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Elgar Op.74 “Give Unto the Lord” scanned score

This music is now out of copyright, so there should probably be a downloadable scan of the score somewhere, but I was unable to find one when I wanted to check something, so here’s a scan of a photocopy I was given at RNIB New College Worcester in 1996:

Edward Elgar Op.74 “Give Unto the Lord” (Novello 1914)

(scanned in February 2014, 100 years after composition)

This is just the choir and organ parts (not the orchestra) and I’m sorry to say the organ is partially cut off on some pages, plus I made a few markings on the bass part, but it’s better than nothing.

Lyrics

Taken from Psalm 29, apparently a mixture of three versions. Below I’ve written it out as printed by Novello (minus the repetitions), and I added verse numbers and the following codes:

K line taken from King James version
R line taken from Revised version of 1885
K+R line taken from K and R which both say the same
G line taken from the 1539 “Great Bible”, as printed (with updated spelling) in the Psalter section of the Anglican liturgical “Book of Common Prayer”
(...) place where some words were deleted
* slightly relocated word

There are also punctuation and capitalisation differences between the sources and Novello’s printing.

1K - Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,

give unto the Lord glory and strength,

2K+R - give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name;

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

3K+R - The voice of the Lord is upon the waters:

the God of glory thundereth;

(4) G - it is the Lord that ruleth the sea.

4G - The voice of the Lord is mighty in operation;

K+R - the voice of the Lord is full of majesty;

5K - the voice of the Lord breaketh (...) the cedars of Lebanon.

(Elgar omits verse 6)

7K - *Yea, the voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire;

8K+R - *yea, the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness (...)

9R - (...) and strippeth the forests bare.

9K - (...) In His temple doth ev’ry one speak of His glory.

10(=9) G - The Lord sitteth above the waterflood;

and the Lord remaineth a King forever;

11K (+G10) - The Lord shall give strength unto His people;

11(=10) G - the Lord shall give His people the blessing of peace.

British Library MS 47908 folio 130 has a typewritten copy of the words in among Elgar’s sketches, with verse numbers and other markings added in pencil. The typewritten copy is nearly the same as the final printed copy, apart from the inclusion of words in verse 5 that were eventually omitted, the “and” in verse 9 (which was crossed out in pencil), the lack of the slightly-relocated words in verses 7 and 8, and differences in punctuation and capitalisation (some of which were changed in pencil, but the printing was different again).

The pencil markings also seem to indicate Elgar thought about changing verse 4’s “mighty in operation” (from G) to “powerful” (from K+R), but then decided against it.

Additionally, the pencil markings show some confusion about verse numbering in verses 9 and 10. G put K+R’s verse 8 into its verse 7, so its verses 8-10 correspond with K+R’s 9-11. This seems to have momentarily muddled whoever pencilled the numbers (presumably Elgar, unless someone helped him with the text): number 10 is crossed out and changed into a second number 9, and then a number 10 is added against what is actually the second part of 9 in G. I don’t know if the typist referred to (or remembered phrases from) all 3 versions and then somebody tried to figure out verse numbers from said versions, or what. Perhaps a real Elgar expert can shed more light on this.

Elgar Op.74 “Give Unto the Lord” scanned score

Lyrics

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