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Thomas Tomkins 1575?–1656
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 1955
Extract
The tercentenary of the death of Tomkins falls on 9 June of this year. The exact year of his birth is not known, but Atkins and Fellowes, from information on the memorial tablet of his son, Nathaniel, both agree that it was 1575 or a little earlier. Tomkins's remark in the dedication to his Songs (1662) (in which he addresses the Earl of Pembroke) that ‘… I first breathed, and beheld the sunne, in that Country, to which your Lordship gives that greatest lustre, taking the Title of your Earledome from it …’ encouraged Dr. Fellowes to follow up the clue, and he was rewarded by discovering in a Chapter Act Book at St. David's Cathedral, Pembrokeshire, that three by the name of Thomas Tomkins—a father and two sons—had served there.
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- Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1955
References
1 Ivor Atkins, Early Occupants of the Office of Organist and Master of the Choristers of the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Worcester, London, 1918 (p. 38).Google Scholar
2 Fellowes, E. H., The English Madrigal School, London, 1922, p. xviii (preface).Google Scholar
3 MS Ch:Ch:61—Medius part only.Google Scholar
4 Paris Réserve 1122, now in Musica Britannica, London, 1955, V, p. 158.Google Scholar
5 Add. MSS 29996.Google Scholar
6 English Madrigal School, xviii (preface), and Grove.Google Scholar
7 English Madrigal School, op. cit.Google Scholar
8 Ibid. (p. 88).Google Scholar
9 Ibid. (p. 195).Google Scholar
10 Ibid. (p. 44).Google Scholar
11 Ibid. (p. 65).Google Scholar
12 Ibid. (p. 177).Google Scholar
13 Ibid. (p. 112).Google Scholar
14 Ibid. (p. 152).Google Scholar
15 Ibid. (pp. 46 and 53).Google Scholar
16 Mus. Brit., V (p. 40).Google Scholar
17 Ibid. (p. 72).Google Scholar
18 Ibid. (p. 88).Google Scholar
19 Ibid. (p. 114).Google Scholar
20 These settings and the Psalmody comprise Vol. VIII of Tudor Church Music, London, 1928.Google Scholar
21 Atkins, op. cit. (p. 47).Google Scholar
22 T.C.M. VIII (p. 76).Google Scholar
23 Ibid. (pp. 196, 206).Google Scholar
24 Ibid. (p. 225).Google Scholar
25 T.C.M. VIII, op. cit. (p. xvii et seq.)Google Scholar
26 T.C.M. 8vo edition.Google Scholar
27 Musica Britannica, IX.Google Scholar
28 English Chamber Music, London, 1946 (p. 170).Google Scholar
29 Stainer & Bell, 1931.Google Scholar
30 Eng. Mad. Sch. op. cit. (p. xix.).Google Scholar
31 Atkins, op. cit. (p. 52).Google Scholar
32 Ibid. (p. 52).Google Scholar
33 Walker-Westrup, London, 1952.Google Scholar
34 Tomkins article in Grove.Google Scholar
35 op. cit. (p. 170).Google Scholar
36 English Madrigal School. XVIII (pp. 34–36).Google Scholar
37 Ibid (pp. 36, 37).Google Scholar
38 Atkins (op. cit.), p. 47, mentions an anthem ‘O God, wonderful art thou’. This is part of ‘Sing unto God’ from Musica Deo Sacra. He says also (p. 50) that only two of the anthems which Tomkins is supposed to have composed for the Coronation of Charles I have survived—‘Sadock the priest’ and ‘The king shall rejoice’. Only the text of ‘Sadock’ exists, and there is no trace of even the text of the other anthem. On p. 58 he refers to an anthem ‘Set up thyself O God’ from the Worcester Cathedral library. This appears in score in a seventeenth century book, but half of it is missing. In a note in the book Atkins says that it is in Nathaniel Tomkins's hand and is almost certainly by Thomas Tomkins, but he does not give any reason for this contention. His remark (p. 37) that ‘A great number of his anthems, too, were not brought together in the Musica Deo Sacra, but lie scattered in various libraries up and down the country’ is, to say the least, an exaggeration.Google Scholar