I saw a reference to a book simply as "Thomas, Canons." It is supposedly a book with lots of, you know, canons, but the title is so frustratingly simple I am trouble locating the full bibliographic reference.
"... some of the most exquisite gems of vocal composition ever written, together with productions of so questionable, or rather unquestionable a character, that it is a pity that the fire which consumed the greater portion of the stock of copies did not consume the whole." W.A. Barrett (1886), p. 209.
"... the proportion of wheat to chaff is remarkably high. There is barely a page that is not a delight to sing.... The music of the Warren Collection ... is wasted languishing in rare editions on a few library shelves. It rather deserves renewed study and performance as a monument of all that was best in Georgian culture. The spirit that will bear most fruit in approaching these pieces is embodied in the motto of the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club: 'Let's drink and let's sing together.'" Emanuel Rubin, from his Introduction to the 1970 Facsimile Edition.
Thomas Warren was the founding Secretary of the Noblemen and Gentlemen's Catch Club. These volumes contain compositions that he selected and published from among entries in the Catch Club's prize competitions.
What I looked at looked pretty sweet. Glad you found it.
I was looking for sources for bicinia. This website (Bicinium) had a good, if somewhat scattershot, reference list. The owner just gives you the opening, and you have to be admitted to join. But, when i asked, the owner said that he (or she, Andrea) had lost interest and was getting rid of them the bicinia.
Do you know any other collections? I suppose I should go to CPDL and ask for two voices.
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