TAYLOR, John.
A Collection of Tunes in various Airs adapted to Psalms taken out of Dr Watts’s Imitation of David’s Psalms. With a scheme of supporting the Spirit and Practice of Psalmody in Congregations. To which are prefixed Instructions in the Art of Psalmody in a natural and easy Method …
London, Printed by J. Waugh … [1750].
Oblong 8vo, pp. 82, with letterpress text and music (plus one engraved plate), pp. 1–46, and engraved music pp. 47–80, pp. 81–2 being blank staves not mentioned in ESTC; bound with 29 leaves of manuscript music, plus blanks, in several hands; a very good copy, in contemporary reversed calf, ownership inscription to title-page: ‘William Thomasson His Book 1751'.
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A Collection of Tunes in various Airs adapted to Psalms taken out of Dr Watts’s Imitation of David’s Psalms. With a scheme of supporting the Spirit and Practice of Psalmody in Congregations. To which are prefixed Instructions in the Art of Psalmody in a natural and easy Method …
First edition, very rare, of a work of psalmody and music instruction by the dissenting minister John Taylor (1694–1761). Taylor had moved to Norwich in 1733, slowly diverting from orthodoxy under the influence of Samuel Clarke, before laying the foundation stone of the Octagon Chapel there in 1754, the same year he began to publish his Hebrew Concordance. His Collection of Tunes is interesting in being pitched in part towards an audience that sings by ear, with some basic instruction on how to balance the parts and some singing exercises to train the voice.
At the end, early users have added in manuscript two-parts settings of Psalm 51 by Green, and Psalm 149 by Uriah Davenport, and anthems by Thomas Broom, John Smith, and William Knapp.
Not in RISM. ESTC records copies at the British Library and Harris Manchester (Oxford) only; no further copies added by Library Hub or OCLC.
