"The music collection of the British Library is one of the richest sources for important music manuscripts in Britain and one which no serious scholar of music can ignore."
-- Professor Roger Bray, University of Lancaster

It hardly needs to be stressed that the British Library has the most remarkable collection of music manuscripts, and its holdings in the period up to the beginning of the late 17th century are of the greatest importance. This microfilm publication of music manuscripts contains works acknowledged by scholars of the period, throughout the world, to be of the highest standard. The material includes the Roberts-bridge Codex, the Old Hall MS, the Fountains Fragments, the Fayrfax manuscripts, Ritson's MSS, King Henry VIII's MS, Gyffard Part-books, Lumley Part-books, the Mulliner Book, Baldwin's Commonplace Book, Myrriell's Tristitiae Remedium, Tregian's Anthology, Cosyn's Virginal Book, Will Foster's Virginal Book, John Stuart's Lute-book and Eliabeth Rogers' Virginal Book. Other MSS are so well known that they are immediately recognized by their call numbers (such as Harley 978, Landsdown 763, Egerton 3307, and Additional Manuscripts 29987, 29996 and 31390).

The British Library has by far the most extensive collection in the world of autographs by Handel. The major part of the collection came from the Royal Music Library, the material having been presented to George III by J. C. Smith, to whom Handel bequeathed it. This is supplemented by several other manuscripts (including a few autographs) collected by the British Library.

Included in Parts Six, Seven and Eight are all the manuscript volumes that include music by Handel, with the exception of a very small number in which music is not the most important ingredient and which are filmed in other parts of this series. The numbers of major works, which do not appear in autograph in the British Library Collection, are very few and in two such cases no surviving autograph copy exists.

The manuscripts contain a wealth of material not found in the contemporary printed scores, including the additional songs, which were sometimes composed or adapted for later performances of his works. No serious research into Handel's work can be attempted without extensive reference to this magnificent body of material.

Ranging from the very earliest polyphonic fragments to music of the major Tudor and Jacobean masters, the composers include Dunstable, Leonel, Fayrfax, Taverner, Tallis, Tye, Sheppard, Byrd, Gibbons, Bull, Tompkins and White (to name but a few), together with a host of continental and minor composers. This is the first time this material has been made available in a comprehensive edition, which should now establish it as a basic resource for serious music libraries.

Part One: 19 reels

Part Two: 22 reels

Coverage of the magnificent collection of music manuscripts in the British Library continues with Parts Three and Four, which concentrate on English music from about 1640 to about 1714. They embrace all the various styles, influences and music of the Commonwealth, Restoration and late Stuart periods. The richness of these two parts cannot be overestimated. They contain sonatas, madrigals, anthems, chants, motets, keyboard music, sacred music and theater songs. All the major music masters are included -- Henry Purcell, Humphrey, Blow, Croft, Byrd, Child, William Lawes, Locke, Christopher Gibbons, Jeffreys, Boyce, Orlando Gibbons, together with a large number of lesser-known composers.

Part Three: 18 reels

Part Four: 17 reels

This unique collection of 102 Chapel Royal part-books is of major significance to musicologists, historians and performers. It documents the diverse range of performance material utilized by the choir, and the wealth of composers represented is quite impressive.

Under the patronage of successive sovereigns, they led the way in performing practice and composition technique, and established a reputation as one of the foremost performing groups in Europe from the medieval period onwards. Blow and Handel are both prominent as official composers to the Royal Chapel, but Aldrich, Amner, Arnold, Ayreton, Barrow, Batton, Bevin, Blake, Bishop, Boyce, Bryne, Bull and Byrd represent just a fraction of the list of contributing composers.

Henry Purcell, who was at an early age a chorister at the Chapel Royal, is responsible for many of the music manuscripts included in here. Latterly renowned as the major English composer of his time, these part-books offer prime examples of his religious works.

The accessibility of the Chapel Royal part-books on microfilm offers a research opportunity, which will be welcomed by musicologists worldwide.

Part Six: Section A: Operas, Serenades and Odes

When Handel first arrived in London from Germany in late 1710, Italian opera was just becoming popular. Rinaldo, his first work to be composed in England, proved to be a tremendous success just as Rodrigo and Agrippina had been in Florence and Venice.

Handel had begun his career as a composer of Italian opera, and was to cherish the Italian style throughout his years. When in 1720 The Royal Academy of Music was founded to promote Italian opera, Handel was a leading figure and wrote several operas during the company's eight years. Although he enthusiastically adhered to the conventions of the art, he sought to introduce greater variety by his use of choruses and instrumental interludes.

Something of the vividness of Handel's inspiration can be seen in the autographs of his dramatic works. As a composer of theatrical music by temperament and training, he clearly visualized the action in progress while writing the score, in which he often wrote out full stage directions. His operas were not only excellent on a purely musical level, but also had true dramatic quality.

Among the best known of Handel's operas are Rinaldo, (20c.3), Berenice (20a.10), Serse (20c.7) and Alessandro (20a.5). Autograph scores of each of these and many others can be found in this collection.

Part Six: 23 reels

Part Seven: Section B: Oratorios and Church Music

Handel acquired much of his fame in England for his oratorios. Many are on secular themes, but it is the religious ones, inspired by deep faith of their composer and conceived on the grand scale that revolutionized English musical life.

Originally performed during Lent, when the theatres were closed by law, the oratorios soon grew to be something more than substitute opera and became a major feature of the English musical scene, launching a new tradition of choral singing.

Although in their structure the oratories closely follow the pattern of Italian opera, Handel gave a much greater importance to the chorus, and it is in these mighty choral ensembles that he produced his greatest music. The British Library Collection includes Handel's greatest oratorios, in autograph and other copies. Notably, this part of the series offers Saul (20g.3), Israel in Egypt (20h.3), Judas Maccabeus (20e.12), Jephtha (20e.9) and -- of course -- the remarkable Messiah (20f.2), among many others. Handel'sAnthems and other sacred music for voices are included. Among these are the ;Chandos Anthems (20g.4), the earlier Te Deum (20g.5) composed by order of Queen Anne to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht and the later anthems written for the coronation of George II, including Zadock the Priest.

Part Seven: 22 reels

Although Handel spent much of his life composing operatic and choral works, he was equally proficient as an instrument composer. His instrumental pieces include many overtures and interludes to his dramatic works. Handel also composed suites, fugues, concertos for organ and sonatas for harpsichord, violin sonatas, and the much-acclaimed orchestral suites The Water Music and The Music for the Royal Fireworks.

These spectacular pieces, commissioned by two Hanoverian Kings, show Handel's supreme skill in composing outdoor occasional music. The collection includes the autograph score of The Music for the Royal Fireworks, but no surviving autograph of The Water Music has yet been discovered. Other manuscripts of particular interest are the autograph scores of the 12 stately Concerti Grossi (20g. 7) -- some of his noblest compositions for instruments.

Part Eight: 17 reels

Coverage of this marvelous collection of music manuscripts in the British Library continues in Parts Nine and Ten with an outstanding collection of English music from about 1714 to about 1810.

Presented here is a vast range of music. There is church music from Boyce, Greene and P. Hayes, secular music including glees and songs by Webbe, trios and sonatas by Boyce, string quartets and sonatas by C. F. Abel, and a large collection of J. W. Callott. Among the manuscripts are many of the operas, which were so popular in the 18th century by Arne, Dibdin, Galliard, Greene, Hook, Stanley, and members of the Linley family. There are many autograph scores by a number of composers including Arne, Boyce, Crotch, Greene, Mares, Travers and S. Wesley.

Some interesting manuscripts worthy of special note are two manuscripts of exercise, one by J. W. Callott with corrections thought to be in the hand of Haydn, and another by Attwood with corrections by Mozart. The Hughes-Hughes three-volume catalog of British Library Manuscript Music, almost out of print, has been reproduced in full on the first reel as an aid to users. In addition, a special listing and guide has been prepared to accompany this listing, and a guide has been prepared to accompany the microform and briefly lists the contents of each volume included, together with all the relevant Hughes-Hughes and RISM references. There is a full index of composers.

Part Nine: 22 reels
Part Ten: 24 reels

Parts Eleven to Thirteen: British Music Manuscripts c.1810-c.1900

Part Eleven: British Music Manuscripts, c.1810-c.1900 from the Egerton and Additional Manuscripts 19648-30925
Part Twelve: British Music Manuscripts, c.1810-c.1900 from the Additional Manuscripts 31415-35120
Part Thirteen: British Music Manuscripts, c.1810-c.1900 from the Additional Manuscripts 36524-60495 and Royal Music

Continuing our publication of the music manuscripts from the British Library, Parts Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen cover 19th-century British music -- a rich period characterized by the English Romantic movement, a revival of the Anglican cathedral tradition, the resurgence of a native operatic tradition at Covent Garden and Drury Lane and a huge growth in amateur music-making at large-scale provincial festivals. This collection offers the manuscripts of the greatest composers working in Britain in the 19th century alongside their lesser known contemporaries. Filmed in numerical sequence, the collection is presented in three parts and covers manuscripts from the Egerton, Additional and Royal Music Manuscripts.

From the first half of the century, the composers who led music away from Classical virtuosity into the emotionally charged expressiveness of Romanticism on the continent were Schumann and Mendelssohn, four of the latter's manuscripts being reproduced here. Other composers whose work is included are: John Field, the originator of the school of Romantic pianism which culminated with Chopin; Cipriani Potter who studied with Beethoven, nine of his symphonies are here in manuscript; and William Sterndale Bennett, the most distinguished Romantic composer of his day. The inclusion in this collection of manuscripts from the Royal Music Library has also allowed the presentation of music by Prince Albert.

The opera houses of Victorian London relied on Italian operas for a large proportion of their repertoire, but many long runs of two or three months were achieved by British composers. Included here are works by: Henry Rowley Bishop, credited with almost single-handedly keeping English opera alive in the early century; Michael William Balfe, composer of perhaps the most popular and successful English opera, The Bohemian Girl; and Arthur Sullivan, who was considered Britain's leading composer in his lifetime.

One phenomenon that radically altered the British musical landscape in the later 19th century was the huge growth of organized amateur music-making -- particularly choral singing -- and its main showcase, the regional festival. Composers whose careers relied heavily on festival commissions include George Alexander MacFarren and Britain's best-known black composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the enormous success of his cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in 1897 leading to many commissions. Described in New York as "the black Mahler" he drew heavily on the melodic heritage of Negro spirituals, following his role-model Dvorák's use of folk themes, and his widely popular works influenced a generation of American composers. Other composers included are: Charles Villiers Stanford; Sir John Stainer, the pre-eminent Victorian church composer; and Thomas Attwood Walmisley, whose anthem Let God Arise was responsible for rousing the tradition of Anglican cathedral music, bringing new color and drama into church services, and making it comparable with concert repertoire.

Part Eleven: 30 reels
Part Twelve: 31 reels
Part Thirteen: 27 reels

Special listings and guides to Parts One to Ten accompany this microfilm edition. The listing of composers in Part Five has been compiled from an extensive card index in the British Library. In addition, most of the part-books contain contemporary indices, giving composer and title and folio number. For Parts Six and Seven, where appropriate, a reference has been given to either the Barclay Squire Catalogue of the King's Music Library of the Hughes-Hughes Catalogue of the Manuscript Music. References to KML are therefore to Vol. 1 of the three-volume Barclay Squire set listed below. Other references, covering mainly Additional and Egerton manuscripts, are to the appropriate place in the Hughes-Hughes three-volume set.

Series Four: 291 reels