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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC AND MUSICAL CRITICISM
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
and ^JMusical Criticism
By MORRISON COMEGYS BOYD
SECOND EDITION
Tbiladelphia UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
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© 1940, 1962, by The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
Published in Great Britain, India, and Pakistan
by the Oxford University Press
London, Bombay, and Karachi
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-10744
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7346 Printed in the United States of America
To
Miss Amy Comegys
^Preface
IT is the purpose of this book to assemble the comments concerning English music, its practices and composition, during the period rep- resented by the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James (1558-1625) ; to summarize the works on musical theory published in England be- tween those dates; and to illustrate the Elizabethan attitude and opin- ion as to music in theory and practice. It is a commonplace of history that the artistic and literary impulses of these two reigns were one and con- tinuous. This is equally true of music. But with the conclusion of the reign of James, this artistic impetus failed and taste was changing. The noble madrigal especially was dying, and the music of the reign of Charles I was so comparatively unimportant and spiritually remote from that of Elizabeth's time that it has seemed best to conclude our main inquiry with the death of James. But there were writers on the theory of music who though writing in Charles's time, like Bevin and Butler, express the views of the past. Those have been therefore in- cluded, with Anthony Wood as well, who, writing at Oxford during the latter half of the seventeenth century concerning the music of an earlier day, is far too important to ignore. Wood's information was much of it doubtless derived by word of mouth, for it is well known that he was accustomed to quote his older contemporaries in the conduct of his an- tiquarian researches.
Although it was my original intention to present only criticism writ- ten by Elizabethans, I soon realized that I should have to describe briefly the object or music criticized and add a modern appraisal of it, other- wise no reader not blessed with omniscience could picture or grasp what the Elizabethan commentator was discussing, let alone agree or disagree with him. Consequently this book has become, somewhat un- expectedly, a short account of Elizabethan music. It is in essence a com-
[vii]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
pilation, and I shall be glad to hear of any interesting material that has escaped my notice.
Elizabethan spelling has been preserved in the quotations of this study, except that the vowel v and the combination ij have been re- placed by our modern u and it, and the consonants u and i by v and 7. The original punctuation, too, has been retained except in a few in- stances where such marks would be misleading. The word Elizabethan refers here to the reigns of both Elizabeth and James I. The date of any year covers a period from the first day of January to the last day of the December following, in accordance with our present system.
I wish to express my gratitude to Professor Felix E. Schelling of the Department of English of the University of Pennsylvania for his un- failing kindness and numerous constructive suggestions.
In this second edition certain minor changes have been made in the text, and the bibliographies have been enlarged and brought up to date.
M.C.B.
[ viii ]
Contents
Chapter page
I. Music in High Places i
II. Music Attacked and Defended 13
III. Music Sung in Church 37
IV. Madrigals 92 V. Songs 127
VI. Instruments and Instrumental Music 153
VII. Music on the Stage 189
VIII. Musical Relations with the Continent 205
IX. Musical Theory 222
X. The Musician Himself 272
XI. Finale 279
APPENDICES
A. Thomas Whythorne's Preface to His Set of Madrigals, 1571 281
B. Cantiones . . . Sacrae by Tallis and Byrd, 1575: the Latin Dedication by Tallis and Byrd, and Latin poems by Mulcaster and Ferdinando Richardson in Honor of
the Music 284
C. The Praise of Music\e, by John Case, 1586: Excerpts 292
D. When You See Me You Know Me, a Play by Samuel Rowley, 1605: a Quotation Mentioning Tye 301
[ix]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
E. A Brief e Discourse, by Ravenscroft, 1614: Prefatory Poems 304
F. Baldwin's Poem and Dow's Comments on Composers 310
G. Anthony Wood's Comments on Composers, 1691-1692 318
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
1. Printed Tudor and Jacobean Music and Musical Trea- tises 323
2. Some Modern Books on Elizabethan Music 343
INDEX 349
[x]
Illustrations
The Title Page of the Unique Copy of Parthenia In-violata frontispiece Courtesy of the New York Public Library
FACING PAGE
The Unique Copy of the Only Surviving Part (Cantus Secundus)
of the Madrigals in Praise of John Case, by William Byrd 32 Courtesy of the Cambridge University Library
The Dedication of The Psalmes of David, about 1630, by Giles
Farnaby 60
Courtesy of Edward Hopkinson, Jr. and the University of Penn- sylvania Library
Thomas Whythorne 102
From his Duos, or Songs for Two Voices, 1590. Courtesy of the British Museum
Duet for Virginals and Viol da Gamba 186
From Parthenia In-violata
"The Gam" or Scale 248
From A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practical! Music\e, 1597, by Thomas Morley. Courtesy of the British Museum
The Interior of St. Paul's: The Choir 272
From an Engraving by Hollar, 1658. Courtesy of the Folger Shake- speare Library
St. Paul's Cathedral Church 322
From Visscher's View of London, 1616. Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library
[xi]
<JMusic in High Tlaces
ENGLAND was young again in the reign of Elizabeth. The reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII had given time for a middle class to develop, and for minds to turn to culture. With Erasmus came a new interest in the humanities; and increasing intercourse with Italy brought in Italian literature, architecture, art, and music. The discoveries in the New World fired men's imaginations, and England's pride in her grow- ing political power resulted in an ever growing power of self-expression. Incessant religious controversies acted as a leaven in men's minds. The atmosphere at court was comparatively democratic. Men of talent flocked to the universities, and as a result of their contact there with the classics carried on interesting dramatic, metrical, and stylistic experiments. Elizabeth herself, the eternal feminine, capricious but intelligent, who loved valor and could inspire it in others, was well educated and a pa- tron of the arts, a figure to whom the country looked with admiration, a vivifying force. Each of these factors contributed its share toward making the Elizabethan era the greatest in the history of English litera- ture.
The advance of music during her reign in social importance and ar- tistic excellence closely paralleled that of literature. During the first years after her accession the serious study of music had seemed to many a pursuit both unnecessary and unworthy, since it had been associated chiefly with the composition and singing of complicated Papist music. Secular music had not yet risen to the dignity of a fine art, and the only religious music considered suitable for church use early in her reign was of the simple harmonic type preferred by the Puritans. The produc- tion of masterpieces was hardly possible under such conditions. Never-
[i]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
theless the Queen and other friends of music rallied to its support, some contrapuntal compositions were written by such men as Tallis and Tye, and when the ecclesiastical authorities became more tolerant toward the end of the century many glorious compositions of that kind appeared. Byrd in particular wrote Latin masses for the Catholic service, Latin motets more suitable for Catholic than for Anglican use, and, in addi- tion, anthems in English intended for the latter church. When these men with Catholic sympathies passed away they were succeeded, in the time of King James, by a generation of Anglican composers, such as Gibbons, who set all of their religious music to English words, for their own liturgy. They abandoned the stiffer Puritan style, without commit- ting the contrapuntal absurdities to which the Puritans objected in some of the more extravagant pre-Reformation composers. The importance of Elizabethan religious music has become well recognized in the last few years, and Byrd now ranks with Palestrina, di Lasso, and Victoria as one of the four greatest composers of the sixteenth century, whether or not we agree with certain modern British critics in calling Byrd the greatest of the four.
But the chief glory of the Elizabethan musical age was its secular music for voices. This consisted of madrigals for several voices unac- companied, and ayres1 for solo voice accompanied by a lute. The madri- gal arose in Italy, but reached a fuller development in England. Only one collection of madrigals was printed in England prior to the appear- ance of Byrd's first set in 1588. Before 1600, twenty sets had been pub- lished. The ayre is characteristically English, although the Florentines
1 The word ayre means an Elizabethan song for a single voice. Nowadays the word has commonly come to imply that the accompaniment was for lute. Therefore in this book ayre means a solo song with lute accompaniment. To use the word also in the mod- ern sense of part-song, meaning that the tune is sung by the soprano or top voice and the accompaniment is for other voices, is historically correct but confusing. It has never been easy to draw hard and fast lines between part-songs and similar compositions of a more contrapuntal character; and it is consequently convenient to classify as madrigals all Elizabethan secular compositions, whether contrapuntal or not, that were written for several voices singing in parts and lacked even optional instrumental accompaniments.
MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES
had been experimenting with solo singing. The first English ayres, by Dowland, were published in 1597. Some of the earliest were among the best. No keyboard music was published before the reign of King James, presumably because earlier printers reckoned that the cost of setting up such complicated music in type2 would be greater than the sales would warrant. Numerous excellent compositions, however, have come down to us in manuscript. A fair amount of music for other instruments, par- ticularly lute and viols, was printed. Among theoretical works may be mentioned The Praise of Music\e? 1586, by John Case, who was so seriously alarmed by the bitter attacks then being made upon our art that he deemed it necessary to issue this defense of it. Treatises were also published dealing with counterpoint, composition, sight-singing, acoustics, and lute-playing. But there were no musical histories, no bi- ographies, no works of comment, and no general account of contempo- rary music, either English or continental.
Before we set forth in detail the ideas of the Elizabethans concerning their own music, let us digress into some account of the enjoyment they must have received from it, from part singing or congregational sing- ing, for example.
From Morley's A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Music\e (1597) we learn that a well-educated Elizabethan was expected to be able to sing at sight. In the imaginary conversation that forms the framework of the book, one of the characters confesses that while he was spending the previous evening at a friend's house, music books were passed about and he had had to confess his inability to sing at sight. General incredulity followed, and finally "every one began to wonder, yea some whispered to others, demanding how I was brought up."4 Later, Henry Peacham the Younger urges an ability "to sing your part sure, and at the first sight, to play the same upon your violl"
2 See p. 178.
3 For a description of this book see pp. 29-31, and Appendix C.
4 Op. cit., p. 1 .
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
and lute, as among the requisites to the equipment of his Compleat Gentleman.5 The frequency with which Elizabethan stage characters are required in their roles to sing or play upon the lute, furnishes a fur- ther proof that musical accomplishment was widespread and a part of Elizabethan everyday life. And yet human nature was much the same then as now. Robert Burton, in The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), tells us,
Our young women and wives, they that being maids took so much pains to sing, play and dance, with such cost and charge to their parents to get these graceful qualities, now being married will scarce touch an instrument, they care not for it.6
William Chappell wrote of this era,
Tinkers sang catches; milkmaids sang ballads; carters whistled; each trade, and even the beggars, had their special songs; the base-viol hung in the drawing room for the amusement of waiting visitors; and the lute, cittern, and virginals for the amusement of waiting customers, were the necessary furniture of the barber's shop. They had music at dinner; music at supper; music at weddings; music at funerals; music at night; music at dawn; music at work; and music at play.7
A remarkable manifestation of the popular enthusiasm for music took place shortly after Elizabeth's accession. During this period of great religious and political thanksgiving the people could best express
5 The Compleat Gentleman, p. ioo in the 1634 edition.
6 Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Partition 3, Section 2, Member 3 (p. 577 in the 1907 edition). Richard Mulcaster also made this observation in his Positions . . ., 1581. See the edition by R. H. Quick, 1888, p. 177.
7 Old English Popular Music, 1893, p. 59. Chappell quotes various Elizabethan allu- sions to music-making by barbers, smiths, tinkers, cloth-workers, etc., on pp. 61-68. A reference to the enthusiasm of shoemakers for music occurs in The Gentle Craft, by Thomas Deloney, 1597. In his story of "Master Peachey and His Men," Chapter 2, shoe- makers ask Harry (who is masquerading as a shoemaker) "if he could sing, or sound the trumpet, or play on the flute, or recon up his tooles in rime ..." and when Harry ad- mits he can do none of these, his friend pretends to account for this strange state of affairs by alleging that Harry has only recendy become a shoemaker.
[4]
MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES
their emotions through music. In 1560 Bishop Jewel wrote to Peter Martyr :
A change now appears more visible among the people; which nothing promotes more than the inviting them to sing Psalms. This was begun in one church in London, and did soon spread itself, not only through the city, but in the neighboring places: sometimes at Paul's Cross, there will be six thousand people singing together.
That this enthusiasm continued to animate the people is proved by what we hear of the singing of psalms in York Cathedral while York was besieged in 1644:
Abundance of people being shut up in the city, all or most of them came constantly every Sunday to hear public prayers and sermon, the number was so exceeding great, that the church was (as I may say) even cramming and squeezing full. Now here you must take notice, that they had then a custom in that church, (which I hear not of in any other cathedral, which was) that always before the sermon, the whole congregation sang a Psalm, together with the quire and the organ; and you must also know, that there was then a most excellent-large-plump-lusty-full speaking organ, which cost (as I am credibly informed) a thousand pounds. This organ, I say, (when the Psalm was set before the sermon) being let out, into all its fulness of stops, to- gether with the quire, began the Psalm. But when that vast-conchording unity of the whole congregational-chorus , came (as I may say) thundering in, even so, as it made the very ground sha\e under us; {Oh the unutterable ravishing soul's delight!) in the which I was so transported and wrapt up into high contemplation, that there was no room left in my whole man, viz. body and spirit, for any thing below divine and heavenly raptures.2.
The Tudor monarchs were intellectually talented, and all were inter- ested in music. Henry VIII could sing at sight — an accomplishment that became fashionable and common only in the reign of Elizabeth. He was a composer of some ability, wrote anthems and two masses, and
8 Thomas Mace, Mustek's Monument (1676).
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
could play the flute, recorder, virginals, and lute.9 Peacham says in his Compleat Gentleman, 1622:
King Henry the eight could not only sing his part sure, but of himselfe compose a Service of foure, five and sixe parts; as Erasmus testifieth.
Edward VI is said to have been taught music by Tye,10 and played the lute. His sister Mary at the age of ten performed upon the virginals and lute before company; at this youthful debut "she played very well, and was of all folk there greatly praised." Her cousin Mary Queen of Scots played the virginals. Rizzio entered the employ of the Scottish queen as a bass singer :
Now there came here [to Edinburgh] in company with the Ambassador of Savoy, one David Riccio of the country of Piedmont, who was a merry fellow, and a good musician. Her Majesty had three valets of her chamber who sung three parts, and wanted a bass to sing the fourth part. Therefore they told her Majesty of this man, as one fit to make the fourth in concert. Thus he was drawn in to sing sometimes with the rest; and afterward when her French Secretary retired himself to France, this David obtained the said office.11
He also took part in masques, of which she was very fond. Her son James I was not musical. His surprising eagerness to hear a young girl play the Jew's harp was probably due to the fact that she was reputed to be a witch.12 But he saw to it that both of his sons, Henry and Charles, received a good musical education.
9 The Venetian ambassadors in 1515 wrote of Henry VIII: "He is so gifted and adorned with mental accomplishments of every sort that we believe him to have few equals in the world. He speaks English, French, and Latin, understands Italian well, plays almost every instrument, and composes fairly; is prudent, and sage, and is free from every vice."
10 In Samuel Rowley's play When You See Me You Know Me, 1613. The excerpts in question are given in Appendix D.
11 Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill, 1537-1617, edited by Archibald Francis Steuart, 1929, p. 103.
12 Percy A. Scholes, The Puritans and Music in England and New England, 1934, p. 382.
[6]
MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES
Queen Elizabeth's musical accomplishments and predilections were so well known, and must have served as models for so many of her sub- jects, that she is an excellent example of a cultured amateur of the pe- riod. Her tutor, Roger Ascham, observed with refreshing candor in 1550: "In music she is very skilful but does not greatly delight." Still, she was only seventeen at the time, and he was not very fond of music. Richard Mulcaster wrote in 1575:
The Queen, the glory of our age and isle With royal favor bids this science smile; Nor hears she only others' labor'd lays, But, artist-like herself both sings and plays.18
And Camden adds:
Neither did she neglect Musicke, so farre forth as might beseeme a Prin- cesse, being able to sing and play on the Lute prettily and sweetly.14
She herself said:15
I maintain at least sixty musicians, and in my youth I danced very well, composed ballets and music, and played and danced them myself.
She enjoyed music of many kinds. More than once on her way from Hatfield to London she took the trouble to stop at Shoreditch Church in order to listen to the fine bells, which she praised with her usual en-
13 "Regia majestas, aetatis gloria nostrae;
Hanc in deliciis semper habere solet,
Nee contenta graves aliorum audire labores
Ipsa etiam egregie voce manuque canit." The English translation, in Biographia Britannica, 1746—66, p. 1007, is from Mulcaster's Latin in Tallis and Byrd's Cantiones Sacrae of 1575.
14 William Camden's Annates rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha, 1615", translated by "R. N. Gent." as Annates, or the History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princesse Elizabeth, late Queen of England, 3d edition 1635, p. 7 of the Intro- duction.
15 To the French Ambassador, according to Frederick Chamberlin in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, 1923, p. 306.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
thusiasm; and Tirwitt, Subdean of her Majesty's Chapel, wrote to Lord Burghley that Queen Elizabeth had commanded him "to devise her a chime ... to have it playe pavens and galliardes, or any other songe." In 1591 she was entertained by Lord Hertford at Elvetham. Music that she heard there included settings of "Eliza is the fayrest Queen" and "Come againe," probably by Edward Johnson. At the concert that in- cluded the former of these, "This spectacle and musicke so delighted her Majesty, that shee commanded to heare it sung and to be danced three times over." A pavane by Thomas Morley also pleased her, and her host entertained her with a great variety of other music as well, in- cluding madrigals probably by Byrd and Michael East. At the close of her visit,
As her Majestie passed through the parke gate, there was a consort of mu- sicions hidden in a bower; to whose playing this dittie of "Come againe" was sung, with excellent division, by two that were cunning. ... As this Song was sung, hir Majestie, notwithstanding the great raine, staied hir coach, and pulled off hir mask, giving great thanks.16
Queen Elizabeth inclined toward a ritualistic type of church service, and so was not in sympathy with the extremists of the Protestant party.17 When she came to the throne, the Catholic form of worship was in use. Her personal preference was for a similarly ornate service, with contra- puntal music; but because of the strong Puritan sentiment of the time she made no demand for it, and insisted merely that the choirs left by Queen Mary should be kept at their previous strength, and that the whole service should be sung or intoned, not spoken. She expressed these wishes in her injunctions of 1559 concerning the clergy and laity:
16 The description of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Elvetham is quoted by John Nichols in The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth . . ., 2d ed. 1823, pp. 109— 121, from The Honorable Entertainment gieven to the Quene's Majestie, in Progresse, at Elvetham in Hampshire, by the Right Hon'ble the Earle of Hertford, 1591, printed 1591. For a good summary see The English Madrigal (1925) by Dr. E. H. Fellowes, pp. 22—25.
17 See Sir John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, 1776, Chapter CXI.
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MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES
Item, because in dyvers collegiate, and also some parishe churches, there hath been lyvynges appoynted for the mayntenaunce of menne and chyldren, to use syngynge in the churche, by meanes whereof the lawdable scyence of musicke hath ben had in estimation, and preserved in knowledge: The queenes majestie, neyther meanynge in any wise the decaye of any thynge that myght conveniently tende to the use and continuance of the saide sci- ence, neyther to have the same in any parte so abused in the churche, that thereby the common prayer should be the worse understande of the hearers: Wylleth and commandeth that fyrst no alteration be made of such assigne- mentes of lyvinge as heretofore hath been appointed to the use of syngynge or musicke in the churche, but that the same so remayne. And that there bee a modeste and deystyncte song so used in all partes of the common prayers in the churche, that the same may be as playnely understanded as yf it were read without syngyng. And yet neverthelesse for the comforting of such as delite in musicke, it may be permytted that in the begynninge or in the end of common prayers, either at mornynge or evenynge, there may be sunge an hymne or such lyke songe, to the prayse of Almighty God, in the best sorte of melodye and musicke that may be conveniently devysed, hav- ynge respecte that the sentence of the hymnne may bee understanded and perceyved.
Thanks to this last clause, hymns and simple anthems could be used, whereas the extreme Protestant party would have permitted only psalms. Hawkins18 notes further that
It is certain she had a crucifix in her chapel. See a letter from Sandys, bishop of Worcester, to Peter Martyr, expressing his uneasiness at it. Heylin19 says that it remained there for some years, till it was broken to pieces by Patch
18 Hawkins, op. cit., Chapter CXIV.
19 Ecclesia Restaurata, or the History of the Reformation of the Church of England, by Peter Heylyn, London, 1661, p. 124. Heylyn adds: "When one of her Chaplains (Mr. Alexander Nowel Dean of St. Pauls) had spoken less reverently in a Sermon preached before her of the sign of the Cross, she called aloud to him from her closet window, com- manding him to retire from that ungodly digression, and to return unto his Text. And on the other side, when one of her Divines had preached a Sermon in defence of the Real Presence, on the day commonly called Good Friday, Anno 1565 she openly gave him thanks for his pains and piety."
[9]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
the fool, no wiser man daring to undertake such a desperate service, at the solicitation of Sir Francis Knolles, a near relation of the queen. Neal goes much farther, and says "that the altar was furnished with rich plate, with two gilt candlesticks, with lighted candles, and a massy crucifix in the midst, and that the service was sung not only with organs, but with artificial music of cornets, sacbuts, &c. on solemn festivals. That the ceremonies observed by the knights of the garter in their adoration towards the altar, which had been abolished by Edward VI and revived by Queen Mary, were retained. That, in short, the service performed in the queen's chapel, and in sundry cathedrals, was so splendid and showy, that foreigners could not distinguish it from the Roman, except that it was performed in the English tongue." By this method, he adds, most of the Popish laity were deceived into con- formity, and came regularly to church for nine or ten years, till the pope, being out of all hopes of an accommodation, forbad them, by excommuni- cating the queen, and laying the whole kingdom under an interdict.
In 1564 Mary Queen of Scots sent a trusted servant, Sir James Mel- ville,20 on a diplomatic mission to her "dearest sister, the Queen of Eng- land." Elizabeth's irrepressible personality is revealed in the conversa- tion that took place. When she told him her determination never to marry, he replied, "I know the truth of that, Madam; you need not tell it me. Your majesty thinks if you were married you would be but Queen of England, and now you are both King and Queen. I know your spirit cannot endure a commander." She asked him, no less frankly, which of the Queens he judged fairer. He replied, "You are the fairest queen in England, and my queen is the fairest queen in Scot- land."
Yet she appeared earnest. I answered, They were both the fairest ladies in
20 See his Memoirs, previously mentioned, pp. 95 ff. Melville was probably a fair musi- cian himself, if we may judge from this personal reminiscence in the same work: "Mai- rower, in these yeirs I learned my music, wherein I tuk graitter delyt, of an Alexander Smithe, servant to the Primarius of our Collage, wha had been treaned upe amangis the Mounks in the Abbay. I learned of him the gam, plean-song, and monie of the treables of the Psalmes, whereof sum I could weill sing in the Kirk."
[10]
MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES
their countries; that her Majesty was whiter, but my Queen was very lovely. She inquired which of them was of highest stature. I said, My Queen. Then, saith she, she is too high; for I myself am neither too high nor too low. Then she asked what kind of exercises she [Queen Mary] used. I answered that when I received my dispatch, the Queen was lately come from the high- land hunting: that when her more serious affairs permitted, she was taken up with the reading of histories; that sometimes she recreated herself by playing upon the lute and virginals. She asked if she played well. I said, reasonably for a queen.
This seems to have moved the vivacious queen with a desire to go Mary one better; at any rate,
that same day after dinner my lord of Hunsdon21 drew me up to a quiet gallery, that I might hear some music (but he said he durst not avow it) where I might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After I had heark- ened a while, I took by the tapestry that hung before the door of the cham- ber, and seeing her back was towards the door, I entered within the cham- ber, and stood a pretty space hearing her play excellently well. But she left off immediately so soon as she turned her about and saw me. She appeared to be surprised to see me, and came forward, seeming to strike me with her hand; alleging she used not to play before men, but when she was solitary, to shun melancholy. She asked how I came there. I answered, as I was walking with my lord of Hunsdon, as we passed by the chamber door I heard such melody as ravished me, whereby I was drawn in ere I knew how, excusing my fault of homeliness, as being brought up in the court of France, where such freedom was allowed; declaring myself willing to en- dure what kind of punishment her majesty should be pleased to inflict upon me for so great an offence. Then she sat down low upon a cushion, and I upon my knees by her; but with her own hands she gave me a cushion, to lay under my knee; which at first I refused, but she compelled me to take it. She then called for my Lady Stafford out of the next chamber; for the Queen was alone. She enquired whether my queen or she played best. In that I felt obliged to give her the praise.
21 Queen Elizabeth's first cousin.
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
That should have been sufficient triumph even for Elizabeth, but she kept Melville at court two days longer so that she could dance before him and ask him for a comparison between Mary and herself in this regard also. Elizabeth was so obviously interested in her northern cousin that Melville suggested "to convey her secretly to Scotland by post, clothed like a page . . . telling her that her chamber might be kept in her absence as though she were sick" — to which her reply was, "Alas, if I might do thus!"
She inspired homage to the end. When she reached the age of sixty- eight and decided with pathetic vanity never to use a looking-glass again, the greatest composers of the realm united in the composition of a set of magnificent madrigals in her honor, each ending,
Long live fair Oriana.
Elizabeth's personal service to the art of music in England should not be underestimated. With no intention of belittling the talent of such earlier composers as Taverner and Merbecke, we may yet say that dur- ing her lifetime English music grew from adolescence to maturity. She increased the value of music as a social accomplishment by playing it herself, and she aided it with her praise and her purse in every possible way, in church, at court, and in the theater, bestowing the royal favor on composers, on singers in the sacred choir and in the secular play and masque, both men and boys, and on instrumentalists of all kinds, players on bowed, plucked, and keyboard instruments. At the same time she rendered valuable aid to the drama. Thus she played an energetic part in that simultaneous forward movement which at its culmination pro- duced in England between 1590 and 1615 both the plays of Shakespeare and the best European music of that quarter century.
[12]
II
ijtylusic ^Attacked and defended
THE Calvinists, dominant in Scotland and powerful in England throughout Elizabeth's reign, were opposed to all forms of church music except psalm singing. The Reformation consequently affected music in England detrimentally in two important ways: first, choirs and choirboys became unnecessary, the schools therefore stopped teach- ing boys to sing, and the general level of musical knowledge declined; and second, this proscription of all church music except psalm tunes killed the composition of artistic sacred music in Scotland and discour- aged it in England. Scotland was further hampered by a restrictive and long-continued monopoly on printing. The first secular music was printed there at so late a date as 1662, and its publisher was fined for issuing it.1
To appreciate the condition of music during the latter half of the six- teenth century we will first take up the attitude of the schools toward musical study, before we describe the grimmer battles in which promi- nent representatives of church and state participated. "Song schools," as those for the training of choirboys were called, flourished in Scotland before the Reformation,2 after which time some of them declined greatly; in 1574 the Scotch Parliament passed a measure,
. . . instructing the provest, baillies, and counsale, to sett up ane song scuill, for instruction of the youth in the art of musick and singing, quhilk is almaist decayit and sail schordy decay without tymous remeid be providit.
This Edinburgh school does not seem to have thriven, and the one in Glasgow died in 1588. On the other hand, in the middle of the next
1 British Music Publishers, by Frank Kidson, 1900, p. 174. 2 See Grove, v. 76.
[13]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
century Mace, in England, pointed to the Scotch song schools of his day as models for his own country. In England most of the song schools were discontinued when Edward VI confiscated the chantries, although a few survived that were connected with cathedrals or colleges, and we can thank these for the musical education of some8 of the greatest com- posers of the age.
In most English schools of the Elizabethan period music was prob- ably not taught at all. It was early replaced by arithmetic in the cur- riculum for the smaller children, and was also crowded out in the gram- mar schools.4 In some schools psalms were sung. No musical instruction would be necessary for this simple practice beyond singing the tunes over until the boys had memorized them. At Kirkby Stephen gram- mar school it was enjoined that
. . . every morning and evening at six of the clock, the scholars two by two and the schoolmaster shall go from the schoolhouse into the parish church, . . . say some devout prayer, and sing together one of these [fifteen designated] psalms.5
During the daily evening service at Thame School, the students sang the school hymn (in which the students pray that they may so obey their masters as to avert their wrath) to the tune of the first psalm in Sternhold and Hopkins' metrical version, and the inth Psalm, both in Latin.6 In at least a few schools the provisions for music were more elaborate, due probably to the enthusiasm of individual headmasters or citizens of influence. In 1561 Sir Nicholas Bacon drew up a curriculum for the education of her Majesty's Wards, according to which they were to spend the hours from twelve to two every day with the music mas-
3 Bull, Gibbons, Ravenscroft, probably Byrd and Thomas Tomkins, and doubtless others.
4 Foster Watson, The English Grammar Schools to 1660: Their Curriculum and Prac- tice, p. 212. 1908.
5 J. H. Brown, Elizabethan Schooldays, pp. 55, 58. 1933.
6 Ibid., pp. 55, 58.
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
ter, and were again to "apply themselves to music" under his instruc- tion before they went to bed at nine. In the scheme for Queen Eliza- beth's Academy, about 1572, there was to be one teacher of music, "to play the lute, the bandora and cittern, 26 li. per annum." This good salary was unfortunately exceptional. The music master at Christ's Hos- pital,7 now known as the Bluecoat School, was less fortunate, long re- ceiving only ^2.13^.4^. a year. In 1587 a music lover named John Howes urged that the children of this school
. . . learne to singe, to play uppon all sorts of instruments, as to sounde the trumpett, the cornet, the recorder or flute, to play uppon shagbolts, shalmes,8 & all other instruments that are to be plaid upon, either w^ winde or finger.
But in 1589 the governing body ordered that
Henceforth none of the children in this Hospital shall be apprenticed to any musyssionar other than such as be blinde, lame, and not able to be put to other service.
An instructor named John Farrant was appointed in 1607 and proved so efficient that in 1609 his salary was raised to ^4 a year. Robert Dow thought this so small that he added ^12 to it from his own purse, and later ^4 more, enjoining the singing master so benefited "to teach the art of music to 10 or 12 only of the said children," and to "traine them up in the knowledge of prickesong." Three or four of these the master should teach
7 For an historical account of music at Christ's Hospital, see the article by F. G. Ed- wards in the Musical Times for September, 1905, pp. 573-583.
8 Shagbolts were sackbuts, i.e., trombones. The shalm or shawm family were played with a double reed, and included also curtals and pommers. They developed into our modern oboes, English horns, and bassoons. A letter of 1575, referring to the festivities at Kenilworth during Queen Elizabeth's famous visit that year, tells us, "This Pageaunt waz clozd up with a delectable harmony of Hautboiz Shalmz Cornets and such other looud muzik." We read in Batman upon Bartholme, 1582, that "The common bleting musicke is ye Drone [i.e., bagpipe], Hobius, and Curtoll." See Cecil Forsyth, Orchestra- tion, 1914, pp. 204, 230.
[15]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
... to play upon an instrument, as upon the Virginalls or Violl, but espe- cially upon the Virginalls, thereby to adorne their voice and make them worthy members both for the Church and the Commonweale. . . . For the better furtherance thereof the said Robert Dow hath provided and bought two pair of Virginalls and a Bass Violl and hath set them up within the School-house.
The total cost of the "Virginalls, Violls and Books," etc., was jT10.6s.4d. Farrant was succeeded by Thomas Ravenscroft, who was there from 1618 to 1622.
Writers upon education differed as widely in their opinions on music as did the curricula described above. William Kempe in 1588 drew up a definite scheme for the instruction in each "Form" or grade in speci- fied subjects, and omits music.9 Nor does John Brinsley mention it.10 Roger Ascham quoted Galen's remark, "Much music marreth man's manners," and distrusted excessive use of it, although he did not object to it in moderation. But Richard Mulcaster championed it whole- heartedly in two progressive works.11 He was both headmaster and mu- sic master at the Merchant Taylors' School, and later high master of St. Paul's School. Sir James Whitlocke12 testifies that "His [Mulcaster's] care was my skill in musique in which I was brought up by daily ex- ercise in it, as in singing and playing upon instruments."13 Mulcaster's pupils acted plays and masques before Elizabeth with such excellence as to win him the Queen's praise. He was one of the most progressive
9 William Kempe, The Education of Children in Learning, 1588.
10 John Brinsley the elder, Ludus Literarius or the Grammar Schoole, 1612.
11 Richard Mulcaster (i530?-i6n), Positions wherein those primitive circumstances be examined, which are necessarie for the training up of children, either for skjll in their booke, or health in their bodie. 1581. See especially Chapter 5. Also Mulcaster's The First Part of the Elementarie Which Entreateth Chefelie of the right writing of our English tung. 1582, pp. 9, 22, 24, 26, 58—60. He unfortunately never issued "The Second Part," in which he expected to tell in detail how pupils should be taught to sing, compose, and play the virginals and lute.
12 Sir James Whitlocke, 1 570-1 632, was a prominent judge, father of the Bulstrode Whitelocke mentioned on p. 25.
18 Liber Famelicus, in Camden Society Reprints, 1868, p. 12.
[16]
MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
educators of his time, stressing the importance of music and physical training, and advocating for girls an education equal to that for boys.
I saie therefor that these five principles, reading, writing, drawing, sing- ing, and playing . . . besides exercise ... be the onelie artificiall means to make a minde capable of all the best qualities.14
He urges early study of the lute and virginals as a useful means of making youthful fingers nimble, before they become stiff from age, "and to put Musicians in minde, that they be no brawlers, least by some swash of a sword, they chaunce to lease [lose] a joynte, an irrecoverable jewell unadvisedly cast away,"15 and suggests the writing of exercises in counterpoint and composition to develop one's power of musical criti- cism.16 He also praises singing as a mild but wholesome form of physi- cal activity, and dancing as good bodily exercise, if not indulged in "with full stomacke." As for music in general, "It is verie comfortable to the wearyed minde: a preparative to perswasion . . . the princesse of de- lites, and the delite of princes."17
Music was an approved accomplishment for the young ladies of Tu- dor England. When Nicholas Wotton reported upon the eligibility of Anne of Cleves as a prospective wife for Henry VIII he found the titled womenfolk of Germany less cultured than those of his own country:
Frenche, Latyn or other langaige, she hath none, nor yet she canne not synge nor pleye enye instrument, for they take it heere in Germanye for a rebuke and an occasion of lightnesse that great ladyes shuld be lernyd or have enye knowledge of musike.18
In Queen Mary's time an English girl, Grace Sherrington, wrote of herself: "Every day I spent some tyme in playing on my lute and set-
14 Mulcaster, The First Part of the Elementarie . . ., 1582, pp. 24, 58-60. "Artificial" here means "well designed."
15 Mulcaster, Positions . . ., 1581, p. 39.
16 Mulcaster, The First Part of the Elementarie . . . , pp. 24, 58-60.
17 Mulcaster, Positions . . ., p. 36.
18 See Dorothy Gardiner, English Girlhood at School, 1929, p. 172; also pp. 120, 182.
[17]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
ting songs of five parts thereunto, and practiced my voice in singing of psalms and prayers and confessing my sins"; and two young ladies of Elizabeth's reign are mentioned as having been "broughte uppe in writinge, readinge, sewinge, both white worke and blacke worke, and playenge of the lute and virginalls, as yonge gentlewomen and maydes of theire ages are accustomed."19
In the foregoing discussion of the place occupied by music in educa- tion during the sixteenth century we have seen that although our art had its strong champions, particularly toward the close of the period, other prominent men were indifferent to it; and though many young girls were doubtless taught it in their homes, its study by boys in the schoolroom was much neglected during the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign.
If we leave the school and consider the progress of music in general, we find its path also was for a time not an easy one. Soon after the Queen's accession the decrease in the number of church positions open to organists and choir singers diminished the number of those studying music, with a resulting decline in the general level of musical knowl- edge; but effective and logical propaganda by John Case and others brought a limited prosperity to church music and prepared the way for the magnificent flowering of secular music from 1587 onwards.
Early Elizabethan lovers of music were much disheartened. John Bos- sewell, while describing in his Worses of Armorie, 1572, a coat of arms in which organ pipes are represented, bursts out with this exclamation :
But what saie I, Musicke? One of the seven Liberall sciences? It is almost banished this Realme. If it were not the Queenes majestie did favour that excellente Science, Singinge men, and Choristers might goe a begging, to- gether with their Maister the player on the Organes.20
19 Early Chancery Proceedings, ii. 167/88. Mulcaster wished young women to "sing sweetly and play and draw well."
20 Worses of Armorie, Book 3, folio 14.
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
Probably many a "player on the Organes" did go abegging. Organ playing must have ceased in many parish churches by 1563, if we may judge from a homily21 of that year. It quotes an imaginary complaint of a woman to her neighbor:
Alas, Gossip, what shall we now do at church, since all the saints are taken away, since all the goodly sights we were wont to have are gone, since we cannot hear the like piping, singing, chanting, and playing upon the or- gans, that we could before?
and answers her:
But, dearly beloved, we ought to rejoice and give God thanks, that our churches are delivered of all those things which displeased God so sore, and filthily defiled his holy house and place of prayer.
An early seventeenth-century writer surveys the standards of musical performance in divine worship throughout the "late Queenes raigne" and pronounces a gloomy judgment:22
The first occasion of the decay of Musick in Cathedrall Churches and other places, where musick and singing was used and had yearly alowance began about the nynthe yeare of Queene Elizabeth,
when some persons in authority thought that foundations and stipends for that purpose might well be dispensed with, or at least decreased. And most of the Deans and Canons being overawed yielded to this re- quest, while some of the Puritan clergy welcomed it because they hoped
21 The Seconde Tome of Homelyes. . . . Set out by the aucthoritye of the Queries Maiestie: And to be read in eurey paryshe Churche agreablye, reprinted in 1864 in Certain sermons or Homilies Appointed to be Read in Churches in the Time of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory. London, S.P.C.K. The quotations are from the Second Part of the "Homily of the Place and Time of Prayer."
22 §§1-4 of British Museum MS 18B. xix, The praise of musick^ ye profite and delight it bringeth to man &■ other the creatures of God, And the necessarye use of it in ye service & Christian Churche of God. The anonymous writer takes up only the period from Eliza- beth's accession onwards.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
that some of the revenues thus diverted might come their way. The writer continues:
And it is to be remembered, that about the same tyme not so fewe as an ioo paire of organs were pulled downe (and many of them sold and im- ploide to make pewter dishes). . . . And commands [were] given [by the Puritan clergy] for short playinge, or none at all, for shorteninge and alter- inge of their songes and service to give place for preachinge, and castinge service as it were quite out of doore. So as fewe or none of ye people would vouchsafe to come into the Quyres during the singinge service but would stand without [,] dauncinge and sportinge themselves untill the sermons and lectures did begin, scorning and derydinge both ye service and those which were imployed therein, so as hereby the practize and use of skillfull musick and those which exercised the same began to be odious, and the professors to be accompted but as rogues, drunkards & idle persons, which was the cause that all indevour for teachinge of musick or the forminge of voices by good Teachers was altogether neglected as well in men as children, which neglect (and little better reputation) continueth to this day. ... A poore singingmans maintenance in a Churche of a new erection doth not answere the wages and entertainment that any of them giveth to his hors- keeper.
The training of choirboys has been so neglected that in a college or even the Chapel Royal, of
1 6. 12. or 10. Choristers scarce 4. of them can singe a note, [and] the suffi- ciency of voice and skille in Cathedrall Churches is utterly decayed. . . . Obiection will be made that Musick is in as great request and as much es- teemed as ever it was, which obiection may be answered, that it is true in- deed for noble men and Gentlemens private service and delight in their houses;
such rich men by offering decent wages take away the best players and singers, both men and boys, from even St. Paul's and Westminster Ab- bey, according to our gloomy writer of King James's time. Case's important book, The Praise of Musicke, 1586, intended as a
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
trumpet call to wake England from its Philistine indifference to good music, laments the current lack of interest:23
I am glad that I have any small occasion to revive that studie which laie as dead for a time, and I would be as glad to have it continue in good credit and liking after it is once received.
Music had enemies within as well as outside its ranks. Case regrets that musicians themselves have done music much harm:
So fareth it with musick, which because it is excellent, and for that natu- rally subject to the envie and malice of many, is therefore ill spoken of, be- cause it falleth out, that shee is oftentimes blemished with the faults of them that professe to have some knowledge in her.
Morley, in his dialogue, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, 1597, makes the "Master" say to his pupil, Philomathes: "I have heard you so much speake against that art, as to tearme it a cor- rupter of good manners, and an allurement to vices: for which many of your companions tearmed you a Stoick." Case complains that people who like music often refuse to make it themselves, regarding it with suspicion like all other learning. "Bring a harp or other good instru- ment to Lacedemon, they will cry away with it." Farmer in 1591 was afraid men thought of music "but bassely."24 And finally Morley, in the Introduction mentioned above, laments that music "by the negligence of its professors is almost fallen into the nature of a mechanicall arte, rather than reckoned amongst other sciences." He advises musicians to study other useful things as well as music — advice which musicians have needed ever since. Some religious enthusiasts wanted to drive out secular vocal music. "Since morally edifying music is available," asked one of these, "why sing any other?" Edward Hake26 recommended that
23 In the Dedication written by its printer. Joseph Barnes, printer to the University of Oxford.
24 John Farmer, Divers and sundry waies of two parts in one . . . 1591 [canons].
25 William Daman, The Psalmes of David in English Meter, 1579.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
psalms be sung "in stede of unseemeley Ballades"; and in Archbishop Parker's Psalter a versifier turned out seventy-four stanzas on the "ver- tue of the Psalmes":
Depart, ye songs lascivious,
from lute, from harpe depart: Give place to Psalmes most vertuous,
and solace there your harte. Ye songes so nice, ye sonnets all,
of lothly lovers layes: Ye worke mens myndes but bitter gall,
by phansies pevishe playes.
Parker was evidently the declared enemy of lyrical poetry.
The Puritan viewpoint with regard to church music is not illogical. The contrapuntal masses and motets of the great Catholic composers, with long-drawn-out syllables and several different words sung at the same time in the various parts, often made the sense unintelligible. Even Morley criticizes the absurd medieval device called "hocket" (lit- erally hiccough), whereby a singer would take a rest in the middle of a word:
We must also take heed of seperating any part of a word from another by a rest, as som dunces have not slackt to do, yea one whose name is Iohannes Dunstaple, . . . which is one of the greatest absurdities which I have seene committed in the dittying of musicke.26
Antiphonal singing, a frequent practice of the old ritual, seems espe- cially to have irritated some of these Puritan objectors. Hake states the general Puritan position with much justice:
Nevertheless in any thyng by me here written, I have not meant to de- fende any [of] the abuses of Musicke whatsoever committed in the Church
26 A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. 178. The Englishman John Dunstable, c. 1390- 1453, was no dunce, but the best European composer of his time.
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
of God, or rather the prophanyng of Gods divine service by Musicke (as in tyme of Popery) namely by over curious, yea, and as I may say over tragicall dismembring not onely of wordes but of letters and sillables in the holy Psalmes and Anthemes appointed to the praysing of God: For what hath either Musicke or any thing els betwene heaven and earth to be commended for, farther, then that it shall serve to set forth the glory and comfort of the eternall word? which thynge whensoever it shall cease to doe, and shall ad- vaunce it selfe above or before the sence thereof, it is not onely not to be allowed of, but also with all force of law to be thrust out of the Church. But this our Musicke well imployed upon these Psalmes, is altogether free from such abuses. God graunt we may use it to our comfort and to the prayses of his name. Amen.27
A more extreme point of view is that represented by An Admonition to the Parliament (1572) written by Rev. John Field, minister of Alder- mary, London, with regard to the new order of service:
In all theyr order of service there is no edification, according to the Rule of the Apostle, but confusion, they tosse the Psalmes in most places like ten- nice-balles. ... As for organes and curious singing, thoughe they be proper to popyshe dennes, I meane to Cathedrall churches, yet some others also must have them. The Queenes chapell, and these churches must be patternes and presidentes [precedents] to the people of all superstition. . . . We should be to long to tell your honoures of Cathedrall churches, the dennes aforesaide of all loytering lubbers, wher master Deane . . . squeaking queristers, organ players . . . live in great idlenesse.28
Two of the greatest Tudor composers, John Merbecke and Taverner, gave up composition altogether on adopting Puritan views. The former
27 The Psalmes of David in English meter, with Notes of foure partes set unto them by Gulielmo Damon, for John Bull, to the use of the godly Christians for recreatying them selves, in stede of fond and unseemely Ballades. Anno 1 579. At London.
28 Field also objected to merrymaking at weddings, when "women are suffered to come bare headed, with bagpipes and fidlers before them, to disturbe the congregation." See that section of the Admonition entitled "A view of Popishe abuses yet remaining in the Englishe Church," §§9, 13, 17. Prynne's Histriomastix, 1633, contains a savage at- tack on choir singing.
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writes with regret in his Concordance, 1550: "In the study of Musike and plaiyng on Organs I consumed vainly the greatest part of my life." Because of his Calvinistic views Merbecke was condemned to be burned at the stake in 1543, but was reprieved: he was merely a musician and consequently considered innocuous. John Taverner (c. 1495-1545) stopped composing when he aided in the suppression of the monas- teries, even assisting in the burning of the large statues of the crucified Christ which are known as roods. He publicly regretted his "vain dit- ties." Acrimony between the high and low church parties continued throughout Elizabeth's reign, with the queen trying to steer a middle course, the majority of her people perhaps with her. No wonder then that Case when he discusses, in 1586, the use of music in civil matters should say, "I dare not speake of dauncing or theatricall spectacles, least I pull whole swarmes of enemies upon me."
But Merbecke and Taverner were extremists, as controversialists sometimes are. What was the usual Puritan attitude toward music? One can best answer this question by examining the general state of music under Oliver Cromwell, when the Puritans were able to regulate it as they wished. Vilification of the Puritans over a period of two cen- turies has been so successful that the very word puritanical has come to imply a code of stern and joyless living, which would have been abhor- rent to the Puritans themselves. Musical criticism in particular has long ascribed to them the doctrine of music's essentially sinful influence, which indeed we know was held by some of their spiritual descendants during the nineteenth century. This "puritanical" doctrine did not ema- nate from the Puritans, but from the Quakers of the seventeenth cen- tury, and particularly the oppressed evangelical sects of the eighteenth. Percy A. Scholes in his important book, The Puritans and Music in England and New England,29 1934, has shown that the Puritans were not opposed to music as such, and that although strict Sabbatarians they
29 See pp. 1-12, 106, 130, 133, 142, 144, 156, 194, 204, 243, 296, 312, 345 ff., 380.
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enjoyed life much as other Englishmen. Many Puritans danced, though some disapproved. Bulstrode Whitelocke, Cromwell's ambassador to Sweden, was asked by Queen Christina if dancing was prohibited in England. He replied, "Some there are that do not approve of it; but it is not prohibited by any law and many there do use it." He then danced with the Queen. The Puritans opposed music in church, except psalm- singing, and during the Commonwealth they banned public perform- ances of plays. Nevertheless, in that same period inoffensive private theatricals were not interfered with, Italian operas were given in Lon- don, and plays could be published. Several times as much music was printed in England under the Commonwealth as during the much longer reign of Charles I. The Puritans at the helm of state would have been astonished at our modern misconceptions of their manner of liv- ing. Cromwell himself had a suit of purple velvet, wore his hair long, approved of horse-racing and cock-fighting, and smoked. He enjoyed listening to the organ in Hampton Court Palace, and had an orchestra of forty play for mixed dancing until five in the morning on the occa- sion of his daughter's wedding. We may quote some verses by his staunch supporter George Wither, which though published early (1619)30 reflect the sympathy their writer continued to feel toward mu- sic in the days of the Lord Protector :
From the earth's vast hollow womb Music's deepest bass shall come, Seas and floods from shore to shore Shall the counter-tenor roar. To this consort (when we sing) Whistling winds your descant bring, Which may bear the sound above Where the orb of fire doth move, And so climb from sphere to sphere, Till our song th' Almighty hear.
30 George Wither, Preparation to the Psalter, 1619.
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We have seen that there was opposition in the earlier part of Eliza- beth's reign to serious musical study because its chief end was the com- position and performance of complicated "Papist" music in church. At- tacks were also made on music because of the unworthy manner of life led by some who made it their profession. Choir singers in particular were censured again and again as disorderly fellows. At the beginning of the sixteenth century some singers were related to have played a practical joke on a drunken priest during divine service in St. Paul's Cathedral;31 and in the next century John Earle, Bishop of Salisbury, wittily describes the choirs of his day:32
The Common Singing-men in Cathedral Churches are a bad Society, and yet a Company of good Fellowes, that roare deep in the Quire, deeper in the Taverne. They are the eight parts of speech, which goe to the syntaxis of Service, and are distinguish't by their noyses [the music they make] much like Bells, for they make not a Consort but a Peale [they sound out one after the other, not singing the notes of the same chord at the same instant]. Their pastime or recreation is prayers, their exercise drinking, yet herein so religiously addicted that they serve God oftest when they are drunke. Their humanity is a legge [a bow] to the Residencer, their learning a Chapter, for they learne it commonly before they read it, yet the old Hebrew names are little beholden to them, for they mis-call them worse then one another. Though they never expound the Scripture, they handle it much, and pollute the Gospell with two things, their Conversation and their Thumbes. Upon
31 Dr. Samuel Knight, in his Life of Dean Colet, p. 87, quotes the anecdote from a "Remnant of an old English book, printed in the latter End of Henry VII": "Certeyne of Vycars of Poules dysposed to be merye on a Sondaye at hye Masse tyme, sent another madde Felowe of theyr Acquayntance unto a folishe dronken Preest upon the Toppe of the Stayres by the Chauncell Dore, and spake to hym, and sayd thus, Syr, my Maistre hath sent you a Bottell to putt your Drynke in, because ye can kepe none in your Brayne. Thys Preest beyinge therewith very angrye, all sodenly toke the Bottell, and with his Fote flange it down into the Bodye of the Churche upon the Gentylmennes Heddes." These "Vycars" were vicars-choral, members of the choir.
32 Microcosmographie , or a Piece of the World discovered in Essays and Characters, 1628. For a later sarcastic allusion to "singing-men's religion," see Abraham Cowley's Sylva, 1636.
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worky-dayes they behave themselves at Prayers or at their pots, for they swallow them downe in an instant. Their Gownes are lac'd commonly with steamings of ale, the superfluities of a cup or throat above measure. Their skill in melody makes them the better companions abroad, and their An- themes abler to sing Catches. Long liv'd for the most part they are not, especially the base, they overflow their banke so oft to drowne the Organs. Briefly, if they escape arresting, they dye constantly in God's Service: and to take their death with more patience, they have Wine and Cakes at their Funerall: and now they keepe the Church a great deale better, and helpe to fill it with their bones as before with their noyse.
Then, as now, people were criticized for what is called the artistic temperament. Hermogenes, in Jonson's Poetaster, is a singer who will not sing when asked and, prevailed on to begin, will not stop; and Lyly, in Euphues and His England, censures the froward "Musition, who, being entreated, will scarce sing sol fa." But music and musicians seem to have escaped the charge of effeminacy. Various princes and young nobles were given lessons in music, and it is recommended to men as a worthy accomplishment by several writers, notably Castigli- one. His Cortegione, or description of the perfect courtier, was pub- lished in an English translation in 1561, and influenced English educa- tion and thought. He thus criticizes a well-born but unmusical boor:
Not that we would have him [our Courtier] look fierce, or go about blus- tering, or say that he has taken his cuirass to wife . . . because to such men as this, one might justly say that which a brave lady jokingly said in gentle company to one . . . who, being invited by her out of compliment to dance, refused not only that, but to listen to the music, and many other en- tertainments proposed to him, saying always that such silly trifles were not his business; so that at last the lady said, "What is your business, then?" He replied with a sour look, "To fight." Then the lady at once said, "Now that you are in no war and out of fighting trim, I should think it were a good thing to have yourself well oiled, and to stow yourself with all your battle harness in a closet until you be needed, lest you grow more rusty than
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
you are"; and so, amid much laughter from the bystanders, she left the dis- comfited fellow to his silly presumption.
33
Minstrels had become little short of public nuisances. "London is so full of unprofitable Pipers and Fidlers, that a man can no soner enter a taverne, but two or three of them hang at his heeles," Gosson tells us.34 And Dekker warns,35 "If you desire not to be haunted with Fid- lers, who by the statute have as much liberty as Roagues to travell into any place, having the passport of the place about them, bring then no women along with you." Some musicians are unskilful, and when they are mendicants as well, they are intolerable. Case observes,36 "There are a great many cocks and to use a domesticall proverb, a great many asses at the harp," and such "have made themselves a by-word & skorne in al places; Our alehouse, vagabond & begging minstrelsie I defend not." From 1572 minstrels and players were to be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds unless they could produce a license signed by two mag- istrates. Even this license was taken away in 1603.37 Weelkes alludes to "the banished Philomele, whose purest blood the impure Minstrelsie hath stained,"38 and in 161 4 Ravenscroft regrets the growing ill-favor into which minstrels were dragging music.39
John Case has been mentioned above as a champion of music. He was a Fellow of St. John's, Oxford, and is described by Anthony Wood as the "most noted disputant and philosopher that ever set foot in that college ... a man of an innocent, meek, religious, and studious life
33 The Boo\ of the Courtier, by Count Baldesar Castiglione, Book i, §17; translation by Leonard E. Opdycke, p. 26.
34 Stephen Gosson, A Short Apology, 1587. In Edward Arber's English Reprints, 1868, vol. i, p. 70.
35 Thomas Dekker, Guls Horn-Boo\e, 1609, in the chapter entitled "How a Gallant Should Behave himself in a Taverne."
36 The Praise of Music\e, 1586.
37 Some English houses of the present day display the sign: "No hawkers, beggars, nor musicians allowed."
38 Balletts and Madrigals to five voyces, 1598.
39 A Brief e Discourse.
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
... a lover of scholars, beloved by them again, and held in high ven- eration." He wrote two books in praise of music, the one in English, the other in Latin that it might win favor with the learned.40 In these works he dwells eloquently on the antiquity, the dignity and what he calls the suavity — what we might call the cultural value — of music, in- quires into the nature, the necessity and the use of music under social, civic, and warlike conditions, and concludes with several chapters on sacred music, its practice and justification.
The Praise of Music\e is an important work and formidable in its array of authority. It covered the ground so thoroughly that the treat- ment of the topic by any other author would seem quite superfluous. Case was keenly aware of the criticism leveled against his art. So he be- gins on the defensive, but warming to his subject and piling on evi- dence soon carries the war into the enemy's camp to the encouragement of all lovers of music. Some of his arguments in behalf of the art he so loved are today outmoded, and their copious presentation here would prove tedious. The inclusion of a specimen or two, however, may well be justified.
The importance attached to music in the education of the ancient Greeks is cited by Case to persuade his contemporaries. He quotes from Aristotle and other writers to show that music is a necessary part of any well-ordered education: first, because the study of music is a profitable pursuit for one's spare time, which might otherwise be wasted in idle- ness; second, because music refreshes the wearied mind, just as gymnas-
40 The Praise of Music\e, 1586, and Apologia musices tarn vocalis quam instrumentalis et mixtae, 1588. Copies of both works are in the British Museum, and the former may also be found in the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress at Washing- ton. The Praise of Musicke discusses at length the effects of music upon our minds and bodies, its place in education and religion, and the affectionate regard in which it has been held by some of the world's most famous philosophers, statesmen, soldiers, and di- vines. The Puritan attitude toward church music is also given in detail. Numerous ex- tracts from the work are given in Appendix C, since more completely than any other source it answers the question, Why did the educated Elizabethan consider music a Fine Art?
[29]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
tics strengthen the body; and third, because it has a wholesome effect upon our actions and manner of life:
Many of the auncient Grecians among whome this Art was in highe esti- mation, instructed their children in Musicke, as profitable to the correction of life and manners, that thereby they might bee incited to temperance and honestie: for it is the property of liberall Sciences to ingenerate a gentle, and liberal action in their hearers.
As to the power of music, he cites :
A most manifest proof is that which is said of Alexander the great, who sitting at a banquet amongst his friends, was nevertheles by the excelent skil of Timotheus a famous musician so inflamed with the fury of Modus Orthius, or as some say of Dorius, that he called for his spear & target as if he would presently have addressed himself to war. Neither is this a more apparent proof for this part than that which followed is for the next. The same Timotheus seeing Alexander thus incensed, only with the changing of a note, pacified this moode of his, & as it were with a more mild sound mollified & asswaged his former violence.
The student of literature will recall here that Dryden's famous poem Alexander's Feast is modeled on the same anecdote. Our excellent champion of music goes further to show the power of his beloved art even on animals in a long and intricate passage in which he declares, "I am verily persuaded that the plowman & carter ... do not so much please themselves with their whistling as they are delightsome to their oxen and horses"; and concludes:
There is also a third kinde of living creatures, which by the Philosophers are called amphibia,41 because they live both on the land & in the waters. Of these, I will only name the Swanne, which bird . . . finisheth her life with singing and with joy.
41 Case prints it in Greek, &(A(pi|3ia; it was not yet accepted as an Eng';sh word.
[30]
MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
In the last chapters Case gives as his own reasons for the use of mu- sic, especially in church: It is the gift of God, "putting us in mind of our Maker and of that mutuale unitie and consent which ought to bee as of voices so of mindes in Gods church and congregations"; it is "a pleasant bait" to allure men to the service; and it enforces the memory as "men . . . doe more firmely carry away with them those things which they heare song than those which they hear barely spoken and pronounced." When he says, in conclusion, "The use" of music in the church "is ancient and of great continuance," the sternest Puritan could not contradict him.
The Praise of Music\e came from the press of Joseph Barnes, printer of the University of Oxford, and in 1586, as we have seen above. Two years later Barnes published Case's other book, the Apologia musices, the author reverting to the learned tongue this time.
The Apologia is dedicated to Sir Henry Unton and Sir William Hat- ton. He praises their skill in music as remarkable: "altero non multi, altero vix aliquis peritius." Case's reasons for writing this new work must remain doubtful. He had covered the ground so thoroughly in the former book that the Apologia contains little that is new. The same arguments are set forth, even to the familiar anecdotes from Pliny; the fish in the pool at Alexandria entertain us again. He evidently thought that serious scholars would be more impressed by music's claims if they were set forth in Latin. In Chapter 6 he praises instrumental music, as an aid to the contemplation of the divine, and singing, but the two in combination he regards as best, "for here art and nature sing together." Two new topics do, however, receive discussion in the Apologia: music in the theatre, and the relative importance of the eye and the ear. Music in the theatre he approves because it refreshes us. His comments on the eye and ear receive some authority from the fact that he was a physi- cian. In the family circle, he feels that moral philosophy and history are a greater aid to the mind than music, and he makes the obvious enough observation that reading exhausts the mind, whereas music refreshes it.
[3i]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
He calls upon the English people to honor "Byrd, Mundy, Bull, Mor- ley, Dowland, [Edward?] Johnson, and many others, just as not long ago they honored Taverner, Blitheman, Tallis, [William] More, and other distinguished musicians." We thus learn what contemporary mu- sicians he considered greatest, as well as what earlier musicians had been the most revered in England.
Case was rewarded for his labors in behalf of music in a novel and interesting way. Two of his associates in music wrote and published a couple of madrigals designated A Gratification "unto Master John Case for his learned booke lately made in the praise of Musicke." The au- thors were Thomas Watson, the well-known translator of The first sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished, who wrote the words, and William Byrd, greatest of English composers of his age, who composed the mu- sic. The two madrigals are written for six voices. Only one page has come down to us.42
Watson's first stanza reads as follows :
A gratification unto Master John Case, for his learned boo\e, lately made in the praise of Music\e
Let others prayse what seemes them best, I like his lines above the rest Whose pen hath painted Musickes prayse He soundly blames the senceles foole And barbarous Scithyan of our dayes. He wrytes of sweetly turning Sphaeres, How Byrds and Beasts & Worms rejoyce, How Dolphyns lov'd Arions voyce He makes a frame for Midas eares.
42 Now in the University of Cambridge Library, it has been reproduced in the illus- tration facing this page. It will be noticed that the soprano clef, with middle C on the bottom line, is used, and the indication of tempo is "Imperfect Time of the Lesser Prola- tion in Diminution." This is our common time; the bisected C, together with our tempo sign C, are the only medieval time signatures that are still in use. The bisected C indi-
w
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K
O O ■%
Q
£ 3 3 <
O
Pi
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MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
Nearly a generation later, Henry Peacham, the notable writing-master and author, gave his opinions on music (besides many other topics) in two works, Minerva Britanna and The Compleat Gentleman. Peacham belonged to the schoolmaster tradition of Elyot, Ascham, and Brath- wait, and went out of his way to write of music specifically. Like Case, and true to the mannerism of his age, Peacham sets great store on the authority of the ancients: "Plato calleth music 'a divine or heavenly practice' "; Lycurgus refused the Lacedemonians various pleasures but allowed them music; and "Aristode averreth Musicke to bee the only disposer of the mind to Vertue and Goodnesse."43
Peacham shares with Byrd and Case a repetition of the accepted com- monplaces as to music: that it is "a great lengthener of life," that it "openeth the breast and pipes," and cures disease;44 he even anticipates Burton's declaration that music is "an enemy to melancholy."44 With Case he deprecates that any nobleman or gentleman should neglect his weightier duties for it, but declares it, as a recreation, worthy of the greatest prince. "No Rhetoricke more perswadeth or hath greater power over the mind";44 and he asserts somewhat quixotically that music can maintain mankind in unity and concord.44
In 1630, at the close of our period, another book of the same species appeared, The English Gentleman, by Richard Brathwait. The author lacked Peacham's enthusiasm for music. He pays it lip service by quot- ing a few cliches from the ancients, but in a long discussion of recrea- tions befitting a gentleman fails to mention it at all; and in his essay Of Hearing*5 he frankly says he will not waste his time listening to it:
cates not two beats to a bar, but that the notes were to be sung twice as quickly as if the signature had been an unbarred C. There was no distinction in those days between duple time (our 2/4) and quadruple (4/4). The x's are sharps. Half- and whole-note rests were vertical strokes, not horizontal. Quarter rests (in the form of a hook) and rests to the value of a double whole note and quadruple whole note also occur. Under the last note is a pause.
43 Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman, 1612.
44 The Compleat Gentleman.
45 One of Brathwait's Essays upon the Five Senses.
[33]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
"Finding it but an aery accent, breathed and expired in one instant, I thought . . . my attentive sense fitter to be employed in a delight more permanent."
Barring an occasional crusty proverb such as "much music marreth men's manners," the Elizabethan chorus as to music is one of ecstatic and none too discerning praise, whether with Wilbye there is lamenta- tion that "Musicke sits solitary among her sister Sciences and often wants the Fortune to be esteemed,"46 or with Allison it is affirmed that the high estate of music is too obvious to argue about. It is Allison who quotes an interesting encomium from "Father Martin Luther" :
Musicke, saith he, to Divels we know is hateful and intollerable, and I plainely thinke, neither am I ashamed to averr it, that next to Theologie, there is no Arte comparable with Musicke: for it alone next to Theologie doth affect that, which otherwise onely Theologie can performe, that is, a quiet and a chearefull minde.47
There is a quaint glorification of music by Pilkington, smacking of the shop when he writes:
The sacred Art of Musicke (being chiefly illustrated by Voyces) notwith- standing all Artists, in respect of the compasse and quality of voyces and in- struments, doe limit it within scales and other certaine dimensions, is in its owne nature infinite; reaching from the base Earth (being as it were the Gam-ut or ground) to the highest E-La.48
And he adds :
God to his great Glory, doth diversly and wonderfully enable his crea- tures thereunto, teaching man upon earth, not onely in mellifluous Notes to
46 Wilbye, The Second Set of Madrigales, 1609.
47 Richard Allison, An Howres Recreation in Musicke, 1606 (madrigals).
48 Francis Pilkington, The First Set of Madrigals, 161 4. E-la (4th space E) was theo- retically the topmost note of the top hexachord, and so was an Elizabethan synonym for the "highest point."
[34]
MUSIC ATTACKED AND DEFENDED
chant; but also upon variety of Instruments sweetly to expresse the hidden secrets of that sacred Science; & not leaving the vast Ay re empty of his glory, he instructeth the early Larke to warble forth his prayse; who, (as some hould) learneth his layes from the musicall motions of the heavenly Spheares, and from thence to transcend up to the seate of the most highest, the elected Saints and Angels do in heavenly Himmes, sing perpetually Te Deum to the holy Trinitie, sitting on the throne of most Majesticke glorie.
Among all these superlatives as to music it is somewhat strange, in the age of Sidney, to find scarcely a word which can be designated aesthetic criticism. Later, in 1614, Ravenscroft touches on the relations of music to love, in this anticipating Burton, who was his contemporary :
I have heard it said that Love teaches a man Musick, who ne're before knew what pertayned thereto: And the Philosophers three Principall Causes of Musick, 1. Doulour, 2. Joy, 3. Enthusiasme or ravishing of the Spirit, are all found by him within Loves Territories. Besides, we see the Soveraignty of Musicke in this Affection, by the Cure and Remedy it affoords the Dis- passionate, and Infortunate Sonnes of Love, thereby to asswage the tur- moyles, and quiet the tempests that were raised in them.49
When all is said, there are few finer appreciations of the expressiveness of music than that of Bishop Hooker in his famous work Ecclesiastical Polity, whether we accept or reject his engaging notion that music has power to draw men to righteousness or tempt them to sin. Music, writes Hooker, is
A thing which delighteth all ages, and beseemeth all states; a thing as sea- sonable in grief as in joy; . . . the reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind more inwardly than any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions where- unto the mind is subject; yea, so to imitate them, that whether it resemble unto us the same state wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary,
49 Ravenscroft, A Brief e Discourse . . .,1614.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other. In harmony the very image and character of virtue and vice is perceived, the mind delighted with their resemblances, and brought, by having them often iterated, into a love of the things themselves; for which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony, than some nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from another we need no proof but our own experience, inasmuch as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness, of some more mollified and softened in mind; one kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir our af- fections. There is that draweth to a marvellous grave and sober mediocrity;50 there is also that carrieth as it were into ecstasies, filling the mind with an heavenly joy, and for the time in a manner severing it from the body.
Enough has perhaps been suggested as to the Elizabethan attitude toward music. Their language, like most of the language of encomium, courts extravagance and hyperbole; but most of this, be it remembered, was like the ruffs, the laces, and farthingales, merely the costume of the age. The musicians of Tudor times, like their fellows in other arts and sciences, worshipped the ancients and were accustomed to still many an objection with the single word "antiquity." But if their praises lack variety and that discrimination which can alone advance the his- tory and understanding of an art, their fervor and devotion claims the admiration and approval of a more critical age.
50 Moderation, equanimity.
[36]
Ill
rJMusic Sung in Church
THE historical continuity of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England is exemplified in their forms of government and the words and music of their services. The familiar plainsong of the latter church is Roman in origin, changed only in minor respects. The Catholic motet became the English anthem, the Mass in adapted form the Holy Communion. The Reformation, however, was respon- sible for the substitution of English for Latin in the Church, for a sim- plification of the texture of the music in order to make the sacred words that were sung intelligible, and for the invention of the psalm tune. The Elizabethans, like the Scotch, sang psalms instead of hymns.1
In the earlier part of this chapter we will consider the English Psalter and its psalm tunes, and in its later pages take up such music as was primarily intended to be sung by choirs, in particular the Roman and English musical services, motets, and anthems.
The Elizabethans sang the psalms both in prose and verse. The prose texts were reprinted in the Prayer Book from Coverdale's Great Bible of 1539-40, and Coverdale's words were required to be said or sung in all Anglican churches, as they are today. The tunes, slightly modified
1 The English Church retained the familiar Roman canticles, such as the Benedicite (from the Apocrypha); the Magnificat (from the New Testament) and the Te Deum, which is a non-Biblical "hymn"; and some Scotch psalters have metrical versions of these, e.g., The Psalmes of David in Scottish meter: After the forme that they are used to be song in the Kir\ of Scotland, Edinburgh, 161 4, which contains the Veni Creator, a me- dieval hymn. The Courte of Vertue (London, about 1565) includes several religious songs with tunes, e.g., "Blame not my lute though it doe sounde the rebuke of your wicked sinne" and such moral music as "A short song exhorting all men to abstayne from the use of false weyghtes and measures." These were to be sung at home or (by a singer sans peur et sans reproche) in the grocer's shop. But during divine worship, the practice in Great Britain was to sing only texts from the Bible and the service of the early Church.
[37]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
to fit the English words, were Gregorian, and familiar from pre-Refor- mation days.2 But we will concern ourselves only with the metrical ver- sions or "paraphrases," since several printed editions of these contain prefaces which throw light upon Elizabethan musical opinion.
The metrical psalms published in the earlier collections were intended for personal or recreational use. They were becoming popular during the time of Edward VI, and then after the intervening reign of his re- actionary successor we have read how they were sung by glad multi- tudes in London upon the accession of Elizabeth. The phrase "This was begun in one church in London" may indicate that metrical ver- sions of the psalms had never been sung in English churches before. In December 1559, some of these enthusiastic Londoners who were wor- shipping in Exeter Cathedral interrupted the service by singing metri- cal psalms, and thereby greatly annoyed the clergy. News of the dis- turbance was carried to the ecclesiastical commissioners in London, and they sanctioned the singing of metrical psalms in church in future.3
It is possible that psalms were sung in metrical English before the Reformation, at least outside the church. Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder and the Earl of Surrey had translated several. In the early years of the Reformation the three most important metrical editions of the psalms in English were those by Coverdale (1539?)? Crowley (1549), and Sternhold and Hopkins (1549). We will consider each of these in turn and then take up some later psalters.4
Coverdale's5 is probably the first English metrical version of any of
2 From this Gregorian type the Anglican chant of the present day evolved during the seventeenth century by a minor change in meter.
3 W. H. Frere, The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. London, 1904.
4 For a chronological list of all the important early metrical psalters in English see
P- 339-
5 Goostly psalmes and spirituall songes drawen out of the holy Scripture for the com- forte and consolacyon of such as hue to reioyce in God and his worde. Imprynted by me Johan Gough. Cum priuilegio Regalj. The Address "Unto the Christen reader" is by "Myles Couerdale." The only known copy is in the library of Queen's College, Oxford,
[38]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
the psalms to be printed with tunes. His rendering of the 46th Psalm, set to Luther's "Ein' feste Burg" is given below and shows the irregular rhythm of the earlier German chorales:
THE XLV. PSALME OF DAVID f Deus noster refugium
mi i»
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1
Oure God is a de - fence and towre a good armoure and good weap - en he
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hath been euer oure helpe and sucoure in all (he troubles y' we have ben in ther-
v^ftr^r^-m
XX £1.
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forewyl we neuer drede for any wonderous dede by water or by
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londe in hilles or ye see sonde our god hath them al in his hond
The Goostly psalmes were intended to be sung by "the lovers of Gods worde," at their homes or daily work, in place of "balettes of fylthynes," also by children, "in godly sports to passe theyr tyme." Coverdale writes :
Yee[a] wolde God that our mynstrels had none other thynge to playe upon, neither oure carters and plowmen other thynge to whistle upon, save Psalmes, hymnes, and soch godly songes as David is occupied with all [i.e., withal]. And yf women syttinge at theyr rockes [distaffs] or spynninge at the wheles, had none other songes to passe theyr tyme withall, than soch as
77.B.17 (Select). Its setting of the 46th (45th) Psalm employs the alto clef and uses no bar lines nor time signatures. The original words, pitch, and note values have been re- tained in our version printed here.
[39]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Moses sister, Elchanas wife, Debbora, and Mary the mother of Christ have song before them, they shulde be better occupied, than with hey nony nony, hey troly loly, & soch lyke fantasies.
In 1549 appeared the first known metrical translation of the whole psalter into English, by Robert Crowley.6 It was set to music in four parts, in the style of the Anglican chant. Its hybrid form was not imi- tated in later psalters.
The most famous of all metrical psalters was that of Sternhold and Hopkins, which served as the accepted English version from the middle of the sixteenth century until the early years of the nineteenth. In its earliest form it was a collection of paraphrases of only nineteen psalms by Thomas Sternhold, published without music in 1548 or 1549.7 To later editions more and more paraphrases were added, including some by J. Hopkins and the Rev. William Whittingham, John Knox's suc- cessor at Geneva. Tunes first appear in the 1556 edition, published in that Swiss city during the Marian persecutions. The first edition of Sternhold and Hopkins to give us music in four parts was printed in 1560, and the first to include all the psalms in 1562. The psalm8 on page 41 may well have been one of those sung with such fervor during the early days of Elizabeth's reign.
Although "Sternhold and Hopkins," as it was familiarly called, con- tinued to hold the field against all competitors, as its numerous reprints
6 The Psalter of David newely translated into Englysh metre in such sort that it maye the more decently, and wyth more delyte of the minde, be read and songe of all men. W hereunto is added a note of [=z music to be sung in] four partes, with other thynges, as shall appeare in the Epistle to the Readar. Translated and Imprinted by Robert Crowley in the year of our horde MDXL1X the XX daye of September . . . One of the musical settings is printed in Grove, iv. 268.
7 Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David and drawen into Englishe Metre by Thomas Sternhold, Grome of ye Kynges Maiesties Robes. London, Edvardus Whit- churche.
8 Words and music are taken from the rare Geneva Psalter of 1561: "Four score and seven Psalmes of David in English mitre by Thomas sternholde and others ..." The alto clef is used, without bar lines or rime signatures.
[40]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
show,9 several later psalters merit attention on account of their intrinsic worth or comments on music.
PSALM XXIII
Words by W. Whittingham
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I. The Lord is one - Iy my sup-porte, and he that doeth me fede:
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■sr any - thing,
can I then lacke
where
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stand in nede?
2. He doeth me folde in cottes most safe,
the tendre grass fast by: And after driveth me to the streames, which ranne moste pleasantly.
3. And when I fele my selfe nere lost,
then doeth he me home take, Conducting me in his right paths, even for his owne names sake.
4. And thogh I were even at deaths dore,
yet wolde I fear non eil. For with thy rodde and shepheards croke I am comforted stil.
5. Thou hast my table richely deckt in
despite of my foe: Thou hast mine head with baume re- fresht, my cuppe doeth overfloe.
6. And finally while breth doeth last, thy grace shall me defende, And in the house of God will I my life for ever spende.
Among these belongs Archbishop Parker's Psalter,10 as it is now called. The tunes, nine in number, were composed expressly for the work by Tallis. The paraphrases are presumably by the Archbishop himself.
On August 6, 1557, he had written that by the inspiration of "my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ... I have finished the Book of Psalms turned into vulgar verse." His biographer, Strype, evidently never heard
9 At least twenty-two editions of various psalters were printed in England during Queen Elizabeth's reign, almost all of these editions using Sternhold and Hopkins' words. But the list of tunes and the harmonizations vary considerably.
10 The whole Psalter translated into English Metre, which contayneth an hundred and fifty Psalmes. Imprinted at London by John Daye. Cum gratia et privilegio Regiae Maie- statis per Decennium. No date.
[41]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
of the psalter, for he writes, "What became of his Psalms, I know not."11 We can account for Strype's ignorance by the fact that ^he work was never placed on sale. It was printed in 1567 or 1568. Parker then prob- ably realized that because both its words and tunes were entirely un- familiar it could not hope to vie in popularity with the verse and music of Sternhold and Hopkins already beloved throughout the land. There is a foreword "Ad Lectorem":
Haec quincunque legis, tu flexu et acumine vocis In numeros numeros doctis accentibus effer,
Affectusque impone legens, distinctio sensum Auget, et ignavis dant intervalla vigorem.
This is obligingly translated for our benefit into fourteeners :
To the Reader Accent in place your voyce as needth,
note number, poynte, and time. Both lyfe and grace good reading breedth
flat verse it reysth sublime.
The verse is flat enough. Perhaps Archbishop Parker perceived that just in time. Parker, if it were indeed he, so enjoyed dashing off verses that for good measure he adds in the same meter a poem of seventy-four stanzas on "The vertue of the Psalmes."
Parker's psalter is really important to us, however, for not only are all the tunes the work of Thomas Tallis, the most important English com- poser of his immediate time, but the valuable comments on the first eight of these constitute seemingly the only specific criticism of Eliza- bethan psalm tunes that has come down to us from that period, and were doubtless written or sanctioned by the distinguished composer himself. As this psalter is of interest as representative of the quality of the best church music of the age, and as it is inaccessible to the ordinary reader, having not been reprinted, I give the eight tunes here, printing
11 The Life and Acts of Matthew Parser, by John Strype, 171 1, Book 1, Chapter 7.
[42]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
them for the first time in short score.12 The tune in every case is in the tenor part, not the treble. In its original form each tune with its three accompanying parts is printed on one double page, as follows:
The Meane Tenor
The Contra Tenor Base
It is likely that Tallis composed some of the tunes to the very verses here printed, although we cannot be sure of this. Certain musical nice- ties as to the fitness of word and sound are interesting, e.g., his repetition of the musical phrases in the latter half of the sixth tune to fit the rhym- ing half lines, and an ascent to the highest note of the third tune at the words "The kings arise."13 Furthermore, the one use of E \) as a melody note anywhere in the book is to accompany the word "griefe," in the sixth tune. Palestrina sometimes uses chords containing flatted notes to express grief, and the two "sad" tunes of the eight (the second and the
12 I have omitted No. 9, "Veni Creator," for it was printed by Parker without com- ment, and was not a psalm tune. It occurs in some modern hymnals, with the name of its composer as its title: "Tallis."
13 Composers like Palestrina, in whose music vivid pictorial expression of a word or phrase is comparatively infrequent, nevertheless show a naive fondness for rushing up the scale at the word "ascendit" and down for "descendit"; it was a common musical device of the period.
[43]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
sixth) are the only ones with which chords containing the note E \) are used. The editor of the psalter comments on the tunes as follows:
The nature of the eyght tunes
— ,14 i. The first is meeke: devout to see,
\ 2. The second sad: in majesty.
\ 3. The third doth rage: and roughly brayth.
/ 4. The fourth doth fawne: and flattry playth,
/ 5. The fyfth delig[hte]th: and laugheth the more,
\ 6. The sixt bewayleth: it weepeth full sore,
\ 7. The seventh tredeth stoute: in froward race,
— ■ 8. The eyghte goeth milde: in modest pace.
The following significant words show that the book was designed for use both in church and in the home :
U5P3 The Tenor of these partes be for the people when they will sing alone, the other parts, put for greater queers,15 or such as will syng or play them privatelye.
I have ventured to add modern time signatures, there being none in the original, and have substituted modern barring; the original bar lines were placed only at the ends of lines or at punctuation marks. The soprano, alto, tenor, and bass parts of an Elizabethan choral work were always printed as separate units, usually in different volumes or at least on different pages. Hence one cannot tell how the composition will sound from reading it, for it is impossible to read the four vocal parts at the same time; in order to hear and judge it, therefore, it is necessary in every case either to rewrite it laboriously in modern "vocal score," or to hear it sung.
As was the custom of the time, these harmonized psalm tunes by Tallis all have the melodies in the tenor part, not the soprano:
14 Above each tune and many of the psalms is printed one of these three arbitrary symbols, so that a psalm of trust, or rejoicing, or lamentation might be sung to a tune of appropriate character.
15 Harassed choirmasters will approve this spelling of the word.
[44]
ARCHBISHOP PARKER'S PSALTER
THE EIGHT TUNES
~ PSALM i. THE FIRST TUNE16 ["The first is meeke: devout to see"]
The Meane The Contratenor
Tenor [the melody] Base
^^
j L J I, J||
m
Man blest no dout who walkth not out: in wicked mens affayres:
^//h^l° l^l.'.;!!" fJl" i-
j Is i'i-JJL iUi
TTT
Andstandth no day in sin - ners way: nor sitth in scorners chayres17
S
lin sinners
* r r f
3X
day
to sinners way
But hath his will in Gods law still this law to love a - right
41:' j j j I | j iH » I o J 18 'J I
"t r r 1° r K 1 I r 1 | [
p£
r r r i ° r ^
'fll'l'l'1** j!l* V-r1- rW.r
And will him use on
L
muse to keepe it day and night
" I j ^=
±
p r r j ibo r^^
r^
r
jj. Talys
16 Novello publishes a fine modern choral prelude on this tune for organ by Harold Darke.
17 The Meane has no punctuation mark here, the Contratenor has a colon, the Tenor a period and the Base a comma!
[45]
\ PSALME. 68. THE SECOND TUNE ["The second sad in majesty"]
punim ijj jjij A.AA L:i
• rrrr r*rrr rrrr? * r
-3X ■ _■-_ _g_
* r r
Let God aryse in mai - es - tie: and scat - red be his foes: yea
l>* - ii1 <' rV if! jH\ft •},!\'4
r r r r
U I J J i J j J J i J j j
r r r f 7 r f r 7 rrr t
flee they all, his sight in face: to hym which hateful goes:
JJJ.JJJJ.JJ — J-J.
XI 3E"
r
As
«E=
s
J
5
r ff r r " r" r r
w
=?
te j j j u j .i j u j .i j i- - j
J r r r f r rr r r ffrr **f
rrrr rrrr r ttt r
moke is driven and comth to nought re -pulse theyr tyr - an - ny: At
m
J ,) j j ,,) ,Ul=J
^t
^
^
^f
r
rr
the bad mought fly
f _ face the bad moug
^
face of fire: as waxe doth melt : Gods face the bad-
r
mought fly
I face the bad mought fly
•the bad mought fly.
i. Talys
[46]
\ PSALME. 2. THE THIRD TUNE18
["The third doth rage and roughly brayth"]
'i ij J J 1 i l^jJllB / IBBB^^
i
Whyfumeth in sight: the Gentils spyght: in fury ragyng
i =f! ;j [j i»: fJ ^ j
up
p
f=
r
^ i j j
^
&*
^s
te
Hi! M I 8
rrr-
rr
3
Stout. Why takth in hand: the people fond: vayne thinges to bryng a-
,, a a . Q: k\\ .-J J , o a , o a. ^ZL J_
I
gg
P^
31
11 O 31
P
PT
:t/.^|ilH /l^'le ^L /Ujl
te
3
rr
bout, The kyngs arise: the lordes de - vise: in eounsayles met ther-
*#
«» — P~
r i" r I- r ir^
^/i^VL/'i V'//'fiJl^'Jlil "
r*r~ r r r f r r r" r
to: A - gaynst the Lord : wyth false accord: agaynst hys Christ they go.
■ J.^-JJ... i.J- J J,, | J , J j,, | ,| ,„|
§
^5
mm
Prr^F^
" - r-j ■*—**
T
■Talys.
1S The leger line at the end of the base part is the only one in the book, and a rarity in Elizabethan printed music. Vaughan Williams has based his impressive Fantasia on a Theme by Tallis, for string orchestra, on the above tune.
[47 1
\ PSALM. 95. THE FOURTH TUNE ["The fourth doth fawne and flattry playth"]
6
iUjIuiUi'iiUiUil
f f r ffrfrff"8 f
O come in one, to prayse the lord, & him recount: our stay & health, all
,' jlii'/i-i'i i'i"i'i,li'#W
EESEi
jU i'^iUiUiUi'ii
r*r*f rr frff6"
harty ioyes, let us record: to this strong rocke:6ur Lord of health. His
J J ,J J
P*
i
*
=fe
^^
r r 'i' r
r
sf *5*? "r r r r r rr r ^r
r f -f -f °r r rrrrr* r *r
face with prayse, let us pre - vent: his factes in sight, let us denounce,15 Joyne
¥
a J I J J i... J 1" ±g
ffi
" r Q r f f
t
j j 1.. jij.i
BW
hymnes, let us pronounce.
g
we I say: in
;lad assent: our psalmes
U ,0 J J
=J=
i
*3f
IT
r
19 I.e., let us proclaim his deeds.
/. Talys
[48]
/ PSALME. 42. THE FIFT TUNE "The fyfth delig[hte]th and laugheth the more"]
21 m r1 ' 11
i= 11 "J
3
f-rrf r -^ r
a
3
r
Even lyke the hunt - ed hynd: the wa - ter brokes de - sire
E
«:
§===
B r f
f=
f=
i
^
s
Even thus my soule: that faint -i
J-
si
ii
is: To thee would fayne
i a J « i J
r ir if if
==-»
£
^S
p#3f
a = U I i'i
«=
rr s
r
pire, My soule did thirst to God: to God of lyfe and grace:
J. SX A o
±J=A
;v::ii!r r ir rj^
&L
T
T
=±
J ul. j ,ii. ,n0 J-uU-U
f
f
^g
r*r "r c
It sayd"2even thus: when shall I come, to see Gods live - ly face
^ 1 —LAJa j.o j... ±+±
S=
f=*=F
f=*=*f
20 Dot omitted.
21 Whole rest in tenor.
22 fayd in treble.
/. Talys.
[49]
\ PSALME. 5. THE SIXT TUNE ["The sixt bewayleth: it weepeth full sore"]
my plaint
X ■- >\ -\ I ■>■ I;J J J I" J I O J J J I.. - J
rr f rr"f" ~ r rrrrr — r
Ex-pend O Lord my plaint of worde: in griefe that I do make, My
HF
s
Ji: m t-'K'l
m
T
~~T
^m
m w 'M8
»
TT
t — rr
count most kynd: geve
^^
musing mynd : re J J „ "o jJ
care for thine owne sake,
gnEEpEjgi
U=A
FF
■i i -u .1 ,1
^^
, 1 1 - 1 , =f
f
kyng, my God thou art,
«E=
rr r
O harke my grohe
rrr
my cry-ing none: my
=L
J J J
3
?
7+T"
f=f=f
r^T
U J ,) j -LI I j I.. .1 I J-. J~l 1-1 J 1,1
f
:g^=r
ff'r* r
from thee a way: to
j J J 1° J
r" rfff f r
s
rf r
Let me not stray:
-Lj-i
thee I
pray
in hart.
ff=f
rrr
I pray —
/. Talys.
[50]
/ PSALME. 52. THE SEUENTH TUNE ["The seventh tredeth stoute in froward race"]
■ jij- j i.j m J i" ^u Ji--^^
Why bragst in mal-ice hie, O thou in mis-chief stout, Gods good-nes
A- I J J ii J S i A J. si. I J-
^
= fJ ir:»i^ iH r 1
r r r 1 pio g^se
i
1 J 1 jl" f^J I IJJ J: i' J J 1 •"« ,J
yet is nye, all day to me no doubt : Thy tongue to muse all evill, it doth it
aflsJ Aj.
"-I'lMll'lYl'
W:
m r irr
W '° IPi Ji
a 1 1 J 1 » j 1 j
*
51
§
r ffffffr" r-T 7
selfe in - ure: As ra - sor sharpe to spill, all guile it doth pro-cure
J J ... -J.J: J.,W.n J.- JJ i
:fU: J.J f1
^^
^
r^
r
5. Talys.
23 The Contratenor has C by mistake.
[51]
- PSALME. 67. THE EIGHT TUNE24 'The eyghte goeth milde in modest pace" ]
<Ki'i JIJ JIMIJ JljiiJlJ ^
f r f F f Tf r r r r r r f f
Jod graunt with grace, ne us im - brace, in gen - tie part, blesse he our
■J.J «J ,.l -I ,J J rij .1 ..U ..i .1 .J J
3
s
r t ir r 'c i' 'r r 'n f r^n-
i I 1 U.Jjj J l'j Jlj j IJJ JJ Jlj J » r r rV r rTf r f r Ff
hart, with lov - ing face: shine he in place: his mer - cies all: on us to
J iU±Ji J J J,, J j ,^ J Jl
m
M
%
■^T
r t r t
r'/'i'l'Vi'i'lW/'ffP^
r 1 MM' t 1 t f f 1 f r 'r r
fall. That we thy way: may know al day: while we do saile, this world so
yf-rif-
^
T^
^
r
r
f^r r > r f ? V rf >• Tf# >
f r f r fff rT rpTffT
f raile Thy healthes te-ward: is nye de-clard: as playne as eye: all Gen-tils spy
w=^
N i'ii'iii'i'i|'i|i|'liil'i'ii'i,i;
/.nTalys.
24 The composition known today as Tallis' Canon is similar but shorter. Both canons are between the soprano and tenor at the octave. There is some canonic imitation here in the bass also.
[52]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
Further evidence of the attempt to induce people to sing psalms in- stead of objectionable ballads at popular gatherings appears in the titles of the next three psalters : Day's Psalter of 1563, Daman's of 1^9, and Cosyn's (1585). The first of these was published in four separate part- books, headed "Medius" (soprano), "Contratenor" (alto), "Tenor," and "Bassus" respectively, in the manner of the printed collections of mad- rigals. For four-part harmony each member of the group would sing from the part-book that suited his or her range of voice. The first part- book is entitled :
Medius of the whole psalmes in foure parts, whiche may be song to al mu- sicall instrumentes , set forth for the encrease of vertue: and the abolishyng of other vayne and triflying ballades. Imprinted at London by John Day
• • • I563-
The harmonizations by Daman, published without his leave, were en- titled :
The Psalmes of David in English meter, with Notes of foure partes set unto them, by Guilielmo Daman, for John Bull,25 to the use of the godly Christians for recreatyng them selves, in stede of fond and unseemley Bal- lades. Anno 15J0.. At London Printed by John Daye. Cum privilegio.
John Cosyn, in the dedication of his psalter26 to Sir Francis Walsing- ham, writes:
And having ... set Six and Five parts upon the tunes ordinarily sung to the Psalmes of David, I was encouraged by some to publish them for the private use and comfort of the godlie, in place of many other Songs neither tending to the praise of God, nor conteining any thing fit for Christian eares.
By 1592 several collections of madrigals had been printed in England,
25 Not the musician of that name.
26 Musi\e of Six, and Fiue partes. Made upon the common tunes used in singing of the Psalmes. By lohn Cosyn. London. Imprinted by Iohn Wolfe. 1585. Cum privilegio Regiae Maiestatis. The British Museum contains no copy of this exceedingly rare work, and the Bodleian only a Bass part (Mus. 55. g. 2).
[53]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
and, contrary to the practice in the psalters just mentioned, Thomas East in that year was able in the dedication of his psalter to mention secular music without censure:
Some have pleased themselves with Pastoralls, others with Madrigalls, but such as are endued with Davids hart, desire with David to sing unto God Psalmes & Hymnes and spirituall songs.
To harmonize the traditional psalm tunes East employed some of the best composers of the age — "J. Douland B. of Musick, G. Farnaby B. of Musick, R. Allison, M. Cavendish, John Farmer, G. Kirby, E. Jhonson, W. Cobbold, E. Blancks and E. Hooper" —
beeing such as I know to be expert in the Arte, & sufficient to answere such curious carping Musitions, whose skill hath not bene employed to the furthering of this work.
The last four names mean little to us today, yet Johnson's music de- lighted the Queen, Cobbold was organist of Norwich Cathedral, and Hooper organist of Westminster Abbey. The consequent excellence of the harmonizations made the book popular, and it was reprinted in 1594 and 1604. The title would indicate its probable use both outside the church and during divine service:
The whole boo\e of psalmes: with their wonted tunes, as they are song in Churches, composed into foure parts: All vvich are so placed that foure may sing, ech one a several part in this boo\e . . . Imprinted at London by Thomas Est, the assigne of William Byrd . . . 1592.
In 1599 an admirable Psalter was published, with the customary tunes simply and tastefully harmonized by Richard Allison:
The Psalmes of David in Meter. The plaine song beeing the commun tunne to be sung and plaide upon the Lute, Orpharyon, Citterne or Base Violl, severally or altogether, the singing part to be either Tenor or Treble to the Instrument, according to the nature of the voyce, or for fowre voyces . . .
[54]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
Burney, who was a poor judge of Elizabethan music, gives the work scant praise,27 while Wooldridge considers it perhaps the finest psalter ever issued.28 It will be noticed that the chief tune appears in the soprano part, not the tenor. In 1591 Daman had issued his second psalter in two editions, one having the tunes in the tenor part, the other in the soprano. We here observe music in the process of evolution : the sovereignty that in medieval music belonged to the tenor part was now passing to the soprano. Here is Allison's setting of "Winchester" to Psalm 84. The mu- sic is transitional in style also: it is obviously in the modern key of G Major, but the key signature has not appeared. The first F natural was perhaps sung F sharp, following the medieval rule of musica ficta:
'PSALME 84"
Harmonized by Richard Allison, 1599
I* s i: ft
±d=
j , j. tt.i
«=
»» n'rrr r*
up r r r
111 j AA
m
:8b
a.
1
i" r r r r r "
iJa
m 1 1
j 8 JB t j fuf ^
i mm
3S
ryrrw j j
s
t^TT^^
^
27 Charles Burney, y4 General History of Music, 1776-1789, iii. 57.
28 See Grove, iv. 277, footnote. Harry E. Wooldridge, M.A. (1845-1917), Slade Pro- fessor of Fine Art at Oxford University, wrote the article on the Psalter in Grove's Dic- tionary, iv. 267-281. He was also the author of the first two volumes of the Oxford His- tory of Music, 1st Edition, 1901-1905.
[55]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
How pleasant is thy dwelling place,
O Lord of Hosts to me, The tabernacle of thy grace,
How pleasant Lord they be.
Two of the prefatory poems are by John Dowland and Sir William Leighton,29 and may be given here as evidences of friendship between these prominent musicians:
Commendatory Verses
John Dowland Batcheler of Musicke in commendation of Richard Allison, and this most excellent wor\
IF Musicks Arte be Sacred and Divine, And holy Psalmes a subject more Divine; If the great Prophet did the words compile, And our rare Artist did these smooth notes file, Then I pronounce in reason and in love, That both combinde, this most Divine must prove, And this deare friend I recommend to thee Of thine owne worth a prooved veritie: Whose high desert doth rather urge me still, To shew my weakenes, than to want good-will.
William Leighton Esq. in praise of the Author
GOE silly Muse, and doe my love present to Musickes praise the Author of this worke: Plead his desert tha[t] is so excellent,
in whose swete notes so secrete skil doth lurke: Let all that loves this Sience so Divine,
afford him grace that haps this worke to see:
29 Dowland was the greatest Elizabethan composer of songs. For Leighton's The Tears or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule, see p. 57.
[56]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
Whose eares may judge what Concord can combine
by Musicks arte, consists in notes but three,30 Conjoinde in parts with true concent of art,
as may appeare by every Close contrivde, How concords three containeth every part
within this Booke, from whence notes are derivde: Admire his skill: let God have laude and praise,
whose holy words these swete Consorts doe raise.
Let this grave Musick give your eares content — ■$ — Sith Musickes arte is drawne from this Concent. 5v
In 1614 this same Sir William Leighton published a collection of met- rical paraphrases and hymns of which he was the author, entitled
The Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule: composed with Mu- sicall Ayres and Songs, both for Voyces and divers Instruments. London. Printed by William Stansby. 1614.
The music is by the greatest array of distinguished composers repre- sented in any Elizabethan volume.31 Leighton was in jail for debt at the time, and these names, and poems lauding him by a dozen friends, suggest that his imprisonment may indeed have been unjust, as he claims. One friend, "LD." (John Dowland, probably) quotes the Italian proverb
Who loves not Musicke and the heavenly Muse,
That man God hates
and adds Leighton to the list of sweet singers, beginning with David. John Layfield rejoices that he can henceforth
Say Well-i am when grief es Leight-on my part
30 Concord, i.e., what we should call a Common Chord. It consists of three notes, e.g., C E G, or D F A. Leighton shows one in the diagram.
31 Bull, Byrd, Coprario, John Dowland, Ferrabosco, Ford, Orlando Gibbons, Nathaniel Giles, Edmund Hooper, Robert Johnson, Jones, Robert Kindersley, John Leighton himself, Thomas Lupo, John Milton (father of the poet), Peerson, Pilkington, Ward, Weelkes, and Wilbye.
[57]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
but a poem by Simon Sturtevant is placed last, since it is the most en- lightening of all :
Was ever Light-on Table set before
To light our men with heavenly dulced Layes,
. . . since worthy Cedmons daies,
Whose singing spirit hath Light-on this good knight.
Most of the compositions are for four or five voices unaccompanied, but the volume is not intended primarily for church use, since the re- mainder have accompaniments for lute and similar plucked instru- ments.
In 1621 Thomas Ravenscroft, who was a good musician but whimsi- cal and sometimes pedantically attached to obsolete conventions, issued his edition of The whole BooJ^ of Psalmes, with the tunes in the tenor.82 A number of the settings are from East's fine psalter (1592), and the fifty-one harmonizations by Ravenscroft himself are musicianly. Two settings by the poet Milton's father are included. Ravenscroft had pre- tensions to learning, and his Dedication is full of quaint information and misinformation. He speculates on the character of David's own music to the psalms, and decides,
Whatsoever the tunes were in David's time, there is no question but they were concordant and harmonious, which could not be, had they not beene divided in parts,
and he vainly quotes / Chronicles 15.16 as proof. He might better have cited // Chronicles 5.15 in favor of the music being in unison:
It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of mu- sick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth
32 John Dowland's skilful harmonization of "Old Hundredth," from this psalter, is printed in Grove, iv. 278.
[58]
MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord.
In the University of Pennsylvania Library in Philadelphia there is the MS Cantus part-book of a psalter harmonized by Giles Farnaby. It once belonged to Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791), who was both the first graduate of this university and the first American composer of secular works; and his descendant Mr. Edward Hopkinson, Jr. has kindly lent it to the university. Francis Hopkinson may have used this psalter while he was preparing A Collection of Psalm Tunes with a few Anthems and Hymns . . . for the Use of the United Churches of Christ Church and S* Peter's Church in Philadelphia 1763. He also owned music by leading European composers of his own century, and his intelligent interest in music during the American colonial period is noteworthy. Farnaby's work is entitled:
The Psalmes of David, to fower
parts, for Viols and voyce,
The first booke Doricke Mottoes,
The second, Divine Canzonets,
Composed by Giles Farnaby Bachilar
of Music\e
with a prelud, before the Psalmes, Cromatic\e
In Farnaby's dedication of the work to Henry King, "Doctor of Divini- tie and chiefe prebend of the Cathdirall [sic] Church of Saint Paul," we read:
Having a long time had a desire to present to the vew, Davids Psalmes into more privatt exercise for Gentlemen, they being more laudable then any other Musicke, have composed them not as formerly they were, I desire therefore . . . that you would (pardoning my boldnesse) vouchsafe to take in good worth this my composed laboure . . .
Your worships in all duty Giles Farnaby.
[59]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
This may not be his signature, for the handwriting resembles that of the professional copyist. But we need not doubt the authenticity of the work. It is on watermarked paper of approximately the middle third of the seventeenth century. Its chief interest is not musical but biographi- cal. Since King received his doctorate in 1625, Farnaby therefore must have dedicated this work after that event33 but before Dr. King became Dean of Rochester in 1639. The Dedication is elaborate, and the com- poser may have hoped that the prelate would have the work published. King, when Bishop of Chichester, did indeed publish a psalter in 1651, but it contained only eight tunes and owed little or nothing to Farnaby, who had died in 1640.
It is impossible to determine the exact character of Farnaby's Psalmes of David, for the three lower parts have not survived. These were doubtless contrapuntal, for rests in the Cantus part are frequent. The peculiar title may suggest that the work (or at least the "first booke") was for solo voice and three viols. Yet the word Canzonets would im- ply four vocal parts. Possibly the two books may thus differ by having instrumental and vocal accompaniments respectively, for the surviving Cantus parts are almost identical. Each "booke" consists of the psalms (in Sternhold and Hopkins' version) almost complete, the same psalm having the same "church tune" in both books. The numerous melodies are the familiar ones, such as "Winchester," "Cheshire," "Dundee," "Martyrs," and "Dutch Tune." In addition, the first book has the cus- tomary paraphrases of the canticles, Lord's Prayer, etc., also with tunes. "Doricke Mottoes on the psalms" probably means solemn musical com- mentaries on them; Charls Butler uses the word "Doric" in this curious
83 As Dr. Otto E. Albrecht noted in The University of Pennsylvania Library Chronicle, March, 1938, p. 8. For Francis Hopkinson's varied musical interests see the above article and the following books: O. G. Sonneck, Francis Hop\inson and James Lyon, and Dr. Robert A. Gerson, Music in Philadelphia.
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MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
sense in The Principles of Musi\, 1636: "The Dorik Moode consisteth of sober Notes, generally in Counter-point, set to a Psalm or other pious canticle, in Meeter or Rhythmical vers."
It would hardly serve our purpose to examine other metrical psalters of a late date. The one written by George Wither (1623), like Arch- bishop Parker's Psalter, suffered from the unfamiliar newness of its words and tunes, and it is to be regretted that this and several other new metrical translations of the seventeenth century were not able to supplant in public favor the somewhat plodding texts of Sternhold and Hopkins. The noble religious poetry of Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, and Traherne should have been wedded to music in its own century or the next for the purpose of enabling man to express his deepest religious aspirations in congregational worship. Unfortunately it was not. Our modern preference for non-biblical hymns can hardly be said to have antedated the days of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. The metrical psalter and its music are not among the greatest achievements of Eliza- bethan art, yet they have an interest of their own, and in addition a very real influence upon our worship today. When shortly after the death of Queen Mary enthusiastic congregations in the south of Eng- land insisted on singing psalms during the church services, they were initiating a practice that has endured uninterruptedly from that day to this.
The foregoing discussion of psalters and psalm-singing, and the ac- count in Chapter II of the acrimonious disputes concerning church music, will serve as a useful background as we now devote our atten- tion to Elizabethan anthems, masses, and other service music.34
34 Anglican "service music" is music set to any of the fixed portions of the Anglican service, to be sung by either the choir or the congregation, e.g., the responses, canticles (Te Deum, Magnificat, etc.), and parts of the Litany and Communion Service. But the phrase today is commonly and popularly restricted in its meaning to indicate a more or less elaborate musical setting (not in chant form, but similar in style to anthems) for choir of one or more of the following: i. Two morning canticles, usually the Te Deum and Benedictus; 2. Two evening canticles, usually the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis; 3. Certain parts of the Communion Service.
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Those of us who live in cities take it for granted that the choir of every Protestant church will perform some elaborate music each Sun- day, either anthems or service music or both. This present custom is comparatively recent and is partly a result of the Oxford Movement, when the choirs of many Anglican churches were augmented, dressed in vestments, and given music to sing in imitation of the procedure in cathedral churches. Probably very few parish churches in Elizabethan times sang any music except psalms. Bossewell's statement of 1572, pre- viously quoted,35 is clear enough: "Musicke ... is almost banished this Realme."
The printing of Elizabethan anthems and service music could not have been profitable. Not only was the market too small, but there were no copyright restrictions to prevent choirboys from copying the music for almost nothing. There is no way of finding out the prices of Eliza- bethan printed music, but with so common a work as Handel's Messiah costing a pound a century ago (in 1914 it cost a shilling), few choirs could have owned any. At first sight even the following list of sacred music published in England during the Elizabethan period (psalters excepted) may consequently seem fairly lengthy:
1560 Day: (publ.) Certaine notes. Services for Mattins, Evensong, and Holy Communion to be sung by church choirs.
1575 Tallis and Byrd: Cantiones sacrae. Latin motets. They were a financial failure.
1588 Byrd: Psalms, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie, made into
Musicke of five parts. Sacred and secular. English Madrigal School, No. 14.
1589 Byrd: Songs of sundrie natures, some of gravitie, and others of
myrth. Sacred and secular. E.M.S. 15. 1589 Byrd: Liber primus sacrarum cantionum quinque vocum. 1591 Byrd: Liber secundus sacrarum cantionum.
35 Page 18. See also the quotations on pp. 19 ff.
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1594 John Mundy: Songs and Psalmes. Sacred and secular. E.M.S. 35. 1598 Di Lasso: Novae . . . cantiones. Published in London "for ama- teurs." 1605 Byrd: Gradualia [1st Book] | Written for Catholic use; reprinted
1607 Byrd: Gradualia [2nd Book] J as Vol. 7 of Tudor Church Music.
1608 Croce: Musica Sacra. The Penitential Psalms, translated into
English sonnets. 1610? Byrd: Three Masses, for 3, 4, and 5 voices. 161 1 Byrd: Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets, some solemne, others joy full.
Sacred and secular. E.M.S. 16.
1614 Leighton: The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule.
Psalms and hymns; see p. 57.
1615 Amner: Sacred Hymns of ■?. 4. 5. and 6 parts for Voices and
Vyols. Cathedral libraries contain contemporary MS copies of some of these compositions, showing their use by choirs. Usu- ally a note to a syllable. 1624 M. East: The Sixt Set of Bootes. Anthems.
A few compositions to sacred words will be found among the madri- gals of Allison, Tomkins, and Pilkington. To this list should be added:
1641 Barnard, Rev. John: (publ.) The First Boo\ of Selected Church Music\, consisting of Services and Anthems . . .
This is the first printed general collection of English anthems, and we know it was widely used by choirs. Evidently most of the copies be- came frayed and were destroyed, for it proved difficult in the nineteenth century to find a copy of each of the different voice parts. The com- positions are by Byrd (21), Tallis (12), Orlando Gibbons (10), Batten (7), W. Mundy (5), Tye (4), Morley, Ward, and Hooper (3 each), Farrant, Shepherd, Parsons, and Giles (2 each), and Strogers, Bevin,
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Robert White, Weelkes, Bull, and Woodson (i each) — 82 in all. If quantity is any criterion as opposed to quality, Barnard must have pre- ferred Byrd, Tallis, and Gibbons.
By this time several perplexing questions may have presented them- selves to the reader: Why did Byrd compose so much Catholic Church music? why was he allowed to publish it? and who would buy it? For it must have been bought, as second editions of the Gradualia testify. To sincere Catholics, of whom Byrd was one, the composing of sacred music to the Latin texts of their own liturgy was a labor of love, and Protestant composers trained in the older school sometimes employed Latin because of the spiritual and artistic superiority of the contrapun- tal style so long associated with the use of that language, rather than the cruder musical idiom that after the Reformation was for a time as- sociated with the English tongue. The Latin works published during the reign of Queen Elizabeth doubtless had her approval. But no ex- planation can be given for the daring appearance of the three Masses, except that they seem to have been issued surreptitiously and without title pages. By the time the Gradualia came out the Government's atti- tude toward the Catholic Church had become more lenient. Finally, who bought and used the Latin music of Byrd ? The anthem repertories of the English cathedrals in Elizabethan times have not come down to us, nor do we know what compositions were sung at any one service on any one day. Furthermore, the copies of the music from which the choir actually sang have almost completely perished, owing partly to ordinary wear and tear and partly to destruction by the Puritans in Cromwell's time. Therefore it is hard to say where and how often these Latin works were sung. But some performances must have been al- lowed, for busy Protestant organists, such as Morley, wrote considerable music to Latin words. Tallis and Byrd while organists of the Chapel Royal dedicated their Cantiones sacrae in 1575 to Queen Elizabeth. She certainly had no objection to motets in Latin, and doubtless often heard
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MUSIC SUNG IN CHURCH
these very works in her chapel. But, as might have been expected in that Puritan period, they were a financial failure. Then why were the later Cantiones and the Gradualia a success? It will have been noticed that the only compositions printed in England with Latin words were those by Byrd and the collection by di Lasso. Now the latter was avow- edly "for amateurs." So it would seem too that Byrd's later Cantiones sacrae were bought and performed by amateurs in their homes. It has been surmised that the Gradualia, which were published after the Can- tiones, found a market in Catholic countries through the good offices of those English Catholic friends of Byrd who one after another had taken refuge on the Continent. By that time Byrd's fame had doubtless reached the ears of many foreign musicians.
In glancing again at the preceding list, we see that the only printed books likely to have been much used by English choirs before the death of James I were those by Day (1560), Leighton (1614), Amner (1615), East (1624), and possibly Giovanni Croce. Barnard includes in his col- lection two madrigals from Byrd's Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589) — "Christ rising" and "Christ is risen again" — but it is impossible to say whether he became acquainted with them in church or at the house of a friend. Byrd's printed madrigals would hardly have been bought by churches because of the large proportion of secular works included. Elizabethan choirs, therefore, sang from manuscript, and those few Elizabethans who commented on the sacred compositions of others did so on actually hearing the music.
Composers who have either commented on their own sacred music or received honorable mention from their contemporaries may be ar- ranged in two groups. First we may list the earlier men, with a word of comment regarding each.
William Blitheman (d. 1591), organist of the Chapel Royal and teacher of John Bull.
John Merbecke (d. 1585), arranger of the music for the first English
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Protestant Prayer Book. His music to the Versicles and Responses is still in use today in all churches of the Episcopal communion.
William Mundy (d. about 1591), Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
Osbert Parsley (1511-1585), a "singing man" (choir singer) of Nor- wich Cathedral.
Robert Parsons (d. 1570), Gentleman of the Chapel Royal.
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585), organist of the Chapel Royal.
John Taverner (c. 1495-1545), the greatest English composer during the period when Henry VIII was still affiliated with the Roman Church.
John Thorne (d. 1573), perhaps organist of York Cathedral.
Christopher Tye (c. 1 500-1 572), so-called "father of the anthem," and probably the music master of Prince Edward.
Robert White (c. 1530-1574), Master of Choristers at Ely Cathedral, Chester Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey successively.
First among these in point of both time and importance were Tav- erner, Tye, and Tallis.
Taverner is one of the most interesting figures in English church music. The amazing vigor, originality, and mastery of complex and ef- fective counterpoint in his music make him "without question (Fel- lowes says) pre-eminent among the English composers of his own day."36 Meres praises him in Palladis Tamia, and Morley praises "Fare- fax, Taverner, Shepherde, Mundy, White, Persons [Parsons], M. Birde and divers others" as equal in merit to the greatest continental composers of the day. When Morley says that these devout English composers would rather spit upon the image of a saint than write two consecutive fifths or octaves,37 he is praising the perfection of their workmanship, not hinting that they might be guilty of impiety. He does go on, how- ever, in an imaginary conversation to quote and censure the following passage :
36 Grove, v. 275.
37 Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. 151.
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Treble Counter!
Tenor Base
J=^->) J pj J j
gL^UQJ.
Ffn^rf^^
Master. Although Maister Taverner did it, I would not imitate it.
Polymathes. For what reasons?
Master. First of all, the beginning is neither pleasing nor artificiall [artis- tic], because of that ninth taken for the last part of the first note, and first of the next, which is a thing untolerable, except there were a sixt to beare it out: for discords [dissonant intervals] are not to be taken, except they have unperfect cordes to beare them out: likewise between the trebble and counter parts, another might easily be placed. All the rest of the musick is harsh, and the close in the counter part is both naught and stale, like unto a garment of a strange fashion, which being new put on for a day or two, will please, because of the novelty, but being worne thread bare, will grow in contempt.
He criticizes the beginning as being bare, and Polymathes complains that you can hear it several times in a service at St. Paul's.38
Taverner was Master of the Choristers at St. Frideswide's (now Ox- ford Cathedral) from 1526 to 1530, and played the organ there. He must have ceased composing in or about 1530, for heretical (probably Lutheran) books were found in his possession at St. Frideswide's, and he might have suffered severely had not Cardinal Wolsey "for his mu- sick excused him, saying that he was but a musitian, and so he escaped." Foxe says, "This Taverner repented him very muche that he had made Songes to Popish Ditties in the time of his blindnes." Taverner's church
38 We do not know just whom Morley is criticizing at St. Paul's Cathedral. Morley himself had been organist there in 1591, but it is not known when he resigned or who succeeded him. Morley's criticism was published in 1597.
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music is published in Volumes i and 3 of Tudor Church Music (1923 ff.). During the precious last fifteen years of his short life, when he might have been producing still greater compositions, he was taking part in the suppression of the monasteries and engaging in Protestant polemics, with his musical pen laid aside forever.
The second among the earlier composers of important Tudor church music was "Doctour Tye." "Doctour" he indeed was, having received the degree of Doctor of Music from both Cambridge and Oxford; in those days a man holding a degree from one university might also re- ceive it at the other by paying a stipulated sum. Cambridge had already granted him the degree of Bachelor of Music; the University's "Grace,"39 or official permission for this degree, records that for ten years he had been engaged in composition and in training choirboys; and its sugges- tion that the mass which he was required to compose for the degree might be performed on the occasion of the King's visit to the Univer- sity presumably shows confidence in his ability.
It is probable that Tye taught music to Prince Edward, although this assumption is based upon a play published as late as 1605, Samuel Row- ley's When You See Me, You Know Me.40 Edward addresses Tye as "our music's lecturer" and says,
I oft have heard my Father merrily speake In your hye praise, and thus his Highnesse sayth, England, one God, one truth, one doctor hath For musickes art, and that is Doctor Tye, Admired for skill in musicks harmony.
39 Quoted by Arkwright, Old English Edition, x. n, from Grace Book T, 1536: "In primis conceditur Christophero Tye ut studium decern annorum in arte musica cum prac- tica multa in eadem, turn componendo, turn pueros erudiendo, sufficiat ei ad intrandum in eadem, sic ut componat unam missam vel paolu post comitia canendam, vel eo ipso die quo serenissimi principis observabitur adventus, saltern ut manifestum ac evidens aliquod specimen eius eruditionis sic ostendat comitiis." The Grace for his Cambridge Doctor's degree is uninteresting. For further information regarding degrees in music see p. 272 of the present volume.
40 The portions of the play that concern Tye are given in full in Appendix D.
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Tye asks Edward if he may dedicate to him his "Acts of the holy Apostles turn'd into verse" and the Prince replies,
He peruse them, and satisfie your paines,
And have them sung within my fathers Chappell.
This work of Tye's was entitled :
The Actes of the Apostles, translated into Englyske Metre and dedicated to the \ynges most excellent Majestye, by Christofer Tye, Doctor in Musy\e, and one of the Gentylmen of hys graces moste honourable Chappell, wyth notes to eche Chapter, to synge and also to play upon the Lute, very neces- sarye for studentes after theyr studye, to fyle theyr wyttes, and also for all Christians that cannot synge, to read the good and Godlye storyes of the lyves of Christ hys Appostles. 1553.
In his preface to the Actes, which he dedicated to Edward VI, Tye writes first of his poetry, then his music:
Unto the text I do not ad
Nor nothyng take awaye And though my style be grosse and bad
The truth perceyve you maye..
And thoughe they [the notes] be not curious41
But for the letter mete: Ye shall them fynde harmonious
And eke plesaunt and swete.
That such good thinges your grace might move
Your lute when ye assaye: In stade of songes of wanton love
These stories then to playe.
41 Curious = erudite, complicated.
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The accompanying four-part music could not possibly be played on the lute. Tye was no poet :
It chaunced in Iconium
As they oft tymes did use; Together they into dyd cum
The sinagoge of Jues.42
He was also a priest but "not skilful at preaching,"43 as a report to Archbishop Parker states in 1561, when Tye was rector of Doddington, near Ely. In 1559, during his twenty years' service as Master of Chor- isters at Ely Cathedral, he was given a special "Donatio" "pro diligenti servitio." Anthony Wood tells this unlikely tale in his MS Biographical Notes on Musicians:
Dr. Tye was a peevish and humoursome man, especially in his latter dayes, and sometimes playing on ye Organ in ye chap, of qu. Elizab. wh. contain'd much musick, but little delight to the ear, shee would send ye verger to tell him yt he play'd out of Tune: whereupon he sent word yt her eares were out of Tune.
Wood is usually good-natured enough, but he had no intelligent sym- pathy for the earlier Elizabethan music. He writes that "William For- rest [born c. 1510] was well skill'd in Music and Poetry, had a collec- tion of the choicest compositions in Music that were then in use"; after his death William Heather got them and gave them to Oxford Univer- sity, "where they yet continue, and are kept only as matters of Antiq- uity. Among them are the Compositions of Joh. Taverner . . . Joh. Marbeck, Rob. Fairfax, Dr. Christ. Tye, John Sheppard, John Norman, et al." Evidently both the University and Wood were so ignorant of the works of Taverner and his contemporaries as to consider them unmu-
42 Tye's version of Acts 14.1.
43 Tye "est Sacerdos ac residet ibidem et est Doctor Musice non tamen habilis ad pre- dicandum." Probably his preaching matched his poetry.
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sical. Wood nevertheless was a good amateur musician and capable violinist, and his musical opinions are usually worthy of consideration.44 After writing Latin masses in the days of Henry VIII, Tye wrote anthems in the severer note-to-note style with the coming of the more thorough Protestantism of Edward VI. He was the most prominent of the first composers who wrote anthems to English words, and so not unjustly has been called the "Father of the Anthem." This constructive achievement by Tye is referred to by Fuller, who writes,
Musick, which received a grievous wound in England at the dissolution of Abbyes, was much beholding to him for her recovery; such his excellent skill and piety, that he kept it up in credit at Court and in all Cathedrals during his life.45
Thomas Nash makes one of his characters refer to "Doctour Ty (of which stile there was a famous musition some few yeres since) ."46
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) was the greatest Elizabethan composer before Byrd. To most people today he is known only for his simple harmonizations of the responses in the prayer books of the Anglican and Episcopal Churches. But his numerous Latin motets show extraor- dinary contrapuntal ingenuity and complexity, and in musical genius he surpasses the other Englishmen of his generation. He wrote an
44 Wood collected books on music, on one occasion buying Case's Apologia Musices and another book for ls.qd., and says of himself, "All the time that A.W. could spare from his beloved studies of English history, antiquities, heraldry and genealogies, he spent in the most delightful facultie of musick, either instrumental or vocal: and if he had missed the weekly meetings [at which he played the violin] in the house of William Ellis, he could not well enjoy himself all the week after." — Anthony Wood's Autobiography, printed in Wood's Life and Times, 1891 ed.f vol. i, p. 273.
45 The History of the Worthies of England, 1662, by Thomas Fuller, 1608— 1661, p. 244, under "Westminster." Anthony Wood, in his MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, several times quotes from Fuller. Fuller's musical knowledge seems to have been small. He mentions Tye, praises the vague writer Flud, probably because he did not understand him, gives a vivid account of Merbecke's narrow escape from martyrdom, and a super- ficial sketch of Dowland, ending with the incorrect surmise that that composer died in Denmark; but includes no other composers whatsoever in his list of "Worthies."
46 Thomas Nash, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, 1596, reprinted in Collier's Mis- cellaneous Tracts, Part II, No. 9, p. 39.
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amazing motet in forty real parts, ending with the words "respice hu- militatem nostram" — although, as the Editor of Tudor Church Music dryly remarks, no composer attempts a forty-part composition in a spirit of "humilitas." The list of his works comprises two Masses, two Magnificats, Lamentations, and fifty-one motets in Latin; and eighteen anthems and several psalms, preces, responses, etc., in English. Tallis was organist or choirmaster of Waltham Abbey, still a show-place a few miles north of London, and Henry VIII visited it during Tallis' tenure of office more than once. When the foundation was dissolved in 1540, Tallis received a larger sum than any other of its seventy servants. He was in favor with Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth. He was praised as a teacher: Sir John Harington says47 that his father was "much skilled in musicke . . . which he learnt in the fellowship of good Maister Tallis."
In 1575 Queen Elizabeth gave Tallis and Byrd a monopoly on music printing in England, and they published during the same year a collec- tion of noble Latin motets of their own composition, under the follow- ing title :
Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur, quinque et sex partium, autoribus Thoma Tallisio & Guilielmo Birdo Anglis, Serenissimae Regineae Majestati a privato Sacello generosis,48 & Organistis.
Cum Privilegio
Excudebat Thomas Vautrollerius typographus Londoniensis in claustro vulgo Blac^friers commorans, 15J5.
The fact that these motets were dedicated to Queen Elizabeth is clear proof that she did not share the Puritans' objections to sacred music in
47 In a letter to Lord Burghley, quoted in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 6. Sir John Har- ington, 1561-1612, a brilliant and learned man, was the godson of Queen Elizabeth and translated Orlando Furioso by her command. Essex vainly sent him to her to beg her forgiveness. The father, . John Harington, married a daughter of Henry VIII, and was imprisoned in the Tower at the same time as the Princess Elizabeth.
48 Gendemen of the Chapel Royal.
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Latin. The first of its five prefatory Latin poems, "De Anglorum Mu- sica," I may translate as follows:
British music, preparing for battle, saw that she could pursue her course in safety only if the Queen should declare herself her patron, and promised to equal the nine muses in artistry if she could number as her authors those who, if they would but compose, would astound the people. Therefore, strengthened by the support of so learned a Ruler, she fears no nation's boundaries or censure. Proclaiming Tallis and Byrd her parents, she ad- vances boldly for every voice to sing.49
Mention has been made of the fact that religious music (except psal- ters) could not be printed profitably in Elizabethan England. Tallis tempted fortune with his Cantiones . . . sacrae, his only publication of his own works. He did not repeat the experiment, for it evidently failed disastrously: in 1577 the two composers wrote in a petition to the Queen that Tallis was "now verie aged" (he was about 72), that a lease worth ^91 given him by Queen Mary was about to expire, and that their monopoly on music printing had "fallen oute to oure greate losse and hindreance to the value of two hundred marks at the least." Elizabeth, "in consideracon of their good service don to her highnes," gave them another lease, in lands.60 For twelve years after the appear- ance of Cantiones . . . sacrae no music of any kind (except psalters) was published in England, the pessimistic patentees refusing to issue any, and all other publishers being forbidden. Music did not resume its
49 De Anglorum Musica
Musica iam praelum meditans Britanna videbat
Vna se tutam pergere posse via, Eius si assereret sese Regina patronam,
Quae nulli e Musis cederet arte novem: Autoresque operis si tales posset habere,
Qui sua dum pangunt, caetera turba stupet. Ergo patronatu tarn doctae Principis aucta
Oras nullius gentis, & ora timet. Tallisium, Birdumque suos testata parentes
Audacter quo non ore canenda venit. 60 Tudor Church Music, Vol. 6.
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progress until Byrd sold the monopoly to Thomas East and printing recommenced in 1587.51 Then the famous madrigalian era began in England, and many published works appeared. In 1610 the composer William Corkine wrote in the Dedication to his first book of Ayres:
It was long before the use of Notes and Tableture came in to our English Presse, but having found the way, there are few Nations yeeld more Impres- sions in that kind then ours. Every Musition according to his abilitie in- creasing the number.
Music printing had become profitable.
To return to Tallis. MSS 984 to 988 in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford, contain 133 Elizabethan compositions and also a number of in- teresting comments by the owner, Robert Dow,52 who seems to have been the copyist as well. We have already met him in the role of musi- cal benefactor to the Bluecoat School.53 In the Tenor book, at the end of No. 42 occurs :
Quatuor illustris vixit sub Regibus iste
Tallisius magno dignus honore senex. Sub quibus eximius si Musicus esset habendus
Tallisius semper gloria prima fuit.
(Renowned Tallis lived under four monarchs, an aged man deserving of great honor. If in their time any one musician had been singled out as ex- ceptional, Tallis would always have been their chief glory.)
In the Bass part, p. 20 :
Talis es et tantus Tallisi musicus, ut si Fata senem auferrent musica muta foret.54
61 East published Byrd's Psalms, Sonets and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie in 1588, the year after Byrd relinquished the monopoly. Evidently the latter realized he was no busi- ness man.
62 Sum Roberti Dowi Vinum et Musica Laetificant Cordas.
53 Page 15.
54 Burney quotes this passage in his History and prints five errors in the two lines.
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The pun "Tal(l)is es" is untranslatable: "Thou art so renowned and great a musician, Tallis, that if fate should carry thee away in thine old age, music would be mute."
He was buried in Greenwich parish church. His epitaph,55 long since swept away by structural alterations, once ran:
Enterred here doth ly a worthy Wyght
Who for long Tyme in Musick bore the bell:
His Name to shew, was Thomas Tallys hyght
In honest vertuous Lyff he dyd excell.
He serv'd long Time in Chappell with grete prayse,
Fower Sovereynes Reynes (a Thing not often seen)
I mean Kyng Henry and Prynce Edward's Dayes,
Queene Mary, and Elizabeth our Quene.
He maryed was, though Children he had none,
And lyv'd in Love full thre and thirty Yeres,
Wyth loyal Spowse, whos Name yclyipt was Jone,
Who here entomb'd him Company now bears.
As he dyd lyve, so also did he dy,
In myld and quyet Sort (O! happy Man)
To God ful oft for Mercy, did he cry,
Wherefore he lyves, let Death do what he can.
Robert White (c. 1530-1574) is the other name that was important during the earlier period. He received the degree of Bachelor of Music from Cambridge, December 13, 1560, and was Master of Choristers at Westminster Abbey. Several of his contemporaries praise him, Baldwin for one.56 The first composition in the Christ Church manuscripts men- tioned under Tallis is White's "Lamentations." After the Contratenor and Tenor parts is written:
55 Quoted in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 6, from Strype's continuation of Stow's Survey of London, Appendix i, page 92.
56 See his poem in Appendix F.
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Non ita moesta sonant plangentis verba prophetae Quam sonat authoris musica moesta mei.
(Sad as the mourning Prophet's words fall on the ear More sad to me the music's tones appear.)
After No. 3 ("Precamur sancte domine") in all the part-books :
Maxima musarum nostrarum gloria White Tu peris aeternum sed tua musa manet.
(Thou diest, White, chief splendour of our art,
But what thy art hath wrought shall nevermore depart.67)
Dow must have liked wine, for after No. 7, by White, he praises it for the second time :
Vinum et musica laetificant cor. Spiritus tristis exiccat ossa.
(Wine and music gladden the heart. Doleful sighs dry out our bones.)
Morley mentions White with approval. Hawkins writes:
There was also a Robert White, an eminent Church musician, the com- poser of several anthems in Barnard's collection. Morley celebrates one of this name, but whether he means either of these two persons [Robert White or Matthew White] cannot be ascertained.
Robert White was meant; Matthew White did not receive his degree of Doctor of Music from Oxford until 1629, and Morley in 1608 could not have mentioned him in the same list with Fayrfax,58 who died in 1521. "Burney's judgment of polyphony is seldom without prejudice but he
57 Arkwright's translation.
58 Wood speaks of Fayrfax as "In great renowne and accounted the prime musitian of the nation."
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appreciated White fully. Burney liked formal structure, and White's music had it."69
William Blitheman (died 1591), organist of the Chapel Royal, de- serves mention as the teacher of the greatest Elizabethan virtuoso, John Bull.60 His epitaph in St. Nicholas Cole Abbey was destroyed in the Great Fire. It is quoted by Hawkins:
Here Blitheman lies, a worthy wight,
Who feared God above, A friend to all, a foe to none,
Whom rich and poore did love; Of princes chappell gentleman
Unto his dying day, Whom all tooke great delight to heare
Him on the organs play; Whose passing skill in musickes art
A scholar left behinde, John Bull by name, his masters vaine
Expressing in each kinde; But nothing here continues long,
Nor resting place can have, His soule departed hence to heaven,
His body here in grave.
William Mundy (died about 1591), Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, is mentioned by Morley as one of those who would not use consecutive fifths. The anthem, "O Lord The Maker of All Thing" has been vari- ously attributed to him and to Henry VIII. Baldwin praises him and Dow includes some of Mundy's compositions in his own Christ Church manuscript collection.61 The possibilities that Mundy's name afforded for pun making were too tempting to be neglected by Dow. The thirty- sixth anthem in this collection is by Byrd. After the Alto part of
59 Tudor Church Music, Vol. 5, which contains the church music of Robert White.
60 Wood, Fasti Oxon. 61 See Appendix F.
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Mundy's anthem "Sive Vigilem" (No. 37) Dow wrote as the com- poser's name "Dies Lunae" (Monday), and a Latin distich, which translates as follows :
As the moon's light follows that of the sun, So thou, Munday, followest after Byrd
a not unkind acknowledgment that Mundy's music has worth but is eclipsed by Byrd's.
Osbert Parsley (1511-1585) was a "singing man" at Norwich Cathe- dral. Morley in his Plaine and Easie Introduction quotes in music type a clever strict canon in three parts, twenty-five bars long, by Parsley, and his church compositions were considered by the editors of Tudor Church Music sufficiently important to be printed there. He was buried in Norwich Cathedral; the inscription,62 now illegible, follows:
OSBERTO PARSLEY
Music ae Scientissimo
Ei quondam Consociati
Musici posuerunt Anno /5S5
Here lies the Man whose name in spight of Death
Renowned lives by Blast of Golden Fame,
Whose Harmony survives his vital Breath,
Whose Skill no Pride did spot, whose Life no Blame,
Whose low Estate was blest with quiet Mind
As our sweet Cords with Discords mixed be,
Whose life in Seventy and Four Years entwin'd,
As falleth mellow'd Apples from the Tree,
Whose Deeds were Rules, whose Words were Verity:
Who here a Singing-man did spend his Days,
Full Fifty Years, in our Church Melody;
His Memory shines bright whom thus we praise.
62 This, and his compositions, are printed in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 10 (1929).
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John Thorne (died 1573), composer of church music, was "buried in the middle aisle from the west door" in York Cathedral, where he was probably organist. He is mentioned by Morley and Baldwin. His epi- taph too has become illegible :
Here lyeth Thorne, musician most perfect in his art, In Logick's Lore who did excell: all vice who set apart: Whose Lief and conversation did all men's Love allure, And now doth reign above the Skies in joys most firm and pure Who dyed Decemb. 7, 1573.
We now come to the other and later group of church musicians, whose compositions appeared during the last years of the sixteenth cen- tury and the earlier part of the seventeenth. Two talented Roman Catholic organists, Richard Dering (d. 1630) and Peter Philips (d. 1628), spent most of their lives abroad, and are mentioned in a later chapter.63 Of the others, Byrd, Gibbons, and Thomas Tomkins are pre- eminent and will be discussed first, with the rest following in the order named :
William Byrd (1542-1623), the greatest Elizabethan composer.
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), second only to Byrd as an Elizabethan composer of sacred music.
Thomas Tomkins (1573-1656), organist of Worcester Cathedral and an important composer of madrigals also.
John Amner (d. 1641), organist of Ely Cathedral.
William Inglott (1554-1621), organist of Norwich Cathedral.
John Mudd, organist of Peterborough Cathedral from 1583 to 1639.64
John Parsons (d. 1623), organist of Westminster Abbey, perhaps the son of Robert Parsons.
Nathaniel Pattrick (d. 1595), organist of Worcester Cathedral.
63 Chapter VIII, Relations with the Continent, pp. 217, 218.
64 The dates are from Grattan Flood's "New Light on Late Tudor Composers," in the Musical Times.
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William Byrd (1542 or 1543-1623), organist of Lincoln Cathedral before he was twenty-one, and later organist of the Chapel Royal, was acknowledged in his own time as the outstanding Elizabethan com- poser. He received more recorded praise, and has handed down to us more compositions, than any other Elizabethan musician. His church music rivals that of Palestrina in contrapuntal skill and beauty, and surpasses it in expressiveness. Whether it was superior to it or not, after Palestrina's death Byrd was the leading composer in Europe. Fellowes places him
. . . above all his contemporaries. . . . Like Tallis, Tye, and Robert Whyte, he excelled in music for the English Church, whether for the Latin or English rites. Like Marenzio, Wilbye, and Weelkes, he could write finely in the madrigalian style, not only when treating the severer subjects, where again he stands alone, but also in the lighter vein. . . . Like Bull, Gibbons and Giles Farnaby, he wrote with exceptional fertility of invention for the keyed instruments of his day, yet here again he excelled the others; while for the viols he produced chamber music which today amazes the students of musical form when its date is borne in mind.65
In the first rank may be placed Byrd's three Masses, his Gradualia or Latin motets for offices of the Catholic Church, his later Cantiones or motets in Latin suitable for both the Roman rite and such Protestant churches as admitted the use of that language, and his Anglican service music in English. More unequal, yet including many compositions of high value, are his English anthems and those early motets published in 1575.
Byrd was a pupil66 of the great composer Tallis and, though thirty- five years younger, was his associate also. That each enjoyed the respect of the other is clear, for both Tallis and his wife remembered Byrd in their wills, and Tallis acted as godfather to Byrd's son. His pupils
65 Edmund H. Fellowes, William Byrd. A Short Account of His Life and Wor\, 1923.
66 If Richardson's line is taken in its natural meaning: "Birdus tantum natus decorare magistrum [Tallisium]." See Appendix B.
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honored him, as he himself admits.67 Morley, who was one of these, said that Byrd was "never without reverence to be named of the musi- cians,68 and Thomas Tomkins called him his "ancient & much rever- enced Master."69 Charls Butler in 1636 names a dozen composers, Eng- lish and foreign, as worthy of study and imitation, but prints the name of Mr. BIRD alone in capitals. The copyist John Baldwin included only compositions by Byrd in his MS volume for virginals, My Ladye Ne- vells Boo\e, 1591, and in the same year wrote a poem in his praise, ranking him above all contemporary composers and players in such lines as the following:
In Ewroppe is none like to our Englishe man and
With fingers and with penne he hathe not now his peere.
Baldwin says that Byrd's fame had spread to the Continent :
For to strange countries abroade his skill dothe shyne.70
This statement is presumably correct, but in support of it we at present know only the meager fact that Byrd and Philippe de Monte, who was Kapellmeister to the Austrian Emperor, sent compositions to each other in 1583 and 1584.
The Dow manuscripts alluded to71 contain 133 madrigals and sacred choral works. Of these 58 are by Byrd, 18 by Robert White, 17 are anony- mous, 8 are by R. Parsons, 6 by Tye, 5 each by Strogers and Tallis, and the rest are by various composers; three are by di Lasso. The manu- scripts are dated 1581, too early to contain works by Gibbons and
67 Gradualia, 1605 set, by Byrd. See pp. 64, 65 supra for comment on the reasons for publishing Byrd's Latin works.
68 Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. 115.
69 No. 1 4 of Tomkins' set of madrigals is dedicated in these terms to Byrd.
70 See Appendix F. For Byrd's relations with de Monte see E. H. Fellowes, William Byrd, 1936, p. no.
71 On pp. 74-78, from Christ Church MSS 984-988.
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Thomas Tomkins. The compiler has given Byrd the lion's share not merely of the compositions, but of the praise also. After No. 36, by Byrd, in the Soprano, Contratenor, and Bass books he writes:
Cantores inter, quod in azthere sol, bone Birde: Cur arctant laudes disticha nostra tuas ?
(Among singers, good Byrd, you are what the sun is in the sky; Why should our distichs fetter your fame ? )
After the Alto part of No. 41, two and a half lines are filled up with the following quotation from "Cicero ad Atticum lib. 40" and the English- man's rejoinder:
Britannici belli exitus expectatur; etiam iam cognitum est, neque argenti scrupulum esse ullum in ea insula, neque ullam spem praedae, nisi ex man- cipiis, ex quibus nullos puto te literis aut musicis eruditos expectare.
Unus Birdus omnes Anglos ab hoc convicio prorsus liberat.
(The end of the British war is expected; it is certainly clear by this time that there is not a trace of silver on the island, nor is any plunder expected, except slaves, and of these I do not think you will find any skilled in either reading, writing or music.
One man, Byrd, completely frees all the English from this reproach.)
After the Contratenor part of No. 34, by Byrd, is written :
Birde suos iactet si Musa Britanna clientes; Signiferum turmis te creet ilia suis.
(Byrd, if the Britannic muse should parade its supporters, it would ap- point you standard-bearer for its regiments.)
In the Bass book after No. 33, by Byrd :
Qui decus es generi genti Philomelaque nostrae; Birde precor longum voce manuque canas!
(How you grace our nation and race, O nightingale; I pray you, Byrd, may you long give us music with your voice and fingers!)
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In considering Byrd's life, friendship, dedications, and compositions, the Earl of Northumberland's recommendation for Byrd sums him up admirably : "The mane is honeste."72 He was a sincere Roman Catholic : "[May I] live and dye a true and perfect member of his holy Catho- licke Churche (withoute which I beleeve there is noe salvacon for me)";78 his wife was fined several times for not attending the estab- lished church, and it was perhaps owing to his influential friends that he did not suffer worse inconveniences; but he gave loyally of his musi- cal abilities to the new church, and it was his Protestant friends who surrounded his name with the highest praise.
No thought of religious controversy could have been present in the mind of Byrd when composing his three magnificent Masses on the one hand, or the superb "Great Service," in which he set the English Canticles and Ni- cene Creed, on the other.74
Henry Peacham writes in The Compleat Gentleman, 1622:
For Motets and Musick of piety and devotion, as well for the honour of our Nation, as the merit of the man, I prefer above all our Phoenix M[aster] William Byrd, whom in that kind, I know not whether any may equall, I am sure none excell, even by the judgement of France and Italy, who are very sparing in the commendation of strangers, in regard of that conceipt they hold of themselves. His Cantiones Sacrae, as also his Gradualia are meer Angelicall and Divine; and being of himself naturally disposed to Gravity and Piety, his vein is not so much for leight Madrigals or Canzo- nets; yet his Virginella and some others in his first Set, cannot be mended by the best Italian of them all.
The dedications of Byrd's first and second books of sacred motets (Sacrarum cantionum) issued in 1589 and 1591, are not of special inter-
72 Letter from the Earl of Northumberland to Lord Burghley, Brit. Museum MS Lansd. 29, No. 38.
73 Byrd's will, Nov. 15, 1622, printed in E. H. Fellowes' biographies of William Byrd.
74 Fellowes, William Byrd. A Short Account of His Life and Work., I923> P- 22-
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est. They are Latin works designed primarily but not exclusively for Catholic use. The two sets of Gradualia (1605 and 1607) occupy defi- nitely Catholic ground.75 The dedication of the first of these to Lord Northampton is important inasmuch as it describes Byrd's method of composition and reflects the man himself. The composer commences with a reference to his age :
The swan, they say, sings more sweedy upon the approach of death. Its sweetness I in the extremity of my old age cannot equal in these motets, which I thought should be dedicated to you, but I should at least attempt to follow its example.
He was only sixty-three! He then refers to the nobility of the sacred words and says,
There is a certain hidden power, as I learnt by experience, in the thoughts underlying the words themselves; so that, as one meditates upon the sacred words and constantly and seriously considers them, the right notes, in some inexplicable manner, suggest themselves quite spontaneously.76
In the second set (1607) he refers to his old age again, and to his un- fitness for the task, but wishes to set to music the passages enjoined for use at Christmas and other festivals. A poem in his honor follows, probably by George Gage :
To my very dear friend, cultivated by many and admired by all, Master William Byrd, the Father of British Music. Epigram, [by] G.Ga.77
Those which of olde were skil'd in Augurie By Flight, by Song, by Colour did devine Of Future haps, and labour'd to discrie What was above us, by each outward signe. But blind Antiquity was led a-stray, Enforcing things of absurd consequence:
75 No copy of the 1605 set is known, but a second edition (1610) is extant.
76 Fellowes' admirable translation of this sentence.
77 "Amicissimo mihi, multis colendo / omnibus suspiciendo, D. Gulielmo Byrde, /
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Will you bee guided by a truer way?
Loe heer's a BYRDE explaines the difference
Twixt what hee shewes, and what they did inferre,
And proves perspicuously that those did erre. They to the Divel sacrifis'd oppressed, By this your hearts are unto God addressed.
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) was born more than a generation later, and in some ways his music is more modern, even though he lived but two years longer. Whereas Byrd gradually withdrew from public life and devoted himself to the composition of works for a banned church, Gibbons was a man of affairs. Four famous cities record important events in his life, for he was born in Cambridge, was baptized in Ox- ford, spent his mature years in London, and died in Canterbury. He was a choirboy in King's College, Cambridge, organist of the Chapel Royal at twenty-one, and for the last two years of his life he held the same position in Westminster Abbey. His masterly contrapuntal church music, all written to English words, ranks with the best Elizabethan work. He was also a remarkable player, as his appointments show. An- thony Wood wrote:78
This Orlando, who was accounted one of the rarest Musicians and Organ- ists of his time, hath extant . . . admirable Compositions that are printed in several books of Musick.
During the year in which he had been appointed organist of Westmin- ster Abbey, the French ambassadors that visited London to arrange for
Brittanicae Musicae Parenti / Epigramma / G.Ga." The use of "suspicio" in the Cicer- onian sense of "look up to" is one of the numerous examples of the fact that Elizabethan Latin is often an accurate reflection of idiomatic classical Latin, and not a mere clumsy transliteration of English words into dog Latin. Similarly, "colendo" expresses not an English word, but a thought: they were eager to be his friends. The usual translation "cultivate" for "colo" is here unfortunate. Dr. Fellowes suggests the author may have been George Gascoyne, but he died forty years earlier. George Gage, a fellow Catholic, is a more likely guess.
78 Fasti Oxonienses, 2d Ed., Vol. 1, column 222, quoted more fully in Appendix G.
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the marriage of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henri IV of France, to Prince Charles, visited the Abbey.
At the door of the quire, the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in . . . and at their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age, Mr. Orlando Gibbons. While a Verse was plaid, the Lord Keeper presented the Embassadors . . . with our Liturgy. The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the Stalls, where they continued about half an hour, while the Quiremen, Vested in their Rich Copes, with their Choristers, sang three several Anthems with most exquisite Voices, before them.79
In 1625, with James I scarcely in his grave, Charles and Henrietta Maria were married by proxy in Paris; he did not leave England. The young bride crossed to Dover and he met her there. It was the duty of the Chapel Royal of those days to accompany the sovereign on important occasions, and Gibbons, who in becoming organist of Westminster Ab- bey had not given up his position as organist of the Chapel Royal, was consequently summoned to Canterbury. There he died suddenly, throw- ing the court into a panic, as there was a smallpox scare in the town. The Old Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal80 records the event :
Mr. Orlando Gibbons organist, died the 5th of June, being then Whitson- day at Canterbury, when the Kinge was then to receave Queene Mary [Hen- rietta Maria], who was then to come out of Fraunce.
On the 1 2th of June, John Chamberlain wrote81 Sir Dudley Carleton:
That which makes us the more afraid is that the sickness increaseth so fast . . . Orlando Gibbons the organist of the chappell (that had the best hand in England) died the last weeke at Canterburie not without suspicion of the sickness.
79 John Hacket, Scrinia Reservata, Part I, p. 210, 1692, quoted by Miss Glyn in her book About Elizabethan Virginal Music and Its Composers, 1924.
80 Edited by E. F. Rimbault, p. 11.
81 Quoted in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 4.
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But two doctors who had attended him and examined the body found no cause for anxiety. He died of apoplexy. He was buried in Canter- bury Cathedral. The epitaph reads :
ORLANDO GIBBONIO CANTABRIGIAE INTER MUSAS ET MUSICAE NATO SACRAE R CAPELLAE ORGANISTAE SPHAERUMQ HARMONIAE
DIGITORUM PULSU AEMULO
CANTIONUM COMPLURIUM QUAEQ EUM NON CANUNT MINUS
QUAM CANUNTUR CONDITORI
VIRO INTEGERRIMO ET CUIUS VITA CUM ARTE SUAVISSIMIS MORIBUS
CONCORDISSIME CERTAVIT
AD NUPT C R CUM M B DOROBERN ACCITO ICTUQ HEU SANGUINIS
CRUDO ET CRUDELI FATO EXTINCTO CHOROQ COELESTI TRANSCRIPTO
DIE PENTECOSTES A D N MDCXXV
ELIZABETHA CONIUX SEPTEMQ EX EO LIBERORUM PARENS
TANTI VIX DOLORIS SUPERSTES MERENTISS° MAERENTISS* P
VIXIT A M D82
(To Orlando Gibbons born at Cambridge amidst the Muses and for music, organist of the Royal Chapel and rivaling by the stroke of his fingers the harmony of the spheres, composer of many anthems which sing his praises as often as they themselves are sung, a man of most upright character, whose personality vied (though most harmoniously) with his musicianship in charm, summoned to the marriage [festivities] of King Charles and Marie of Bourbon at Dover and deprived of life by a lamentable rush of blood and the cruel hand of fate and translated to the choir of heaven on Whitsunday in the year of our Lord's birth 1625 — Elizabeth his wife and mother of his seven children, barely surviving her most admirable husband in her extreme grief and wretchedness, has erected this. He lived years months days.)
Who could add any praise after this eulogy ?
Thomas Tomkins (1573-1656) surpassed in length of years not only
82 We know the date of birth of very few Elizabethan composers; evidently Orlando Gibbons' wife did not know that of her husband, for the length of his life in years, months, and days is not filled in.
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the octogenarian Byrd, but indeed all of the important composers with the possible exception of Tallis, whose life stretches back vaguely into the indefinite past. He was organist of Worcester Cathedral for fifty years, and his work was finally ended not by old age but by the Civil War. His church music is in the stricter Elizabethan style.83 Charls Butler, in The Principles of Musi\, 1636, praises Thomas and John Tomkins as Tomkins "that Aureum par Musicorum."8i Butler singles out for special mention
that passionate Lamentation of the good musical King, for the death of his Absalom: Composed in 5. parts by M. Th. Tomkins, now Organist of his Majesties Chappel. The melodious harmoni whereof, when I heard in the Musik-schoole, wheither I shoolde more admire the sweete wel governed voices (with consonant instruments) of the Singers; or the exquisit inven- tion, wit, and Art of the Composer, it was hard to determin.
John Toy's Worcester Elegy and Eulogy (1638) contains the follow- ing poem :
To Master Thomas Tomkins, Bachelor of Music\e.
And thou great Master of melodious skill,
This holy harmony didst helpe to fill;
When in this dismall Cadence, no sound else
Was heard but Mournefull groanes85 and mortall bels.
Thy hand an Organ was of ample good
To act in tune, and cheere our mourning mood.
According to thy Tenor,86 thou didst lend
Us Meanes, our low and base state to mend.
83 It has been published as Volume 8 of Tudor Church Music.
84 John Tomkins (1586— 1638), the second of "that golden pair of musicians," was organist of St. Paul's Cathedral and was buried there. He was Thomas's half brother. Eight musical members of the Tomkins family are described in Grove, v. 353—5.
85 A reference to the plague at Worcester in 1637.
86 Tenor, Mean, Bass, and Treble were voice parts. Brief, Large, and Long were the names of musical notes, and Rest is also a musical term.
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T'accomplish now this song of courtesie,
In triple time our thanks shall trebbles be.
These lines are Briefe, but know, thy Restlesse song
Of fame, shall stand in notes both large and long.
John Amner (d. 1641) has been mentioned as the composer of one of the few collections of church music printed in England during our period, Sacred Hymns of 3. 4. 5. and 6 parts for Voices and Vyols, 1615. Possibly his patron, the Earl of Bath, financed the publication. Seven- teenth-century manuscript copies of these and other "Hymns" (or an- thems, as we should call them) by Amner exist in several cathedrals, and we may accept the accuracy of Anthony Wood's comment :
Amner (John) . . . famed for his sacred Hymnes of three, four five and six parts for voyces & viols . . . also for certaine Anthemes, wh were in his time & after sung in Cathedralls.87
William Inglott's epitaph may be given here, to swell the graveyard anthology. Born in 1554, he was organist of Norwich Cathedral from about 1608 until his death in 1621. Very little music by him has come down to us.
For Descant most, for Voluntary all He past, on Organ, Song and Virginall.
This presumably means that Norwich considered Inglott to be a good composer for voices, and an unsurpassed organist and virginals player.
John Mudd, organist of Peterborough Cathedral from 1583 until 1639, is named by Meres in Palladis Thamia in his list of the sixteen "excellant musicians" of England.
John Parsons (d. 1623) immediately preceded Gibbons as organist of Westminster Abbey. The position of organist at "the Abbey" is today the most honorable in the kingdom, and was perhaps equally esteemed in the Elizabethan era, if we may judge by the men who accepted the
87 Anthony Wood, MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, folio n.
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post. A Burial Service by Parsons was performed under Purcell's direc- tion at the funeral of Charles II in the Abbey, and there is extant a copy in Purcell's handwriting. Parsons' epitaph in the Abbey cloisters is in- teresting:
Upon Master Parsons, Organist at Westminster
Death passing by and hearing Parsons play, Stood much amazed at his depth of skill, And said "This artist must with me away," For Death bereaves us of the better skill.
But let the quire, while he keeps time, sing on,
For Parsons rests, his service being done.88
Nathaniel Pattrick (d. 1595) was organist of Worcester Cathedral, c. 1590— 1595. Sir Ivor Atkins, organist of the cathedral from 1897 to 1950, called him one of the greatest composers of the age.89 Pattrick was criticized by Bishop Fletcher in 1593 for not training the choirboys well. But that has been a common fault; Bach was guilty of it. We learn from the following list what musical instruments Pattrick owned at his death, but unfortunately nothing is said of musical compositions:
Item an old virginall and an ould recorder Xs
Item an ould bible and his other pnted and pap bokes xiiisiiiid.
Permission was granted after his death to publish a volume of his mad- rigals. No copy is known today, and Fellowes thinks it was never printed. So far as we know, no other Elizabethan printed madrigals have completely disappeared.
Many, but not all, of the great Elizabethan composers wrote religious
88 Quoted in Camden's Remains, Hawkins' History, and the Dictionary of National Biography. Skill is misprinted still by Hawkins.
89 Sir Ivor Atkins, The Early Occupants of the Office of Organist . . . of the Cathe- dral . . ., Worcester, 191 8.
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music of outstanding importance. The preceding pages have recorded the superiority of Tallis, Taverner, Tye, and Robert White among the earlier Elizabethans, and of Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, and Orlando Gib- bons in the later group. Nevertheless, four of the most famous men have scarcely been mentioned, all of them composers of madrigals. Two of these, Wilbye and Farnaby, wrote almost no religious music, the other two, Weelkes and Morley, have left us a considerable number of sacred compositions, which have been overshadowed by their secular works and so have remained largely in manuscript. With such names, and many others, the next chapter is concerned.
[9i]
IV
^Madrigals
A MADRIGAL was a secular composition for unaccompanied voices (two to eight), each singing a separate part. Amorous poetry was commonly but not always used, and the music was sometimes contra- puntal, sometimes harmonic like our modern part-song with the main tune in the treble. For no very good reason, the term is not applied to modern compositions, although we have no word to take its place. Five voices were more commonly employed than four; some churchgoers of the present day who are accustomed to listen to quartet singing may have noticed the surprising increase in dignity and sonority that the ad- dition of a fifth part gives to the harmony. Like many good things, the madrigal came out of Italy; the Italian madrigale was literally a compo- sition in the mother tongue.1 The madrigale appeared about 1340, and after flourishing for a time was apparently forgotten until a new and greater era of madrigal writing commenced in 1533. In this later period the important names at first were Flemish — Arcadelt, Verdelot, Wil- laert, and de Rore — but in the latter half of the sixteenth century the distinguished madrigalists, with the exception of the Fleming di Lasso, were Italians again: Marenzio, Gabrieli, Monteverde, and Gesualdo. There were countless lesser names. The madrigal was also introduced into other countries, such as France, Spain, and Germany, but only in England did it become sufficiently important to rival and probably in some respects surpass its Italian prototype.
We look back to the reign of Elizabeth as the great age of the madri- gal. But there was no marked recognition of that fact at the time. The Elizabethans could not know that their work in both literature and
1 For the etymology of madrigale, see E. H. Fellowes, The English Madrigal Com- posers, pp. 43-49. Madrigals were intended for singers, but instruments could join in.
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music had reached a climax not attained previously and perhaps never to be surpassed in their nation's history. What pride they would have taken in that realization! For they rejoiced in mighty achievements. But although the madrigal in its own day was hardly recognized as a great art form — there is occasional apologetic reference to the fact that its purpose was only to amuse — yet they proudly stated that in music they yielded the palm to no nation, and they rewarded their greatest musi- cians with university degrees2 and appointments at court. Some of the composers have furnished us a valuable commentary to their own com- positions by describing their aims and methods in the prefaces to their printed works. References by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers to English madrigals and madrigal composers were various in nature, as the following pages will show.
Only two sets of madrigals were published in England before 1588, and because few madrigals of the same period have come down in manuscript (there were numerous sacred works), it is safe to assume that few were written. I shall discuss in order the madrigals:
Printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1530. Composer unknown.
Composed by
Richard Edwards (c. 1523-1566), poet, playwright, coach, and musi- cian.
Thomas Whythorne (1528-1590), who published his sets in 1571 and 1590.
William Byrd (1542/43-1623), whose 1588 set opened the chief pe- riod of the English madrigal, and was followed by his other sets in 1589 and 161 1.
Then for the reader's convenience I shall take up in alphabetical rather than chronological order all the others whose madrigals appeared in
2 See p. 272.
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print. The dates of publication, though given below, are of minor im- portance, for such modern qualities as maturity of style, expressiveness, and the use of daring harmonies appear more prominently in the earlier compositions than the later. Judged by surviving manuscripts, the com- posers who did not publish do not seem to have possessed outstanding ability. The names of the greatest composers are printed in capital letters.
Richard Allison (publ. 1606) . Unimportant as a madrigal composer.
Thomas Bateson (c. 1570-1630; publ. 1604 and 1618). Good but not outstanding. He set fine poems.
John Bennet (publ. 1599). Melodious, tasteful madrigals.
Richard Carlton (c. 1558-1638; publ. 1601). Peculiar clashes of to- nality.
Michael Cavendish (c. 1565-1628; publ. only eight madrigals, 1598).
Michael East (c. 1580-1648); publ. four sets: 1604, 1606, 1610, 1619). Unimportant.
John Farmer (publ. 1599). Pleasant works.
Giles Farnaby (fl. 1590-1625; publ. 1598). His interesting and highly original madrigals and virginal music contain the most daring har- mony of the Elizabethan era.
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder (d. 1588). See Chapter VII.
Orlando GIBBONS (1583-1625; publ. 1612). Polyphonic, rather aus- tere.
Thomas Greaves (publ. 1604). Unimportant.
John Hilton the Younger (1 599-1 657; publ. 1627).
William Holborne (publ. 1597). Unimportant. See p. 155.
Edward Johnson (no set published). He contributed to The Tri- umphes of Oriana, 1603.
Robert Jones (b. 1575; publ. 1607). Greater as a song composer.
George Kirbye (d. 1634; publ. 1597). Fine, austere.
Henry Lichfild (publ. 1613). Unimportant.
Thomas MORLEY (1557-c. 1603; publ. 1593, 1594, 1595 [two sets],
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MADRIGALS
1597). One of the best theorists, and the most popular madrigalist to- day. In spite of his ill health and consequent depression, his madrigals are noted for their cheerfulness.
John Mundy (d. 1630; publ. 1594). Unimportant.
Francis Pilkington (d. 1638; publ. 1614, 1624). Good, but not out- standing.
Walter Porter (c. 1595-1659; publ. 1632 a set with instrumental ac- companiment) .
Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1590-c. 1633). Unimportant as a madri- galist.
Thomas TOMKINS (1 573-1 656; publ. 1622). His expressive madri- gals are by a man of unusual talent.
Thomas Vautor (publ. 1619). Unimportant.
John Ward (publ. 1613). Expressive and beautiful works.
Thomas WEELKES (d. 1623; publ. 1597, 1598, 1600 [two sets], 1608). Expressive and original. Perhaps second only to Wilbye.
John WILBYE* (i 574-1638; publ. 1598, 1609). Generally considered the greatest English madrigalist.
Henry Youll (publ. 1608). Pleasant three-part madrigals.
Wynkyn de Worde in 1530 printed twenty madrigals — "ix of iiii ptes and xi of thre ptes" — of which only the bass part has survived. The composer's name is unknown.3 Little can be said today about these first madrigals printed in England except in praise of their typography, which is more beautiful than that of most later Tudor music.
Richard Edwards (c. 1523-1566), who wrote some music but pub- lished none, was a versatile and interesting Elizabethan. He is known today musically by his madrigal "In going to my naked bed." Some of his poems were published in The Paradise of Dainty Devices. As mas- ter of the children of the Chapel Royal, he trained the choirboys to act
3 See the informative, but too condensed, article entitled "Printing of Music" in Grove, iv. 253-256.
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his play Damon and Pythias on February 2, 1565, of interest in the his- tory of the drama; and his last play, Palamon and Arcite, was acted in the great hall of Christ Church, Oxford, Sept. 3, 1566, before Queen Elizabeth. Anthony Wood describes the performance interestingly.4 The Queen was so pleased that she gave him "promise of reward." His ex- cellence both as poet and musician won for him the posthumous eulogy (1567) "the flower of all our realm and Phoenix of our age" from Dr. Thomas Twyne, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Dr. Twyne refers to his musical ability :
Thy tender tunes and rimes wherein thou wontest to play,
Each princely dame of Court and town shall bear in mind alway.
Professor Wallace in The Evolution of the English Drama Up to Shakespeare5 said that "As lyricist, he was the highest achievement England had yet attained." Barnaby Googe in Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes (1563) praised his plays as not likely to be surpassed by any future poet.6 Hollybande,7 the Huguenot schoolmaster, praises Edwards in perhaps the only description that we have of early Elizabethan mad- rigal singing (1573). The scene is a private house, it is snowing:
"Roland, shall we have a song?"
"Yea Sir: where bee your bookes of musick? for they bee the best cor- rected."
"They bee in my chest: Katherin take the key of my closet, you shall find them in a litle til at the left hand: behold, therebee faire songes at fouer partes."
"Who shall singe with me?"
"You shall have companie enough: David shall make the base: Jhon, the tenor: and James the treble."
4 Athenae Oxonienses, 2d ed., vol. i, entry 172.
5 Charles William Wallace, op. cit., p. 107.
6 For the sonnet in question, see Edward Arber's English Reprints, Dec. 1, 1871.
7 Claudius Hollybande (Claude de Saintliens), The French Schoolemaister, 1573, pp. 126—132. See also p. 202 of this present work.
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"Begine: James, take your tune: go to: for what do you tarie?"
"I have but a rest."
"Roland, drinke afore you begine, you will sing with a better corage."
"It is well said: geve me some white wine: that will cause me to sing clearer."
"You must drink greene wine."
"Yea trulie to cause me to lose my voice."
"Oh, see what a fonell, for he hath powred a quarte of wine without anie takinge of his breath ..."
"There is a good song: I do marvell who hath made it."
"It is the maister of the children of the Queenes chapell."
"What is his name?"
"Maister Edwards."
The Paradise of Dainty Devices contains his poem:
IN COMMENDATION OF MUSICK8
Where gripyng griefs the hart would wound & dolful domps the minde oppresse, There Musick with her silver sound, Is wont with spede to give redresse. Of troubled minde for every sore, Swete Musick hath a salve therefore.
In joye it makes our mirth abound, In grief it chers our heavy sprights, The carefull head realease hath found, By Musicks plesant swete delights. Our sences, what should I saie more, Are subject unto Musicks lore.
8 From Dr. Leicester Bradner's The Life and Poems of Richard Edwards, Yale Univer- sity Press, 1927. Differences may be noted between this authentic text and the one Shake- speare used. The Paradise of Dainty Devices was published in 1576, ten years after Ed- wards' death.
A setting of this poem by Adrian Batten (d. 1637) is printed in Hawkins' History of Music, Vol. 5 (p. 924 in the edition of 1853).
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The Godds by Musick hath their praie,
The foule therein doth joye,
For as the Romaine Poets saie,
In seas whom Pirats would destroye,
A Dolphin saved from death most sharpe,
Arion plaiyng on his harpe.
A heavenly gift, that turnes the minde, Like the sterne doth rule the ship, Musick whom the Gods assignde To comfort man, whom cares would nip, Sith thou man & beast doest move, What wise man than wil thee reprove?
Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 5, quotes the first four lines of this poem, in a passage given below. Its numerous musical allusions and puns exemplify Shakespeare's well-known interest in mu- sic. His actual knowledge of music will receive more explicit considera- tion in Chapter VII. Musicians enter to escort Paris and Juliet to the church, where they are to be married. They find her in a trance, and think she is dead.
First Musician. Faith, we may put up our pipes9 and be gone.
Juliet's Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up; for, well you know, this is a pitiful case.9 [Exit.]
First Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended. Enter Peter [the Nurse's servant].
Peter. Musicians, O musicians, "Heart's ease,"10 "Heart's ease:" O, an you will have me live, play "Heart's ease."
First Mus. Why "Heart's ease"?
9 Pipes: probably recorders. Cf. Hamlet. Professor Schelling suggests that after the words "pitiful case" the next player would hold up his instrument case, as not too shabby but that it could be amended. This would bring a laugh.
10 Heart's Ease: a popular tune. Thomas Rychardes set words to it in his play Misogo- nus, before 1570.
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MADRIGALS
Peter. O, musicians, because my heart itself plays "My heart is full of woe;"11 O, play me some merry dump,12 to comfort me.
First Mus. Not a dump we; 't is no time to play now.
Peter. You will not, then?
First Mus. No.
Peter. I will then give it to you soundly.13
First Mus. What will you give us?
Peter. No money, on my faith, but the gleek;14 I will give you the min- strel.15
First Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature.16
Peter. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets:17 I'll re18 you, I'll fa you. Do you note13 me?
First Mus. An you re us, and fa us, you note us.
Second Mus. Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
Peter. Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. — Answer me like men:
"When griping grief the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music, with her silver sound" —
Why "silver sound"? why "music with her silver sound"? What say you, Simon Cading?19
11 My heart is full of woe: this is a quotation from a ballad.
12 Dump: this perplexing word usually indicated in music a mournful tune. It was also applied to a slow dance, and occasionally seems to have meant any tune. If the first meaning was intended, its incongruity would serve as an Elizabethan joke.
13 Soundly: an obvious musical pun. "Note" is also.
14 Gleek: to "give you the gleek" meant to "make a fool of you." If, as some com- mentators suggest, "minstrel" is a pun on glee(k), it is a very far-fetched one.
15 Give you the minstrel: call you a minstrel and treat you so. Compare Macbeth, I, iii, 119, "Those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me."
16 Give you the serving-creature: treat you like a servant.
17 Crotchets: quarter notes, also whims. "I'll put up with no nonsense."
18 I'll re you, I'll fa you: Shakespeare may have chosen these two musical notes from the six at random; or the phrase may have conveyed to the audience the additional mean- ing of "I'll ray you [make you muddy], I'll faugh you [say 'faugh' to you]."
19 Cading: catgut.
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First Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. Peter. Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?20
Second Mus. I say "silver sound," because musicians sound for silver. Peter. Pretty too! — What say you, James Soundpost?21 Third Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say.
Peter. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer: I will say for you. It is "mu- sic with her silver sound," because musicians have no gold for sounding:
"Then music, with her silver sound,
With speedy help doth lend redress." [Exit.]
Thomas Whythorne (b. 1528; d. after 1590) wrote the only secular vocal works printed in England between 1530 (by Wynkyn de Worde) and 1588 (Byrd). They are part-songs, with the following title:
Songs for three, jower, and five voyces composed and made by Thomas Whythorne, Gent, the which songes bi of sundry sortes, that is to say, some long, some short, some hard, some easie to be songe, and some betweene both: also some solemne, and some pleasant or mery: so that according to the s/(ill of the singers (not being Musitians) and disposition and delite of the hearers, they may here finde songes for their contentation and lining. Now newly published An. i$Ji. At London, Printed by John Daye, dwell- ing over Aldersgate.
No one seems to have taken the trouble to examine them until Dr. Fel- lowes scored several of them a quarter of a century ago and recom- mended them. Previous to that time writers either ignored or vilified them. Eleven of them were reprinted (for the first time) in 1927, and it is now obvious that at times they show considerable contrapuntal skill, while their melodies are often fluent and their harmony is satisfactory from a modern standpoint. Their neglect by the Elizabethans them-
20 Rebeck: a primitive bowed stringed instrument, predecessor of the viol and violin. By Shakespeare's time it had lost caste and was no longer included among the instru- ments at court. It was primitive and countrified, hence Shakespeare's choice of the name.
21 Soundpost: inside the body of a violin, a post supporting the weight and pressure of the bridge.
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MADRIGALS
selves is difficult to account for except on the assumption that England had but few madrigal singers in 1571, consequently these compositions were little sung and promptly forgotten. Later critics followed either Hawkins, who assumed that Whythorne must have been an inferior composer because he was unknown, or Burney, who with his custom- ary contempt for the Elizabethan madrigal calls them "barbarous." His recently discovered autobiography — the only one we know of by an Elizabethan composer — reveals him to be a poor gentleman who could play the virginals and lute, and who was at various times a student at Magdalen College, Oxford, a music teacher, and a servant in wealthy houses. In the long preface to his Tenor part-book — a piece of crabbed and at times almost unintelligible doggerel that has some historic interest — Whythorne tells more about himself:
Music [he says] had reached a low ebb, whence the Queen, her ministers, and other intelligent lovers of music have revived it. The consequent initia- tive which others have shown in sending forth [manuscript] copies of their works has emboldened me to publish this; indeed Dutch, French, and Italian composers print most of their compositions. In this work I have set some of the Psalms to bring "heav'nly solas to heavy harts," and also (I hope without offense to religious men, of whom I am one) worldly works and sonnets of my own authorship, "to recreat th' over burdened and sore af- flicted minds." But no more worldly works shall proceed from my pen. Some of these compositions date from the time when I was a young man, and those of you that have copies will find I have made changes in words or music. Some are of a kind that will be unfamiliar even to those of you that are Musicians (and only those that can ably compose songs are worthy of that name). So I will explain that I have traveled in sundry foreign lands, lived among the people, and observed their various kinds of music, especially among the Italians; they have a pretty, merry one called the Napolitane. Some of my pieces, therefore, are English in style, others foreign. But the notation is English and clear. I wish nothing from this publication but its grateful acceptance. But in spite of my good intentions, I know it will en-
22 See Appendix A in the present volume.
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counter criticism, first from those who from their ignorance, lack of artistic taste, or warped natures are unable to judge fairly; second, from petty people, who examine every work minutely solely to pick as many flaws as possible, and last from jangling jays, who find fault with everything, even the best. To those I would reply: it is easier to criticize than to amend, and easier to amend than to compose.
Many of the above ideas are expressed by the later Elizabethan com- posers also: they apologize for publishing at all, or for including secu- lar music, proclaim their devout purpose in composing sacred music, admit their dread of criticism, and sometimes confess their imitation of the Italian style. A note of apology runs through the prefaces of many Elizabethan books, and is largely conventional.
The Latin eulogies written by his friends, which differ in the various part-books, unfortunately give no additional information. Those in the Medius book repeat ideas taken from the Preface.
Whythorne's second book, published in 1590, is less important. It con- sists of Duos, or Songs for two voices, composed and made by Thomas W hythorne Gent. In his Dedication to Francis Hastings, brother to the Earl of Huntingdon, Whythorne tells us that since he published his pre- vious set, duets for two voices had been printed abroad but not in Eng- land, and he thought that many would appreciate such, especially in country districts where singers were few. Unaccompanied duets are not popular today, and Whythorne was probably soon disillusioned, for his seem to have produced neither praise nor imitation, if we may judge by negative evidence. A fine picture of Whythorne is printed at the end of the Cantus part. It is, I think, the only picture of an Elizabethan com- poser printed in an Elizabethan music book. The illustration doubtless interested his friends, but could hardly have helped sell the book to people that had never heard of him. Whythorne probably paid for the whole publication.
It is somewhat difficult to estimate Whythorne's importance accu- rately, but he seems to represent a fortuitous and isolated outcropping
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THOMAS WHYTHORNE
MADRIGALS
of a high level of secular musical intelligence which could not make it- self visible until music printing became profitable.
This change took place during the lifetime, and partly owing to the genius, of William Byrd (1542/3-1623).
The age of the madrigal in England began with the publication of four famous works :
1588 Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie, by Byrd.
1588 Musica Transalpina, Vol. 1, consisting of madrigals by Italian composers, selected by Nicholas Yonge and literally translated into English.
1589 Songs of sundrie natures . . ., by Byrd.
1590 The first set of Italian Madrigalls Englished, edited by Thomas Watson. English texts unrelated to the original Italian are used.
Numerous Elizabethan references to Byrd, as we have already seen, bear witness to the extraordinary veneration in which he was held by his contemporaries. Both of the above-mentioned collections of Italian madrigals pay Byrd the exceptional compliment of including two madrigals by him, as if his genius transcended earthly boundary lines and man-made limitations. Yonge 's title is:
Musica Transalpina. Madrigales translated of foure, five, and sixe parts, chosen out of divers excellent Authors, with the first and second part of La Verginella, made by Maister Byrd, upon two Stanz's of Ariosto, and brought to spea\ English with the rest.
And in his Dedication to justify its publication, Yonge states that
. . . albeit there be some English songs lately set forth by a great Maister of Musicke, which for skill and sweetnes may content the most curious: yet because they are not many in number, men delighted with varietie, have wished more of the same sort.
Byrd's set evidently had been well received, and probably had made money.
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The title of Watson's publication is :
The first sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the sense of the origi- nal dittie, but after the affection of the Noate. By Thomas Watson. There are also heere inserted two excellent Madrigalls of Master William Byrds composed after the Italian vaine at the request of the sayd Thomas Watson.
Byrd's first set of madrigals came out in 1588, under the following title:
Psalmes, Sonets, & songs of sadnes and pietie, made into Music\e of five parts: whereof, some of them going abroade among divers, in untrue cop- pies, are heere truely corrected, and th' other being Songs very rare and newly composed, are heere published, for the recreation of all such as de- light in Music\e: By William Byrd, one of the Gent, of the Queenes Maies- ties honorable Chappell. Printed by Thomas East the assigne of W. Byrd, and are to be sold at the dwelling house of the said T. East, by Paules Wharf e. 1588 Cum privilegio Regia Maiestatis.
Then follow his famous "Reasons briefly set downe by th'auctor to perswade every one to learne to singe" (in those pioneer days some propaganda was necessary!) :
First, it is a knowledge easely taught and quickly learned, where there is a good Master, and an apt Scoller.
2. The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature, and good to preserve the health of Man.
3. It doth strengthen all parts of the brest, and doth open the pipes.28
4. It is a singuler good remedie for a stutting and stamering in the speech.24
23 The physical benefits of singing are also mentioned by Charls Butler in his Princi- ples of Musi\, 1636, Book 2, Chap. 3, Sec. 2, where he tells us that singing is "a special means to cleere and strengthen the Lungs: so that," if he also takes outdoor exercise, "a Singing-man" need "never fear the Astma, Peripneumonia, or Consumption."
24 In agreement with this, Henry Peacham writes in The Compleat Gentleman (p. 98, 1634 edition), "I my selfe have knowne many Children to have bin holpen of their stammering in speech, onely by it [singing]." But singing is not a cure for stuttering,
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5. It is the best meanes to procure a perfect pronunciation, and to make a good Orator.
6. It is the onely way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce; which guift is so rare, as there is not one among a thou- sand, that hath it: and in many, that excellent guift is lost, because they want Art to expresse Nature.
7. There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voyces of Men, where the voyces are good, and the same well sorted and ordered.
8. The better the voyce is, the meeter it is to honour and serve God there- with; and the voyce of man is chief ely to be imployed to that ende.
Since singing is so good a thing,
I wish all men would learne to singe.
omnis spiritus laudet Dominum.
The work has some likeness to Whythorne's in several respects, for Byrd says in the Epistle to the Reader that in some madrigals the main tune is in the treble while the other parts accompany, and that the madrigals are greatly diversified, some being sacred and others secular:
If thou be disposed to praye, heere are Psalmes. If to be merrie, heere are Sonets. If to lament for thy sinnes, heere are divers songs, which being origi- nally made for Instruments to expresse the harmonie, and one voyce to pro- nounce the dittie, are now framed in all parts for voyces to sing the same. If thou desire songs of smal compasse Sc fit for the reach of most voyces heere are most in number of that sort. ... If ther be any jarre or dissonance, blame not the Printer, who . . . doth heere deliver to thee a perfect and
though it is true that persons thus afflicted do not stutter while they sing. Francis Bacon makes the following contribution to this subject (Sylva Sylvarum, Experiment 386): "Divers, we see, do stut. The cause may be (in most) the refrigeration of the tongue; whereby it is less apt to move . . . And so we see, that they that stut do stut more in the first offer to speak than in continuance, because the tongue is by motion somewhat heated."
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at
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
true Coppie. ... If thou finde any thing heere worthy of lykeing and com- mendation, give prayse unto God, from whome (as a most pure & plentiful fountaine) all good guifts of Scyence doe flow: whose name be glorified for ever. The most assured friend to all that love or learne Musicke: William Byrd.
The composer here expects criticism for his dissonant harmonies, and his work contains such. At the end of "Blessed is he" he jumps to a dominant seventh note, as illustrated. As the domi- | J J | ^=§ nant seventh chord was the first of the many mod- ern dissonant harmonies to come into accepted use, this extremely early example has some historical in- terest. The first specimen quoted in Grove's Dic- tionary (ii. 530), by Monteverde, dates from 1599. Like the other significant composers of history, Byrd was a progressive. The Dedication to Sir Christopher Hatton regards "this first printed worke of mine in English" as "unworthie . . . the view . . . of so worthie a Personage." If my faults are excused, "it shall incourage me to suffer some other things of more depth and skill to follow these, which being not yet finished, are of divers expected and desired." Such self-depreciation was conventional in Elizabethan prefaces. Conse- quently we cannot be sure that Byrd really preferred his forthcoming set (1589), to which he here was looking forward. His modern biog- raphers, E. H. Fellowes and Frank Howes, prefer the 1588 set, but his contemporary public liked both, for both were reprinted during his life- time. The 1589 set was his
Songs of sundrie natures, some of gravitie, and others of myrth, fit for all companies and voyces. Lately made and composed into Music\e of 3. 4. 5. and 6. parts . . .
He tells the "curteous Reader" that "Some are easie and plaine to sing,
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other more hard and difficult, but all such as any yong practicioner in singing, with a little foresight, may easily performe." In his Dedication Byrd makes important record of both the success of his first set, and the increase of interest in music shown by prominent men: "Having ob- served . . . that since the publishing in print of my last labors in Mu- sicke, divers persons of great honor and worship, have more esteemed & delighted in the exercise of that Art, than before. And being perswaded that the same hath rather encreased, through their acceptation of my former endevors, I" have composed these.
Byrd's third and last collection of madrigals, interspersed with mis- cellaneous sacred works, appeared in 1611 under the following title:
Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets: some solemne, others joyfull, framed to the life of the words; Fit for Voyces or Viols of 5. 4. 5. and 6. Parts.
The composer was sixty-nine years old at the time, and his address "To all true lovers of Musicke" includes words of wisdom that he had tested during a lifetime :
Being exited by your kinde acceptance of my former travailes in Musicke, I am thereby much incouraged to commend to you these my last labours, for myne ultimum vale. Wherein I hope you shall finde Musicke to content every humor: either melancholy, merry, or mixt of both. Onely this I desire; that you will be as carefull to heare them well expressed, as I have been both in the composing and correcting of them. Otherwise the best song that ever was made will seem harsh and unpleasant, for that the well expressing of them, either by Voyces, or Instruments, is the life of our labours, which is seldome or never well performed at the first singing or playing. Besides a song that is well and artificially25 made cannot be well perceived nor under- stood at the first hearing, but the oftner you shall heare it, the better cause of liking you will discover: and commonly that song is best esteemed with which our eares are most acquainted. As I have done my best endeavour to
25 Artistically.
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give you content, so I beseech you satisfie my desire in hearing them well expressed, and then I doubt not, for Art and Ayre both of skilfull and igno- rant they will deserve liking. Vale. Thine W. Byrd.
The phrases "framed to the life of the words" and "Fit for Voyces or Viols" at first sight seem contradictory. The first shows that he wished his music to express the meaning of the words. Then how could he say that this vocal music was "fit for viols"? The answer is that most (though not all) of the music written for strings was so similar in style to that for voices that the viol players probably welcomed the addi- tion of madrigal music to their slender published repertory,26 while the composers were doubtless pleased to be able thus to sell more copies. The present dislike of musical transcriptions arose comparatively re- cently. Bach did not share it. We know that Byrd wrote his solo songs with viol accompaniment and then rearranged some of them as madri- gals. He would not object to viols again taking part in their perform- ance. Robert Jones intended his madrigals of 1607 "for viols and27 voices, or for voices alone, or as you please." Evidently the composers did not object to having their compositions performed by varying com- binations of voices and instruments. None of the madrigals contain any ungrateful passages fit only for strings.
The other madrigal composers will now be taken up in alphabetical order. It has been said that a chronological arrangement would serve no good purpose. Nevertheless, a preliminary summary showing the num- ber of sets of English madrigals printed during each decade, and the date at which each composer published his first set may be of interest. The Triumphes of Oriana, and the madrigals of Ferrabosco (repre- sented in the collections of Italian madrigals dated 1588, 1597, and 1598) and Ravenscroft (whose unclassifiable collections appeared 1609, 161 1, and 1614) are not included in the following list:
26 A list of the music printed for viols is given on pp. 162, 163.
27 Not "viols or voices."
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Total number of sets Years printed during Name of each composer and the date at which he
or decades each decade published his first set of madrigals
1 57 1 i Why thorne ( 1 57 1 ) .
1588,1589 2 Byrd(i588).
1590-1599 13 Morley (1593); Mundy (1594); Kirbye and
Weelkes (1597); Cavendish, Farnaby, and Wilbye (1598); Bennet and Farmer (1599).
1600-1609 10 Carlton (1601); Bateson, East, and Greaves
(1604); Allison (1606); Jones (1607); Youll (1608).
1610-1619 9 Gibbons (1612); Lichfild and Ward (1613); Pil-
kington (1614); Vautor (1619).
1620-1629 3 Tomkins (1622); Hilton (1627).
1632 1 Porter (1632, madrigals with instrumental accom-
paniment).
Richard Allison (dates of birth and death unknown; he published his set of madrigals in 1606) need not detain us. Anthony Wood states that he "was then most excellent in his facultie, as several of his com- positions which we have in our musick school shew."28 But his Psalter, mentioned on page 54, is of more interest to us than his madrigals.
Thomas Bateson (c. 1570-1630; publ. 1604 and 1618) speaks of "these curious and hard-pleased times," and in both sets expects critical cen- sure. Since his death, at least, comment has been favorable. Wood wrote :
He was a person esteemed very eminent in his profession, especially after he had published the first Set of English madrigals to three, 4. 5 & six voices, as also his Second set.29
Bateson was among those honored by an invitation to compose a mad- rigal for the Oriana collection. He was organist of Chester Cathedral, and later of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and was the first recipi- ent of the degree of Bachelor of Music from Trinity College, Dublin.
28 Anthony Wood, MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, folio 10.
29 Anthony Wood, op. cit., folio 16.
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The words and music of his madrigals are wedded together with care and quaint pictorial expressiveness.80
John Bennet's set was published in 1599.31 Bennet and Edward Pearce contributed several light part-songs to Ravenscroft's A Briefe Discourse in 1614. Pearce had been his choirmaster at St. Paul's, and as theatrical coach evidently knew how to please the popular taste. Why Ravenscroft should have called on Bennet rather than any one of a dozen others it is impossible to say. But Bennet's madrigals, including the one in the Oriana set, had been mostly bright and gay, and Ravens- croft wanted such as examples. In the Preface to A Briefe Discourse we read,
The second I name, as partner in this worke, is Maister John Bennet, a Gendeman admirable for all kind of Composures, either in Art, or Ayre, Simple or Mixt, of what nature soever. I can easily beleeve he had somwhat more than Art, even some Naturall Instinct or Better Inspiration, by which, in all his workes, the very life of that Passion, which the Ditty sounded, is so truely exprest, as if he had measured it alone by his owne Soule, and in- vented no other Harmony, than his owne sensible feeling in that Affection did affoord him.
He also harmonized five psalm tunes in Ravenscroft's Psalter (1621). His madrigals, though creditable, do not rank among the best examples of their kind. Richard Carlton (c. 1558-1638) published his single set in 1601 :
Madrigals to Five voyces: Newly published by Richard Carlton Preist: Batchelor of Musique. London. Printed by Thomas Morley, dwelling in Little Saint Helens. 1601 Cum Privlegio [sic] ad imprimendum solum.
With one printer's error on the title page and several in the Latin dedi- cation it would seem that the daring discords imputed by Fellowes to both insufficient technique and printer's errors might be due chiefly to
30 And see Dr. Fellowes' comments in Grove, i. 242.
31 Grove, i, 340.
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MADRIGALS
the latter. It may be fanciful to conjecture that Carlton was a man of conservative tastes merely because of the lines he chose for his first madrigal:
Yet find I not that love of change in me But as I am so will I always be,
but his music has a more distinctly medieval and modal flavor about it than that of some of his more progressive contemporaries.
Michael Cavendish (c. 1565-1628), probably a musical amateur, is- sued in 1598 an admirable set of twenty ayres and eight madrigals. The only known copy was discovered as late as 1918, and is now in the Brit- ish Museum. In the dedication to his second cousin, Lady Arbela Stuart,32 he writes like a "poor relation," thankful for small favors.
Michael East33 (c. 1580-1648) had seven sets of his compositions published without making much impression upon the history of music. Only the first four were madrigals with words. The publisher of his first set was the busy music printer Thomas East. If he was Michael's father, Michael's start toward fame is explained. In the dedication of the fourth set (1619) to Robert, Earl of Essex, after some clumsy com- pliments he more neatly begs him to
Vouchsafe therefore your honored name, to help to grace this heavenly Science, which is the chiefest, and most innocent of all pleasures, which was one of the first Arts in which we praise God, and shall be the last.
John Farmer issued a solitary set in 1599. He says he has "fitly linkt Musicke to Number,34 as each give to other their true effect, which is to make delight, a virtue so singular in the Italians, as under that ensign only they hazard their honor." In accordance with this pronouncement
32 Lady Arbela or Arabella Stuart was King James's first cousin, and would have suc- ceeded him had he died childless.
33 The first three sets (1604, 1606, 1610) successively spell the composer's name Este, Est, and Easte.
34 Poetry.
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he has evidently tried to make his music melodious and attractive. More important than his madrigals were his book of canons — Divers and sun- dry waies of two parts in one35 — and his harmonizations of psalm tunes in East's Whole Book^ of Psalms (1592), to which he contributed more than any other composer, Kirbye coming second. In 1591 Farmer was living in London near the Royal Exchange. Later he was organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, for a period, and according to Grat- tan Flood was offered substantial pecuniary inducements to stay, but in 1599 the attractions of London induced him to return there.
Giles Farnaby wrote a set of excellent madrigals (1598) under the title of Canzonets to foure voyces with a Song of eight parts. Like his still greater virginal pieces, they are highly original, harmonically most daring, and expressive. They are neatly dedicated, in a manner char- acteristic of the composer's vigorous mind, to "Maister Ferdinando Heaburn, Groome of her Majesties Privie Chamber":
Pithy and pleasaunt was that invention of our auncient English poet Jef- fray Chaucer, in his booke intituled the parliament of Birdes wherein hee describeth the straunge and sweete harmonie amonge the fowles of all kindes, no one refusing to utter such melodie as nature in her course affoorded. The consideration whereof (right worshipfull) emboldneth me to shew my sim- ple skill in these poore Canzonets. Although many excellent and famous musicions have set foorth in Impression many and excellent workes, yet as the sillie sparrow presumeth to chirpe in presence of the melodious night- ingall, so bluntly and boldly as a poore member among the musicall sort, I make bold to intrude these sillie works as the first fruits of my labor . . .
Had Farnaby read the Parliament of Fowls? Quite possibly, even though Chaucer's phraseology is slightly different. Chaucer names both birds in the same line :
The sparwe, Venus sone; the nyhtyngale, (351) That clepeth forth the grene leves newe; (352)
35 See p. 262.
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but makes no comparison between them, and does not mention the sparrow's song.86
Sir Ferdinando Heybourne (c. 1558-1618) had been a pupil of Tallis, and was an amateur composer under the name of Ferdinando Richard- son; under that name too he wrote a long Latin poem for Tallis and Byrd's Cantiones . . . sacrae (1575). A monument bearing his effigy in the parish church of Tottenham, Middlesex (where he is buried),87 recorded that "he wayted at the feete of Q. Elizabeth of famous memo- rye, and our Soveraigne Lo. King James in their privie chamber. He was a careful majestrate without respect of persons, and a true friend of the cause of the poore." There is no reference to music. His use of a nom de plume, and his apparent disinclination to be known as a com- poser are unique in the musical history of the period.
The dedication to Farnaby's set is followed by four disappointing poems in praise of the composer. Their authors were all men of some prominence. Antony Holborne was a courtier and expert lute maker, Allison was the madrigal composer already mentioned, Dowland was the famous lute player, and Hugh Holland was a Cambridge don and poet. Holborne's neat Latin distichs laud Farnaby in general terms, Alli- son's English verses record that Farnaby published his madrigals only after much persuasion by his friends. The other two poems are quoted as curious specimens:
M. lo. Dowland to the Author
Thou only shalt have Phyllis,
Only thou fit (without all further gloses) Crouned to be with everlasting Roses,
With Roses and with Lillies, And with Daffadoundillies,
36 The only other references to Chaucer in Elizabethan musical literature are made by the poet-composer Thomas Campion and the learned Thomas Morley; see pp. 133, 150 n.
37 Robinson, History of Tottenham (1840), ii. 42.
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But thy songs sweeter are (save in their closes) Than are Lillies or Roses:
Like his that taught the woods sound Amaryllis. Goldings: you that have too too38 dainty noses, Avaunt, go feede you them elsewhere on roses.
M. Hu. Holland to the Author I would both sing thy praise, and praise thy singing: That in the winter nowe are both aspringing. But my Muse must be stronger, And the daies must be longer,
When the sunne's in his hight with y[e] bright Barnaby39 Then should we sing thy praises gende Farnaby.
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) wrote The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets of 5 Parts: apt for Viols and Voyces. It appeared in 1612. The dedication mentions "these harsh notes," "my want of abilitie," "their imperfections." Such stock expressions mean little. The madrigals are contrapuntal and severe but most able. He was better known as an or- ganist and by his music for the church and for viols and virginals.
Thomas Greaves in 1604 published a less important collection con- taining both ayres and madrigals. Of five prefatory poems in his honor only the last is of interest. The initials "R.B." are insufficient to prove that Richard Barnfield wrote it, but it is not unworthy of him:
Said Pithagor true, that each man's severed soule Must be a Pilgrime? then if ere [e'er] thou dye,
Thy spirit must not drinke of Lethes boule, But into a silver plumed Swanne shall flye,
That though thou diest, it may inshrined be
In her that is th' embleme of Harmony. R. B.
38 Sic.
89 Barnaby-bright was St. Barnabas' day, June nth, the longest day o£ the year by the Old Calendar, and mentioned by Holland because he could not find any other rhyme.
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MADRIGALS
John Hilton (1599-1657; publ. 1627) was probably the son of the John Hilton who contributed a madrigal to The Triumphes of Oriana. The 1627 set {Ayres, or Fa Las for Three Voyces) was republished in 1644, but not in Fellowes' English Madrigal School (1913-24). It was dedicated to Dr. Heather in the last year of his life as "but a drop which I receiv'd from you the Fountaine" — another tribute to that unusual man. Hilton did his best work in the time of Charles I. Anthony Wood picturesquely wrote of him40 that
He died in the time of Oliver, and was buried in the Great Cloysters at Westminster; at which time the singing at burials being silenced, as popish, the Fraternity of Musitians who intended to sing him to his grave, sang the Anthem in the House over the corps before it went to the church, and kept time on his coffin.41
Hilton, however, was not actually buried in the Abbey, but close by in St. Margaret's, of which he had been the organist.
Edward Johnson contributed a madrigal to The Triumphes of Oriana (1601), but furnished no printed set. The delight his music afforded Queen Elizabeth at Elvetham has been mentioned.42 He also was en- gaged by the Earl of Leicester to supervise the musical arrangements for the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Kenilworth.48 Meres names him in his list of England's sixteen finest composers.
Robert Jones in 1607 published The First Set of Madrigals of 3.4.5.6.- y.8 Parts. The set is of little practical importance because only two of the part-books seem to have survived. Nine of the madrigals have been printed in The English Madrigal School because they exist complete in manuscript. In his dedication he mentions that Plato and Aristotle stress
40 Grove, ii. 634.
41 We can picture the scene, with the conductor tapping out the time with his long, heavy baton upon the coffin, instead of on the floor, as he would ordinarily.
42 See p. 8.
48 Gage, History of Hengrave, 1822. See the article by Flood, Musical Times, 1927, p. 126.
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the importance of music in education, "and Cicero reporteth, that al- though Themistocles was endowed with many graces, yet was hee the lesse esteemed, being ignorant thereof," and "though the death of Nero was exceeding joyfull to the people, yet was it much lamented, that his excellency in Musicke should perish with him." The Triumphes of Oriana contains one of his madrigals. He was more important as a composer of five books of ayres. In addition he was a theatrical man- ager.
George Kirbye (d. 1634; publ. 1597). In his dedication of The First Set of English Madrigalls to 4.5. & 6. voyces he says that he need not praise music, even if he could — "besides that many learned men have learnedly written in commendation thereof" — for
. . . the examples of times past, and our owne experience every day, doth give sufficient testimonie both of the pleasure & proffit that it bringeth to a distressed & melancholy mind. Also I think it convenient not to answere (otherwise than with silence) to those (more sencelesse than brute beastes) that with open mouthes doe in-veigh, & speak all the evill they can against that excellent knowledge. But it standeth mee in hand, rather to crave par- don, for this my boldnes, in putting to the view of so many learned Musi- tions (which this age & Realme affordeth) these first fruites of my poor knowledge in Musicke . . .
At his death he bequeathed his music to his maid, who sold it for forty shillings. We know that it contained a number of "Italian & Latin songs to 5 and 6 voyces" by good composers, for copies were made by a Thomas Hamond and are to be seen in the Bodleian Library.44 Kirbye, Morley, and Wilbye are practically the only Elizabethan composers about whose musical possessions and reading anything detailed is
44 Bodleian, MS Mus. f. 1-6. The madrigals and motets for five voices are by Felis (15), Vecchi (9), Pevernage (7), Alfonso Ferrabosco (6), Philips (6), Bona (4), "Gio. Fra. violanti" [della Viola?] (1), Stabile (1), Renaldo Paradiso (1), and Thomas Lupo (1); those for six voices, by Fabritius (20), Ferretti (5), Felis (3), Philips (3), de Monte (3), Vecchi (2), Gastoldi (2), Croce (2), Massaino (2), Marenzio (1), Victoria (1), and del Mel (1). Presumably Kirbye was acquainted with some of these works.
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MADRIGALS
known.45 The wills of many Elizabethan composers have come down to us, but the contents of their musical libraries (which would be much more significant than the lists of furniture and clothing) are not men- tioned.
Henry Lichfild's set (1613) is unimportant. It is dedicated "To . . . my most Noble Lady and Mistris, the Lady Cheyney." Dr. Fellowes thinks he was household steward and, like John Ward, not a profes- sional musician.
Thomas Morley, one of the greatest Elizabethans, was born in 1557, and died, aged 45, in 1602. Although his twenty-one-year royal mo- nopoly of the printing of music and music paper made it easy for him to publish his madrigals, it was his merited fame that secured him the monopoly, not the monopoly his fame. His five sets were dated 1593, 1594, 1595 (two), and 1597. Morley's popularity is shown not merely by the large number of his publications, but by the fact that five of them went through second editions in a few years — an unusual honor for Elizabethan compositions.
Although he was subject to constant ill health, and often wished to die, his madrigals are heroically among the lightest and most cheerful of the period, and his music has been enjoyed and praised by many auditors from his day to our own. At the Elvetham Revels, in Septem- ber, 1591, one of his pavans delighted Queen Elizabeth; Nichols in his Progresses tells us that it was the composition of "Master Thomas Mor- ley, then organist of Paules Church." Two contemporaries, Francis Meres and Henry Peacham, mention Morley in their lists of the great- est English composers of that period. Doni (c. 1593-1647), in his Dis- corso sopra la perfettine de Melodia,46 styles him "Tommaso Morley,
45 Tallis owned a manuscript containing musical treatises which is now in the British Museum (Lansdowne MS 763). Regarding Wilbye, see Fellowes' article in Musical Asso- ciation Proceedings, 19 14.
46 Published with Doni's Compendio in 1635. See Sir John Hawkins, A General His- tory . . . of Music, 1875 edition, ii. 494.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
erudito musico Inglese." Anthony Wood tells of the popularity enjoyed by one of Morley's madrigals at New College, "There was somtime an auntient custom belonging to New College fellows," whereby on Holy Thursday of every year some of them, "going up to a well or spring in the grove, which [was] strewd with flowers round about for them, they sung a song of 5 parts, lately one of [Mr. Morley's] principium 'Hard by a cristall fountaine.' "47 The First Booke of Balletts to Five Voyces, by Morley, contains the following tribute by "Mr. M. D. to the Author":
Such was old Orpheus ['] cunning
That senceless things drew neare him,
And heardes of beastes to heare him,
The stock, the stone, the Oxe, the Asse came running.
MORLEY! but this enchaunting
To thee, to be the Musick-God is wanting.
And yet thou needst not fear him;
Draw thou the Shepherds still and Bonny-lasses,
And envie him not stocks, stones, Oxen, Asses.
"M. D." was the poet Michael Drayton,48 who also wrote a quaint son- net that attests his interest in music :
Love once would daunce within my Mistris eye, And wanting musique fitting for the place, Swore that I should the Instrument supply, And sodainly presents me with her face: Straightwayes my pulse playes lively in my vaines, My panting breath doth keepe a meaner time, My quav'ring artiers be the Tenours straynes, My trembling sinewes serve the Counterchime,
47 Anthony Wood's Autobiography, in Wood's Life and Times, 1891 edition, i. 289. Wood wrote "Mr. Wilbye's" by mistake; the madrigal is by Morley.
48 J. W. Hebel, Wor\s of Michael Drayton, i. 493.
[Il8]
MADRIGALS
My hollow sighs the deepest base doe beare,
True diapazon in distincted sound:
My panting hart the treble makes the ayre,
And descants finely on the musiques ground; Thus like a Lute or Violl did I lye, Whilst he proud slave daunc'd galliards in her eye.
These Balletts by Morley were also published in an Italian edition in London the same year. In it an Italian poem seems to imply that the composer was expecting his own death; it compares him to a "sweet and tuneful swan," who quiets the winds with his celestial notes, and is worthy of eternal laurel.49
It is quite possible that Morley knew Shakespeare well, and that he wrote his musical setting of "It was a lover and his lass" at the poet's request. Grattan Flood50 notes that both Morley and Shakespeare lived in the parish of St. Helen's Bishopgate; both of their names appear in the Rolls of Assessments for Subsidies in 1598 and 1600, and for the same amount, namely 13/4^. as assessment on goods valued at ^5; and both appealed against the assessment.
An interesting tribute to the composer's genius is a madrigal by his great contemporary Weelkes, entitled "A Remembrance of my friend M[aster] Thomas Morley"; although the words, by John Davies of Hereford, were written not in honor of Morley, but as "A Dump upon the death of the most noble Henrie, late Earle of Pembrooke" :
49 IL SIG0R V. H. ALL' AUTORE Cigno dolce e canoro,
Che lung' al bel Tamigi, acqueti i venti Co i tuoi celesti accenti
Degni d'eterno Alloro Deh non ti lamentare
Piu del dolor che Send nell' andare A che n' andar voresti
Ch' a volo vai, a pied' ove non potresti?
50 Musical Times for 1927, p. 228. See also Illustrations of the Life of Shakespeare, by Rev. Joseph Hunter, 1845.
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DEATH hath deprived me of my dearest friend;
My dearest friend is dead and laid in grave. In grave he rests until the world shall end.
The world shall end, as end all things must have. All things must have an end that nature wrought; That Nature wrought must unto dust be brought.
Francis Pilkington was a singing man of Chester Cathedral. He published madrigals in 1614 and 1624. His panegyric on music from his first set has been quoted on page 34. Two sonnets in his honor form prefaces to the second set. The writer of the first of these singles out for special mention four Elizabethan musicians. Few today would find fault with the list.
To my approoved Friend, Master Francis Pilkington, Batchelar of Musicke. A Sonnet
Thou great Atchievements our Heroicke Spirits
Have done in Englands old or later Victories Shall we attribute wholly to the Merrits
Of our Brave Leaders? And faire Industries Which their not-named Followers have exprest
Lie hid? And must the Matchlesse Excellencies Of Bird, Bull, Dowland, Morley, and the rest
Of our rare Artists (who now dim the lights Of other lands) be onely in Request?
Thy Selfe, (and others) losing your due Rights To high Desert? nay, make it (yet) more plaine, That thou canst hit the Ayres of every vaine.
Their praise was their Reward, and so 'tis thine;
The Pleasure of thy paines all mens: and mine.
William Webbe.51
61 Possibly the "W.W." who wrote a poem in honor of Greaves. Webbe (/?. 1568-91) was the author of A Discourse of English Poetrie.
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In the second sonnet his fellow chorister Henry Harpur extols "old Chester," and Pilkington, "for glorious fame chiefe in our Clyme":
Arts praise, and Skills high pitch, are not so tyed
To banks of Po, or silver Thames (we see) But Joves faire bird may haunt fine streames beside,
And chaunt sweet layes on brinkes of Antique dee[i.e., Dee].
With the conventional modesty of the period Pilkington calls his first set "unworthy," and brings his second set forward as "this my little Bundle of Rushes."
He also wrote a book of songs which was published in 1605 and dedi- cated to the Earl of Derby. A canon by "I.M." printed on the title-page probably points to a friendship with John Mundy, who succeeded Mer- becke at Windsor. The second set of madrigals "contains also a Pavin made for the orpharion, by the Right Honourable William, Earle of Darbie, and by him consented to be in my books placed." The Earl has been brought forward in modern times by a solitary critic as the writer of Shakespeare's works, the Earl's musical ability being held responsible for Shakespeare's musical allusions.52
Walter Porter (c. 1595-1659) was "an English pupil of Monte- verde."53 His madrigals, published in 1632, contain instrumental accom- paniments and florid vocal passages, and so are only partly in the Eliza- bethan spirit.
Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1590-c. 1633) is more notable for his Psalter (1621) and A Briefe Discourse (1614) than for his madrigals. A schol- arly but whimsical young man who preferred certain outworn methods of notation, he nevertheless did not disapprove of popular music, and published the first English collections of rounds. Their authorship is not stated; some, perhaps most of them, were already well known, e.g.,
52 Abel Lefranc, Sous le Masque de Shakespeare, 1919. The reference is to the sixth Earl of Derby, c. 1 561— 1642.
53 Arkwright, in the Musical Antiquary, vol. 4, p. 236.
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"Three blinde mice." The first of Ravenscroft's collections of rounds was Pammelia (1609). His purpose is stated in the Address to the Reader : "The onely intent is to give generall content, composed by Art to make thee disposed to mirth." Pammelia apparently became popu- lar immediately, for in D enter omelia, published the same year, he speaks of "the kinde acceptation of the former Impression." His few madrigals occur in Melismata (1611), where again he merely aimed to please, and in A Brief e Discourse. The only stated reason for his intro- duction of compositions into this work on theory is to show the correct use of time signatures.
Thomas Tomkins (1573-1656) also did much of his best work in the time of King James. He was organist of Worcester Cathedral. His only set was published in 1622. As a second edition was published the same year, Dr. Fellowes reasonably considers that the work must have proved immediately popular. Tomkins apologizes, quite unnecessarily, "for the lightnesse of some of the words," which are in the best Eliza- bethan vein. Each of the twenty-eight madrigals is dedicated to a differ- ent man, but since two of the lightest — Fa la's — were inscribed to the great Byrd and Dowland, it seems useless to try to ascertain Tomkins' opinions of the twenty-eight men54 by examining the madrigals dedi- cated to them. His brother John Tomkins, who was made organist of St. Paul's Cathedral that very year, wrote this prefatory poem :
To my Brother the Author [i^., composer]
Yet thou wert mortall: now begin to live,
And end with onely Time[;] Thy Muses give What Nature hath deny'd, Eternitie:
Gladly my younger Muse doth honour thee,
54 His father Thomas, his brothers Giles, John, Nicholas, Peregrine and Robert, his son Nathanael; the composers Byrd, Carlton, Coprario, John Daniel, Dowland, Gibbons, Giles, Henry Molle, Myriell, Ward; the organist Thomas Warwicke; the singing man William White; the patron of music Dr. Heather; the organist Thomas Day; the poet
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But mine's no praise. A large increase it has
That's multiply'd through strong affections glas.
Yet is thy worth the same, and were no other
Though as a Judge I spake, not as a Brother. This comfort have, this Art's so great, so free, None but the good can reach to censure thee.
IOHN TOMKINS
Thomas Vautor was probably the household musician of Sir George Villiers, father of the first and grandfather of the notorious second Duke of Buckingham. A prefatory poem to Vautor's only set (1619) praises his "pleasant notes" with disappointing generalities.
John Ward also was a household musician. His master, Sir Henry Fanshawe, seems to have valued him highly both for his music and his business ability, and left him in his will all his musical instruments "ex- cept the greate Wind Instrument in my howse in Warwyck Lane." His only set of madrigals was published in 1613. The best of them are ad- mirable examples of their art, displaying a mastery of contrapuntal technique, effective chord progressions, and particularly a rich expres- siveness. These descriptive phrases apply equally well to the madrigals of
Thomas Weelkes (d. 1623), while Weelkes is in addition distin- guished by an even greater originality of style, so that he is the most daring of the madrigalists, employing harmonic clashes and moderni- ties to achieve pictorial and emotional effects that were extraordinary for their time. He is hardly inferior to Wilbye, the greatest of the Eng- lish madrigal composers. Weelkes published five sets of madrigals, in 1597, 1598, 1600 (two sets), and 1608. Their dedications unfortunately contain little of interest. He was organist of Winchester College and later of Chichester Cathedral. He received the degree of Bachelor of Music from Oxford University in 1602, when mention was made of his
Phineas Fletcher; and Dr. Ailmer, Robert Chetwode, William Crosse, John Steevens, Wil- liam Walker, and Humfrey Witby. See Denis Stevens' excellent life of Thomas Tomkins, pp. 41-45.
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sixteen years' study and practice of music. Hawkins observed that one of his madrigals was included in a collection published at Helmstadt in 1619. His will has been preserved, and shows him a man of serious dig- nity.
John Wilbye (1574-1638; publ. 1598, 1609) is the last of the madri- galists of whom we should make mention. The researches of Dr. Fel- lowes have ascertained more interesting and minute details about his life and surroundings than we have regarding any other Elizabethan composer; but his merit does not seem to have been widely acknowl- edged in his own time. His employers, Sir Thomas and Lady Kytson, of Hengrave Hall,55 Suffolk, recognized his ability, and her ladyship gave him the lease of a large farm in recognition of his services. In 1602 there were available in Hengrave Hall for the use of Wilbye and the musicians under him six viols, six violins, seven recorders, four cornetts, four lutes, two sackbuts, three oboes, two "flewtes," two virginals, a bandore, a cithern, and a large number of compositions, including mad- rigals, dances, and unspecified works, for lute, consort, and voices un- accompanied. Unfortunately the titles and composers' names are not recorded, but the list, though incomplete, gives us our best idea of the musical resources at the disposal of a wealthy Elizabethan family. Wil- bye died rich. He bequeathed a fine viol to Prince Charles, later Charles II, in recognition (one would think) of some favor done Wilbye by one of the royal family; Prince Charles was only eight when the will was made. If one may compare the madrigals of Wilbye and Weelkes without becoming invidious, it may be said that those of Wilbye show at times greater perfection and finish, without at all falling short in emotional power. "Viewed as a whole, they reach a uniformly high standard, while certain individual compositions stand out to defy com- parison with anything in the whole range of madrigal literature. In the
55 Exquisite illustrations of this stately mansion where Wilbye spent so many years have been published by Country Life in English Homes, Period II, vol. i, pp. 231 ff., 1924.
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opinion of many well-qualified judges he is the greatest of all madrigal writers, whether English or continental."56
When we survey the English madrigal in retrospect we can explain its rise more easily than its decline. While English literature and art were being strongly influenced by Italian exemplars in the sixteenth century it was inevitable that English composers similarly should look for guidance to Italy, then the leading musical nation of the world. A concerted work such as a madrigal or oratorio, because of its ever changing texture, the different colors of the individual parts, and the climactic effects obtainable from massed voices, makes a combined emo- tional and intellectual appeal more attractive to some cultivated musi- cians than that of the vocal solo or folk song.
Indigenous compositions that we might classify as madrigals were written in England long before 1587, or even I533,57 but the earlier specimens were crude and seem not to have suited the general taste, such as it was. The madrigal at its height, however, was an artistic, though sophisticated, union of elaborate verse58 and complicated music that naturally appealed to the highly educated intelligentsia of Eliza- bethan England when mature examples of the form were introduced from Italy at a propitious time.
The decline and fall of the madrigal are somewhat harder to explain. We cannot hold Queen Elizabeth's unmusical and uninspiring succes-
56 Dr. E. H. Fellowes, in Grove, v. 717, and The English Madrigal Composers, p. 212. See also Dr. Fellowes' long preface to The English Madrigal School, vol. vi, which gives practically everything now known about Wilbye.
57 The year referred to on p. 92 as marking the revival of madrigal writing in Italy.
58 The words of the printed madrigals and ayres have been collected and published by E. H. Fellowes in his volume of English Madrigal Verse, 1920. The authorship of much of the verse is unknown, since the poets' names were not printed in the Eliza- bethan music books. Some of the poems, however, have been discovered to be the work of Sidney, Spenser, Jonson, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Campion, Walter and Francis Davison, Michael Drayton, John Donne, Walter Raleigh, Nicholas Breton, Samuel Daniel, and others. Shakespeare is not included.
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sor responsible for its demise, for the madrigal was losing favor on the Continent at the same time. No doubt the critics are right in assuming a decline in English musical taste, but concerted compositions for viols, less popular in their appeal today than madrigals, remained in high esteem until the restoration of Charles II. It is possible to name more definite causes. When the madrigal had attained perfection, it suffered the same fate that has befallen other forms in the history of art: ambi- tious composers recognized the impossibility of bettering it and turned to new and more promising fields of endeavor. Then, too, Elizabethan music sounded archaic long before the end of the seventeenth century, owing to the change in style. Furthermore the madrigal, itself intro- duced from Italy, lost ground toward the end of James I's reign to a rival visitor from that same country — declamatory recitative in the style of the Florentine monodists. As practised by Henry Lawes and others, this required both more skilful singing and a power of dramatic ex- pression which had been unnecessary for the madrigal or even the early Elizabethan ayre. Thus began the glorification of the solo singer in England.
If we except some fine madrigals by Pearsall (i 795-1 856), and may speak in general terms, the composing of secular works for several un- accompanied voices between the death of James I and the coming of Parry and Stanford was largely confined to that of catches in the seven- teenth century, glees in the eighteenth, and harmonic part-songs in the nineteenth. All of these derivative forms may be regarded as inferior to the madrigal.
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V
Songs
THE Elizabethans spoke of their songs for solo voice as ayres. In the printed collections each ayre was usually provided with two ac- companiments, one being for lute and viola da gamba, the other for three voices. When the instrumental accompaniment was used in per- formance, the viola da gamba was doubtless sometimes dispensed with, since the notes written for it were usually also present in the lute part, and the singer could play his or her own accompaniment upon the lute without requiring the presence of a second performer. If the alternative accompaniment for several voices was used, the composition closely re- sembled a madrigal of the harmonic type, and indeed the Elizabethans referred to both these classes of compositions as ayres, since in both the soprano part carried the main air throughout, the other voices being merely subsidiary to it. But today, if no instrumental accompaniment exists, we call the composition a madrigal. If one does exist, we call it an ayre, no matter what form of accompaniment is actually used in per- formance.
Folk songs and troubadour songs were common in the Middle Ages, but our modern art-song, with every note of the melody and accom- paniment fitted together with care by a composer well aware of its artis- tic importance, dates from the Elizabethan period. William Howes names Byrd as the composer of the earliest art-song. The ayre, then, was an artistic creation not exactly paralleled on the Continent, and is an achievement of which the British people may justly be proud. Like the best madrigals, the best ayres come almost without exception from the printed collections. The composers of these, and the year in which each collection was published, are here listed:
John Attey: 1622.
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John Bartlet(t) : 1606.
Thomas Campion: 1601 (the set containing ayres by himself and Ros- seter), c. 1613 (two collections), c. 1617 (two); also songs for one masque in 1607 and three in 1613. Notable as a composer, Campion was greater as a poet.
Michael Cavendish: 1598 (a collection of both ayres and madrigals).
John Cooper, also called Coprario: 1606, 161 3, and masques.
William Corkine: 1610, 1612.
John Daniel: 1606. He was the brother of Samuel Daniel, the poet.
John Dowland: 1597, 1600, 1603, 1612. He wrote the best songs of his time, and in addition was the most skilful lute player in Europe.
Robert Dowland, his son, published a collection of vocal duets in 1610.
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger: 1609, and songs for Ben Jonson's masques. Ferrabosco was one of the leading Jacobean composers, and one of the best viol players in Europe.
Thomas Ford: 1607. His ayres are noted for their fine melodies.
Thomas Greaves: 1604. Unimportant.
Tobias Hume: 1605. Unimportant.
Robert Jones: 1600, 1601, 1608, 1609, 1610. His ayres are inferior to those of Dowland in depth, but second to none in charm and spon- taneity.
John Maynard: 1611. Inferior works.
Thomas Morley : 1600.
Martin Peerson: 1620.
Francis Pilkington: 1605.
Philip Rosseter: 1601 (the collection also containing ayres by Cam- pion).
Thomas Campion (1567-1620) was "an admired poet and musician in the reign of James I," as Anthony Wood rightly called him. Campion was in favor at court, for he wrote two songs for the marriage of Sir
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James Hay, a favorite of the king, and the music of masques for the marriages of Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine — ancestors of King George VI — and of the Earl of Somerset to Lady Frances How- ard. Another masque by him was given before Queen Anne, the wife of James I. Grattan Flood1 notes that his tune "What if a day" was used by the Dutch in their patriotic anthem "Bergen op Zoom," and van den Borren2 mentions another foreign setting of the air. Meres in his Pal- ladis Thamia (1598) included him in his list of great English composers. Camden in 1605 ranked him among "the pregnant wits of the time," with Sidney, Spenser, Samuel Daniel, Hugh Holland, Jonson, Drayton, Chapman, Marston, and Shakespeare. His contemporary, John Davies, praises both Campion's poetry and his music in these lines:
Never did lyrics' more happy strains,
Strained out of Art by Nature, so with ease
So purely hit the moods and various veins Of Music and her hearers as do these.
Campion in turn was generous in his judgment of others, for he wrote a Latin poem in praise of his chief rival as a composer of songs, John Dowland, and verses in English to honor Ravenscroft and the younger Ferrabosco.
Campion's first published songs comprise the first half of:
A Boo\e of Ayres, Set foorth to be song to the Lute, Orpherian, and Base Violl, by Philip Rosseter Lutenist . . . 1601.
The first twenty-one ayres are by Campion, the other twenty-one by his dearest friend Rosseter. Campion apologized for the inclusion of his own ayres, as "superfluous blossoms of his deeper studies," but yielded to Rosseter's desire to publish them because some of them had pre- viously been pirated and printed with many mistakes.3 The authorship
1 The Musical Times for 1927, p. 895. 2 Musical Quarterly, July 1923.
3 So says Rosseter in his Dedication of the volume to Sir Thomas Monson, an old friend of Campion.
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of the poems is a matter of some interest. Campion is usually credited with having written them all. Bruce Pattison has advanced the theory4 that Rosseter, although not hitherto known as a poet, may have written the words of his half of the book, for he calls this half "mine owne" immediately after censuring the practice of making false claims to au- thorship. To be consistent, then, if Campion had written the words, Rosseter would have said so. Rosseter then comments at some length upon the nature of ayres in general as well as on his own in particular, and his opinions may be summarized here as presumably representing the views of both men, since this joint volume was published with Cam- pion's consent :
Ayres, like epigrams, should be short, and in this volume their shortness is atoned for by their large number. Most of them are light love lyrics, "eare- pleasing rimes without Arte," without complicated fugal imitations. I do not attempt here to write complicated counterpoint, nor to express every single word in the music, but only those that are important or emphatic. "For the Note and Tableture,5 if they satisfie the most, we have our desire, let expert masters please themselves with better. And if anie light error hath escaped us the skilfull may easily correct it, the unskilfull will hardly per- ceive it. But there are some, who to appear the more deepe, and singular in their judgement, will admit no Musicke but that which is long, intricate, bated with fuge, chained with sincopation, and where the nature of everie word is precisely exprest in the Note, like the old exploided action in Come- dies, when if they did pronounce Memeni, they would point to the hinder part of their heads, if Video, put their finger in their eye. But such childish observing of words is altogether ridiculous, and we ought to maintaine as well in Notes, as in action a manly cariage, gracing no word, but that which is eminent and emphaticall. Nevertheles, as in Poesie we give the prehemi- nence to the Heroicall Poeme, so in Musicke we yeeld the chiefe place to the grave, and well invented Motet, but not to every harsh and dull confused Fantasie, where in multitude of points the Harmonie is quite drowned. Ayres have both their Art and pleasure, and I will conclude of them as the
4 Musical Times, November 1931, p. 988. 5 Tableture: i.e., the lute accompaniment.
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Poet did in his censure, of Catullus the Lyricke, and Vergil the Heroicke writer:
Tantum magna suo debet Verona Catullo: Quantum parva suo Mantua Vergilio."6
So Campion's ayres are less complex and studied than Dowland's, but are notable for their spontaneity and charm. What is here said of Cam- pion's ayres is true also of Rosseter's, although the latter often strike a deeper note.
Rosseter also compiled a book of Lessons for Consort? published in 1609. He was a court lutenist under James I. Campion thought so highly of him as to bequeath him all his property — ^20 — and to wish "that it had bin farr more."
About twelve years later were published Campion's
Two Boo\es of Ayres. The First Contayning Divine and Morall Songs: The Second, Light Conceits of Lovers. To be sung to the Lute and Viols, in two, three, and foure, vocal Parts or by one Voyce to an Instrument. Com- posed by Thomas Campian.
The composer explains that the mixed character of its contents is due to the desire of the publisher "to content all palates." He composed them "first for one voyce with the Lute, or Violl" and wrote the alter- native accompaniment for voices later. He suggests that this second arrangement will give a richer harmony than if the solo voice is accom- panied only by the viol in thin two-part counterpoint, and that over- enthusiastic bystanders should be invited to sing this vocal accompani- ment, to prevent them from joining in with extempore parts of their own and spoiling the harmony. This quaint remark by Campion throws some light on the musical enthusiasm of the day. He comments further on musical prejudice, his own purpose as composer, and the nature of the English language :
6 Huge Verona owes as much to its Catullus as tiny Mantua to its Virgil.
7 See p. 174.
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Some there are who admit onely French or Italian Ayres, as if every Country had not his proper Ayre, which the people thereof naturally usurpe in their Musicke. Others taste nothing that comes forth in Print, as if Catul- lus or Martials Epigrammes were the worse for being published. In these English Ayres I have chiefely aymed to couple my Words and Notes lov- ingly together, which will be much for him to doe that hath not power over both. The light of this will best appeare to him who hath pays'd8 our Mona- syllables and Syllables combined, both which are so loaded with Consonants as that they will hardly keepe company with swift Notes, or give the Vowell convenient liberty. To conclude; mine owne opinion of these Songs I deliver thus:
Omnia nee nostris bona sunt, sed nee mala libris;
Si placet hac cantes, hac quoque; lege legas.
Farewell.
[Not all in our books is good, and yet not all is bad;
Be pleased to dip in here and there, and sing what you like best.]
The First Boo\e, as the title states, is serious, and in contrast to the second. The Second Boo\e of Ayres is bound with it, but has a separate title-page, dedication, and address. The dedication is a sonnet, and re- fers to the practice, still common, of printing holidays on a calendar in red: just as some days are holy, and marked in red, while others are "low-dayes undistinguished," so there are sacred songs in this volume, and secular too. The Address to the Reader is worthy of Martial:
To the Reader
THAT holy Hymnes with Lovers cares are knit Both in one Quire here, thou maist think't unfit; Why do'st not blame the Stationer as well Who in the same Shop sets all sorts to sell? Divine with stiles prophane, grave shelv'd with vaine; And some matcht worse, yet none of him complaine.
8 Payse : to poise, weigh, consider.
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Campion's Third and Fourth Boo\es also were published together in one volume. In dedicating the Third Booke to his intimate friend Sir Thomas Monson,9 Campion states that he composed much of it in earlier years while he was a guest at Sir Thomas's house:
These youth-borne Ayres then, prison'd in this Booke, Which in your Bowres much of their beeing tooke, Accept as a kinde offring from that hand Which joyn'd with heart your vertue may command.
The Dedication of the Fourth Boo\e to Sir John Monson contains the fine lines,
And since that honour and well-suted Prayse Is Vertues Golden Spurre.
In the Address to the Reader which is here summarized, Campion again refers to the extreme lightness of his ayres, and makes a poor apology for the impropriety of some of his verses:
Ayres resemble gold-leaf: though light as air, they are both ornamental and useful. If the verses toward the end of this book offend, at least they are not so objectionable as some by Chaucer. I wrote the words of all the poems; some of them have been set by other composers, some I myself set earlier and have reprinted here after revising the music.
Campion is here referring to the fact that the verses of the seventh ayre had also been set by Allison and Jones, those of the ninth by Ferrabosco, the seventeenth by Dowland, and the eighteenth by Corkine; and that the twenty-second and twenty-third, previously published in the Cam- pion-Rosseter collection are here "revived with Additions."
9 Sir Thomas Mo(u)nson, 1564-1641, knighted by Queen Elizabeth and friend of James I, showed his genuine interest in music by paying for the musical education of Robert Dowland and others. Sir John Mo(u)nson, K.B., D.C.L., 1600-1683, the son of Sir Thomas, was a valued legal adviser to Charles I.
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Campion left over a hundred songs. In general their music is charm- ing but deficient in emotional quality. Peter Warlock writes:
It cannot be said that Campion is as distinguished a composer as he is a poet. . . . This, of course, is largely due to the superlative excellence of the poems. . . . Extreme neatness of workmanship is always apparent in the music as in the poems; but there is a complete absence of any deeper quality than surface charm in the music, where the words demand a certain meas- ure of intensity for their adequate expression.10
John Cooper (c. 1570-1627), an Englishman, was better known in his own day by the Italianate name Coprario, which he had adopted while traveling in Italy. His printed volumes are funeral songs on the deaths of the Earl of Devonshire (1606) and Prince Henry (1613). He was a good craftsman but not a genius. He instructed in music the children of James I, and also the important composers William Lawes (born c. 1585 or 1590, d. 1645) and Henry Lawes (1595-1662). Anthony Wood says of him :
When he returned into England [from Italy] he was e[s] teemed famous for instrumental musick and compositions of Fancies and thereupon was made composer to k[ing] Ch[arles] I. He was one of the first authors yl set Lessons to the viol Lyra-way.11
John Daniel or Danyel (c. 1565-1630) was the brother of Samuel Daniel the poet, published his works, acted as his executor, and suc- ceeded him in his position as censor of the plays to be performed by the Children of the Queen's Revels. Daniel's songs are cast in a larger
10 Warlock, The Elizabethan Ayre, p. 105. Campion's delightful prefaces are worth reading in full in Warlock's book.
11 Anthony Wood's MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, folio 36. Wood makes this last statement about Daniel Farrant (son of Richard Farrant) also. By "lyra-way" he meant the practice of composing pieces for the viol in lute notation and lute style, using chords.
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mold than Campion's. Peter Warlock wrote of John Daniel that "As a composer of serious songs in extended form he stands second only to John Dowland in the Elizabethan song," and suggested that Thomas Tomkins dedicated the two parts of his madrigal "O let me live for true love" to Dowland and Daniel "as though he would name them together as the two greatest living masters of accompanied song among his fellow-countrymen."12 Such novel chromaticisms as the succession of semitones in Daniel's song cycle "Can doleful notes to measured ac- cents set" rank him with Farnaby, Weelkes, and Dowland as the most daring of Elizabethan composers.
John Dowland (1563-1626; publ. 1597, 1600, 1603, 1612) was notable as composer, lute player, and translator. He wrote numerous pieces for lute, some of which were printed without permission, but under Dow- land's name, in Barley's A Newe Boo\e of Tabliture, 1596. The numer- ous foreign publications13 containing pieces by him for lute or for viols testify to his international reputation. The most famous of his instru- mental compositions, "Lachrimae," was published in England. It will be mentioned in the next chapter. In addition, he translated Andreas Ornithoparcus' Micrologus, dealing with musical theory. What Dow- land did not do is of some interest : he seems to have written no madri- gals, church music, or pieces for keyboard instruments, either virginals or organ. Dowland may well have been kept busy practising his lute. Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch has testified to the difficulty of playing it, and Mattheson, Handel's contemporary, asserted that a player spent most of his life tuning it! It is to be regretted that Dowland never carried into efTect his intention of writing an instruction book on lute playing; it would have become the standard work of its kind.
Anthony Wood, although aware of John Bull's dazzling feats as composer and performer, called Dowland "The rarest Musician that his age did behold," and with reference to his compositions added, "It is
12 The English Ayre, by Peter Warlock, 1926, p. 52. 18 A list is given in Grove, ii. 88.
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questionable whether he excelled in vocal or instrumental musick."14 In 1598 Richard Barnfield praised Dowland and Spenser in the follow- ing sonnet:
If Musique and sweet Poetrie agree
As they must needes (the Sister and the Brother),
Then must the Love be great, twixt thee and mee,
Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is deare; whose heavenly tuch
Upon the Lute, doeth ravish humaine sense:
Spenser to mee; whose deepe Conceit is such,
As, passing all Conceit, needs no defence.
Thou lov'st to heare the sweete melodious sound,
That Phoebus Lute (the Queen of Musique) makes:
And I in deepe Delight am chiefly drownd,
When as himselfe to singing he betakes.
One God is God of Both (as Poets faigne),
One Knight loves Both, and Both in thee remaine.
In 1595 John Scudamore, priest, praised Dowland from Florence for his "exquisiteness upon the lute" and "cunning in music."16 Dowland was a Catholic between the years 1589 and 1595, and his failure to ob- tain a position at Elizabeth's court in 1594 may have been due to this fact. From 1598 to 1606 he was chief lutenist to the King of Denmark at Elsinore, at a salary equal to that of ministers of state. This period marks both the highest point of his career and its decline, for in 1606 he was dismissed for habitual financial carelessness. We may infer that this unfortunate event was proclaimed in his native country by Queen Anne of England, the sister of the King of Denmark, and prevented him from obtaining another position, for in 1612 Henry Peacham
14 Anthony Wood's MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, folios 44 ff. 16 Warlock, The English Ayre, p. 28.
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likened Dowland to a nightingale, forlorn and neglected in the cold of winter :16
Ad amicum suum Iohannem Doulandum Musices peritissimum
So since (old frend,) thy yeares have made thee white, And thou for others, hath consum'd thy spring, How few regard thee, whome thou didst delight, And farre, and neere, came once to hear thee sing: Ingratefull times, and worthies age of ours, That lets us pine, when it hath cropt our flowers.
But in the same year he was made one of the King's Musicians for the Lutes, and from that time on was probably not in want.
Dowland published four books of songs. The composer's Addresses to the Reader give valuable information regarding himself, his com- positions, and his fame. Other composers feigned to hide their light under a bushel, but not Dowland. In 1597 appeared
The First Boo\e of Songs or Ayres of joure parts with Tablature for the Lute. So made, that all the parts together, or either of them severally, may be sung to the Lute, Orpherian, or Viol de gambo. Composed by John Dow- land, Lutenist and Batcheler of Music\ in both the Universities. Also an in- vention by the said Author for two to play upon one Lute. Newly corrected and amended . . . 1597.
We learn of his fame abroad in his long Address:
To the Courteous Reader . . . About sixteene yeres past, I travelled the chiefest parts of France, a nation furnisht with great variety of Musicke: But lately, being of a more con- firmed judgement, I bent my course toward the famous provinces of Ger-
16 In Minerva Britanna or garden of heroical Devises, furnished and adorned with Emblems and Impresa's of sundry natures . . ., 1612, by Henry Peacham the Younger. Dowland is specially honored here, since the emblem and poem to him are the only ones dedicated in the book to a musician.
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many, where I found both excellent masters, and most honorable Patrons of musicke: Namely, those two miracles of this age for vertue and magnifi- cence, Henry Julio Duke of Brunswick, and learned Maritius Lantzgrave of Hessen, of whose princely vertues & favors towards me I can never speake sufficiendy. Neither can I forget the kindnes of Alexandro Horologio, a right learned master of musicke, servant to the royall Prince the Lantzgrave of Hessen, & Gregorio Howet, Lutenist to the magnificent Duke of Bruns- wig, both whom I name as well for their love to me, as also for their excel- lency in their faculties. Thus having spent some moneths in Germany, to my great admiration of that worthy country, I past over the Alpes into Italy, where I found the Citties furnisht with all good Artes, but especially mu- sicke. What favour and estemation I had in Venice, Padua, Genoa, Ferrara, Florence, and divers other places I willingly suppresse, least I should any way seeme partiall in mine owne indevours. Yet can I not dissemble the great content I found in the proferd amity of the most famous Luca Ma- renzio, whose sundry letters I received from Rome, and one of them, be- cause it is but short, I have thought good to set downe, not thinking it any disgrace to be proud of the judgement of so excellent a man.
Multo Magnifico Signior mio osservandissimo.
Per una lettera del Signior Alberigo Malvezi ho inteso quanto con cortese affeto si mostri desideroso di essermi congionto d'amicitia, dove infinitamente la ringratio di questo suo buon' animo offerendo megli all' incontro se in alcuna cosa la posso servire, poi che gli meriti delle sue infinite virtu, & qualita meritano che ogni uno & me l'ammirino & osservino, & per fine di questo le bascio le mani. Di Roma a 13. di Luglio. 1595.
D. V. S. Affettionatissimo servitore,
Luca Marenzio17
17 Translation: Most honored and noble Sir: In a letter from Signore Alberigo Mal- vezi I learned with what warmth of courtesy you expressed a desire of cultivating my friendship. For this kind thought of yours I thank you from the depths of my heart, and offer you my services in whatever capacity I can be of assistance; for your infinite excel- lence and merit deserve the admiration and homage of myself and everyone; and in clos- ing I kiss your hands. Rome, July 13, 1595.
Your most affectionate servant, Luca Marenzio
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Not to stand too long upon my travels, I will only name that worthy mas- ter Giovanni Crochio,18 Vicemaster of the chappel of S. Marks in Venice, with whome I had familiar conference. And thus what experience I could gather abroad, I am now readie to practise at home, if I may but find en- couragement in my first assaies. There have been divers Lute-lessons19 of mine lately printed without my knowledge, false and unperfect, but I pur- pose shordy myself to set forth the choisest of all my Lessons in print, and also an introduction for fingering, with other bookes of Songs, whereof this is the first: and as this findes favor with you, so shall I be affected to labor in the rest. Farewell. John Dowland
A crabbed Latin epigram of five lines by Thomas Campion follows, stating that Music has fittingly allowed Dowland the enjoyment of his fame during his own lifetime.20
Dowland gives further information about the welcome he received abroad in a letter21 to Sir Robert Cecil from Nuremberg dated Nov. 10,
!595=
When I came to the Duke of Brunswick he used me kindly and gave me a rich chain of gold, ^23 in money, with velvet and satin and gold lace to make me apparel, with promise that if I would serve him he would give me as much as any prince in the world. From thence I went to the Lantgrave of Hessen, who gave me the greatest welcome that might be for one of my quality, who sent a ring into England to my wife, valued at ^20 sterling, and gave me a great standing cup with a cover gilt, full of dollars, with many great offers for my service. From thence I had great desire to see Italy and came to Venice and from thence to Florence, where I played before the Duke and got great favors.
18 Croce was choirmaster of St. Mark's and a good composer. A volume of church music by him, to English words, was published in London as Musica Sacra in 1608.
19 Barley's A Newe Boo\e of Tabliture, 1596.
20 It and another Latin epigram by Campion in praise of Dowland may be found in Campion's Wor\s, edited by Percival Vivian, 1909, pp. 346, 351.
21 Printed in full in the Musical Times for December 1896, p. 793, with comments by W. B. Squire in the February number, 1897, p. 92; and in The English Ayre, by Warlock, pp. 24-27.
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In 1600, while Dowland was lutenist to King Christian IV, his Sec- onde Boo\e of Songs or Ayres was published by George Eastland with the same variety of possible accompaniments that occur in the first book. Eastland's Address to the Reader says in effect:
The energy and money I have put into this publication do not justify themselves, were it not that the fame of Dowland, the worth of these com- positions, and the pleasure you will receive from them, warrant it. If this work pleases you, I shall issue a work by a prisoner taken at Cales that will delight you, unless I am a very bad judge.
It is impossible to name the prisoner taken at Calais, for his work was not printed. The sale of Dowland's second book evidently exceeded the expectations of its publisher, for only three years later, in 1603, appeared his Third and Last Boo\e of Songs or Aires, in which the composer tells his readers:
My first two bookes of aires speed so well that they have produced a third, which they have fetched so far from home, and brought even through the most perilous seas, when having escapt so many sharpe rocks, I hope they shall not be wrackt on land by curious and biting censures.
This so-called last book of Dowland's was followed by a fourth, A Pilgrimes Solace, in 1612. Here he tells us that
Some part of my poore labours have found favour in the greatest part of Europe, and been printed in eight most famous Cities beyond the seas, viz.: Paris, Antwerpe, Collein, Nurenberge, Franckfort, Leipsig, Amsterdam, and Hamburge: (yea, and some of them also authorized under the Emperours royall priviledge), yet I must tell you, as I have beene a stranger;22 so have I againe found strange entertainement since my return: especially by the op- position of two sorts of people that shroude themselves under the tide of Musicians. The first are some simple Cantors, or vocall singers, who al- though they seeme excellent in their blinde Division-making, are meerely
22 I.e., living in Denmark.
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ignorant, even in the first elements of Musicke, and also in the true order of the mutation of the Hexachord in the Systeme, (which hath been ap- proved by all the learned and skillful men of Christendome, this 800 yeares,23) yet doe these fellowes give their verdict of me behind my backe, and say, what I doe is after the old manner: but I will speake openly to them, and would have them know that the proudest Cantor of them dares not oppose himselfe face to face against me. The second are young-men, professers of the Lute, who vaunt themselves, to the disparagement of such as have beene before their time (wherein I my selfe am a party) that there never was the like of them. To these men I say little, because of my love and hope to see some deedes ensue their brave wordes, and also being that here under their owne noses hath beene published a Booke in defence of the Viol de Gamba, wherein not onely all other the best and principall In- struments have been abased, but especially the Lute by name, the words, to satisfie thee Reader I have here thought good to insert, and are as followeth: From henceforth, the statefull instrument Gambo Violl, shall with ease yeeld full various, and devicejull Musicke as the Lute: for here I protest the Trini- tie of Musicke, Parts, Passion, and Decision, to be as gracefully united in the Gambo Viol, as in the most receiurd [sic] instrument that is, &c.
Dowland is referring to Hume's Musicall Humors, 1605. It would have consoled Dowland to know that Hume went crazy. Dowland warns the young teachers that they had better bestir themselves to prove their alleged superiority in practice, and thus uphold the honor of the lute, which he is too old (fifty!) to do. As if in answer to the charge of being an old fogy, he introduces various novelties into A Pilgrimes Solace — daring suspensions, and the addition sometimes of two viols to the lute accompaniment. Hume was arguing that the viol be used "lyra way," i.e., that the system of triple and quadruple stopping used upon the lute to produce chords should be applied to the viol. Dowland's fears were well founded, for the viol played lyra way soon became popular, used alone or sometimes in an instrumental ensemble. As the usual accom-
23 Less than six hundred years in fact; Grove gives the approximate date of 1024 for Guido d'Arezzo's system.
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panying instrument for the voice, however, the lute was not superseded by the viol — no one would think today of playing chords upon a violin or 'cello to accompany a singer — but the virginal, improved as a harpsi- chord, was to vanquish the lute in this field within a few years.
Why should Dowland have felt himself too old at fifty ? Lute players sang to their own accompaniment, and it may have been that his voice was failing, not his fingers.
Particularly galling to Dowland must have been the spiteful stings of these lesser men at a time when he was conscious of still possessing his fullest powers as a composer. The twentieth century with a fuller sym- pathy recognizes him and Purcell as England's greatest song composers of all time, and in none of Dowland's works did his flame of genius burn brighter than in this last book of songs, published when, as Peacham said, "Thy yeares have made thee white."
Robert Dowland (c. 1586-1641), John Dowland's son, compiled and published in 1610 A Musicall Banquet, which is a volume of songs with accompaniments for lute. The composers are John Dowland, Antony Holborne, Richard Martin, Robert Hales, Daniel Batchelar, Tessier, Domenico Megli, and the famous Caccini.24 There are also anonymous compositions — English, French, Spanish, and Italian. It is dedicated to his godfather, Sir Robert Sidney, after whom Robert Dowland was named. The composer explains that the "banquet" is so varied as to suit all tastes and abilities, and hopes those that come in good-will will enjoy it; as for those that come "as Promooters into a country Market,
24 The three songs by John Dowland and the single examples by Robert Hales, Daniel Batchelar, and Richard Martin have been reprinted in English Ayres. Hales and Batchelar held posts at court. Martin was a Member of Parliament, a poet, and a wit; "King James was much delighted with his facetiousness," according to Anthony Wood, and in 1613 he acted in a masque before the King. Domenico Megli was a lesser composer in various fields. Charles Tessier, a French lutenist, composed he Premier Livre de chansons et airs de court, printed in London in 1597 with a dedication to Lady Penelope Rich, the Stella in Sir Philip Sidney's sonnets. Giulio Caccini was one of the famous Florentine group of the late sixteenth century who wrote the world's first operas. His two contributions to A Musicall Banquet had been previously printed in his famous book he Nuove Musiche, 1601.
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to call our viands into question, ... I wish their lips such Lettuce as Silenus Asse, or their owne harts would desire." A generous Latin poem in praise of both Dowlands was contributed to the volume by Henry Peacham. It may be thus epitomized: "John Dowland has con- quered more lands than Orpheus; may world-wide fame be Robert Dowland's also."
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger25 (c. 1575-1628; publ. 1609) was a talented composer and performer. He was the second of three musicians bearing the same name. Alfonso the Elder,20 known in his own time as Master Alfonso, was the brilliant but untrustworthy Italian madrigalist who won favor at the court of Elizabeth. He died in 1588. Alfonso the Younger was his son, born and bred in England. He in turn had a son Alfonso, less noted musically, who probably died during Cromwell's time.
Alfonso the Younger must be considered an Englishman and an Eng- lish composer. He was one of James I's violinists at a salary of ^40 a year, music master to Prince Henry and, after Henry's death, to Prince Charles. We may believe that he and his associate Coprario taught the future king well, for Playford says Charles I often chose the service mu- sic and anthems himself,
. . . being by his Knowledge in Musick, a competent Judge therein, and could play his Part exacdy well on the Bass- Viol, especially of those Incom- parable Phantasies of Mr. Coper ario to the Organ.27
Wood wrote of Ferrabosco:
From his childhood he was trained up to musick, & at mans estate he be- came an excellent composer for instrumental musick in the raigne of K.
25 See "Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger," by G. E. P. Arkwright, in his Studies in Music, p. 199.
26 See pp. 214, 215 infra for an account of Alfonso the Elder.
27 John Playford, An Introduction to the Skill of Music\, 1654, chapter "Of Musick in General ..." Coprario composed Fancies for viols and organ playing together. For a definition of the Fancy, Fantasie, or Fantazia, see p. 239 infra.
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Jam. I. & K. Ch. I. He was most excellent at the Lyra Viol & was one of the first yl set lessons Lyra-way to the viol, in imitation of the old English Lute & Bandora. The most famous man in all ye world for Fantazias of 5 or 6 parts.28
Andre Maugars, one of the two best viola da gamba players in France at the time, wrote from Rome in 1639:
The lyra is in high favor with them [the Italians], but I have heard none who could be compared with Farabosco in England. . . . The father of the great Farabosco, an Italian, made known the instrument [the viol] to the English, who since then have surpassed all nations. . . . The English play the viol to perfection. I confess that I am somewhat indebted to them and that I have imitated their chords, but those only.
Ferrabosco was highly regarded in his own day as having written the music for several of Ben Jonson's masques — The Masque of Blackness, 1604-5; Hymenaei, 1605-6; The Masque of Beauty, 1607-8; The Masque for Lord Haddington's Marriage {The Hue and Cry after Cupid), 1607-8; and The Masque of Queens, 1608-9. The following tribute to Ferrabosco's efficient aid in the production of Hymenaei was thus ac- knowledged by Jonson:
And here, that no mans Deservings complain of injustice (though I should have done it timelier, I acknowledge), I doe for honours sake, and the pledge of our Friendship, name Ma. Alphonso Ferabosco, a man, planted by him- selfe, in that divine Spheare; & mastring all the spirits of Musique: To whose judiciall care, and as absolute Performance, were committed all those Difficulties both of Song and otherwise. Wherein, what his Merit made to the Soule of our Invention, would aske to be exprest in Tunes, no lesse ravishing than his. Vertuous friend, take well this abrupt testimonie, and think whose it is. It cannot be Flatterie, in me, who never did it to Great ones; and lesse than Love, and Truth it is not, where it is done out of Knowledge.
28 Anthony Wood, MS Biographical Notes on Musicians, Bodleian Library, Wood, 19 D. (4).
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Ferrabosco evidently sang in the production. The omission of this eulogy from the 1616 edition may point to a quarrel between the two.
The younger Alfonso had much of his father's independent spirit. He dedicated his ayres to Prince Henry, with these words:
I am not made of much speach. Onely I know them worthy of my Name: And, therein, I took paynes to make them worthy of yours.
The composer was enterprising enough to secure for his book com- mendatory verses by Ben Jonson, Thomas Campion, and N. Tomkins.29 The first two poems are given here in full :
To urge my lov'd Alfonso that bold fame
Of building Townes, and making wild Beasts tame, Which Musique had; or speake her knowne effects,
That She removeth cares, sadness ejects, Declineth anger, perswades clemency,
Doth sweeten mirth, and heighten pietie, And is to a body, often, ill inclinde
No lesse a soveraigne cure, than to the minde; To olledge, that greatest men were not asham'd
Of old, even by her practise, to be fam'd; To say, indeed, she were the Soule of Heaven,
That the eight Spheare, no lesse than Planets seaven Mov'd by her order; And the ninth, more high,
Including all, were thence call'd Harmony: I, yet, had utter'd nothing, on thy part
When these were but the praises of the Art But when I have saide, The proofes of all these be
Shed in the Songs; Tis true: But short of thee.
Ben: Jonson
29 Fellowes says "Nathaniel Tomkins," but the only Nathaniel Tomkins known to fame was then only ten years old. Possibly Nicholas Tomkins, brother of the famous Thomas Tomkins who was organist of Worcester Cathedral, was the man, but he could not have been more than twenty-two.
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To the Worthy Author
USICKS maister, and the offspring Of rich Musicks Father, Old Alfonso's image living,
These fair flowers you gather Scatter through the Brittish soile;
Give thy fame free wing And gaine the moat of thy Toyle: Wee whose loves affect to praise thee, Beyond thine owne deserts, can never raise thee.
By T. Campion, Doctor in Physicke. The third poem ends:
O Musicae artis quanta potentia, Ferra-bosco Non in jerarutn sola vagum nemus Sed in virorum plus catervas Participes melioris aurae! Alfonse, dux rex Lyrici gregis; Pulsare dignus coelicolmum [ ? ] lyram, Excellis omnes sic canendo Semper ut ipse sies canendus.
N. Tomkins
[How great is music's power, not only over wild beasts, prowling in the forest, but still more over the human flock as they drink in the sweet-sound- ing air! Alfonso, leader and king of the musical race, well able to play the celestial lyre, you so excel others in your singing, that you yourself will al- ways be sung.]
Thomas Ford (c. 1580-1648) published Music\e of Sundrie Kindes in 1607. Besides instrumental dances, the book contains ayres for solo voice to be accompanied either by the lute, orpharion, or bass viol, or by three other voices. The author's statement that no "musickes . . . are so much in request or more generally received than of those kindes"
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would imply that ayres were more popular than madrigals in 1607. This no doubt was true, for within a few more years the supremacy of the ayre and decline of the madrigal became clearly marked.30 Anthony Wood writes81 that Robert Johnson and Thomas Ford "were accounted famous and excellent in their faculties." Both men were lutenists in the employ of Prince Henry and later of Charles I. Johnson's settings of "Where the bee sucks" and "Full fathom five" may have been written for the first performance of The Tempest, and Ford's "Since first I saw your face" in its arrangement for four voices is today one of the most popular Elizabethan ayres.
Robert Jones, born in 1575, published no less than five books of his ayres, in 1600, 1601, 1608, 1609, and 1610. They were popular in his own time and should be today, since many of them are charmingly tuneful and vivacious, and the music accurately catches the expression and rhythm of the words. They are more often genial or humorous than sad. Here, put into modern English, is the opinion Jones seems to give of himself in his early works — but we must discount the conventional self-depreciation of Elizabethan authors : "I am a timid person, poor and buffeted about, and not a great composer; but I have studied hard, done my best, and naturally like my own compositions, which, whatever their faults, at least do not suffer from many technical errors." Despite this statement, strange harmonic clashes abound, particularly in the last two books, which offend more in that respect than any other Eliza- bethan books of music.82 Two of his remarks in the Address to the Reader in his First Boo\e may be borne in mind when we listen to his later ayres as well: we need not be surprised that he wrote so suitably for the voice, for he tells us that "Ever since I practiced speaking I have practiced singing"; and the expressiveness of his music is seen to have
30 See pp. 125, 126.
31 Ath. Oxon., 2d edition, vol. i, entry 680.
32 Some of the apparent mistakes, however, are examples of the use of major and minor thirds in the same chord, a strange Elizabethan license of which Jones was par- ticularly fond. E.g., he uses the chord D F t) A F J.
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been his primary purpose — "My chiefest care was to fit the Note to the Word." Indeed, he even apologizes for thus making the music of the First Boo\e too simple, promising to "take more paines to shew more points of musicke" in the next. Sure enough, the Second Boo\e of Songs and Ayres does contain examples of imitation and canon. He engagingly adds that he would welcome instruction as to their faults, but also "friendly approbation." Ultimum Vale, or the Third Boo\e of Ayres, is dedicated to Henry, Prince of Wales; Jones is looking up! The first two books must have sold well, for he mentions "the kinde ap- plause wherewith I have been rewarded in my former Ayres." The Fourthe Boo\e is "A Musicall Dreame"; he mentions his previous deci- sion never to publish any more songs, but he had a musical dream, many more came to him, and here they are! The unusual address is a savage diatribe against his opponents, of which this is a picturesque sample :
It is hard if all this paines reape not good commendations, and it is water wrung out of a Flint in Thee, sith thou never thinkst well of any, and wert in thy selfe so unskilfull ever, as thy Tutor from the first howre could never make thee sing in Tune; be as thou art a lumpe of deformity without fash- ion, bredde in the bowels of disdaine, and brought forth by bewitcht Me- gaera, the fatall Midwife to all true merite.
Any opponents not overwhelmed by this rebuke must have been laid low by the misprints and harsh chords, which are exceptionally numer- ous. In the Fift Boo\e, he hopes the previous book has given
. . . some reasonable contentment, and now if you please to bee awaked out of that Dreame, I shall for your recreation and refreshing, guide you to the Muses Garden, where you shall find such varietie of delights, that ques- tionlesse you will willingly spend some time in the view thereof. In your first entrance into which Garden, you shall meet with Love, Love, and nought but Love, set foorth at large in his colours, by way of decyphering him in his nature. In the midst of it you shall find Love rejected, upon in-
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constancie and hard measure of ingratitude: Touching them that are lovers, I leave them to their owne censure in Loves description. And now for the end, it is variable in another maner, for the delight of the eare to satisfie opinion. I am not so arrogant to commend my owne gifts, neither yet so degenerate, as to beg your tolleration. If these delights of Flowers, or varie- tie of Fruites, may any wayes be pleasing to your senses, I shall be glad. Otherwise I will vow never to set, sow, plant, or graft, and my labours hence- forth shall cease to trouble you, if you will needs mislike, I care not. I will prevent your censures, and dene your malice, if you despise me, I am reso- lute, if you use me with respect, I bid you most heartily
Farewell.
R. I.
Here end the labors of Robert Jones, not one of the greatest figures, but a quaint and interesting one. A number of his tunes became popu- lar and were sung on the stage, so we shall hear a little more of him in the chapter devoted to that subject.
A peculiar interest attaches to Thomas Morley's book of ayres88 owing to the fact that it was the only important Elizabethan musical work to which modern scholars had no access as late as 1932. The only known complete copy perished when the Birmingham Public Library burned in 1878. The sole surviving copy, which lacks the last nine com- positions, belonged to Henry Clay Folger of New York, and is now in the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington.34 Though Morley's ayres are creditable enough, when they were made known to the world
33 THE FIRST BOOKE OF AYRES OR UTTLE SHORT SONGS, TO SING AND PLAY TO THE LUTE, WITH THE BASE VIOLE. NEWLY PUBLISHED BY THOMAS MORLEY Bachiler of Music\e, and one of the Gent, of her Maiesties Royal CHAPPEL Imprinted at London in litle S. Helen's by William Barley, the assigne of Thomas Morley, and are to be sold at his house in Gracious streete. 1600 Cum Priuilegio.
34 In The English School of Lutenist Song Writers Dr. E. H. Fellowes, the editor, ex- plains: "Mr. Folger specialized in collecting every kind of manuscript and printed book connected with the work of Shakespeare; and this book had its attraction owing to the fact that it included Morley's setting of the lyric 'It was a lover and his lass,' " twenty- three years before the First Folio was printed.
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in 1932 they occasioned some disappointment in view of the fame of the composer and the extravagant expectations that had been aroused by pent-up curiosity. Nor do Morley's prefaces, or the words of the songs, throw valuable light on the composer. He acknowledges he is no skilled composer ("no professor") "of Lute Ayres," and has given these to the world to try his skill, to please his friends, and "to satisfie the world of my no idle howers." He mentions his illness (which was soon to prove fatal), yet hopes, if these ayres are well received, to pub- lish others. He dedicates his book "to the worthie and vertuous lover of musicke, Ralph Bosvile Esquire," whose "favours" to the composer were perhaps monetary, in recompense for teaching or playing. The charm of Morley's personality, so evident in his Plaine and Easie Intro- duction to Practicall Musicke, appears in the concluding words of the Dedication :SB
But see the folly of me, who whilst I look for a Patrone, have lighted on a judge. This must be the comfort that, as they must endure the censure of your judicious eare: so shall they bee sure of the protection of your good word. And herewith once more I humbly commend them and me to your good opinion.
At your devotion now and ever
Tho. Morley
The printed collections of ayres by other composers may be passed over briefly, since their songs were unimportant, or were eclipsed by their work in other fields. The volumes by Cavendish and Greaves con- tain both ayres and madrigals. Both composers were noticed in the
35 In the Dedication Morley gives his opinion that without an intimate knowledge of music one cannot love it as Bosvile does, "for uncouth unkist saith venerable Chaucer." This phrase had almost become a proverb by Morley's time, and the composer may have first seen it in some contemporary work; in 1579, e.g., Edward Kirke wrote, "Uncouthe, unkiste sayde the olde famous Poete Chaucer" in his prefatory letter to Spenser's Shep- heardes Calender. It is an inexact quotation from Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, i. 809, where Pandarus advises Troilus to declare his love to Cressida, since a woman is "Un- knowe, unkist, and lost, that is unsought."
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chapter on the Madrigal.36 The reader is referred to the same chapter for a discussion of Pilkington,87 since this composer is little known by his ayres. Those by Hume38 are mostly unimportant. The man himself, a picturesque figure, is mentioned in the chapter dealing with instru- mental music, since he contributed to that field.39 Attey and Bartlett are lesser men. Peerson, in his collection printed 1620, advises that the instrumental accompaniment be played by three viols, but he also rec- ommends the lute or virginals; he is the only Elizabethan composer to suggest the use of the virginals as an accompanying instrument. Maynard, "Lutenist at the most famous Schoole of St. Julians in Hart- fordshire," may be placed at the bottom of the list. His small collection of ayres is "the only song-book of the period which is of poor quality from start to finish."40
The Elizabethan ayre has not yet attained its deserved popularity. Very few specimens were available in modern notation until the ap- pearance in 1920 of the first volumes of Dr. Fellowes' English School of Lutenist Song Writers, whereas the madrigal was at least kept alive by the performances of the Madrigal Society from its foundation in 1741, and excellent examples were reprinted during the earlier part of the nineteenth century for the few musicians who appreciated them. The music of any age long past requires repeated acquaintance before it can be taken to the heart. To the neophyte the words and music of the ayres do not fit each other: the dying groans of an Elizabethan lover are ex- pressed in impassioned English and set to music that to us sounds faintly wistful.41 The modern piano can be tender, sweet, majestic, or impassioned, but it is not by nature dainty. The lute is, and so in gen-
36 Pp. in, 114. 37 P. 120.
38 Five of Hume's songs were printed in his first volume, The First Part of Ayres . . ., 1605. Captaine Hume's Poeticall Music\e . . ., 1607, which contains his other four songs, was reprinted by the New York Public Library in 1935. Most of his com- positions in both volumes are for instruments only.
39 P. 168. 40 Warlock, The English Ayre, p. 122. 41 Dowland's "In darkness let me dwell" is an exception.
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eral are the accompaniments written for it — dainty, with the appropri- ate atmosphere of joy or sorrow expressed in delicate pastel shades, not vivid oils. The pizzicato tone of the lute is characteristic also of the vir- ginals and harpsichord, but hopelessly foreign to the piano. Since the piano is likely to remain the domestic maid of all work, we shall have to try to play as daintily as we can, and where we inevitably fall short, draw upon our imaginations. But the attempt is worth making.
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VI
■ Instruments and Instrumental ^JMusic
MUSIC FOR LUTE, CITHERN, AND LYRA VIOL
SUCH instruments as the guitar, banjo, and mandolin, which are played by plucking strings suspended over a fretted1 fingerboard, are not taken very seriously nowadays, but they have an honorable an- cestry. John Dowland tells us that as the lute "of all instruments that are portable is, and ever hath been most in request, so is it the hardest to manage with cunning and order, with the true nature of finger- ing."2 Allison intended the singing of his Psalms to be accompanied upon the "Lute, Orpharyon, Citterne or Base Violl, severally, or alto- gether."
There were two general types of plucked instruments, the lute and the cither (n) (spelled in various ways, e.g., citterne, as above). "The difference between a cither and a lute is in the shape of the body, flat- backed in the former, pear-shaped in the latter; the cither has wire strings and is played with a plectrum, while the lute has catgut strings to be touched with the fingers."3 Both used a tablature notation; i.e., each line represents a string, not a note, and the various letters show the position of the fingers on the strings. The orpharion was a kind of cithern, and the pandora or bandora was a large orpharion. The lyra viol, though it was a kind of viola da gamba and was not related to the lute, is best mentioned here, for it was tuned and fingered exactly like a lute, and lute music was played upon it from lute notation — tablature.
1 Frets were tiny strips of wood or gut permanently fixed across the fingerboards of all viols, lutes, and citterns. They showed the player exactly where to place his fingers; and their absence from the violin adds to the difficulty of playing that instrument.
2 The Address to the Reader in Dowland's translation of Andreas Ornithoparcus' Mi- crologus.
3 Grove, i. 653.
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Consequently it played chords, again like a lute, not single notes like a viol. It would seem that a bow was generally used, although in 16524 plucking the strings in lute fashion is mentioned as an alternative method.
Several instruction books appeared for members of the lute-cithern family. No extant copy is known of Adrien le Roy's famous Instruction de partir toute musique des huit tons divers en tablature de luth, 1557, but there are English translations by John Alford, 1568, and "F. K. Gentleman," 1574. Other Elizabethan instruction books for plucked in- struments are:
The Science of Luting, licensed to John Allden in 1565 A new Boo\e of Tabliture, 1596, printed by William Barley The Cittharne Schoole, 1597, by Antony Holborne The Schoole of Music\e, 1603, by Thomas Robinson New Citharen Lessons, 1609, by Thomas Robinson Varietie of Lute-lessons, 1610, by Robert Dowland.
These elementary instruction books differ in arrangement and clearness, but not in fundamentals, since all draw upon le Roy.
It was William Barley's A new Boo\e of Tabliture (1596) to which John Dowland referred in his ire in 1597: "There have been divers Lute-lessons of mine lately printed without my knowledge, false and unperfect." Barley's twenty-four rules to learn to play the lute are clear — except the rule for tuning; it would have been easier if he had given the pitch of each string in staff notation as well, or the letter-names of the notes. Almost all the pieces given (in tablature) as exercises are by either Dowland or a Francis Cutting, who at present is a mere name in musical history. The book is in three divisions, treating in order the lute, orpharion, and bandora.
Antony Holborne, who was born about 15655 and died in 1602, was
4 John Playford, Mustek's Recreation on the Lyra Viol.
6 According to W. H. Grattan Flood, in "New Light on Late Tudor Composers," Musical Times for 1928, p. 511.
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an instrumental composer, highly regarded in his own time, but now almost unknown because his work lies outside the three fields of Eliza- bethan music that are popular today — the madrigal, the ayre, and com- positions for virginals. His earliest publication came in 1597:
The Cittharne Schoole, by Antony Holborne, Gentleman, and servant to her most excellent Majestic. Hereunto are added sixe short Aers Neapolitan li\e to three voyces, without the Instrument: done by his brother, William Holborne.
This includes thirty-two compositions for cithern solo, twenty-three duets for cithern and bass viol, and two quartets for cithern and three viols.
John Dowland in his Second Boo\e of Songes or Ayres, 1600, dedi- cates "I saw my lady weep," one of the finest Elizabethan songs, "to the most famous Anthonie Holborne."6 Robert Dowland includes a duet by Holborne, "My heavie sprite," in his own Musical Banquet, 1610, and calls him "this most famous and perfect artist." Francis Derrick wrote from Antwerp in 1594 asking Henry Wickham to procure "some principal lessons for the bandora of Holborne 's making, and other most cunning men in that instrument."7 Holborne was an expert lute maker. He must have been esteemed by his fellow composers for his musical ability, his friendship, and his literary attainments, for Morley included a commendatory sonnet by him in his own Plaine and Easie Introduc- tion, and Farnaby a Latin poem similarly in Canzonets, 1598. Holborne was also a Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth.
His Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other short Alirs . . . for Viols . . ., 1599, will be discussed on page 164.
In 1603 an instruction book by Thomas Robinson was printed, en- titled
The Schoole of Music\e: wherein is taught, the perfect method, of true
6 William Holborne's ayres are reprinted in English Madrigal School, Vol. 36.
7 Quoted by Grattan Flood, op. cit., from Hatfield MSS, Parts 3 and 12.
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fingering of the Lute, Pandora, Orpharion, and Viol de Gamba; with most infallible generall rules, both easie and delightfull. Also, a method, how you may be your owne instructer for Vric\-song, by the help of your Lute, with- out any other teacher: with lessons of all sorts, for your further and better instruction. Newly composed by Thomas Robinson, Lutenist. London . . . 1603.
Musical exercises and compositions occupy most of the book. The in- struction is verbose, imparted in an imaginary conversation in the man- ner of Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction, 1597, but using le Roy's principles.8 It is dedicated to King James, and since it was printed the year of James's accession, Robinson takes up half of the dedication with asseverations of loyalty. He introduces himself to the unmusical mon- arch with this recommendation : "I can say for myselfe, that once I was thought (in Denmark at Elsanure) the fittest to instruct your Majesties Queene, our most gracious Ladie and Mistres" when she was Princess Anne of Denmark.
The Address "To the Reader" amplifies somewhat the information given in the title:
Right courteous Gentlemen, and gentle Readers, your favorable accept- ance of my first fruits9 from idlenesse, hath eccited mee further to congratu- late your Musicall endeavours. [This book will] enable you to instruct your- selves to play (upon your best beloved instrument) the Lute, also the Or- pharion, Pandora, and Viol de Gamba, any lesson (if it bee not too too trickified) at the first sight. . . . Also . . . some lessons of all sorts . . . all myne owne setting, and the most of them, mine owne invention.
But Gentlemen, once more I will make you promise, that if these Master- like rules, and Scholerlike lessons, doe but any whit content you, I will come forth, With Crac\e mee this Nut, (I meane) onely lessons for one, two, and
8 Sir John Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music, p. 567, Novello Edition (1853).
9 The work referred to must have been a manuscript, as no earlier printed book by Robinson is known.
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three Lutes, and some with ditties, wherein I will strive either (for ever) to winne your favours, or starve in the dole of your disgrace. Vale.
More for you, than for him-selfe, Thomas Robinson.
Robinson called himself "Student in all the seven liberall sciences,"10 and was one of the first to stress their importance to the musician.
In the imaginary conversation which follows he criticizes the teachers of former days :
. . . for in older times they strove (onelie) to have a quick hand upon the Lute, to run hurrie hurrie, keeping a Catt in the gutter upon the ground,11 now true then false, now up now downe, with such painfull play, mocking, mowing, gripeing, grinning, sighing, supping, heaving, shoul- dring, labouring, and sweating, like cart Jades, without any skill in the world, or rule, or reason to play a lesson, or finger the Lute, or guide the bodie, or know any thing, that belongeth, either to skill or reason.
He advises a good lute, even for beginners, for both the sight and the sound of it inspire them and help them over the tedious stage; and then gives certain "generall rules." Among them is an explanation of the way to hold the lute (omitted in Dowland's book), the names of the strings and frets, note values, rules for tuning, fingering, and striking the strings — the player should strike downwards normally, but in quick tempo up and down alternately. His directions for pitch are necessarily vague:12 "First set up the Treble, so high as you dare venter for break- ing."
Robinson boldly promises to give later in the same book instruction whereby the reader can learn to sing, and to play the viol:
10 In New Citharen Lessons. These sciences were the medieval trivium (grammar, logic, -and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy).
11 Robinson evidently means that their playing sounded like caterwauling. In addition, Dr. Fellowes suggests to me that the clause is merely an elaborate pun: the lute-player "plays on a ground" or ground bass on the catgut strings of his instrument.
12 The tuning fork was not invented until 171 1.
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Now, when you can play upon the Lute, I will (God willing) shew you how your Lute shall instruct you to sing; insomuch that you may be your owne teacher, and save the charge of a singing man, and then what by your skill in playing upon the Lute, and the knowledge you have in the prick- song, you may verie easilie attaine to play upon the Viol de Gambo, either by Tabliture or by pricksong notes.
This free instruction he gives on a single page, limiting his vocal in- struction13 to an account of the gamut (scale). But he clarifies this mea- ger information satisfactorily by printing a number of tunes, each of which he writes out in two notations — staff and tablature — with the lute fingerings and sol-fa syllables as well. The pupil was expected first to learn to play the lute. Next he was to acquire the ability to sing at sight, using for practice the scales and tunes printed with their sol-fa syllables in the book, and checking his vocal accuracy by playing them on the lute. Finally he would learn to play the viol by tuning its six strings to the same pitch as those of the lute and using the same frets and finger- ings as printed for the latter instrument. Robinson's system was logical and practical, especially for the lute and voice, but we may question his bold claim that his book was a sufficient tutor for the viol, when he devotes only three sentences to that instrument:
In comming from the Trebles of the Viol, to the Base, of necessitie you must somewhat thrust the neck of the Viol from you, and shrink in the bow hand, to come fitly unto it.
Hould your Viole somewhat strongly betweene your legs, and in all points, carrie your left hand upon it, as you doe upon the Lute.
Hould your bow or stick, hard by the Nut of it, with your forefinger,
above the stick, your second and third finger (in the hollow of the Nut) be-
twene the heire and the stick, and your little finger beneath the heire, slack
quite from it.
n VALE.
18 It seems probable, from this and other evidence of a negative character, that the Elizabethans (for better or worse) sang naturally, without worrying over such matters as chest tones, head tones, resonators, or complicated theories of tone production.
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Robinson had promised14 that if The Schoole of Music\e were well received he would "cracke mee this Nut" and issue a second volume. This came out in 1609, under the title of
New Citharen Lessons, with perject Tunings of the same, from Four course of Strings to Four teene course, even to trie the sharpest teeth of En- vie, with Lessons of all sortes, and methodicall Instructions for all Professors and Practitioners of the Citharen.
By Thomas Robinson, Student in all the seven liberall Sciences.
Robinson addresses his readers rather boastfully:
Gendemen, blame me not although I have been so long cracking of this nutte, sith at last I have given you the sweetest Cornell of my conceited15 Cithering.
The book is not so clear as his earlier work. For example, when in ex- plaining note-values he gives the signs for "semibriefe," "minim," etc., he does not explain that the duration of each is twice that of the next; he does not explain the exact method of holding the instrument; gives no detailed explanations for fingering; and does not tell what notes or frets are used for the "relishes."16 Compositions occupy most of this book also. The best of the instruction books is the
Varietie of Lute-lessons: viz. Fantasies, Pavins, Galliards, Almaines, Co- rantoes, and Volts: Selected out of the best approved Authors, as well beyond the Seas as of our owne Country. By Robert Douland. Whereunto is an- nexed certaine Observations belonging to Lute-playing: By John Baptisto
14 See p. 156. Nevertheless his 1609 volume was not for the lute, as he had promised, but for the cithern.
15 Conceited means "ingeniously contrived"; here "skilful," or "careful."
16 Relishes, also called "graces," "ornaments," and in French "agrements," were writ- ten signs directing the performer to play (or sing) certain notes not appearing on paper; the trill and mordent are modern examples.
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Besardo of Visonti. Also a short Treatise thereunto appertayning: by John Douland Batcheler of Music\e, London: Printed for Thomas Adams, 1610.17
Robert Dowland evidently considered the compositions in the book more important than the instruction, but the latter is nevertheless su- perior to Robinson's. In the address to his readers Robert implies that his father was writing at that time a more extended treatise on lute- playing. Unfortunately this work never appeared. Besardo's advice, which covers eight pages, is wholesome. It may be summarized thus:
I, Besardo, intend this work for beginners, who cannot study with a mas- ter. I admit that there are various satisfactory ways of teaching the lute, so I shall not criticize the methods of others. The learner must have no great de- fect, must be patient, and not over-practise. He should choose a medium- sized or large lute. Starting with easy lessons, he should go over them many times without a book. He will find the position of the hands and fingers de- scribed here, with special explanation given when the same fret has to be stopped two or three times in one chord. I give numerous chords of this sort in lute notation, with the fingerings marked ("1" for first finger to "4" for little finger), but I cannot teach here all the complexities of fingering. The player should not take his fingers off the strings until another chord is to be sounded. "I have set down no rules for transposing out of Musicke [i.e., staff notation] to the Scale of the Lute, because you have that delivered in the most elegant field of Emanuel Adrianus,18 an excellent Musitian, and in many other Bookes."
John Dowland himself adds "Other necessary observations belonging
17 It is dedicated to Sir Thomas Monson. Robert Dowland expresses gratitude for Monson's defraying part of the cost of his education while his father John Dowland was out of the country. We owe Monson a debt of praise as the friend and patron of two great song composers of the age — John Dowland and Campion. It is surprising that Dow- land could not afford to educate his son. When the boy was about nine the father re- ceived magnificent offers and presents from the Duke of Brunswick, when he was twelve the father received his appointment to the King of Denmark. The inevitable conclusion is that John Dowland could not manage his own financial affairs.
18 Emmanuel Adriaensen, lutenist: Pratum musicum (musical field), 1584, and No- vum pratum musicum, 1592.
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INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
to the Lute," which are practical and clear. He tells how to choose good lute strings, determining by their color and other qualities. Next he gives the history of the frets, the names of those that first used them, and a table of fractions for fixing them correctly on the fingerboard. His rule for tuning the lute, with a diagram, is simple and direct, com- pared with Barley's involved and almost unintelligible method. Dow- land tunes the bass strings first. At the end of the volume are printed the "Fantasies, Pavins, Galliards, Almaines, Corantoes, and Volts," seven of each. The composers are extravagantly praised, and evidently form a roll of lutenist fame.19
CONCERTED MUSIC FOR VIOLS AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS
Viols were stringed instruments, first cousins to the violin-viola-'cello family, and fairly similar to them in size, shape, and tone. The treble viol corresponded to the violin in these respects, the tenor viol to the viola, and the viola da gamba to the violoncello. A viol usually had six strings, whereas a violin has four. The two instruments differ slightly in design, and the fingerboard of the viol had frets, the violin being without them. The tone of the viol was a little reedier than that of the violin and (dare it be said?) somewhat nasal. Although the violin dates
19 "The most famous Diomedes of Venice
The most famous, the KNIGHT of the Lute
The most famous Jacobus Reis of Augusta
The most famous and divine Laurencini of Rome
The most Artificiall and famous Alfonso Ferrabosco of Bologna
The most famous Gregorio Huwet of Antwerpe
The most magnificent and famous Prince Mauritius, Landgrave of Hessen," whose Pavin here included was "from him sent to my Father, with this inscription following, and written with his Graces owne hand: Mauritius Landgrauius Hessiae fecit in honorem Ioanni Doulandi Anglorum Orphei
The most famous and perfect artist Anthonie Holborne
The excellent Musition Thomas Morley Batcheler of Musicke,
The right perfect Daniell Batchelar," and John and Robert Dowland themselves.
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from the early part of the sixteenth century it was little used in Eng- land until the reign of Charles II, when it gradually drove the treble viol from the field. The eloquent viola da gamba remained in favor longer. Bach wrote sonatas for it, but by that time it too was going out of favor, superseded by the 'cello. Recorders were woodwind instruments, belonging to the whistle family. They were made in assorted sizes, and so a "consort of recorders" could play both high notes and low. In tone they resembled flutes, and flutes eventually superseded them. At pres- ent there is a healthy revival of recorder-making and recorder-play- ing. The cornett was a wind instrument consisting of a single tube, straight or slightly curved, from two to four feet in length, with a cup- shaped mouthpiece that gave it the tone of a brass instrument, and fin- ger holes that enabled it to play scales. Because of this last fact it was a more satisfactory instrument for everyday use than the seventeenth and eighteenth century trumpet, which had a louder and more brilliant tone but could play only a few notes.
Three or more instruments of one kind playing together were called a "consort," e.g., "a consort of viols," and an ensemble consisting of dif- ferent kinds of instruments, e.g., viols and recorders, was a "mixed con- sort." Music for consorts of viols was highly popular as late as the Res- toration, and numerous compositions of this sort were printed. Several volumes of music for lute with one or more viols also appeared in print. Parts for recorders and cornetts were published in a few instances, but no compositions were printed for wind instruments alone, nor music of any kind for such well-known instruments as the trumpet, trombone,20 oboe, bassoon, kettledrum, or harp.
The following volumes of music for concerted instruments were pub- lished in England before 1625:
1599 Thomas Morley: The First Boo\e of Consort Lessons, made by divers exquisite Authors, for sixe Instruments.
20 Except one solitary piece by Adson; see p. 176.
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1599 Antony Holborne: Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other short /Eirs both grave, and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Mu- sicall Winde Instruments.
1605 John Dowland: Lachrimae . . . for the Lute, Viols, or Violons.
1605 Tobias Hume: The First part of Ayres.
1607 Tobias Hume: Poeticall Music\e.
1607 Thomas Ford: Music\e of Sundrie Kindes.
c. 1609 Orlando Gibbons : Fantazies of three parts for viols.
1609 Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger: Lessons for 1. 2. and 3. viols.
1609 Philip Rosseter: Lessons for Consort: Made by sundry Excel- lent Authors and set to sixe severall instruments.
161 1 John Adson: Courtly Masquing Ayres composed to 5. and 6. Parts for Violins, Consorts, and Cornets.
The work at the head of this list is
The First Boo\ of Consort Lessons, made by divers exquisite Authors, for sixe Instruments to play together: viz. the Treble Lute, the Pandora, the Cit- terne, the Base-Violl, the Flute,2r and the Treble-Violl. Collected by Thomas Morley, Gentleman.
Of the six instrumental parts published, there is a Citterne part in the Bodleian, a Flute part in the British Museum, a Treble Viol part in the Royal College of Music, a Pandora Part in Christ Church (with an- other copy elsewhere), while the parts for Treble Lute and Bass Viol have disappeared altogether.22 A performance without these missing
21 The "flute" was doubtless a recorder. The lowest note Morley wrote for it was the G below middle C, too low for flute.
22 when we consider that few Elizabethan musical works exist in more than four copies, and many in only one or two, it is surprising that so few works have perished. Publications entirely missing are Byrd and Ferrabosco's Medulla Music\e, Dering's The Cryes of London, Pattrick's set of Madrigals, and Vautrollier's A Brief Introduction to Music\e. And the last three works, though approved for publication, were possibly not printed. Portions of a few other works have been lost, such as Bull's inaugural lecture, Byrd's madrigal in honor of John Case, Jones's First Set of Madrigals, and Morley's First Boo\e of Ayres and First Boo\ of Consort Lessons.
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parts would not have troubled Morley, for in dedicating his collection to the Lord Mayor of London he tells him — and us: "They be set for divers Instruments: to the end that whose skill or liking regardeth not the one, may attempt some other." The names of the composers are un- fortunately omitted. "Phillips Pavin" was presumably by the distin- guished Peter Philips. Morley explains his method of selecting the compositions and urges the Mayor to have them played by his "waits" or official musicians, in the following words:
The songs are not many, least too great plenty should breede a scarceness of liking: they be not all of one kind, because mens fantasies seeke after va- rietie: th[e]y be not curious23 for that men may by diligence make use of them. . . . Your honourable acceptance shall be a sufficient warrant that my time is well spent, for I desire not to satisfie bablers, which are baser than brute beasts in reproving excellencie, never attaine to the first degree of any commendable Science or Misterie. As the auncient custome of this most Honourable and renowned Citie hath beene ever, to retaine and mantaine excellent and expert Musitians, to adorne your Honours favours, feasts, and solemne meetings: to those your Lordships Wayts, after the commending these my labours to your Honourable patronage: I recommend the same to your Servants carefull and skilfull handling.
We know from Rosseter that this work of Morley's caught public favor, for Rosseter published his Lessons for Consort for the same six instru- ments, saying that "The good successe and franke entertainment which the late imprinted Set of Consort bookes generally received, have given me incouragement to second them with these my gatherings."
Two years after Antony Holborne published his Cittharn Schoole he issued a collection of pieces for viols, violins, or wind instruments (no doubt recorders and cornetts in particular) :
Pavans, Galliards, Almains, and other short JEirs both grave, and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments Made
23 Curious: elaborate, complex.
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INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
by Antony Holborne Gentleman and Servant to her most excellent Majestie Imprinted at London . . .1599 Cum privilegio ad Imprimendum solum.24
In dedicating this to Sir Richard Champernowne he tells him that some of these pieces "from the experience of many yeres can feelingly witnesse & sing with what grace-full favors they have beene nourished at your hands." Probably, therefore, Holborne had received fees from Sir Rich- ard for playing to him. To Berlioz music seemed such an exact lan- guage that he believed the feelings and even the thoughts expressed in a composition would be apparent to the sensitive and intelligent listener of the future. Then what can we learn about Holborne from his piece entitled "My selfe"?
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Very little, doubtless; except that the counterpoint, in spite of the con- secutive octaves, is excellent, and that the piece, though in what we
24 In one of these compositions of 1599 Holborne jumps to a dominant seventh note, but Byrd had used this daring procedure as early as 1588 (p. 106).
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would call a minor key, is tuneful and pleasant and evidently not in- tended to give a mournful picture of the composer.
The reference to violins in the title raises a question. The violin had been used in England from the time of Henry VIII. What did the Elizabethans think of it in comparison with the viol ? We do not know, but it is a safe assumption that they preferred the viol, for they men- tioned it so much more frequently. Certainly it is easier to play, for the raised frets on a viol fix the pitch and enable even a beginner to play in tune. Anthony Wood writes late in the seventeenth century that gentlemen before the Restoration preferred to play on viols, "for they esteemed a Violin to be an instrument only belonging to a common fidler."25 Thomas Mace in 1676 lamented the growing popularity of the violin, partly because of its brighter tone, pardy because the giddy, shallow, monophonic music played on it was superseding the fine old counterpoint written for viols, and tended to fill a man's "brains full of frisks," rather than to "sober his mind."26
In 1605 appeared John Dowland's
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares Figured in Seaven Passionate Pavans, with divers other Pavans, Galiards, and Almands, set forth for the Lute, Viols, or Violons, in five parts.27
By 1605 Dowland's famous tune "Lachrimae" must have already gained much of its extraordinary popularity. Three earlier versions of it exist, in:
1594 William Ballet's MS collection of lute music; 1596 William Barley's A new Boo\e of Tabliture; and 1600 John Dowland's The Second Boo\e of Songes or Ayres.
25 Athenae Oxonienses.
26 Mace, Music\'s Monument. For other early references to violins in England see Francis W. Galpin, Old English Instruments of Music, pp. 93-95, and Gerald R. Hayes, The Viols and Other Bowed Instruments, pp. 189 ff.
27 It was reprinted in 1927 in modern notation, edited by Peter Warlock.
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Perhaps its original form was that of the ayre published in 1600. Other- wise it is difficult to explain so unusual a title as "Lachrimae" (tears). The first and some of the last lines run :
Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Never may my woes be relieved, Since pity is fled; And tears and sighs and groans my weary days Of all joys have deprived.
Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light. Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world's despite.
Byrd and Farnaby evidently enjoyed the tune "Lachrimae," for they made arrangements of it for virginals.28
It is mentioned in a remarkable number of dramatic productions, and evidently came to stand for the popular idea of sorrow. In Beau- mont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle (written before 161 1 ) it was necessary for the audience to be acquainted with it in or- der to enjoy the joke properly. The musicians are playing it at the end of Act II, when the Citizen calls out, "You musicians, play 'Baloo.' " But his wife, who cannot recognize a tune when she hears it, announces in turn, "No, good George, let's ha' 'Lachrymae.' " He retorts : "Why, this is it, cony." That would bring a laugh from the male part of the audi- ence. In Middleton's No Wit, No Help hi\e a Woman, 1613, a servant announces bad news and is answered: "Now thou plaiest Dowlands Lachrymae to thy master." It is also mentioned by several other drama- tists :
28 Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\, No. 121: "Pavana Lachrymae: John Dowland, sett foorth by Wm. Byrd," and No. 290: "Lachrimae Pavan, J. D. Sett by Giles Farnaby."
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Massinger, The Maid of Honour, 1621: Such music as will make your worships dance To the doleful tune of "Lachrymae."
Massinger, The Picture, 1629: Is your Theorbo
Turn'd to a distaff, Signor? and your voice With which you chanted "Room for a lusty Gallant" Tun'd to the note of "Lachrymae"?
Webster, The Devil's Law Case, 1623: You'll be made dance "Lachrymae," I fear, at the cart's tail.
Fletcher, The Bloody Brother, c. 1617: Arion, like a dolphin, playing "Lachrymae."
Ben Jonson's Masque Time Vindicated, 1624: No, the man In the moon dance a coranto, his bush At 's back a-fire; and his dog piping "Lachrymae."
Captain Tobias Hume was one of those writers of the second rank whose unquestioned originality springs from eccentricity rather than from genius. Indeed in his latter days his mind became definitely un- balanced. Though we may laugh at him when he boasts of imaginary military victories and promises Parliament to subdue the Irish rebels if granted a hundred or six score instruments of war,29 he was probably the first Englishman to suggest in print that chords could be played on the viol with as pleasant effect as upon the lute.80 John Dowland re- sented this comparison as an insult to his own instrument, the lute. Nevertheless, playing the viol "lyra way" — i.e., performing upon it mu-
29 The True Petition of Colonel Hume . . . to . . . Parliament, 1642.
30 See the quotation at the end of p. 170 from the address to the reader in Captaine Humes Musicall Humors'. John Dowland's criticism of Hume's statement has been quoted on page 141; it is from A Pilgrimes Solace, 1612.
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sic suitable for the lute and written in lute notation — soon became popular and remained in favor for a hundred years. This use of the viol originated with the English.81 The bows of that day were loosely strung, consequently a whole chord could be sustained, in a manner impossible for a violinist using a Tourte bow of the present day.
The lengthy titles of the two works by Hume are given below in full, since the first contains the earliest reference to the lyra viol (i.e., the viola da gamba played lyra way) ,32 and the other tells us what stringed instruments would probably be used together at a little evening party of Jacobean chamber music :
The First Part of Ayres, French, Pollish, and others together, some in Tabliture, and some in Pric\e-Song: With Pavines, Galliards, and Almaines for the Viole De Gam bo alone, and other Musicall Conceites for two Base Viols, expressing five partes, with pleasant reportes one from the other, and for two Leero Viols, and also for the Leero Viole with two Treble Viols, or two with one Treble. Lastly, for the Leero Viole to play alone, and some Songes to bee sung to the Viole, with the Lute, or better with the Viole alone.53 Also an Invention for two to play upon one Viole. Composed by Tobias Hume Gentleman. 1605. [This work is sometimes referred to as Musicall Humors, each page being so headed.]
Captaine Humes Poeticall Music\e. Principally made for two Basse-Viols, yet so contrived, that it may be plaied 8. severall waies upon sundry Instru- ments with much facilitie. 1. The first way or music\e is for one Bass-Viole
81 See the quotation from Jean Rousseau's Traite de la Viole, 1687, in Gerald R. Hayes's The Viols and Other Bowed Instruments, 1930, p. 137.
82 Thomas Ford, Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger, Coprario, and Daniel Farrant also composed for the lyra viol during the reign of James I. Ford's Musicke of Sundrie Kindes . . ., 1607, contains, besides ayres, "a Dialogue for two Voices, and two Basse Viols in parts, tunde the Lute way," and "Pavens, Galliards, Almains, Toies, Iigges, Thumpes and such like, for two Basse-Viols, the Liera way, so made as the greatest number may serve to play alone, very easie to be performde."
33 Dowland's annoyance must have been increased when he read that the viol was a better instrument than the lute to accompany these songs.
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to play alone in parts, which standeth alwaies on the right side of this Boo\e. 2. The second music\e is for two Basse-Viols to play together. 3. The third music\e, for three Basse-Viols to play together. 4. The fourth music\e, for two Tenor Viols and a Basse-Viole. 5. The fift music\e, for two Lutes and a Basse-Viole. 6. The sixt music\e, for two Orpherions and a Basse-Viole. y. The seventh music\e, to use the voyce to some of these music\s, but es- pecially to the three Basse-Viols, or to the two Orpherions with one Basse- Viole to play the ground. 8. The eight and last musicke, is consorting all these Instruments together with the Virginals, or rather with a winde In- strument and the voice. 160J.
Musicall Humors contains one hundred and fifteen compositions, most of them solos for lyra viol printed in lute tablature, the rest con- sisting of the five songs and of miscellaneous compositions for one or more viols. It is dedicated to William, third Earl of Pembroke.34 The Address criticizes plagiarists and proclaims his own unaided composer- ship:
To the understanding Reader
I doe not studie Eloquence, or professe Musicke, although I doe love Sence, and affect Harmony. My Profession being, as my Education hath beene, Armes, the onely effeminate part of me, hath beene Musicke; which in mee hath beene alwayes Generous, because never Mercenarie. To prayse Musicke, were to say, the Sunne is bright. To extoll my selfe, would name my labors vaine glorious. Onely this, my studies are far from servile imitations, I robbe no others inventions, I take no Italian Note to an English Dittie, or filch fragments of Songs to stuff e out my volumes. These are mine owne Phansies expressed by my proper Genius, which if thou dost dislike, let me see thine, Carpere vel noli nostra, vel ede tua. . . . And from henceforth, the statefull instrument Gam bo Violl, shall with ease yeelde full various and as devicefull Musicke as the Lute. For here I protest the Trinitie of Musicke,
34 Pembroke College, Oxford, was named after him. As a boy he was tutored by Samuel Daniel. After he became earl he aided Ben Jonson, Massinger, William Browne, and Inigo Jones financially, and Shakespeare's First Folio was dedicated to him. He was a poet himself, and Henry Lawes and Nicholas Laniere wrote songs to words by him.
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parts, Passion, and Division, to be as gracefully united in the Gambo Violl, as in the most received Instrument that is, which here with a Souldiers Resolution, I give up to the acceptance of al noble dispositions.
The friend of his friend,
Tobias Hume. If you will heare the Viol de Gambo in his true Majestie, to play parts, and singing thereto, then string him with nine stringes, your three Basses double as the Lute, which is to be plaide on with as much ease as your Violl of sixe stringes.
Each composition in Captaine Humes Poeticall Musicke has parts for three instruments, two of these being printed in lute tablature and con- sisting of chords, the third being an optional part for bass viol playing only one note at a time. The work, dedicated to Queen Anne, contains the same address that he included in Musicall Humors, but the phrase which annoyed Dowland is now so altered as to exalt the lyra viol to a position of equal musical importance with not only the lute but all in- struments :
. . . And from henceforth, the statefull instrument Gambo Violl, shall with ease yield full various and devicefull Musicke as any other instrument.
And after his own name he substitutes this postscript giving necessary directions for tuning that were lacking in his previous book :
Your Viols must be tuned as the Lute, Beeing the best Set that ever was invented, for these kind of Musickes, which may bee compared with the highest and curious musicke in the world.
What English composer is accused here of taking an "Italian Note to an English Dittie" ? Surely not Watson, for though the latter in The first sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished imprudently uses English texts that have no connection with the original Italian, the names of the Italian composers are duly given. Morley in his Plaine and Easie Intro-
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duction counsels his pupil not to put bits of other men's compositions in his own, yet his own Balletts contain brief musical phrases taken con- sciously or unconsciously from Gastoldi. So far as I know, however, no one has discovered any wholesale "filching" from an Italian madrigal by an English composer.
Orlando Gibbons' Fantazies of three parts for viols (c. 1609) was the first music engraved in England, and the first published work by this composer. It is not now possible to guess why these pieces should have been engraved, for viol music could easily be set up in type. A work sells more easily if its author is famous, and the renown of young Gib- bons as organist of the Chapel Royal may have persuaded his publisher to issue the book.
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger published Lessons for 1. 2. and 3. viols in 1609. They are short dances and other pieces, printed in tabla- ture, lyra way. They are not elementary exercises in the modern sense, and there is no instruction. The composer dedicates them, in respectful but self-respecting terms,
To the Perfection of Honour, My Lord Henry, Earle of South-hampton. . . . It is true, that I made these Compositions solely for your Lordship, and doe here professe it. By which time, I have done all that I had in pur- pose, and return to my silence:
Where you are most honor'd by Alfonso Ferrabosco
The composer, like his father, evidently had a reasonable sense of his own importance.35 He states in his Address "To the World" that he is publishing these pieces because some of them had got abroad and been falsely claimed by other composers. He adds dedicatory sonnets by Ben Jonson and Walter Quin. That of Jonson shows the weary bitterness of
35 See also Ferrabosco's words to Prince Henry, on p. 145.
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a courageous man who has experienced many bufferings, and advises his friend to pursue his own way, regardless of carping fools:
When We do give, Alfonso, to the light
A worke of ours, we part with our owne right For then, all mouthes will judge; and their own way:
The Learn'd have no more priviledge, than the Lay. And, though we could all men, all censures heare,
We ought not give them taste, we had an eare: For, if the humerous36 World will talke, at large,
They should be fooles, for me, at their owne charge. Say, this, or that man they to thee preferre;
Even those, for whom they doe this, know they erre: And would (being ask'd the truth) ashamed say,
They were not to be nam'd, on the same day. Then stand unto thy selfe, nor seeke without
For Fame, with breath soone kindled, soone blowne out.
Ben: Jonson. Quin's words are less distinguished :
S'Ogni arte tanto piu da noi s'apprezza Quanto ha piu nobil senso per oggetto,37
& quanto n'e peu degno il soggetto,
Vince l'altre arti harmonica dolcezza. Quella a dar gusto & contento s'avezza
Al nostro udir, de sensi il piu perfetto;
Per sogetto ha numero38 uguale, & retto
& di bella aria, & suoni la vaghezza.
36 Humorous: peevish.
37 The following words in the original have been changed here: Line 2: aggetto. 7: h'a. 8: tudni, "thunders."
38 Numero means both "rhythm" and "number" here, and is used in praise; cf. Mul- caster's prefatory poem to Tallis and Byrd's Cantiones sacrae, 1575: "How valuable a thing music is, is shown by those who teach that numbers constitute the foundation of everything which has form, and that music is made up of these."
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Questa arte dungue essendo di tal merto Alfonso mio, chi d' Orpheo porti il vanto,39 Convien pregiarti, & questi tuoi concenti;
Tanto piu ch'essi con doppio concerto, A gl'istromenti attando il dolce canto, Di piacer doppio ne appagan le menti.
Gual: Quin40
(Translation: If every art is the more admired by us insofar as it both ap- peals to a nobler physical sense and has a more worthy subject, sweet music is superior to the other arts. It is wont to give pleasure and contentment to our hearing (the most perfect of the senses); for subject it has Number,38 equal and regular and exquisitely melodious, and it sounds forth its sweet- ness. This art, then, being of such merit, dear Alfonso, those who give glory to Orpheus must esteem you and your harmonies, all the more since the lat- ter with a double harmony adapt sweet singing to instruments and thus charm our minds with a double pleasure.)
Anthony Wood speaks highly of Ferrabosco :
He was most excellent at the Lyraviol. . . . The most famous man in all ye world for Fantasies of 5. or 6. parts.41
Philip Rosseter, who jointly with Campion published an important book of ayres in 1601, later issued this collection of instrumental com- positions :
Lessons for Consort: Made by sundry Excellent Authors, and set to sixe severall instruments: Namely, the Treble Lute, Treble Violl, Base Violl, Bandora, Citterne, and the Flute. Now newly set forth by Philip Rosseter, one of his Majesties Musitions. London: Printed by Tho. Este alias Snod-
39 "Those who give glory to Orpheus": i.e., all music lovers.
40 Walter Quin (c. 1575-c. 1634), who was something of a poet, studied at Edin- burgh University. He also tutored the sons of James I and so must have known their music teacher Ferrabosco very well. His Italian is clumsy.
41 Anthony Wood, Biographical Notes on Musicians, folio 49.
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ham, for John Browne, and are to be sould at his shop in S. Dunstones Churchyard in Fleets treet. 1609.
Campion had complained in the joint volume of ayres mentioned above that some of his ayres had been pirated without his permission. Rosseter is careful to avoid this offense, as he says in his address:
To the Reader The good successe and franke entertainment which the late imprinted Set of Consort bookes generally received, have given mee incouragement to second them with these my gatherings; most of the Songs being of their in- ventions whose memorie onely remaines, because I would be loth to rob any living men of the fruit of their owne labours, not knowing what private in- tent they may have to convert them to their more peculiar use. The Au- thours names I have severally prefixt, that every man might obtaine his right; And as for my industry in disposing them, I submit to thy free cen-
Phillip Rosseter
There are twenty-five compositions written by himself, Allison, John Baxter, Campion, John Farmer, A. Holborne, Edmund Kete, Lupo, Morley, and "incertus." Rosseter dedicated the compositions to Sir Wil- liam Gascoyne of Sedbury, whose household musicians, Rosseter as- sures us, could play them.42 Our composer may well praise Sir William for keeping in his employ no less than six musicians, able to form such a versatile chamber orchestra. The last work for consorts published during King James' reign was :
Courtly Masquing Ayres, Composed to 5. and 6. Parts, for Violins, Con- sorts, and Cornets, by John Adson. London. 1611.
42 Rosseter thus addresses Sir William: "Sir your affection to Musicke, and benefi- cence to the Professours thereof, and particularly your favours to my selfe, have em- boldened me to present to your worthy protection these flowers gathered out of divers Gardens. . . . To whom may I then better recommend these my Labours than to you? who maintaines in your house such as can lively expresse them, and whose name abroad is alone sufficient to protect them."
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"Consorts" would imply viols and recorders of various sizes. "Cornets" are not the modern instruments of that name, although both varieties have the cup-shaped mouthpieces characteristic of the brass instruments and both have been soprano members of that family at different times. The seventeenth-century cornet (German zin\e), nowadays usually spelled cornett, looked like a piece of gas pipe with holes punched down the side. It is obsolete. One of these pieces by Adson is for cor- netts and trombones ("sagbuts"). The composer dedicated the collec- tion to George, Marquis of Buckingham,43 and may have been one of the musicians in his household. Later Adson was similarly employed by Charles I. He writes:
These my poore labours . . . are all (for the most part) Courdy Masqu- ing Ayres, framed only for Instruments; of which kinde, these are the first that have beene ever printed.
The compositions are rather short and doubtless served as introits and dances in the masques of the period. They must have been well re- ceived, for a second edition was printed in 1621.
On the whole, it is perhaps surprising that the list of English viol music was not longer. Bull seems to have written none; that by Byrd is unimportant. Viol music was, however, well regarded, and English in- strumental music and instrumentalists were also popular abroad, par- ticularly in Germany. Davey lists seven instrumental collections pub- lished there between 1609 and 1621 that contained numerous pieces by Englishmen. Besard, in an instruction book for lute published in 1603,44 calls English harmonies "sweetest and tasteful." Reissmann, in lllustrirte Geschichte der deutschen Musi\, 1881, says that most of the instrumental players at German courts in the late sixteenth century
43 First Duke of Buckingham, 1592-1628, chief favorite of James I. ^Thesaurus Harmonicus, Cologne, 1603.
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were English, and Max Seiffert45 mentions English players holding prominent positions at Dresden, Stuttgart, and Hamburg. Even in Bach's time there were many English players in Germany. After a dull period in England during the reign of Charles I, instrumental music had a great revival during the time of Cromwell, so that Christopher Simpson wrote in his book A Compendium of Practical Music\, 1667, "You need not seek Outlandish Authors, especially for Instrumental Musick; no Nation (in my opinion) being equal to the English in that way."
MUSIC FOR VIRGINALS
The instrumental music of Elizabethan times, though historically noteworthy and often interesting, hardly ranks with the madrigals, re- ligious choral music, and ayres, in intrinsic worth. The expressive qualities of the various instruments had not yet been thoroughly ex- plored. Viols should have led the way (considering how closely they are related to the versatile modern violin and 'cello), yet some of the best composers were still writing madrigals "fit for voices and viols," as if these instruments had no distinctive character of their own. Leger lines were still so sparingly used that long runs and wide leaps were practically out of the question. Organ compositions also tended to be vocal in style, as if they were to be sung by the choir. It is rather sur- prising, then, that the instrumental compositions which seem to us the most original and interesting were written for the one inexpressive in- strument of the day — the virginal. The virginal (or "virginals," for the plural was often used to denote a single instrument) may be defined as a small, rectangular harpsichord with only one keyboard. It had no legs, and so was commonly laid on a table. No gradations in volume were possible, for light and heavy pressures of the finger on the same key produced the same effect. Otherwise the resources of the modern
45 Vierteljahrsschrift fur Musi\wissenschajt, 1891.
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pianist were available to the virginalist, who could play slow or fast, high or low, one note or half a dozen at a time, rhythmical chords or smooth counterpoint, runs, wide skips — and music in grave keys or gay, for the modern minor and major scales were then emerging from the numerous medieval modes.
Contemporary comment is absent from the most of the collections of virginal music, since this is all in manuscript (except the two engraved volumes of 1611 and 1614) and lacks the informative prefaces and dedi- cations of the printed books. The typesetting of lute music presented no great obstacles, for letters were used instead of notes, and could be placed between the lines. Vocal music required perhaps a dozen signs for clefs, tempos, and accidentals, plus thirty pieces of five-line staff, each piece having a note on one of the lines or spaces. But the printing of keyboard music is difficult, as chords consisting of two or more notes, often of differing time-values, require breaking up the staff. About four hundred different kinds of type are required nowadays.46 So no keyboard music was printed in England until 161 1, when Par- thenia was engraved, not printed from type. As the chief virginal com- positions have come down to us only in manuscript, the manuscripts should come first in a bibliography of Elizabethan virginal music.
IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT COLLECTINGS OF VIRGINAL MUSIC
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\. 297 compositions. Not earlier than 1621. Edited by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire and pub- lished by Breitkopf & Hartel.
My Ladye-Nevells Boo\e. 42 compositions, all by Byrd, copied by John Baldwin, who finished his task September 11, 1591. Edited by Hilda Andrews and published by Curwen, 1926.
Will. Forster's Virginal Boo\. 78 compositions, including 35 by Byrd, 9 by Ward, 3 by Bull, 3 by Morley, one by Englitt, the rest anonymous. 1624.
46 Frank Kidson, Grove, iv. 256.
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Benjamin Cosyn's Virginal Boo\. 90 compositions for virginals, in- cluding 29 by Cosyn, 29 by Bull, 25 by Orlando Gibbons, two by Yves (probably Simon Ives, 1600-1662), one by Tallis, one by Byrd, and three anonymous. Also several choral works. Perhaps c. 1620.
ENGRAVED MUSIC FOR VIRGINALS
Parthenia or the Maydenhead of the first music\e that ever was printed for the Virginalls Composed by three famous Masters, William Byrd, Dr. John Bull and Orlando Gibbons Gentilmen of his Ma*tes most Illustrious Chappell. In graven by William Hole. [1611.] Reprinted by W. Reeves, ed. by Margaret H. Glyn.
PARTHENIA IN-VIOLATA; Or, Mayden-Music\e for the Virgi- nalls and Bass-Viol Selected out of the Compositions of the most famous in that Arte By Robert Hole and Consecrated to all True Lovers & Practicers Thereof. About 1614. It consists of duets for virginals and viola da gamba.
MODERN EDITIONS OF ELIZABETHAN VIRGINAL MUSIC
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo/{, My Ladye-Nevells Booke, and Parthenia, all mentioned above. Also The Mulliner Boo\, a MS. of about 1545.
The collected keyboard works of Byrd, Tallis, and Thomas Tomkins.
Selected Pieces from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\. Ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay Squire. Publ. by Chester.
25 Pieces for Keyed Instruments from Benjamin Cosyn's Virginal Boo\, by Bull, Byrd, Cosyn, Gibbons. Same editors and publisher. 1923.
Fourteen Pieces. Same editors. Publ. by Stainer and Bell.
Thirty Virginal Pieces. Edited by Margaret H. Glyn. Publ. by Stainer and Bell, 1927.
Dances Grave and Gay. Ed. by Margaret H. Glyn. Publ. by Win- throp Rogers.
The Byrd Organ Boo\. Ed. by Margaret H. Glyn. Publ. by Reeves.
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William Byrd. Forty-five Pieces for Keyboard Instruments. Ed. by Stephen D. Tuttle. Editions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, Paris.
Orlando Gibbons' Complete Keyboard Works, 5 vols., compiled by Margaret H. Glyn. She has also published a volume of 40 Keyboard Pieces by Gibbons.
Old English Suite and Album of Selected Pieces by Giles Farnaby. Ed. by Granville Bantock. Publ. by Novello.
The Golden Treasury of Music, Vol. 1. Ed. by Oesterle. Publ. by G. Schirmer.
Easy Elizabethans. Ed. by Harold Craxton. Oxf. Univ. Press.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Henry Davey, History of English Music. Curwen, 1921.
Charles van den Borren, The Sources of Keyboard Music in England. Novello, 1914.
Margaret H. Glyn, About Elizabethan Virginal Music and Its Com- posers. Reeves, 1924.
The historical importance and characteristic style of the Elizabethan virginal compositions as a group and of their leading composers have been well summed up by Charles van den Borren, in his standard work47 on the subject:
Neither Frescobaldi in Italy, nor Scheidt nor Froberger in Germany, nor the French harpsichord players, forerunners of the great Couperin, present us with examples of figuration so varied and original as the English of the first third of the 17th Century.48 Continental artists, it is true, furnish us with happy compensation in the progressive refinement of musical forms; thanks to them the variation, the suite, the toccata, the fugue become litde by little better balanced constructions, answering better to the conception of
47 Charles van den Borren, The Sources of Keyboard Music in England, 191 4, pp. 152 and 353.
48 Van den Borren's "16th Century" is evidently a misprint.
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an organism and a style. But they do not possess that blooming freshness, that expansion, that is characteristic of somewhat unregulated primitifs, and their creations have not that perfume of the wild flower, that playful and fantastic physiognomy by which the work of the virginalists, looked on as a whole, is distinguished. . . . At a time when on the Continent keyboard music was in general only a pale reflection of vocal music, in England it flew with its own wings, created its own domain.
The greatest of the English virginal composers were Byrd, Bull, Giles Farnaby, Orlando Gibbons, and Philips. Van den Borren's opinion of them is briefly paraphrased here:
Byrd is profoundly English, a pastoral poet who loves misty distances, graduated tints, softly undulating landscapes. Virtuosity was foreign to him. He is a rustic, whose rural lyricism decks itself in the most exquisite graces that an artistic temperament at once simple and refined can imagine. Bull was a strong man, vigorous, but lacking in feeling. Farnaby, like Byrd, is profoundly English, but represents the humorous side, Byrd the dreamy side. He is one of the most graceful musicians possible, an improviser of melody like Schubert, whose qualities and defects he shares. He is also full of audacities, and is the most original of all the virginalists. Gibbons was a romanticist, attaining a concentrated and pathetic lyricism. Italy dazzled Philips with its brilliant arabesques and its elegant virtuosity. But an under- lying severity and austerity, reminding us of the Spanish composer Cabezon (15 10-1566), probably comes from the sadness of his life.
Mention is made elsewhere of the high regard in which four of these composers were held by their contemporaries,49 but this seems the proper place to speak of Bull, since he is chiefly associated with key- board instruments and their music.
John Bull (c. 1562-1628) was celebrated as the most skilful per- former on keyboard instruments in England at the commencement of the reign of James I. While he had been an organist of the Chapel Royal
49 For Byrd see pp. 80-85, I03> I07> Farnaby, pp. 113, 114, Gibbons, pp. 85-87, 172, 185, and Philips, pp. 217, 218.
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his skill received the admiration of Queen Elizabeth, and in 1597 on her recommendation he became the first Lecturer in Music in Gresham Col- lege, newly founded under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham. His duties were as follows:
The solemn musick lecture is to be read twice every week, in manner fol- lowing, viz. the theorique part for half an hour, or thereabouts; and the practique by concent of voice or of instruments, for the rest of the hour.
This was a well-balanced arrangement. As he could not write Latin, he was allowed by special permission to give his lectures in English. His inaugural lecture was printed, but unfortunately nothing of it has sur- vived but the title-page. He received the degree of Doctor of Music at Cambridge and (by "incorporation") at Oxford also. He was one of a number of persons for whom James I ordered gifts of "gold chains, plates or medals." In 1607, while the King and Prince Henry were din- ing in the Merchant Taylors' Hall, London, Bull played for them "most excellent melodie upon a small Payre of Organes" — perhaps the first English organ recital on record.50 In 161 1 his name stood highest on the list of the musicians of Prince Henry. In 1617 he became organist of Antwerp Cathedral, and in that edifice he was buried on March 15, 1628.50 Anthony Wood's account of Bull, more colorful than anything we have about him from his own time, should be read.51 Finally, the virtuoso's name must have endeared itself to all true Elizabethans by the rich opportunity it afforded for puns. His famous portrait in the Bodleian, reproduced in color in Grove's Dictionary, has the following lines painted around its frame:
The Bull by force In field doth Raigne But Bull by Skill Good will doth Gayne
50 Grove, i. 493, 494.
51 See Appendix G, pp. 318, 319.
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An admirable detailed account by W. Barclay Squire of the four im- portant manuscript collections of virginal music is printed in Grove, v. 545—552. My Ladye-Nevells Boo\e includes compositions by Byrd only. Cosyn's book contains twenty-nine compositions by Cosyn himself, twenty-nine by Bull, and twenty-five by Gibbons. Most of the pieces in Will. Forster's book are by Byrd, a few are by John Ward. In the Fitz- william book Byrd leads with seventy-two compositions (including five arrangements of tunes by others), Farnaby following with fifty-two (in- cluding five arrangements), Bull with forty-five, and Peter Philips with nineteen.52 No composition by Ward is included. Thus if quantity counts for anything, Byrd, Farnaby, Bull, Gibbons, and Philips are the most important of the English virginal composers.
Tunes were not copyrighted in those days, and there are a number of interesting cases, mostly noted by van den Borren, of tunes harmo- nized by men who were not the original composers. Whether the tunes used were chosen for their popularity it is impossible now to discover, but certainly their foster fathers must have liked them. Byrd wrote variations on Dowland's famous "Lachrymae," and there are harmoni- zations of it by Farnaby, Morley, and the German composer Melchior Schildt. Bull wrote a Fantasia on a Fugue by the great Dutch organist Sweelinck, Sweelinck in turn wrote variations on a pavan by Philips, and Philips made transcriptions for virginals of madrigals by Marenzio and Orlando di Lasso. Giles Farnaby harmonized "Rosseter's Galliard" and tunes by Robert Johnson; Byrd wrote harmonizations of tunes by Edward Johnson and James Harding, and borrowed the tune of a Volte from Morley. Borrowing was usually but not always acknowl- edged. The well known "Kings Hunt," ascribed to Bull because his
52 The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\ also contains eight compositions by Morley, eight by Ferdinando Richardson, five each by Thomas Tomkins and "Mundy," four- each by M. Peerson, the Dutchman Sweelinck, Richard Farnaby, and W. Tisdall, and one or two by R. and E. Johnson, Oldfield, Strogers, Tallis, Warrock, Marchant, Parsons, Hooper, In- glott, Gibbons, and the foreigners Picchi, Galeazzo, and Oystermayre.
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name is attached to it in the Fitzwiiliam and Forster books, is really by Cosyn, since it occurs under his name in the collection he himself made. Miss Glyn says in her book About Elizabethan Virginal Music and Its Composers that it was clearly "part of the business of the Fitzwiiliam compiler to edit, for one of Bull's own pieces is altered almost past rec- ognition, and this is also the case with a Toye and Variations by Gib- bons, and a variation-set 'Pakington's Pounde' by Cosyn, all shortened, mutilated, and inserted anonymously."
Parthenia and Parthenia In-Violata, the two books of engraved mu- sic, are best treated here, in spite of the fact that the latter contains a viol part in addition to the virginals score. The titles are puns. Par- thenos is the Greek word for virgin, and the second title refers to the fact that the book is made up of duets for virginals and viol. The first of these works came out in 1611 and was popular for many years, no less than three editions of it appearing during the time of the Common- wealth. The second edition, of 1613, is dedicated to Prince Frederick (the Elector Palatine) and his affianced, Princess Elizabeth :
Musick like that miraculous tongue of th' Aposdes having but one and ye same Caracter is alike knowne to all the sundry nations of ye world. And what wonder since Harmony is the Soule thereof multipliciously varied of fowre bare notes as ye Body is of the fowre Elements. These lessons were composed by three famous Masters in the faculties, whereof one53 had ye honor to be your teacher most Illustrious lady; and (had he not had it be- fore) thereby deserved the stile of a Doctor . . .
Commendatory verses follow by Hugh Holland54 and George Chap- man (the translator of Homer) :
53 John Bull; he composed an anthem for her wedding.
54 Hugh Holland was a poet and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. A sonnet by him is prefixed to the First Folio of Shakespeare, and he contributed a eulogistic poem to Farnaby's set of madrigals (1598). He died in 1633.
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Mr. Hugh Holland On his worthy frend W.H. and his Triumviri of Music\e
List to that sweet Recorder; How daintily this BYRD his notes doth vary. As if he were the Nightingalls owne brother!
Loe! where doth pace in order A braver BULL, than ever did Europa cary: Nay let all Europe showe me such an other.
Orlando though was counted Musicks Father; Yet his ORLANDO parallels di LASSO, Whose triple praise would tire a very Tasso;
Then heere in one these three men heare you rather And praise thaire songes; and sing his praise who maried Those notes so well which they so sweetely varied.
Mr. Geo. Chapman In worthye love of this new wor\, and the most Autenticall55 Aucthors
By theis choice lessons of theise Musique Masters,
Ancient, and heightn'd with the Arts full Bowles, Let all our moderne mere Phantastique Tasters,
(Whose Art but forreigne Noveltie extolls) Rule and confine theyr fancies; and prefer
The constant right and depthe Art should produce, To all lite flashes, by whose light they err;
This wittie Age hath wisedom least in use; The World, ould growing, Ould with it grow Men;
Theyr skylls decaying, like theyr bodies strengthe; Yonge Men to oulde are now but Childeren,
First Rules of Art encrease still with theyr lengthe: Which see in this new worck, yet never seene;
Art the more oulde, growes ever the more greene.
55 Authentic in the sense of accepted, established, reliable, no longer applied to per- sons. The "W.H." mentioned by Holland was William Hole, who engraved the music.
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The praise of these three famous musicians by such a famous poet as Chapman is significant. His complaint that Englishmen unfortunately prefer foreign art to English is worthy of note. Considering the evident success of Parthenia, it is surprising that other collections of virginal music were not printed. In the Music School on the Bodleian quad- rangle there is a portrait of that patron of music, Dr. Heather, holding a copy of Parthenia.
Parthenia ln-Violata or Mayden-Music\e for the Virginalls and Bass- Viol was issued about 1614. The only known copy is in the New York Public Library.56 The composers' names are not given. It is engraved throughout, whereas the title-page of the earlier volume, Parthenia, is printed in type. The stems of successive eighth or sixteenth notes are connected as in modern printing; such notes are always printed sepa- rately in Elizabethan type-set music. Some solid black whole notes are used as equal in time value to half-notes, in accordance with medieval practice. All the twenty pieces are duets, each bar of the viol part being conveniently printed underneath the same bar of the virginal part. Curiously enough, though the virginal part has bar-lines, the viol part has not. All the accidentals are written out, sometimes above the notes if there is not room before them. The virginal part uses two staves of six lines each, the G clef being on the 3d line and the F clef usually on the 4th. The viol part uses the ordinary modern F clef on the 4th line of a five-line staff. The volume is beautifully engraved.57
RECORDERS
The recorder, as has been said, is a member of the whistle family, along with the flageolet, the "penny whistle," and most organ pipes. Its tone is not unlike that of the flute, although quieter and even sweeter.
56 Where it rray be seen by any one without special formalities; certain other libraries please copy.
57 See also the article by Ernest Brennecke, Jr., "Parthenia Inviolata," in the Musical Times for August 1934, vol. 75, pp. 701-706.
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i> ne i^-r rwr/ of tv ome reere
VIII
fttfffl '^
^j^%j.Jjij j ■ . ^^pfe
Duet for Virginals and Viol da Gamba
from
PARTHENIA IN -VIOL AT A
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
When it is considered that only one collection of solos for any key- board instrument was published in England before the time of Crom- well, it is not surprising that other instruments suffered also. Parts printed during that period specifically for "flute" — which in England usually meant the recorder — were exceedingly few; Morley's consort lessons of 1599 contained one; and there are scarcely any Elizabethan compositions extant in manuscript for that instrument. But when An- tony Holborne in 1599 published sixty-five dance tunes under the title of Pavans, Galliards, Altnains, and other short /Eirs both grave and light for five "Viols, Violins or other Musical Wind Instruments," he meant they could be played either on bowed stringed instruments or on recorders of varying sizes. Musical gentlefolk kept sets or "consorts" of recorders, as of viols, for use by their household musicians. Hamlet shows a recorder to Guildenstern.58 It was popular throughout the seventeenth century. Pepys on February 27, 1668, saw Massinger's Vir- gin Martyr, a "poorish play but finely acted," and adds: "But that which did please me beyond anything in the world, was the wind- musique when the angel comes down." He consequently resolved "to practice wind musique" and to make his wife do the like. So on April 8th he went to buy a recorder, "which I do intend to learn to play on, the sound of it being, of all sounds in the world, most pleasing to me."
Why have such particularly charming instruments as the recorder been laid aside? "The clue is given by the happy phrase of a writer in Grove's Dictionary, wherein the selective evolution of orchestral instru- ments is said to have proceeded on the principle of 'the survival of the loudest'."59 Recorder playing has been widely revived in the twentieth century.
HARPS
The harp was much used among the Irish, whose admiration for it through the centuries has been remarkable. Sir Francis Bacon's opinion
58 Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2.
59 Gerald R. Hayes, The Treatment of Instrumental Music, p. 17.
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of it was no less favorable. He did not care for the virginals, the tone of which he calls "shallow and jarring." In Sylva Sylvarum, §§221-223, ne commends the tone of recorders and flutes, and then says,
No instrument hath the sound so Melting, and Prolonged, as the Irish Harpe. So as I suppose, that if a Virginall were made with a double Con- cave, the one all the length as the Virginal hath, the other at the End of the Strings, as the Harp hath, it must needs make the Sound perfecter, and not so Shallow and Jarring.
The uncanny wisdom of Bacon's recommendation that a virginal be "made with a double Concave" has been proved by the development of the concert grand piano.
The harp in England does not seem to have been held in such esteem. Only one player of importance is mentioned during this period, Wil- liam More (c. 1492-1564), chief harper to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. He was a Roman Catholic, and known to be such. He was blind, and thus escaped suspicion while he carried illicit and possibly treasonable messages for Catholic prelates. He was im- prisoned for several weeks under Henry VIII, but released when he was needed to play for a function at court. A Protestant wrote, "I wiss, More, thou wrestest thine harp strings clean out of tune when thou thoughtest to set the bawdy bishop of Rome above the King's maj- esty." Grattan Flood mentions various fees paid him from 1512 on. In January 1544 Princess Mary gave him five shillings, and on June 3, 1559, under her successor he was decreed a salary of \2.d. a day "for life." This act of favor shows clearly that Queen Elizabeth had no in- tention of dismissing Catholics as such. In 1520 the corporation of Shrewsbury called him "principalis citherator Angliae." He also wrote anthems. Case named him with Taverner, Blitheman, and Tallis as dis- tinguished and well-paid musicians. No one succeeded him, it seems.
60 Sir J. A. Westrup calls my attention to regular posts as harpist held by Jean de Flelle and Charles Evans among the personal musicians of Charles I and II respectively, and to a Lewis Evans whose youthful career as a harpist was aided by James I.
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VII
kJMusic on the Stage
NO subject connected with Elizabethan life has been so thoroughly worked over as the stage. It is my intention therefore to give only a few typical facts to illustrate the important place music held on the stage and to show the curious relationship between church musicians and the stage that resulted from the training of choirboys as actors.
MUSIC IN THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYS1
The modern play rarely calls for music during the acts. The Eliza- bethan play, on the other hand, commonly contained songs, and, indeed, the Puritan Prynne tells us that every play had music connected with it:
That which is alwaies accompanied with effeminate lust-provoking Musicke is doubtless inexpedient and unlawfull unto Christians. But stage-plays are alwayes accompanied with such Musicke. Therefore they are doubtless in- expedient and unlawfull unto Christians.2
1 For a detailed treatment of this subject see: Edward W. Naylor, Shakespeare and Music, 1896.
Edward W. Naylor, Shakespeare Music, 1913. This prints much of the music referred to in Shakespeare's plays, with comment.
Louis Charles Elson, Shakespeare in Music, 1901.
G. H. Cowling, Music on the Shakespearian Stage, 191 2. This deals with the other dramatists as well as Shakespeare.
J. R. Moore, "The Function of the Songs in Shakespeare's Plays," in Shakespeare Stud- ies, Univ. of Wisconsin, 1916.
Richmond Noble, Shakespeare's Use of Song with the Text of the Principal Songs, 1923.
Charles Read Baskervill, The Elizabethan Jig, 1929.
2 Prynne, Histriomastix , 1633, Act v, Scene 10.
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The secular drama inherited this association with music from its me- dieval forebears, the religious drama and the performances by minstrels, for the medieval religious plays were sung by priests who had been trained in music in order to perform the offices of the Church, and the minstrels were primarily singers.
Early in the Elizabethan drama, composers were called upon to sup- plement the art of the playwright. William Byrd wrote songs for several plays, including Ricardus Tertius by Thomas Legge, given at Cam- bridge in 1579, and probably Tancred and Gismunda, by Robert Wil- mot, Christopher Hatton, and others, 1567-68. In Gorboduc (acted in 1562) violins, cornetts, flutes, oboes, and drums were called for by the stage directions. The instruments owned by the Lord Admiral's Com- pany of actors in 1598 comprised three trumpets, one drum, one treble viol, one bass viol, one pandore, one cithern, one sackbut (trombone), three tymbrells (tambourines) , and bells. "Eight or ten" musicians may have been employed in each important theatre from 1600.8
Actors were frequently required by their roles to play instruments or sing. Viols are played by important characters in Jonson's Poetaster, Marston's Antonio and Mellida, and Middleton's Roaring Girl, and lutes similarly in Heywood's A Woman Killed by Kindness, Dekker's Honest Whore, and Marston's Dutch Courtesan. Even organs are oc- casionally asked for. Parts in numerous plays must be taken by singers, e.g., Merrythought in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, and Stremon in their Mad Lover. Beaumont and Fletcher lack Shakespeare's deeper appreciation of music, yet their plays contain ex- cellent songs.4 Valerius in Heywood's The Rape of Lucrece (1608) has to sing seventeen songs. "My mistris sings none other song," from Robert Jones's First Boo\e of Ayres, was sung by Franchschina in Mar- ston's Dutch Courtesan, and is quoted by James Shirley; and Jones's
8 Cowling, Music on the Shakespearian Stage.
4 The words of no less than fifty songs, and the music of six, are printed in Songs and Lyrics from the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, London, 1928.
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"Now what is love?" to words by Sir Walter Raleigh was sung in Hey- wood's Rape of Lucrece. Conversely, musicians in the theatre orchestras were sometimes pressed into service to take small speaking parts; and in Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour the trombone player spoke the prologue.
The musician's dramatist is Shakespeare. Numerous allusions to mu- sic in his plays attest both his love for the art and some technical knowl- edge of it. We should like to think that he could play one or more instruments, but we have no proof. He refers to the fingering of the recorder, but not in detail, and mentions the succession Fa Sol La Mi (F G A B, going up the scale) as unpleasant; it was forbidden by the theorists of the day because of the augmented fourth — "tritone" — be- tween F and B. He knew something about frets, the scale, notes, rests, "division," "descant," and "pricksong." In Sonnet 128 he refers to the keys of the virginals as "jacks"5:
I envy those jacks, that nimble leap To kiss the tender inward of thy hand.
This poetic license made possible his pun on the word "jacks," and thus gives additional point to the sonnet. "Shakespeare knew his audience well, and it cannot be a coincidence that the two plays whose titles im- ply that he was giving it what it wanted contain the most songs. As You Li\e It and Twelfth Night, or What You Will contain no fewer than six songs each."6 In Troilus and Cressida Pandarus accompanied his song "Love, love, nothing but love" on the lute. Balthasar sings in Much Ado about Nothing,7 and Amiens sings in As You Li\e It. "It was a lover and his lass" is a duet, sung by two pages. Ariel's songs in The Tempest were sung by a boy. There are fairy songs in Midsummer
5 The jack was not the key, but the part of the action that held the quill and plucked the string.
6 Cowling, op. cit.
7 William Kempe, who created the part of Dogberry in Much Ado about Nothing, is
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Night's Dream and a dirge for two voices in Cymbeline. Ophelia sings in Hamlet, and Desdemona in Othello. Robert Johnson's settings of "Full fathom five" and "Where the bee sucks" from The Tempest may have been written for the first performance of the play.
So frequent a use of song requires explanation. On a modern stage various songs by Shakespeare sound unnecessary and even out of place. But the Elizabethan theatre lacked modern front drop-curtains, pic- torial painted scenery, and means to change the amount of light. Shake- speare therefore in several situations introduced songs to get characters on and off the stage gracefully and plausibly, and also to create atmos- phere and to conjure up imaginary stage settings to the audience. Thus the Clown in Twelfth Night maintains the note of comedy to the very end of his scene with Malvolio by singing as he leaves. In Cymbeline, after Iachimo has stolen the bracelet by night, the song
Hark, hark the lark at heaven's gate sings And Phoebus gins arise
both tells the time and dispels the previous mood of villainous gloom. In a number of instances Shakespeare calls upon music to aid his audi- tors' acceptance of whatever is supernatural, abnormal, or strange.8 Thus
celebrated for his dancing in a madrigal by Weelkes (Ayeres . . . for three voices, 1608, No. 20. The Robin Hood legend was a stock subject for strolling players): Since Robin Hood, Maid Marian,
And Little John are gone, The hobby horse was quite forgot, When Kempe did dance alone. He did labor After the tabor. For to dance Then into France He took pains To skip it in hope of gains He will trip it on the toe, Diddle, diddle, diddle doe. 8 Dr. Percy A. Scholes called attention to this, in his article "Shakespeare as Musician," in The Music Student for May 1916, Vol. VIII, No. 9, pp. 243-246.
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music prepares us in The Winter's Tale for the miraculous restoration of the statue to life and for the appearance in Cymbeline of the spirits, and in Julius Caesar of his ghost. It accompanies the fairies in Midsum- mer Night's Dream and the witches in Macbeth, it restores Thaisa to life in Pericles and calms the disordered brain of King Lear.
Shakespeare has been unjustly accused of suggesting that music had an effeminate influence on Count Orsino in Twelfth Night. It is true that in the earlier scenes of this play Orsino is overfond of languishing songs, but his sentimentality is caused by his lovesickness, not by his love for music, and passes away as soon as its cause is removed. We may believe that Shakespeare's own opinion of music is expressed in the Fifth Act of the Merchant of Venice:
Nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
In general the Elizabethan dramatists spoke well of music and mu- sicians :9
Spaniards and Dutchmen, Pedants and Poetasters, Beggars and Constables, Justices and Rogues, come in their turn under the lash, but not musicians. Balthasar and Hortensio are not made a laughing-stock because of their profession like Shallow and Dogberry, or Don Armado and his fellow scrap-stealer Holof ernes. [Musicians] were the interpreters of a divine har- mony whose perfection was only to be heard by dwellers in the heavenly spheres.10
9 "Except Shakespeare's realism as to the singer's 'ill voice' and reluctance to sing. See Much Ado about Nothing." — Dr. Felix E. Schelling.
10 G. H. Cowling, op. cit.
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MASQUES
The masque was a histrionic form closely related to both the play and the opera. It unfolded its story in song and spoken word, with frequent dances by the characters and chorus. It was an entertainment not for the common people but for royalty and the court, to whom both actors and spectators belonged. Because its primary aim was to captivate the eye and ear through gorgeous color, skilful dancing, and sweet music, it never quite approached in dramatic power either the drama or the opera proper, but its poetic quality was sometimes of a high order. It was older than its name. An entertainment given at the English court in 1377 contained three features always present in the masque: the per- formers entered the hall together in disguise, they danced first with each other, and then joined with the courtly spectators in other dances.11 The name itself was introduced from the Continent early in the six- teenth century. Queen Elizabeth was fond of this form of entertain- ment, but it did not mature in poetic and dramatic fitness until the close of her reign, and it reached its height under the first two Stuarts. At this time masques were extremely popular, as is attested by the high caliber of the poets and composers employed and by the enormous sums spent on their production. Those by Campion are of special interest to musicians because he wrote both the words and some of the music. Though his masques are inferior to Ben Jonson's in dramatic construc- tion and force, they rank second to none in lyric grace and charm of poetic style. Jonson was less vitally interested in music, but he too ap- preciated its power adequately and wrote more lines to be sung than to be spoken. Sixty-six musicians took part in his masque Love freed from Ignorance and Folly, in 161 1.12 Jonson is usually considered to have
11 Ben Jonson, edited by C. H. Herford and Percy Simpson, 1925, ii. 251.
12 For an account of how masques were staged see Jeffrey Mark's article, "The Jon- sonian Masque," in Music and Letters, iii. 358-371, also Stuart Masques and the Renais- sance Stage, by Allardyce Nicoll. For Jonson's use of music in his masques see Ben Jon- son and Elizabethan Music by Willa McClung Evans.
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written the best masques, but Daniel, Chapman, Davenant, Shirley, Milton, and others essayed the form with success. It received a severe wound in 1642 when the Puritan Parliament banned dramatic enter- tainments, though some works of the sort were written and performed after the Restoration.
In general the music of the Jacobean masque consisted of choruses, songs for one or more voices, and instrumental dances, these forms al- ternating so as to rest the performers and avoid monotony. All sorts of instruments were used, particularly of course viols and lutes. Cornetts, drums, and fifes were among those employed in Campion's entertain- ment for Queen Anne in 1613. Not much masque music was published. The printed descriptions of Campion's masques for Lord Hay, 1607, and the Earl of Somerset, 161 4, give the words and music of five songs each. Ferrabosco's Boo\ of Ayres, 1609, contains several songs that he had written for Jonson's masques. The instrumental Courtly Masquing Ayres by Adson (1611) have been mentioned.13 In recent years W. J. Lawrence has identified a number of tune? in a MS collection of masque music in the British Museum as coming from various masques by Jon- son and (in a few cases) by Campion.14 The semi-private and "occa- sional" use of each masque would account for the meager amount of music published.
By way of illustration Campion's first masque15 is described below, since the opening scene (given here in his own words) exemplifies the important place held in the masque by music and musicians; and the rest of the story, necessarily summarized in present-day English though
13 page jyg
14 "Notes on a Collection of Masque Music," by W. J. Lawrence, pp. 49-58 in the issue of Music and Letters for January 1922, being comments on British Museum Addi- tional MSS 10,444.
15 The Discription of a Mas\e, Presented before the Kinges Maiestie at White-Hall, on Twelfth Night last, in honour of the Lord Hayes, and his Bride Daughter and Heire to the Honourable the Lord Dennye, their Marriage having been the same Day at Court solemnized. Invented and set forth by Thomas Campion Doctor of Phisic\e. London. 1607.
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the loss of its original charming style exposes Campion's typical thin- ness of plot, will show how a masque was written to suit an occasion and to please the guests. In this case they were a Lord Hay and his bride, who had been married earlier the same day. In genial flattery Campion's masque describes how the wedding has gratified the im- mortal gods. At the beginning there is an account of the staging, the musical arrangements, and the entrance of King James and the guests, shortly followed by the actors:
The greate hall (wherein the Maske was presented) received this division, and order: The upper part where the cloth and chaire of State was plac't, had scaffoldes and seates on eyther side continued to the skreene; right be- fore it was made a partition for the dauncing place; on the right hand whereof were consorted ten musicions, with Basse and Meane Lutes, a Ban- dora, a double Sack-bott, and an Harpsichord, with two treble Violins; on the other side somewhat neerer the skreene were plac't 9 violins and three Lutes, and to answere both the Consorts (as it were in a triangle) sixe Cornets, and sixe Chappell voyces, were seated almost right against them, in a place raised higher in respect of the pearcing sound of these Instruments . . . [On one platform was] a greene valley with greene trees round about it, and in the midst of them nine golden trees of fifteene foote high, with armes and braunches very glorious to behold. . . .
As soone as the King was entred the great Hall, the Hoboyes (out of the wood on the top the hil) entertained the time till his Maiestie and his trayne were placed, and then after a little expectation the consort of ten began to play an Ayre, at the sound wherof the vale on the right hand was with- drawne, and the ascent of the hill with the bower of Flora were discovered, where Flora and Zepherus were busily plucking flowers from the Bower, and throwing them into two baskets, which two Silvans held, who were attired in changeable Taffetie, with wreathes of flowers on their heads. As soone as the baskets were filled, they came downe in this order, First Zepherus and Flora, then the two Silvans with baskets after them: Foure Silvans in green tafTatie, and wreathes, two bearing meane Lutes, the third a base Lute, and the fourth a deep Bandora.
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As soone as they came to the discent toward the dauncing place the con- sort of ten ceac't, and the foure Silvans played the same Ayre, to which Zepherus and the two other Silvans did sing these words in a base, Tenor, and treble voyce and going up and downe as they song, they strowed flow- ers all about the place.
Song. Now hath Flora rob'd her bowers
To befrend this place with flowers: [etc.]
We may summarize the action of the remainder of the masque:
Flora too strewed flowers in honor of the bridal couple, and wished them well. But Night then entered, servant of Diana (Cynthia, the moon, goddess of virginity) and censured Flora for praising this marriage, since Hymen, the god of marriage, had stolen the bride from Diana's train of virgins. Night explained that the golden trees were once knights of Phoebus Apollo, who in seeking to entice away her maidens by love were thus transformed in punishment by Diana. Night's objection was removed by the entrance of Hesperus, the evening star, who announced that Phoebus had pacified Diana, and that she had agreed to the marriage and to the liberation of the knights. Night thereupon freed them. Their platform sank out of sight; when it rose again they reappeared gloriously dressed. She had them make expiation to Diana for their theft, and when the goddess was satisfied, Night called upon all present to take part in a final dance.
Two of the composers of masques have been mentioned, Campion and the younger Ferrabosco. The latter wrote music for several of Jonson's masques.16 He acted in some of them as well, and received the warm thanks of the author. Important also was Henry Lawes, 1595— 1662, a leading composer of his generation, who wrote the music to Milton's masque Comus, and Nicholas Laniere, 1588-1666, who like Ferrabosco both acted in masques by Jonson and wrote music for them. Finally mention may be made of John Wilson, 1595— 1674, who as a youth wrote music for The Mas\e of Flowers, 1614. He
16 See p. 144, supra.
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. . . had oftentimes just opportunities to exercise his hand on the Lute (being the best at it in all England) before him [Charles I] to his great delight and wonder; who, while he played, did usually lean or lay his hand on his shoulder.
On March 10, 1645, Wilson received the degree of Doctor of Music from Oxford University, being "now the most noted Musitian of Eng- land." Henry Lawes wrote of him,
For this I know, and must say't to thy praise,
That thou hast gone in Musick, unknown wayes,
Hast cut a path where there was none before,
Like Magellan traced an unknown shore.
Thou taught'st our Language, first, to speak in Tune,
Gav'st the right accents and proportion
— words which, as Arkwright says,17 would fit Lawes himself better than Wilson. It is stranger still that Lawes could not have found some Elizabethan to whom he could pay this noble tribute. But by 1645 the age of giants had passed, and even their stature was forgotten.
CHOIRBOYS AS ACTORS
The connection between music and the important companies of boy actors was close, because they were usually managed or trained by their choirmasters. The affiliations of the important companies, with the names of the men that trained them, are given here :
1. The Chapel Royal, Whitehall, London
Richard Edwards, master of the children from 1561 till his death, 1566.
William Hunnis, master of the children from 1566 till his death, 1597, probably.
Nathaniel Giles, master of the children from 1597 till his death,
17 Grove, v. 729.
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1633. He held the same position at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, of which he was organist.
2. St. George's Chapel, Windsor
Richard Farrant, master of choristers from 1564 till his death, 1580. Nathaniel Giles, master of choristers and organist from 1585 till his death, 1633.
3. St. Paul's Cathedral
Sebastian Westcote, organist and master of choristers from 1551 till his death, 1582.
Thomas Giles, organist in 1583.
Edward Pearce, organist and choirmaster from 1599. He was still choirmaster in 1607.
4. Westminster Abbey
Robert White, organist and choirmaster from 1570 till his death, J574-
5. The Children of the Chapel at Blac\friars, 1 597-1 603 Nathaniel Giles chose the boys and superintended their musical
training, but their manager, Henry Evans, was probably not a profes- sional musician.
6. The Children of the Revels to the Queene within White Fryars (from Windsor Chapel)
Robert Jones, its founder (1610) and manager, along with Philip Rosseter.
John Daniel succeeded his brother Samuel, the poet, as textual re- viser of the plays.
Two other juvenile companies presented plays early in King James's reign, viz. The Children of the Revels to the Queen at Blachjriars, 1604- 1608, and The Children of the King's Revels at Whitefriars, c. 1603- 1609.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Richard Edwards (c. 1523-1566) has been mentioned on pp. 95-100, with the quotation which Shakespeare made from one of his poems.
William Hunnis18 (c. 1530-1597) was chosen a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal under Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his ability made him Keeper of the Queen's Gardens for life, at lid. a day, and in 1566 he succeeded to the post, made vacant by Edwards' death, of Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal in London. From 1568 to 1572 he presented his choirboys as actors in plays at court, and from 1576 to 1580 they and Farrant's boys from Windsor joined forces, act- ing at court as before. In 1580 he leased the Blackfriars Theatre19 from Farrant's widow, and continued to use his boys. In 1583 and 1584 his boys and those of St. Paul's, under its organist Thomas Giles, the father of Nathaniel Giles, gave plays at court. At the Queen's command Hunnis sometimes presented them on Sundays in the sacred chapel it- self, to the confusion of the Puritans.
In 1597, on the death of Hunnis, Elizabeth immediately appointed Nathaniel Giles in his place and sanctioned the opening of a new theatre at Blackfriars under the managership of a Henry Evans. Giles supplied the boys for this and supervised their musical training, but the Queen herself paid for their board, lodging, and apparel, including their sumptuous theatrical costumes. During the time of Shakespeare, with the exception of him and his company the best plays and the best acting of the period were to be seen at the boys' theatres. Here music held so prominent a place that these children had to sing as well as they could act. Lengthy musicales preceded the plays, and the boys were
18 For information regarding these musician-managers and their youthful charges see The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 1597—1603, by Charles William Wallace, 1906; an article by G. E. P. Arkwright, "Elizabethan Choirboy Plays and Their Music" in the Proceedings of the Musical Association for 191 3-1 91 4; and articles by Grattan Flood entitled "New Light on Late Tudor Composers" published in The Musical Times from 1924 to 1929: Vol. 65 (1924) discusses Farrant, Vol. 66 (1925) Westcote and Hunnis, Vol. 69 (1928) Daniel, and Vol. 70 (1929) Pearce.
19 This was the first Blackfriars Theatre, closed in 1584. The later Blackfriars Theatre was opened in 1597.
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given careful instruction upon musical instruments, in solo and choral singing, and in dancing. In 1602 a German visitor20 thus recorded his impressions of the Blackfriars Theatre :
The Queen maintains a number of young boys who are required to de- vote themselves earnestly to the art of singing, and to learn to perform on various sorts of musical instruments, also at the same time to carry on their studies. These boys have their special preceptors in all the various arts, and in particular excellent instructors in music. . . . For a whole hour preced- ing the play one listens to a delightful musical entertainment on organs, lutes, [pandoras, mandores, viol(in)s,] and flutes, as on the present occasion, indeed, when a boy cum voce tremula sang so charmingly to the accompani- ment of a bass viol.
The untimely death of the choirboy Salathiel Pavy, who acted old men's parts with humor and extraordinary realism, moved Ben Jonson to pen a touching elegy. One of the Lord Chamberlain's Players, Shake- speare, referred to the boy companies from Blackfriars and St. Paul's as "an aerie of children, little eyases that cry out on the top of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped for it; these are now the fashion."21
Richard Farrant (c. 1526-1580) founded the earlier Blackfriars Theatre, the first private theatre in London. He managed his choirboys from Windsor in numerous plays; he was required to present one a year before the Queen from 1567 onwards. She was so pleased with his production of The History of Mutius Scevola that on January 6, 1577, she gave him an extra fee of ^10.
Sebastian Westcote (c. 1523-1582) was organist and master of chor- isters at St. Paul's Cathedral from 1551 until his death. He was im- prisoned for Papistry for nine weeks (1577-1578), but he evidently re- tained Elizabeth's favor. He presented his choirboys in plays before her
20 Frederic Gershow, who with his princely master the Duke of Stettin was touring England. The translation is by Dr. C. W. Wallace, op. cit., pp. 106, 107.
21 Hamlet, ii. 2.
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both when she was a princess (1551 or 1552) and a queen (1559 and probably at other times). He had directed the music at Queen Mary's coronation and presented her with a book of ditties. Peter Philips and Thomas Mudd were probably his pupils, Morley22 possibly also. West- cote's choir is praised by Hollybande in The French Schoolemaister?* a quaint work printed in English and French on opposite pages for stu- dents of the latter language. Hollybande and his friends enter St. Paul's :
"Harken, I do heare a sweet mu- sick: I never heard the like."
"See whether wee may get to the quier, and wee shall heare the fearest voyces of all the cathedrall churches in England."
"Escoutes, i' oye vne douce mu- sique: ie n' oui iamais la semblable."
"Regardes si nous pourrons gai- gner le coeur & nous orrons les plus belles voix, de toutes les eglises ca- thedralles d' Angleterre." [etc.]
"I beleeve you: who should have them, if the Londonners had them not?"
"I thinke that the Queenes singyng men are there, for I doo heare her baase."
"That may be: for, to tell the trueth, I never heard better singyng."
"Hearken, there is a good versicle."
"I promise you that I would heare them more willingly singe, than eate or drinke."
Edward Pearce (fl. 1586-1614) became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1588, and organist and Master of the Choristers at St. Paul's in 1599. Thomas Ravenscroft, who was one of his choirboys, includes two part-songs by Pearce in A Brief e Discourse (1614), and thus praises his former teacher :
Maister Edward Pearce the first, sometimes Maister of the Children of Saint Paules in London, and there my Maister, a man of singular eminency in his
22 According to an undocumented statement by Grattan Flood.
28 The French Schoolemaister, wherin is most plainlie shewed, the true and most per- fect way of pronouncinge of the Frenche tongue, without any helpe of Maister or teacher . . . by M. Claudius Hollybande, professor of the Latin, Frenche and Englishe tongues. London. 1573. Pp. 74-76.
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Profession, both in the Educating of Children for the ordering of the Voyce so as the Quality might afterward credit him and preferre them: And also in those his Compositions to the Lute, whereof the world enjoyes many, (as from the Maister of that Instrument) together with his skilfull Instruc- tions for other Instruments too, as his fruits can beare him witnesse.
Pearce's choirboys gave a play at court on January i, 1601. ]ac\ Drum's 'Entertainment (1600) referred to the current popularity of Pearce's troupe :
I saw the Children of Paul's last night,
And troth, they pleased me pretty, pretty well.
The apes in time will do it handsomely.
John Marston and Thomas Dekker dignified them by writing plays for them, and gentlemen preferred them to the adult companies because the higher price of admission charged to hear the boys kept away the ill-smelling rabble. I find a reference to Pearce in A Choice of Emblemes ... by Geoffrey Whitney, 1586. Only the initial letters of his name are given, but so many punning allusions to composers are to be found in Elizabethan musical literature that the word "pierce" in the text would seem to identify him.
You neede not Thracia seeke, to heare some impe of Or- pheus playe,
Since, that so neare your home, Apollos darlinge dwelles;
Who Linus, & Amphion staynes, and Orpheus farre excelles. E.P.Esquter For, h[e]artes like marble harde, his harmonie doth pierce:
And makes them yeelding passions feele, that are by nature fierce.
But, if his musicke faile: his curtesie is suche,
That none so rude, and base of minde, but hee reclaimes them muche. . . .
Robert White (c. 1530-1574), famed composer of church music, and "Bacheler of Musicke and Master of the Queristers of the Cathedrall
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Churche of St. Peter in the Cittie of Westminster," composed four plays which his choirboys gave at court. It seems strange to meet these men in the role of theatrical managers whom we have previously revered from a distance as composers of austere cathedral music or delicate madrigals; but the greater Elizabethans were jewels with many facets.
Robert Jones (b. 1575), better known as a composer of ayres and madrigals, was connected with various theatrical performances. In January 1610, he, Rosseter, and others were granted a patent to train "the Children of the Revels to the Queene within Whitefryars."
It speaks well for the tact, musicianship, and culture of these men that they could prepare their young charges to compete successfully with the companies of adult actors before critical spectators, such as the court and royalty. The choirboy, trained by the best talent in the coun- try, practised an art that in the plays of Ben Jonson and others rivaled the successes of Shakespeare.
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^Musical "Relations with the Continent
ENGLAND BORROWS FROM ITALY
SINCE the coming of St. Augustine the English have been borrow- ing from the Latin peoples. The fact that the latter have rarely seen any occasion to borrow in return merely stamps them as more insular than the English. Chaucer borrowed from Boccaccio, often improving on his model. It is a familiar paradox that Shakespeare, constantly bor- rowing from Italy, was always original. Musically, England also owed a debt to Italy, and freely acknowledged it. Ravenscroft1 wrote in 1614:
The Forraine Artist saith, that an Englishman is an excellent Imitator, but a very bad Inventor; and indeed it should appeare; for we observing such Inventions which they ensample to us, as Madrigalls, Pastoralls, Nea- politanes, Ballads, and divers other light Harmonies, doe bend our courses onely to surpasse the tuning of such Strings;
but adds:
Our Artists (as they confesse) farre surpasse them in the accurateness thereof which is upon the Plaine song, and multiplicity of Parts, wherein they doe admire us.2
The history of the penetration of the Italian madrigal into England cannot be traced step by step, for details are lacking; but Dr. Fellowes3 notes the presence in England in 1564 of a collection of Italian madrigals by Willaert, Verdelot, di Lasso, Arcadelt, and others. In 1588 a set of
1 Thomas Ravenscroft, A Briefe Discourse, 1614.
2 I.e., we write more perfect counterpoint whether as accompaniment to a plainsong canto fermo, or in six or more parts.
8E. H. Fellowes, The English Madrigal Composers, p. 38.
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selected Italian madrigals, entitled Musica Transalpina, was printed in England. The compiler, Nicholas Yonge, tells us that a great number of gentlemen and merchants were in the habit of meeting in his house and singing from "Bookes of that kinde yeerly sente me out of Italy and other places, which beeing for the most part Italian Songs, are for sweetnes of Aire, verie well liked of all."4 The fact that Byrd and Yonge published madrigals in 1588 is the only definite proof that mad- rigal singing had reached a fair degree of popularity in England at that time. Including Musica Transalpina, five5 sets of Italian madrigals were printed in England, all of them between 1588 and 1598. After that period musical tastes were probably satisfied with the increasing number of madrigals available in English.
Numerous references to Italian influence are found in the works of Thomas Morley. In The First Boo\e of Balletts, 1595, he imitates Gas- toldi,6 and when he defines the madrigal he tells7 his readers:
In this kind our age excelleth, so that if you wold imitate any madrigals, I wold appoint you these four guides: Alfonso Ferrabosco for deep skil, Luca Marenzo for good ayre & fine invention, Horatio Vecchi, Stephano Venturi, Ruggiero Giovanelli, and John Croce.
When he lists and defines the various kinds of secular music for con- certed voices then in use, all his terms are Italian, or of Italian origin, e.g., "Canzonets" (which are also called "Neapolitans or Canzone a la Napolitana"), "villanelle," "ballete," "vinate," and "pasterellas." His in- strumental forms are chiefly French, such as "Fantasie," "Pavane," and "Galliard." Only two English terms appear — "Hornepypes" and
4 See infra, p. 208.
5 These five publications, which were edited by Yonge, Watson, and Morley, are men- tioned with brief comment on pp. 208—212.
*Gastoldi was known in his own day for his balletti. We know him as the composer of the familiar chorale "In Dir ist Freude."
7 Thomas Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Music\e, 1597; pp. 180 ff.
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"Iygges." But Morley hopes that his own Canzonets of 1597 will not suffer in comparison with those from the Arno and Po.
It is quite natural for the works of a younger composer to reflect in a general way the style of a revered master. Van den Borren8 cites several examples to show the stylistic influence of the Italian school on Peter Philips, Byrd, Bull, and Morley. On the other hand, Flood9 thinks that the Spanish organist Cabezon (1510-1566) was influenced in his vir- ginals style by Tallis; in December of 1554 Cabezon, Orlando di Lasso, and Philippe de Monte were all in London with Philip II of Spain, and Cabezon may have heard compositions by Tallis at that time.
In summary we may say that the English composers, like the English poets, were not servile imitators, and their works can challenge com- parison with, and often surpass, those of their Italian models.
ITALIAN MUSIC PRINTED IN ENGLAND
The high regard in which England held the music of Italy is shown by the fact that a surprising amount of Italian music was published in England. The titles are given in the following list; the names of the composers are printed in small capitals, those of the English compilers in ordinary type:
1588 Nicholas Yonge: Musica Transalpina . . . [Vol. 1] 1590 Thomas Watson: The First Sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the Sense of the original dittie . . .
1597 Nicholas Yonge: Musica Transalpina . . . [Vol. 2]
1597 Thomas Morley: Canzonets, Or Little Short Songs to foure voyces: Celected out of the best and approved Italian Authors.
1598 Thomas Morley: Madrigals to five voyces. Celected out of the best approved Italian Authors.
8 Van den Borren, The Sources of Keyboard Music in England, 191 3, pp. 142—144.
9 W. H. Grattan Flood, in the Musical Times for 1925, p. 510.
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1598 Orlando di Lasso:10 Novae aliquot . . . cantiones. Two-part motets.
1603 Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder and William Byrd: Medulla Music\e. See page 264.
1608 Giovanni Croce: Musica Sacra to Sixe Voyces.
1610 Robert Dowland: Varietie of Lute Lessons, including lute pieces by the elder Ferrabosco and others.
1613 Angelo Notari : Prime Musiche nuove a una, due e tre voci.
1616 Thomas Myriell: Tristitiae Remedium, a MS with engraved title-page.
Musica Transalpina (1588) played such a prominent part in bringing the madrigal into popularity in England, and thus in nurturing the English madrigal school, that the Dedication of this set to Gilbert Lord Talbot is given almost in full:
Right honourable, since I first began to keepe house in this Citie, it hath been no small comfort unto mee, that a great number of Gendemen and Merchants of good accompt (as well of this realme as of forreine nations) have taken in good part such entertainment of pleasure, as my poore abilitie was able to affoord them, both by the exercise of Musicke daily used in my house, and by furnishing them with Bookes of that kinde yeerely sente me out of Italy and other places, which beeing for the most part Italian Songs, are for sweetnes of Aire, verie well liked of all, but most in account with them that understand that language. As for the rest, they doe either not sing them at all, or at the least with lide delight. And albeit there be some Eng- lish songs lately set forth by a great Maister of Musicke,11 which for skill and sweetnes may content the most curious: yet because they are not many in number, men delighted with varietie, have wished more of the same sort.
10 Di Lasso was a Fleming who lived in Munich; I mention his work here so as to in- clude all foreign music, not merely Italian. The eccentric Tobias Hume published in 1605 a collection entitled The First Part of Ayres, French, Pollish, and others . . ., yet says they are all of his own composing!
11 William Byrd's Psalmes, Sonets and songs of sadness and pietie, 1588; see supra, p. 104.
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For whose cause chiefly I endevoured to get into my hands all such English Songs12 as were praise worthie and amongst others, I had the hap to find in the hands of some of my good friends, certaine Italian Madrigales trans- lated most of them five yeeres agoe by a Gentleman for his private delight (as not long before certaine Napolitans had been englished by a verie hon- ourable personage, and now a Councellour of estate, whereof I have seene some, but never possessed any). And finding the same to be singulerly well liked, not onely of those for whose cause I gathered them, but of many sk.il- full Gentlemen and other great Musiciens, who affirmed the accent of the words to be well mainteined, the descant not hindred (though some fewe notes altred), and in everie place the due decorum kept, I asked the gende- man if I might publish them, but he always refused, saying "That those trifles being but an idle man's exercise, of an idle subject, written onely for private recreation, would blush to be seene otherwise than by twilight, much more to be brought into the common view of all men." And he quoted Martial,
"Seras tutior ibis ad lucernas Haec hora est tua, dum furit lyaeus, Dum regnat rosa, dum madent capilli, Turn te vel rigidi legant Catones."
Yonge apologizes for publishing them against this compiler's wish, and hopes that Lord Talbot will deem them worthy of his patronage, since they have been "hitherto well esteemed of all."
This publication met with popular favor, as Yonge tells us in a sec- ond collection of the same sort, which was issued in 1597 under the same title:
MUS1CA TRANSALPINA. THE SECONDE BOOKE OF MADRIGALES, to $&6 Voices: translated out of Sundrie Italian Authors & NEWLY PUBLISHED BY NICOLAS YONGE. AT LONDON
Printed by Thomas Este. '597- 12 I.e., English madrigals in manuscript.
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Yonge says that the compositions in this second volume
I have carefully culled out of the compositions of the best Authors in Itally. Perhaps they speak not English so well as they sing Italian. And (alas) how colde they, beeing as yet but late sojourners in England?
This is a pleasant apology for the English words of both volumes, which are literal translations, line for line, of the original Italian, but have no stylistic merit. It is a pity that a capable English poet was not employed to make the translations.
The first volume of Musica Transalpine!, includes fifty-seven madri- gals: sixteen by the elder Ferrabosco, ten by Marenzio, five by Pales- trina, four by Philippe de Monte, three by Conversi, two each by Wil- liam Byrd and di Lasso, and one or two each by numerous little-known men. Only two composers are represented in both volumes, Ferrabosco and Marenzio, who in the second volume have six and three madrigals respectively. The second volume of twenty-four madrigals includes also three each by Croce and Quintiani, and a few by lesser men whose names may be read in Grove's Dictionary. ,13 From his dedications Yonge appears as a man of force, charm, culture, and breadth, valued for his friendship by men of prominence in the business world.
Thomas Watson, who died before 1592, was a lawyer and poet. He composed the verses14 in honor of John Case which were set by Byrd, and he also compiled:
The first sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the sense of the original dittie, but after the affection of the Noate. By Thomas Watson. There are also heere inserted two excellent Madrigalls of Master William Byrds com- posed after the Italian vaine at the request of the sayd Thomas Watson.
Twenty-three of the twenty-eight madrigals are by Marenzio, two by Byrd to the same words — "This sweet and merry month of May," in
13 See Grove, iii. 590.
14 See supra, p. 32.
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four and six parts — and one each by Girolamo Conversi, Giovanni Maria Nanino, and Alessandro Striggio. There are two Latin dedica- tory poems. One is to Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, poet and favor- ite of Elizabeth: "Who is ignorant of what your muse has given us? ..." The other, to Marenzio, is charming in its extravagance: "The sweet power of your music stabs me; so may I die often, for in your song is life. When you sing, I dream it is the music of the spheres, the harmony of the Muses."15
We now come to the two sets of Italian madrigals16 (with words in that tongue) that Thomas Morley selected and issued.
Canzonets, Or Little Short Songs to foure voyces. Celected out of the best and approved Italian Authors by Morley, were dedicated by him in 1597 to "Maister Henrie Tapsfield Citizen and Grocer of the Cittie of London," who was accustomed to sing madrigals. Morley with amusing modesty calls them "poore Canzonets," although they were not by him.
His other set of Italian madrigals is entided Madrigals to five voices.
15 "Hei, quoties morimur nimia dulcedine rapti
Pulsat Apollineam dum tua Musa chelyn. O, igitur dulcis plectrum depone Marenzi,
Ne sit laesa tuis plurima vita sonis. Attamen o dulcis plectro modulare Marenzi:
Si morimur, vitam dant tua plectra novam. O liceat nobis, vita sub morte reperta,
Saepe tuo cantu vivere, saepe mori. Mille neces patior, vitas totidemque resumo,
Dum tua multiplici gutture musa placet: Somnio septeno gyrantes murmure sphaeras;
Somnio cantantis Numina blanda sali: Somnio Threiceum Cytharoedam fixa moventem:
Somnio mulcentem carmine monstra Deum: Somnio Musarum concentus protinus omnes:
Omnia Marenzi, dum canis, unus habes."
16 They comprise six madrigals by Anerio, five each by Croce, Ferrabosco the Elder, and Vecchi, four by Giovanelli, three each by Giovanni Bassano and Ferretti, two each by Peter Philips and Morley himself, and one each by Giulio Belli, Giovanni Macedonio ("di Macque"), Marenzio, Mosto, Orologio, H. Sabino, S. Venturi and Viadana, with one anonymous.
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Celected out of the best approved Italian Authors . . . 1598. He dedi- cated it to Sir Gervis Clifton with a fulsome eulogy.17
Three Italian composers received the honor of having collections of their music published separately in London. The publication of each of these was warranted by some special factor. One was Orlando di Lasso's
NOV/E ALIQUOT ET ANTE HOC NON ITA USITATJE AD DUAS VOCES CANTIONES SUAV1SSIM/E, omnibus Musicis summe utiles: nee non Tyronibus quam eius artis peritioribus sutnmopere inservientes f Authore ORLANDO DI LASSO, Illustrissimi Bavariae Ducis Alberti Musici Chori Magistro. Summa diligentia compositae, correctae, & nunc pri- mum in lucem editae. \ Londini. Excudebat Thomas Este 1598.
Twelve of these compositions have sacred texts, the other twelve are wordless. These two-part motets, for Cantus and Bassus, were written for amateurs. Music for two voices was rare, other examples being Whythorne's Duos, 1590, and Morley's Canzonets to Two Voyces, 1595. Di Lasso was one of the greatest composers of the sixteenth century, and new works by him commanded attention. As the composer's name has sometimes been spelled Orlandus Lassus in Latin fashion, the use here of the Italian form, surrounded by Latin words, shows that it was the one known in England. The second collection was :
Musica Sacra to Sixe Voyces. Composed in the Italian tongue by Giovanni Croce. Newly Englished In London Printed by Thomas Este, the assigne of William Barley. 1608.
This included the Penitential Psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102 [two parts], and 143). They had been made into Italian sonnets by Francesco Bembo
17 "I must needs say, that Art it selfe was never in any man so renoumed, as in you alone the love thereof is beeloved. And worthily. For it is not with you, as with manye others which for forme, affect it much: yet they but affect it, whereas your affects [i.e., feelings toward music] are best commended by the effects, your substantiall love by your Reall allowance, and your Royall minde by your supersubstantiall mayntenance thereof." From Morley's dedicatory address to Sir Gervis Clifton.
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and were then translated with only moderate success into English son- nets for this edition. This collection was no doubt intended to appeal to the English love of psalm-singing. The third collection,
Prime musiche nuove a I, 2 et 3 voci per cantare con la Thiorba, et altri strumenti,
by Angelo Notari, came out in 1613. Notari was one of Prince Henry's musicians,18 and it is naturally more convenient for a composer to pub- lish in the country where he is employed.
SOME ENGLISH OPINIONS OF ITALIAN COMPOSERS
The Elizabethan writers on music mentioned numerous continental composers of madrigals. Of these they esteemed Marenzio and the elder Ferrabosco most. Morley19 named them together, recommending the former for his deep skill, the latter for his tunefulness and originality.
Luca Marenzio (1560-1599) is prominently represented in Musica Transalpine^ and Dowland in his First Boo\e of Songs printed a letter from him as a first-rate guarantee of his own musical ability. Marenzio was ranked first by both Watson and Peacham. Watson's first sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished is made up chiefly of Marenzio's composi- tions, and contains the extravagant Latin tribute20 to him which has been previously quoted. Henry Peacham wrote:21
For delicious Aire and sweet Invention in Madrigals, Luca Marenzio ex- celleth all other whosoever, having published more Sets than any Author else whosoever; and to say truth, hath not an ill Song, though sometime an over-sight (which might be the Printers fault) of two eights, or fiftes es- capt him; as betweene the Tenor and Base in the last close, of / must depart
18Davey, History of English Music.
19 See p. 206, supra.
20 P. 2ii, supra.
21 The Compleat Gentleman, Chapter XI.
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all haplesse: ending according to the Nature of the Ditty most artificially, with a Minim rest. His first, second, and third parts of Thyrsis, Veggo dolce mio ben chi fa hoggi mio Sole Contava, or sweet singing Amaryllis, are Songs, the Muses themselves might not have beene ashamed to have com- posed. Of stature and complexion, he was a little and blacke man; he was Organist in the Popes Chappell at Rome a good while, afterward hee went into Poland, being in displeasure with the Pope. . . . Returning, he found the affection of the Pope so estranged from him, that hereupon hee tooke a conceipt and dyed.
Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder has been mentioned several times. His fame in England was aided by his presence for several years at Queen Elizabeth's court. Robert Dowland called him "the most Artificiall and famous Alfonso Ferrabosco of Bologna." Morley once criticizes him unfavorably, for using three consecutive fifths in a madrigal, but he excuses him, because he says Ferrabosco did it out of "Jollitie."22 He praises him and Byrd warmly for the admirable and ingenious canons that they wrote in "a vertuous contention in love" on the plainsong Miserere, and Butler also refers to these as "two Famous Musicians." Morley includes several madrigals by Ferrabosco in his Italian set of 1598, and Musica Transalpina contains more compositions by him than by any other composer. Peacham writes of him:
Alphonso Ferabosco the father, while he lived, for judgment and depth of skill,23 (as also his sonne yet living) was inferior unto none; what he did was most elaborate and profound, and pleasing enough in Aire, though Master Thomas Morley censureth him otherwise. That of his, / saw my Lady weeping, and the Nightingale24 (upon which Ditty Master Bird and
22 A Plaine and Easie Introduction, pp. 75, 151, and (the canons) 115.
23 Peacham, op. cit. He occasionally borrows a phrase, as here, from Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction.
24 G. E. P. Arkwright suggests that the "Miserere," as Morley says, was the theme that Byrd and Ferrabosco used in Medulla Music\e, not the "Nightingale," and that Peacham's mistake arose from the fact that both composers had written madrigals to the words "The nightingale so pleasant and gay."
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he in a friendly aemulation, exercised their invention) cannot be bettered for sweetnesse of Ayre, or depth of judgement.
Like Richard Wagner, Ferrabosco was sometimes afflicted with an in- ability to relate "an exact narrative of facts," but his artistic success was not hindered thereby. He broke his promise to remain in the employ of Elizabeth, and died in Turin.
Fewer English comments have come down to us concerning the con- tinental composers of sacred music. Palestrina, the greatest of them all, is not mentioned by Peacham, and Morley lists him with various others, without comment. It must not be forgotten, however, that Englishmen had had very little opportunity to hear the sacred works of the great Catholic composers since the death of Queen Mary. Their opinions, consequently, must have been based partly on occasional performances they had heard on the continent, and partly on hearsay. Peacham is our chief source. He considers William Byrd the greatest of all the com- posers of sacred music,25 placing Victoria second and di Lasso third; and his comments on these and other composers are worth quoting:
For Motets and Musicke of piety and devotion ... I preferre above all other our Phoenix, M. William Byrd. . . . For composition, I preferre next Ludovico de Victoria, a most judicious and sweete Composer: after him Or- lando di Lasso, a very rare and excellent Author, who lived some forty yeares since in the Court of the Duke of Bavier. He hath published as well in Latine as French many Sets, his veine is grave and sweet: among his Latine Songs, his seven pcenitentiall Psalmes are the best, and that French Set of his wherein is Susanna un jour: upon which Ditty many others have since exercised their invention.
I bring you now mine owne Master, Horatio Vecchi of Modena: beside gopdnesse of Aire most pleasing of all other for his conceipt and variety, wherewith all his workes are singularly beautified, as well his Madrigals of five and sixe, as those his Canzonets, printed at Norimberge: wherein for
25 See p. 83, supra.
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tryall, sing his Vivo in juoco amoroso Lucretia mia, where upon Io catenato moro, with excellent judgement, hee driveth a Crotchet thorow many Minims,26 causing it to resemble a chaine with the Linkes . . .
Giovanni Croce. Then that great Master, and Master not long since of S. Markes Chappell in Venice; second to none, for a full, lofty and sprighdy veine, following none save his owne humour: who while he lived was one of the most free and brave companions of the world. His Pcenitentiall Psalmes are excellently composed, and for piety are his best.
Nor must I here forget our rare Countrey-man, Peter Philips, Organist to their Altezza's at Bruxels, now one of the greatest Masters of Musicke in Europe. Hee hath sent us over many excellent Songs, as well Motets as Madrigals: he affecteth altogether the Italian veine.
There are many other Authors very excellent, as Boschetto, and Claudio de Monte Verde, equall to any before named; Guionnani Farreti,27 Stephana Felis, Giulio Rinaldi, Phillipo de Monte, Andrea Gabrieli, Cyprian de Rore, Pallaviceno, Geminiano, with others yet living; whose severall workes for me here to examine, would be over tedious and needlesse; and for me, please your owne eare and fancy. Those whom I have before mentioned, have been ever (within these thirty or forty yeares) held for the best.
I willingly, to avoyde tediousnesse, forbeare to speake of the worth and excellency of the rest of our English Composers, Master Doctor Douland, Thomas Morley, M. Alphonso,28 M. Wilby, M. Kirby, M. Wildes, Michael East, M. Bateson, M. Deering, with sundry others, inferiour to none in the world (how much soever the Italian attributes to himself e) for depth of skill and richnesse of conceipt.
ENGLISH INSTRUMENTALISTS FAMOUS ON THE CONTINENT
English instrumentalists were in favor abroad. John Bull was ap- pointed organist of Antwerp Cathedral in 1617 and probably held the
26 One voice sings in quarter notes while another sings in half notes.
27 Giovanni Ferretti is meant.
28 Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder was often referred to as "Master Alfonso."
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post until his death in 1628. Thomas Robinson, who published instruc- tion books for lute and cithern, gave lessons to Queen Anne, wife of James I, when she was in Denmark. Christian IV of Denmark made Dowland royal lutenist, and when Dowland's financial ineptitude led to his dismissal, the King asked his own sister, Queen Anne of England, to send another lutenist to fill his place. She prevailed upon Lady Ara- bella Stuart to send hers, Thomas Cutting, to the King, in 1607. Again Denmark seems to have proved uncongenial, for Cutting was back in four years to enter the service of Prince Henry. The King of Den- mark's selection of Englishmen, rather than of Germans or Italians, is noteworthy. Two other Englishmen in Christian's employ were Wil- liam Brade (c. 1560-1630) and Thomas Simpson, violists, each of whom published several volumes of compositions in Germany. Brade also held important posts as Kapellmeister at Hamburg, Halle, and Berlin. The first time that Dowland was in Rome he met a Welshman named Thomas or Richard Morris. Cardinal Allen wrote of Morris's skill as a musician at the English Catholic College at Rheims: "Ille hie facile huius ecclesiae et loci omnes musicos . . . longe superat" — he easily excels by far all the musicians of this church and place (Rheims). An- other Catholic, Richard De(e)ring (d. 1630) received the degree of Bachelor of Music from Oxford University in 1610, later spent some years in Brussels from 1617 as organist of the English Convent, and then returned to England as organist to Queen Henrietta Maria. Oliver Cromwell enjoyed his Latin motets.29 A more important figure at Brus- sels was Peter Philips,30 organist of the royal chapel there and one of the best composers of his period. He studied music in the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral under Sebastian Westcote from 1572 to 1578,31 and
29 For a list of Dering's printed compositions see the Bibliography.
30 For Philips' picture, career, compositions, and several references to the fame he en- joyed during his lifetime, see W. Barclay Squire's article in Grove, iv. 141— 144.
31 Grattan Flood, "New Light on Late Tudor Composers," in the Musical Times for April 1929, pp. 312, 313.
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was living in Westcote's house in 1582 when Westcote made a will be- queathing him £^.iy.^d. Morley, who may have been a fellow choir- boy at St. Paul's, included two of Philips' vocal compositions in his so- called "Italian" Madrigals to four voices, 1598, and a pavan and gal- liard by him in Consort Lessons, 1599. The list of Philips' compositions published during his lifetime is a long one. Henry Peacham called him one of the greatest masters of music in Europe. The following verses published at Mons in 1637 concern him:
Anglus ubique audit, verum magis Angelus ille est
Sonegiae32 Clero, Sonegiaeque choro. Qui velut eximios semper colit arte canora
Sic melodis auctum vocibus ille Petrum. Edidit hie sacris Paradisum33 cantibus aptum,
Et modo sacratis servit ubique locis.
Numerous English musicians played in Germany, and considerable English music was printed there, e.g., works by Morley. The French- man Besard wrote in Thesaurus Harmonicus (an instruction book for lute, Cologne, 1603) :
Sunt illi Anglicani concentus suavissimi quidem, ac elegantes.84
Another Frenchman, Mersenne, who is ordinarily partial to the music of his own country, quotes an English composition to illustrate music for viols in L'Harmonie Universelle, 1636.35 Good English viol players were in demand on the continent throughout the seventeenth century.
32 Soignies, Belgium, where Philips was a canon for several years.
33 Philips composed three books of vocal compositions with organ accompaniments under the title Paradisus sacris cantionibus consitus . . .
34 I.e., English harmonies are certainly most charming, and tasteful, too. Davey, His- tory of English Music, 1895, P- I%5-
35 Gerald R. Hayes, The Treatment of Instrumental Music, 1930, p. 94.
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SOME CONTINENTAL OPINIONS OF MUSIC IN ENGLAND
Travelers also visited England from the continent. Several of them noted down their impressions of English music, which have been printed in a scholarly book by William Brenchley Rye.36 Perlin {De- scription d'Angleterre, 1558) remarks that "the English are great lovers of music, for there is no church, however small, but has musical service performed in it." Paul Hentzner of Brandenburg observes in 1598 :
The English excel in dancing and music, for they are active and lively, though of a thicker make than the French. . . . They are vasdy fond of great noises that fill the air, such as the firing of cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells, so that in London it is common for a number of them when drunk to go up into some belfry and ring the bells for hours together.
It is more likely that these Londoners were entirely sober and were practising change-ringing, a peculiarly English diversion that has struck other foreigners besides Hentzner as not entirely rational. Hentzner also mentions the "excellent music in Queen Elizabeth's Royal Palace at Greenwich."
In 1592 Frederick, Duke of Wurttemberg, visited England. He was much taken with the idea of the Order of the Garter, and badgered Queen Elizabeth unmercifully to give it to him until she finally had to promise it, saying, however, that he must wait his turn. For thus im- portuning her, and for his German ways, he is ridiculed by Shake- speare as "Cozen Garmombles" and "Duke de Jamanie" in Merry
86 England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and James the First. Com- prising translations of the journals of the two Dulles of Wirtemberg in 1592 and 1610; both illustrative of Shakespeare. With extracts from the travels of foreign princes and others, copious notes, an introduction and etchings. By William Brenchley Rye, Assistant- Keeper of the Department of Printed Boo\s, British Museum. London: John Russell Smith, Soho Square, 1865. The comments by Perlin, Hentzner, Rathgeb, and Cellius, are taken from this book. The title of Erhard Cellius' book is Eques Auratus Anglo-Wirtem- bergicus. It was published at Tubingen in 1605.
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Wives of Windsor (c. 1600). It is probable that Elizabeth must have been bored by him or she would not have allowed such a thinly veiled criticism of a foreign prince to go unrebuked. A detailed account of Duke Frederick's visit to England in 1592 was written by his private secretary, Jacob Rathgeb.37 At Reading the Earl of Essex welcomed Duke Frederick in the Queen's name, and after a banquet entertained him "with such sweet and enchanting music [which in all probability was furnished by the Queen's musicians] that he was highly astonished at it." Rathgeb's account of Windsor (where the Queen was staying) is interesting:
This castle stands upon a knoll or hill; in the outer or first court there is a very beautiful and immensely large church, with a flat, even roof, covered with lead, as is common with all churches in this kingdom. In this church his Highness [Frederick] listened for more than an hour to the beautiful music, the usual ceremonies, and the English sermon. The music, especially the organ, was exquisitely played,38 for at times you could hear the sound of cornetts, flutes, then fifes and other instruments; and there was likewise a little boy who sang so sweetly amongst it all, and threw such a charm over the music with his little tongue, that it was really wonderful to listen to him. In short, their ceremonies were very similar to those of the Papists, as above mentioned, with singing and all the rest. After the music, which lasted a long time, had ended, a minister or preacher ascended the pulpit and preached in English; and soon afterwards, it being noon, his Highness went to dinner.
The Duke finally obtained his wish, and was made Knight of the Garter in 1603 by order of King James, who thus loyally fulfilled Eliza- beth's promise. The investiture39 took place at Stuttgart. With Lord
37 Jacob Rathgeb, Kurtze und warhaffte Beschreibung der Badenjahrt: welche Fride- rich, Hertzog zu Wurttemberg vnnd Techjh . . . in . . . 7592 . . . in . . . Engel- landt . . . verrichtet hat. Tubingen. 1602.
38 John Mundy and Nathaniel Giles were the organists of the Chapel Royal at Wind- sor in 1592.
39 The following account is by Erhard Horn, born at Celle and hence also known as Erhardus Cellius.
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Spencer, who was to help conduct the ceremony, were "four excellent musicians, with ten other attendants." They must have given great pleasure during the court banquet at Stuttgart, for they are described as
The royal English music which the illustrious royal Ambassador had brought with him to enhance the magnificence of the embassy and the pres- ent ceremony; and who, though few in number, were eminently well skilled in the art. For England produces many excellent musicians, comedians, and tragedians, most skilful in the histrionic art; certain companies of whom quitting their own abodes for a time, are in the habit of visiting foreign countries at particular seasons, exhibiting and representing their art prin- cipally at the courts of princes. A few years ago, some English musicians coming over to our Germany with this view, remained for some time at the courts of great princes, their skill both in music and in the histrionic art having procured them such favor that they returned home liberally re- warded, and loaded with gold and silver.
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IX
^Musical Theory
A SURVEY of the English musical literature of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries might have suggested many new fields of effort to an Elizabethan musician with a twentieth-century outlook. He could have been the first to edit a musical magazine, to compile a musical dictionary, to write a history of music. But no such works ap- peared. There were no instruction books in English for the virginals or viols or wind instruments. The singers of the day wrote no works on how to sing, the virtuosos no reminiscences. Hymn tunes existed, but not hymns in the modern sense;1 the early English Protestants sang psalms, feeling it unseemly to praise the Lord with man-made verses when the divinely inspired words of David met their religious needs. They gave no concerts, except in private houses for their personal friends. The first opera was given in Italy in 1595, yet this form aroused little interest in England for about a century.
But pioneer work was being done. John Bull, the Paderewski of his day, was perhaps the first to play an organ recital, and to give a public lecture on music. The first book printed in England on musical theory was written by William Bathe, an Oxford man; it appeared in 1584. Then in 1586 appeared an important work in praise of music by an- other Oxford man, John Case, and after him other writers turned their attention to music. These books about music may be classified under three headings, viz. theory, canons, and acoustics, and are discussed in that order below. In addition to these, works written as apologias for church music,2 or as books of instruction in lute playing,3 have been dealt with in previous chapters.
1 An exception must be mentioned to prove the rule: the Te Deum. This hymn had been penned so many centuries ago that most people thought of it as Holy Writ.
2 The Praise of Music\e and Apologia Musices, by John Case; see pp. 29 ff.
3 See pp. 154 fT.
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THEORY
The first group of books, on theory, deal with one or more of the fol- lowing subjects: the rudiments of music and definitions of common musical terms, sight-singing, counterpoint, and composition. These treatises are first summarized very briefly so as to give the reader a gen- eral view of the material, then later they are discussed at greater length. Those by Morley, Ornithoparcus, and Butler are general works on the subject.
1597 Thomas Morley : A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall M'usicke. This, the longest and most interesting work of the group, deals with all the branches of musical theory just mentioned. Part 1 aims to teach a learner how to sing at sight, and explains the scale, sol-fa syllables, and modes.4 Part 2, Descant, gives rules for writing (or sing- ing extemporaneously) two-part counterpoint in various "species," ex- plaining what intervals may be used. Part 3, "Composition of three, foure, five or more parts," gives instruction in the writing of canons (with examples in music notation) and madrigals, explains how to ex- press sorrow and joy in compositions, gives the compass of the voices, and mentions pitfalls to be avoided. An Appendix consists of miscella- neous notes on ancient Greek music, ligatures,5 the five medieval kinds of "pricks" (dots), proportions,6 authentic and plagal modes, etc. This was the most important English book on music before the publication of the musical histories of Hawkins and Burney in 1776, but because it is written in the form of a dialogue it is to some extent verbose and lacks conciseness and clearness of arrangement. Morley said it could be used without a teacher. Advanced students probably found it stimulat-
4 Modes were the medieval scales and keys, two of which have survived to the pres- ent day under the names of major scale and major key and minor scale and minor key.
5 A ligature was a group of two or more notes which were intended to be sung to a single syllable and were written close together or connected in an abbreviated notation.
6 Proportions were mathematical ratios, with Latin names, to indicate either the rela- tive pitch of two notes (e.g., C and the nearest G above it were in the proportion or pitch ratio of 2 to 3, called "sesquialtera") or the relative speed of two tempos.
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ing and valuable, but some pupils may have preferred to study the fol- lowing books with a teacher :
1609 John Dowland's English translation of Ornithoparcus' Microlo- gus, first printed in Latin, 1517. In spite of its early date, this is a clearly expressed, practical book, well written and well translated. We should call it a textbook on musical theory, since it defines such matters as scales, note-lengths, modes, tempos, accent, concords, and discords; but it also contains rules for writing counterpoint and a few observations on composition. Students could use it as a textbook and other musicians as a convenient work of reference, since every topic is treated in a sepa- rate paragraph.
1636 Charls Butler: The Principles of Musi\. This textbook covers the same ground in musical theory as does the Micrologus, and in addi- tion explains fugue and canon, describes the musical instruments then in use, and gives hints on writing for voices and (to combat the Puri- tans) opinions of the early church fathers on the character and necessity of church music. The work is systematically arranged but is too com- pressed and dull. It is also unreliable and out of date, since Butler quotes rules and definitions from the preceding century that no longer applied to the music of his day, and makes a number of curious errors that he could have avoided if he had consulted the Micrologus.
The ability to sing at sight was one of the desirable accomplishments of The Compleat Gentleman, and all of the works on theory, except the two by Ravenscroft and Flud, include instruction in the art of sight- singing. Indeed, those by Bathe are chiefly concerned with it. He and Butler treat the subject more logically and clearly than Morley.
1584 William Bathe: A Brief e Introduction to the True Art of Mu- sicke. This was the first printed work in English on musical theory.
1596 William Barley printed The Pathway to Music\e, an anony- mous work. It is, according to Davey, "an ordinary elementary work of no value, in catechism form."
1600 William Bathe: A Brief e Introduction to the S\ill of Song.
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This short work of twenty-five pages on sight-singing includes infor- mation about the scale, note-lengths, tempos, and the use of the sol-fa syllables. The three remaining works deal with special topics :
1613 Thomas Campion: A New Way of Maying Fowre Parts in Counter-point. This textbook is concerned not primarily with counter- point7 but with harmony, and is the only satisfactory Elizabethan work in that field. Campion, after explaining in the preface an improved method of using the sol-fa syllables, tells the student how to write (1) correct four-part harmony automatically, provided the bass part is al- ready known, (2) cadences8 in various keys, and (3) note-to-note coun- terpoint in two parts.
1614 Thomas Ravenscroft: A Brief e Discourse. This pedantic and unnecessary book was written in a vain attempt to induce composers to use the correct but obsolescent medieval time signatures. Several com- positions are printed in the book as examples.
1617-19 Robert Flud: Utriusque costni, majoris scilicet et minoris, metaphysica, physica, atque technica historia. A pseudo-philosophical work of little value, with some practical descriptions of musical instru- ments.
We may commence a more detailed examination of the above works by considering the most important of them, by the well-known com- poser of madrigals, Thomas Morley. According to its lengthy title it is :
7 By way of definition it may be explained that in counterpoint two or more tunes which differ from each other in rhythm and are of approximately equal interest and beauty, are so written as to sound well together when played or sung at the same time. In harmony, on the other hand, there is only one tune (which is nearly always in the soprano part) and the other voices or instruments sing or play merely a subsidiary ac- companiment to that tune. In other words, in counterpoint there are always two or more tunes sounding at the same time, in harmony there is only one tune.
8 A cadence is a succession of chords (usually two) which ends either a composition or a phrase within a composition.
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A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Music\e set downe in forme of a dialogue: Divided into three parts. The first teacheth to sing, with all things necessary to the knowledge of pric\tsong. The second treateth of descante, and to sing two parts in one upon a plainsong or ground, with other things necessarie for a discanter. The third and last part entreateth of composition of three, foure, five, or more parts, with many profitable rules to that effect. With new songs of 2. 3. 4. and 5. parts. By Thomas Morley, Batcheler of Music\e, and one of the gent, of her Majesties Royal Chappell. • • • *597-
Its popularity resulted in the appearance of later editions in 1608 and 1771, and a facsimile edition was published in 1937. Morley dedicates the work to his former teacher "The most excellent Musician Maister William Birde, to testifie unto your selfe in some sort the entire love and unfained affection which I beare unto you," and pays him the com- pliment of acknowledging that what is truly spoken once came from Byrd himself.
Of three poems in commendation of Morley, the first9 is a commend- able effort by Antony Holborne, composer and Gentleman Usher to Queen Elizabeth. The second, by "A. B.," is stilted and poor. A. B. must have been mortified to see his pun in the last line blush unseen because the printer failed to italicize it :
9 To whom can ye, sweet Muses, more with right
Impart your paines to prayse his worthy skill, Then unto him that taketh sole delight In your sweet art, therewith the world to fill? Then turne your tunes to Morleyes worthy prayse, And sing of him that sung of you so long: His name with laud and with dew honour rayse, That hath made you the matter of his song. Like Orpheus sitting on high Thracian hill, That beasts and mountaines to his ditties drew: So doth he draw with his sweet musickes skill Men to attention of his Science trew. Wherein it seemes that Orpheus hee exceedes; For, he wylde beests; this, men with pleasure feeds.
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Buy, reade, regarde, marke with indifferent10 eye. More goode for Musicke else where doth not lie.
The third poem, by I. W., is graced with the same pun, but relates more poetically how carping Momus and Zoilus will shrink back into their darkness when the morning star illuminates the works of Morley with the clear light of fame and truth.
Morley's "Address to the Curteous Reader" contains much useful in- formation: he tells us that though there are many other English musi- cians more learned than himself, and the precepts of music are much practised in his country of late, they are here set forth in the English language for the first time. He was tempted to give up, he says, for it took him weeks sometimes to find musical examples of certain points, and he discovered that most of his own rules were disregarded in the works of Taverner, Fayrfax, Robert Cooper, and many other earlier composers. He examined many writers, English and foreign, and found many hopeless differences of opinion. However, he has tried to work out a logical method, each rule leading up to the next. Consequently anyone who can sing the scale correctly can by this book, and without a teacher, learn to sing in madrigals and to compose. Morley would wel- come corrections, but warns his readers that those who criticize without reason, or to damage his reputation ("malicious caterpillars, who live upon the paines of other men"), will find that he can bite back.
The body of the work consists of a conversation between a teacher, a pupil, and a musical friend. We soon guess that the teacher, or Mas- ter, is Morley himself, for when he gives the instance of consecutive fifths in Ferrabosco's madrigal he excuses the composer because he did it out of jollity, whereas "I in my first works of three parts" did the same out of "negligence." He is very sorry, and will not defend his own error. Morley as master also refers to his ill-health :
My health, since you saw me, hath beene so bad, as if it had beene the
10 Impartial.
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pleasure of him who may all things, to have taken me out of the world, I should have beene very well contented; and have wished it more than once,
and says he was induced to write the work because of the "solitarie life which I lead (being compelled to keepe at home)." Morley survived for only about six years, dying at the age of forty-six. The warmth of Morley's personality is felt steadily through the volume, until one thinks of him as a man one would have enjoyed knowing. The work is not so systematically arranged as, for example, the one by Butler, but the combination in Morley of superior insight, knowledge, and human kindness is irresistible.
The Master says to Philomathes, the pupil, "I have heard you so much speak against that art [of music] as to tearme it a corrupter of good manners, and an allurement to vices: for which many of your com- panions tearmed you a Stoick." But the pupil confesses his change of heart, and the lesson begins. He wishes to acquire the ability to sing at sight, and in order to impart the information necessary to that end Morley devotes Part One of the treatise to a description of the scale and an account of the sol-fa syllables,11 the duration values of the various kinds of notes, and the usual time signatures. Morley says that of the medieval time signatures only four are still in common use. This is the only allusion in Part One to the changes we know music was under- going in his time. In the following list of these four Morley should use the word "Time" instead of "Mode"; he admits that the latter word is incorrect, but in popular use :
(a) The Mode perfect of the More Prolation:
o:3j=o;30 = n;3P = q;3q=n
(b) The Mode perfect of the Less Prolation:
0:2j = *;30 = p;2n=q;2q = n
11 For an account of Morley's method of using the sol-fa syllables, see pp. 249, 252.
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(c) The Mode imperfect of the More Prolation:
(d) The Mode imperfect of the Less Prolation:
c :2j=o;20=p;2p = q;2q=n
He adds that the use of the last of these tempos is taken for granted if no sign is employed; and the C has remained the commonest time sig- nature to the present day, the other three having become extinct. It was originally a broken circle, indicating the imperfect number 2. The circle symbolized perfection and the perfect number 3, associated with the Holy Trinity. The other sign familiar to both Morley and ourselves is the bisected semicircle (p. In effect this doubled the speed, for he says that the double whole note, or in some compositions the whole note, occupies only one beat when otherwise it would occupy two. Today by an extension of this definition the sign commonly indicates that it is the half note which should occupy one beat instead of two, although the change in speed is no longer implied.
Part Two of Morley's work deals with Descant. The Master says that this means (1) the art of composition; (2) one of the voices or parts (only if there are more than three) ; and (3) singing a part extempore on a plainsong; such a singer is called a descanter. According to Morley it is uncertain whether descant (in the sense of playing or singing two notes simultaneously to form any interval but the octave) was known in ancient times, and that authorities have battled much over the ques- tion.12 The Master then classifies concords as perfect (including uni- sons, fifths, and octaves) and imperfect (thirds and sixths) ; other inter- vals are discordant (seconds, fourths, and sevenths). To this the composer William Jackson of Exeter (1730-1803) objected strenuously, noting in a copy18 of the second edition, "I could never imagine why
12 It is now known that the ancient Greeks used the device, but sparingly.
13 This copy, now in the British Museum, belonged to Thomas Linley (1756— 1778), child prodigy, brother of Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and dear friend of Mozart.
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the 4th should be reckoned as a Dischord, as it makes one of the inter- vals of a Common Chord, which I suppose all the World will allow to be composed of Conchords." Butler calls the unison, octave, major third, and fifth, primary concords, and the minor third, fourth, and major and minor sixth, secondary concords; and quotes Sir Francis Bacon's observation that the unison, octave, and fifth are the most per- fect concords, next the third, and the sixth (which is more harsh), and finally the fourth. Morley gives interesting examples of harmony or counterpoint in music type, some quite in the medieval manner. In ac- cordance with the universal practice of his time he allows
mlH 11 and
— — cr
which modern teachers would forbid on account of the octaves; also the well-established but curious nota cambiata.1* He also gives admirable examples of correct and incorrect ways to do an exercise, and of two- part counterpoint in various species.15 Part Two ends with excellent in- struction in canon (with examples) and double counterpoint at the twelfth, tenth, and octave.
In Part One the scholar has learned to sing at sight, in Part Two he has received instruction in the writing of counterpoint. Having become acquainted with the tools of the trade he can now use them in Part Three in actual composition. We may assume that this last part, like the preceding sections, resembles an actual lesson by Morley, or rather, a series of lessons. He follows a natural scheme: taking up music first in two parts, then in three and four, he quotes in music type both stu- dents' faulty exercises (wherein he points out each mistake) and his
14 See example of the Nota Cambiata in Grove, iii. 646, example (c) , quoted from Fux, and Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century, by R. O. Morris, p. 42.
15 Several of these examples by Morley are quoted in Grove, i. 740.
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own correct examples, offering the latter as models. Meantime he some- times digresses to answer questions and add comments. Lastly he defines and discusses the madrigal and other musical forms, and makes sug- gestions that he thinks will be helpful to young composers.
We learn in Part Three that Polymathes has been taught by "one maister Boulde" (an imaginary name), who allowed the use of discords on accented beats, and permitted discords to be taken or quitted by leap. The Master censures these licenses as inadmissible, and Morley indeed allows no departures from what we would call standard sixteenth-cen- tury counterpoint;16 he says such were applauded when he was a child;17 but because of such crudities he finds no music written in the past as enjoyable as that of the present day. Nevertheless, Morley next criticizes certain lax practices of his own time, e.g., the use of octaves reached by similar motion, even if one part is an inner one: ,,Q ■ "Although almost all the composers ... at all \ ffi !•— times & almost in every song of their Madrigals and Canzonets have some such quidditie." What must Morley have thought of his own master,
i
F
A
I
Byrd? and of the delightful Farnaby? For both broke the less impor- tant rules. Morley 's attitude in this respect is pedantic. He is on firmer pedagogical ground when he criticizes Giovanni Croce for once using five consecutive fifths in succession, and often using two: and he adds confidently,
Yet shall you hardly find either consecutive fifths or octaves in master Al- fonso [Ferrabosco] (except in that place which I cited to you before), Or- lando [di Lasso], Striggio, Clemens non Papa, or any before them, nor shall you readily find it in the workes of anie of those famous English men, who
16 See Reginald O. Morris, Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century.
17 This no doubt is true. Daring and harsh dissonances were written by some of the English composers in the early part of the sixteenth century; and judging from the un- couth examples quoted by Morley in music type from the works of Henry Rysbie {temp. Henry VIII?) and Richard Pygott {ft. 1517-1552) we may agree with Morley's slighting remark that "The authors were skilfull men for the time wherein they lived."
[23l]
rf
jE J j j J ;■
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
have beene nothing inferiour in Art to any of the afore named, as Farefax, Taverner, Shepherde, Mundy, White, Persons, M. Birde, and divers others.
Out of the numerous musical examples in the book it may be inter- esting to quote two, one of which is
to be avoided, the other imitated. (\JL\, 4 Tr-3^ ^ 4 J The Master complains that this part \l «J p ™ -e- i ■«£ of a student's exercise has been "robd out of the capcase of some olde Or- ganist." He also criticizes the two dissonances marked, but not the cross-relation E|?-Ek|, which today sounds crude. The second quotation we may make is a remarkable ex- ample of some Dominant 7ths (as we would call them) allowed by Morley under sixteenth-century rules because the dissonant notes are "prepared," i.e., tied over. Philo- mathes and Polymathes both object to the "discords so taken" and the mixed sharps and flats, but the Master commends the example, as out of the common, and says the "bindings" (ties) are used in many works by excellent musicians.
Morley gives a valuable table that shows the compass of each vocal part in a madrigal. If the madrigal is lively, all the parts should be pitched high ("in the high key," he calls it), within the following limits:
Kind of voice Compass Clef advisable
Canto [i.e., Soprano] D up to G. Treble clef (G on 2d line) Alto G up to C. Mezzo-soprano clef (C on 2d line)
Tenor F up to A. Alto clef (C on 3d line)
Basso A up to C. Baritone clef (F on 3d line)18
If it is grave and staid, the parts should be pitched low ("in the low key"), for high-pitched voices would ruin the effect:
18 If the madrigal were in five parts, the fifth, called "Quinto," could be either an ex- tra Canto part or an extra Tenor, according to Morley.
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The High Meane C up to E. Soprano clef (C on ist line)
The Low Meane A up to C. Mezzo-Soprano clef
Alto F up to A. Alto clef
Tenor D up to F. Tenor clef (C on 4th line)
Basso G up to B[>. Bass clef (F on 4th line)
When men alone are singing, the limits are:
Alto F up to G. Alto clef
Tenor Primus D up to F. Tenor clef
Tenor Secundus B [7 up to D. Baritone clef
Bassus G up to B[?. Bass clef.
At the most, these limits can be exceeded by one note only, unless "upon an extremitie for the ditties sake, or in notes taken for Diapa- sons19 in the bass." The above tables show that Elizabethan madrigals were sung at approximately the same pitch that is in use today, for their sopranos and tenors sang up to G, occasionally A, and their bass parts descended to G, occasionally F. On the other hand, the terms "alto," "quinto," and "mean" were vague, being applied sometimes to men and sometimes to women. Therefore a host in planning an evening party of madrigal singing had to look at the vocal range of each part to de- cide which guests to invite; if the part marked "alto" ranged from G up to C, a woman would sing it, but if the alto went from F merely up to G, a man.
Elizabethan composers, though usually progressive in their music, sometimes held reactionary theories. So Morley prints as a horrible ex- ample the modern signature of B|? (in the form he knew) : 1 , 1, ■ objecting to "the verie sight of these flat cliffes (which stand ® t> : at the beginning of the verse or line like a paire of staires, with great offense to the eie, but more to the amasing of the yong singer) " because they make his sol-fa syllables fall upon unaccustomed notes. "Strangers
19 Octaves. We would say: "Notes reached by octave skips in the bass."
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[foreigners] never pester their verse with those flats: but if the song bee naturally flat" they put one in the signature and add any others as ac- cidentals. The Master recommends, however, that the most sensible procedure is to avoid such a wholly unnecessary perplexity as two flats by eliminating them entirely and transposing all such music up a tone into the key of C!
The most important section of the work is that entitled Rules to be observed in dittying. It aims to instruct the student in the composition of madrigals and sacred music that will express adequately the mean- ing of the words. Examples are not numerous of a competent artist de- scribing his method of procedure, and indeed when he has done so he is not always to be believed, as when Poe tells us how he composed The Raven, and Tchaikovsky his Fourth Symphony. All that Byrd could say about the process was that "the right notes, in some inexplicable manner, suggest themselves quite spontaneously." That information is not of much help. Morley was more such a man as Sir Charles Stan- ford20— not a transcendent composer, but a man of much personal charm and unusual musical and intellectual ability and taste, both will- ing and able to pass on his knowledge of the processes of composition to others. Morley 's treatment of the subject of vocal composition is given here almost in full, since it is the only noteworthy contribution to the subject printed in English for over a hundred years:
Rules to be observed in dittying.21
You must then when you would express any word signifying hardnesse, cruelty, bitternesse, and other such like, make the harmonie like unto it, that is, somewhat harsh and hard, but yet so that it offend not. Likewise,
20 Sir Charles Villiers Stanford's Musical Composition, 191 1, is perhaps the best book in English on that difficult subject.
21 It is redundant to supply this summary of the very text given above, yet it may serve some use in case Morley's sixteenth -century terminology proves confusing or boring:
Use semitones to express languishing love; use whole tones, major 3ds and major 6ths for hardness and cruelty. Minor 3ds and minor 6ths are sweet. Diatonic harmony is
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when any of your words shall express complaint, dolor, repentance, sighs, teares, and such like, let your harmonie be sad and dolefull: so that if you would have your music signifie hardness, cruelty, or other such affects, you must cause the parts proceed in their motions without the halfe note,22 that is, you must cause them proceede by whole notes, sharpe thirds,23 sharpe sixes and such like (when I speake of sharpe or flat thirds, and sixes, you must understand that they ought to be so to the base),24 you may also use Cadences bound with the fourth or seventh, which being in long notes, will exasperate the harmony: but when you would express a lamentable passion, then must you use motions proceeding by halfe notes, flat thirds and flat sixes, which of their nature are sweete, specially being taken in the true tune and naturall aire, with discretion and judgement: but those cords so taken as I have saide before, are not the sole and onely cause of expressing those passions; but also the motions which the parts make in singing doe greatly helpe, which motions are either naturall [diatonic] or accidentall [chro- matic]. The natural motions are those which are naturally made betwixt the keyes, without the mixture of any accidental signe or cord [interval], bee it either flat or sharpe: and these motions be more masculine, causing in the song more virility than those accidentall cords which are marked with these signs ^. b. [#, \)] which be indeede accidentall, and make the song as it were more effeminate & languishing than the other motions, which make the song rude and sounding: so that those naturall motions may serve to ex- presse those effects of cruelty, tyrannie, bitternesse, and such others: & those accidentall motions may fitly expresse the passions of griefe, weeping, sighes, sorrows, sobs, and such like.
virile, chromatic harmony effeminate or sad. If the subject is light, use short notes, if lamentable, long ones. [Differences of pace, such as Allegro and Andante are not indi- cated in Elizabethan music] When the subject matter signifies ascending or high heaven, make the music ascend the scale; if descending, depth, or hell, descend. The words should be audible, so that the listeners can understand the meaning. Give a short note to a short syllable like the a in gloria; do not draw it out as the composers of church mu- sic have done.
22 Halfe note: semitone.
23 Major thirds.
24 This perplexing parenthesis surely implies that a major triad (CEG) sounds strong if its root (C) is in the bass but weak and languishing if its third (E) is in the bass. No wonder that Jackson comments, "A different practice is now most prevalent."
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Also, if the subject be light, you must cause your musick go in motions, which carry with them a celeritie or quicknes of time, as minimes, crotchets & quavers [ ; ] if it be lamentable, the note must goe in slow and heavy motions, as semibreves, breves and such like, and of all this you shal find examples every where in the workes of the good musicians. Moreover, you must have a care that when your matter signifieth ascending, high heaven, & such like, you make your musick ascend: & by the contrarie where your dittie speak- eth of descending lowenes, depth, hell, & others such, you must make your musicke descend. For as it will bee thought a great absurditie to talke of heaven & point downward to the earth: so will it be counted great incon- gruitie if a musician upon the words he ascended into heaven should cause his musick descend, or by the contrarie upon the descension should cause his musick to ascend. We must also have a care to applie the notes to the words, as in singing there be no barbarisme committed: that is, that we cause no syllable which is by nature short, be expressed by manie notes or one long note, nor no long syllable bee expressed with a short note: but in this fault do the practicioners erre more grossely, than in any other, for you shal find few songs wherein the penult syllables of these words, Dominus, Angelus, filius, miraculum, gloria, & such like are not expressed with a long note, yea manie times with a whole dossen of notes, & though one should speak of fortie he shuld not say much amisse: which is a grosse barbarisme, & yet might be easily amended. We must also take heed of separating any part of a word from another by a rest, as som dunces have not slackt to do: yea one whose name is Johannes Dunstaple25 (an ancient English author) hath not only divided the sentence, but in the verie middle of a word hath made two long rests thus, in a song of foure parts upon these words, Ne- sciens virgo mater virum.
Ipsum regem angelo w rum w so -. la vir .«. go lactabat26
For these be his own notes and words, which is one of the greatest absurdi- ties which I have seene committed in the dittying of musick.
25 This attack on Dunstable (c. 1380-1453) is rather surprising, for he was the out- standing composer of his time. The use of rests inside a word was called "hocket."
26 Morley quotes the notes in music type on p. 178.
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Morley now considers the subject of rests, and praises Stephano Ven- turi because when setting the word "sospiri" (sighs) he added a quarter rest, just sufficient time for a sigh; a half rest would have been too long.
Lastly, you must not make a close (especially a full close) til the full sense of the words be perfect: so that keeping these rules you shall have a perfect agreement, & as it were an harmonical consent betwixt the matter and the musick . . .
After this general treatment of the subject of vocal music Morley takes up in succession its two main divisions, sacred and secular.
The most artistic and expressive form of sacred music is, according to Morley, the Motet. We may define it today as an anthem written without instrumental accompaniment. Morley had been organist of St. Paul's, and from his account of the manner in which motets were sung in church we learn just what he thought of the average choir singer. Of the motet he writes:
This kind of al others which are made on a ditty, requireth most art, & moveth & causeth most strange effects in the hearer, being aptly framed for the dittie & well expressed by the singer: for it will draw the auditor (& spe- cially the skilful auditor) into a devout and reverent kind of consideration of him for whose prayse it was made. But I see not what passions or mo- tions it can stir up being sung as most men doe commonlie sing it: that is, leaving out the ditty, & singing onely the bare note. . . . To return to the expressing of the ditty, the matter is now come to that state that though a song be never so well made & never so aptly applyed to the words, yet shall you hardly find singers to expresse it as it ought to be: for most of our Church men, (so they can crie louder in the quier than their fellowes) care for no more: whereas by the contrarie, they ought to study how to vowel & sing clean, expressing their words with devotion & passion, wherby to draw the hearer as it were by chains of gold by the eares to the consideration of holy things. But this, for the most part, you shall find amongst them, that let them continue never so long in the church, yea though it were twentie yeares, they will never studie to sing better than they did the first day of
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their preferment. . . . But to returne to our Motets, if you compose in this kind, you must cause your harmonie to carrie a majesty, taking discords & bindings27 so often as you can: but let it be in long notes, for the nature of it wil not beare short notes & quicke motions, which denotate a kind of wan- tonnesse. This musick (a lamentable case) being the chief est both for art and utilitie, is notwithstanding little esteemed, & in smal request with the greatest number of those who most highly seeme to favor art. . . . Nor is that fault of esteeming so highly the light musicke particular to us in Eng- land, but general through the world: which is the cause that the musicians in al countreyes & chiefly in Italy, have imployed most of their studies in it.
This lament over the popularity of light music may have proceeded rather from Morley's head than from his heart, for today he is associated as a composer more closely with this type than any other Elizabethan, and he shows no antipathy to secular music when he discusses it in de- tail. In doing so he names as its finest exemplar the Madrigal. He re- grets that more than one composer of madrigals has used shameful words; but
As for the musick it is, next to the Motet, the most artificial, & to men of understanding most delightfull. If therefore you will compose in this kind, you must possess yourself with an amorous humor (for in no composition shall you prove admirable except you put on, & possesse yourself wholy with that vain wherein you compose) so that you must in your musick be waver- ing like the wind, somtime wanton, somtime drooping, somtime grave & staide, otherwhile effeminat, you may maintain points and revert them, use triplaes & shew the verie uttermost of your varietie, & the more varietie you shew the better shall you please. In this kind our age excelleth, so that if you wold imitate any, I wold appoint you these for guides: Alfonso Ferrabosco [the Elder] for deep skil, Luca Marenzo for good ayre & fine invention, Horatio Vecchi, Stephano Venturi, Ruggiero Giovanelli, and John Croce, with divers others who are verie good, but not so generally good as these. The second degree of- gravitie in this light musicke is given to Canzonets,
27 Suspensions, tied notes.
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that is little shorte songs (wherein little art can be shewed being made in strains, the beginning of which is som point lightly touched, & every strain repeated except the middle) which is in composition of the musick a coun- terfet of the madrigal. Of the nature of these are the Neapolitans or Can- zone a la Napolitana, differing from them in nothing saving in name.
For examples of the latter he refers the reader to the works of Marenzio and Ferretti. Morley concludes this section with definitions of villa- nelle,2& ballete, fa las, vitiate, iustinias, paster ellas, and passamentos; we see that he is referring here primarily to Italian music rather than to English.
Morley concludes29 his discussion of compositions by devoting a few paragraphs of lesser interest to instrumental music, commencing with the Fancy or Fantasie. This was a composition with thematic develop- ment but in no set form, closely related to the Italian Fantasia.
The most principall and chiefest kind of musicke which is made without a dittie is the fantasie, that is, when a musician taketh a point at his pleas- ure, and wresteth and turneth it as he list, making either much or little of it according as shall seeme best in his own conceit. In this may more art be showne than in any other musicke, because the composer is tide to nothing but that he may adde, diminish, and alter at his pleasure. . . . You may use at your pleasure . . . bindings with discordes, quicke motions, slow motions, proportions, and what you list. Likewise, this kind of musick is with them who practise instruments of parts in greatest use, but for voices it is but sildome used.
Morley then mentions the pavane, galliard, alman, bransle, volte, and courante (all foreign dances in origin) and ends by saying that there are also "Hornepypes, Iygges, and infinite more."
Morley seems to have known no previous work on the subject of composition. He wrote all the musical examples for his book (except
28 For Morley 's poor opinion of Villanelle and W. S. Rockstro's higher one see Grove, v. 510.
29 P. 181.
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the few by Dunstable, Rysbie, Pygott, etc., which he introduces for his- torical reasons), and was proud to have written the first book of its kind. Nor did he borrow other writers' material, except the elementary facts of musical theory:
And though in the first part I have boldly taken that which in particular I cannot challenge to bee mine owne, yet in the second part I have abstained from it as much as possible: for except the cords30 of descant, and that com- mon rule of prohibited consequence of perfect cordes, there is nothing in it which I have seen set downe in writing by others. . . . And as for the last the third part of the booke, there is nothing in it which is not mine owne.
He ends the work with a rather erudite appendix, entitled:
Annotations necessary for the understanding of the Booke: wherein the veritie of some of the precepts is prooved and some arguments which to the contrarie might be objected, refuted.
The Greeks classified their melodies as diatonic, chromatic, and enhar- monic (quarter tones being used in the latter) ; and when Morley di- vides the music of his own time under these same three names he is making the common Renaissance mistake of trying to explain and classify modern phenomena in accordance with the scientific theories and definitions of ancient Greece. His recognition of the chromatic scale (E, F, F#, G, G#, A, etc.) is interesting. An account of ancient Greek music that follows is mainly correct, so far as it goes, although his printer has made nonsense of a table giving the Greek scale. Greek mu- sic was too thorny a subject for writers of the sixteenth century to han- dle. He commits the contemporary mistake of supposing that the me- dieval modes were identical with the ancient Greek modes of the same name, but he fortunately avoids the other common error of quoting ancient opinions on the expressive qualities of the modes. In fact, he is
30 Intervals, such as major thirds, octaves, etc.
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silent on this point, as if his practical experience led him to doubt the statements that his revered medieval authorities had accepted from the ancients, while his veneration for them bade him keep silent. He does correct certain minor errors such as the following:
Some also (whom I might name if I would) have affirmed, that the scale is called Gam ut, from Gam, which signifieth in Greeke grave or ancient: as for me I finde no such greeke in my Lexicon: if they can prove it they shal have it.31
His further notes concern such miscellaneous subjects as proportions, tempos, ligatures, inductions, the five kinds of pricks or dots (pricks of augmentation — the only kind left today, prolonging the duration of a note by one half — addition, perfection, division, and alteration), red minims and solid black minims. Morley disagrees with the way "pro- portions" are defined in The Pathway to Music\e, printed by Barley the preceding year:
Take away two or three scales which are filched out of Beurhasius, and fill up the three first pages of the booke, you shall not finde one side in all the booke without some grosse errour or other.
Morley proceeds to flay the anonymous author for his mistakes and plagiarisms.
Palestrina, the greatest composer of the century, is mentioned only once by Morley, and then only in a quotation from another author. Morley even misspells the name:
Fryer Lowyes Zaccone82 . . . proveth it by examples out of the masse of Palestin, called 1'home arme.
Morley ends his treatise with a bewildering list of the authorities he
31 "Gamut" is from "gamma" (the Greek letter) and "ut" (Latin), the two names for the lowest note of the medieval scale (G on the first line of the bass staff). "Gamut" meant (i) this note, low G, (2) the whole scale.
82 The famous writer on theory, Ludovico Zacconi, 1 555-1 627.
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had "either cited or used in this booke," one hundred and seventeen in number.33
Butler mentions the work again and again, and refers his readers to "the most Artful Doctors: such as are Paduanius, Calvisius, and our Countriman Mr. Thomas Morley."
Morley wrote in his treatise,
I may say with Horace, Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, that I have broken the Ice for others.
Ravenscroft in his Brief e Discourse refers to this sentence :
The ice is broken, and the Foot-path found; and I hope to finde many Morleyes alive, though He (who did shine as the Sunne in the Firmament of our Art, and did first give light to our understanding with his Praecepts) be long since come to the Close and Period of his Time: But his posterity,
33 Morley mentions only 47 writers and composers in the main body of his work. Of the 47, 36 occur in the list at the end of the book, and 11 (perhaps "the most part of whose works" he had not "diligently perused") do not. Franco of Cologne, Josquin des Pres, and Okeghem are the most prominent names that occur only in the list. Victoria is not mentioned at all. The 47 are given below, also all the English names on the list, whether mentioned in the body of the book or not:
"Late writers": ** Peter Aron, ** Gaforius, *# Glareanus, ** Ornithoparcus, (*de Vitry), ** Zacconi, ** Zarlino.
"Ancient Writers": * Boethius, * Ptolomaeus, * Aristoxenus, * Guido d'Arezzo.
"Practitioners, the most part of whose works we have diligently perused, for finding the true use of the Moods": § Clemens non Papa, (§ Giovanni Croce), § Alfonso Ferra- bosco [the Elder], (* Ferretti, * Gastoldi, § Giovanelli), § di Lasso, § Marenzio, * "Io. pierluigi palestina," (§§ Renaldi), § Striggio, § Vecchi, § Stephano Venturi.
"Englishmen": Tho. Ashwell, Averie, Beech, Bramston, §§ M. Byrde, § D[r. Robert] Cooper, Corbronde, § Cornish, §§ Dunstable, § D. Fa[i]rfax, Farding [Farthing], Mor- gan Grig, Gwinneth, § Hodges, Jacket, Robert Jones, § D. Kirby, Ludford, John Mason, (§ Mundy), § D. Newton, Oclande, Orwell, (§§ D. Parsley), Pashe, § "M. Person" [Robert Parsons], (§ Thomas Preston), § Pyggot, § Redford, * Risby, § Selby, (§ Shep- herd), M. Sturton, § M. Tallis, §§ Taverner, Testwood, § Thorne, § D. Tie, Ungle, (§ George Waterhouse), § M. White, M. Wilkinson. Most of the lesser English worthies on this list are pre-Elizabethan, mentioned in Davey's History of English Music, but not in Grove.
** Morley quotes their opinions. * M. merely mentions the names. §§ M. quotes in mu- sic type excerpts of music by them. § M. seems to have personally examined their compo- sitions. The eleven whose names figure in the body of the work but not in the list are printed in parenthesis.
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as Starres, receiving light and benefit from his Labours, will (I hope) ac- cording to his desire and wishes, entertaine and embrace such Opinions, as he himselfe acknowledged to be true.
In 1517 a university lecturer in Germany named Vogelsang published under the pen-name of Ornithoparcus a Latin treatise on music. It passed through five or six editions and was given a happy reincarnation when John Dowland translated and published it as an English text- book in 1609 under the following title:
Andreas Ornithoparcus His Micrologus,3i or Introduction: Containing the Art of Singing. Digested into Foure Bootes. Not onely profitable but also necessary for all that are studious of Music\e. Also the Dimension and Perfect Use of the Monochord, according to Guido Aretinus. By John Dou- land Lutenist, Lute-player, and Bachelor of Music\e in both the Universi- ties. 1609. London: Printed for Thomas Adams, dwelling in Paules Church- yard, at the Signe of the white Lion.
The rather dry musical pabulum of the Middle Ages is served up here
34 The Micrologus consists of four Books, of forty-one chapters in all. This detailed table of contents will give a general idea of the material covered in sixteenth-century works on musical theory:
I. 1. Of the Definition, Division, Profit, and Inventors of Musicke. 2. Of voyces. 3. Of the keyes. 4. Of tones. 5. Of solfaing. 6. Of mutations. 7. Of moodes. 8. Of the Dimen- sion of the monochord. 9. Of the Definition, Division, and Profit of the Monochord. 10. Of Musica Ficta. 11. Of Song and Transposition. 12. Of the Tones in speciall. 13. That divers men are delighted with divers Moodes.
II. 1. Of the Profit and Praise of this Art. 2. Of the Figures. 3. Of ligatures. 4. Of Moode, Time, and Prolation. 5. Of the Signes. 6. Of Tact. 7. Of Augmentation. 8. Of Diminution. 9. Of the Rests. 10. Of Prickes. 11. Of Imperfection. 12. Of Alteration. 13. Of Proportion.
III. [The proper way to chant plainsong and accent its syllables:] 1. In the Praise of Accent. 2. Of the Definition and division of Accent. 3. Of the generall Rules of Accent. 4. Of the speciall Rules of Accent. 5. Of the Points of Accent. 6. Of the Accent of Epistles. 7. Of the Accent of Gospels, and Prophesies.
IV. 1. Of the Definition, division, and Difference of the names of the Counterpoint. 2. Of Concords and Discords. 3. Of the Division of Concords. 4. Of the generall Rules of the Counterpoint. 5. Of the Parts and Closes of a Song. 6. Of the speciall Precepts of the Counterpoint. 7. Wherefore Rests are put in the Counterpoint. 8. Of the divers fashions for Singing.
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as adequately and appetizingly as its unattractive nature allows, and English musical students and savants should have been as well pleased with it as their German cousins.
To discuss the book in detail would be tedious and unnecessary, since the table of contents clearly indicates the scope of the work; but a few short quotations may give some idea of its style and the author's per- sonality. Every writer is subject to the limitations of his time. The greatest discoveries of the sixteenth century did not lie in etymology, and in defining the word semitonus (semitone), Ornithoparcus blithely derives semi from a nonexistent senium, "imperfect," and tonus from the Latin tonare "to thunder"; whereas tonus, tone — and also tune — comes from the Greek tonos, a "tone" or "stretching," and has no con- nection with "thunder." Although, as has been said, the sound of the modes had fundamentally changed since classical times, Ornithoparcus dutifully accepts the following ideas from Macrobius, who lived in the fifth century A.D.:
The Darian Moode is the bestower of wisedome, and causer of chastity. The Phrygian causeth wars, and enflameth fury. The Eolian doth appease the tempests of the minde, and when it hath appeased them, luls them asleepe. The Lydian doth sharpen the wit of the dull, & doth make them that are burdened with earthly desires, to desire heavenly things, an excel- lent worker of good things. Yet doth Plato lib. 3 de Rep. much reprehend the Lydian, both because it is mournful, and also because it is womanish.
Dowland unfortunately adds no footnotes or corrections of any kind to the book. What Ornithoparcus had written ninety years before was good enough for him.
The author's description of the vocal habits of Europe in the year 1517 is illuminating:85
Every man lives after his owne humour; neither are all men governed by the same lawes, and divers Nations have divers fashions, and differ in
35 In Book 4, Chapter 8.
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habite, diet, studies, speech, and song. Hence is it, that the English doe car- roll; the French sing; the Spaniards weepe; the Italians, which dwell about the coasts of Ianua86 caper with their Voyces; the other [s] barke: but the Germanes (which I am ashamed to utter) doe howle like wolves. Now be- cause it is better to breake friendship, than to determine anything against truth, I am forced by truth to say that which the love of my Countrey for- bids me to publish. Germany nourisheth many Cantors, but few Musitians. For very few, excepting those which are or have been in the Chappels of Princes, doe truly know the Art of Singing. . . . But why the Saxons, and those that dwell upon the Balticke coast, should so delight in such clamor- ing, there is no reason, but either because they have a deafe God, or because they thinke he is gone to the South-side of heaven, and therefore cannot so easily hear both the Easterlings, and the Southerlings.
Why did Ornithoparcus write the book? He tells us himself: "To profit the Youth of Germany, whilst others are drousie."
The third and last of these general works on musical theory, by Charls Butler, disappoints us because almost everything in it had been better said by Morley and Ornithoparcus, and it completely ignores the important changes that had swept over music since 1600, although But- ler's treatise was printed as late as 1636:
THE PRINCIPLES OF MUSIK IN Singing and Setting: with the two- fold use thereof (Ecclesiasticall and Civil) by Charls Butler Magd. Mas- ter of Arts. London, Printed by John Haviland, for the Author: 1636.
Butler, a clergyman, was music master to the boys of the Magdalen College choir school, Oxford. His mind was both methodical and in- quisitive, but not brilliant, and without humor, except of a somewhat whimsical and pedantic type. Grove's Dictionary has at last included him. Anthony Wood states in Athenae Oxonienses that Butler entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1579, took a degree in Arts, and was Vicar of Laurence-Wotton for forty-eight years. He wrote several books, which
36 Genoa.
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according to Wood "shew him to have been an ingenious man, and well skill'd in various sorts of learning." Wood mentions this treatise, but without comment. The early date of Butler's matriculation at Ox- ford shows that he was a contemporary of the composers he wrote about and was born only two or three years later than Morley himself.
He wrote works on music, simplified spelling, and bee-keeping; in The Feminine Monarchy, or the History of Bees37 he states that the queen bee and the princesses L I . .1 I 1 I .1 .1 .1
sing in triple time, the princess thus: Q " " " »------ -^_
and prints a "Bees Madrigal" of his own composition, in four parts, praising the Feminine Monarchy and representing (in many buzzing repeated notes) the desire of the princess to leave the hive. His later works are printed in simplified spelling, in a system of his own inven- tion that required several extra letters, a horizontal stroke through each of these standing for an omitted h, while "Q beeing (as de Name im- ported) an Abbreviation of c or k and v, an oder v after it, having noe use is derefore omitted, as superfluous." As someone has observed, it is a great pity that he adopted these new letters, which in themselves probably prevented the success of his scheme; for the adoption of a ra- tional system of spelling would have been easier then, when spelling had not become fixed, than now, and would have saved students of the English language untold millions of hours.
In The Principles of MusiJ^8 the medieval modes, having been over- thrown in the previous century, received a final amazing blow. So far had they been forgotten that he classifies them according to their emo- tional character, rather than by their Tonic note:
The Dorik Moode consisteth of sober Notes, generally in Counter-point, set to a Psalm or other pious canticle, in Meeter or Rhythmical vers. . . .
37 1609, later editions 1627 and 1633. See Gerald Hayes's entertaining summary of it in the Musical Times for 1925, p. 512.
38 The new letters he used there have not been reproduced here.
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MUSICAL THEORY
This mooveth to sobriete, prudence, modesti, and godlines. Of the Lydian Moode ar those solemn Hymns and other sacred Chyrch-songs, called Mo- teta, a motu: becaus they moove the harts of the hearers. Of this Moode is that passionate Lamentation of the good musical King, for the death of his Absalom: Composed in 5. parts by M. Th. Tomkins, now Organist of his Majesties Chappel.89 ... Of the Tonic Moode are Madrigals and Can- zonets. The Madrigal is a Chromatik Moode in Discant, whose notes dooe often exceede the number of the syllables of the Ditti; soomtime in Duple, soomtime in Triple Proportion: with qik and sweete Reportes, and Repeats, and all pleasing varietiz of Art, in 4, 5, or 6 Partes: having, in one or more of them, one or more Rests (especially in the beginning) to bring in the Points begun in an other Parte.
By his day the word "tone" had acquired its present meaning of the quality of the sound of a musical note. In the Middle Ages it was syn- onymous with "mode" or the modern terms "scale" and "key."
As models for students composing in a great number of parts he rec- ommends some of the Cantiones sacrae by Tallis and Byrd in six parts, Tallis's "Miserere" in seven, and Byrd's "Deliges Dominum" in eight; and he advises the reader to
. . . narrowly peruse and study the learned and exquisite Precepts of that prime Doctor Mr. Thomas Morley in the second and third Parts of his In- troduction. Let him needfully examin, observ, and imitate the Artificial woorks of the best Authors, such as ar Clemens non Papa, Horatio Vecchi, Orlando di Lasso, Olphonso Ferabosco, Luca Marenzo, I. Croche, Doctor Farfax, D. Tye, Mr. BIRD,40 Mr. White, Mr. Morley, and now excelling Mr. Tho. and J. Tomkins (that Aureum par Musicorum41).
Butler gives a choice etymology for "anthem." Instead of deriving it correctly from "antiphon" (= opposite voice), he gets it from the Greek
39 See p. 88 supra.
40 The only name printed in capitals.
41 Golden pair of musicians.
[247]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
"anthos," "flower" (not a bad guess) and then derives "anthos" from avu Gelv, "run up," because a flower grows upwards!
The Principles of Musil^2 is not a very satisfactory book, for it con- tains an insufficient number of musical illustrations; devotes too little space to some topics puzzling to students; lacks the lightness and hu- mor of Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction; shows no real enthu- siasm for the compositions it mentions; falls into a number of avoidable errors; and quotes ancient and medieval opinions as if they applied to modern music, without suspecting that a musical revolution was going on.
SIGHT-SINGING
The luckless Philomathes in Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction and the basso Janson at Handel's rehearsal of the Messiah in Chester were humiliated because they could not sing "at the first sight." Neither one could plead a lack of instruction books or teachers as an excuse. Singers have learned to sing at sight from the time Guido d'Arezzo first used the sol-fa syllables in 1025, and most people still employ his method. But his syllables were only six in number — ut,iS re, mi, fa, sol, and la — forming a hexachord of six notes, not an octave of eight. There were three hexachords, in which ut was G, C, and F respectively, and the other sol-fa syllables were used as in the following table:
The first or Hard Hexachord: The second or Natural Hexachord: The third or Soft Hexachord:
42 Contents of The Principles of Musik.: Book, i. Chap. i. Modes, definition of a mad- rigal, canzonet, etc. 2. The scale. 3. Of setting (composing), melody, concords, discords, and ornaments. 4. Of setting in counterpoint and setting in discant. Book. 2. Chap. 1. Of instruments, the voice, and "mixt musik" (i.e., for the two combined). 2. "Of church musik"; "non vox sed votum, non musica chordula sed cor, non damans sed amans, cantat in aure Dei." 3^ "Of civil musik."
43 Ut has been superseded by do, except in France.
[248]
|
Ut |
re |
mi |
fa |
sol |
la |
|
G |
A |
Blq |
C |
D |
E |
|
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
|
F |
G |
A |
Bb |
C |
D |
2 The firft part.
Phi. Farewell , for I fit vpon thornes till I be gone : therefore I will make hafle. But if I be not dccciued,I fee him whom I feckc.fitting at yonder doorc rout of doubt it is he . And it fhould feemc he (ludicth vpon foinc point of Mufickc : But I will driuc him out of hisdump. Good morrow, Sir.
Majler. And you al(o, good maftcr/'/;;/tf«'4^«, I am glad to fee you, feeingitis foiongagoe hncelfawyou, that I thought you had cither becne dead, or then had vowed perpetually to keepe your chamber and booke , to which you were fo much addidcd.
Phi. Indcede I haue becne well affc&ed to ray booke. But how haue you done fince I faw you >
Ma. My health, fince you faw mc, hath bcene fo bad, as if it had becne thcplea- fureof him who may all things, to haue taken mc out of the world, I fhould haue becnevery wcil contented; and haue wifhed it mere than once. But what bufineiTc hath driuen you to this end of thctownc?
Phr. My errand is to you,to make my fclfc your fcholler. And feeing I haue found youatfuchcunuenicntleifure, I am determined not to depart tiUlhatie onelcilbn in Muficke.
Ma. You tell me a wonder .-for I haue heardyoufb much fpcakeagainft thatart, as to tearmc it a corrupter of good manners, and an allurement to vices: for which many of your companion* tearrrcd yuuiSto.ck.
Phi. It is true: Budamfofarrechanged, as of a Stoick I would willingly make a Pythsgorian. And for thatl am impatient of delay ,1 pray you begin euen now.
Ma. With a good will But haue you learned nothing ar all in Mufick before?
Phi. Nothing. Therefore I pray begin at the very beginning, and teach mc as though I were a childc
Ma. I will do fo .* and therefore behold, here is the Scale of Muficke, whidh wee tearmc the Gam.
i note. 2 notes.
2 notes.
» notes, jdifTes.
3 notes. 3 notes. 2 notes.
2 notes.
3 notes. 3 notes.
snores, a chffcs. 3 notes.
3 notes, a notes. 3 notes. >notes< a notes. I note. I note, x note.
Lfoire
I ; c j — j*if* vt
£■' b | faS-pii ■5 , a '_ U mi re — *p\ filrevt
£F — fit-vt
| E '/* mi
2D fare
%C f*«
K-a m
J-JA «
r !-vA —
trm* Ik lrotum 4*rfuajo
Phi,
"The Gam," or Scale from A PLAINE AND EASIE INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICAL MUSICKE,
by Thomas Morley
1597
MUSICAL THEORY
So C could be either ut, sol, or fa, depending on what hexachord the singer was using at the moment. The consequent confusion in a learn- er's mind must have been very great. Still, it was better than no system at all. It lasted, more or less intact, from 1030 to 1599, when the brilliant proposal was made by a Dutchman to expand the C hexachord into an eight-note group by adding a syllable for B. The syllable si was sug- gested for this purpose about 161 1 and gradually adopted, although England for a long time preferred the old system. The trend of thought regarding this subject in England may be illustrated from Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalter (edition of 1562), Morley's Plaine and Easie In- troduction (1597), Bathe's A Brief e Introduction to the st{ill of Song (1600), Campion's A New Way of Maying Fowre Parts in Counter- point (1613), and Butler's The Principles of Musi\ (1636).
The 1562 Psalter (the first complete psalter published in English) does not touch upon the difficult question of deciding which of the vari- ous available sol-fa syllables should be sung to a given note, except to say that although G may be sung either sol, re, or ut, when a tune starts on G and goes up the scale, G should be sung ut. To learn to sing the scale "ye must learn to tune aptely of some one that can already sing, or by some Instrument of musicke, as the Virginals." The virginal was certainly the easiest instrument to use for testing the correctness of the pitch of his voice, although some writers suggested the lute.
By the time of Morley, ut and re were going out of use in England, though retained on the Continent. The G hexachord was the normal one, not the one beginning on C as we might expect. Ut is never sung, he says, unless it is the lowest note in the singer's part, and re is to be avoided. All "flates" (B\), E[) A^), also F sharp, are fa. Unlike Campion he adheres to the medieval convention that the scale contains only twenty notes, from G (first line, bass staff) up to E (fourth space, treble staff), supporting it with this absurd statement: "Under Gam ut [low G] the voyce seemed as a kinde of humming, and above E la [high E] a kinde of constrained shrieking." Our notions of Elizabethan pitch are
[249]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
somewhat confused, owing to contradictory statements handed down from those days, and possibly different Elizabethan musicians may have used different pitches; but even if Elizabethan pitch differed markedly from ours (which I do not believe) either the basses or the sopranos could easily have sung notes outside the twenty-note limit. To Eliza- bethans, <$> , j):, [B]b, and [B]tj were all "cliffes" (clefs), but there was no tj sign, the % sign being used with the present meanings of % and tj. The following examples of solmization printed by Morley will make his practice clear in essentials. Because of the flat "cliffes" (key signatures are a modern idea), the hexachord of G is not used. It is a pity no example is given without a flat in the signature.
Bathe's system is based on two rules. Expressed in modern language they are: (i) When there is no flat in the signature, ut is G, when one flat in the signature, C, when two flats, F. (2) In singing up the scale use the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol,
la, fa, ut successively, and use the same syllables in reverse order going down. So far, excellent; like a modern sol-faist he has discarded hexa- chords in favor of an eight-note system, and ut always refers to the same note while the key remains the same; he was tending toward the Curwens' movable do system, not the awkward fixed ut of the French. But then he unfortunately allows exceptions to creep in: whenever the tune goes up to ut or re and then dips down again, he changes the up- per ut to sol and the upper re to la, thus :
sol fa sol la sol fa fa la sol fa mi la sol sol fa la sol [[//is: C F C... F C F C F(n<""'F C]
sol fa fa la sol fa fa sol sol fa fa la sol sol fa sol [litis: C F("»"'F c<"™t><n''"e, C F C F C (C?)C]
55=
m
g i»
la fa la sol fa la Not: la fa re ut fa la
[250]
MUSICAL THEORY
Then he gets into trouble with accidentals. These are of course an in- evitable stumbling block in any sol-fa system except that of movable do. Some teachers, he says, require that "every note having a sharpe beefore it should be named mi," others that it should be called la. Bathe pre- fers to call it fa. This is logical in the key of C for F# and Cft, because Ffcj and Cfcj are also fa under his system. Instead of thinking fa and fi for F and F# as the modern singer would do, Bathe's pupil would doubdess think low fa and high fa respectively. But to call G$ fa, or with one flat in the signature to call Cft fa, is laying himself open to his own criticism; for in his preface he complains that under other teachers' systems "notes have names that the places where they stand comprehend not." He is here probably objecting to such a current practice as calling CJ mi, on the ground that C# should always have the same name as Cfc|, i.e., ut, fa, or sol, never mi. Then Bathe says that C B\) C in succession should be sung fa fa sol, the B\) having changed the key, thus avoiding "faf, faf, faf." If Bathe means that every time one comes to a B|j, C be- comes ut and every time one comes to a Btj, G becomes ut, he is "chang- ing the do" logically like a modern sol-faist; but this may not be Bathe's intention. For still further quiddities in Bathe the reader is referred to the original text. Bathe was courageous enough to think out a new idea. He then took a fatal look backward at his contemporaries, hesitated, and was lost.
The purpose of Campion's treatise is to teach students how to write music, not how to sing; but in his preface he explains his own method of using the sol-fa syllables, as an aid to singers. Like Bathe he uses an eight-note movable do system, to cover an octave, changing the position of ut only when the key signature changes. But in accordance with the English practice of his time Campion omits ut and re entirely. He even calls bottom G (first line, bass staff) sol, although theoretically there can be no ut, re, mi or fa below it. His ascending scale G to G (includ- ing Ft]) consists of the notes sol, la, mi, fa, sol, la, fa, sol. With no key signature the first sol is G, with a signature of one flat C, with two flats
[251]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
F. He does not mention accidentals, consequently his system is not usa- ble with any music that contains them, and would have to be supple- mented.
Butler wrote in 1636, twenty-three years later than Campion. By that time the world had accepted the discovery that the musical universe revolves about the note C. So Butler started with C as ut and used Bathe's series — ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, fa, ut; in short, his system is the modern French fixed ut system. But Butler's plan, like his simplified spelling, went crying in the wilderness, and England continued to use Campion's four syllables.
After a study of the above methods and the difficulties inherent in the old hexachord system it is surprising that it survived as long as it did ; yet we must give credit to Campion and Butler for endeavoring to simplify it by basing their systems on a single octave rather than on the three hexachords, and thus preparing the way for modern methods. The following summary of past and present usages may interest those who, like Philomathes, have through perseverance acquired the ability to sing at sight; Janson probably never did learn, and continued to plague his choirmasters until the end of his days.
o Q
o Q
Medieval: one correct way
ut re mi fa sol mi fa sol re mi fa Morley, 1597
ut re mi fa sol la fa sol la mi fa Bathe, 1600
ut re mi fa sol la fa ut re mi fa Campion, 1613
sol la mi fa sol la fa sol la mi fa Butler, 1636
sol la fa ut re mi fa sol la fa ut Modern French
sol la si ut re mi fa sol la si ut Modern English, American
sol la ti do re mi fa sol la ti do
ut re fa sol re mi fa re mi fa sol
sol la fa sol la mi fa sol la fa sol
sol la fa ut re mi fa sol la fa sol
sol la fa sol la mi fa sol la fa sol
sol la fa ut re mi fa sol la fa ut
sol la si ut re mi fa sol la si ut
re mi fa sol la ti do re mi fa sol
[252]
MUSICAL THEORY
Most of the Elizabethan books on the theory of music pay some at- tention to sight-singing, but only three works are chiefly concerned with it. Of these, I have been unable to examine A Brieve Introduction to the True Art of Music\e, 1584, by William Bathe, and The Pathway toMusic\e, printed by William Barley in 1596. Copies are so rare that the British Museum and other important libraries possess none. It is not known who wrote The Pathway to Music\e. Thomas Morley's wither- ing opinion was that only its blank pages were without errors, and Davey considered it worthless.44
Bathe was a learned Irishman who studied at Oxford and later in Spain, where he died. His two musical works, however, show more egotism than erudition. He states that he published A Brief e Introduc- tion to the True Art of Music\e only after he had satisfied himself of its worthiness:
For the worthinesse, I thought it not to be doubted, seeing heere one set forth a booke of a hundred mery tales, another of the battaile between the spider and the fly,45 another De Pugnis Porcorum; another of a monster born at London the second of January, hedded lyke a horse and bodied lyke a man, with other such lyke fictions; and thinking this matter than some of these to be more worthy.
Hawkins comments upon it as follows :
The preface was doubtless intended by the author to recommend his book to the reader's perusal, but he has chosen to bespeak his good opinion rather by decrying the ignorance of teachers, and the method of instruction prac- ticed by them, than by pointing out any peculiar excellencies in his own work. He says that many have consumed a whole year before they could come at the knowledge of song only, but that he had taught it in less space than a month.
But how highly soever the author might value his own work, he thought
44 Supra, pp. 224, 241.
45 By Thomas Heywood.
[253]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
proper some years after the first publication to write it over again in such sort, as hardly to retain a single paragraph of the former edition. . . . And here again the author, according to his wonted custom, censures the mu- sicians of his own time, and magnifies the efficacy of his own rules.
Hawkins was unfavorably impressed with both of Bathe's works. The second of these was :
A Brief e Introduction to the s\ill of Song: Concerning the practise, set forth by William Bathe Gentleman. In which wor\ is set downe X. sundry wayes of 2. parts in one upon the plaine song. Also a Table newly added of the comparisons of Cleves [clefs], how one followeth another for the naming of Notes: with other necessarie examples, to further the learner.
In addition to Bathe's method46 for teaching learners to sing at sight the book contains ten canons. In his preface the enthusiastic author writes :
Where [olde Musitions] gave prolixe rules, I have given brief e rules, when they gave uncertaine rules, I have given sure rules, and where they have given no rules, I have given rules. . . . In a moneth and lesee I instructed a child about the age of eight yeeres to sing a good number of songs, diffi- cult crabbed Songs, to sing at the first sight, to be so indifferent for all parts, alterations, Cleves, flats, and sharpes, that he could sing a part of that kinde, of which he never learned any song, which child for strangenesse was brought before the Lord Deputie of Ireland, to be heard sing: for there were none of his age, though he were longer at it, nor any of his time (though he were older) knowne beef ore these rules to sing exactly.
He then cites cases of other successful pupils of his. They must have been naturally talented.
The next three books deal with special topics. Campion discovered and published an "infallible" rule for writing harmony correctly, al- though his idea is unfortunately of limited application:
46 For a summary of this method see pp. 250 and 252 supra.
[254]
MUSICAL THEORY
A NEW WAY OF MAKING FOWRE parts in Counter-point, by a most familiar, and infallible Rule. Secondly, a necessary discourse of Keyes, and their proper Closes. Thirdly, the allowed passages of all Concords per- fect, or imperfect, are declared. Also by way of Preface, the nature of the Scale is expressed, with a briefe Method teaching to Sing. By Tho: Cam- pion. London: Printed by T.S. for John Browne, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleetstreet. [1613].
In his dedication "To the Flowre of Princes, Charles, Prince of Great Brittaine," Campion absurdly calls his work
... a poore and easie invention; yet new and certaine; by which the skill of Musicke shall be redeemed from much darkness, wherein envious an- tiquitie of purpose did involve it.
This work was sufficiently famous to be reprinted in 1655 and 1664, and then to gain a new lease on life as a part of Playford's Introduction to the Sfcll of Music\; and unlike most Elizabethan books on music it is accessible to the general reader, for it was reprinted in 1909 in Vivian's edition of Campion's works. Vivian shows no great enthusiasm for Campion the musician :
The main value, however, of the "New Way" is, as I have shown with more detail in the Notes, that it affords a rule of thumb for the harmoniza- tion of a tune with simple concords. . . . There is little enough in this to warrant his claim that he had effected more in Counterpoint than any man before him had ever attempted. But even this small measure of originality may be doubted, if not denied outright . . . At p. [126 of the Plaine and Easie Introduction] Morley gives a Table of proper progressions in three parts; while at pp. [129-130] he gives a table containing the usual chords for the composition of four or more parts, profusely illustrated with exam- ples in score. Campion's rule is a modification of these tables, very possibly derived from them; the difference being that he uses the figures instead of setting down the notes of the common chord.
[255]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
This is incorrect: Morley's tables do not show how to write progres- sions, but separate, unconnected chords. The writing of any book that will enable an unmusical beginner to write correct harmony is quite a feat, and Campion accomplished it. His principles are more easily made clear by means of modern musical terms, for Elizabethans were scarcely thinking of "chords"47 as yet, and had not arrived at the idea of "roots" or "inversions"; for these, Rameau (1683-1764) was respon- sible. Campion is one of the earliest to call attention to the fact that music is most naturally written in four parts, rather than in three or five.
These are his rules for writing two successive chords in four-part har- mony, each chord containing the 3d, 5th, and octave above the bass:
1. If the bass moves up a 2d, 3d, 4th (or down a 5th or 6th),
the 3d above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 8ve 1 above the bass the 5th above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 3d f m the 2d chord the 8ve above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 5th J
2. If the bass moves down a 2d, 3d, 4th (or up a 5th or 6th),
the 3d above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 5th 1 above the bass the 5th above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 8ve r in the 2d chord the 8ve above the bass in the 1st chord should be followed by the 3d J
This diagram summarizes rules 1 and 2: T
3 I S I
For Rule 1, read up from the numerals representing the first chord (358) to those representing the second chord (8 3 5). For Rule 2 read down from the numerals representing the first chord (8 3 5) to those representing the second chord (3 5 8).
3. To obtain variety, in Rule 1 substitute down for up (and up for down).
4. Similarly in Rule 2 substitute up for down (and down for up).
5. If a 1st Inversion (bass, and 3d and 6th above the bass) is used, merely
substitute "6th" for "5th" in the bottom line, thus: t 1 8 ! I ! f I •
3 ' ^ I 3 I 6 I 8 I
Example of rules 1 and 2 :
47 William Leighton wrote in Allison's Psalmes (1599): "Musickes arte is drawne from this Concent — ^ — ." See p. 57 supra.
[256]
MUSICAL THEORY
Treble Meane
Tenc Base
^
Rulel
Rule 2
Filling in skips to make them into runs need cause no trouble. To allow two 3<ds to be used in succession in the treble, double the 3d in whichever chord has the higher bass note. He curiously objects to the use of two consecutive first inversions if both roots ("sixes") are in the treble.48
Accidentals, of course, cause some difficulties; the bass note must not be doubled (1) if it is F#, (2) if it is E^ and followed by the chord of D major, because an augmented 2d (which is "unformall") would re- sult. Consequently his essential rule that the bass must be doubled oc- casionally gives trouble. It is also at variance with the obvious fact that it is often convenient (and correct) to double the 5th, or the 6th, above the bass.
Pedagogically, Campion's system is unsound as a means of teaching harmony, except in the earliest stages, because it is a mere mechanical treadmill; the student should be taught to hear what he writes and then write whatever sounds well to him. It also does not allow the use of dominant 7th chords and second inversions; these were accepted into the ordinary system of harmony after Campion's day. Nevertheless it is undeniably clever, could be used with either a given melody or a given
48 He gives the following illogical reason for his objection: "For sixes are not in this case to be mentioned, being distances so large that they can produce no formality. Besides the sixt is of it selfe very imperfect, being compounded of a third which is an imperfect Concord, and of a fourth which is a Discord: and this the cause is, that the sixes produce so many fourths in the inner parts. As for the third it being the least distance of any Concord, is therefore easily to be reduced into good order." He may mean that he would object to the consecutive fourths produced by successive first inversions with the roots in the treble; but the probable reason is that it would upset his rule hopelessly (3d would have to be followed by 3d and 6th by 6th).
[257]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
bass, and must have been a great boon to perplexed beginners. A modi- fied form of it is actually still used by a few teachers of harmony.
The second section of the treatise, Of the Tones of Music\e, ap- peared when the tones (by which he means the medieval modes or scales) were rapidly disappearing. He does little more than show what cadences are satisfactory in various keys.
The third and last section, Of the taking of all Concords, perfect and imperfect, merely gives a list of what two-part intervals may be used in succession, and under what circumstances. E.g., the major 6th may be followed by another 6th, by an octave, or by a 3d, but hardly by a 5th unless one of the notes of the 6th is tied over into the 5th. The follow- ing examples may be of interest to students of counterpoint, because Campion's curious opinions of them are given below. His equally strange reasons for these opinions are not worth giving here, but may be consulted in Vivian's edition.
^
S
S o
^
w
8 "
Bad
Good
Good
Good
Rare
Bad
[Compare]
[Compare]
^
Good[!] Bad
[He does not object to hidden 5ths]
[Compare]
Rare
Wrong [!]
[Compare]
Wrong; "not harmonicall."
Thomas Ravenscroft wrote his book on theory to explain the me- dieval time-signatures, and to urge their revival. Without this explana- tion the peculiar title of his book might seem rather blind :
A BRIEFE DISCOURSE of the true (but neglected) use of Charact'ring the Degrees by their Perfection, Imperfection, and Diminution in Measur- able Music\e, against the Common Practise and Custome of these Times.
[258]
MUSICAL THEORY
Examples whereof are exprest in the Harmony of 4. Voyces, Concerning the Pleasure of 5. usuall Recreations 1 Hunting 1 Hawking 3 Dauncing 4 Drinking 5 Enamouring. By Thomas Ravenscroft, Bachelor of Musicke. London Printed by Edw: Allde for Tho. Adams 1614. Cum privilegio Re- gall.
Morley wrote in his Plaine and Easie Introduction*9 that only four of the medieval time-signatures remained in use. Ravenscroft's attempt to revive the others was a pedantic50 effort. We may surmise that the printer accepted the book for publication only because Ravenscroft's previous volumes of music had been of a popular nature, probably sell- ing well, and because this work contains twenty part-songs, which though composed to show the proper use of the time-signatures, were set to texts describing the five alluring recreations mentioned in the title. Of these part-songs five are by Bennet, two by Pearce, twelve by Ravenscroft, and one composer is not named. Contrary to current prac- tice he praises the compositions in his own book: he hopes that musi- cians "will take in good worth these various Sprightfull Delightfull Harmonies, which now I bring them."
His "Apologie" begins as follows :
Plutarch in his Booke of Musicke saith, that Pherecrates the Comicall Poet presented Musicke in form and habits of a Woman, her body piteously scourged and mangled. ... If Pherecrates had now lived, well and truely might he have presented her Pannis annisque obsitam, with scarce Ligatures left to preserve the compacture of her body, so much is she wrong'd, dilac- erated, dismembred, and disjoynted in these our daies; she scarcely hath
49 Supra, p. 228.
50 The curious lack of proportion in the arrangement of this volume might in itself suggest to the reader that Ravenscroft was probably a man of vagaries. Of its fifty-one pages only twenty-two constitute the actual Discourse. The rest of the book consists of a title page, a Dedication of three pages, an Apologie of six, poems commending Ravens- croft (seven pages), a Preface (seven more, halfway through the volume), errata, and blank pages.
[259]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Forme or Habite left, but e'ne as a Sceleton, retaines onely a shape or shadowe, of what she was in her former purity.
— And so on at great length in a similar strain, without actually saying just what is wrong with her.
This is all a tempest in a teapot. One might have thought he was criticizing the strange new harmonies of Farnaby, perhaps, or Monte- verde. But Ravenscroft's anger is aroused solely by the contemporary miscalling and miswriting of time-signatures.51 Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction (1597) accepts, though with protest, the current practice of miscalling "Time" "Moode." Ravenscroft pardons him, begs forgiveness for his own youthful irregularities in the way of tempo signs, and urges return to the medieval practice. He condemns the absurd sign £3 (our modern I), saying correctly that the 3 is superfluous. So today to write C \ would state the same thing twice. But ([3 was a practical concession to ordinary musicians, who could not remember that d meant triple time ( |) and Q duple ( |) . Correctly too he ob- jects to the erroneous use in church music of the sign (t, which meant that half notes were to be sung as fast as quarter notes and if literally followed would make church music giddy enough for dancing.52 To- day the sign has come to mean | time, and is perfectly respectable. But in general Ravenscroft's indignation seems impractical and unwar- ranted today.
Five of the commendatory poems in A Briefe Discourse are by men well known to their contemporaries — Nathaniel Giles, Thomas Cam- pion, John Dowland, John Davies of Hereford and Martin Peerson, the composer. The others are by William Austin, Tho. Piers (evidently a
51 Bathe makes three errors of this kind in his second book (1584), though Ravens- croft does not mention them.
52 In Elizabethan times slow music, e.g., psalm tunes, were written in whole notes and half notes; fast music, e.g., gay madrigals, in quarters or if still faster in eighths. Nowadays the speed depends on the Italian directions: a sixteenth note in !36 time marked "Largo" is of longer duration than a half note in f time marked "Allegro."
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relation of Ravenscroft's former choirmaster and teacher, the organist of St. Paul's), T. H. (Tobias Hume?) ; and "R.LL. Theo-muso-philus," perhaps a clergyman. They are printed as Appendix E.
Robert Flud (1574-1637) was an Oxford student and spent most of his life in England, but his work dealing with music was published abroad. This was Utriusque cosmi, majoris scilicet et minoris, meta- physica, physica, atque technica historia . . ., Oppenheim, 1617. Flud was a Rosicrucian. Hawkins thus describes him:
Upon the whole Flud appears to have been a man of a disordered imagi- nation, an enthusiast in theology and philosophy; as such he is classed by Butler with Jacob Behmen and the wildest of the mystic writers:
He Anthroposophus and Flud And Jacob Behmen understood.
Hudibras, Part 1, Canto i.
In one section of the treatise
. . . the author supposes the world to be a musical instrument, and that the elements that compose it, assigning to each a certain place according to the laws of gravitation, together with the planets and the heavens, make up that instrument which he calls the Mundane Monochord.
CANONS
A canon is a composition in which two or more performances of the same tune go on simultaneously but begin at different times. For ex- ample, in the canon printed on page 265 both voices sing the same tune, but the tenor has already sung five notes of it before the bass starts with the first note.
Canons have been written with one or several purposes in mind. It is recognized that no other short composition requires a tittle of the skill that is necessary for the creation of an involved canon. So from Dufay (c. 1400-1474) onwards the chief motive behind the publication of
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some complex canons has been self-advertisement rather than self-ex- pression. Other canons, including perhaps those by Beethoven, were written either good-humoredly for performances at parties of friends or for the personal pleasure one feels in consummating a difficult feat. Some of the earlier vocal canons were designed as musical puzzles. These were rarely printed out in full, and the directions for solving and performing them were often made purposely obscure. Some show amazing cleverness. When considered as spectacular feats or as puzzles the Elizabethan canons are admirable, but they should no more be judged as music than conundrums as literature. A beautiful canon is, however, a worthy musical device when used as part of a larger com- position, for it contains the necessary unifying element of repetition that is present in one form or another in all good compositions, notably the fugue, rondo, passacaglia, and the theme with variations. In addi- tion to its use in compositions, canonic writing has its place in peda- gogy, for it has long been recommended to students as a means of gain- ing facility in the writing of counterpoint. Lastly, Elway Bevin ex- pressed the singular hope that his canons of 1631 would redound to the glory of God. Let us hope that they did, as the dances offered by Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame were pleasing to Our Lady. A collection of canons by John Farmer was printed in 1591 :
Divers and sundry waies of two parts in one, to the number of fortie, upon one playn Song.
The only known copy is in the Bodleian. It consists of forty canons. Some are complicated; the thirty-fifth specimen has this direction:
2 parts in one in the eight, if you would know how this can be, turne the booke upside downward and look on the Basse, there shall you perceive it, but sing it as it is prickt downe before you, sing the plain-song as it standes.
There are two poems, or rather rhymes, in praise of the composer, by Francis Yomans and Richard Wilkinson. About all that Yomans can
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say in sixteen lines is, "I am incompetent to give this work fitting praise, but I wish him well." Here is the other poem :
i. Who so delights in Musickes skill and thereof judges right, May here perceive a straunge devise most plainly in his sight.
2. Two parts in one uppon a ground
in number fortie wayes A thing most rare surpassing farre most songsters now a dayes.
3. If this in youth performed be
as plainly you may see, What fruite hereafter may wee hope to have of such a tree.
4. As farmer good or busye bee
still laboreth in the field So doth this Farmer that he may to others much fruite yeeld
5. Farewell with praise and good report
of those that know thy skill What thou desernest in Musicks art This booke will witnes still.
Richard Wilkinson
Morley wrote in his great treatise that his friend George Water- house composed a thousand canons on one plainsong tune, all different, and adds, "I doe hope very shortly that the same shall be published for the benefit of the world, and his owne perpetuall glory." That wish has not been fulfilled. They repose in manuscript in the Cambridge Uni- versity Library.
The Stationers' Register gives the title of a collection of canons which was approved for publication in 1603:
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Medulla Music\e. Suc\ed out of the Sappe of Two of the most famous Musitians that ever were in this land, namely Master William Byrd . . . and Master Alfonso Ferabosco . . . either of whom having made 40 severall waies {without contention) , shewing most rare and intricate s\ill in 2 partes in one upon the playne songe Miserere. The which at the request of a friend is most plainly sett in severall distinct partes to be sunge
No copy is known, and it is possible these canons were not printed. They are, however, mentioned by Morley in his Plaine and Easie In- troduction,53 where the student is advised to
. . . diligently peruse those wayes which my loving Maister (never with- out reverence to be named of the Musicians) M. Bird and M. Alphonso in a virtuous contention in love betwixt themselves, made upon the plaine song of Miserere, but a contention, as I saide, in love . . . each making other Censor of that which they had done. Which contention of theirs (specially without envie) caused them both become excellent in that kind, and winne such a name, and gaine such credit, as will never perish so long as Musick endureth.
Part Two of Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction is as good an in- struction book for canon as could be desired, except that he might have written out more canons in full as examples. Here is the subject of a Canon in epidiatessaron, presumably by Morley, every repetition of which is as he says a whole tone lower. All that Morley prints is: By epidiatessaron is meant that the first note of the second voice is a fourth higher in pitch than the note on which the first voice begins. The sign .?.54 indicates when it is time for the second voice to start. The working out (not printed by Morley) would be as follows :
53 P. 115.
54 Printed in the second edition, but not in the first, where the tune is given on p. 175.
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Subject
Bi
Pf-fF* == b-p F-^r^oF
Subjacit
S3
e*e:
Morley sensibly says that the composition of canons is not so important for its own sake as it is for teaching the student to write smooth coun- terpoint in madrigals, though he evidently rather enjoys the excitement of writing them as an end in itself, being a sufficiently dextrous techni- cian to have such complexities at his fingers' ends. He praises the Ital- ians for knowing how to use a canon in a composition, abandoning the strictness of the imitation before it becomes tiresome and pedantic, whereas "wee are so tedious" that we hang on to the canon to the bitter end. Not, however, that the Italians cannot write lengthy canons: "in that also, you shall finde excellent fantasies both of Maister Alfonso, Horatio Vecci, and others."
The work by Bathe55 published in 1600 contains ten canons.
In 1631 El way Bevin, organist of Bristol Cathedral, published:
A BRIEFE AND SHORT INSTRUCTION OF THE ART OF MV- SICKE, to teach how to ma\e Discant, of all proportions that are in use: very necessary for all such as are desirous to attaine to knowledge in the Art; And may by practice, if they can sing, soone be able to compose three, foure, and five parts: And also to compose all sorts of Canons that are usu- all, by these directions of two or three parts in one, upon the Plain-song. By EL WAY BEVIN. London, Printed by R. Young, at the signe of the Starre of Bread-street hill. 1631.56
55 See p. 254, supra.
56 Grove prints the title of his book incorrectly.
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It is dedicated to the Bishop of Gloucester. Bevin tells us that for years past he had composed "Canons of 2 and 3 parts in one upon the Plain-song," and though unwilling to publish them, did so because his friends desired him, when he "called to minde, that it might tend to the praise and glory of Almighty God, and to the benefit of my native country." His canons are complicated, and the instruction in that sub- ject slightly fuller than Morley's, but so much the same in method as hardly to be worth giving to the world. Perhaps to satisfy the Bishop he makes some far-fetched comparisons between canons and religion :
A Canon of three in one hath resemblance to the holy Trinity, for as they are three distinct persons and but one God, so are the other three distinct parts, comprehended in one. The leading part hath reference to the Father, the following part to the Sonne, the third to the holy Ghost.
At the end he writes,
Thus much have I thought sufficient for young Practitioners at this pres- ent, but if I may perceive any to take profit herein, I shall be encouraged hereafter to set out a larger Volume, if it please God to give me life, and unable me thereunto. . . . Thy harty wel-wisher in Christ Jesus, Elway Bevin.
Bevin was an old man, and no other volume appeared. He received the foundation of his learning from no less a teacher than Tallis, and in turn had a creditable pupil, William Child (1606-1697).
ACOUSTICS
That Elizabethan of vast learning, Sir Francis Bacon, in his heroic at- tempt to assemble the scientific knowledge of his time and publish it in systematic form, devotes one Latin treatise and part of a longer English work to the subject of acoustics. These are:
Historia et inquisitio prima de sono et auditu, et de forma soni et latente
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processu soni; sive sylva soni et auditus. Written before 1622, published 1688.
Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historic In ten Centuries}1 Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam Viscount St. Alban about 1625, published 1627.
The twentieth century considers the writings of Bacon with mixed feelings. On the one hand we are under great obligation to him, for by insisting that we base our scientific generalizations solely on natural phenomena and not on the unprovable presuppositions of the Aristo- telians and medieval philosophers, he helped break the medieval stranglehold on science and usher in the modern age. On the other hand he was a child of his own period and was guilty of innumerable mistakes both of omission and commission. He had neither the time nor the modern inclination to test all his statements, so he copied scien- tific misinformation from numerous respected authors with the same awe for tradition that he criticized in the philosophers. This error he inherited from the middle ages, when
Miracles were simply believed like other marvels. The habit of asking how effects are produced had then no existence, and consequently the a priori difficulty which hinders men from believing in wonderful stories, except on commensurate evidence, was never felt.68
Few scientific laws were known in Bacon's day, and fewer under- stood. He showed little aptitude for formulating and investigating these, partly no doubt because he felt that the multifarious phenomena of nature should be noted down first. Being unable to foretell the great part that mathematics was to play in the discovery of these laws, he pays negligible attention to measurements of all kinds. A distressing but typical example of this failing is his statement that a man's voice
57 Each "Century" is a chapter containing one hundred "experiments." Experiments 101 to 290 deal with acoustics.
58 Robert Leslie Ellis, in Spedding's edition of Bacon's philosophical works, ii. 325.
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travels a quarter of a mile "in a space of time far less perhaps than a minute."59 The actual time is about one and one-tenth seconds. He knows that a bell or string vibrates while it sounds, but he does not suggest that determining the number of vibrations per second might be of value. He is apparently even ignorant of the monochord, an instru- ment well known to both the ancient Greeks and the medieval writers on music because by means of it they could measure important rela- tionships of pitch. He furthermore made little effort to keep abreast of contemporary discoveries. Thus he seems to have been ignorant of the principle of the lever, and of the recent discoveries of logarithms, Kep- ler's astronomical laws, and the circulation of the blood;60 and he re- jects the discovery of the rotation of the earth as absurd. To his credit it can be said that he himself made several minor discoveries, and also curiously foreshadowed such modern inventions as balloons, subma- rines, telephones, and anesthetics.61
The chief thought that emerges from a perusal of Bacon's acoustical investigations is not any one discovery of his, but the fact that he missed by a hair's breadth the discovery of sound waves. He plays all around it, now hot, now cold, for such a time that it is rather surprising. One would think that rubbing his finger at varying speeds over ribbed cloth, or listening to the tuning of an organ, with the resultant "beats," would have suggested it; or that since he knew that the beating of a drum will put out the flame of a candle held near the wind-hole62 of the drum, he would have surmised that sound is produced or carried by a motion of the air too delicate to be measured with the instruments at
59 Historia . . . Soni. In Sylva Sylvarum, Experiment 289, he says "in the space of less than a minute," showing that in the interim he had not bothered to perform the ex- periment and ascertain the exact time, but on the contrary had become even more vague.
60 Of Bacon's failure to recognize the importance of the scientific discoveries of Har- vey and Gilbert, Sir William Osier wrote, "A more striking instance of mind blindness is not to be found in the history of science." — Bulletin of the History of Medicine, April 1939, P- 392.
61 See Francis Bacon by John Nichol, p. 194.
62 Historia . . . Soni, near the end.
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his disposal. But he hazards no explanation. He even compares the gradual quieting of the air after striking it has produced a sound, to that of water after an impact has set circles in motion upon it, yet he does not suggest that air too may be affected by wavelike motion. He is correct in saying that sounds are caused by "Pent Aire, that striketh upon Open Aire," also that sound is generated "between the String and the Aire," not between the string and the bow; but is mistaken when he claims that "Sound is without any Locall Motion of the Aire," and that a man's eardrum is broken by sound, not by motion of the air. He has to admit that, after thunder, windows rattle owing to "locall mo- tion of the air," but says that this motion of the air is a concomitant of the sound. The nearest he comes to the idea of sound waves is this con- fused statement:
In the sounds which we call Tones (that are ever equall) the Aire is not able to cast itself into any such variety [as it does when producing noise]; But is forced to recurre into one and the same Posture or Figure, only dif- fering in Greatnesse and Smalnesse.
Although in the Novum Organum he conceived of heat as an undula- tory motion, he conjectures in the Historia . . . Soni that both sound and light are carried by spiritual rather than material means, "for thus we must speak until something more assured shall be found."
He is also unable to solve the much easier question, Why is our major scale the normal one? He answers, Because it is easy to sing. Now it is true that the major scale is easy to sing, but that is merely because we have heard it all our lives. The whole-tone scale or a scale with nine equal steps to the octave would be easy to sing if we had heard it since earliest childhood. Because he knew nothing of the monochord or vibration ratios, he answers the question why "The Diapason or Eight in Musicke is the sweetest Concord" by the guess that "it is in effect an Unison." He observes correctly that there is nothing in the number 8 to cause the concord, for he adds with modern exactness that the octave
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is made up of seven whole tones or thirteen half tones, or more cor- rectly, as he adds, six whole tones or twelve half tones if one counts the intervals and not the notes. The true answer should have been that if the ten lowest notes in any harmonic series63 are sounded, e.g., on any brass instrument, all the intervals so formed64 happen to be evenly divis- ible, roughly speaking, by a certain interval; and this important inter- val, the semitone, is hence the unit of our system of intervals.
A few more of Bacon's ideas about music may be mentioned. In try- ing to explain the reasons for high and low pitch Bacon hovers between two theories. First he says, "It is evident, that the Percussion of the Greater Quantity of Aire, causeth the Baser Sound: And the lesse Quantity, the more Treble sound." In this he was led astray by the fact that a bass viol string is longer than a treble viol string and may be seen to vibrate through a wider arc. His second idea is, that "the Sharper or Quicker Percussion of Aire causeth the more Treble Sound, and the Slower or Heavier, the more Base Sound"; when strings are more wound up and strained they "give a more quick Start-back." Here too he comes close to discovering the theory of vibrations. He cor- rectly says that the loudness of a sound depends upon the force with which the air is struck. He is partially mistaken when he says, "You can never make a Tone, nor sing in Whispering." He has observed that water can transmit sound, yet he surprises us with the statement that sound passes through solid bodies only by virtue of the air con- tained in their texture.
He makes numerous observations on the instruments then in use,
$e.
Octave 5th 4th Major 3d Minor jd Major id Major id Minor 7th
The seventh note, B[j, has to be ignored because it sounds slightly out of tune in our Western music.
64 Octave, minor 7th, major and minor 6th, perfect 5th, perfect 4th, major and minor 3d, and major 2d.
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e.g., that the quality of the tone of a wind instrument depends some- what on the "Matter of the Sides of the Pipe, and the Spirits in them contained; for in a Pipe, or Trumpet, of Wood, and Brasse, the Sound will be divers," and he adds that a smooth surface improves musical tone. So he prefers strings of wire to those of gut, and he considers the tone of a wind instrument with its bore slightly moistened more "sol- emne," because the bore is "a little more Even and Smooth." "Gener- ally the Straight Line," as in recorders and flutes, "hath the cleanest and roundest sound, And the Crooked the more Hoarse, and Jarring." So the trumpet has a "purling sound." "In Frosty Weather, Musick within doors soundeth better" because the wood or string is drier, and so more porous and hollow. "And we see that Old Lutes sound better than New, for the same reason." This is probably true. He finds that singing in the hole of a drum makes the singing more sweet. He rec- ommends it, but suggests that "for handsomnesse sake" a curtain should be hung between the drum and the audience.
It is easy for us to smile at Bacon's mistakes, just as any schoolboy three hundred years hence will laugh at ours. Bacon could have made important discoveries and inventions if he had used even the scientific apparatus of his own time and had perceived the value of accurate com- putation and measurement. From the common pendulum he could have invented the metronome, from experiments with the pitch of anvils the tuning fork. Yet we must marvel at the vast interests of the man, who could take the trouble to sound tongs under water, whistle through a cannon, compare the tone of gold, silver, and brass bells, and observe that two voices in unison cannot be heard twice as far as one. And to quote Dr. Felix E. Schelling,
Bacon's role was less that of an investigator than an appraiser of human accomplishment and a guide with his face towards the future. Judged by what he accomplished, not what he missed, he remains a very great man.
[27i]
The ^JMusician Himself
IT remains to speak of the composers as human beings — what sort of persons they were, how they gained their musical education and earned their living, and whether they were sufficiently interested in other provinces of knowledge than music to be worthy citizens of a great country.
It must be admitted at the outset that our personal knowledge of them is very scanty, so much so indeed that the year and place of birth of but few of the composers is known with certainty. Consequently we are usually ignorant of such significant facts as their heredity, educa- tion, and friendships. Probably many of them were choirboys. Ravens- croft was a choirboy under Pearce, organist of St. Paul's. Orlando Gib- bons as a boy sang in the choir of Kings College, Cambridge, under his brother, Edward Gibbons. Bull was in the Chapel Royal under Blithe- man, and Byrd was said to have been a choirboy at St. Paul's. He, Thomas Tomkins, John Mundy, the younger Ferrabosco, Nathaniel Giles, and Hilton were sons of musicians. Camden and Heather, who founded the famous chairs of history and music at Oxford, are reputed to have been choirboys, and it has been conjectured that their friend- ship commenced at that time. Morley and Thomas Tomkins were pu- pils of Byrd.
There were, however, two honors that the composers of the day printed after their names with such regularity as to show how much they valued them. One was the degree of either Bachelor or Doctor of Music from Oxford or Cambridge. At Cambridge the first recorded recipient of the degree of Doctor of Music was a Thomas Saintwix, who took it about 1463, and at Oxford the important composer Robert Fayrfax, 151 1. The first recorded baccalaureate degrees in music were
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INTERIOR OF ST. PAULS: THE CHOIR
THE MUSICIAN HIMSELF
awarded toward the end of the fifteenth century, but such degrees may have been granted to others much earlier. The University of Dublin, founded 1591, gave its first musical degree to Thomas Bateson, the mad- rigal composer, in 1615. For such degrees at Oxford and Cambridge no examinations were required, and no lectures given, but an original composition and testimonials as to musical study and practice were necessary. What we would call an honorary doctorate was given to William Heather, because he founded a professorship in music. He was not a composer. We do not know if any other honorary degrees were conferred, but if they were, the recipients were composers and had to submit the required compositions. Various applicants were refused de- grees. A university's written permission for the degree was called a "Grace."1 It stipulated the kind of composition that the candidate must submit and recorded the number of years he had spent in the practice of music. This last information gives us some idea as to when the com- poser was born. Otherwise, these Graces lack interest. The title of Doc- tor is usually prefixed in Elizabethan books to the names of those hold- ing that honor, but the appellation "Master" so often found was merely a token of respect. The degree of Master of Music, which has occasion- ally been granted in recent years at Cambridge but never at Oxford, did not exist in Elizabethan times. Recipients of musical degrees were usually at least thirty years of age. Dowland and John Mundy were young to receive their bachelor's degrees when they were about twenty- six. Mundy was not made a Doctor of Music until he was over sixty. Important composers to hold music degrees from Oxford were Bull, John Daniel, Dering, Farnaby, Nathaniel Giles, Jones, Morley, Peer- son, Pilkington, Thomas Tomkins, Vautor, and Weelkes; and Farmer, Fayrfax, Edward and Orlando Gibbons, John Hilton the Younger, Edward Johnson, Ravenscroft, Tye, and Robert White took similar de- grees at Cambridge.
1 The Grace for Tye's Bachelor of Music degree has been quoted on p. 68, footnote.
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The other highly valued honor was membership in the Chapel Royal. Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal included Fayrfax, Cornyshe,2 Tallis, Byrd, Robert Parsons, Morley, Bevin, William Mundy, Orlando Gib- bons, Thomas Tomkins, and Nathaniel Giles. Men like Thomas Tom- kins were members without actually living in London, and it was the selection of such men as he that made membership in the Chapel Royal so highly prized. It is not possible now to reconstruct a picture of the exact duties of even the men of the Chapel Royal from day to day, and to do so for the composers in general would be still more difficult. Many were organists of cathedrals, such as Bateson, Bull, Byrd, Bevin, Michael East, Farmer, Ellis Gibbons, Morley, Pattrick, Thomas Tomkins, and Weelkes. Orlando Gibbons was one of the organists of the Chapel Royal and, at the end of his life, of Westminster Abbey. Others were choirmasters, or organists in less exalted positions, e.g., Carlton, the Hiltons, John Mundy, Peerson, Pilkington, Porter, Ravenscroft, and Yonge. Some were merely choirmen — "singing men" was the quaint term — such as Parsley, and the learned copyist John Baldwin. Lutenists were in demand, since one of them could entertain a company by sing- ing and playing at the same time. Such were John and Robert Dow- land, Daniel, Robinson (at the court of Denmark), Greaves (in a rich household), and Maynard (in a school). Some rich men loved music sufficiently to keep one or more musicians regularly in their employ. Such were likely to be lutenists, as Daniel and Greaves, but we are not certain regarding some of the following "household musicians" whether they were singers or players: Edward Johnson, who superintended the music for the Earl of Leicester during the famous visit of Queen Eliza- beth to Kenilworth, Kirbye, Vautor, Ward, Wilbye, and Youll. The lutenist John Cooper (Coprario) instructed Prince Henry Stuart in
^Robert Fayrfax (d. 1521) was the leading English composer of his generation. Wil- liam Cornyshe (c. 1465— 1523) "was a noted composer, playwright, actor, and pageant master (and, curiously, on occasion, provider of guttering, paving, and even sanitary con- veniences) about the court of Henry VIII" (Dr. Percy A. Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music, 1938, p. 232).
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music, and Ford was one of the prince's players or singers. That musi- cians were often poorly recompensed for their labors was attested by Weelkes, who wrote that "povertie hath debarred them their fellow arts mens companie."3
So far as comments have come down to us, leading musicians were highly respected. This was certainly true of Tallis, Byrd, and Case. The British Minister to Brussels made some scurrilous charges against Bull, but as Bull shortly afterwards was appointed organist of Antwerp Cathedral, and had previously served as one of the organists of the Chapel Royal for twenty years with distinguished honors from both Queen Elizabeth and King James, it is hard to credit them. Anthony Wood wrote that Nathaniel Giles "was noted for his religious life and Conversation (a rarity in Musicians)," but Wood lived after the Res- toration. Many composers referred with apprehension to the criticism they expected would greet their works, and there consequently must have been considerable jealousy among musicians. Morley mentions this in the following imaginary dialogue :
Polymathes [to his Master, Morley]: Whereas you justly complaine of the hate and backbiting amongst the musicions of our countrey, that I knowe to bee most true, and speciallie in these young fellowes.4
Dowland was angry when Hume claimed that the viola da gamba was as fine an instrument as the lute, and Morley criticizes both the organ playing in St. Paul's and the book on theory published by William Bar- ley. But these seem the only recorded instances of specific criticism by one Elizabethan composer of a English contemporary, and here neither Hume nor Barley is mentioned by name. Composers refer to each other by name only in terms of praise. On the other hand we hear little of friendships between the composers. That between Tallis and Byrd was remarkable. Morley always spoke of his teacher Byrd with reverence.
3 Weelkes, Balletts and Madrigals to five voyces, 1598.
4 Morley, A Plaine and Easie Introduction, p. 150.
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The distinguished composer and organist Peter Philips studied music under Westcote, the organist of St. Paul's Cathedral, and lived in his house. Living with one's master was characteristic of the 'prenticeships of the time, and the incident points to the possibility that this custom extended to students of music. Westcote left his pupil jf5.1y.4d. in his will.5 Byrd and the elder Ferrabosco were on friendly terms, and per- haps Tye and Taverner, if any significance is to be attached to the fact that a motet "O Splendor Gloriae" was begun by the former and fin- ished by the latter. Watson and Byrd were so grateful to John Case for effectively championing the cause of music that they wrote the words and music of the madrigal in his honor and had it published.
Many musicians were interested in other subjects besides music, and a number attained distinction in these fields. Several were students or "dons" at the universities. John Shepherd, who composed notable church music in the early part of the sixteenth century and died about 1563, was Organist and Fellow of Magdalen College. He may never have been a university student, but the college authorities evidently con- sidered him a man of good judgment. Bathe studied at Oxford, but does not seem to have received any degree. John Case held the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Oxford and was a Fellow of St. John's College. Campion was Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and a "Doc- tor of Physic," a distinction which he must have received abroad. Dowland may possibly have attended Trinity College, Dublin, but whether he did or not he acquired a remarkably adequate education somewhere on his journey through life. Flud received from Oxford the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Medicine, and Doctor of Medicine. Watson studied poetry at Oxford and law in Lon- don. Charls Butler was a Master of Arts of Cambridge University. Sev- eral of the lesser composers were clergymen — Tye, Farmer, Carlton, Marson, Thomas Mudd, and Pilkington. Most of these were musicians
5 Grattan Flood, The Musical Times for 1925, p. 718, and 1929, p. 312.
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THE MUSICIAN HIMSELF
first and clerics afterwards, but Carlton got his Bachelor of Arts degree at Clare College, Cambridge, in 1577, and Mudd (not the John Mudd that Peacham names as one of the sixteen excellent musicians of Eng- land) was a Fellow of Pembroke Hall there. The epitaph to John Thorne (c. 1520-1573), organist of York Cathedral, mentions his skill in logic. Wood mentions the excellence of Morley and Byrd in mathe- matics, which the former learned from the latter. Dowland made a felici- tous translation of Ornithoparcus' Micrologus into English. Morley owned a Greek lexicon and could use it, and he criticizes incorrect Greek etymology and scansion. As in the modern British tradition, the composers of Elizabeth's reign wore their learning both modestly and lightly. The connection of Richard Edwards, Richard Farrant, Robert White, Hunnis, Giles, Westcote, Pearce, Jones, and Daniel with the theatre has been cited in Chapter VII, although they were primarily musicians. Nicholas Laniere, Master of the King's Musick under Charles I and II, was an excellent connoisseur of art, and bought pic- tures in Italy for Charles I. But of all the musicians Campion astonishes us most, through both the extraordinary variety of his accomplishments and his proficiency in each. He studied law, and wrote both poetry and music of outstanding excellence, together with technical treatises deal- ing with the latter two subjects, also a considerable quantity of Latin verse; yet medicine was his profession, and he achieved contemporary recognition in that field as well as in music and poetry.
Indeed, a remarkable number of the composers were either passable poets or at least capable judges of poetry. Antony Holborne, who was a lutenist and gentleman usher to Queen Elizabeth, Allison, Cooper, Dowland, Leighton, Peerson, and Watson, all have left us samples of agreeable verse, and Richard Edwards was a prominent poet and dramatist of his time. Weelkes regretted that music was his only talent: "this small facultie of mine ... is alone in mee, and without the assist- ance of other more confident sciences"; yet he wrote excellent dedications to his works. The dedication by Farnaby in which he mentions Chaucer
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
is neat. The poetry of the ayres is superior to that of the madrigals, pos- sibly because the composers knew that doggerel could not escape detec- tion when pronounced by a single voice; but in both cases the quality of the words is usually satisfactory. The texts set by Bateson and Ward are particularly good. At least five of the men were even able to write Latin verse. These were Campion, Dowland, Byrd, Antony Holborne, and Nathaniel Tomkins. On the other hand, only three composers can be named who wrote clumsy English — Whythorne, Thomas Tomkins (who as a linguist was strangely inferior to his brother Nathaniel), and old Dr. Tye. Tye, music master to Edward VI, wrote reams of dog- gerel, and was a clergyman but a poor preacher. Fortunately the musi- cal compositions of both Tomkins and Tye are sufficiently admirable to atone for their literary deficiencies. It is just possible that the oblivion which engulfed Whythorne's madrigals was partly due to the wretched English of their preface.
Enough has been said to show the varied accomplishments and in- terests of a considerable number of the Elizabethan musicians. Their associations with the court, the theatre, the cathedrals, and the universi- ties brought them in contact with stimulating and varied influences. They frankly admired the music of Italy and learned from it, yet they never composed to Italian words, but wrote characteristically English music, each in his own original style. Would that all later English composers had followed their example.
[278]
XI
Finale
IN the early sixteenth century Castiglione described the ideal Courtier with his proficiency in the arts, and this ideal was wisely accepted by the English. Years passed, and during the reigns of the first two Stuarts musical taste changed, but not for the better. Interest in madri- gal singing fell away, and in the reign of Charles I the sharp decrease in music publishing betokened a declining regard for serious music. When Cromwell rose to power the madrigal and ayre were already a memory, but a second and final flowering of music for viols took place — music that depended on the never-failing interest of well-written counterpoint and beauty of line for its effect, not upon incisive rhythm or sheer weight of sound. The Restoration brought back a Stuart, but not the music of his forefathers. John Evelyn wrote in 1662 :
Instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind musique accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern or play- house than a church.
For a time little flourished but the fashions of France, and Charles him- self set the example for the nation by admiring only music to which he could keep time with his foot. Toward the close of the century Purcell provided an inspiring interlude, but after him came unpopular foreign kings, a foreign composer, and foreign singers. For the depressing finale let us turn to the words of the Sir Walter Raleigh of our own century :
The steady decadence of the English Court, in power and splendor, in- evitably wrought a gradual emaciation in the ideal of the Courtier. When Lord Chesterfield attempts to make a perfect Courtier of his son, the
[279]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
changed conditions are felt at every line. . . . Where the men of the Renais- sance hold that the perfect Courtier should be versed in all generous accom- plishments, a warrior, a man of letters, a statesman, and skilled in all arts and pastimes, Lord Chesterfield makes it the duty of the man of fashion to be unable to do most things. "If you love music, hear it; go to operas, con- certs, and pay fiddlers to play to you; but I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself."
To strike a happier note in conclusion, let us return to our sixteenth century and quote Castiglione's own description of his ideal Courtier:
And the Counte beginning a freshe: My Lordes (quoth he) you must know I am not pleased with the Courtyer if he be not also a musitien, and besides his understanding and couning upon the booke, have skill in lyke maner on sundrye instruments. For yf we waie it well, there is no ease of the labours and medicines of feeble mindes to be founde more honeste and more praise worthye in tyme of leyser than it. Do ye not then deprive our Courtyer of musicke.
[280]
^Appendix A
THOMAS WHYTHORNE'S PREFACE TO HIS SET OF MADRIGALS, 1571
Of Musick though the chief knowledge hath long time hindered been,
Because vertu not be'ing maintained, soon ceaseth it is seen,
Yet through the good zeal of a few, who therein pleasure took,
No costs nor pains, it to preserv of long time they forsook,
Beside our princes charge of late to have it eft renew'd,
With verte'ous rulers under her, whose willingness is shewd,
Like loov of gentils and honest hath raizd it from low eb,
Part of the matteer or ditties that I have set heerto,
The Psalter, or Psalms of David, I have them taken fro.
To the rest of this have I set (the base minds for to pleas)
Such Sonets as I think will sum of their sowr dumps appeas,
Devizd upon common chaunces, and out of worldly wurks,
So, as the reason hath me taught, which in my rude hed lurks,
Sum of them be Poeticall, sum Philosophicall,
On sacred write, I made others to cumfort me withall,
In which is toucht th' affects of youth, the like of riper yeers,
Also of those that do decline, where cold old age appears.
Since erst I sayd, that heer among my Sonets there be sum
Poeticall, whose gods I uzd, as then in mind did cum:
Of Poetry thus here I end, my writing take at best, My pen heerafter from such toys, shall alway be at rest. This my said Musick made, do I, for voyces thus contrive, To sum for thre, to most for four, and t'all the rest for five.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Of these songs sum be short, sum long, sum hard, sum easi bi,
And of both sorts between them both, ye shall emong them se,
Heerin bi divers songs also, the which altred have I
By mending of sum the Musick, of others the ditti,
So that they be not now, as they were when I first them gave
Out of my hands, abrode to serv their turns who now them have:
Also becaws sum songs heer bi, whose trades1 perchauce b' unknown,
Not onely to such who in skill of singing ar well grown,
But eke to sum Musitians, who songs can well compose,
(That name belongs to none others, though sum theron do glose)
Eev'n such with the others (I say) I let them understand,
That I, A traueller have been, in sundry forrein land:
When I among the people did, a certaine time abide,
Whose divers trades2 of Musick, part (although not all) I spide,
But chiefly the Italian, emong the which is one,
That called is Napolitane (a prety mery one)
What I cowld write in Musicke prays, I will at this time stay,
And let you se what one famows, of that science doth say,
I mean the wurthy gentilman, Doctor Haddon by name,
Whose learned Muse, for Musicks sake, these verses thus did frame.
A third sort now I must heer towch, a sort of jangling jays,
Whose spightfull pens, to scof and skowld, is prest at all assays,
As Zoylus did to that Poet, who we do Homer call,
So wold these Zoylings have vertew unto their pens be thrall,
Therefore I say to the whole crew of all th'infected wights,
Momus' mates, and Zoylings (foresayd) who be'in such peevish flights,
That easi'er t'is for sum to find fawts written that doth lurk
Then it is for theim, theim t'amend and make perfect a wurk.
1 Ways, i.e. they were not of a kind known in England.
2 Ways, practices.
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APPENDICES
And easier it is for other sum t'amend fawts that do rise, Than out of their brains by study, for to make or devise A new wurk so great, and perfect in all points as that is, In which they can amend the fawts, that they do spy amis.
Heer to conclude I say that I this wurk do not set owt
To greev any of those foresayd (of whom I may have dowt)
But I do it only therwith, Gods prays ech wher to sing
Together with heav'nly solas, to heavy harts to bring.
For privat use of baser thoughts, not aspyring so hy,
Which like to feed their fansies, all, on wurks that be wordly.
To recre'at th'over burdened, and'sore afflicted minds,
To cumfort eke the powrs and spreets, which man's helth brings and binds.
And so consequendy to benefit ech part b'accord,
Of those that do delite to live, alway in trew accord.
FINIS.
[283]
^Appendix B
CANTIONES SACRAE by Tallis and Byrd, 1575. The Latin dedication by Tallis and Byrd, and Latin poems by Mulcaster and Ferdinando Richard- son in honor of the music of Tallis and Byrd.
Serenissimae Principi Elizabethae Dei Gratia Angliae Franciae & Hiberniae Reginae &c virtutis & vitae fortunatum progressum.
Si nobis res esset, Serenissima Princeps, vel cum iis, qui artem Musicam, quia non norunt, non probant, vel cum iis, qui ipsi iudicio ex arte carentes eius praestantiam admirabili sonorum effectu metiuntur: Philosophos, Mathematicos, Rerum pub. architectos advocaremus, qui eius necessarium Reipub. usum argumentis & experimentia, vel infensissimo Musici nominis hosti extorquerent: Poetas & allegorice docentes quosdam Physicos citare- mus, qui apud homines imperitos illos quidem, sed incredibili tamen rei Mu- sicae admiratione delinitos facile impetrarent, cum ea arte nullam esse aliam quae de principatu possit contendere. Sed cum apud tuam Maiestatem res agatur quae delectu tuo iudicium tuum prodidisti, & canendi peritiam tibi probari, in eo probas omnibus, quod ei arti ita semper regie incubueris, ut in ea iam egregie profeceris, & cum summis artificibus comparata, vel vocis elegantia, vel digitorum agilitate facile illis praemineas, satis erit in tua solius scientia & iudicio conquiescere, neque pluribus ad fidem rei faciendam argumentis uti, ne vel dubitando suspicionem ementitae laudis videamur alicui ingenerare, vel nimis curiosa argumentatione, aliquid de tuae Maies- tatis praestanti iudicio detrahere, quasi vel parum considerate earn primo complexa fueris vel iam de priori sententia vacillare coeperis, cui si nostram operam probamus, omnibus earn probatam iri confidimus, cum iudicio tuo ab omnibus tantum tribuatur. Qua itaque es peritia, Illustrissima Princeps, ad tuam Maiestatem, ut iudicem confugimus, qua dementia ut ad patronam nos recipimus, quae prolem hanc nostram tua auctoritate sic apud omnes tueare, ut nos ipsos liberalissimo tuo stipendio hactenus aluisti. Confidentiae
[284]
THE DEDICATION BY TALLIS AND BYRD TO QUEEN ELIZABETH
TO the Most Serene Sovereign Elizabeth by the grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland &c a happy increase in fortitude and length of days.
If, your Majesty, we were dealing either with those who do not approve of music because they are ignorant of it, or with those who because they have no musical taste judge its excellence by its pretty sounds, we would call in philosophers, mathematicians, and statesmen who by arguments and actual tests would wrest from even music's bitterest enemies an acknowl- edgment that it is essential to the state; we would summon poets and cer- tain natural philosophers who teach allegorically, who would easily convince men lacking in skill indeed but captivated by their extraordinary admira- tion for music, that no other art can compare with music in importance. But since the matter is in the hands of your Majesty, who have already given your decision of your own free will and prove to all that skill in sing- ing is approved by you in that you have always so devoted yourself royally to that art as to attain your present remarkable proficiency in it and when either artistic singing or skilful playing is the basis of comparison between yourself and the greatest performers you easily excel them, I am content to rest my case before your knowledge and musical taste, and to use no further arguments to win your favor for fear that by our hesitancy we may seem to be arousing the suspicion that our compositions are falsely praised, or by our excessive explanations to be impugning the keenness of your judgment, as if you had embraced that art with too little consideration in the begin- ning, or had now begun to change your mind; if we can convince you of the worth of our work we feel sure it will be approved by all, your judg- ment is held in such high esteem by everyone. Your wisdom is so based on practical experience, Most Illustrious Sovereign, that we have recourse to your Majesty as to a judge, your kindness is such that we turn to you as to a patron, in order that you may protect this child of yours by your authority before the world as you have so far supported us by your most generous
[285]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
nostrae ignoscet Serenissima Maiestas tua, quod tantum principem sic ausi simus interpellare, cum e solo voluntatis tuae testimonio pendeat, debea- musne ulterius in hoc genere progredi, an hoc uno libro labores nostros terminare. Deus opt. Max. Maiestatem tuam diu, incolumiter, fortunate nobis conservet.
Tuae Maiestatis
humillimi servientes, Tho. Tall. & Guil. Birdus
IN MUSICAM THOM.E TALLISII, ET GVILIELMI BIRDI
Quanti sit precii res Musica, quamque regendis
Insanis animi motibus apta, docent, Qui numeros formae sedem cuiuslibet esse,
E quibus efficitur Musica forma, docent. Quid! quod nemo docet, quonam Respublica pacto
Formanda, & quonam prima inventa modo, Quin idem doceat, primam quod Musica sedem
Obtineat, primo sitque docenda loco. Quid? quod & insignes medici, qui sana valere
Corpora, & a morbis ante tuenda docent Haec duo commendant nobis, ut corpora motus
Conservet, mentem Musica sana regat. Cum medicis, & philosophis annosa vetustas
Conspirans hanc est tota sequuta viam. Sed neque posteritas, quacum nunc vivimus, illam
Non probat, aut a se prorsus abire iubet, Quamvis certa loci, & rerum discrimina ponat,
In quibus hanc nimiam non placet esse sibi. Hoc tamen obtinuit communi Musica iure,
Vt quo quisque sapit rectius, ornet earn. Hoc etiarh obtinuit, quo summo iure triumphet,
Quo vivet, quamvis caetera mortis erunt,
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APPENDICES
bounty.1 Your Most Serene Majesty will pardon our boldness in thus inter- rupting you for so long, for it depends entirely upon the evidence of your good will as to whether we should proceed further in this kind of work, or should end our labors with this volume. May God, supremely good and great, spare your Majesty to us for a long, safe, and happy life.
Your Majesty's most humble servants, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
Richard Mulcaster's Poem
FOR THE MUSIC OF THOMAS TALLIS AND WILLIAM BYRD.
How valuable a thing music is, and how useful for checking the mad im- pulses of the mind, is shown by those who teach that numbers constitute the foundation of everything which has form, and that music is made up of these. What shall I say of the fact that no one teaches how the state should be regulated, and how it was originally brought about, without his likewise teaching that music should have the chief place of honor, and be taught above everything else? Furthermore, distinguished physicians, too, who teach men how to have healthy bodies and guard them from disease, advise these two things — that exercise should take care of the body, and wholesome music govern the mind. Hoary antiquity agreed with the physi- cians and philosophers, and with one accord followed in their footsteps. But their posterity, with whom we now live, does not approve of it, or bids it utterly begone, though it does assign definite bounds of place and circum- stance within which it is unwilling for music to become too important. Nevertheless, music has won this much by common consent: that the wiser a man is, the greater honors he pays to music. It has even won this success, in which it may exult with the greatest justification, through which it will live though other things die: her Majesty, the glory of our age, counts it
1 Stipendium. This included Tallis and Byrd's monopoly on music printing, granted earlier that year, a lease of a Manor on the isle of Thanet to Tallis, and the salaries of both Tallis and Byrd as Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Regia Maiestas aetatis gloria nostrae
Hanc in deliciis semper habere solet. Nee contenta graves aliorum audire labores
Ipsa etiam egregie voce manuque canit. Hanc alise gentes, ut earn vel semper amarunt,
Ausae sunt scriptis nobilitare2 suis.[,] Illustres animae, quia, quae cecinere scienter,
Non inviderunt omnibus ilia cani. Harum nostra prius magnos mirata labores
Anglia, sed semper passa latere suos, Tallisium, Birdumque duces iam nacta lubenter,
Quae peperit, patitur pignora luce frui:[,] Atque per externas gentes, quae gratia praelo,
Iudicio artificum discutienda vehi. Tantum illis tribuit, quos primos deligit, ut sic,
Iudicio patriae siquid honoris inest, Nomen honoratum sibi promereatur uterque,
Musica qua magnum pervia nomen habet, Quorum iudicio fidens se pandit aperte
Musica, quam Oceani Regia dives alit.
RlCHARDUS MULCASTERUS.
IN EANDEM THOM^ TALLISII, ET GVILIELMI BIRDI MUSICAM.
Extera quos genuit tellus, cum nominis alma
Musica praecones cerneret esse sui, Illorumque opera per summa cacumina laudum
Se celebrem vulgo conveniente vehi: Orlandum numeros divina voce sonare,
Edere & immensae posteritatis opus, Suavia Gombardum modulamina fundere dulcem,
Clementum placidos concinuisse modos,
2 Dr. Walton B. McDaniel suggests this emendation for nobilitate.
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APPENDICES
among her chief pleasures; and not content with listening to the serious works of others, she herself both plays and sings uncommonly well. Other nations, even as they have always loved music, have dared to ennoble it by their compositions — illustrious souls, because what they sang with skill they gladly gave to the world to sing. In former days our England admired the splendid works of these men but always allowed her own to lie in obscurity; but now that she has happily found leaders in Tallis and Byrd, to whom she gave birth, she allows her children to enjoy the light, and, such is the favor they have won in battle, to be carried through foreign lands for ap- praisement by masters of the art. So much does she attribute to those whom she selects as her leaders that, if there is any honor in the judgment of their native land, each of them merits an honored name wherever music, making its way, has a great name. Trusting in the judgment of these two men Mu- sic openly spreads herself, nurtured in the rich palace of Oceanus.3
Richard Mulcaster.
Ferdinando Richardson's Poem
FOR THE SAME MUSIC OF THOMAS TALLIS AND WILLIAM BYRD.
When fostering Music perceived that her heralds had been born in for- eign lands, and that she, now famous, was reaching the topmost pinnacles of glory by the assent of the multitude through the labor of these men — Orlando,4 singing with his heavenly voice and composing his works for the ages, Gombert5 pouring out his dulcet measures, Clemens6 harmonizing his gentle strains, Alfonso,7 the Phoenix of our time, creating songs8 that Apollo
3 The court of England, certainly, although Britannia did not "rule the waves" se- curely until she defeated the Armada, fourteen years later.
4 Orlando di Lasso, b. at Mons, 1530 or 1532, d. at Munich, 1594. He was interna- tionally famous as a choirboy because of his beautiful voice, and later became one of the greatest composers of the great sixteenth century.
5 Nicholas Gombert, b. at Bruges, fl. about 1537, Des Pres' best pupil.
6 Clemens non Papa, b. in Flanders, d. before 1558.
7 Alfonso Ferrabosco the Elder, Italian, who lived chiefly in England from 1562 to 1578 and died in Turin, 1588.
8 Some of the Latin musical terms used in Elizabethan times were exceedingly vague, e.g., numeri, modulamina, modi, carmina, cantus, and the verb cano.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Temporis Alphonsum nostri Phaenica creare
Carmina, quae Phoebus vendicet esse sua: Denique nominibus plena omnia talibus, Anglum
In nullo impressum nomen habere libro.[,] Pene subirasci coepit, nostro[s]que Britannos
Indignos donis insimulare suis. Quos certo scierat multum potuisse canendo,
Miratur nullos edere velle lib [r Jos, Cuius cum cuperent tristem finire querelam,
Tallisius magno dignus honore senex, Et Birdus tantum natus decorare magistrum,
Promittunt posthac non fore, ut ante fuit. Cudendosque suos cantus, sua carmina curant,
Ilia aliorum oculis passus uterque legi. Quae quo iudicio sint edita, iudicet ille,
Qui cum iudicio, quae legit, ilia legit. Certe ego, si pueris rudibus censura daretur,
Divino auderem dicere nata stylo, Dignaque quae toto circumferrentur in orbe,
Anglia quo cives iactitet esse suos[.] Haec habui, venerande senex, mihi magne magister,
Danda tibi mentis conscia signa meae. Haec habui, iuvenis nostrae spes altera gentis,
Quae fundo in laudem carmina nata tuam. Communemque mihi tecum sic orno magistrum
Carmine, ut Harmonici tu potes arte modi. Quod si quando mihi dederit divina voluntas
Musica cum linguis iungere ut arma queam, Nulla voluntatis deerit pars debita nostrae,
Quin debere mihi se quoque Musa putet. Interea, mihi dum succrescit longior aetas,
Haec vobis animi sint bona signa boni.
Ferdinandus Richardsonus.
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APPENDICES
might well claim as his own — in short, an overwhelming number of names,9 with not a single printed book containing an English one10 — she began to be almost angry, and to accuse our British composers as unworthy of her gifts. She is surprised that those composers whom she knew for certain to have great ability do not wish to publish their works. Because Tallis, an aged man worthy of great honor, and Byrd, who was born to adorn so great a teacher, wish to silence her gloomy complaints, they promise that the previ- ous state of affairs shall not continue. They are carefully preparing their vocal compositions for the press, each having them read by others. The judgment shown in their publication may be judged by him who reads what he reads with judgment. I surely may presume to say, if inexperienced youths11 were allowed to give their opinions, that they are written in a divine style and are worthy to be circulated the whole world over, so that England may say proudly they are her citizens.
I have composed these verses to be given to you, my revered senior and great teacher, as conscious tokens of my thoughts toward you. I have com- posed them expressly in praise of you also, the other and youthful hope of our race. Consequently, Byrd, I honor our common master with a poem, since your great powers lie in the field of music. But if ever the Divine Will shall give me the power to compose for voices accompanied by instruments, I shall dutifully strain every nerve, so that the Muse may recognize that she is indebted to me also. Meantime, as my years increase, may this be a pleas- ant token of my warm feelings toward you.
Ferdinando Richardson.
9 Palestrina, the greatest composer of the time, is not mentioned by Richardson, and seems to have been little known in England.
10 This is not strictly true. Several musical works were printed in England before the Cantiones Sacrae, including missals, Wynkyn de Worde's songs (1530), psalters, Tye's Actes of the Apostles (1553), several anthems by Tallis himself (1560-65), and Why- thorne's madrigals (1571). Possibly Richardson had seen none of these, except surely the psalters.
II Richardson was merely a pen name used by Sir Ferdinando Heybourne (see p. 113). He was only about seventeen when he wrote this; Grove's Dictionary says he was born about 1558.
[291]
^Appendix C
THE PRAISE OF MUSICKE,1 BY JOHN CASE, 1586: EXCERPTS
Preface to the Reader. The author quotes various stories from antiquity to prove that music, although sometimes practised by unworthy men, is in- trinsically noble:
If there bee any such foolish musicians as Arcabius was, having that fault whereof Horace speaketh,
Ut nunquam inducant animum cantare rogati,
Injussi nunquam desistant:2
That being praid to sing and shew their skil, Cannot induced be, say what thou list:
But unrequested keepe a chaunting stil, And from their folly never will desist. Straightway musicke is wayward and troublesome, cunning men are either dangerous or phantasticall, as if to be skilfull, were a fault, or to be cunning, worthy reprehension. Great occasion & advantage of inveighing against this art, is taken of that saying which King Philip of Macedon used to his sonne Alexander when he rebuked him, for that he could sing so well and cunningly; as if we did allow the importunitie3 of Nero, which is said, all a long sommers day, to have sitten in the Theatre, playing on his Harp. Mu- sicke is so to be used of4 Noble & Gentle men, as Achilles did in Homer: who after that bitter contention between him and Agamemnon, taking to him his harp, (whereon he had learned to play of Chiron the Centaure, who also taught him feates of armes, with Phisicke and surgerie) and playing thereon, sang the martial acts of the Princes of Grece, as Hercules, Perseus, Peritheus, Theseus, & his cosen Jason, & was therewith as- swaged of his fury and reduced into his first estate of reason. And this in him was so commendable, that Alexander himselfe, after he had vanquished Ilion, being demanded of one, if he would see the harp of Paris, who ravished Helena: thereat gently smiling answerd, it was not the thing he much desired, but had rather see the harp of Achilles, wherewith he sang not the illecebrous delectations of Venus, but the valiant acts & noble affaires of excellent princes. Some, I doubt not, will exult to drawe a reproach of this art from the ancient Greekes, with whom it was at first in greatest estimation. But I would not have any man suppose that my purpose is in this treatise, otherwise to speake of that science, than so, as it may seem both worthy private delectation, for a mans proper
1 For a summary, see p. 29, footnote. 2 Horace: Satires, Book 1, No. 3.
8 Approve the inopportune action. 4 Of: by.
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APPENDICES
solace, and also publickly commodious in matters both civill & ecclesiasticall as in the processe shalbe declared. And therefore I refer the reader, for the decent use hereof to the 8. booke of Aristotles Politiques, & the 7. chapter of Sir Thomas Eliot's 1st Book of his Governour.
If thou be unskilful and ignorant, think that I will not so mildely answer thee as Stratonicus answered King Ptolemy, A scepter o King is one thing and an instrument another.5
Chapter 1. The Antiquitie and Original of Music\e: first generally, then more particularlie set down. This tells of music in the days of the gods and the Greek heroes. Music's parentage, he says, is uncertain. The Muses claim her, "as may appear by christening her Musicke after their owne name." But some say the gods invented music. "For proofe hereof may serve the image of Apollo which stoode at Delos, bearing in the one hand his bowe and arrowes as being God of the archers, in the other the three graces with severall instruments as having soveraintie over the Musitians." Singing is ascribed to Jupiter, and the invention of the lyre to Mercury. The origin of the reed instrument called the Pshalme6 is not so certain. Possibly the Muse Euterpe, or Ardalus the son of Vulcan first made it, but according to most, Minerva the daughter of Jupiter.
And because everie artificer loveth his owne worke, Minerva was delighted with her pipe, and used even in the assemblie of the gods to winde it: till such time till both they drave her both from her Musicke and their presence by laughing at her blowen cheekes. Shee to make triall of the matter went down to a river side, and beholding her swelling face in Neptunes glas bid her pipe farewell in a great choler, loathing & dis- gracing the same as much as it disfigured her.
Chapter 2. The Dignitie of Music\e proved both by the rewardes and practise of many and most excellent men. Among its friends — all of them of course from ancient Greece and Rome! — are mentioned Themistocles, Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Nero, Galba, Vespasian, Diodorus, and Alexander the Great. The musician Terpander was called upon to quell a tumult of the Lacedemonians, and Greece ordained that the same men should be their sages, prophets, and musicians. Cimon of Athens and Epaminondas of
5 ETEQOV EO[x]l TO OXTJJtTQOV XCll TO JtXfjXTQOV, & fiaOlktV.
6 Or shalmey. Cf. the chdumeau register of the clarinet.
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Thebes were capable musicians, and Nero won a garland for his victory over the harpers. Socrates when "faire stricken in yeares, and having in a manner one foote in the grave, yet of an old master became a young scholer unto Conus for the attaining of this science." Nevertheless, some musicians have brought their profession into ill repute,
So that I marvel the lesse if Diogenes the cynick Philosopher, amongest other his dog- trickes put up a formal bil of inditement against the musicians in open and ordinarie court, for shewing greater skill in Concordes and unisons of their notes, than unitie and consent of manners.
Antisthenes said of someone, "He is a naughty man: if he were honest he would never be a musician"; Case retorted that Antisthenes was a "Tom Fool."
Chapter 3. The Suavitie of Music\e. "I shall first therefore speak of the swetenes and delectation of Musicke: and afterwards of the use and neces- sity thereof." So by numerous anecdotes and examples he tells how by the nature of things music soothes and refreshes mankind, and, as he goes on to say, animals:
Neither do I here so attribute this delectation unto man, as denying it to other crea- tures, for I am verily persuaded, that the plowman & carter of whom I spake before7 do not so much please themselves with their whistling, as they are delightsom to their oxen & horses. Again the warhorse is so inflamed with the sound of the trumpet, that he can- not keepe his standing, but maketh an open way to his rider, through the midst of his thickest enemies. And here may it please the reader for his recreation, to call to mind one speciall history of the Sibarits: whose horses were not only delighted with Musick, but also taught to dance to the instrument: insomuch that one of their musicions at a certain time, having some discurtesy & injury offred him took occasion to forsake his country, & fled to the Crotoniats, which were enimies to the Sibarits, forasmuch as not long before that time the Sibarits had given them the overthrow in battle. This tibicen, or plaier on the shalm, comming among the crotoniats, made his speech unto them to this purpose & effect, that if they could afford him credit, he wold work such a device, as they shold easily obtain the conquest of the Sibarits horsmen. Credit was given unto his tale, & he ordained captain of the war, instructed all the fluters and shalmers of the
7 Chapter 3, page 43: "Even the ploughman and carter, are by the instinct of their harmonicall soules compelled to frame their breath into a whistle, thereby not only pleasing themselves, but also diminishing the tediousnes of their labors."
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Crotoniates, what note they shold play, and how they should addresse themselves against their enimies. Now the Sibarites on the other side being insolent, & having taken hart & grace & courage unto them by reason of their former victory, prepare themselves to meete their enimies in the field. Wherefor the Shalmers of whome I spake before having re- ceived a watchworde of the Captaine, on a suddaine sounded their Flutes and Shalmes. The horses of the Sibarites hearing their country Musicke, whereunto they had beene ac- customed, reared themselves on their hinder feete, cast their riders, and as they were wont to daunce at home, so now they did it in the skirmish, and by this policy, the Cro- toniats wan the victory of the Sibarits. Whereby may be gathered not onely how perni- cious clandestine treason is to a commonwealth, but also what strange & incredible de- light musick impresseth even in these dumbe and unreasonable creatures. So mules are wonderfully alured with the sound of bels: & sheepe follow their sheepheards whistle. And it is recorded also, that the Hart and other wilde beastes are by sweete and pleasant notes drawen into the toiles and gins of the huntesman. ^Elianus in his varia historia testifieth, that Pythocaris a musition playing upon his Cornet, mitigated the fierce and ravenous nature of wolves, and that the mares of Libia and Oliphantes of India woulde followe the sound of Organes and divers other instruments. Now as these terrestrial beasts have their peculiar and proper delightes, so aquaticall creatures also living in another element, offer themselves voluntarily to the sound of Musicke: so, as Martianus recordeth, certaine fishes in the poole of Alexandria are with the noice of instruments in- ticed to the bankes side, offering themselves to mens hands, so long as the melody en- dureth.8
Chapter 4. The Effects and Operation of Music\e. In the previous chapter the author proved the sweet influence of music by considering the causes, particularly the agreement that music has with our natures. In this chapter he shows its effects, recounting the extraordinary powers that music has of either rousing a man to action, or of changing his purpose altogether. Case, like medieval writers, unhesitatingly copies from Macrobius the remarkable effects of music written in the various ancient scales:
Modus Dorius is a giver of wisdom, and a causer of chastitie.
Lydius sharpneth dull wits, and to men oppressed with earthly cares, it bringeth a de- sire of heavenly things.
8 Robert Burton in the Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 2, Sec. 2, Memb. 6, Subsec. 3, also testifies to the extraordinary effect of music on fishes, and quotes a traveler who "saith of whales, that they will come and show themselves dancing at the sound of a trumpet"; also a philosopher's statement that in a lake in Lydia "there be certain float- ing islands that after music will dance." Burton conscientiously tells us that he does not quite believe this.
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Modus Phrygius provoketh to fight, and maketh courageous. Aeolius quieteth the mind, & giveth sleepe to the Pacified senses.
Its medicinal effects were equally extraordinary:
Thales a musician of Creet, with the sweetnes of his harmonie, banished the plague from his citie. I durst in no wise affirme the last effect & operation of this worthie arte, were it not that Plato with his credite and authoritie did embolden me: "The chaunging of Musicall notes, hath caused an alteration of the common state." Likewise in Apulia when anie man is bitten of the Tarrantula, which is a certain kind of flie [!], verie venimous and full of daunger, they finde out the nature and sympathie of the sicknesse or humor, with playing on instrumentes, and with diversitie of Musicke, neither doe they cease from playing, untill the often motion and agitation, have driven the disease away.
Chapter 5. The Necessitie of Musicke.
Musicke, unlike a laboring mans garment, is not necessary to existence, but, like a gentlemans apparel, is profitablie necessary for the comlinesse of life. Pythagoras his Scholers, as Tullie recordeth were woont ... to withdraw their mindes from inten- tive and deepe cogitations with singing and with instruments. Homer in the same sense termeth musicians Sophronistas, that is to say, Moderators or teachers of Temperance, and Strabo called them the masters and correctors of maners. . . . Aristotle considered that musicke ought to be accompted of and embraced, for that it is liberal. [Yet] hee counselleth noble men rather to use it for their private solace, than publicke ostentation. Jupiter is never made to sing, or to plaie upon any instrument, although they deny him not most exact knowledge and judgement. . . . In a word, Aristode's resolution touch- ing the civil necessity is, that musicke hath relation to these three things, to delectation, to discipline, and to an happy life. To delectation, because Musicke with the sweetness thereof doth refresh the minde and make it better able to greater labours. To discipline, because it is a cause of breeding in us chastitie, temperance, and other morall virtues. To an happy life, because that cannot consist without judgement and liberall delectations.
Chapter 6, The Use of Music\ generallie in the course of our life, disap- points us, for its illustrations are drawn from classical life rather than from sixteenth-century England.
Chapter 7 concerns The Particuler use of Music\e in Civill matters, espe- cially in sacrifices, feasts, manages and Burials; "for I dare not speake of dauncing or theatricall spectacles, lest I pull whole swarmes of enemies upon me." One gathers, however, that he approves of dancing and plays under proper conditions.
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Chapter 8 deals with The Particular Use of music\e in war-life matters, again chiefly among the ancients.
Chapter 9. The Lawful Use of Musicke in the Church confirmed by the practise of the church. The Puritans were opposed to all music in church except psalm-singing unaccompanied by instruments. A quotation from St. Jerome gives authority for this practice, but other passages from the Bible and early Fathers show that instruments, hymns, and antiphonal singing were used. The stricter Puritans objected to all three of these in church.
The ancient church of the Jews sang unto the Lord. When the Ark was brought to the city of David, the four thousand Levites song and made melodie, but David himself also sang, rejoiced, and daunced before it. When the temple was builded by Solomon, the Levites sang unto the Lord, songs of praise and thanksgiving, lifting up their voices with trumpets and Cimbals, and with instruments of Musick; which service the Lord did so gratefully accept, that hee vouchsaved his visible presence, and filled the temple with his glory. St. Paul said, I will sing with the spirit, but will sing with understanding also. [St. Jerome urges a woman to visit Jerusalem with the argument that she will find there] divers languages, but one religion, and so many quiers of singers as there is di- versities of nations. . . . And in the same epistle they ad, In christi villula. Here in christ his village is no pride but al plainnes, and besides the singing of Psalms, nothing but silence. The husbandman holding the plough singeth Alleluia, the harvest man sweating at his labour doth solace himselfe with Psalms, and hee which cutteth the vines singing some Psalme of David. These are our verses in this countrie, these are our amarous songs.
The Western Church at first provided no music for its worshippers. Milan was the first of its congregations to sing anthems and hymns. St. Ambrose, its bishop, introduced them there, and psalms also, "least the people being in continual watchings and labor should faint and pine away for sorow." The psalms had been sung antiphonally in the church at Antioch, and Isidorus says St. Augustine first introduced the singing of anthems into his church, as done by the Greeks, antiphonally, "like the 2. Seraphins or the 2. testaments answering one another." The singing of hymns is mentioned in quotations from Jerome, Eusebius, Basil, St. Augus- tine, Theodoret, Epiphanius, and Rabbi Samuel. Case does not always trou- ble to quote verbatim:
For commandement it is said, Praise him with Virginals & organs, praise him with
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cimbals, praise him with high sounding cimbals, let everie thing that hath breath praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalme 150.9
Chapter 10. The Lawful Use of Church Musicke proved by authorities out of the D odours. The preceding chapter described the use of music in the early church; this sets forth the views of the church Fathers regarding the art. St. Augustine is quoted: "How great abundance of teares did I shed at the hearing of thy hymnes and Psalmes, and how inwardly was I moved with the voice of thy sweete singing congregation." And Tertullian: "Let Psalmes and hymnes be song even of two, and let them provoke one an- other, whether of them can sing better to his God." Gregory Nazianzen commended his sister Gorgonia because "she was skilful in singing and used it very often." Athanasius extols singing in church, "for the soule being made mery with the pleasant sound is brought to a sense and feeling of Christ, and most excellent and heavenly cogitations." Emperors approved it. Constantine "first began the psalme, praied together with the people." Theodosius II "went in the middest before them [the congregation] in the habite of a private person while they song their hymnes. When the emperor Valens entred into the church where Saint Basil preached hearing the sound of the psalms he was stricken as if it had been with thunder. When so ever" Charles the Great "came to anie cittie hee went to the Psalmody and sang him-selfe." Case admits that some of the later ecclesiastics "I confesse be earnest against pricksong and artificiall musicke in the church. . . . But I am so farre from allowing of the abuse, and of popish church Musicke, that I detest both the one and the other. Read the comments of Bullinger, Peter Martyr, Calvin, . . . and the Lutherans, and you shall find all the conten- tion to be against the abuse: no one word against the right and lawfull use thereof."
Chapter 11. Sentences of the Scripture, for the use of Church Music\, are quoted.
9 In this learned chapter Case quotes, naming book and chapter, from the Old and New Testaments, Isidorus, Pliny the Younger, Eusebius, Zozomenus, Nicephorus, Soc- rates Scholasticus, Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Hilary, Theodoret, Basil, Dio- nysus Alexandrinus, Hymni Ambrosii, Damasus, Platina, Bishop Jewel's answer to Mas- ter Harding, Gregory the Great, Epiphanius and Rabbi Samuel, fifty-eight quotations in all.
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Chapter 12. A refutation of objections against the lawful use of Music\e in the Church. This chapter is illuminating, for it lists each of the Puritans' objections to church music, with an Anglican refutation.
Case divides the Puritans into two classes. Those holding moderate views dislike only singing by the minister, or by singing men deputed for the pur- pose, and though they cannot do away with exquisite and cunning music, nor instruments in the church, "thinke plainesong farre more meete for Gods congregation." They urge three objections to the use of ornate music in church, which are substantially as follows:
First Puritan Objection. Away with complicated music; all men should sing together.
Answer. Some cannot sing at all; why cannot they derive good from hearing others sing, as they do from hearing others pray?
Second Objection. Exquisite music contains too much repetition, and is hard to under- stand.
Answer. This objection contradicts itself; if the words are hard to understand, repeti- tion will make them clear. Contrapuntal music generally uses words the people know well. The remedy is to train the choir to sing more distinctly.
Third Objection. "Cunning Musicke pleaseth more with the note than the matter."
Answer. The fault lies in the listener, not in the music. "When Augustine said he did sinne mortally when he was more moved with the melody than with the ditty that was sung," he did not "condemne Musicke and the sweete sound thereof, but his owne fraile and weake nature, which took occasion of offense at that, which in it selfe was good."
The other class of Puritans are extreme and would banish all music from the church. These urge as their
First Objection. "God is a spirite and will be worshipped in spirite and trueth." Answer. God made both our bodies and our souls; surely he would have us worship him with both. When a singing man's manner of life contradicts his pious words, Greg- ory answers:
"Non vox sed votum, non cordula musica sed cor, Non damans sed amans cantat in aure Dei."
— Not your voice but your devotion, not your music but your heart, not your shouting
but your love sings in the ear of God.
Second Objection. "Pricksong is not verbally nor literally commanded in the Gospell." Answer. "Many things have beene very acceptable unto God, which had no expresse
commandement in the Scriptures: As the precious box of spiknard, wherewith Marie
Magdalen anointed his blessed feete."
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Case concludes with a quotation from St. Augustine:
Austen saith of himselfe, That the voices of the singers did pierce into his eares, & Gods truth did distil into his hart, & that thence was inflamed in him an affection of godlinesse which caused tears to issue from him so that he felt himself to be in a most blessed and happy state. Finis.
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^Appendix D
When You See Me You Know Me, a Play by Samuel Rowley, 1605: a Quotation Men- tioning Tye.
Prince. Doctor Tye,
Our musick's lecturer? Pray draw near: indeed I Take much delight in ye.
Tye. In musicke may your grace ever delight, Though not in me. Musicke is fit for kings, And not for those know not the chime of strings.
Prince. Truely I love it, yet there are a sort
Seeming more pure than wise, that will upbraid it, Calling it idle, vaine, and frivolous.
Tye. Your grace hath said, indeed they do upbraid That tearme it so, and those that doe are such As in themselves no happy concords hold, All musicke jarres with them, but sounds of good, But would your grace awhile be patient, In musicke's praise, thus will I better it: Musicke is heavenly, for in heaven is musicke, For there the seraphin do sing continually; And when the best was born that ever was man, A quire of angels sang for joy of it; What of celestial was revealed to man Was much of musicke: 'tis said the beasts did worship And sang before the deitie supernall; The kingly prophet sang before the arke, And with his musicke charm'd the heart of Saul: And if the poet fail us not, my lord, The dulcet tongue of musicke made the stones To move, irrationall beasts and birds to dance. And last the trumpets' musicke shall awake the dead, And clothe their naked bones in coates of flesh, T'appeare in that high house of parliament, When those that gnash their teeth at musicke's sound, Shall make that place where musicke nere was found.
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Prince. Thou givest it perfect life, skilful doctor; I thanke thee for the honour'd praise thou givest it, I pray thee let's heare it too.
Tye. 'Tis ready for your grace. Give breath to Your loud-tun 'd instruments.
(Loud musicke) Prince. 'Tis well: methinkes in this sound I prove A compleat age,
As musicke, so is man govern'd by stops And by dividing notes, sometimes aloft, Sometimes below, and when he hath attaind His high and lofty pitch, breathed his sharpest and most Shrillest ayre; yet at length 'tis gone, And fals downe flat to his conclusion.
(Soft musicke) Another sweetnesse and harmonious sound, A milder straine, another kind agreement; Yet 'mongst these many strings, be one untun'd, Or jarreth low or higher than his course, Nor keeping steddie meane amongst the rest, Corrupts them all, so doth bad man the best.
Tye . Ynough, let voices now delight his princely eare.
(A song) Prince. Doctor, I thank you, and commend your cunning, I oft have heard my father merrily speake In your high praise; and this his highness saith, England one God, one truth, one doctor hath For musickes art, and that is Doctor Tye, Admired for skill in musicks harmony.
Tye. Your grace doth honour me with kind acceptance, Yet one thing more I do beseech your excellence, To daine to patronize this homely worke, Which I unto your grace have dedicate.
Prince. What is the title?
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Tye. The Actes of the holy Apostles turn'd into verse, Which I have set in several parts to sing: Worthy acts and worthily in you remembred.
Prince. I'll peruse them, and satisfy your paines, And have them sung within my father's chapel.
(Later in the play Tye is present when Cranmer orders the Prince whipped by proxy, a boy named Browne suffering for the Prince's laziness in studies.)
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^Appendix E
A BRIEFE DISCOURSE, BY RAVENSCROFT, 1614: PREFATORY POEMS1
In Approbation of this Wor\e.
IN former Age, among Musitians rare, Regard was had of Measures then in use And Characters; ordain'd by speciall care,
Least after-Comers should the same abuse; But forasmuch as those Composers Sage
Occasion had not to apply each thing Unto the divers Humours which this Age
Hath studied out, and to the world doth bring: I well approve this Authors Diligence,
Who by his Labour Characters hath found, To shew what heretofore by negligence
Hath beene omitted, and for certaine ground To ma\e that plaine, that wanting was before
In Measures, Times, Prolations well observ'd. Wherein his Commendations is the more,
His Songs, and Skill high Praise hath well deserv'd.
Nathaniell Gyles Bachelar of Musicke, Maister of the Children of His Maiesties Chappels, of Household, and Windsor.
1 1 have omitted twenty-eight crabbed lines by John Davies of Hereford, and two complete poems, viz. the sixth, by William Austin, who tells us that Ravenscroft "for Love doth This, and not for Gaine"; and the eighth, which is a Latin poem of eight lines by "T.H." entitled In Laudem huius opusculi.
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APPENDICES Of this Ensuing Discourse.
MArkes that did limit Lands in former times None durst remove; somuch the common good Prevail' d with all men; 'twas the worst of crimes.
The li\e in Musicke may be understood , For That the treasure of the Soule is, next
To the rich Store-house of Divinity: Both comfort Soules that are with care perplext,
And set the Spirit Both from passions free. The Markes that limit Musicke heere are taught,
So fixt of ould, which none by right can change, Though Use much alteration hath wrought,
To Musickes Fathers that would now seeme strange. The best embrace, which herein you may ftnde,
And th' Author praise for his good Worke, and Minde.
Tho: Campion.
Iohn Dowland Bachelar of Musicke, and Lutenist to the Kings Sacred Maiestie, in commendation of this Worhe.
FIgurate Musicke doth in each Degree Require it Notes, of sever all Quantity; By Perfect, or Imperfect Measure chang'd:
And that of More, or Lesse, whose Markes were rang'd By Number, Circle, and Poynt: but various use
Of unsfyld Composers did induce Confusion, which made muddy and obscure, What first Invention fram'd most cleere, and pure. These, {worthy Ravenscroft) are restrain' d by Thee To one fixt Forme: and that approv'd by Me.
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In the Most just praise of Music\e, this praiseworthy Wor\e,
and my deare, vertuous, and right expert friend,
the most judicious Author.
THe ten-fold Orbes of Heaven are said to move By Musicke; for, they ma\e Harmonious din: And all the Powres subordinate above Spend Time, nay, spend Eternity {herein.
Thy Nature, Manners, and thy Notes doe ma\e A Three-f old-Cord, to drawe all hearts it gaines:
Thy Musickes Cordes hold Eares and Eyes awa\e (Yet lullaby in pleasure) with their Straines.
So, then this latter Musicke (though alone) 'Twixt Fame and Thee doth ma\e an Unison,
Through which consent, though Deaths clouds thee o'rerun
Thy glory still shall shine, and cloud the Sun.
Io: Da vies, Heref:
In Approbation of this ensuing Discourse; and the Author therof my deare friend, Maister Thomas Ravenscroft.
ARts are much alt'red from their Pristine State, xJL Humors and Fancies so Predominate. Ould Artists though they were Plaine, yet were Sure, Their Praecepts and their Principles were Pure: But now a dayes We scarce retaine the Grounds, Ware so Extravagant beyond our Bounds. Among the Rest, Musicke (that noble Art) In this sad Elegie must beare a Part; Whose Purity was such in times of yore, ( When Theory the Practise went before)
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That then She was had in as great Esteeme
As now of Her the Vulgar basely Deeme.
Errors in Figures, Characters, and Note
Doe Now cause many Teach, and Learne by rote.
This my deare Friend doth see\e heere to amend;
Wherein he travail' d farre, great paines did spend
To right his Mother; he see\es to reduce
Her to her auntient Grounds, and former Use,
To beate downe Common Practise, that doth range
Among the Commons, and her Praecepts change.
Heere shall you finde of Measures divers sorts,
For Church, for Madrigalls, for sundry Sports;
Heere shall you finde true Judgement, store of reading,
All for the Ould true Rules of Musicke pleading.
Numbers of 3. among the Meane respected
Are hence exil'd, and {worthily) rejected,
As being crept in by Custome, and Use
Among the Vulgars, which the Wise refuse.
Much might be said more of this Little Booke:
But let the Reader judge that on't shall loo\e.
This of the Author onely I will say,
That in One poynt to no man he gives way;
Composing of a Song unto some Ditty
He is so Judicious and so Witty,
That waighing first the Nature of each Word
He findes fit Notes, that thereunto accord,
Maying both Sound and Sence well to agree;
Witnesse his sundry Songs of Harmonic
What shall I say more? this Worke / approove,
And for his Skill, and Paines the Author love.
Martin Peerson
Bachelar of Music\e.
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To my deare Friend Maister Thomas Ravenscroft, upon this Wor\e.
IProphesie (deare Friend) that thou which giv'st The Dead deserved Bayes, shalt while thou liv'st Never want Garlands of that Sacred Tree To Crowne thee in Aeternall memorie: Thou that hast made the dying Coales to Glowe Of ould Ed: Piers his name; which now shall growe, ('Gainst all that envious or malicious bee) In high Opinion 'mongst Posteritie; Nor shall they touch Worth without Reverence, In whome once dwelt such perfect Excellence In Heavn'ly Musicke; / may call it so, If ould Pythagoras said truely, who Affirm'd that the Sphaeres Ccelestiall Are in their Motion truly Musicall: And Man, in whome is found a humane Minde, (Then Whome, (Angells except) who e're could finde A Nobler Creature) some affirme consisteth Onely of Harmony, wherein existeth The Soule of Musicke; and yet (but for Thee) This Man had dy'd to all mens memorie; Whose Name (now cleans' d from rust) this Worke of thine ( While there are Times or Men) / doe devine Shall \eepe Alive; nor shall thy owne Name die, But by this Worke live to AUternitie: And from it men hereafter shall pull out Scourges, to lash the base Mechanicke Rout Of Mercenary Minstrels, who have made (To their owne scorne) this Noble Art, a Trade.
Tho: Piers
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De ingenuo Iuvene T.R. (annos 22. nato) Musicce Studiosissimo, huius Libelluli Authore.
RAra avis Arte Senex Iuvenis; Sed rarior est, si - Aetate est juvenis, Moribus ille Senex. Rara avis est Author; (poene est pars (1) Nominis una) (1) Ravenscroft
Namque annis juvenis, Moribus, Arte Senex. (2) Non vidit tria Lustra Puer, quin Arte probatus,
Vita laudatus, Sumpsit in Arte Gradum. Quale fuit studium, Liber hie testabitur; in quo
Vim, Vitam Numeris reddidit ille Novam. Quam bene castigat, male quos induxerat Usus Errores, Priscas hie renovando Notas?
Arte Senex, Virtute Senex, estate Adolescens I bone, Kara avis es; Scribe bonis avibus.
(2) Ad annos 1 4. Creatus est Baccalaureus facultatis Mu- sica in Acadetn: Cantabrig.
R. LL. Theo-muso-philus.
FINIS.
appendix F
BALDWIN'S POEM AND DOW'S COMMENTS ON COMPOSERS
John Baldwin was a tenor in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, from 1598 until his death in 1615. He wrote out (1) My Ladye Nevells Boo\e, con- sisting of virginal compositions by Byrd; (2) a MS book now in the British Museum (Royal Music Library, 24. D. 2.) containing motets and miscel- laneous pieces and ending with the poem given below dated 1591; (3) Christ Church MSS 979-983 (part books); and (4) part books, not all in his handwriting, in the Bodleian (Music School MSS e. 376-381).
1. Baldwin's Poem Reede here, behold and see all that musicions bee; What is inclosde herein, declare I will begine. A storehousse of treasure this booke may be saiede Of songes most excelente and the beste that is made, Collected and chosen out of the best autours Both strainger and English borne, which bee the best makers And skilfulst in musicke, the scyence to sett forthe As herein you shall finde if you will speake the truthe. There is here no badd songe, but the best cann be hadd, The chief est from all men; yea there is not one badd, And such sweet musicke as dothe much delite yeilde Both unto men at home and birds abroade in fielde. The autours for to name I maye not here forgett, But will them now downe put and all in order sett. I will begine with WHITE, SHEPPER, TYE, and TALLIS, PARSONS, GYLES, MUNDIE th'oulde one of the queenes pallis, MUNDIE yonge, th'oulde mans sonne and like wyse others moe; There names would be to longe, therefore I let them goe; Yet must I speak of moe even of straingers also; And first I must bringe in Alfonso FERABOSCO,
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A strainger borne he was ain Italie as I here;
Italians saie of him in skill he had no peere.
Luca MERENSIO with others manie moe,
As Philipp DEMONTE the Emperours man also;
And ORLANDO1 by name and eeke CREQUILLION,
Cipriano RORE: and also ANDREON.
All famous in there arte, there is of that no doute;
There workes no lesse declare in everies place aboute,
Yet let not straingers bragg, nor they these soe commende,
For they may now geve place and sett themselves behynde,
An Englishman, by name, William BIRDE for his skill.
Which I shoulde heve sett first, for soe it was my will,
Whose greater skill and knowledge dothe excelle all at this tyme
And far to strange countries abroade his skill dothe shyne;
Famous men be abroad, and skilful in the arte
I do confesse the fame and not from it starte;
But in Ewroppe is none like to our Englishe man,
Which dothe so farre exceede, as trulie I it scan
As ye cannot finde out his equale in all thinges
Throwghe out the worlde so wide, and so his fame now ringes.
With fingers and with penne he hathe not now his peere;
For in this worlde so wide is none can him come neere,
The rarest man he is in musicks worthy arte
That now on earthe doth live: I speake it from my harte
Or heere to fore hath been or after him shall come
None such I feare shall rise that may be calde his Sonne.
O famous man! of skill and judgemente great profounde
Lett heaven and earth ringe out they worthye praise to sounde;
Ney lett they skill itselfe they worthie fame recorde
To all posteritie they due desert afforde;
And lett them all which heere of they greate skill then saie
Fare well, fare well thou prince of musicke now and aye;
1 I.e., Orlando di Lasso. To facilitate reference I use capitals for the proper names; Baldwin does not.
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Fare well I say fare well, fare well and here end
Fare well melodious BIRDE, fare well sweet musickes frende
All these thinges do I speake not for rewarde or bribe;
Nor yet to flatter him or sett him upp in pride
Nor for affection or ought might move there towe2
But even the truth reporte and that make known to yowe
Lo! heere I end farewell committing all to God
Who kepe us in his grace and shilde us from his rodd.'
Finis Jo. Baldwine.
The above lines are poor poetry, but good criticism.
2. Robert Dow's Comments on Composers, in the Library of Christ Church, Oxford, MSS 984, 985, 986, 987, 988.
These five part books (Soprano, Alto, Contratenor, Tenor, and Bass) contain 133 sacred choral compositions and secular madrigals. Fifty-eight of the numbers are by his favorite composer "Wm. Birde," 18 by Robert White, 8 by R. Parsons, 6 by D[r]. Tie, 5 each by Strogers and Tallis, three by Orlando di Lassus, two each by Farrant, Alfonso [Ferrabosco the Elder], and Woodcock, one each by Bruster, John Bull, N. Giles, "Johnson," Mal- lorie, W. Mundaie, Francesco Mocheni, Phillips, Shepard, Tailer, and Taverner, and 17 are anonymous. On the first written page there is the fol- lowing poem by Walter Haddon. All the words in the last four lines begin with m.
Ch. Ch. 984. Soprano Book.
Gualterus Haddonus Musicen primum docuit voluptas; Musices auxit studium voluptas; Musices usum retinet voluptas,
Gaudia fundens. Musicen lusit placidus Cupido; Musicen lusit Cy there a mollis; Musicen lusit cythara suavi
Clarus Apollo.
2 Thereto.
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Musice mentes tenuit virorum; Musice sensus tenuit ferarum; Musice montes et aquas et ornos
Sede removit. Musice sum mis dominator astris; Musice terrae dominatur imae; Musice ponto dominatur alto,
Cuncta pererrans. Music a mentis medicina m[a]estae; Music a multum minuit malorum; Musice magnis, mediis, minutis Maxima mittit.
1581 Quisquis es hunc nostrum tacturus forte libellum
Seu quid voce vales seu cecinisse nequis: Pupillam domini te contrectare putato; Pars ea vult nitidas sic liber iste manus: (Whoever you are that are by chance about to touch this little book of ours, whether you sing well or cannot sing at all, remember that you are handling the master's treasure; this Part wishes for clean hands, just as that book of yours does.)
Sum Roberti Dowi Vinum et Musica Laetificant Cordas (I belong to Robert Dow. Wine and music make the strings of the in- struments rejoice.)
Ubi est concentus, ne effundas eloquium. Ecclesiastici 32. (Where there is harmony, there is no need of eloquence.)
After No. 3, in all the parts:
Maxima musarum nostrarum gloria White Tu peris aeternum sed tua musa manet (Thou diest, White, chief splendor of our art, but thy music abideth for- ever.)
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After 7, by White:
Vinum et music a laetificant cor.
Spiritus tristis exiccat ossa. (Wine and music gladden our heart. Doleful sighs dry out our bones.)
After 10, by Byrde, and the Alto part of No. 48 by R. Parsons: Musica capitur omne quod vivit si naturam sequitur (Music charms every living thing if it follows its true nature.)
After 25, by Strogers:
Non est harmonice compositus qui Musica non delectatur. (A man's nature is not harmonious if he takes no delight in music.)
After 36, by Byrd, in the Soprano, Contratenor, and Bass books: Cantores inter, quod in aethere sol, bone Birde: Cur arctant laudes distich a nostra tuas. (Among singers, good Byrd, you are what the sun is in the sky; why should our distichs fetter your fame?)
Ch. Ch. 985. Alto Book. At the bottom of the first page: In Graecia Musici floruerunt, discebantque id omnes; nee qui nesciebat, satis excultus doctrind putabatur. Tusculana Prima. Cicero.
(In Greece musicians flourished, and all learned it; if anyone was igno- rant of it his education was considered incomplete. Cicero: Tusculan Dispu- tations, Book 1.)
After 1, by White:
Ateas Scytha maluit audire hinnitum equi, quam cantum praestantissimi musici lsmeniae; vox equi non hominibus.
(Ateas the Scythian would rather hear the whinny of his horse than the song of the most distinguished singer in Thebes; men do not have horses' voices.)
After 41:
Cicero ad Atticum lib. 40. Britannici belli exitus expectatur; etiam tarn cognitum est, neque argenti scrupulum esse ullum in ea insula, neque ullam spem praedae, nisi ex mancipiis, ex quibus nullos puto te Uteris aut musicis eruditos expectare.
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Unus Bird us omnes Anglos ab hoc convicio prorsus liber at.
(The end of the British war is expected; it is certainly clear by this time that there is not a trace of silver on the island, nor is any plunder expected, except slaves, and I do not think you will find a single person that knows anything about writing or music among them.
One man alone — Byrd — is enough to free the English completely from this reproach.)
Ch. Ch. 986. CoNTRATENOR BOOK
After 1, by White, in this and the Tenor books:
Non ita moestaz sonant plangentis verba Prophetae quam sonat authoris musica maesta* tnei. (Not even the words of the gloomy Jeremiah sound so sad as the sad mu- sic of my composer.)
After 34, by Byrd:
Birde suos iactet si Musa Britanna clientes; Signiferum turmis te creet ilia suis. (Byrd, if the Britannic muse should parade her supporters, she would ap- point you standard bearer for her regiments.)
After 42, O sacrum convivium by Tallis:
Tallisius magno dignus honore senex* (The aged Tallis, deserving of great honor.)
After 70, by Birde, in the second handwriting, and the Bass part of 25 by Strogers:
Sicut in fabricatione auri signum est smaragdi: Sicut numerus musicorum in iucundo & moderato vino. (Music with pleasant wine that is taken in moderation is like an emerald set in gold.)
Ch. Ch. 987. Tenor Book.
8 It must have given Dow, as a true Elizabethan, great pleasure to find a Latin word that he could spell in two different ways on successive lines. Few such Latin words exist.
4 Quoted from Ferdinand Richardson's prefatory poem to Tallis and Byrd's Cantiones Sacrae, 1575.
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After 35, by Parsons. Usually these Latin sententiae have been used to fill in blank lines. There is no such space here, but the poet was evidently de- termined to honor Parsons rather than be neat:
Qui tantus primo Parsone in flore fuisti Quantus in autumno ni morerere5 fores (Thou who wast so great in the springtime of life, Parsons, How great thou wouldst have been in the autumn, had not death come.)
At the end of Sive vigilem, 37, by William Mundy, the composer's name is punningly written Dies Lunae (Monday), and the further pun: Ut lucem solis sequitur lux proximo, lunae Sic tu post Birdum Munda secutus erat (As the light of the moon follows next after that of the sun, so thou, Mundy, hast followed Bird.)
After 42, O sacrum convivium by Tallis. The second line also occurs after the Contratenor part of 42.
Quatuor illustris vixit sub Regibus iste Tallisius magno digno honore senex. Sub quibus eximius si musicus esset habendus Tallisius semper gloria prima fuit (Renowned Tallis lived under four monarchs, an aged man deserving of much honor. If in their time a musician ought to have been held distin- guished, Tallis was always their chief glory.)
51 is by Alfonso Ferrabosco "Italus" and 52 by "Gulielmus Birde Anglus."
Ch. Ch. 988. Bass Book. After 7, by White:
Agamemnon abiens ad bellum Troianum domi reliquit musicum, turn ex- cellentis artis, ut Mgisthus potiri Clytemnestra non potuerit nisi musico oc- ciso. H[ieronymus] Cardan [1501-1576], de Sap.
(When Agamemnon departed for the Trojan War he left at home a mu- sician, of such unusual ability that Aegistheus could not win Clytemnestra until the musician was killed. Girolamo Cardan, de Sapiential)
5 Morerere, from morior, is my emendation for morete, which is not a word at all and does not fit the scansion of the dactylic pentameter.
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After 20, by Tallis:
Talis es et tantus Tallisi musicus, ut si Fata senem auferrent musica muta foret (Thou art so renowned and great a musician, Tallis, that if fate should carry thee away in thine old age, music would be mute.)
After 27, an elaborate decoration and
Mr. Wm. Byrde. Musica mentis medicina maestae quoted from Haddon's poem.
After 33 by Byrd:
Qui decus es generi genti Philomelaque nostrae; Birde precor longum voce manuque canasl (How you grace our nation and race, O nightingale; I pray you, Byrd, may you long give us music with your voice and fingers!)
After 34 by Byrd
Musica vel ipsas arbores et horridas movet feras (Music moves the very trees and savage beasts.)
After 43, by:
Magister Thomas Tallis. Mortuus est 230 Novembris 1585 Supultus Grenovici in Choro Ecclesiae parochialis
We have here both the date of Tallis' death, and the place of his burial — Greenwich parish church.
After 48 by Parsons:
Musica laetificat corda (Music makes glad our minds.)
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appendix G
ANTHONY WOOD'S COMMENTS ON COMPOSERS, 169 1-2
Anthony Wood (1 632-1 695) who was born, was educated, and died at Ox- ford, sketched the careers of Oxford University men of prominence in his Athenae Oxonienses. The second half of each volume consists of Fasti Oxo- nienses, listing under each year the prominent candidates and graduates of that year, with their degrees, often with comments. Below are given only the names of those whom he mentions as "celebrated in their time" or "eminent in their profession."
B. Mus. 1502 Henry Parker
B. Mus. 1509 John Wendon
B. Mus. 1509 John Clawsey
D. Mus. 15 15 Robert Perrot, B. Mus.
B. Mus. 1 52 1 John Sylvester
D. Mus. 1548 Christopher Tye, incorporated f. Cambridge "Was much in renown for his admirable skill in the Theoretical and Practical part of Music. . . . We have also some of his Compositions among the ancient Books in the Public Music School, of Six parts, but long since, with others of that time, antiquated, and not at all valued."
B. Mus. 1550 John Merbick or Marbeck; supplicated; whether he was granted the degree "appears not."
B. Mus. 1586 John Bull. "John Bull who had practised the Fac. of Music for 14 years was then admitted Batch, of Music. — This Person, who had a most prodigious Hand on the Organ, and was famous throughout the Religious world for his Church music (the words of some of which are extant) had been trained up under an excellent Master named Blithman Organist of Qu. Elizabeth's1 Chapel, who died much lamented in 1 59 1. This Blithman perceiving that he had a natural Geny to the Faculty, spared neither time nor labour to advance it to the utmost. So that in short time he being more than Master of it, which he showed by his most admirable compositions, played and sung in many Churches beyond the Seas, as well as at home, he took occasion to go incognito into France and Germany. At length hearing of a famous Musician belonging to a cer- tain Cathedral, (at St. Omers as I have heard) he applied himself as a Novice to him to learn something of his Faculty, and to see and admire his Works. This Musician, after some discourse had passed between them, conducted Bull to a Vestry, or Music School joyning to the Cathedral, and shew'd to him a Lesson or Song of forty farts, and then made a vaunting Challenge to any Person in the World to add one more part to them,
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supposing it to be so compleat and full, that it was impossible for any mortal Man to correct, or add to it. Bull thereupon desiring the use of Ink and rul'd Paper, (such as we call Musical Paper) prayed the Musician to lock him up in the said School for 2 or 3 Hours; which being done, not without great disdain by the Musician, Bull in that time, or less, added forty more parts to the said Lesson or Song. The Musician thereupon be- ing called in, he viewed it, tried it, and retry'd it. At length he burst into a great ecstasy, and swore by the great God that he that added those 40 parts, must either be the Devil or Dr. Bull &c. Whereupon Bull making himself known, the Musician fell down and ador'd him. Afterwards continuing there and in those parts for a time, became so much admir'd, that he was courted to accept of any Place Preferment suitable to his Profession, either within the Dominions of the Emperor, King of France, or Spain. But the tidings of these Transactions coming to the English Court, Qu. Elizabeth commanded him home. See more of him under the Year 1592. [This 1586 entry and the next are quoted by me in full.]
[1592] John Bull Doct. of Music of the said Univ. of Cambridge and one of the Gentiemen of her Maj. Chappel, was incorporated the same day [that Edw. Gibbons Batch, of Music of Cambridge became B. Mus. Oxon.], July 7. This was the same per- son who was admitted Batch, of Music of this University, An. 1586, as I have told you under that Year, and would have proceeded in the same place, had he not met with Clowns and rigid Puritans there that could not endure Church Music. He was afterwards the first Music Lecturer of Gresham Coll. at London, and one of three (Will. Bird and Orlando Gibbons being the other two) that composed and published a Book entit. Par- thenia; or, The Maidenhead of the first Music that ever was printed for the Virginals. Printed at London in fol. but not said when, either in the Tide, or at the end. The Book contains 21 lessons printed off from Copper cuts, and was the prime Book for many Years that was used by Novices and others that exercised their hands on that Instru- ment. There is no doubt but that this Doctor Bull hath published other things, besides the making of very many Compositions to be sung and play'd; which being thrown aside upon the coming out and publication of others by other hands, have been since in a manner lost, such is the fate of Music, as well as of Poetry. After the death of Queen Elizab., he became chief organist to K. James I [and] was so much admired for his dex- trous hand on the Organ, that many thought that there was more than Man in him. At length being possess'd with Crotchets, as many Musicians are, he went beyond the Seas and died, as some say, at Hamborough [Hamburg?]; or rather, as others who remem- bred the Man have said, at Lubeck.1 His Picture hangs at this day, at the upper end of the public Music School in the University of Oxon."2
B. Mus. 1588 Thomas Morley. "This Person, Tho' he had not so excellent a hand on the Organ as BULL had, yet his compositions were admirable in their tirhe. [Five are
1 He died at Antwerp.
2 And still does in the twentieth century, only a few yards away.
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named, ending with:] Introduction to Music, Lond. 1597, &c in a thin fol. This last Book, which shews the Author to have been admirably well skill'd in the Theoretic part of Music, hath afforded some matter to Christoph. Simpson when he composed his Com- pendium of Music, but more to the Author of An Introduction to Music, Lond. 1655,3 &c. octfavo] published by John Play ford."
B. Mus. 1588 "John Dowland one of the Gent, of Her Majesty's Royal Chappel, was then also with Tho. Morley adm. Batch, of Music. — He enjoyed the same place also when King James I. came to the Crown, being then esteemed a most admirable Lutinist; about which time an Anagram was made on his name (Johannes Doulandus) running thus, annos ludendo hausi. He was the rarest Musician that his Age did behold, and therefore admired by Foreign Princes, among whom the King of Denmark was one, who being infinitely taken with his playing, when he was in England to visit his sister the Queen, An. 1606, took him with him at his return to Denmark; where, as 'tis suppos'd, he died ..." [Wood by oversight omits his name from the general index.]
B. Mus. 1592 Giles Farnabie "An eminent Musician." [His Canzonets of 1598 are mentioned, nothing else, and without praise.]
B. Mus. 1592 George Waterhouse "Supplicated for the degree of Batchelor but was not, as I can find, admitted." [Strange in view of Morley's praise of his contrapuntal skill.]
B. Mus. 1592 "Edw. Gibbons Batch, of Music of Cambridge was then Incorporated in the same Degree — He was now, or about this time, the most admired Organist of the Cath. Ch. at Bristol, was Brother to the incomparable Orlando Gibbons whom I shall mention elsewhere, and Brother also to Ellis Gibbons, who hath several compositions in The Triumphs of Oriana."
D. Mus. 1592 John Bull [see following the 1586 entry]
M. A. 1592 "Hen. Noel Esq . . . was one of the Gentlemen Pensioners to Qu. Eliza- beth, a Man of excellent parts, and well skill'd in Music. '
B. Mus. 1593 "Matt. Jeffrye vicar choral in the Church at Wells." He and "George Jeffrye . . . were both eminent Musicians."
B. Mus. 1595 "Franc. Pilkington who being a most excellent artist, his memory was celebrated by many persons, particularly by Sir Aston Cochfiin Baronet, who hath writ- ten4 his Funeral Elegy and his Epitaph."
M. A. 1595 "George Ferebe . . . well skill'd in Music, did instruct divers young Men of his Parish in that Faculty, 'till they could either play or sing their parts." Then dressed as a bard and shepherds, they serenaded Queen Anne (wife of James I) "on the Downes at Wensdyke ... to the great liking and content of the Queen and her Com-
3 Introduction to the Skill of Mustek, written by John Playford the Elder, 1654. 2d ed., enlarged, 1655. The second part consisted of Campion's rules for composing music in parts.
4 In his choice Poems of several sorts, &c. London, 1658, p. 113.
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pany." He later became "Chaplain to his Majesty, and was ever after much valued for his Ingenuity."
B. Mus. 1600 Wood says eighty-nine were admitted this year as Bachelors of Music, but comments on none except Roger Matthew, who was also a poet.
B. Mus. 1602 "Will, Weelks. Quaere whether the Scribe or Registrary of the Uni- versity, hath not set down William, for Tho. Weelks."5 Twelve lines are here devoted to Thomas Weelkes and his compositions, but without comment.
B. Mus. 1604 Joh. Daniel. No criticism.
B. Mus. 1606 "Thom. Tomkins of Magd. Coll. This eminent and learned Musician was Son of Thom. Tomkins Chauntor of the Choir at Glocester, descended from those of his name of Listwithyel in Cornwal, Educated under the famous Musician Will. Bird, and afterwards for his merits was made Gentleman of His Majesty's Chappel Royal, and at length Organist, as also Organist of the Cath. Church at Worcester. [Compositions follow.] He had a Son named Nath. Tomkins Batch, of Div. of Oxon., who was Preb- endary of Worcester from the Month of May 1629 to the 21. of Oct. (on which Day he died) An. 1681, as also several Brethren, among whom were (1) Giles Tomkins a most excellent Organist, and Organist of the Cath. Ch. at Salisbury, who died about 1662. (2) Joh. Tomkins Batch, of Music, who was one of the Organists of St. Paul's Cathedral, and afterwards Gentleman of the Chappel Royal, being then in high esteem for his admirable knowledge in the theoretical and practical part of his Faculty. At length being trans- lated to the Celestial choir of Angels on the 27. Sept. An. 1626, Aged 52, was buried in the said Cathedral. (3) Nich. Tomkins one of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to his Majesty K. Charles I. who was also well skill'd in the practical part of Music; and others, but their order according to seniority I cannot tell."
1607 Orlando Gibbons was incorporated at Oxford as an M. A. of Cambridge. [But he never was M. A. Cantab, and Joseph Foster thinks it an error for B. Mus. Yet if so in- corporated as B. Mus., why did he supplicate for the B. Mus. in 1622?]
B. Mus. 1608 Will Stonard. Information, but no criticism.
B. Mus. 1 6 10 "Richard Deering" supplicated for the degree and probably got it, be- cause soon afterwards he styled himself Bachelor of Music. "This person . . . was bred up in Italy, where he obtained the name of a most admirable Musician. After his Re- turn he practised his Faculty for some time in England, where his name" was "highly cried up." Wood then names later events: service as Catholic organist to the English nuns in Brussels, later to Queen Henrietta Maria, and exile during the Commonwealth.
B. Mus. 1 613 "Martin Pearson — He was afterwards Master of the Choristers of St. Pauls Cathedral, while Joh. Tomkins was Organist, and a composer of certain Church Services and Anthems." Died 1650. "Whereas most Musicians die obscurely and in a mean condition, this died so rich, as to leave to the poor of Marsh in the Parish of Dun- nington in the Isle of Ely an hundred Pounds to be laid out for a Purchase for their yearly use."
6 Wood's supposition is probably correct.
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B. Mus. 1616 "John Vauter of Line. Coll." No comment at all.
B. Mus. and D. Mus. May 17, 1622. "Orlando Gibbons" supplicated for both degrees, but was refused The Baccalaureate and is not mentioned for the Doctorate. [Gibbons did, however, receive the degree of Doctor of Music on this occasion, at the request of his friend Heather. Wood also writes,] "This Orlando, who was accounted one of the rarest Musicians and Organists of his time, hath extant a Set of Madrigals, a hand in Parthenia . . . services and Anthems . . . besides admirable Compositions that are printed in several Books of Music." He died at Canterbury "of the Small-pox to the great reluctancy of the Court, on the Day of, Pentecost, An. 1625. Afterwards was a Monument over his grave in the body of the Cathedral there ... set up at the charge of Elizabeth his Widow ..."
B. Mus. and D. Mus., May 17, 1622. "Will. Heather or Heyther" was granted both these degrees, a composition by Gibbons being performed in place of the one that would normally have been required of Heather. [Heather founded the Heather Professorship of Music at Oxford in 1626/27, but was not a skilled composer. We should call his degree an honorary one.]
D. Mus. July 5, [1622] "Nathaniel Giles Batch, of Music. ... In the Act this year, wherein he proceeded, were certain questions appointed to be discussed between him and Dr. Heather afore-mentioned, which being pro forma only, and not customarily to be done, were omitted. The questions were (1) Whether Discords may be allowed in Mu- sic? Affirm. (2) Whether any artificial Instrument can so fully and truly express Music as the natural Voice? Negat. (3) Whether the practise be the more useful part of Music or the Theory? Affirm. This Dr. Giles, who was noted as well for his religious life and Conversation (a rarity in Musicians) as for the excellency of his Faculty was ... fa- mous for his compositions of Divine Hymns and Anthems ..." [His posts are men- tioned. Wood's opinion of the private lives of musicians is evidendy not high. What a pity we do not know Giles's opinions on discords!]
1623 B. Mus. "Hugh Davys of New Coll. Organist of the Cathedral Church at Here- ford.— He was eminent for the various Compositions of Church Music that he had made, which is all I know of him, only that he died about 1644."
1624 D. Mus. "John Mundy. Batch, of Music and Organist of his Majesty's Chapel within the Castle of Windsor." He was "in high esteem for his great knowledge in the Theoretical and Practical Part of Music." His compositions are enumerated.
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S . P AU L £ S C HV'R C H
H.-ll Schivts
■the J §a\lv full-
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL CHURCH
1616
'bibliographies
PRINTED TUDOR AND JACOBEAN MUSIC AND MUSICAL TREATISES
The British Museum library contains copies of nearly all of these. But the Bodleian Library, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library and the libraries of Cambridge University, Christ Church (Oxford), the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and St. Michael's College at Tenbury all contain important works of this type. Dates given are those of first editions. Several manuscripts men- tioning something of value also are included in the bibliography. The cata- log of the British Museum should be consulted for titles of Elizabethan compositions printed separately by modern publishers, but three general col- lections are described below:
English Madrigal School Series ("E.M.S."), 36 vols., 1913-24. Edited by Rev. Dr. Horace Fellowes.
English School of Lutenist Song Writers ("E.S.L.S."), 32 publica- tions, in two series: 1:1-15 an<^ 2:I-I7- 1920-32. Edited by Rev. Dr. Horace Fellowes.
Tudor Church Music. 10 vols. 1923 ff. Edited by Dr. R. R. Terry and others.
Adson, John, 161 1: Courtly Masquing Ayres Composed to 5. and 6. Parts, for Violins, Consorts and Cornets. In the Bodleian and Christ Church Libraries. Reprinted by the New York Public Library, 1935.
Alford, John, 1568: A Brief e and Easye Instruction to learne the table- ture, to conduct and dispose the hande unto the Lute. Englished by J. A. A translation of Adrien le Roy's book.
Allison, Richard, 1599: The Psalmes of David in Meter.
Allison, Richard, 1606: An Howres Recreation in Music\e. E.M.S. 33.
Amner, John, 161 5: Sacred Hymns of 3. 4. 5. and 6. parts for Voices and Vyols. Anthems, mostly one note to a syllable.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Aston, Hugh (born c. 1485): church music in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 10. 1929.
Attey, John, 1622: First Boo\e of Ayres of Foure Parts. E.S.L.S. 2:16.
Bacon, Sir Francis, 1627: Sylva Sylvarum.
Bacon, Sir Francis, 1688: Historia . . . Soni. Written earlier than Sylva Sylvarum.
Baldwin, John: MS commonplace book.
Barley, William, in 1596 printed A new Boo\e of Tabliture. Author unknown.
Barley, William, in 1599 printed The Pathway to Music\e contayning sundrie familiar rules for the ready understanding of the scale. . . . Author unknown.
Bartlett, John, 1606: A Boo\e of Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:10.
Bateson, Thomas, 1604: The First Set of English Madrigales. E.M.S. 21.
Bateson, Thomas, 1618: The Second Set of Madrigales. E.M.S. 22.
Bathe, William, 1584: A Briefe Introduction to the true art of Music\e.
Bathe, William, 1600: A Briefe Introduction to the skill of Song.
Bennet, John, 1599: Madrigalls to Foure Voyces. E.M.S. 23.
Bennet, John, contributed a madrigal to The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
Bennet, John, contributed five hymn tunes to Barley's Psalter (after 1604).
Bennet, John. Six compositions in Ravenscroft's A Briefe Discourse, 1614.
Bevin, Elway, 1631: A Briefe and Short Instruction of .the Art of Music\e.
Brade, William, 1609: Musikalische Concerten. Hamburg.
Brade, William, 1609: Newe ausserlesene Paduanen, Galliarden, Cantzo- nen, Allmand und Coranten. . . .
Brade, William, 1614: Newe ausserlesene Paduanen und Galliarden. . . .
Brade, William, 161 7: Newe ausserlesene liebliche Branden, Intraden, Mascharaden, Ballet ten. . . .
Brade, William, 161 9: Melodiensis Paduanis. . . .
Brade, William, 1621: Newe lustige Volten, Couranten, Balletten. . . .
Bull, John, 1597: The oration of Maister John Bull. . . . In the New erected Colledge of Sir Thomas Gresham. . . . 1597. No complete copy is known, but the title-page has been preserved and is quoted in Grove's Dic- tionary.
[324]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Bull, John, 1611: Virginal pieces engraved in Parthenia.
Bull, John, 1614: Two vocal compositions (for 4 and 5 voices) in Leigh- ton's The Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule.
Butler, Charls, 1636: The Principles of Musi\.
Byrd, William, The Collected Wor\s of. 22 vols. Ed. by Fellowes and Dart.
(Byrd, William), 1575. The permit granting Byrd and Tallis the exclu- sive right to print and sell music is reprinted in Fellowes' William Byrd.
Byrd, William, 1575: Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur. 18 compositions by Byrd and 16 by Tallis.
Byrd, William, 1588: Psalmes, Sonets, and songs of sadnes and pietie, made into Music\e of 5 parts. . . . 2nd edition 1590. E.M.S. 14.
Byrd, William, 1588: Two madrigals in the 1st Book of Nicholas Yonge's Musica Transalpina.
Byrd, William, 1589: Songs of sundrie natures. . . . 2nd edition 1610. E.M.S. 15.
Byrd, William, 1589: Liber primus sacrarum cantionum quinque vocum.
Byrd, William, 1590: Two settings of "This sweet and merry month of May" in Thomas Watson's First Sett of Italian Madrigalls Englished.
Byrd, William, 1591: Liber secundus sacrarum cantionum.
Byrd, William, 1603: Medulla Music\e . . . "Shewing most rare and in- tricate skill in 2 partes in one upon the playne song Miserere." Possibly never printed; no known copy is extant.
Byrd, William, 1605: First book of Gradualia. Only the 2nd edition (1610) is known, reprinted with the 2nd book as Vol. 7 of Tudor Church Music.
Byrd, William, 1607: Second book of Gradualia. 2nd edition 1610.
Byrd, William, 1610?: Three Masses, for 3, 4 and 5 voices. No tide-pages nor prefaces.
Byrd, William, 161 1: Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets. . . . E.M.S. 16.
Byrd, William, 1611: Parthenia. Virginal music by Byrd, Bull, Gibbons.
Byrd, William: My Lady e-Nev ells Boofe, a MS of the year 1591, in the hand of John Baldwin, printed in 1926. It contains only virginals pieces by Byrd.
Byrd, William, 1939: William Byrd. Forty- five Pieces for Keyboard In-
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
struments. This, the two preceding works, and The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\ (1899) contain all his known pieces for virginals.
Byrd, William: Tudor Church Music: Vol. 2 Services and Anthems; Vol. 7 Gradualia; Vol. 9 Masses, Cantiones and Motets. 1923 ff.
Byrd, William (no date) : Two madrigals to verses by Thomas Watson in honor of John Case. Only the Second Soprano part has survived.
Campion (Campian), Thomas, 1613: A Boo\e of Ayres . . . by Philip Rosseter Lutenist. The first 21 ayres are by Campion (E.S.L.S. 1:4, 13), the other 21 by Rosseter (E.S.L.S. 1:8, 9).
Campion, Thomas, 1613?: Two (First and Second) Bookjs of Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:1, 2.
Campion, Thomas, 1 6 1 7 ? : The Third and Fourth Boo\e of Ayres. E.S. L.S. 2:3, 4.
Campion, Thomas, 1607: The Description of a Mas\e presented before the Kinges Majestie at White-Hall on Twelfth Night, in Honour of the Marriage of the Lord Hayes and His Bride.
Campion, Thomas, 1613: A Relation of the Late Royall Entertainment Given by the Right Honorable the Lord Knowles [Baron Knollys, later Earl of Banbury] at Cawsome-House [Caversham House] neere Redding: to our most Gracious Queen Anne, in her Progress toward the Bathe, upon the seven and eight and twentie days of Aprill, 161 3. W hereunto is annexed the Description, Speeches, and Songs of the Lords Mas\e, presented in the Banqueting-House on the Mariage night of the High and Mightie, Count Palatine, and the Royally descended the Ladie Elizabeth (daughter of James I). The music was not printed.
Campion, Thomas, 1613: A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in Coun- ter-point. Reprinted 1909 in Percival Vivian's edition of Campion's Worlds.
Campion, Thomas, 1614: The Description of a Mas\e: Presented in the Banqueting roome at Whitehall, on Saint Stephens night last, At the Mariage of the Right Honourable the Earle of Somerset: And the right noble the Lady Frances Howard. Written by Thomas Campion. W hereunto are an- nexed divers choyse Ayres composed for this Mas\e that may be sung with a single voyce to the Lute or Base-Viall. Campion wrote the words of the
[326]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
masque. The music of five songs is included: three of these settings are by Coprario, the others by Campion and Nicholas Lanier.
Campion, Thomas, 1597: A Latin epigram in praise of Dowland in Dow- land's First Boo\e of Songes or Ayres.
Campion, Thomas, 1609: A Latin epigram in praise of Alfonso Ferra- bosco the Younger in the latter's Ayres.
Campion, Thomas, 1614: An English poem in Ravenscroft's A Briefe Discourse.
Carlton, Richard, 1601: Madrigals to Five Voyces. E.M.S. 27.
Case, John, 1586: The Praise of Music\e.
Case, John, 1588: Apologia Musices. . . .
Cavendish, Michael, 1598: Boo\e of Ayres and Madrigalles. It contains twenty ayres (E.S.L.S. 2: n) and eight madrigals (E.M.S. 36).
Cavendish, Michael, also contributed to East's Whole Boo\e of Psalmes, 1592.
Chilston: 15th Century MS, Of musical proporcions and of theire naturis and denominacions , most of it printed in Hawkins' History of Music, Chap- ter LVI.
Christ Church Library MSS 984-988 (part-books), dated 1581, contain 58 compositions by Byrd, 18 by Robert White, 8 by Robert Parsons, 6 by Tye, 47 by other composers, and comments on the music of Byrd and others.
Cooper (Coprario), John, 1606: Funeral Teares for the Death of the Right Honorable the Earle of Devonshire. . . . Six songs and a vocal duet.
Cooper, John, 1613: Songs of Mourning Bewailing the Untimely Death of Prince Henry,
Cooper, John, 161 4: the music of three songs in Campion's Mas\e Pre- sented . . . at the Manage of . . . the Earle of Somerset, q.v.
Corkine, William, 1610: Ayres to Sing and Play to the Lute and Basse Violl. E.S.L.S. 2:13.
Corkine, William, 1612: The Second Boo\e of Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:14.
Cosyn, Benjamin, compiler of the MS called Cosyn's Virginal Bool{. Most of its compositions are by him, Bull, and Gibbons. Reprinted only in part
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
as Twenty-five Pieces for Keyed Instruments from B. Cosyn's Virginal Boo\, 1923, ed. by J. A. F. Maitland and W. B. Squire.
Croce, Giovanni, 1608: Musica Sacra to Sixe Voyces. Published in London.
Croce, Giovanni, 1597: three madrigals in Yonge's Musica Transalpina, Vol. II.
Cutting, Francis, 1596: several compositions for lute, orpharion and ban- dora in Barley's A New Boo\e of Tabliture.
Daman (Damon), William, 1579: The Psalmes of David in English Meter.
Daman, William, 1591: The former boo\e of the Music\e of M. William Damon. The tunes for his 1579 psalter are kept in the Tenor but rehar- monized.
Daman, William, 1591: The second Boo\e of the Music\e of M. William Damon. Here the tunes are in the highest voice.
Daniel (Danyel), John, 1606: Songs for the Lute Viol and Voice. E.S. L.S. 2:12.
Da vies, Sir John, 1596: Orchestra. Verses in praise of dancing.
Day, John, printed in 1560: Certaine notes set forth in foure and three parts to be song at the morning Communion and evening praier. . . . See also under "Psalter."
Dering, Richard, 1597: Cantiones sacrae sex vocum. Published at Ant- werp.
Dering, Richard, 1617: Cantiones sacrae quinque vocum.
Dering, Richard, 161 8: Cantica sacra . . . senis vocibus.
Dering, Richard, 1619: Cantiones sacrae quinque vocum.
Dering, Richard, 1620: Canzonette. Two books.
Dering, Richard, 1662: Cantica sacra ad duos et tres voces. London.
Dering, Richard: The Cryes of London, a MS edited and published by Sir Frederick Bridge. A probable printed edition of 1599 has been lost.
Dowland, John, 1597: The First Boo\e of Songes or Ayres. E.S.L.S. 1:1,2.
Dowland, John, 1600: The Second Boo\e of Songes or Ayres. E.S.L.S. 1:5,6.
Dowland, John, 1603: The Third and Last Boo\e Of Songs Or Aires. E.S.L.S. 1:10, 11.
[328]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Dowland, John, 1603: Lachrimae, Or Seven Teares . . . for the Lute, Viols, or Violons in five parts.
Dowland, John, 1612: A Pilgrimes Solace, really his fourth and last book of ayres. E.S.L.S. 1:12, 14.
Dowland, John, 1596: some lute pieces published without permission in Barley's A new Booke of Tabliture.
Dowland, John, 1599: verses in Farnaby's Canzonets, and a sonnet in R. Allison's Psalmes.
Dowland, John, 1609: a charming translation of Andreas Ornithoparcus' Micrologus (1517).
Dowland, John. See Grove ii. 88 for collections by various composers pub- lished on the Continent in 1600, 1603, 1607, 1610, 1612, 1615, 1617, 1621, containing lute or viol compositions by John Dowland.
Dowland, Robert, 161 0: Varietie of Lute Lessons. It contains observations on lute playing by John Dowland, Robert's father. Publ. by Schott both in lithographic facsimile (1958) and in modern notation.
Dowland, Robert, 1610, edited A Musical Banquet: Furnished with Va- rietie of Delicious Ayres, Collected out of the Best Authors in English, French, Spanish, and Italian.
Dunstable, John: Complete Worlds. Ed. by Bukofzer (Musica Brittanica).
East, Michael, 1604: Madrigales to 3. 4. and 5. parts. E.M.S. 29.
East, Michael, 1606: The Second Set of Madrigales to 3. 4. and 5. parts. E.M.S. 30.
East, Michael, 1610: The Third Set of Bootes: Wherein are Pastorals, An- themes, Neopolitanes, Fancies, and Madrigales to 5. and 6. parts. E.M.S. 31.
East, Michael, 1619: The Fourth Set of Boo{es. E.M.S. 31.
East, Michael, 161 8: The Fift Set of Bootes . . . as apt for Vyols as Voyces. Three-part madrigals, but only the first phrase of each poem is printed.
East, Michael, 1624: The Sixt Set of Bootes. Anthems, one secular song.
East, Michael, 1638: The Seventh Set of Bootes. Instrumental music.
East, Michael, contributed a madrigal to The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
East (Easte, Este, Est), Thomas, published in 1592 The Whole Boo\e of Psalmes, with their wonted tunes, in four parts.
Elizabethan Songs, The First (Second, Third) Boo\ of, that were origi-
' [ 329 ]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
nally composed for one voice to sing and jour stringed instruments to ac- company: transcribed from 16th and early ijth Century MSS by Peter War- loc\. In 3 books, Oxf. Univ. Press. 1926. It attempts "to bridge the gap that occurs in our secular music between the time of King Henry VIII and the publication of Byrd's Psalmes ... in 1588." By Farrant, Parsons, Byrd, Whythorne, Pattrick, Nicholson, Strogers, Wigthorp, and anonymous.
English Ayres Elizabethan and Jacobean, 1927-31. Ed. by Peter Warlock [Philip Heseltine] and Philip Wilson. 122 songs. 6 vols., also publ. in one. Contents: 6 songs anonymous, Bartlett 1, Batchelar 1, Campion 17, Caven- dish 7, Cooper 2, Corkine 3, Daniel 11, John Dowland 9, Ferrabosco the Younger 8, Greaves 4, Hales 1, Handford 1, Hume 2, Jones 33, Martin 1, Peerson 4, and Rosseter 12. Attey, Ford, Holborne, Maynard, Morley, and Pilkington are not represented.
English Madrigal School, The. Ed. by E. H. Fellowes, 1913 to 1924. Vols. 1-4 by Morley; 5 Gibbons; 6, 7 Wilbye; 8 Farmer; 9-13 Weelkes; 14-16 Byrd; 17 Lichfild; 18 Thomas Tomkins; 19 Ward; 20 Farnaby; 21, 22 Bateson; 23 Bennet; 24 Kirbye; 25, 26 Pilkington; 27 Carlton; 28 Youll; 29- 31 Michael East; 32 The Triumphes of Oriana; 33 Allison; 34 Vautor; 35 Jones, Mundy; 36 Cavendish, Greaves, Holborne.
English School of Lutenist Song Writers, The, 1920 to 1932. First Series: Vols. 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, n, 12, 14 John Dowland; 3 Ford; 7, 15 Pilkington; 4, 8, 9, 13 Rosseter and Campion's book. Second Series: Vols. 1-4 Campion; 5- 9 Jones; 10 Bartlett; 11 Cavendish; 12 Daniel; 13, 14 Corkine; 15 Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger; 16 Attey; 17 Morley. The songs of Cooper, Greaves, and Hume are not included in this series.
English Engraved Music Books. The first was Orlando Gibbons' Fan- tazies of Three Parts for viols, 1609; then Parthenia for Virginals, 161 1; Angelo Notari's Prime Musiche Nuove a Una, Due e Tre Voci . . . 1613; Parthenia In-violata for virginals and viol, 1614. Next came William Child's Choise Music\ to the Psalmes of David, 1639, and numerous other engraved music books.
Farmer, John, 1591: Divers and sundry waies of two parts in one. Canons.
Farmer, John, 1599: The first set of English Madrigals to Foure Voyces. E.M.S. 8.
[330]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Farmer, John, skilfully harmonized many of the tunes in Thomas East's Whole Boo\e of Psalmes, 1592.
Farnaby, Giles, 1598: Canzonets to Fowre Voyces. E.M.S. 20.
Farnaby, Giles, between 1625 and 1639: MS, The Psalmes of David, to jower parts, for Viols and voyce, The first boo\e Doric\e Mottoes, The sec- ond, Divine Canzonets. The Cantus part, belonging to Mr. Edward Hop- kinson, Jr., is in the University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia.
Farnaby, Giles: Numerous keyboard compositions in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\. Novello publishes for piano an excellent Album of Selected Pieces by Giles Farnaby, edited by Granville Bantock.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Elder, 1603: Medulla Music\e. Canons on a plain song, by Byrd and Ferrabosco. No known copy extant.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Elder. Sixteen madrigals by him are printed in Musica Transalpina, 1588; six in Musica Transalpina, 1597; five in Morley's Madrigals to five voyces. Celected out of the best approved Italian Authors, 1598; two lute pieces in Robert Dowland's Varietie of Lute Lessons, 1610. Also MSS and continental publications.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Younger, 1609: Boo\ of Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:15.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Younger, 1609: Lessons for 1. 2. and 3. viols, printed in lute tablature.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\, The (MS) printed in 1899. Most of the com- positions are by Byrd, Bull, Giles Farnaby and Philips.
Flud, Robert, 1617-19: Utriusque cosmi majoris, scilicet et minoris meta- physica, physica atque technica historia. See Grove's Dictionary.
Ford, Thomas: Music\e Of Sundrie Kindes. E.S.L.S. 1:3. Songs with lute, and instrumental dances.
Ford, Thomas, contributed two anthems to Leighton's Teares or Lamen- tacions, 1614.
Will. Forster's Virginal Boo\. A MS of 1624. Most of its compositions are by Bull, Byrd, and Ward; three are by Morley.
Gibbons, Ellis: Two of his madrigals are printed in Morley's The Tri- umphes of Oriana, 1603.
Gibbons, Orlando: The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowful Soule, 1 6 14 (by Leighton), two anthems.
[33i]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Gibbons, Orlando. Barnard's First Boo\ of Selected Church Music\, 1641, contains both of his Services, and some Preces, Psalms and Anthems.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1925: Vol. 4 of Tudor Church Music contains all his known church music.
Gibbons, Orlando, 161 2. The First Set of Madrigals and Mottets of 5 Parts. E.M.S. 5.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1928: Cries of London. Street cries, for voices and strings.
Gibbons, Orlando, 161 1: Parthenia, 161 1, contains six compositions for virginals by him, eight by Byrd and seven by Bull.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1925: Complete Keyboard Wor\s, compiled by Miss Margaret Glyn. 5 vols. She has also published a volume of 40 Keyboard Pieces by him.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1609: Fantazies of Three Parts for viols. This is the first English engraved music.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1623: George Wither 's The Hymnes and Songs of the Church contains 16 hymn tunes by Gibbons.
Gibbons, Orlando, 1924: All his Wor\s for Strings. Collected by E. H. Fellowes.
Giles, Nathaniel: A "Lesson of Descant of thirtie-eighte Proportions" from John Baldwin's Commonplace Book is published in the Appendix of Hawkins' History of Music, 1776.
Greaves, Thomas, 1604: Songes of sundrie \indes: First, Aires to be sung to the Lute, and Base Violl. Next, Songs of sadnesse, for the Viols and Voyce. Lastly, Madrigalles for five voyces. For the madrigals see E.M.S. 36. Four of the ayres have been reprinted in English Ayres,
Heath (John?), contributed to Certaine Notes set forth in foure and three parts to be song at the morning, Communion, and evening prater, 1560.
Hilton, John the Elder. One madrigal: "Fair Oriana, Beauty's Queen" published in The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
Hilton, John the Younger, 1627: Ayres or Fa la's for Three Voyces. Not in E.M.S.
Hoby, Thomas, in 1561 published his translation of Baldassare Cas-
[332]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
tiglione's Cortegiano (1528, in Italian) as The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio.
Holborne, Antony and William, 1597: The Cittharn-Schoole for cittharn, and cittharn and viols, by A. Holborne, with six madrigals (E.M.S. 36) by W. Holborne. In the Royal College of Music, and at Cambridge.
Holborne, Antony, 1599: Pavans, Galliards, Almains and other short JEirs both grave, and light, in five parts, for Viols, Violins, or other Musicall Winde Instruments. Reprinted by the New York Public Library, 1935.
Holborne, Antony: Dowland's Varietie of Lute Lessons, 161 o, contains compositions by him.
Holborne, Antony. Dowland's A Musicall Banquet, 1610, contains a duet by him, "My heavy sprite."
Holborne, Antony. Commendatory verses by him are printed in Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction, 1595, and Farnaby's Canzonets, 1598.
Hume, Tobias, 1605: The First part of Ayres, French, Pollish, and others . . . containing 116 airs in tablature and five songs. Not reprinted. Also referred to as Musicall Humors, this alternative title being printed at the head of every page.
Hume, Tobias, 1607: Captain Humes Poeticall Music\e ... 18 instru- mental and 4 vocal compositions. Reprinted by the New York Public Li- brary, 1932.
Hunnis, William, 1578: A hyvefull of hunnye containing the first boo\e of Moses called Genesis turned into English meetre, with music.
Hunnis, William, 1581: VII Steppes to Heaven, alias the vij [penitential] Psalmes reduced into meter by Will Hunnys. Reprinted by him in 1583 as Seven Sobs of a Sorrowful Soull for Sinnes, with tunes.
Inglott, William. The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\ contains two of his compositions.
Johnson, Edward. The Triumpkes of Oriana, 1603, contains his madrigal "Come blessed byrd."
Johnson, Edward. Three virginal pieces in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\.
Johnson, Edward, contributed three harmonizations to East's Whole Boo\e of Psalmes, 1592.
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ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Johnson, Robert. Leighton's Teares or Lamentacions , 1614, contains two pieces. For other compositions published abroad see Grove, ii. 783. Also catches, instrumental pieces, settings of "Full Fathom Five" and "Where the Bee Sucks" probably performed at the first production of the Tempest, etc.
Jones, Robert, 1600: The First Boo\e of Songes and Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:5.
Jones, Robert, 1601. The Second Boo\e of Songs and Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:6.
Jones, Robert, 1608: Ultimum Vale, or The Third Boo\e of Ayres . . . (ayres and vocal duets). In the Royal College of Music. Also E.S.L.S. 2:7.
Jones, Robert, 1609: A Musicall Dreame, Or the Fourth Booke of Ayres. E.S.L.S. 2:8.
Jones, Robert, 161 1: The Muses Gardin for Delights, or the Fift Boo\e of Ayres. . . . The only known copy is owned by Edward Huntingdon of New York. Reprinted as E.S.L.S. 2:9, and by Blackwell, Oxford, in 1926.
Jones, Robert, 1607: The First Set of Madrigals of 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Parts. E.M.S. 35.
Jones, Robert: A madrigal, "Oriana seeming to wink at folly," in The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
Kirbye, George, contributed to Thomas East's The Whole Boo\e of Psalmes, 1592.
Kirbye, George, 1597: The First Set of English Madrigalls. E.M.S. 24.
My Ladye Nevells Boo\e. Virginals pieces by Byrd, q.v.
Lasso, Orlando di, 1598: Novae aliquot et ante hac non ita usitatae ad duas voces cantiones suavissimae . Motets printed in London by Thomas East.
Le Roy, Adrien, 1557: Instruction ... in lute playing, translated by (1) J. Alford, 1568, as A Brief e and Easye Instruction to learn the table- ture; (2) by F. K. E. Gentleman, London, 1574, as A Brief e and Plaine In- struction.
Leighton, Sir William, 1614: The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowful Soule. Psalms and hymns for voices, most of them without accompaniment. The compositions with accompaniment were reprinted by the New York Public Library in 1935.
Lichfild, Henry, 1613: The First Set of Madrigals of 5 parts. E.M.S. 17.
[334]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Lodge, Thomas, 1579-80: A Defence of Poetry, Music\, and Stage Plays.
Lupo, Thomas. MS Fantasias for Five Viols. Printed by the New York Public Library in 1935.
Lute Playing. The Science of Luting, licensed to John Allden in 1565.
Marenzio, Luca, 1588 and 1597: Madrigals in Yonge's Musica Transal- pina (10 in Vol. 1, 3 in Vol. 2).
Marenzio, Luca, 1590: 23 Madrigals in Watson's The first sett of Italian Madri galls Englished.
Mason, George, and John Earsden, 1618: The Ayres that were sung and played, at Brougham Castle in Westmerland, in the Kings Entertainment. . . . Words by Campion, probably.
Maynard, John, 161 1: The XII Wonders of the World, Set and composed for the Violl de Gambo, the Lute and the Voyce to sing the Verse, all three jointly and none severall; also Lessons for the Lute and Base Violl to play alone; with some lessons to play Lyra-waye alone, or if you will to fill up the parts with another Violl set Lute-way. Twelve solo songs with accom- paniment, also dance pieces for lute.
Melvill, David. MS The Melvill Boo\ of Roundels. Scotch. Printed 1906.
Merbecke (Marbeck), John, 1550: The Boo\e of Common Praier Noted, known as "The First Prayer Book of Edward VI."
Merbecke, John. His church music is published in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 10, 1929.
Meres, Francis: Palladis Tamia. Aphorisms and pithy comparisons. For "Musicke" see pp. 287b, 288a, 288b.
Milton, John, Sr. (father of the poet). One madrigal in The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
Milton, John, Sr. Four anthems in Leighton's Teares or Lamentacions, 1614, including "O had I wings," reprinted by Hawkins and recently by Joseph Williams, and "Thou God of Might," reprinted by Burney.
Milton, John, Sr. Harmonizations of two psalm tunes in Ravenscroft's Psalter, 1621.
Morley, Thomas, 1593: Canzonets, or Little Short Songs to Three Voyces. Later editions 1606 and 1631. E.M.S. 1.
[335]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Morley, Thomas, 1594: Madrigalls to Foure Voyces. 2nd edition 1600. E.M.S. 2.
Morley, Thomas, 1595: The First Boo\e of Balletts to five voyces. 2nd edition 1600. E.M.S. 4. Italian edition 1595, London. German edition 1609, Nuremberg.
Morley, Thomas, 1595: The First Boo\e of Canzonets to two voyces. 2nd edition 1619. E.M.S. 1.
Morley, Thomas, 1597, edited Canzonets, Or Little Short Songs to foure voyces. Celected out of the best and approved Italian Authors. Two madri- gals by Morley himself are included, reprinted in E.M.S. 2.
Morley, Thomas, 1597: Canzonets or Little Short Aers to five and sixe voices. E.M.S. 3.
Morley, Thomas, 1597: A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Mu- sic\e. It includes eight compositions by Morley. Facsimile reprint by Oxf. Univ. Press, 1937, 218 pp. Modern edition ed. by R. A. Harman, 1952.
Morley, Thomas, 1598, edited Madrigals to five voyces. Celected out of the best approved Italian Authors.
Morley, Thomas, 1599, edited The First Boo\e of Consort Lessons, made by divers exquisite Authors, for sixe Instruments. Reprinted by the New York Public Library in 1935.
Morley, Thomas, 1600: The First Boo\e of Ayres or Little Short Songs, to sing and play to the Lute, with the Base Viole. The only known copy is in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C. Reprinted in 1932 in E.S.L.S., n:iy.
Morley, Thomas, 1603, compiled The Triumphes of Oriana. It includes two madrigals by Morley. E.M.S. 32.
Morley, Thomas, contributed four harmonizations to The whole boo\e of Psalmes. With their woonted tunes. 1604-14.
Morley, Thomas, contributed three harmonizations to Ravenscroft's Psal- ter, 1 62 1.
Morley, Thomas. Eight compositions in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\, q.v.
Morley, Thomas. Three compositions in Will. Forster's Virginal Boo\.
Mulliner Boo^, The: a MS collection of 117 compositions for keyboard in-
[336]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
struments, made about 1545 by Thomas Mulliner, Master of the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral. Printed 1951. 97 pp. Ed. by Denis Stevens.
Mundy, John, 1594: Songs and Psalms . . . E.M.S. 35.
Musica Transalpina. See Nicholas Yonge.
Myriell, Thomas, 1616?: Tristitiae Remedium. English and Italian music, including probably some of his own. In MS except the engraved title-page.
Nicholson, Richard: One madrigal in The Triumphes of Oriana, 1603.
Notari, Angelo, 1613: Prime Musiche Nuove a Una, Due e Tre Voci. . . . Publ. by Wm. Hole, London.
Old Hall Manuscript, The, 2 vols., 1933-35: religious choral compositions by Lionel Power, Pycard, Sturgeon, King Henry VI, and other fifteenth- century Englishmen.
Palestrina, G. P. da: Five madrigals in Musica Transalpina, Vol. 1, 1588.
Parsley, Osbert: Church music in Tudor Church Music, Vol. 10, 1929. His epitaph is in Norwich Cathedral.
Parthenia. 161 1. The first virginal music printed in England and the sec- ond music printed in England from engraved plates (copper). By Byrd, Bull and Gibbons. Reprinted 1927 as Twenty-one Old English Composi- tions of the 16th and iyth Centuries, ed. by M. H. Glyn; and in facsimile, 1942.
Parthenia In-violata. 1614. Engraved for virginals and bass viol. The only known copy is in the New York Public Library.
Pattrick, Nathaniel: Songes of Sundry e Natures. Approved for printing in 1597, but perhaps never issued. No copy is known.
Peacham, Henry the Younger, 1622: The Compleat Gentleman devotes a chapter to music.
Peerson, Martin, 1620: Private Music\e, or the First Boo\e of Ayres and Dialogues, Contayning Songs of 4. 5. and 6. parts. . . . This publication and the next contain instrumental accompaniments.
Peerson, Martin, 1630: Mottects or Grave Chamber Musique, Containing Songs of five parts of several! sorts, some ful, and some Verse and Chorus . . . with an Organ Part. . . .
Philips, Peter, 1591: Melodia Olympica. . . . Madrigals. Antwerp.
Philips, Peter, 1596: // primo libro de madrigali a sei voci.
Philips, Peter, 1598: Madrigals for 8 voices.
[337]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Philips, Peter, 1603: 2d Book of madrigals for 6 voices.
Philips, Peter, 161 2: Cantiones sacrae for 5 voices. Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.
Philips, Peter, 1613: Cantiones sacrae for 8 voices. Dedicated to St. Peter.
Philips, Peter, 1613: Gemmulae Sacrae Binis et Ternis Vocibus cum Basso Continuo ad Organum.
Philips, Peter, 1616: Les Rossi gnols spirituels. . . . Motets or hymns. Va- lenciennes.
Philips, Peter, 1616: Deliciae sacrae binis et ternis vocibus cum basso con- tinuo ad organum.
Philips, Peter, 1623: Litanies of Loreto.
Philips, Peter, 1628: Paradisus sacris cantionibus consitus, una, duabus et tribus vocibus decantantis. Cum basso generali ad organum. First part.
Philips, Peter, 1633. Same, 2d and 3d parts. The first editions of his works so far mentioned were published at Antwerp, except Les Rossignols spirituels. Many soon reached second and third editions.
Philips, Peter, The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\ contains 19 pieces, some with dates ranging between 1580 and 1605.
Philips, Peter, 1598: Two madrigals by him were printed in Morley's col- lection of "Italian" madrigals.
Philips, Peter. A Pa van and Galliard in Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599. This Pavan is also printed in Robinson's New Citharen Lessons, 1609.
Philips, Peter. An "Aria a 4" in Taffel Concert, edited by Thomas Simp- son, Hamburg, 162.1. For other single compositions scattered through conti- nental collections, see Grove, iv. 142, 143.
Pilkington, Francis, 1605: The First Boo\e of Songs or Ayres of 4 parts, intended to be performed either as solo songs with lute, or as four-part mad- rigals unaccompanied. E.S.L.S. 1:7, 15.
Pilkington, Francis, 1614: The First Set of Madrigals and Pastorals of 3, 4 and 5 Parts. E.M.S. 25.
Pilkington, Francis, 161 4: Two madrigals of his appeared in Leighton's The Teares or Lamentacions of a Sorrowful Soule.
Pilkington, Francis, 1624: The Second set of Madrigals and Pastorals of j, 4, 5, and 6 parts. E.M.S. 25.
[338]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Porter, Walter, 1632: Madri gales and Ayres. Of two, three, foure and five Voyces with instrumental accompaniment. Reprinted 1935 by The New York Public Library, 212 pp.
Psalters. The most important are here listed, but for their complete titles the reader is referred to Grove's Dictionary, iv. 267 ff .
1539 Coverdale's hymns and thirteen Goostly psalmes . . . with tunes.
Suppressed the same year by Henry VIII. 1549 Crowley's. The first complete psalter in English, and music in
four parts. 1549 Sternhold's first metrical translation: Certayne Psalmes. No music. 1556 Geneva: One and fiftie Psalmes with a different tune for each. No
harmony. Thirty-seven of the translations are by Sternhold. 1560 by Sternhold and others, with tunes. London.
1562 Sternhold and Hopkins' first complete edition.
1567 or 1568 Archbishop Parker's The whole Psalter, containing nine tunes by Tallis.
1563 Day's, containing 141 compositions in four parts. 1579, 1591 Daman's.
1592 East's. 1599 Allison's.
Between 1604 and 1614 "The whole booke of Psalmes. With their woonted Tunes ..." containing four fine new harmonizations by Morley, five by Bennet, and one by Farnaby. Printed by Barley. 1 62 1 Ravenscroft's. 1623 George Wither's, containing 16 original compositions by Orlando
Gibbons. Between 1625 and 1639 Giles Farnaby's MS The Psalmes of David, Ravenscroft, Thomas, 1609: Pammelia. Music\'s Miscellanie. Contains 100 rounds and catches. The compositions in this and the other publications of Ravenscroft are by various composers, whose names are not given, except that six compositions in the Brief e Discourse are stated to be by Bennet.
Ravenscroft, Thomas, 1609: Deuteromelia: or the Second part of Mu- sicf(s Melodie.
Ravenscroft, Thomas, 161 1: Melismata. Mostly humorous little madrigals.
[339]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Ravenscroft, Thomas, 1614: A Brieje Discourse of the true {but neglected) use of Charact'ring the Degrees by their Perfection, Imperfection, and Diminution in Measurable Music\e, against the Common Practise and Cus- tome of these Times. Examples whereof are exprest in the Harmony of 4. Voyces, concerning the Pleasure of 5 usuall Recreations, 1. Hunting. 2. Hawkjng. 3. Dauncing. 4. Drinking. 5. Enamouring.
Ravenscroft, Thomas, 1621: The whole Boo\e of Psalmes.
Ravenscroft, Thomas: Treatise of Music\. Brit. M. Add. MSS 19,578/19.
Richardson, Ferdinand(o). The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\ contains eight of his compositions.
Robinson, Thomas, 1603: The Schoole of Music\e: wherein is taught the perfect method of the true fingering of the Lute, Pandora, Orpharion and Viol de Gamba.
Robinson, Thomas, 1609: New Citharen Lessons.
Rosseter, Philip, 1601: A Boo\ of Ayres, . . . by Philip Rosseter Luten- ist. The first 21 ayres are by Campion (E.S.L.S. 1:4, 13), the last 21 ayres by Rosseter (E.S.L.S. 1:8, 9).
Rosseter, Philip, in 1609 published Lessons for Consort: made by sundry Excellent Authors, and set to sixe severall instruments. . . . Reprinted by the New York Public Library, 1935.
Simmes, William. Myriell's Tristitiae Remedium, 1616, contains an an- them of his. MS compositions also exist.
Simpson, Thomas, 1610: Opusculum neuer Pavanen, Galliarden, Couran- ten und Vol ten. Frankfort.
Simpson, Thomas, 161 1: Pavanen, Volten und Galliarden. Frankfort.
Simpson, Thomas, 1617: Opus Newer Paduanen, Galliarden, Intraden . . . Hamburg.
Simpson, Thomas, 1621: Taffel Consort allerhand lustige Lieder von 4 Instrumenten und Generalbass. Pieces by Simpson, Philips, John Dowland, Robert and Edward Johnson, etc. Hamburg.
Straloch MS. is probably the "earliest manuscript containing Scottish airs." For lute, 1627 and 1629.
Stubbs, Simon. Myriell's Tristitiae Remedium, 1616, contains two an- thems.
[34°]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Stubbs, Simon. Ravenscroft's whole Booke of Psalmes, 1621, contains har- monizations by him.
Tailour, Robert, 161 5: Sacred Hymns, consisting of Fifti select Psalms.
Tallis, Thomas, 1575: Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur. 16 compositions by Tallis and 18 by Byrd.
Tallis, Thomas. Five anthems in John Day's Certaine Notes, 1560.
Tallis, Thomas. All nine Psalm Tunes in Archbishop Parker's Psalter,
I567-
Tallis, Thomas. His church music is publ. as Vol. 6 of Tudor Church Music.
Tallis, Thomas, The Complete Keyboard Wor\s of. Ed. by Denis Stevens.
Taverner, John. His church music is published in Vols. 1 and 3 of Tudor Church Music, 1923 ff.
Tessier, Charles, 1597: Le Premier Livre de chansons et airs de court, tant en francois qu'en italien et en gascon a 4 et 5 parties. London, Thomas East.
Tomkins, Thomas, 1622: Songs of 3. 4. 5. and 6. Parts. Madrigals; E.M.S. 18.
Tomkins, Thomas. Some church music was published in Musica Deo Sacra, 1668; and all his Keyboard Worlds 1955, 205 pp. Ed. by S. D. Tuttle.
Tomkins, Thomas. Church Services: Tudor Church Music, Vol. 8, 1928. Another volume of his sacred music is planned.
Triumphes of Oriana, The. 1603. Madrigals by various composers in honor of Queen Elizabeth. Collected by Thomas Morley. E.M.S. 32.
Tudor Church Music, 1923 ff.: Vols. 1, 3 Taverner; 2, 7, 9 Byrd; 4 Or- lando Gibbons; 5 White; 6 Tallis; 8 Thomas Tomkins; 10 Merbecke, As- ton, and Parsley.
Tye, Christopher, 1553: The Actes of the Apostles, translated into Eng- lyshe Metre . . . by Christofer Tye . . . to singe and also to play upon the Lute. . . .
Tye, Christopher. Modern editions of a few compositions are listed in Grove, v. 417, 418.
Vautor, Thomas, 1619: Madrigals. The First Set: Beeing Songs of divers Ayres and Natures, of Five and Sixe parts: Apt for Vyols and Voyces. E.M.S. 34.
[34i]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Vautrollier, Thomas, in 1574 printed A Brief Introduction to Musicke. No copy is known.
Virginal Music. For a list of some modern editions see p. 179 supra. The chief Elizabethan collections (the first four being in manuscript) are:
1. The Fitzwilliam Virginal Boo\, publ. 1899.
2. My Ladye-Nevells Boo\e, by Byrd, q.v. Publ. 1926.
3. Will. Forster's Virginal Boo\,
4. Benjamin Cosyn's Virginal Boo\.
5. Parthenia, 161 1.
Ward, John, 1613: The First Set of English Madrigals. E.M.S. 19.
Watson, Thomas, edited in 1590 The first sett of Italian Madrigalls Eng- lished, not to the Sense of the original dittie, but after the affection of the Noate. By Thomas Watson. There are also heere inserted two excellent Mad- rigalls of Master William Byrd' s composed after the Italian vaine at the re- quest of the sayd Thomas Watson.
Weelkes, Thomas, 1597: Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. & 6. voyces. E.M.S. 9.
Weelkes, Thomas, 1598: Balletts & Madrigals to five voyces. E.M.S. 10.
Weelkes, Thomas, 1600: Madrigals of 5. and 6. parts. E.M.S. 11, 12.
Weelkes, Thomas, 1608: Ayeres or Phantastique Spirites for three voices. E.M.S. 13.
Weelkes, Thomas, contributed one madrigal to The Triumphes of Ori- ana, 1603.
White, Robert. His church music is published in Vol. 5 of Tudor Church Music, 1923 ff.
Whythorne, Thomas, 1571: Songs for three, fower, and five voyces. . . . The Oxford University Press has reprinted several, ed. by Peter Warlock.
Whythorne, Thomas: Autobiography. Ed. by James M. Osborn, 1961.
Whythorne, Thomas, 1590: Duos, or Songs for two voices.
Wilbye, John, 1598: The First Set of English Madrigals to 3. 4. 5. and 6. voices. E.M.S. 6.
Wilbye, John, 1609: The Second Set of Madri gales to 3. 4. 5. and 6. parts. E.M.S. 7.
Wilbye, John. Leighton's Teares or Lamentacions , 1614, contains two sa- cred compositions.
[342]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Wilbye, John, contributed one madrigal to The Triumphes of Oriana.
Wynkyn de Worde in 1530 printed, in beautiful music type, XX Songs. Only the bass part is extant, and the composer is unknown.
Yonge, Nicholas, compiled Musica Transalpina. Vol. 1, 1588, is the first printed collection of Italian madrigals with English words. Vol. 2 appeared in 1597.
Youll, Henry, 1608: Canzonets to Three Voyces. E.M.S. 28.
SOME MODERN BOOKS ON ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Anderton, H. Orsmond, 1920: Early English Music. Deals with all the important composers at fair length. Goes down to Samuel Wesley.
Arkwright, Godfrey E. P., 1 889-1 902: Old English Edition. Now largely superseded. The prefaces contain Weelkes' will, etc.
Arkwright, Godfrey E. P., 1913: "Elizabethan Choirboy Plays and Their Music." In Proceedings of the Musical Association, 1913-14, p. 117.
Atkins, Sir Ivor, 1918: The Early Occupants of the Office of Organist and Master of the Choristers of the Cathedral of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Worcester.
Barnard, Rev. John, 1641: The First Boo\ of Selected Church Music\ . . . Whereby such booses as were heretofore with much difficulty and charges, transcribed for the use of the Quire, are now to the saving of much Labour and expence, publisht for the general good of all such as shall desire them either for public^ or private exercise. Collected out of divers approved Authors. The first printed collection of anthems and service music by vari- ous English composers.
Baskervill, Charles Read, 1929: The Elizabethan Jig. 642 pp.
Bradner, Leicester, 1927: The Life and Poems of Richard Edwards. Yale Univ. Press.
Brennecke, Ernest, Jr., 1939: John Milton the Elder and His Music.
Bridge, Sir Frederick, 1920: Twelve Good Musicians.
British Museum: The Catalogue of Printed Music published between 148J and 1800 now in the British Museum. Compiled by W. Barclay Squire.
British Museum: Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum. Compiled by A. Hughes-Hughes.
[343]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Burney, Charles, 17761!.: A General History of Music. 4 vols. Contempo- rary judgment preferred Burney and neglected Hawkins. But Burney, in spite of a fuller knowledge of music in general, did not understand Eliza- bethan music. Reprinted 1936.
Campion's Wor\s, ed. by Percival Vivian, 1909. Omits the music of the ayres and masques, but prints the musical illustrations to A New Way of Maying Fowre Parts in Counter-point.
Chappell, William, 1855-59: Popular Music of the Olden Time. Edition revised by H. E. Wooldridge, 1893.
Collins, H. B., 1912: "Latin Church Music." Proceedings of the Musical Association, 1912-13, pp. 55-83.
Cowling, G. H., 1912: Music of the Shakespearian Stage.
Davey, Henry, 1895: History of English Music.
Dictionary of National Biography: Biographies of John Parsons, etc.
Dolmetsch, Arnold, 1898: Select English Songs and Dialogues of the 16th and iyth Centuries by Morley, Henry Lawes, etc. Words and music.
Dolmetsch, Arnold, 19 15: The Interpretation of the Music of the 17th and 1 8th Centuries. Technical, but "invaluable to students" — Colles.
Emden, Cecil S., 1926: "Lives of Elizabethan Song Composers: Some New Facts." Review of English Studies, Oct. 1926. No musical criticism.
Evans, Willa McClung, 1929: Ben Jonson and Elizabethan Music. Lan- caster Press, Inc., Lancaster, Pa. Also her book on Henry Lawes, 1941.
Farmer, Henry George, 1930: Music in Medieval Scotland. 23 pp. Reeves.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. Edmund Horace, 1923: William Byrd. A Short Ac- count of His Life and Wor\. 126 pp. Second edition, 1928.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H.: William Byrd. 2d ed. 1948.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1913-24: English Madrigal School. Contains in music notation practically all the English madrigals that were printed, 1588— 1624. 36 vols. Also prefaces.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 19201?.: English School of Lutenist Song Writers. Does the same for the solo songs written to lute accompaniment. Winthrop Rogers, later by Stainer and Bell. Complete except for one less important volume.
[344]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1921: The English Madrigal Composers. An ac- count of the composers' lives, compositions, and musical styles. 2d ed. 1949.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1925: The English Madrigal, in pp.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1920 (editor): English Madrigal Verse. A com- plete collection of the poetry of the printed madrigals and ayres. No music. 2d ed. 1931.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1926: Orlando Gibbons.
Fellowes, Rev. Dr. E. H., 1928 (editor): Songs and Lyrics from the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Contains 62 poems, and 17th Century musical settings of six of these.
Flood, Chevalier William Henry Grattan, Mus.D., 1924: Early Tudor- Composers.
Flood, Chevalier William Henry Grattan, Mus.D.: "New Light on Late Tudor Composers"; articles on later Tudor composers in the Musical Times, 1924-1929. The numerous facts here first published should not be accepted unquestioningly, for he rarely cites his authorities.
Galpin, Francis W., 1911: Old English Instruments of Music.
Glyn, Margaret H., 1924: About Elizabethan Virginal Music and Its Composers. Reeves.
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Page numbers quoted are from the 3d edition, 5 vols.
Hawkins, Sir John, 1776: General History of the Science and Practice of Music. 5 vols. He was more painstaking than Burney. Both were sometimes inaccurate.
Hayes, Gerald R., 1928 ff.: "Musical Instruments and Their Music, 1500- 1750." A Series of Five Books: I. The Treatment of Instrumental Music, 1928; II. The Viols, 1930; III. The Lute; IV. Keyboard Instruments; V. Wind Instruments. The last three have not yet been issued.
Howes, Frank, 1928: William Byrd.
Kastendieck, Miles M., 1938: England's Musical Poet, Thomas Campion.
Morris, R. O., 1922: Contrapuntal Technique in the Sixteenth Century.
Naylor, Edward W., 1896: Shakespeare and Music.
Naylor, Edward W., 1910: "Music and Shakespeare." Article in the Mu- sical Antiquary, April 191 0.
[345]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Naylor, Edward W., 19 13: Shakespeare Music. Gives much of the music referred to in Shakespeare's plays, with comments. Curwen.
Pulver, J., 1923: A Dictionary of Old English Music and Musical Instru- ments.
Pulver, J., 1927: A Biographical Dictionary of Old English Music.
Rimbault, Edward F., 1847: Bibliotheca Madrigaliana. Important early research work, but not always dependable.
Rye, William Brenchley, 1865: England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and James the First. Contains several musical references.
Scholes, Percy A., 1934: The Puritans and Music in England and New England.
Scott, Charles Kennedy, 1931: Madrigal Singing.
Smith, Leo, 1931: Music of the iyth and 18th Centuries.
Stanford, Sir Charles V., and Cecil Forsyth, 19 14: History of Music. Vivid chapter on Elizabethan Music.
Steele, Robert, 1903: Earliest English Music Printing.
Stopes, Mrs. C. C, 191 o: William Hunnis. Louvain, Belgium.
Terry, Sir R. R., and others, 1923 ff.: Tudor Church Music. Published for the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust by the Oxford University Press. Ten volumes.
Terry, Sir R. R., 1907: Catholic Church Music.
Terry, Sir R. R., 1929: A Forgotten Psalter and Other Essays. The first essay, of 26 pp., is on the important Scotch Psalter of 1564. Other essays deal with Merbecke, Tallis, etc.
Van den Borren, Ch., 1914: The Sources of Keyboard Music in England. Novello.
Van den Borren, Ch.: "The Aesthetic Value of the English Madrigal." Proceedings of the Musical Association, 1925-6.
Walker, Ernest: History of Music in England. Rewritten by Westrup, 1952.
Warlock, Peter (nom de plume for Philip Heseltine): Thomas Why- thorne. An Unknown Elizabethan Composer. 1925. 11 pp. Oxford Univ. Press.
Warlock, Peter, 1926: The English Ayre.
Welch, Christopher, 191 1: Six Lectures on the Recorder. Henry Frowde.
[346]
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Williams, Charles Francis Abdy, 1893: A Historical Account of Musical Degrees at Oxford and Cambridge.
Wood, Anthony (1632-1695): Athenae Oxonienses, including Fasti Oxonienses,
Wood, Anthony: MS Biographical Notes on Musicians. Bodleian Library MS Wood 190(4) No. 106.
Carpenter, Nan Cooke: "The Study of Music at the University of Oxford in the Renaissance (1450-1600)." Musical Quarterly, April 1955, pp. 191— 214.
Einstein, Alfred, 1949: The Italian Madrigal.
Harrison, Frank L., 1958: Music in Medieval Britain.
Kastentieck, M. M., 1938: England's Musical Poet: Thomas Campion.
King's Music\, The, 1909. Ed. by H. C. de la Fontaine.
Lefkowitz, Murray, i960: William Lawes. 350 pp.
Long, John H., 1955: Shakespeare's Use of Music. 213 pp.
Manifold, John S., 1956: The Music in English Drama from Shakespeare to Purcell. Also his article on "Theatre Music in the Sixteenth and Seven- teenth Centuries" in Music and Letters, Oct. 1948, pp. 366—397.
Meyer, Ernst H., 1946: English Chamber Music. The History of a Great Art from the Middle Ages to Purcell. See also its review by Alfred Einstein, Musical Quarterly, July 1947.
Music and Letters: "Thomas Weelkes and the Madrigal" by D. M. Arnold, Jan. 1950; "Music and Musicians at Chichester Cathedral, 1545— 1642" by Thurston Dart, July 1961; "William Byrd" by J. A. Westrup, July 1943; and articles on Morley and Giovanni Croce, July 1953 and Oct. 1954.
Newton, Richard: "English Lute Music of the Golden Age" in Proceed- ings of the Musical Association, 1938-9, pp. 63—90.
Pattison, Bruce, 1948: Music and Poetry of the English Renaissance.
Stevens, Denis, 1957: Thomas Tomhjns: 1572—1656.
Stevens, Denis, 1955, 1961: Tudor Church Music. A survey of liturgical music from 1485 to the first decade of the seventeenth century.
Woodfill, W. L., 1954: Musicians in English Society from Elizabeth to Charles I.
[347]
Index
Accidentals, 250 ff.
Accompaniments, instrumental, 60, 95,
108, 121, 127—152. Acoustics, works by Bacon on, 3, 266—271. Actors: required to sing or play, 3, 190 ff.;
companies of, 190, 198—204. Adriaensen, Emmanuel, 160 n. Adson, John, 162 n., 175 f., 195. Albrecht, Otto E., 60 n. Alexander the Great, 30, 292. Alford, John, 154. Allden, John, 154. Allemandes (almains), 159, 163-166, 169,
239-
Allen, William Cardinal, 217.
Allison, Richard, 34, 54 ff., 63, 94, 109, 113, 153, 175, 330, 339.
Ambrose, St., 297.
Amner, John, 63, 65, 79, 89.
Anderton, H. Orsmond, 343.
Andrews, Hilda, 178.
Anerio, Felice, 211 n. ("Andreon"), 311.
Anne, Queen, wife of James I, 129, 136, 156, 171, 195, 217, 320.
Anne of Cleves, 17.
Antiphonal singing, 22 f.
Antwerp, 140, 182, 216, 338.
Appreciation of music: how to acquire it, 17; some lacked it, 3, 6 f., 21, 27, 33; in ancient Greece and Rome, by rulers and kings, 292 ff., the gods, 293, philoso- phers, 294, 296; music not highly re- garded early in Elizabeth's reign, 13— 16, 18-21, 280 f., 283; its subsequent growth in popularity, 12, 18, 107; praise of music, 16 f., 25, 29-36, 145, 173 f., 280, 286 f., 296, 301, 313.
Apprenticeship, 276.
Arcadelt, Jacob, 92.
Ariosto, 103.
Aristotle, 29, 33, 115, 293.
Arkwright, G. E. P., 68 n., 121 n., 143 n.,
198, 200 n., 21411., 343. Arrangements (transcriptions), 108, 183 f. Ascham, R., 7, 16, 33. Aston, Hugh, 324. Atkins, Sir Ivor, 90, 343. Attey, John, 127, 151, 330. Augustine, St., 297—300. Ayres, 2, 127-152; defined, 2 n., 127, 130;
how performed, 127, 131.
Bach, J. S., 90, 108, 162, 177.
Bacon, Sir Francis, 105 n., 187L, 230,
266-271, 324. Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 14. Bagpipe, 1 5 n., 23 n. Baldwin, John, 77, 79, 81, 178, 274,
310 ff., 324. Ballet, William, 166. Ballets (madrigals), n8f., 205 f., 239. Bandora, 15, 124, 153 f., 163, 174, 190,
196. Bantock, Sir Granville, 180. Bar lines, 186. Barley, William, 135, 149 n., 154, 161,
166, 224, 241, 253, 275, 324, 339. Barnard, John, 63 ff., 343. Barnes, Joseph, 21 n. Barnfield, Richard, 114, 136. Bardett, John, 128, 151, 330. Baskervill, C. R., 189 n., 343. Bassano, Giovanni, 211 n. Bassoon, 162.
Batchelar, Daniel, 142, 161 n., 330. Bateson, Thomas, 94, 109 f., 216, 273,
274, 278, 330. Bath, Earl of, 89. Bathe, William, 222, 224, 249-254, 260 n.,
265, 276.
[349]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Baton, 1 1 5 n.
Batten, Adrian, 63, 97 n.
Bavaria, Duke of, 215.
Baxter, John, 175.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 167, 190.
Bees, 246.
Beethoven, 262.
Behmen, Jacob, 261.
Bells, 8, 26, 190, 219.
Bembo, Francesco, 212.
Bennet, John, 94, 109 f., 259, 330.
Berlioz, 165.
Besard, J. B., 160, 218.
Beurhasius, 241.
Bevin, Elway, vii, 63, 262, 265 f., 274.
Bible: the music of the Bible and the me- dieval church, 297 f.
Bibliographies, 180, 189, 323-347.
Birmingham, 149.
Blackfriars: Children of the Chapel at, 199 f.; theatre, 200 f.
Blancks, E., 54.
Blitheman, William, 32, 65, 77, 272, 318.
Bluecoat School, 15, 16.
Boccaccio, 205.
Bossewell, John, 18, 62.
Bosvile, Ralph, 150.
Bow, 154, 169; how to hold it, 158.
Brade, William, 217, 324.
Bradner, Leicester, 97 n., 343.
Bransle, 239.
Brennecke, Ernest, Jr., 186, 343.
Breton, Nicholas, 125 n..
Bridge, Sir Frederick, 343.
Brinsley, John, 16.
Bristol Cathedral, 265.
British Museum, xi, 29 n., 53 n., 111, 163, 323> 343! manuscripts, 117, 310, 337, 340, 343-
Brown, J. H., 14 n.
Brunswick, Duke of, 138 f., 160 n.
Brussels, 216 f.
Buckingham, Dukes of, 123, 176.
Bull, John, 14 n., 32, 57 n., 65, 77, 120, 163 n., 176, 181, 207, 273 f.; career, 181 f., 272, 275, 318 f.; virtuoso, 222,
318; sacred compositions, 64, 312; key- board works, 80, 178-185.
Burghley, Lord, 8, 72 n., 83 n.
Burney, Charles, 55, 77; A General His- tory of Music, 74 n., 101, 223, 344.
Burton, Robert: The Anatomy of Melan- choly, 4, 33, 295 n.
Butler, Chads, vii, 60, 81, 88, 104 n., 214, 223 f., 228, 230, 242, 245-249, 252, 276.
Butler, Samuel: Hudibras, 261.
Byrd, William, 2, 14 n., 32, 57 n., 122, 127, 176, 190, 207, 274-277, 330; life, 80, 83, 344; monopoly on music print- ing, 54, 72 ff., 325; Roman Catholic, 83; fame, 65 f., 73, 80-85, I03> I07> 120, 185, 215, 226, 247, 311 f., 314- 317; Latin verse by, 278; his madrigals, xi, 2, 8, 32, 65, 80, 83, 93, 103-109, 163 n., 206, 208, 210, 231, 272, 325, 330; canons {Medulla Music/^e) 163 n., 208, 214, 264; Cantiones sacrae, 64 f., 72 f., 83, 113, 247, 284-291, 325; other church music, 62-65, 77, 80-84, 91, 247, 312, 325 f.; virginal music, 80, 167, 178-181, 183 ff., 325.
Cabezon, Antonio de, 181, 207.
Caccini, Giulio, 142.
Cadences, 225, 235.
Calais, 140.
Calendar, viii, 132.
Calvinists, 13, 24.
Calvisius, S., 242.
Cambridge, 85.
Cambridge University, 32 n., 113, 272 f., 276, 309; Clare College, 277; King's College, 85, 272; Library, xi, 263, 323; Pembroke Hall, 277; Peterhouse, 276.
Camden, William, 7, 7 n., 90 n., 129, 272.
Campion, Thomas, 175, 276, 345; ayres, 128-134, 326; masques, 129, 194-197, 326; poetry, 125, 128 ff., 132 ff., 139, 145 f., 260, 278, 305; versatility, 277; A New Way of Making Fowre Parts in
[35°]
INDEX
Counter-point, 225, 249, 251 f., 254- 258, 326, 344.
Canons, 52, 78, 112, 121, 148, 214; de- fined, 261; example given, 264 f.; rea- sons for composing them, 261 f., 265; collections and instruction books, 223 f., 230, 254.
Canterbury, 85 ff.
Canticles, 37 n., 6o, 61 n.
Canzonets, 60, 206 f., 211, 215, 238.
Carlton, Richard, 94, 109 ff., 122 n., 274, 276 f., 330.
Case, John, xi, 28, 222, 275 f.; The Praise of Music\e, 3, 18, 20, 24, 28-33, 292- 300; Apologia musices, 29 n., 31, 188,
327- Castiglione, Count B., Cortegione, 27,
279 f. Catches, 27, 126. Cathedrals, services in, 10, 19 f., 23, 26,
63, 86, 89. Catholic Church, Roman, 10, 37, 136, 188;
objections to its rites, 9 n., 19, 23, 115;
music composed in England, 62-65, 80-
84. Catullus, 131 f. Cavendish, Michael, 54, 94, 109, in, 128,
150, 330. Cecil, Sir Robert, 139. Cellius, Erhard, 219 n. Chamberlain, John, 86. Chamberlin, F., 7 n. Champernowne, Sir Richard, 165. Change-ringing, 219. Chapel Royal, 23, 64, 69, 80, 85 ff., 95,
172, 181, 196, 199 f., 202, 274. Chapman, George, 129, 185 f., 195. Chappell, W., 4, 344. Charles I, vii, 6, 25, 86 f., 134, 143, 147,
176, 198, 255, 277; time of, 115, 177,
198. Charles II, 124, 277, 279; time of, 126,
162. Chaucer, 112, 113 n., 133, 150 n., 205. Chester Cathedral, 66, 109, 120. Chesterfield, Lord, 279 f.
Cheyney, Lady, 117.
Chichester Cathedral, 60, 123.
Child, William, 266, 330.
Chilston, 327.
Choirboys, 12, 220, 272; training of, 13, 20, 68, 90, 95; as actors, 198-204.
Choirmasters, 274.
Choirs and choir singers, 9, 13, 18 ff., 23 n., 44, 65, 120, 274; fond of drink, 26 f.; lazy, 237.
Chorales, 39.
Chords, 57, 255-258; daring or dissonant, 94, 105 f., 112, 123, 141, 147, 181.
Christina, Queen of Sweden, 25.
Chromatic scale, 240.
Church of England, 37, 37 n., 38, 38 n.
Church services, 9, 20, 38, 61 f., 219 f.
Cicero, 82, 116.
Cither(n), cittern, 15, 54, 124, 155, 159, 163, 174, 190; defined, 153.
Clefs, 42 n., 250, 254.
Clemens non Papa, 231, 242, 247, 288 f.
Clifton, Sir Gervis, 212.
Cobbold, W., 54.
Collins, H. B., 344.
Compass of voices, 232 f.
Composers: financial status and property owned, 116 f., 123 f., 137, 139, 160 n., 188, 275, 321; self-depreciation, 102, 106, 112, 114, 116, 121, 147, 150, 176, 211; proficiency in non-musical subjects, 276 ff.
Composing: of sacred music, 13; method used in, 84; textbook instruction in, 16 n., 17, 223 f., 230, 234-239; expres- sive and pictorial, 43-52, 130, 223, 235- 238.
Concords, defined, 224, 229 f.
Consecutive fifths and octaves, 165, 213 f., 227, 230, 240; hidden fifths and octaves, 231, 258.
Consort, 8, 124, 162 ff., 174 ff., 187, 196.
Continent: English musicians played there, 176 f., 216 ff., 221; English music known or printed there, 81, 124, 129, 140, 176, 217 f.
[351]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Conversi, Girolamo, 210 f.
Cooper, Robert, 227, 242 n.
Coprario (Cooper), John, 5711., 122 n., 128, 134, 143, 16911., 274, 277, 327, 330.
Copyists, 60, 74, 81, 104, 274.
Copyright, 62.
Coranto, courante, 159, 239.
Corkine, William, 74, 128, 327, 330.
Cornet, 176.
Cornett, 10, 15, 15 n., 124, 163 £., 190, 196, 220; described, 162, 176.
Cornyshe, William, 242 n., 274.
Cost of music, 62, 71 n., 116.
Cosyn, Benjamin, 179, 183 f.
Cosyn, John, 53.
Counterpoint and contrapuntal composi- tions, 2, 17, 61, 66, 72, 80, 123, 130, 165, 205, 265, 318; textbook instruction in counterpoint, 3, 223 ff., 230, 243 n., 248 n., 255, 258; mistakes in, 67, 230; defined, 225 n.
Couperin le Grand, 180.
Coverdale, Miles, 37—40.
Cowley, Abraham, 26 n.
Cowling, G. H., 189 n., 193 n.
Crashaw, Richard, 61.
Craxton, Harold, 180.
Crecquillon, Thomas, 311.
Criticism, unfavorable: of music in general, 24, 10 1, 228; of amorous or improper words and music, 22, 39, 53 f., 189, 238; of any music with secular words, 10 1 ; of individual composers and pas- sages, 67, 70, 100, 134, 227, 231; of crudities and mistakes in music, 67, 231 f., 236; of musicians, 7, 20 f., 23, 26 ff., 54, 140 f., 157, 275; composers' fear of criticism, 102, 106, 109, 142 f., 148, 164, 227, 275, 282.
Croce, Giovanni, 63, 65, 116 n., 139, 208, 210, 211 n., 212, 216, 231, 238, 242 n., 247, 328.
Cromwell, Oliver, 24 f., 115, 217; time of, 162, 166, 177, 184, 279.
Cross relation, 232.
Crowley, Robert, 38, 40. Curtals, 15 n. Curwen, J. and J. S., 250. Cutting, Francis, 154, 328. Cutting, Thomas, 217.
Daman, William, his psalters, 21 n., 23 n.,
53, 55, 328, 339- Dances, 146, 163-170, 172; in masques,
176, I94-I97- Dancing, 4, 7 f., 12, 20, 24 f., 219, 259. Daniel, John, 122 n., 128, 134 f., 199 f.,
273 f., 277, 321, 330. Daniel, Samuel, 125 n., 129, 134, 170 n.,
195, 199. Darke, Harold, 45 n. Davenant, Sir William, 195. Davey, Henry, 176, 180, 213 n., 218 n.,
224, 242 n., 253, 344. David, 54, 57 f., 222, 297. Davies, John, of Hereford, 119, 129, 260,
306. Davies, Sir John, 328. Davison, Walter and Francis, 125 n. Davys, Hugh, 322.
Day, John, 41 n., 53, 62, 65, 100, 328. Deborah, 40.
Degrees in music, 93, 137, 347; require- ments, 68, 273; awarded at Oxford,
272 f.; at Cambridge, 272 f.; Dublin,
109, 273; honorary, 273 f. Dekker, Thomas, 28, 190, 203. Deloney, Thomas: The Gentle Craft, 4 n. Denmark, King and court of, 136, 140,
156, 217. Derby, Earl of, 121.
Dering, Richard, 163, 216 f., 273, 321, 328. Descant, 119, 191, 226, 265; defined, 229. Discords, 322.
Division (i.e., variations), 191. Doddington, 70. Dolmetsch, Arnold, 135, 344. Dominant 7th, 106, 232. Doni, G. B., 117. Donne, John, 125 n. Dorian mode, 59 ff.
[352]
INDEX
Dow, Robert, 15 £., 74-78, 81, 312-317.
Dowland, John, 32, 54, 5711., 122, 155, 169, 171, 216 f., 273-278; life, 71 n., 136 ff., 160, 320; praised by his con- temporaries, 120, 129, 135-140, 143, 161 n., 213; criticized, 140 ff.; verses by, 56 f., 113, 260, 278, 305; ayres, 3, 128, 135-142, 151 n., 166, 328 ff.; Lachrimae, 166 ff., 183; lute player, 128, 135, 153; compositions for lute, 135, 154, 161 n.; instruction for lute players, 160 f.; Mi- crologus, 135, 153 n., 223 f., 243 ff.
Dowland, Robert, 128, 142 f., 154, 157, 159 ff., 161 n., 214, 274, 329.
Drayton, Michael, 118, 125 n., 129.
Drums, 190, 219, 268, 271.
Dryden, John, 30.
Dublin, 109, 112, 276.
Duets: vocal, 102, 128, 169 n., 192, 208, 212; for one lute, 137; instrumental, 155, 169 f., 186.
Dufay, G., 261.
Dump, 97, 99, 119.
Dunstable, John, 22, 236, 240, 242 n.
E la, 34, 249.
Ear, 31.
Earle, John, Bishop of Salisbury, 26.
Earsden, John, 335.
East, Michael, 8, 63, 65, 94, 109, in, 216,
274, 329 f. East, Thomas, 54, 58, 74, 104, in, 209,
212, 329, 339. Eastland, George, 140. Edinburgh, 6, 13. Education, musical, 6, 13-18, 29, 68, 72;
of boys and men, 27; of girls, 4, 17, 18;
became unfashionable in the 18th cen- tury, 280. Education, non-musical subjects, 14, 16 n.,
17, 18, 18 n., 31. Edward VI, 6, 10, 14, 38, 68 f., 72, 188,
199, 301 ff. Edwards, F. G., 15 n.
Edwards, Richard, 93, 95-100, 198, 277. Elector Palatine, 129, 184.
Elizabeth, Queen, 1, 7-12, 15 n., 72 n., 113, 136, 155, 215, 219 f.; well edu- cated, 1; played, 7, 11; sang, 7; danced, 7, 12; composed, 7; rewarded or praised musicians, 12, 18, 72 f., 182, 188, 200, 275, 281, 284 f.; patron of the drama and masque, 12, 96, 194, 200 ff.; prefer- ence for the Catholic type of music and liturgy, 8, 8 n., 9, 64, 72; enjoyed lis- tening to music, 7, 8, 16, 54, ioi, 115, 117.
Elizabeth, Princess, daughter of James I, 129, 184.
Ellis, Robert Leslie, 267 n.
Elson, Louis C., 189.
Elvetham, 8.
Ely Cathedral, 66, 79.
Elyot, Sir Thomas, 33, 293.
Emden, C. S., 344.
English language: consonants, 132.
Englitt, C, 178.
Engraved music, 172, 178, 186, 208, 330.
Epitaphs, 75, 77-79, 89 f.
Erasmus, 1, 6.
Essex, Earls of, 72 n., in, 211, 220.
Evans, Henry, 199 f.
Evans, Willa M., 194 n., 344.
Evelyn, John, 279.
Exeter, 38.
Expression in music, 69, 80, 94 f., 107, no,. 112, 123 f., 126, 130, 132, 147 f., 151, 165, 177, 181, 216, 237 f.
Fa-las, 115, 122, 239.
Fanshawe, Sir Henry, 123.
Fantaisie, fantasia, 130, 159, 163, 172, 183, 206, 239.
Farmer, H. G., 344.
Farmer, John, 175, 273 f., 276; canons, 21, 112, 262; madrigals, 94, 109, in f., 330; harmonized psalm tunes, 54, 112.
Farnaby, Giles, 54, 91, 135, 155, 273, 277, 320; madrigals, 94, 109, 112 ff., 231, 330; The Psalmes of David, xi, 59 f.; compositions for virginals, 80, 167, 180 f., 183; daring harmony, 112, 260.
[353]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Farnaby, Richard, 183 n.
Farrant, Daniel, 134 n., 169 n.
Farrant, John, 15, 63, 312, 330.
Farrant, Richard, 199 ff., 277.
Fayrfax, Robert, 66, 70, 76 n., 227, 232, 242 n., 247, 272 ff.
Felis, Stephano, 216.
Fellowes, E. H., 8 n., 80, 81 n., 83 n., 84 n., 90, 100, 106, no, 115, 117, 124, 125 n., 145, 149 n., 151, 157 n., 205, 330, 344 f.
Ferebe, George, 320.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Elder, n6n., 143-146, 213-216, 231, 247, 289 f., 310, 312; career, 214 f.; canons, 208, 214, 264 f.; madrigals, 94, 108, 206, 210, 2ii n., 227, 238, 331; lute pieces, 161 n., 208, 331.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the Younger, 57 n., 129, 272; life, 143; ayres, 128, 143-146, 330; masque music, 195; viol music, 163, 169 n., 172, 174, 331; viol player, 128.
Ferrabosco, Alfonso the 3d, 143.
Ferretti, Giovanni, 211, 216, 239, 242 n.
Field, Rev. John, 23.
Fingering for lute, 157 ff., 160.
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, The, 167 n., 178 £., 183 f.
Fletcher, Bishop, 90.
Fletcher, John (playwright), 167 f.
Fletcher, Phineas, 123 n.
Flood, Chevalier W. H. G., 79 n., 112, 115 n., 129, 154 n., 155, 188, 200 n., 202 n., 207 n., 276 n., 345.
Florence, 138 £., 142 n.; ayres in, 2, 126.
Flud, Robert, 71 n., 224 f., 261, 276.
Flute, 6, 15, 124, 163, 174, 186 ff., 190, 220.
Folger, Henry Clay, and Library, xi, 149,
323-
Ford, Thomas, 57 n., 275; ayres, 128, 146 f., 330 f.; chamber music, 146, 163, 169 n.
Form in music, 77.
Forrest, William, 70.
Forster: Will. Forster's Virginal Boo\, 178,
183 f. Forsyth, Cecil, 15 n., 346. Foxe, John, 67.
France, 11, 85 f., 92, 137, 248 m French composers and music, 101, 132,
142, 169, 279. French (language), 6, 6 n., 215. Frere, W. H., 38. Frescobaldi, G., 180. Frets, 153, 160 f., 166, 191. Froberger, J. J., 180. Fugue, 130.
Fuller, Thomas, 71, 71 n. Fuller Maidand, J. A., 178 f.
Gabrieli, Andrea, 92, 216.
Gage, George, 84.
Galeazzo, 1 83 n.
Galen, 16.
Galliard, 8, 159, 163-166, 169, 183, 206, 218, 239.
Galpin, Francis W., 166, 345.
Gamut, xi, 10 n., 34, 158, 241, 249.
Gardiner, Dorothy, 17 n.
Gascoyne, Sir William, 175.
Gastoldi, G. G., n6n., 172, 206, 242 n.
Geminiano, 216.
Geneva, 40.
George VI, 129.
Germany, 17.
Gershow, Frederic, 201 n.
Gerson, Robert A., 60 n.
Gesualdo, Carlo, Prince of Venosa, 92.
Gibbons, Edward, 272 f., 320.
Gibbons, Ellis, 274, 320, 331.
Gibbons, Orlando, 14 n., 89, 122 n., 272 ff., 320 f.; life, 85-87, 322, 345; church music, 57 n., 63, 79, 85-87, 91, 331 f.; hymn tunes, 332; keyboard mu- sic, 80, 179 ff., 183 ff.; madrigals, 94, 109, 114, 330, 332; viol music, 163, J72» 33°> 3325 Cries of London, 332; virtuoso player, 85-87.
Gigue, see fig.
Gilbert, William, 268 n.
[354]
INDEX
Giles, Nathaniel, 5711., 63 f., 122 n., 198 ff., 220 n., 260, 272-275, 277, 304, 310, 312, 322, 332.
Giles, Thomas, 199 f.
Giovanelli, Ruggiero, 206, 211 n., 238, 242 n.
Glasgow, 13.
Glees, 126.
Gloucester, Bishop of, 266.
Glyn, Margaret H., 86 n., 179 f., 184, 345.
Gombert, Nicholas, 288 f.
Googe, Barnaby, 96.
Gorbodoc, 190.
Gosson, Stephen, 28.
Greaves, Thomas, 94, 109, 114, 128, 150, 274, 330.
Greece: opinion of music, 29 f., 33; Eliza- bethans accepted its opinions uncritically, 36, 240, 244, 248; Sparta, 21, 33.
Greek, 30, 184, 241, 247 f., 277, 293; Greek music, 223, 229, 240; musical anecdotes quoted by Case from Greek and Roman literature and history, 30, 292-296.
Greene, Robert, 125.
Greenwich, 75, 219.
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 182; Gresham Col- lege music lectureship, 182.
Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, x3 n-> 55> 58 n., 60, 66, 95 n., 106, no, 115 n., 125 n., 182 n., 187, 210, 242 n., 245, 265 n., 345.
Guido d'Arezzo, 141 n., 242 n., 243, 248.
Guitar, 153.
Hacket, John, 86 n. Haddington, Lord, 144. Haddon, Dr. Walter, 282, 312. Hake, Edward, 21, 22. Hales, Robert, 142, 330. Hamond, Thomas, 116. Handel, G. F.: Messiah, 62, 248. Handford, George, 330. Harding, James, 183. Harington, Sir John, 72. Harmonic series, 270.
Harmony: textbook instruction in, 225,
255-258; recognition of the triad, 57.
See Chords. Harp, 162, 187L, 292. Harpsichord, 142, 177, 196. Harpur, Henry, 121. Harvey, William, 268 n. Hastings, Francis, 102. Hatton, Sir Christopher, 106, 190. Hawkins, Sir John: A General History of
the Science and Practice of Music, 8 n.,
9, 76 f., 90 n., 97 n., 101, 124, 156 n.,
223, 253 f., 261, 345. Hay, Sir James, 129, 195 ff. Hayes, Gerald R., 166 n., 169 n., 187 n.,
218 n., 246 n., 345. Heath, 332. Heather, William, 70, 115, 122 n., 186,
272 f., 322. Hebel, J. W., 118 n. Henrietta Maria, Queen, 86 f., 217. Henry VI, 337. Henry VII, 1, 26 n. Henry VIII, 1, 5, 6, 17, 68, 72, 72 n., 77,
188; music in the time of, 166, 231 f. Henry, Prince, son of James I, 6, 134, 143,
147 f., 182, 213, 217, 274 f. Hentzer, Paul, 219. Herbert, George, 61.
Heretics and recusants, 67, 83, 188, 201. Herford, C. H. and Percy Simpson: Ben
Jonson, 194 n. Hertford, Lord, 8. Heseltine, Philip. See Warloc\, P. Hesse, Landgrave of, 138 f., 161 n. Hexachord, 141, 248, 250. Heybourne, Sir Ferdinando, ii2f., 291.
See F. Richardson. Heylyn, P., 9.
Heywood, Thomas, 190 f., 253 n. Hilton, John the Elder, 115, 274, 332. Hilton, John the Younger, 94, 109, 115,
272 ff., 332. Histories of music, 3. Hoby, Thomas, 332. Hocket, 22, 236.
[355]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Holborne, Antony, 113, 142, 154 f., 161,
164 if., 175, 187, 226, 277 f. Holborne, William, 94, 155, 330. Hole, Robert, 179. Hole, William, 179, 185. Holland, Hugh, 113 f., 129. Hollybande, Claudius, 96 f., 202. Hooker, Bishop, 35. Hooper, Edmund, 54, 57 n., 63, 183 n. Hopkinson, Edward, Jr., xi, 59. Hopkinson, Francis, 59, 60 n. Horace, 242, 292. Hornpipe, 206, 239. Household musicians in the employ of the
rich, 20, 123 f., 175 f., 187, 274. Howard, Lady Frances, 129. Howes, Frank, 106, 345. Howes, John, 15. Hume, Tobias, 141, 208 n., 261, 275;
ayres, 128, 151, 170, 330; music for
stringed instruments, 163, 168-171. Hunnis, William, 198, 200, 277, 333, 346. Hunsdon, Lord, 11 f. Hunter, Rev. Joseph, 119 n. Huwet, G., 138, 161 n. Hymns, 61.
Imitation, 148. See Canon.
Improvisation, vocal, 131.
Inglott, William, 79, 89, 183 n., 333.
Instruments owned by Pattrick, 90.
Intervals: augmented 2d forbidden, 257.
Intoning, 8.
Ireland, 109. See Dublin.
Irish, 187, 253.
Italian, 6, 57, 119, 173 f.; composers, 101, 103 f., 116, 210, 211 n., 216; English madrigals translated into, 119; influence on English literature, 205; influence on English music, 92, 125 f., 170 ff., 205 ff.; music, 132, 142, 208, 265; mu- sic printed in England, 103 f., 171, 206- 213; players, 144.
Italy, 1, 6, 27, 125 f., 1381, 214 ff.
Ives, Simon, 179.
]ac\ Drum's Entertainment, 203.
Jacks, 191.
Jackson, William, of Exeter, 229, 235 n.
James I, vii, 6, m n., 113, 131, 134,
142 n., 156, 182, 196, 220, 275. Janson, who could not sing "at first sight,"
248, 252. Jeffreye, Matthew and George, 320. Jewel, Bishop John, 5. Jew's harp, 6. Jig, 207, 239. Johnson, Edward, 8, 32, 54, 94, 115, 183,
273 U III-
Johnson, Robert, 57 n., 147, 183, 334.
Jones, Robert, 57 n., 199, 204, 242 n., 273, 277; ayres, 128, 147 ff., 190, 330; mad- rigals, 94, 108 f., 115 f., 163 n., 330.
Jonson, Ben, 27, 125 n., 173, 190 f., 204; masque, 144 f., 194 f., 197, 201.
Kastendieck, M. M., 345.
Kempe, William (actor), 191 n.
Kempe, William (writer), 16.
Kenil worth, 15 n., 115, 274.
Kepler, Johann, 268.
Kete, Edmund, 175.
Ketdedrum, 162.
Key signature, 55, 233 f.
Keyboard instruments and music, 3, 80, 177-188.
Keys, struck by fingers, 191.
Keys and scales, 178.
Kidson, Frank, 13 n.
Kindersley, Robert, 57 n.
King, Bishop Henry, 59 f.
Kirbye, George, 216, 242 n., 274; madri- gals, 94, 109, 116, 330, 334; music owned by, 116 n.; East's Psalter, 54, 112.
Kirkby Stephen, 14.
Kirke, Edward, 1 50 n.
Knollys, Sir Francis, 10.
Knox, John, 40.
Kytson family, 124.
Ladye Nevells Boo\e, My, 81, 178 f., 334.
[356]
INDEX
Laniere, Nicholas, 170 n., 197, 277. Lasso, Orlando di, 63, 81, 92, 183, 205,
207, 210, 231, 24211., 312; praise of,
185, 215, 247, 288 £., 311; Novae . . .
cantiones, 65, 212. Latin, 6, 14, 17, 29, 31, 37, 42, 64, 85 n.,
102, 131 £., 182, 211, 215, 242, 289 n.;
verse, 278, 284-291. Lawes, Henry, 126, 134, 170, 197 f. Lawes, William, 134. Lawrence, W. J., 195. Layfield, John, 57. Lefranc, Abel, 121 n. Leger lines, 177. Leicester, Earl of, 115, 274. Leighton, Sir William, 56 ff., 63, 65, 277,
334-
Le Roy, Adrien, 154, 334.
Library of Congress, 29 n., 323.
Lichfild, Henry, 94, 109, 117, 330.
Ligatures, 223, 241, 243 n.; defined, 223 n.
Lincoln Cathedral, 80.
Linley, Thomas, 229 n.
Lists of composers: of church music, 62- 66, 70, 79, 81; madrigals, 93 ff., 109; instrumental music, 154, 162 f.; psalters, 54, 57 n.; Italian composers whose works Kirbye owned, 116 n.; ayres, 127 f.; music for lute, 154, 161 n.; Ital- ian composers, 210, 211 n., 216; musi- cians connected with the theatre, 198 f.; foreign .music printed in England, 207 f.; theorists and composers alluded to by Morley, 242 n.
Lodge, Thomas, 335.
London, 5, 38, 112, 164, 274, 328.
Lupo, Thomas, n6n., 175, 335.
Lute, 2, 4, 6 f., 11, 15, 16 n., 17 f., 54, 58, 69, 124, 129-163, 195 f., 249, 271; composers and compositions for, 154, 160, 161 n., 163, 203; described, 153; lute playing, 3, 131, 147, 154, 157, 198, 274; lute teaching, 141, 217; instruction books, 154— 161, 218, 335.
Luther, Martin, 34, 39.
Lycurgus, 33.
Lyly, John, 27.
Lyra viol, 141, 144, 153, 168, 171; de- scribed, 1 53 f .
Mace, Thomas: Mustek's Monument, 5 n., 14, 166.
Macrobius, 244.
Madrigal singing, 96 f., 118, 206, 208 f., 233, 346.
Madrigal Society, 151.
Madrigals, 2, 53 f., 81, 90, 92-126, 223, 247; defined, 92; history of, in England, 2, 95 f., 101, 125, 151, 205 f.; their rise and fall, 92, 125 f., 147, 279; lists of composers and publications, 93 ff., 109; by Italian composers, 2, 92, 103 f., ill, 206-212; madrigal poetry, 92, 94, 125.
Marchant, 183 n.
Marenzio, Luca, 80, n6n., 211, 242 n., 247, 311; madrigals, 92, 183, 206, 210, 213 f., 238 f., 335; praise of Dowland, 138.
Mark, Jeffrey, 194 n.
Marlowe, Christopher, 125 n.
Marriages, 86 f., 98.
Marson, George, 276.
Marston, John, 129, 190, 203.
Martial, 132, 209.
Martin, Richard, 142, 330.
Mary I, of England, 6, 8, 10, 40, 73, 188, 202, 215.
Mary, Queen of Scots, 6, 10-12.
Mason, George, 335.
Masque, 6, 12, 16, 128 f., 144, 163, 175 f., 194-197.
Masses, 64, 72, 83.
Massinger, Philip, 168, 187.
Mattheson, Johann, 135.
Matthew, Roger, 321.
Maugars, Andre, 144.
Maynard, John, 128, 151, 274.
Medieval: music, transition from it to modern music, 55, 245; flavor of Carl- ton's madrigals, ill; notation, 121, 186.
Megli, Domenico, 142.
Melvill, David, 335.
[357]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Melville, Sir James, 6 n., 10 ff.
Merbecke, John, 12, 23 f., 65, 70, 71 n.,
121, 318, 335, 346.
Merchant Taylors' School, 16.
Meres, Francis, 66, 89, 115, 117, 129, 335.
Mersenne, Marin, 218.
Middleton, Thomas, 167, 190.
Milton, John, musician, 57 n., 58, 335,
343-
Milton, John, the poet, his son, 195, 197.
Modes, 223 f., 243 n., 258; defined, 223 n.; alleged influence on conduct, 30, 240, 244, 246 f., 295 f.; metrical, 228 f.
Molle, Henry, 122 n.
Monochord, 243 n., 268.
Monopoly on music printing: in England, 72 ff., 325; in Scodand, 13.
Monson, Sir Thomas, 129, 133, 160 n.
Monte, Philippe de, 81, 116 n., 207, 210, 216, 311.
Monteverde, Claudio, 92, 106, 121, 216, 260.
Moore, J. R., 189 n.
More, William, 32, 188.
Morley, Thomas, 8, 32, 79, 91, 116, 207, 272 ff., 335 £.; life, 117, 119, 227; per- sonality, 150, 228; opinions by, 66 f., 76, 81, 206, 213 ff., 226-242, 253; editor, 207, 2ii, 218; printer, no; ayres, 128, 149 f., 163 n., 330, 336; madrigals, 94 f., 109, 117 ff., 172, 206 n., 211 n., 212, 330; chamber music, 163 f., 175, 187; church music, 63 f.; lute music, 161 n.; virginal music, 178, 183; his composi- tions popular, 117 ff., 120, 164, 216, 218, 247; A Plaine and Easie Introduc- tion to Practical! Musicke, 3, 21 f., 78, 155 f., 171, 206 n., 223, 225-242, 247- 250, 255 f., 260, 263-266, 277, 320.
Morris, R. O., 230 n., 231 n.
Morris, Thomas or Richard, 217.
Motet, 2, 64, 71 f., 80, 130, 212, 217, 237 f., 247.
Mozart, 229 n.
Mudd, J. and T., 79, 89, 202, 276.
Mulcaster, R., 7, 16 f., 18 n., 173 n., 286 ff.
Mulliner Boo\, 337.
Mundy, John, 32, 63, 95, 109, 121, 183 n., 220 n., 272 ff., 310, 322, 330.
Mundy, William, 63, 66, 77 f., 232, 242 n., 310, 312, 316.
Musical Times, 119 n., 130 n., 200 n.
Music: an aid to health, 17, 29, 31, 33, 97, 104, 145; effect on character and con- duct, 16 f., 21, 27, 29 ft., 33-36, 286 f., 295 f.; effect on animals, 30 ff., 98, 294 f.
Musica ficta, 55.
Musica Transalpina. See Yonge.
Myriell, Thomas, 122 n., 208, 337.
Nanino, G. M., 211.
Napolitaine, 205 f., 209, 239, 282.
Nash, Thomas, 71.
Naylor, E. W., 189 n., 345 f.
Nero, 116.
New York Public Library, xi, 29 n., 186,
333-337. 339 i-
Nichol, John, 268 n.
Nichols, John, 117.
Nicholson, Richard, 330, 337.
Nicoll, Allardyce, 194 n.
Noble, Richmond, 189 n.
Noel, Henry, 320.
Norman, John, 70.
Northampton, Lord, 84.
Northumberland, Earl of, 83 n.
Norwich, 54, 66, 78, 89.
Nota cambiata, 230.
Notari, Angelo, 208, 213.
Notation, musical: Elizabethan books ex- plaining, 223 f., 228, 243 n., 248 n.; parts printed on opposite pages, 43 f.; leger lines, 47 n.; errors in, 45 n., 49 n., 51 n., 228, 260.
Oboe, 15 n., 124, 162, 190, 196. Octave, 269.
Old Hall Manuscript, 337. Oldfield, Thomas, 183 n. Opdycke, Leonard E., 28 n. Orchestras, 25.
[358]
INDEX
Organists and organ playing, 18 ff., 23 f., 67, 88 ff., 114 f., 122, 143, 199, 216 f., 220, 274; recital, 274.
Organs, 5, 10, 23, 25, 190; destruction of, 20; compositions for, 177.
Oriana, The Triumphes of, 12, 109 f., 115 f., 330, 341.
Ornithoparcus, Andreas: Micrologus, 135, 224, 242-245.
Orologio, A., 138, 211 n.
Orpharion, 54, 121, 129, 137, 146, 153, 156, 170.
Osier, Sir William, 268 n.
Oxford, vii, 85.
Oxford Movement, 62.
Oxford University, 31, 55 n., 272 f., 276; Bodleian Library, 53 n., 70, 163, 262, 310, 323; Cathedral, 67; Music School, 88, 186. Colleges: Christ Church, 74, 163, 310, 323, 327; Magdalen, 276; New, 118; Pembroke, 170 n.; Queen's, 38 n.; St. John's, 276.
Paderewski, Ignaz, 222.
Palestrina, G. P. da, 2, 43, 43 n., 80, 210,
215, 241, 242 n., 291 n., 337. Pandora. See Bandora. Paraphrases, metrical, 37-52, 57, 69. Paris, 86, 140. Parker, Archbishop Matthew: his psalter,
22, 41-52, 61, 70. Parry, Sir C. H. H., 126. Parsley, Osbert, 66, 78, 242 n., 274, 337. Parsons, John, 79, 89 f., 183 n. Parsons, Robert, 63, 66, 81, 242 n., 274,
310, 312, 316, 330. Parthenia, 179, 1846*., 319, 330, 337. Parthenia In-violata, 179, 184, 186, 331,
337- Part-song, 2 n., 92, 105, no, 126. Parts: tune in the soprano part, 55; tune
in the tenor, 43-52, 55, 58; partbooks,
53- Passamento, 239. Pastorales, 54, 205 f., 239. Pattison, Bruce, 130.
Pattrick, Nathaniel, 79, 90, 163 n., 274,
330. Pavane, 8, 159, 163-169, 183, 206, 218,
239-
Pavy, Salathiel, 201.
Peacham, Henry the Younger, 33, 136 f., 143; The Compleat Gentleman, 4, 83, 104 n., 117, 213 f., 215 f., 218, 224.
Pearce (Piers), Edward, no, 199 f., 202 f.,
259, 272, 277, 308. Pearce, Thomas, 308. Pearsall, R. L. de, 126.
Peerson, Martin, 57 n., 128, 151, 183 n.,
260, 273 f., 277, 306 f., 321, 330, 337. Pembroke, Henry, Earl of, 119. Pembroke, William, Earl of, 170. Pepys, Samuel, 187.
Perlin, 219.
Peterborough Cathedral, 89.
Philadelphia, 59.
Philip II, of Spain, 207.
Philips, Peter, 79, 116 n., 164, 181, 183, 202, 207, 211 n., 216 ff., 312, 338 f.
Physical training, 17.
Piano, 151.
Picchi, Giovanni, 183 n.
Pictures of composers, xi, 182, 217 n., 319; of Dr. Heather, 186.
Pilkington, Francis, 34, 57 n., 63, 120 f., 273 (., 276, 320; ayres, 121, 128, 151, 330; madrigals, 95, 109, 120 f., 330.
Pitch, 270; range of voices, 232 f.
Plagiarism, 170 ff., 240 f.
Plainsong, 10 n., 37, 205; canons upon, 262-266.
Plato, 33, 115.
Playford, John, 143, 154 n., 255.
Plays, 96; always contained music, 189; Puritan objections to, 24; music in plays, 31, 167 f., 187, 189-193. See also Ac- tors, Choirboys.
Plectrum, 153.
Pliny the Elder, 31.
Plutarch, 259.
Poe, Edgar Allan, 234.
Poems in praise of composers, 96, 113 £.,
[359]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
118, 120-123, 136 f., 143, 145 f., 155, 172 ff., 184 f., 203, 211, 25911., 262!, 286-291, 304-317.
Poets, 61, 69 f., 95 ff., 118, 125 n., 128, 277.
Polish tunes, 169.
Pommers, 1 5 n.
Porter, Walter, 95, 109, 121, 274, 339.
Power, Lionel, 337.
Praise of Music\e, The. See John Case.
Preces, 72.
Pricks (dots used in music notation), 223, 241, 243 n.
Prick song, 15, 156, 158, 191.
Printing of music, 3, 25, 43 f., 63, 73, 93, 95, 103, 105, 117, 129, 132, 291; prof- itable, 140, 148, 259; typesetting music, 178, 186; in Scotland, 13; music works either lost or never printed, 90, 115, 149, 163 n., 182, 264, 325, 328; rare copies, 32, in, 186; pirating, 104, 129, 154, 172, 175.
Prolation, 228 f.
Proportions, 223, 241; defined, 223 n.
Prynne, William, 23 n., 189.
Psalm singing, 9, 10, 14, 18, 22 f., 37 ff., 62, 1 01; popular love of, 5, 213.
Psalm tunes, 37, 61, 112.
Psalms, 39, 4?, 45-52, 55 £., 62 f., 212, 215, 281.
Psalters, 37-61, 249, 339.
Publishers, modern: Breitkopf & Hartel, 178; Chester, 179; Curwen, 178-180; Editions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, 180; Novello, 45, 180; Oxford University Press, 180, 336, 346; W. Reeves, 179 f.; W. Rogers, J79. 3445 G. Schirmer, 180; Stainer and Bell, 179, 344.
Puns, 75, 88, 98 ff., 118, 182, 184, 203.
Purcell, Henry, 90, 142, 279.
Puritans: have been maligned, 24; they op- posed contrapuntal church music, 2, 13, 19 f., 22 f., 64, 67, 299, 319; allowed no music in church but psalm singing, 9, 19, 25; welcomed much secular mu- sic, 24; extremists opposed all secular
vocal music, 21 f.; views on dancing, plays, etc., 24 f., 195, 296; opposition to Puritan views, 29 n., 31, 297, 300.
Pycard, John, 337.
Pygott, Richard, 231 n., 240, 242 n.
Pythagoras, 114, 308.
Quakers, 24.
Queen Elizabeth's Academy, 15. Quin, Walter, 172 ff. Quintiani, 210.
Raleigh, Sir Walter (1522-1618), 125 n., 191.
Raleigh, Sir Walter (1861-1922), 279.
Rameau, J. P., 256.
Rathgeb, Jacob, 220.
Ravenscroft, Thomas, 14 n., 129, 202, 272 ff.; his whimsical pedantry, 121, 259 f.; life, 16; published rounds, etc., 121 f.; madrigals and part songs, 108, 121 f., 259; psalter, 58, no; A Brief e Discourse, 28, 35, no, 122, 202, 205, 224 f., 242, 258-261; poems praising him, 259 n., 260 f., 304-309.
Rebec, 100 n.
Recitative, 126.
Recorder, 6, 15, 98, 124, 163 n., 164, 185- 188, 191, 346; described, 162, 186.
Reformation, its effects on England, 13, 37, 68, 71.
Reissmann, 176.
Relishes, 159.
Renaldi, G., 242 n.
Responses, 71.
Rests, 236 f.
Rich, Lady Penelope, 142 n.
Richardson, Ferdinando, 80 n., 113, 183 n., 284, 288-291. See Heybourne.
Rimbault, E. F., 86, 346.
Rizzio, David, 6.
Robinson, Thomas, 154-159, 217, 274.
Rochester, England, 60.
Rockstro, W. S., 239 n.
Rore, Cipriano de, 92, 216, 311.
[360]
INDEX
Rosseter, Philip, 183, 204; ayres, 128-131, 330; Lessons for Consort, 164, 174 £.
Rounds, 121.
Rousseau, Jean, 169 n.
Rowley, S.: When You See Me, You Know Me, 6 n., 68, 301 ff.
Royal College of Music, 163, 323.
Rychardes, Thomas, 98 n.
Rye, William Brenchley, 219-221.
Rysbie, Henry, 231 n., 240, 242 n.
Sackbut, 10, 15, 124, 190, 196. See Trom- bone.
Saint Paul's Cathedral, xi, 20, 26, 59, 67, 88 n., no, 122, 199-203, 217 f., 237,
272, 337-
Saint Paul's School, 16.
Saintwix, Thomas, 272.
Salaries and fees of musicians, 15, 20, 100.
Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, 9.
Scales, 191, 223 ff., 228, 269. See Gamut.
Scheidt, S., 180.
Schelling, Felix E., viii, 98 n., 193 n., 271.
Schildt, M., 183.
Scholes, Percy A., 6n., 24, 192 n., 274 n.
Schools. See Education.
Scotland, 13 f.; sacred music in, 10, 13; secular music in, 13, 340.
Scott, C. K., 346.
Scudamore, John, 136.
Seiffert, Max, 177.
Sermons, 9 n., 19 f., 70, 220.
Service music, 6, 61 n., 71, 80, 83, 143. See Canticles.
Shakespeare, 12, 119, 125, 129, 149, 184 n., 190-193, 200 f., 204 f., 219; Hamlet, 187, 201; Merchant of Venice, 193; Romeo and Juliet, 98 ff.; Tempest, 147; other plays, 191 ff.; musical allu- sions in his works, 97—100, 121, 191.
Shawms, 15.
Shepherd, John, 63, 70, 232, 242 n., 276, 310, 312.
Sherrington, Grace, 17.
Shirley, James, 190, 195.
Shoreditch, Church, 7.
Shrewsbury, 188.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 125 n., 129.
Sidney, Sir Robert, 142.
Sight-singing, 3, 5, 158; textbook instruc- tion in, 223 f., 228, 248-254.
Simmes, William, 340.
Simplified spelling, 246.
Simpson, Christopher, 177.
Simpson, Thomas, 217, 340.
Singing, 3 f., 6 ff., 13-23, 27, 31, 34, 126, 147, 322; with expression, 237; vocal in- struction, 157 f.; recommended as health- ful, 104; English manner of, 158 n., 245; German manner of, 245.
Smith, Leo, 346.
Sol-fa syllables, 99, 223, 225, 233, 248.
Somerset, Earl of, 129, 195.
Song schools, 13 f.
Sonneck, O. G., 60 n.
Soundpost, 100.
Southampton, Earl of, 172.
Spanish composers and music, 142. See Cabezon, Victoria.
Spencer, Lord, 221.
Spenser, Edmund, 125 n., 129, 136, 150 n.
Squire, W. B., 139 n., 178 f., 183, 217 n.
Staff of six lines for virginal music, 186.
Stanford, Sir C. V., 126, 234, 346.
Stationer's Register, 263.
Steele, Robert, 346.
Sternhold and Hopkins, 14, 40, 41 n., 42, 60 f.
Steuart, A. F., 6 n.
Stonard, William, 321.
Stopes, Mrs. C. C, 346.
Striggio, Alessandro, 211, 231, 242 n.
Stringing, 161, 171, 271.
Strogers, Nicholas, 63, 81, 183 n., 312, 330.
Strype, John, 41 f.
Stuart, Lady Arabella, in, 217.
Stubbs, Simon, 340 f.
Sturgeon, Nicholas, 337.
Sturtevant, Simon, 58.
Style, perfection of, 124; charm of, 128, 131, 147, 181, 218.
[36l]
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC
Surrey, Earl of, 38.
Swans and swan songs, 84, 114.
Sweelinck, 183.
Tablature, 130, 137, 153 f., 158.
Tailour, Robert, 341.
Talbot, Lord, 208.
Tallis, Thomas, 32, 71-75, 113, 117 a, I79> 183 n., 207, 242 n., 266, 274 f., 310, 346; life, 72-75, 80; church music, 2, 62 ff., 66, 71 ff., 80 f., 91, 247, 312, 315 ff., 341; psalm tunes, 41-52, 341.
Tambourine, 190.
Tancred and Gismunda, 190.
Tapsfield, Henry, 211.
Taverner, John, 12, 23 f., 32, 66 ff., 70, 91, 227, 232, 242, 276, 312, 341.
Tchaikovsky, Peter I., 234.
Tempos, fast and slow, 260.
Tenbury, St. Michael's College, 323.
Terry, Sir R. R., 323, 346.
Tessier, Charles, 142, 341.
Thame, 14.
Themistocles, 116.
Theoretical works on music, 3, 222-271.
Thorne, John, 66, 79, 242 n., 277.
Time signatures, 32 m, 122, 228 f., 243 n., 258 ff.
Timotheus, Greek musician, 30.
Tirwitt, Subdean, 8.
Tisdall, W., 183 n.
Tomkins, John, 88, 122 f., 247, 321.
Tomkins, Thomas, 14 n., 63, 79, 81, 87 ff., 91, 145 n., 183 n., 272 ff., 278, 321; church music, 87 ff., 247; madrigals, 81 n., 95, 109, 122, 135, 330; his father and brothers, 122 n., 145 f., 278, 321.
Tone quality, 271.
Toy, John, 88.
Traherne, 61.
Tritone, 191.
Trivium and quadrivium, 18, 157.
Trombone, 162, 176, 191. See Sackbut.
Trumpet, 15, 58, 162, 190, 271.
Tudor Church Music, 341.
Tuning, 154, 157, 161, 171; tuning fork,
157 n. Tutde, Stephen, 180. Twine, Thomas, 96. Tye, Christopher, 2, 6, 63, 66, 68-71,
80 f., 91, 242 n., 247, 273, 276, 278,
301 ff., 310, 312, 318, 341.
University of Pennsylvania, xi, 59 f., 331. Ut, 248-252; fixed ut system, 250, 252.
Van den Borren, C, 129, 180 f., 183, 207.
Variations, 1 83 f .
Vaughan, Henry, 61.
Vaughan Williams, R., 47 n.
Vautor, Thomas, 95, 109, 123, 273 f., 330.
Vautrollier, T., 163 n.
Vecchi, Orazio, 206, 211 n., 215, 238, 242 n., 247, 265.
Venturi, Stefano, 206, 211 n., 237 f., 242 n.
Verdelot, Philippe, 92, 205.
Vibrations, 268 f.
Victoria, Tomas Luis de, 2, 116 n., 215.
Villanella, 206, 239.
Villiers, Sir George, 123.
Violin, 71, 71 n., 124, 161-164, 190, 196; playing, 143; compared to the viol, 161, 166.
Violoncello, 161 f.
Viols, 3, 16, 54, 89, 124, 177, 190, 195; described, 161; accompanying voices, 60, 108, 127, 129, 151; music for, 80, 126, 143, 162-177, x79. 2795 instruction books for, 156 ff.; "fit for voices or viols," 107 f., 114, 177; viol players, 23 n., 28, 128, 143, 217 f.
Virgil, 131.
Virginals, 6, 11, 16, 16 n., 124, 142, 191, 249; described, 177, 188; compositions for, 177-188; composers' styles, 180 f.
Vivian, Percival, 255, 344.
Wagner, Richard, 215.
Waits, 164.
Walker, Ernest, 346.
Wallace, Charles W., 96, 200 n., 201 n.
[362]
INDEX
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 53.
Waltham Abbey, 72.
Ward, John, 57 n., 63, 95, 109, 122 n.,
123, 183, 274, 278, 330. Warlock, Peter, 134 ff., 151 n., 166 n., 329,
346. Warwicke, Thomas, 122 n.; "Warrock,"
183 n. Washington, D.C., xi, 149. Waterhouse, George, 242 n., 263, 320. Watson, Foster, 1 4 n. Watson, Thomas, 210, 213, 276; edited:
The First Set of Italian Madrigals Eng- lished, 32, 103 f., 171, 207, 210, 342;
poet, 32, 277. Watts, Isaac, 61. Webbe, William, 120. Webster, John, 168. Weddings, 23 n., 25, 184 n. Weelkes, Thomas, 28, 57 n., 64, 91, 135,
216, 273 ff., 277, 321; madrigals, 80, 95,
109, 119, 123 f., 191, 330. Welch, Christopher, 346. Wesley, Charles, 61.
Westcote, Sebastian, 199-202, 217 f., 277. Westminster Abbey, 20, 54, 66, 75, 85 f.,
89 f., 115, 199, 204, 274. Westrup, Sir Jack A., 188 n., 346, 347. Whistles, 186. Whistling, 271. White, Matthew, 76. White, Robert, 64, 66, 75-77, 80 f., 91,
199, 203 f., 242, 247, 273, 277, 310,
312-315, 342. White, William, singing man, 122 n. Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 16 n., 25. Whitlocke, Sir James, 16. Whitney, Geoffrey, 203. Whittingham, Rev. William, 40 f.
Whythorne, Thomas, xi, 93, 100-103, 278, 330, 346; madrigals, 100 ff., 105, 342; his preface to these, 101 f., 281 ff.; vocal duets, 102, 212, 342.
Wigthorpe, William, 330.
Wilbye, John, 57 n., 91, 116, 123, 216, 274; life and property, 124; madrigals, 80, 95, 109, 124 f., 330.
Wilkinson, Richard, 262.
Willaert, Adrian, 92, 205.
Williams, C. F. A., 347.
Wilson, John, 197 f.
Winchester College, 123.
Winchester Old, tune, 55, 60.
Wind instruments, bore and tone of, 271.
Windsor, St. George's Chapel, 199 ff., 220.
Wither, George, 25; his psalter, 61, 339.
Wolsey, Cardinal, 67.
Women musicians, 6, 17 f., 39.
Wood, Anthony, vii, 28, 71, 71 n.; writ- ings, 70 f., 85, 96, 109, 115, 118, 134 ff., 142 ff., 147, 166, 174, 182, 245 f., 277, 318-322.
Woodson, Leonard, 64.
Wooldridge, Harry E., 55, 344.
Worcester Cathedral, 88, 90, 122.
Worde, Wynkyn de, 93, 95.
Wotton, Nicholas, 17.
Wiirttemberg, Frederick, Duke of, 219 f.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, the Elder, 38.
Yomans, Francis, 262.
Yonge, Nicholas, 274; Musica Transalpina,
103, 206-210. York Cathedral, 5, 66. Youll, Henry, 274, 330.
Zacconi, L., 241, 242 n. Zarlino, 242 n.
[363]
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Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137 |
CL/fPP
R . 3 5002 00367 1901
Boyd, Morrison Comegys
Elizabethan music and musical criticism.
Music ML 286. 2 . B59 E5 1962 Boyd, Morrison Comegys, 1891
Elizabethan music and musical criticism