“If that stumble you: do not rest the quaver. But make the quaver a crotchet”

A concise piece of performance advice for avoiding a rhythmic stumbling point · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

• Art
• Music

“It will Facilitat the Hardness, that with ease you maye pass through the song, which otherewise will Remayne difficult”

A revealingly practical concern with helping performers overcome needless difficulty · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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• Music

“The Brife in to Fowre, the prick Brife into Sixe, The longe into Eight minums, still driving od”

Tomkins reduces complex notation to a practical counting method for the performer · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

• Art
• Music

“To make the SemBrife Into two minums, The prick semBrife in to three”

A direct piece of performance instruction showing Tomkins as a working teacher and musician · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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• Music

“Where An od Crotchet runs Through the notes. do but RememBer”

Tomkins begins a practical rule for negotiating an awkward rhythmic pattern · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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“This hard Tenor part. Being the playnsong. The solution. How to sing it is”

A practical introduction to Tomkins's explanation of a difficult rhythmic passage · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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“Which he would have Restraynd, If it had Bin made for voyces only”

Tomkins notes that vocal composition imposes practical limits absent from instrumental music · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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• Music

“Which is the Reason that he Takes Such liberty of Compass”

An observation on how instrumentation permits greater freedom of musical range · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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“But made only for the vyolls & organ”

Tomkins distinguishes instrumental writing from music conceived for voices · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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“All of them excellent good”

A characteristically concise judgement on music Tomkins admired · Manuscript annotation, British Library Add. MS 29996

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“I first breathed, and beheld the sunne, in that Country, to which your Lordship gives that greatest lustre, taking the Title of your Earledome from it”

Tomkins recalls his Welsh birthplace while paying an elaborate compliment to his patron · Dedication to the Earl of Pembroke, Songs of 3, 4, 5 and 6 Parts, 1622

• Fame
• Memory