The third series ofMusic Manuscripts from the Great English Collections is the extensive collection of Christ Church, Oxford. Particularly rich in masses, motets, madrigals and anthems, the quality of these unpublished manuscripts is a compliment to its collectors -- the 17th-century English Masters -- Sheppard, Taverner, Tallis, Byrd, the Lawes Brothers, the Gibbons Family, the Commonwealth Oxford Group, Jenkins, Locke, Blow and the Purcell brothers.

The astonishing range of the music -- songs, keyboard music, church music, cantatas, anthems, motets, part-songs, masses, services, part-books, string music, and madrigals -- make this a key source crucial for an understanding of the music and of the period.

The rich variety of the music is illustrated in the wide range of 16th- and 17th-century masses, motets, madrigals and anthems. Of particular importance are the John Baldwin part-books, the major keyboard source of volume 1113, the collection of organ music in volume 1001, and the famous Robert Dow part-books.

Part Three completes the unique microfilm edition of the unpublished music manuscripts of Christ Church, Oxford, making available to scholars and musicians around the world a distinguished collection of continental music sources ranging from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

The collection is a fundamental, and often unique, source for the study of early continental music and the influence that this had on English taste and composition.

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