O Lord, let me know mine end (Saloman Tozar)

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• (Posted 2023-10-25)  CPDL #76621:     

Editor: Drew Sellis (submitted 2023-10-25).   Score information: A4, 8 pages, 110 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: An incomplete edition pieced together from the Caroline partbooks alone. Note values halved, transposed up a minor third. The present edition has been reconstructed minimally for Tenor solo and SATB chorus, but it is possible that there may have been verse in the lost partbooks (both Decani and Cantoris Tenor, and Cantoris Contratenor II). The editor has reconstructed the piece as a solo verse anthem. Both the text and notation of the Tenor part is editorially reconstructed throughout, except in the "Amen", where the bass part is editorial, and the Tenor part has been assigned the printed bass part.

General Information

Title: O Lord, let me know mine end
Composer: Saloman Tozar
Text: Psalm 39: 5-8
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Verse anthem

Language: English
Instruments: Organ

    Manuscript c. 1625-1640 in the Peterhouse Partbooks: Former Caroline Set (John Cosin)
    Manuscript c. 1625-1640 in the Peterhouse Partbooks: Latter Caroline Set (John Cosin)
Description: A verse anthem setting of Psalm 39: 5-8. Extant partbooks are, from the former Caroline set, GB-Cp MSs 33 (Cantoris Bass), 34 (Cantoris Medius), 39 (Decani Contratenor I), and 49 (Cantoris Contratenor I), and from the latter Caroline set, GB-Cp MS 46 (Organ book). Other sources at Durham, the British Library and elsewhere complement what is missing from the Caroline Partbooks. The attribution to Adrian Batten occurs only in the index of one of the Caroline Partbooks and is incorrect. The Barnard Partbooks, which were closely associated with Adrian Batten, attribute the anthem to Saloman Tozar, while Batten’s own organ book attributes it to “Mr Salomon Tozar singing man of Exeter quier” and annotates it “O Lord let me know mine end: for a tenor and bas:”

Original text and translations

Original text and translations may be found at Psalm 39.

English text

 O Lord, let me know mine end, and the number of my days:
 that I may be certified how long I have to live.
 Behold, thou hast made my days as it were a span long:
 and mine age is even as nothing in respect of thee;
 and verily every man living is altogether vanity.
 For man walketh in a vain shadow,
 and disquieteth himself in vain:
 he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them.
 And now, Lord, what is my hope:
 truly my hope is even in thee. Amen.