Talk:O Lord, rebuke me not (Thomas Tomkins)

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There is an interesting anomaly in the text underlay between the three parts of this piece (published in separate part-books).

The Bassus book gives the title above the piece as "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation" - and then uses this text throughout the underlay. This matches the text of the Book of Common Prayer 1559.

The Tenor and Medius books both give the title and the underlay as "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger". This matches the text of the 1604 Authorised Version of the Bible.

This is not the only time that there are similar "issues" between the parts in Musica Deo Sacra. My suspicion is that this is not just down to really sloppy work by the typesetters (and proof-readers), but perhaps indicates that the compilation of the Musica edition in the 1660s worked from manuscripts/part books from different performing sets of different ages. So, if this is correct, the Bassus part is the oldest, and suggests that the work was written some time before 1604. But the work was kept in repertoire after 1604, and the text was "updated" to reflect the latest authoritative text, whether through the production of new performance materials or through amendment we cannot know.

In my edition, I have gone with the version from the Bassus part. This took some slight reworking of rhythms to allow for the extra syllables. But I think the "indignation" version is more interesting!

Malcolm LoweSicut Esset (talk) 21:51, 6 July 2021 (UTC)