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ACCOMPANIMENT ACCOMPANIMENT 21

is littledoubt therefore that the versions under


notice were not intended as accompaniments at
all, but were variations or adaptations like the
popular Transcriptions of the present day,
'
'

and made for use, that use being


separate
doubtless sis voluntaries. This explanation of
Before speaking of Obbligato aooompaniment the matter receives confirmation from the fact
it isnecessaiy to notice the remarkable instm- that a second old and more legitimate organ
mental versions of some of the early church part of those services is also extant, for which
services and anthems, as those by Tallis, no ostensible would have existed, if not to
tise

Gibbons, Amner, etc. which are still to be met accompany the Compare the following
voices.
with in some of the old organ and other MS. extract from Gibbons's Te Deum ('The nobla
music books. These versions are so full of army of Martyrs ') with the preceding.
runs, trills, beats, and matters of that kind, • 1 1

and are so opposed in feeling to the quiet


solidity and sober dignity of the vocal parts,
that even if written by the same hand, which
is scarcely credible, it is impossible that the
former can ever have been designed to be used
as an accompaniment to the latter. For
example, the instrumental passage correspond-
ing with the vocal setting of the words Thine '

honourable, true, and only Son,' in the Te


Deum of Tallis (died 1585) stands thus in the
old copies in question :

m rzM^tiiz :i2S: -^g-

while that of the phrase to the words ' The


noble army of martyrs praise Thee,' in the
weU-known Te Deum in F of Gibbons (1583-
1625), appears in this shape :

m
-SH- rrri
i^^E^^-i^^S^ 2i

The headings or 'Indexing' of these versions


stand as follows, and are very suggestive :

'Tallis in D, organ part varied'; 'Te Deum,


Mr. Tallis, with Variations for the Organ ' ;

'
Gibbons in F, Morning, with Variations ' ;

'Te Deum, Mr. Orlando Gibbons, in F fa ut,


varied for the Organ ' ; and so forth. There

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