‘Discomfit them, O Lord, that Trust in their Own Multitude’: A New Editorial Approach to the Tallis–Byrd Cantiones sacrae

Abstract

The contents of the Cantiones sacrae, published by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd in 1575, have been edited, performed and recorded numerous times, yet John Milsom’s contribution to the Early English Church Music series is the first attempt to bring all of the works of this volume together in a single edition. Unlike other studies of this music, Milsom employs a system of parallel scores whereby variant states of each work, where they exist, are placed side by side in the edition with the version published in 1575. An introductory essay and detailed critical notes to each work and its variants preclude the need for detailed commentaries and notes at the end of the book, while footnotes to the musical editions are kept to a minimum. In the general introduction to the volume, Milsom takes issue with several tenacious views about the circumstances surrounding the publication of the Cantiones sacrae. Most contentious are his arguments that it was a book intended for a primarily Continental readership and that it was not necessarily a financial failure. The present article assesses the merits of Milsom’s editorial approach and contextual discussions and their likely impact on the field of early music scholarship. In his edition of the monumental Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, published in 1575 as a joint venture between England’s two most eminent English composers, John Milsom presents the entire contents of the volume (hereafter CS1575) in their published order side by side with revisions and adaptations of individual works by Tallis and Byrd or by other hands. The result is a volume that departs significantly from prior editorial practice in the Early English Church Music series and indeed from many commonly encountered approaches to editing early music. Milsom’s aim is to put the book itself at the centre of his enterprise. As Magnus Williamson points out in his Foreword, Milsom considers CS1575 ‘as part, perhaps the central part, of a dynamic process of creation and adaptation’ which is illuminated by a detailed investigation of the reception history of CS1575 by way of its copies and contrafacta (p. v). The result is a book of nearly 500 pages, with no effort spared by the editor or publisher to gather in one place critical editions of each of the compositions in CS1575 and their variants until approximately the time of Byrd’s death. Milsom’s exemplary attention to editorial methodology along with his imaginative and frequently provocative assessments of historical and contextual issues will provide both novice and seasoned readers