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Louise McInnes, The king’s music, Early Music, Volume 43, Issue 2, May 2015, Pages 341–343, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cav029
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The fourth of five facsimile editions of early music manuscripts produced by the Digital Image Archive of Early Music (DIAMM), this sumptuous edition of The Henry VIII Book (British Library, Add.Ms.31922) is a very welcome edition to the corpus. A well-known manuscript in the world of early music research and performance, and famous for its inclusion of a large number of compositions by King Henry VIII, it is perhaps surprising that more has not been published about it since the Music Britannica edition of 1962 by John Stevens, which contained transcriptions of the music and commentary. Until now, Stevens’s publication has been the standard edition for researchers and performers alike. The new publication by DIAMM, which includes a full facsimile of the manuscript and a commentary by David Fallows, is therefore long overdue. It is, as Fallows notes, meant as a companion to the earlier edition of the music, but it is undoubtedly far more than just a companion piece. The comprehensive and engaging commentary serves to update substantially and expand upon Stevens’s discussion, and a glossy, full-colour facsimile now gives the reader the opportunity to fully engage with the original manuscript.
