John Hilton the younger (1599-1657) - photo 1
John Hilton the younger (1599-1657) - photo 2
John Hilton the younger (1599-1657) - photo 3

John Hilton the younger (1599-1657)

Lot 73
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Classic
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£ 3 024
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053187
Lot 73 | John Hilton the younger (1599-1657)
Estimate value
£ 1 000 – 1 500
John Hilton the younger (1599-1657)
Contemporary manuscript copy of Short service ‘in Gamut’, n.p. [England], n.d. [c.1630-1660s]
The earliest surviving manuscript source for John Hilton the younger’s Short service ‘in Gamut’, written in an attractive 17th-century hand: a previously unknown source for this piece of pre-Restoration Anglican church music.

Three vocal parts, in three gatherings, scored for ‘Contraten[or] Cantoris’, ‘Bassus Decan'y’ and Cantoris Medius by a single scribe in dark brown ink on up to ten staves per page. Two titles + 13 pages, 320 x 205mm, ruled with 10 staves per page, text in English, the title pages of the countertenor and bass parts inscribed ‘Mr John Hiltons short service in Gamut of 4 Parts’. Modern quarter calf cloth folder, parts in paper wrappers.

Provenance:
(1) Christie’s South Kensington, 29 November 2006, lot 361.

(2) Bernard Quaritch, London.

(3) Robert S. Pirie, New York (1934-2015); his sale, Sotheby’s New York, 4 December 2015, lot 454.

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 5566.

Hilton’s Service 'in Gamut' was thought to survive solely thanks to a score copied in 1814 by Richard Clark (1780-1856), Gentleman of the Chapel Royal: a note on the opening page of his manuscript records that it was assembled from early partbooks. The appearance of our manuscript at auction in the 21st century revealed that it comprises three of the eight parts from which Clark assembled the score (see P. James, ‘John Hilton the Younger's Service 'In Gamut'’, The Musical Times, v. 149, no 1902 ( 2008), pp. 67-70). The work is in six sections: Te Deum laudamus, Benedictus, Responses to the Commandments, Creed, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. A number of deletions and insertions indicate that our manuscript must have been copied from another source.

Confusingly for scholars, John Hilton 'the elder' (c.1560-1608), Organist of Trinity College, Cambridge, and his son, John Hilton 'the younger' (1599-1657), who became Organist of St Margaret's Church, Westminster, in 1628, shared the same Christian name. Four of the five extant services by 'John Hilton' do not differentiate between father and son, but Peter James attributed the Short service to the younger Hilton on stylistic grounds (apparently confirmed by the titles to two of the parts).
Artist:John Hilton II (1599 - 1657)
Place of origin:England
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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