Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656), organist of Worcester Cathedral and of the
Chapel Royal, was one of the most significant English composers in the first
half of the seventeenth century. His sacred and secular vocal music has
become widely known through modern editions, but although his solo keyboard
music has been available in print since 1955 it has received little critical
attention and is seldom played. His output for string consort in three to
six polyphonic parts has fared even worse: although playing parts of some of
the consort pieces have appeared, these are not readily available, and are
normally based on only one contemporary manuscript source. At present,
therefore, our picture of Tomkins's overall achievements as a composer is
incomplete, and therefore distorted, owing to the lack of a detailed consideration of his instrumental output. A critical study of the keyboard music,
a complete edition of the consort music, collated from all existing contemporary
manuscript sources, with a paleographical assessment of these sources, and
an attempt to place this newly edited material in context, define, collectively,
the scope of this thesis.
Although many of Tomkins's keyboard works are dated in the composer's
manuscript, a strictly chronological assessment of these has not been adopted
since this reveals far less of the composer t s diversity than successive treatment by genre (preludes, plainsong settings, fantasias, grounds, pavans,
variations and miscellanea).
Several general topics which do not fit comfortably into these specific
categories are dealt with in Appendices following the critical and paleographical
chapters. The transcriptions, with accompanying editorial notes and commentaries, are presented in a separate volume.