do depend / In nomine	Anonymous
104.	O Lord, turn not away thy face / In nomine	Anonymous
105.	When May is in his prime	Anonymous
106.	May makes the cheerful hive	Anonymous	Part 2 of no. 105
107.	All ye that live on earth	Anonymous	Part 3 of no. 105
108.	Ah, alas, you salt sea gods	Richard Farrant
109.	You gods that guide	Richard Farrant	Part 2 of no. 108
110.	A doleful deadly pang	Nicholas Strogers
111.	My little sweet darling	Anonymous
112.	Ah, silly poor Joas	Anonymous
113.	In terrors trapped	Anonymous
114.	The saint I serve	Anonymous
115.	How can the tree but waste	Anonymous
116.	Alas, alack, my heart is woe	Anonymous
117.	Lulla, lullaby, my sweet little baby	William Byrd	(Refrain)
118.	Be still, my blessed babe	William Byrd	(Verse)
119.	O Lord, how vain	William Byrd
120.	My mind to me a kingdom is	William Byrd
121.	Who likes to love	William Byrd
122.	Enforced by love	Robert Parsons
123.	Mistrust not truth	Anonymous
124.	The day delayed	Anonymous
125.	Come tread the paths	Anonymous
126.	Farewell, my lords	Anonymous	Part 2 of no. 125
127.	Triumph with pleasant melody	William Byrd
128.	What unacquainted cheerful voice	William Byrd	Part 2 of no. 127
129.	My faults, O Christ	William Byrd	Part 3 of no. 127
130.	Blessed is he that fears the Lord	William Byrd
131.	Blame I confess	William Byrd
132.	O Lord, within thy tabernacle	William Byrd
133.	How shall a young man	William Byrd
134.	Though Amaryllis dance in green	William Byrd
135.	La gamba	Vincenzo Ruffo	(instrumental, Mss. 984-6 only) attrib. "Francesco Mocheni" in MS.
136.	Trinitas in unitate	Vincenzo Ruffo	in Tenor partbook only (Ms. 987)
137.	Hey down, sing ye now after me	Anonymous	in Bassus partbook only (Ms. 988)

• N.B. pieces are numbered sequentially in the table above, rather than following the numbering of the MS, which contains some errors and is inconsistent between the partbooks.