ABSTRACT
The early history of keyboard music in England can largely be reckoned from a series of manuscripts in the British Library (BL). John Redford, the undisputed master of English keyboard composition under Henry VIII, ended his career as almoner at St Paul's Cathedral. Organs are intermittently documented in England from the eleventh century: most famously the great west-work organ at Winchester Cathedral. Monophonic plainsong therefore provided the bedrock of the pre-Reformation organ repertory, and much of the organist's time was spent reading from plainsong notation: non-mensural melodies on red or black four-line staves. Musical contents comprise three dance-style Estampies, and three intabulations of vocal polyphonic pieces: Flos vernalis and two motets by Philippe de Vitry, Quoniam/Tribum/Merito and Firmissime/Adesto/Alleluia. Learning the organ was the final rung which facilitated training in composition and a career in church music.
