The printing of 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' by William Clowes & Sons is part of the revival of printing music using specially cast type.
Printing music from movable type involves great challenges. A letter is a set construction of lines and dots to form the symbol everybody recognises. A note by contrast is not just a composition of lines and dots but also accents, hooks and angles. Text is printed on unlined paper, but notes need the stave to be recognisable as a musical composition.
Therefore it is little wonder that, after an initial phase of printing music from type, the engraving of music surged in the 16th and 17th centuries.
However, the long-established foundry of William Clowes decided to take on this challenge. Adopting ideas from continental Europe (splitting the note and stave up in manageable sections, casting all parts to the same standard, which enables the printer to put all parts back together in the press), Clowes & Sons became masters in their field of producing type for musical printing. ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ is the fine result of the hard work of William Clowes & Sons.