Manuscript notebooks of Godfrey Arkwright

Working notebooks on manuscripts of 16th-18th century music.

Arkwright (1864-1944) was a music scholar, collector and editor. His edited works include the 'Musical Antiquary', 1909-1913, a periodical which incorporated articles on the cataloguing of private and music library collections and which Arkwright himself founded, and 'The Old English Edition', London and Oxford, 1889-1902, in which were published his work on 16th-18th century English vocal music. He also compiled the first comprehensive catalogue of the Christ Church manuscript music collection, part of which was published as the 'Catalogue of Music in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford', 1915; 1923.

Sources: E. Van der Straeten. 'Arkwright, G. E. P.' Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Available: http://www.oxford music online.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/01255. 21 April 2008; Kitson, R. 'Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals.' National Information Services Corporation. Online. Available: http://www.nisc.com/ripm/volume_description/MUA.htm. 21 April 2008; Christ Church Library. Music Catalogue. Online. Available: http://library.chch.ox.ac.uk/music/page.php?page=Provenance+history#A23.23. 21 April 2008.

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

Passed to the Special Collections Department, July 2007.

Please see full catalogue for more information.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

These notebooks were found in the Music Library in 2007. Arkwright's books were auctioned on 13 February 1939 and it is possible that they were acquired directly from that sale. Alternatively, Anthony Lewis (Peyton and Barber Professor of Music, 1947-68) acquired materials at auction and built up a Music Special Collection throughout his time at Birmingham.

Source: Information supplied by Professor Colin Timms, Department of Music, University of Birmingham.