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