Few things were as damaging to the cause of English music as the monopoly of music printing and publishing that Queen Elizabeth I granted to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd in 1575. After one unsuccessful publication, they produced almost nothing, and instead of the widespread dissemination of many scores, composers had to make do with old-fashioned manuscript distribution by quill-and-ink copyists, which held the country back for decades and stifled an industry at birth. Tessa Murray, honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham, tells the story of the composer Thomas Morley’s successful attempt to take control of the franchise when it expired in 1596. She describes the mistakes he made and lessons he learned, laying before the reader the evidence like a forensic scienti