The Turner Manuscript (late 17th cent.) - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

Four years ago, almost to the day, an ordinary-looking package was delivered by mail to the WIU School of Music. What was inside was extraordinary: a bound manuscript of English cathedral music dating to the late seventeenth century Restoration period. The only clue to the package's origins was a postmark location of Scarborough, Maine. The identity of the anonymous donor remains a mystery but, thanks to research by a team of experts consulted by music librarian Rod Sharpe, authorship of the manuscript has been attributed to composer William Turner (1651–1740).

Musically inclined I am not, but I find the backstory and the connoisseurial details in the scholarly correspondence about the manuscript fascinating. How thrilling must have been the discovery that though the second anthem in the octavo autograph volume was previously known through incomplete or edited transcriptions, the full service in F and first anthem are believed to be unique, making this primary source all the more valuable. Shown here is the last page of the manuscript, with the second anthem's "hallelujah" in part and the composer's signature.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Associate Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

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