LIBRARY OF
WELLESLEY COLLEGE
PURCHASED FROM
HARRIET A. SHAW PUUD
20/BbT
A QENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries
http://www.archive.org/details/generalhistoryof00burn2
•a. *.
£ a:
t^ CQ
o £0
O
£ j
o o
A
GENERAL HISTORY
OF MUSIC
From the Earliest Ages to the
Present Period
(1789)
by
CHARLES BURNEY
Mus.D., F.R.S.
VOLUME THE SECOND
WITH CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTES
by
FRANK MERCER
New York
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
APR 3 0 1941
^0 \ % lo-]
MUSIC LIBRARY
Ml
A.
Made and printed in Great Britain
by The Marshall Press Ltd.,
Miljord Lme, Strand, London, W.Q.I.
CONTENTS
Book III.
Page
Essay on Musical Criticism ... 7
Chapter I. The Progress of Music in England from
the Time of King Henry VIII to the Death of
Queen Elizabeth. .,, , *.•* ••• ^
Chapter II. Of the'- State of Music in Italy during
the Sixteenth Century : including an Account of
Theorists, with the Progress of Practical Music
in the Church, as well as of Madrigals,
Ricercari, or Fantasias, and Secular Songs, of
that Period 128
Chapter III. Of the Progress of Music in
Germany during the Sixteenth Century ... 201
Chapter IV. Of the State of Music in France
during the Sixteenth Century ... ... ... 210
Chapter V. Of the Progress of Music in Spain
during the Sixteenth Century ... ... ... 235
Chapter VI. Concerning the Music of the
Netherlands during the Sixteenth Century ... 242
Chapter VII. Of the Progress of Music in England
from the Death of Queen Elizabeth, till the end
of the Seventeenth Century ... ... ... 260
Chapter VIII. Of the Music of Italy in the Church
and Chamber during the Seventeenth Century 411
Chapter IX. Progress of the Violin in Italy, from
the Sixteenth Century to the Present Time ... 433
Chapter X. Of the Progress of Music in Germany
during the Seventeenth Century ... ... 456
Chapter XL Of the State of Music in France
during the Seventeenth Century ... ... 464
Chapter XII. ' Progress of Church Music in
England after the death of Purcell ... ... 475
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Book IV.
Page
Essay on the Euphony or Sweetness of
Languages and their Fitness for Music ... 497
Chapter I. Of the Invention of Recitative, and
Establishment of the Musical Drama, or Opera,
in Italy 506
Chapter II. Rise and Progress of the Sacred
Musical Drama, or Oratorio ... ... ... 560
Chapter III. Of the Opera Buffa, or Comic-opera,
and Intermezzi, or Musical Interludes, during
the Seventeenth Century ... ... ... 592
Chapter IV. Of Cantatas, or narrative Chamber-
Music 601
Chapter V. Attempts at Dramatic Music in
England, previous to the Establishment of the
Italian Opera 639
Chapter VI. Origin of the Italian Opera in
England, and its Progress there during the
present Century ... ... ... ... ... 651
Chapter VII. Progress of the Musical Drama at
Venice, during present Century ... ... 905
Chapter VIII. Progress of the Musical Drama at
Naples, and account of the eminent composers
and School of Counterpoint of that City ... 914
Chapter IX. Opera Composers employed at
Rome, and Tracts published in Italy on the
Theory and Practice of Music, during the
present Century ... ... ... ... ... 937
Chapter X. Of the Progress of Music in Germany,
during the present Century 941
Chapter XI. Of the Music of France during the
present Century ... ... ... ... ... 964
Chapter XII. General State of Music in England
during the present Century 983
Conclusion 1024
Appendix I. A Selection of Charles Burney's
Letters 1027
Appendix II. Memoir of Charles Burney 1043
Appendix III. Some lesser-known Gramophone
Records of Music referred to in this History ... 1053
Indices 1055
ESSAY ON
MUSICAL CRITICISM
AS Music may be defined the art of pleasing by the succession
and combination of agreeable sounds, every hearer has a
right to give way to his feelings, and be pleased or dissatisfied
without knowledge, experience, or the fiat of critics; but then he has
certainly no right to insist on others being pleased or dissatisfied
in the same degree. I can very readily forgive the man who
admires a different Music from that which pleases me, provided he
does not extend his hatred or contempt of my favourite Music to
myself, and imagine that on the exclusive admiration of any one
style of Music, and a close adherence to it, all wisdom, taste, and
virtue depend.
Criticism in this art would be better taught by specimens of
good composition and performance than by reasoning and specula-
tion. But there is a certain portion of enthusiasm connected with
a love of the fine arts, which bids defiance to every curb of criticism;
and the poetry, painting, or Music that leaves us on the ground,
and does not transport us into the regions of imagination beyond
the reach of cold criticism, may be correct, but is devoid of genius
and passion. There is, however, a tranquil pleasure, short of
rapture, to be acquired from Music, in which intellect and sensation
are equally concerned; the analysis of this pleasure is, therefore,
the subject of the present short Essay; which, it is hoped, will
explain and apologize for the critical remarks which have been
made in the course of this History, on the works of great masters,
and prevent their being construed into pedantry and arrogance.
Indeed, musical criticism has been so little cultivated in our
country, that its first elements are hardly known. In justice to the
late Mr. Avison, it must be owned, that he was the first, and
almost the only writer, who attempted it. But his judgment was
warped by many prejudices. He exalted Rameau and Geminiani
at the expence of Handel, and was a declared foe to modern
German symphonies. There have been many treatises published
on the art of musical composition and performance, but none to
instruct ignorant lovers of Music how to listen, or to judge for
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
themselves. So various are musical styles, that it requires not only
extensive knowledge, and long experience, but a liberal, enlarged,
and candid mind, to discriminate and allow to each its due praise:
Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri.
A critic should have none of the contractions and narrow partialities
of such as can see but a small angle of the art; of whom there are
some so bewildered in fugues and complicated contrivances that
they can receive pleasure from nothing but canonical answers,
imitations, inversions, and counter-subjects; while others are equally
partial to light, simple, frivolous melody, regarding every species
of artificial composition as mere pedantry and jargon. A chorus of
Handel and a graceful opera song should not preclude each other :
each has its peculiar merit; and no one musical production can
comprise the beauties of every species of composition. It is not
unusual for disputants, in all the arts, to reason without principles;
but this, I believe, happens more frequently in musical debates
than any other. By principles, I mean the having a clear and
precise idea of the constituent parts of a good composition, and of
the principal excellencies of perfect execution. And it seems, as
if the merit of musical productions, both as to composition and
performance, might be estimated according to De Piles' steel-yard,
or test of merit among painters. If a complete musical composition
of different movements were analysied, it would perhaps be found
to consist of some of the following ingredients : melody, harmony,
modulation, invention, grandeur, fire, pathos, taste, grace, and
expression; while the executive part would require neatness, accent,
energy, spirit, and feeling; and, in a vocal performer, or instru-
mental, where the tone depends on the player, power, clearness,
sweetness; brilliancy of execution in quick movements, and
touching expression in slow.
But as all these qualities are seldom united in one composer or
player, the piece or performer that comprises the greatest number
of these excellences, and in the most perfect degree, is entitled to
pre-eminence : though the production or performer that can boast
of any of these constituent qualities cannot be pronounced totally
devoid of merit. In this manner, a composition, by a kind of
chemical process, may be decompounded as well as any other
production of art or nature.
Prudent critics, without science, seldom venture to pronounce
their opinion of a composition, decisively, till they have heard the
name of the master, or discovered the sentiments of a professor;
but here the poor author is often at the mercy of prejudice, or envy.
Yet the opinion of professors of the greatest integrity is not equally
infallible concerning every species of musical merit. To judge
minutely of singing for instance, requires study and experience in
that particular art. Indeed, I have long suspected some very great
instrumental performers of not sufficiently feeling or respecting real
good singing. Rapid passages neatly executed seem to please them
ESSAY ON MUSICAL CRITICISM
infinitely more than the finest messa di voce, or tender expression
of slow notes, which the sweetest voice, the greatest art, and most
exquisite sensibility can produce. They frequently refer all
excellence so much to their own performance and perfections, that
the adventitious qualities of singers who imitate a hautbois, a flute,
or violin, are rated higher than the colouring and refinements that
are peculiar to vocal expression; which instrumental performers
ought to feel, respect, and try to imitate, however impossible it may
be to equal them : approximation would be something, when more
cannot be obtained. Of Composition and the genius of particular
instruments, whose opinion, but that of composers and performers,
who are likewise possessed of probity and candour, can be trusted?
There are, alas ! but too many professors who approve of nothing
which they themselves have not produced or performed. Old
musicians complain of the extravagance of the young; and these
again of the dryness and inelegance of the old.
And yet, among the various styles of composition and perform-
ance, the partial and capricious tastes of lovers of Music, and the
different sects into which they are divided, it seems as if the following
criteria would admit of little dispute.
In Church Music, whether jubilation, humility, sorrow, or
contrition are to be expressed, the words will enable the critic to
judge; but of the degree of dignity, gravity, force, and originality
of the composition, few but professors can judge in detail, though
all of the general effect.
In hearing Dramatic Music little attention is pointed by the
audience to any thing but the airs and powers of the principal
singers; and yet, if the character, passion, and importance of each
personage in the piece is not distinctly marked and supported; if
the airs are not contrasted with each other, and the part of every
singer in the same scene specifically different in measure, compass,
time, and style, the composer is not a complete master of his
profession.
Good singing requires a clear, sweet, even, and flexible voice,
equally free from nasal and guttural defects. It is but by the tone
of voice and articulation of words that a vocal performer is superior
to an instrumental. If in swelling a note the voice trembles or
varies its pitch, or the intonations are false, ignorance and science
are equally offended; and if a perfect shake, good taste in embellish-
ment, and a touching expression be wanting, the singer's reputation
will make no great progress among true judges. If in rapid
divisions the passages are not executed with neatness and articulation;
or in adagios, if light and shade, pathos, and variety of colouring
and expression are wanting, the singer may have merit of certain
kinds, but is still distant from perfection.
Of perfect performance on an instrument, who can judge
accurately but those who know its genius and powers, defects and
difficulties? What is natural and easy on one instrument, is often
not only difficult but impracticable on an other. Arpeggios, for
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
instance, which are so easy on the violin and harpsichord, are almost
impossible on the hautbois and flute. And the rapid iteration of
notes which give the violin player such little trouble, are
impracticable on the harpsichord with the same finger. Those
instruments of which the tone and intonation depend on the player,
as the violin, flute, hautbois, &c. are more difficult than harps and
keyed-instruments, where the player is neither answerable for the
goodness of the tone nor truth of intonation. However, there are
difficulties on the harpsichord of another kind, to ballance the
account, such as the two hands playing two different parts in
dissimilar motion at once, and often three or four parts with each
hand. Of a good shake, a sweet tone, and neat execution, almost
every hearer can judge; but whether the Music is good or bad, the
passages hard or easy, too much or too little embellished by the
player, science and experience only can determine.
In Chamber Music, such as cantatas, single songs, solos, trios,
quartets concertos, and symphonies of few parts the composer has
less exercise for reflection and intellect, and the power of pleasing
in detached pieces by melody, harmony, natural modulation, and
ingenuity of contrivance, fewer restraints, and fewer occasions for
grand and striking effects, and expression of the passions, than in
a connected composition for the church or the stage. Many an
agreeable lesson, solo, sonata, and concerto, has been produced by
musicians who would be unable to compose a Te Deum for voices
and instruments, or to interest and satisfy an audience during a
single act of an opera. We never have heard of Corelli, Geminiani,
or Tartini attempting vocal melody, and the Music merely
instrumental of the greatest vocal composers is often meagre,
common, and insipid. There are limits set to the powers of every
artist, and however universal his genius, life is too short for universal
application.
It was formerly more easy to compose than play an adagio,
which generally consisted of a few notes that were left to the taste
and abilities of the performer; but as the composer seldom found
his ideas fulfilled by the player, adagios are now made more
chantant and interesting in themselves, and the performer is less
put to the torture for embellishments.
In 1752, Quantz classed Quartettos at the head of instrumental
Music, calling them the touch-stone of an able composer; adding,
that they had not yet been much in fashion. The divine Haydn,
however, has since that time removed all kind of complaint on that
account, having produced such quartets for number and excellence,
as have never been equalled in any species of composition at any
other period of time.
In composing and playing a Solo, the least complicated of all
Music in parts- much knowledge, selection, invention, and refine-
ment are necessary. Besides consulting the genius of the instrument
and power of the performer, new, interesting, and shining passages
must be invented, which will at once please and surprise the
ESSAY ON MUSICAL CRITICISM
hearer, and do honour to the composer and performer. And who
can judge of the originality of the composition, its fitness for the
instrument, or degree of praise due to the performer, but those who
have either studied composition, practised the same instrument,
or heard an infinite variety of Music and great performers of the
same kind?
The famous question, therefore, of Fontenelle : Sonate, que veux
tu} to which all such recur as have not ears capable of vibrating
to the sweetness of well-modulated sounds, would never have been
asked by a real lover or judge of Music. But men of wit of all
countries being accustomed to admiration and reverence in speaking
upon subjects within their competence, forget, or hope the world
forgets, that a good poet, painter, physician, or philosopher, is no
more likely to be a good musician without study, practice, and
good ears, than another man. But if a lover and judge of Music
had asked the same question as Fontenelle; the Sonata should
answer: " I would have you listen with attention and delight to
the ingenuity of the composition, the neatness of the execution,
sweetness of the melody, and the richness of the harmony, as well
as to the charms of refined tones, lengthened and polished into
passion."
There is a degree of refinement, delicacy, and invention which
lovers of simple and common Music can no more comprehend than
the Asiatics harmony (a). It is only understood and felt by such
as can quit the plains of simplicity, penetrate the mazes of art and
contrivance, climb mountains, dive into dells, or cross the seas in
search of extraneous and exotic beauties with which the monotonous
melody of popular Music has not yet been embellished. What
judgment and good taste admire at first hearing, makes no
impression on the public in general, but by dint of repetition and
habitude. A syllogism that is very plain to a logician, is incompre-
hensible to a mind unexercised in associating and combining
abstract ideas. The extraneous, and seemingly forced and affected
modulation of the German composers of the present age, is only too
much for us, because we have heard too little. Novelty has been
acquired, and attention excited, more by learned modulation in
Germany, than by new and difficult melody in Italy. We dislike
both, perhaps, only because we are not gradually arrived at them;
and difficult and easy, new and old, depend on the reading, hearing,
and knowledge of the critic. The most easy, simple, and natural
is new to youth and inexperience, and we grow nice and fastidious
by frequently hearing compositions of the first class, exquisitely
performed.
(a) The Chinese, allowed to be the most ancient and longest civilised people existing,
after repeated trials, are displeased with harmony, or Music in parts; it is too confused and
complicated for ears accustomed to simplicity.
A GENERAL HISTORY
OF MUSIC
t^>
BOOK III
u&*
Chapter I
The Progress of Music in England from the Time of
King Henry VIII to the Death of Queen Elizabeth
A SKETCH of the State of Music in this country during th8
reign of Henry the Eighth, has already been given in the
preceding volume; where cotemporary specimens have
likewise been exhibited of the musical productions of our country-
men. Though I can readily believe the motet (Quam pulcra es),
which goes under the name of this Prince, fo be genuine, as it is
not too masterly, clear, or unembarrassed for the production of a
Royal Dilettanti; yet the anthem printed in Dr. Boyce's collection,*
upon a more careful examination, seems not only too good for his
Majesty, but almost for any other English master during his reign :
however, though no marks of superior genius may be discoverable
in his compositions, Henry, who was doubtless a judge and an
encourager of the art, had, besides the household band on the
establishment, according to the ancient custom of our Sovereigns
(a), supernumerary musicians in his service; as we find in Rymer's
Fcedera (b) a grant to William Betum of £20 sterling per annum
(a) See Book II. p. 697. (b) Pro cafitoli Organista Regis. Rymer in anno.
* This refers to "Cathedral music, being a collection in score of the most valuable and
useful compositions for that service by the several "English masters of the last two hundred
years" 3 vols., 1760-78; reprinted 1788. An enlarged edition was published in 1849.
13
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
(c), A.D. 1537, and another grant of £50 per annum to the eldest
of four brothers, musicials, of the name of Basam, 1540. The
second brother had 2s. Ad. per diem, and the two youngest 20d.
(d).
The fluctuating state of religion in England, during this
turbulent reign, was such as must have kept the inhabitants in
perpetual terror both for soul and body; as what was ordered under
severe pains and penalties to be practised and believed as necessary
to salvation at one period, at another was pronounced illegal,
heretical, and damnable. Music in the church, however, appears
to have undergone no other change at this time than in being applied
in some parts of the service to the English instead of the Latin
language; but though choral music was not much affected by the
small progress that was made in the reformation under this Prince,
yet it was in frequent danger of utter abolition by the violence of
the times, and fanaticism of the most furious reformers.
After Henry's breach with the Roman Pontiff, several slight
alterations were made in the Liturgy, yet still the service was in
Latin, and sung in the usual manner.
The King's Primer, in English, was published in 1535.
In 1536, Tyndal's translation of the whole Bible was not only
printed, but ordered to be received into churches.
In 1538, a folio translation of the Bible was ordered to be had
in every church; this was Tyndal's, with a few alterations by
Coverdale.
In 1539, the Bloody Act, or Six Articles of Convocation, passed;
and in the same year, a book of Ceremonies was published, in
which (e) is the following passage favourable to choral music:
" The sober, discrete, and devout singing, music, and playing with
organs, used in the church, in the service of God, are ordained to
move and stir the people to the sweetness of Godis word, the
which is ther sung : and by that sweet harmony both to excite them
to prayer and devotion, and also to put them in remembraunce
of the heavenly triumphant church, where is everlasting joy,
continual laud, and praise to God (/)."
On the contrary, the furious reformers, according to one of
The Seventy-eight Fautes and Abuses of Religion, in the Protestation
of the Clargie of the Lower House within the province of
Canterbury, presented to the King 1536, declared, that " Synging,
and saying of mass, matins, or even song, is but roryng, howling,
whistelyng, mumrrrying, conjuring, and jogelyng, and the playing
at the organys a foolish vanitie (g)."
At Henry's funeral, however, all the ceremonies of the Romish
church seem to have been performed in the ancient manner:
(c) William Beton, organ-maker, had likewise a salary of 20I. a year from Edward VI.
(d) Rymer in anno.
(«) Sect. Service of the Church.
if) Strype's Eccles. Memorials. Append, to Vol. I. p. 284.
(g) lb. Append. 178.
14
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
" Wednesday 16th Feb. 1547, the Bishop of Ely began the mass
of the Trinity. His Dean and Subdeacon were two Bishops mitred,
which mass was solemnly sung in prick-song di scant, and organ
playing, to the offertory (h)." — " Then three Bishops came down
to the herse; after them followed the Archbishop of Canterbury,
and stood a little behind the Bishops with his crosses. Then the
Quire with one voice did sing circumdederunt me, with the rest of
the canticle funeral; and the Bishops censing the corps, with
ceremonies thereunto appertaining (i). When the mold was brought
and cast in the grave by the Prelate executing, at the words
pulverem pulveri, and cinerem cineri (k), first the Lord Great
Chaumberlain and al others aforesaid in order, with heavy and
dolorous lamentations brake their staves, &c. with exceeding sorrow
and heaviness, not without grievous sighs and tears very piteous
and sorrowful to behold. — Then the trumpets sounded with great
melody and courage, to the comfort of al them that were there
present (/). And al these things were don afore six of the clock
of the same day (m)."
Edward VI [r. 1547-53]
Music seems not to have been omitted in the education of
Henry's successor, Edward VI. For not only Cardan, in his
character of this young Prince (n), tells us, that " he was not
ignorant of Logic, of the principles of Natural Philosophy, nor of
Music." But in his own journal, preserved in the collection of
records, &c. in the appendix to Burnet's History of the Reformation
(o), he says, July 20th, 1550, " M. le Mareschal St. Andre, the
French Ambassador, came to me in the morning to mine arraying,
and saw my bed-chamber, and went a hunting with hounds; and
saw me shoot, and saw all my guards shoot together. He dined
with me, heard me play on the lute, (saw me) ride; came to me
to my study; supped with me, and so departed to Richmond."
The musical establishments of the Houshold and Chapel Royal,
during this reign, seem to have been nearly as ample as those of
any other English Sovereign, before or after this period (p). And
as not only the number and name's, but the salaries of the several
musicians in the service of the Court, during this reign, are
(A) Strype, Vol. II. Repository, p. 15, from an ancient MS. (i) lb. p. 17.
(k) Here is a proof that the service was still in Latin.
(I) This was after proclaiming King Edward. (m) Ibid.
(») See Burnet's Hist. Ref. part. ii. p. 2. (o) Part ii. p. 31.
{p) Those of Edward IV. have been given in the Second Book, p. 697, from the Liber
Niger, whence the "Chaplenes and Gentlemen Clerkes of the Chappelle," to the number of
twenty-four, should have been added: for it appears that the knowledge of Music was a
necessary qualification to their election by the Dean of the Chapel; as they were required to
be "endowed with uirtues morrolle and specikatyve, as of the Musicke, shewing (f. knowing,
well seen) in descante, clean uoyced, well releshed and pronounsinge. Eloquente in readings,
suffityente in organes playinge," &c. Here it is necessary to correct a mistake that was made
in the reference to the Liber Niger Domus Regis, in the Second Book, p. 697, where, instead
of these words, "as oublished, with additions, by Batman," the reader should be directed to No.
293, of the Harl. MSS. in the British Museum, and to No. 1147, 2, 3, 11, of the Ashmol. Collect.
Oxi. tor Ordinances touching the King's Household, made in the time of Edward II. as well as
in that of Edward IV.
15
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
recorded in a MS. of the British Museum,
the reader in the language of the times.
I shall present them to
AND PLAYERS.
hauing by the
Harpers.
Singers.
Rebecke.
Sagbuts.
Vyalls.
Bagpiper.
Minstrilles.
MUSITIONS
Trumpeters
Serjeante. Benedict Browne
Trumpeters, in No. 16, euery of them
yere 24I. 6s. 8d.
Luters. Philip Van Welder, and Peter Van Welder
William Moore
Bernard De Ponte
Thomas Kent and Thomas Bowde, gl. 2s. td. each . .
John Seuernicke
In number six, whereof five hauinge 24/. 6s. 8d. by
the yere, and one at 36/. 10s
In number 8, whereof 6 at 30/. 8s. 4d. the yeere, and
one at 2/. and another at 18/. 5s
Richard Woodward
In noumber 9, whereof 7 at 18I. 5s. a piece, 1 at
24I. 6d. 8d. and 1 at 3/. 6s. 8d
Dromslades (q). In noumber 3, whereof Robert Bruer, master
drummer
Alexander Pencax and John Hodgkin, 18Z.
5s. a piece
Players on the Flutes : Oliver Rampons
Pier Guye
Players on Virginals (r) : John Heywoode
Anthony de Chounte
Robert Bewman
Musitions Straungers :
The four brethren Venetians, viz. John, Anthonye,
Jasper, and Baptiste
Augustine Bassane
William Trosses and William Deniuat
Players of Interludes, in noumber 8 :
Euery of them at 3/. 16s. 8d. by yeere Camera 7, 23*.
6s. 8d. in Sccio, one 3/. 6s. 8d
Makers of Instruments: William Beton, Organ-maker
William Tresorer, Regal-maker
Sumi
Total noumber of persons
OFFICERS OF THE CHAPPELL.
Master of the Children, Richard Bowyer:
Largess to the children at high feasts
Allowance for breakfast for the childre .
Gentlemen of the Chappell 32, euery of them yd.
Fee
i s.
24 6
d.
8
Fee
Fee
Fee
Fee
389 6
40 0
18 5
20 0
IS 5
24 6
8
0
0
0
0
8
Fee
158 3
4
Fee
Fee
Fees
220 15
12 3
127 15
27 13
0
4
0
4
18 5
0
Ff>e
Fee
fee
Fee
Fee
36 10
18 5
34 8
50 0
30 8
12 3
0
0
4
0
4
4
Fee
Fee
Fee
16 6
36 10
76 0
8
J
0
Fee
Fee
Fee
26 13
20 0
50 0
4
0
0
totalis
1732 0
73
c
Fee
40 0
9 13
16 0
0
4
0
Emery Tuckfield
Robt. Chamberleyn
Willm. Barber
John Bendebowe
Robt. Morecock
Richd. Alyeworth
Thos. Palfreyman
Richd. Farrant
John Kye
John Angel
Win. Huchins
2 at 4<2. ob. a day either of them
5 at 4d. the day euery of them
Hugh Williams, at 40s. a yeere
Nich. Archibald
Willm. Grauesend
Robt. Richmounte
Willm. Mawpley
Robert Phelips
Thos. Birde
Robt. Perry
Thos. Wayte
Thos. Talles
Thos. Wright
Robert Stone
ob
a day :
William Walker
Richd. Bowyer
Nich. Millowe
George Edwards
J. Shepparde
Wm. Hynnes,
or Hunnes
Thos. Manne
Roger Kenton
Lucas Caustell
Edward Addams
Summa Totalis
365
46 2 I
476 15 5
Musitions, 73
Officers of the Chappell, 41
Total of both
1732 o 0
476 15 5 Number of persons 114.
2209 0 5
(?) Perhaps from Trommel schlager, drum-beater. Germ*
(r) The Virginal is a keyed instrument of one string, jack, and quill, to each note, like
a spinet; but in shape resembling the present small Piano-forte. It has been imagined to have
been invented in England during the _ reign of Queen Elizabeth, and to have been thus
denominated in honour of that virgin Princess; but we have here not only a proof of its use in
this kingdom before she was Queen, but a drawing and description of it appeared in Luscinius's
Musurgia, before she was born.**
* The word is from the Dutch "Dromstade," meaning a drummer. The variant
"Drumsted" is also used. ,.-•..
■**This is not correct. The Musurgia of Luscinius, which is chiefly a Latin translation of
Virdung's Musica getutscht appeared in 1536. Elizabeth was born in 1533. . ...
16
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The number of boys in the chapel is not specified, though
there is an allowance for their maintenance and teaching.
In the journal of this amiable young Prince, we find that use
was made of these musicians upon all great occasions : for he tells
us, that, April 29th, 1549, " The Count d'Enguien, brother to
the Duke of Vendosme, and next heir to the Crown (of France) after
the King's children; the Marquis de Means, (Meun) brother to the
Scotch Queen; and Monsieur Montmorency, the Constable's son,
came to the Court, where they were received with much Mustek at
dinner." And the next year, when he was visited by the Queen
Dowager of Scotland, after a great public entertainment, which
was given with the utmost splendour and magnificence, to this
Princess, in Westminster, he says, "After dinner, when she had
heard some Mustek, I brought her to the Hall, and so she went
away." And it appears that Music, which, at present, only
augments the noise and confusion of a city feast, was thought,
during the sixteenth century, the most elegant regale that could be
given to Princes in every Court of Europe. An engraving, by
Hollar, from an ancient illumination, and inserted in Ashmole's
History of the Order of the Garter (s), represents Ferdinand, Prince
of Spain, on the day of his investiture, sitting with the habit and
ensigns of the Order, attended by the four Commissioners of
Legation, two on each side; on the left are the officers of his Court,
and on his right two men and a boy, each singing out of a Music
Paper, and behind them three other persons, supposed likewise to
be singing. Glareanus, at the end of his Dodecachordon, in
relating the circumstance already mentioned in the Second Book
(t), of Lewis XII. of France desiring Jusquin to compose a song
for him, in which he could bear a part, tells us, that it was
produced the next day, after dinner, at the time that his Majesty
usually called for Music (u).
Indeed, according to Roger Ascham (x), the Emperor Charles
V. was entertained with Music, during his repast, in the manner
of my Lord Mayor; for he tells us, in a letter written from Augsburg,
January 20, 1551, that he had stood by the Emperor's table, and
that " his Chapel sung wonderful cunningly all the dinner while."
This seems an abuse of Music; for though one of the Benedictine
monastic rules is, that " no Monk shall speak a word in the
refectory during meals;" and another says, " Let them listen to
the lecturer reading scripture to them whilst they feed themselves,"
a rule that is still observed in our Universities by the under
graduates in the halls of some of the colleges, during dinner; yet
we may suppose that the original intention of these lectures was
to counteract sensuality. But Music at a city feast, by interrupting
conversation, has a contrary effect, and serves only to enforce the
(s) P. 404- (i) P. 737-
(m) Postridie quum pransus fuisset Rex, ac Cantilenis more Regio recreandus esset.
(x) See his works, published by Bennet, p. 375.
VOL. ii. 2. 17
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
precept, Hoc age, by telling the company that at such times "Delays
are dangerous (y)."
It was during the reign of Edward VI. that Metrical Psalmody,
in the same manner that it is still practised in our parochial
churches, had its beginning, or at least became general in England,
by the version of Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others;
which, though it now appears bald, coarse, and despicable, was
then equally refined with the poetical taste of the most polite
courtiers and polished scholars of the nation (z). But time, which
has added strength and energy to the prose translation of the Psalms,
as well as other parts of Scripture, and made them still more
venerable, has rendered the verse of these translators a disgrace to
our literature and religion. But I shall trace this manner of singing
hereafter to a much higher period, and give a chronological account
of its progress in the principal reformed churches, till the close of
the sixteenth century; as the subject seems to require a particular
description.*
With respect to the cathedral service, as far as concerns chanting
and the responses in unison, an ample account has been given, in
the Second Book (a), concerning the manner in which it was set
and published by John Marbeck, in 1550; but to resume the
consideration of Choral Music from the death of Henry VIII. and
to point out by what degrees the great work of reformation was
accomplished, I shall give a chronological summary of the principal
events relative to Music in our Ecclesiastical History, from the best
writers on the subject.
(y) Indeed, in these important moments, no conversation can be carried on without
manifest loss; for during the shortest story that can be told, or even the mere repetition o4 a
bon mot, the fat of a haunch of venison, or, which is still a greater misfortune, the whole
calapask and calapee of a turtle have disappeared !
A friend of the author, having been invited two or three successive years to an annual
venison feast, found at last, that being less a helluo than the rest of the company, he had
constantly lost his dinner by telling a long story of an uncommon malady which had carried
off his father; but the next time he was invited to meet the same company, when a wag, who
sat near him, wishing to employ him again in the same manner, that he might avail himself
of his inactivity, begged him, just as the haunch was served, to relate the manner in which his
father died; my friend, to cut the matter short, said, "Sir, my father died suddenly," — and
immediately went to work with as much vigour as the rest.
(z) Fuller, in his quaint and quibbling way, tells us that Sternhold, "who was Groom of
the Robes to Henry VIII, and afterwards of the Bed-chamber to Edward VI. was one of them
who translated the Psalms into English meeter, being then accounted an excellent poet; though
he who wore bayes then, deserves not ivie now."
Church Hist, of Brit. Vol. I. Cent. XVI. Book v. p. 252, publ. 1655.
(a) See p. 803.
* Sternhold's translation was not the first effort. The elder, Sir Thos. Wyat [1503-42] had
translated the seven penitential psalms, whilst three others had been done by the Earl of
Surrey. Miles Coverdale had also issued thirteen of the better known psalms. Coverdale's
version was based upon early German hymn books and entitled.
"Goostly psalmes and spirituall songes drawen out of the holy Scripture, for the coforte and
consolacyon of such as loue to rejoyce in God and his worde" (no date, but probably c 1539-46).
The only known copy of this work is in the Queen's College Library at Oxford, but a
reprint was made in 184O by the Parker Society.
Sternhold's collection (without music) was published by Whitchurche in 1549 with the title:
"Certayne Psalmes chosen out of the Psalter of David and drawen into English Metre by
Thomas Sternhold, Grome of ye Kynges Majesties Robes."
In the same year the same publisher issued an enlarged edition :
"All such psalmes of David as Thomas Sternhold late grome of ye Kinges Maiesties Robe
didde in his lyfetime draw into English Metre."
Of the additions Sternhold was responsible for 18 and J. Hopkins for seven. There was
no music in this edition.
In 1549, R. Crowley published a metrical translation of the whole psalter with music. This
is the earliest known volume with music. There is a copy at Brasenose College, Oxford.
18
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The compline, being a part of the Evening Prayer, a kind of
final chorus, was sung in English in the King's chapel, 1547, before
any act of Parliament enjoined it (b).
In the 21st injunction, 1547, "and that in time of high mass,
he that sayeth or singeth a Psalm, shall read the Epistle and Gospel
in English (c)."
23d — " Immediately before high mass the litany shall be
distinctly said or sung, &c. {d)."
The same year the compline was sung in the King's chapel on
Monday in Easter week, April 11th, in the English tongue.
On the 19th of June, at St. Paul's, and in other London
churches, a dirige was sung for the death of Francis I. of France,
and next day the Archbishop of Canterbury sung a mass of requiem
in the choir of St. Paul (e).
In September the litany was sung in the English tongue at St.
Paul's, Bishop Bonner being in the Fleet prison. Images taken down
soon after.
The English Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, was published,
and ordered to be generally used, 1548; but the books could not be
furnished to the whole kingdom till next year, 1549, when on
Whitsunday it was first used in St. Paul's church. This year all
antiphonaries, missals, breviaries, offices, horaries, primers, and
processionals, were called in, and destroyed. Calvin, Peter Martyr,
Bucer and the Zwinglians, breed schisms among the reformers,
and augment the number of puritans and fanatics throughout the
nation (/).
It seems as if, till this reign, 1549, parish churches had used
the plain chant as well as cathedrals : for at a visitation this year,
complaint was made that the priests read the prayers with the same
tone of voice that they had used formerly in the Latin service (g),
&c. however, in the Forty-one [42 Articles] Articles of Religion,
prepared in this reign, 1551, not a word is said concerning
cathedral chanting, musical service, or parochial psalmody.
Edward, who died July 6th, 1553, was buried by Archbishop
Cranmer, according to the reformed rites of the church, August 8th,
though .Mary was his successor.
The principal composers of services and full anthems during
the short reign of Edward, were Dr. Christopher Tye, John
Shephard, Robert Johnson, Robert Parsons, Robert White, Richard
Farrant, and Thomas Tallis. Dr. Tye,* though not inserted in
the list of Musicians of the Chapel Royal or Household in this
reign, was doubtless at the head of all our ecclesiastical composers
(b) Strype's Memorials, Vol. II. p. 25. See too Heylin's Hist, of the Reformation, p. 42.
Fuller's Church Hist. Vol. 1. p. 406. Burnet, Vol. I. p 333. And Collier, Vol. I. p. 263.
(c) Heylin's Eccles. Hist. p. 35. [d) lb. p. 36.
(e) lb. p. 40. (/) lb.
{g) Burnet, Part ii. p. 101.
* There is no mention in the Chapel Royal cheque book or in the Lord Chamberlain's
Tye published in 1553 he speaks of himself as "Doctor in Musyke, and one of the Gentylmen of
records of Dr. Tye being a member of the Chapel Royal. In "The Acts of the Apostles" which
hys Graces most honourable Chappell."
19
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of that period: Neither the state of the church, nor religious
principles of its nominal members, were so settled as to render it
possible to determine, in these times, who among quiet and obedient
subjects were protestants, and who catholics; for, during the conflict
between the zealots of both religions, the changes were so violent
and rapid, that great flexibility or great dissimulation must have
been practised by those who not only escaped persecution, but still
continued in offices, either of Church or State. The few who
seem to have been truly pious and conscientious on both sides,
suffered martyrdom in support of their opinions; the rest seem to
have been either unprincipled or fluctuating between the two
religions. One of the principal evils which the champions for reforma-
tion combated, was the use of the Latin language in the service of
the church; however, the best choral compositions produced by the
masters of these times, that are come down to us, are to Latin
words. Specimens have been already given (h) of Dr. Tye's clear
and masterly manner of composing for the church in that language,
when he was at least a nominal catholic, either during the reign
of Henry VIII. or Queen Mary; and the late worthy Dr. Boyce
has given an admirable example of his abilities in the anthem for
four voices, " I will exalt thee, O Lord," inserted in the second
volume of his excellent Collection of Cathedral Music, by English
Masters. There is hardly any instance to be found in the productions
of composers for the church during his time, of a piece so constantly
and regularly in any one key as this is in the key of C minor, and
its relatives; the harmony is pure and grateful; the time and melody,
though not so marked and accented as in those of the best composi-
tions of the present century, are free from pedantry, and the
difficulties of complicated measures, which this composer had the
merit of being one of the first to abandon (t). That he translated
the first fourteen chapters of the Acts of the Apostles into metre, in
imitation of Sternhold's Psalms, which were the delight of the
Court in which he lived, was doubtless an absurd undertaking,
and was not rendered less ridiculous by the elaborate music to which
he set them, consisting of fugues and canons of the most artificial
and complicated kind (&). Dr. Tye, however, if compared with
his cotemporaries, was perhaps as good a poet as Sternhold, and as
great a musician as Europe could then boast; and it is hardly fair
to expect more perfection from him, or to blame an individual
for the general defects of the age in which he lived.*
(h) Book II., p. 811.
(0 The point, in the second part of his anthem, to these words, "Thou hast turned my
sorrow into joy," is admirable in respect of harmony and contrivance; indeed, I can
recollect nothing in Palestrina or Tallis superior to it.
(ft) Mr. Warton (Hist, of Poetry, Vol. III. p. 192), seems to take literally what the
author in his dedication to Edward VI. says of his notes; but he only assumes that coquettish
kind of modesty which is expected from an author, in speaking of his own productions : and
when he says, "though they be not curious," he does not mean that they were "plain and
unisonous:" nor was that "the established character of this sort of Music."
* Tye's settings of the Acts of the Apostles are, on the whole, simple and melodious, but
in one or two some complexities occur Burney could not have examined the entire collection
and Davy (p. 130) suggests that his criticism is based upon the elaborate double Canon given
by Hawkins.
20
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Of Shepherd, Johnson, and Parsons, notice has already been
taken, and a specimen of the composition of each inserted in the
preceding volume. Richard Farrant, one of the Gentlemen of
Edward's and Elizabeth's chapel, and some time Master of the
children of St. George's chapel at Windsor, died about 1585.*
Dr. Boyce has published several of his productions, which are
grave and solemn, but somewhat dry and uninteresting. As White
and Tallis chiefly distinguished themselves during the time of Queen
Elizabeth, we shall class them among composers of that reign.
Queen Mary [r. 1553-8]
During the short reign of Queen Mary, Ecclesiastical Music
was again transferred to Latin words, which seems to have been
the principal change that the renewal of Roman catholic rites and
ceremonies had occasioned in choral singing; as metrical psalmody
had not yet been generally received in our parochial churches,
though a proviso was made for it, in the Act of Uniformity for
the use of the Common Prayer, so early as the reign of Edward VI.
This gloomy and bigotted Princess was herself a performer on
the virginals and lute, as appears by a letter sent to her by Queen
Katherine, her mother, after her separation from the King, in which
" she encourages her to suffer chearfully, to trust to God, and keep
her heart clean. She charged her in all things to obey the King's
commands, except in matters of religion. She sent her two Latin
books, the one De Vita Christi, and the other the Epistles of St.
Jerom; in them, says the Queen, I trust you shall see good things.
And sometimes, for your recreation, use your virginals, or lute,
if you have any (/)."
Fuller tells us (m), that " eight weeks and upwards passed
between the proclaiming of Queen Mary and her assembling the
Parliament : ** during which time two religions were together set on
foot, Protestantisme and Poperie; the former hoping to be continued,
the latter labouring to be restored: — and during this interim the
churches and chapels in England had a mongrel celebration of their
divine services betwixt reformation and superstition. For the
obsequies for King Edward were held by the Queen in the Tower,
August 7th, 1553, with the dirige sung in Latin, and on the morrow
a masse of requiem, and on the same day his corps were buried at
Westminster with a sermon service, and communion in English."
In October following, the laws of her predecessor, Edward,
concerning religion, were all repealed. And in November 1554,
(I) Collect, of Records to Burnet's Hist. Ref. Part. ii. p. 242. No. 2.
(w) Ch. Hist of Brit. cent. xvii. b. viii.
* Farrant died before 1585. There are two entries in the Cheque Book, one giving his
death as occurring on 30th Nov., 1580, and the other on 30th Nov., 1581.
** Mary's first Parliament met on Oct. 5th, 1553.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Bishop Bonner "set up the old worship at Paul's, on St. Katherine's
day; and it being the custom, that on some holy-days, the quire
went up to the steeple to sing the anthems, that fell on that
night: — and the next day, being St. Andrew's, he did officiate
himself, and had a solemn procession (»).'*
After this period, during the subsequent years of Mary's reign,
the public service was every where performed in the Roman
catholic manner, throughout the kingdom ; and we may imagine,
that the numerous compositions to Latin words, which have been
preserved, of Dr. Tye, White, Tallis, Bird, and the rest of our
most eminent harmonists, were produced and performed at this
time, while the Romish religion had the ascendant. And indeed
it appears by a record now in the possession of the Antiquarian
Society, that the list of Mary's chapel establishment contains nearly
the same names as those which have been already given in that of
her brother Edward.
Queen Elizabeth [r. 1558-1603]
In speaking of Choral Music during the long and prosperous
reign of Queen Elizabeth, our nation's honour seems to require
a more diffuse detail than at any other time : for perhaps we never
had so just a claim to equality with the rest of Europe, where Music
was the most successfully cultivated, as at this period ; when indeed
there was but little melody any where. Yet, with respect to
harmony, canon, fugue, and such laboured and learned
contrivances as were then chiefly studied and admired, we can
produce such proofs of great abilities in the compositions of our
countrymen, as candid judges of their merit must allow to abound
in every kind of excellence that was then known or expected.
Elizabeth, as well as the rest of Henry VIII. 's children, and
indeed all the Princes of Europe at that time, had been taught
Music early in life. For Camden (o), in giving an account of
her studies, says, that " she understood well the Latin, French,
and Italian tongues, and (was) indifferently well seen in the Greek.
Neither did she neglect Musicke, so far forthe as might become a
Princess, being able to sing, and play on the lute prettily and
sweetly."
There is reason to conclude that she continued to amuse herself
with Music many years after she ascended the Throne. Sir James
Melvil (p) gives an account of a curious conversation which he had
with this Princess, to whom he was sent on an embassy by Mary
Queen of Scots, in 1564. After her Majesty had asked him how
(«) Burnet's Hist. Ref. Part ii. p. 276.
(0) Annates, or the History of Elizabeth, late Queen of England. Transl. by R N Gent.
^d edit. 1635. fol. p. 6.
(p) Memoirs, 2d edit. Edinburgh 1735.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
his Queen dressed? What was the colour of her hair? Whether
that or her's was best? Which of them two was fairest? And
which of them was highest in stature? " Then she asked what
kind of exercises she used? " " I answered," says Melvil, " that
when I received my dispatch, the Queen was lately come from
the Highland hunting: that when her more serious affairs
permitted, she was taken up with reading of histories: that
sometimes she recreated herself in playing upon the lute and
virginals. She asked if she played well? I said, reasonably for a
Queen (q)."
" The same day after dinner, my Lord of Hunsden drew me
up to a quiet gallery, that I might hear some Musick, (but he said
that he durst not avow it), where I might hear the Queen play
upon the virginals. After I had hearkened a while, I took by
the tapestry that hung before the door of the chamber, and
seeing her back was toward the door, I entered within the chamber,
and stood a pretty space hearing her play excellently well. But
she left off immediately, so soon as she turned about and saw me.
She appeared to be surprised to see me, and came forward, seeming
to strike me with her hand ; alledging, 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
(q) This Princess, besides her personal cnarms, captivating powers of conversation,
knowledge of six several languages, and a sufficient skill in Music for a person of her high rank,
had an inclination, at least, towards Poetry. Brantome says, "Elle se meloit d'etre Poete
et composoit des vers, dont j'ai vu aucuns dc beaux et tres bien-faits," &c. The following
specimen of her versification is given in the Diet, du Vieux Langage, p. 337.
Chanson de Marie Stuart, Reine d'Ecosse, en i>artant de
Calais pour Londres.
Adieu plaisant pays de France,
0 ma patrie la plus cheriel
Que a norrit ma jeune enfance.
Adieu France, adieu mes beaux jours\
La nef qui dijoint nos amours,
N'a cy de moi que la moitie,
Une part te reste, elle est tienne,
Je la fie a ton amitie,
Pour que de Vautre il te souvienne.
Song written by Mary Queen of Scots in sailing from
Calais to London, 1560.
Farewell the sweet, the ever blest abode !
Farewell the country to my soul most dear!
Where none but pleasure's flow'ry paths I trod.
Far from the gloomy haunts of strife and fear.
The ship that wafts me from thy happy shore.
Is only freighted with the meaner partf ;
And, while my youthful pleasures I deplore,
Leaves thee in full possession of my heart.
There is in the British Museum, No. 1265, a cantata, set by Giacomo Carisshni, on the
death of this Princess, which begins by a recitative, in which she addresses herself to the
executioner : Ferma, lascia ch'io parli; this is followed by an air, in adagio, that is full of
uncommon simplicity, and energy of passion : A morire, a morire; but it is too soon as yet to
give specimens of such music.
t Shakspeare has the same thought in his lxxiv. sonnet :
" My spirit's thine, the better part of me" —
See Suppl. to Johnson and Steevens's edit. Vol. I. p. 640.
23
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Hunsden, as we passed by the chamber door, I heard such a 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
endure what kind of punishment her Majesty should be pleased to
inflict upon me for so great offence. Then she sate down low
upon a cushion, and I upon my knees by her ; but with her own
hand she gave me a cushion, to lay under my knee ; which at first
I refused, but she compelled me to take it. — She enquired whether
my Queen or she played best. In that I found myself obliged to
give her the praise."
If her Majesty was ever able to execute any of the pieces that are
preserved in a MS. which goes under the name of Queen Elizabeth' s
Virginal Book, she must have been a very great player: as some of
these pieces, which were composed by Tallis, Bird, Giles, Farnaby,
Dr. Bull, and others, are so difficult, that it would be hardly
possible to find a master in Europe who would undertake to play
one of them at the end of a month's practice. But of this MS.
we shall have further occasion to speak hereafter.
Besides the lute and virginals, it has been imagined that
Elizabeth was a performer on the violin, and on an instrument
something like a lute, but strung with wire, and called the
poliphant* (r). A violin of a singular construction, with the arms
of England, and the crest of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, this Queen's
favourite, engraved upon it, was purchased at the sale of the late
Duke of Dorset's effects. The date of its make, 1578 (s). It is
very curiously carved ; but the several parts are so thick and
loaded with ornaments, that it has not more tone than a mute, or
violin with a sordine ; and the neck, which is too thick for the
grasp of the hand, has a hole cut in it for the thumb of the player,
by which the hand is so confined as to be rendered incapable of
shifting, so that nothing can be performed upon this instrument
but what lies within the reach of the hand in its first position.
Playford (t) tells us, that " Queen Elizabeth was not only a lover
of this divine science (Music) but a good proficient therein ; and I
have been informed (says he) by an ancient musician, and her
servant, that she did often recreate herself on an excellent
instrument, called the poliphant, not much unlike a lute, but strung
with wire."
Among the Sloane MSS. in the British Museum, No. 1520,
there is a list of the officers of the Court of Revenue in this reign ;
(r) Quere, polyphon'i from ojoXvs multus, 4><°vrli vox, sonus: i.e., an instrument of
many strings, or sounds.
(s) The instrument is at present the property of Mr. Bremner, in the Strand. It is from
the arms and crest that are engraved upon it, that conjecture has made Queen Elizabeth
its original possessor.
(t) Pref. to his Introduction, nth edit. 1687.
* A drawing of this instrument is in the B.M. (Harl. MSS. 2034. III). It is reproduced by
Pulver on p. 176 of his Dictionary of Old English Music and Musical Instruments.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
in which is included the musical establishment of her Majesty's
household, about the year 1587.*
MUSYTYONS.
£ s. d. £ s. d.
The servant Fee 24 6 8 Six children to sing Rebeck 2 Fee 28 6 6
Trompeters 16. Fee to every of them 24 6 8 Sackbutt, 6 whereof 5 having 24 6 8
Lutes, harps, and singers. by the year, and one at 36 10 0
Chief luter, Fee 40 0 0 Vialls 8, whereof 6 at 30 8 4
Chief harper 20 0 p one at 20 0 0
Rest of the luters 19 0 0 and thother at 10 0 o
The other of the harps 900 Players on the virginalls 3, one at 50 o 0
And 800 and thother 2 at 30 o o
Bagpiper, Fee 12 13 4 a piece.
Minstrells 9. whereof 7 at 18 5 0 Musitions straungers 7, whereof
every of them; one at 24 6 0 6 have 30 10 o
and thother at 66 o 8 and one 38 0 o
Prumsleds 3, every of them 18 5 a Players of enterludes 8, every of
Players on the flute, 2 at 18 5 0 them p. ann 66 0 8
a piece Organ-maker 20 0 0
Makers of instruments )
Regall-maker / 20 o 0
Her Majesty's chapel establishment was nearly the same, in
number and salaries, as that of her brother and sister, Edward and
Mary. Indeed, it seems as if the religious scruples of musicians
had been considerably diminished by the severity with which
Testwood had been treated in the time of Henry VIII. and the
peril into which Marbeck's zeal for reformation had involved him.
(u). For in comparing the chapel establishments of Edward,
Mary, and Elizabeth, we find, that however the creeds of these
Monarchs differed, their musicians had constantly tuned their
consciences to the Court pitch : i.e. in perfect unison with the orders
of their Sovereign, the Supreme Head of the Church.
Camden (x) says, that " the Romish religion remained a full
moneth and more after the death of Queen Mary, in the same state as
before (y)." For Elizabeth, who began her reign November
17th, 1558, had a solemn service performed for her sister Mary at
Westminster, December 5th, and another December 20th, for the
Emperor Charles V. (z); and these, as well as her own coronation,
were celebrated in the Romish manner.
Burnet (a) says, that " Elizabeth had been bred up from her
infancy with a hatred of the Papacy, and a love to the Reformation :
but yet as her first impressions in her father's reign were in favour
of such old rites as he had still retained; so in her own nature she
loved state, and some magnificence, in religion as well as in every
thing else."
Neal, in his History of the Puritans (b), says, that the service of
her chapel was not only sung with organs, but with other
instruments, such as cornits, sacbuts, &c. on festivals. In 1559, she
(») Testwood, a singing-man in the choir of Windsor, was burnt for his intemperate zeal
in the cause of Protestantism, 1544, when Marbeck was likewise condemned, but afterwards
pardoned.
(*) Ubi supra, p. 30. (y) Fuller says six weeks. Vol. II. p. 51.
(2) Heylin, p. 277. (a) Hist. Ref. Part ii, p. 376.
(b) P. 156.
* There is a list similar, in many respects, to the following in the L.C. Vol. 617, folio igd,
dated 1593
25
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
published injunctions for the clergy, in the forty-ninth of which
there is one for Choral Music (c). " For the encouragement, and
the continuance of the use of singing in the Church of England.
it is injoined; that is to say, that in divers collegiat, as well as
seme parish churches, heretofore there hath been livings appointed
for the maintenance of men and children for singing in the church,
by means whereof the laudable exercise of Musick hath been had
in estimation, and preserved in knowledge; the Queen's Majesty
neither meaning in any wise the decay of any that might conveniently
tend to the use and continuance of the said science, neither to have
the same so abused in any part of the church, that thereby the
Common Prayer should be worse understood by the hearers, willeth
and commandeth, that, first, no alterations be made of such assign-
ments of living as heretofore hath been appointed to the use of
singing or Musick in the church, but that the same so remain, and
that there be a modest and distinct song, so used in all parts of
the common prayers of the church, that the same may be plainly
understood as if it were without singing; and yet nevertheless, for
the comforting of such as delight in Musick, it may be permitted,
that in the beginning or in the end of common prayer, either at
morning or evening, there may be sung an hymn, or such like song,
to the praise of Almighty God, in the best melody and musick that
may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence of
the hymn may be understood and perceived."
"According to which order," says Heylin, " as plain-song was
retained in most parish churches for the daily Psalms, so in her
own chapels, and in the quire of all cathedrals, and some colleges,
the hymns were sung after a more melodious manner, with organs
commonly, and sometimes with other musical instruments, as the
solemnity required. No mention is made here," adds this writer,
" of singing David's Psalms in metre, though afterwards they
first thrust out the hymns which are herein mentioned, and by
degrees also did they the Te Deum, the Magnificat, and the Nunc
Dimittis."
It was by the moderation, liberality, and intelligence of this
injunction, that Choral Music was saved from utter extirpation in
this country; for the outcry and violence of the puritans against
playing upon organs, curious singing, and tossing about the Psalms
from side to side (meaning antiphonal, or alternate singing), were
at this time so great, that they could only be restrained by an
exertion of all the power and firmness of this Princess.*
" In 1560, the Church of England, as it was first settled and
established under Queen Elizabeth, may be regarded as brought
to perfection. The government of the church by Archbishops and
Bishops; its doctrines reduced to its ancient purity, according to
(c) See Sparrow's Collect, of Articles, Injunctions, and Canons, 4to, 16S4, and Heylin,
p. 289.
* The attitude of the Puritans towards music is dealt with later in this volume (Chapter
headed Interregnum).
26
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
the Articles agreed on in Convocation, 1552; the Liturgy, conform-
able to the primitive patterns, and all the rites and ceremonies
therein prescribed accommodated to the honour of God, and increase
of piety. The festivals preserved in their former dignity; the
sacrament celebrated in most reverend manner; Music2 retained
in all such churches in which provision had been made for the
maintenance of it, or where the people could be trained up at least
to plain-song. All which particulars were either established by
the laws, commanded by the Queen's injunctions, or otherwise
retained by virtue of some ancient usages not by law prohibited.
Nor is it much to be admired, that such a general conformity to
those ancient usages was constantly observed in all cathedrals, and
the most part of the parish churches, considering how well they were
precedented by the Court itself, in which the Liturgy was officiated
every day both morning and evening, not only in the public chapel,
but the private closet; celebrated in the chapel with organs and
other musical instruments, and the most excellent voices, both
of men and children, that could be procured in all the kingdom
(d)."
When Elizabeth first met her Parliament [Jan. 1559], she
desired them to consider religion without heat, partial affection, or
using any reproachful terms of Papist or Heretic, and that they
would avoid the extremes of idolatry and superstition on the one
hand, and contempt and irreligion on the other. And thus this
wise Princess seems always to have steered, according to the true
spirit of the Church of England, between the two extremes of
superstitious bigotry, and irreverent fanaticism; a golden mean that
seems best to suit with our mixed government, which is neither
wholly monarchical nor democratical, but, when well administered,
a perfect compound of both; being neither necessarily so
parsimonious nor indigent as to degrade the King, or the great
officers and magistrates of the realm, below that dignity which
impresses reverence and respect; nor to require a ruinous pomp and
luxury; but consistent with such splendor, magnificence, and
encouragement of elegant arts and liberal science as become a great
and affluent state, equally secured from regal tyranny, and popular
insolence. One of the wisest, or at least the most liberal exercises
of this Queen's prerogative, seems to have been the proclamation
which she issued in the second year of her reign against defacing
the monuments in churches; for so savage was the rage of the
puritans and fanatics of this time, that under the pretence of
destroying popery and idolatry, they ruined and demolished in our
public buildings whatever was sufficiently elegant and venerable to
distinguish us from Barbarians.*
Elizabeth, who succeeded to the crown in November, 1558, on
the 28th of April, 1559, gave the royal assent to the bill for the
(d) Heylin, p. 296.
* The destruction and defacing of monuments, etc., in Churches was not by the order of
Puritans.
27
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Uniformity of Common Prayer, or English Liturgy, which was to
take effect the 12th of May; but so eager was her Majesty to hear
the reformed service, that she anticipated its restoration, by having
it performed in her chapel on Sunday, May the 2d, four days after
the act had passed (e). This Liturgy was printed the same year
by Grafton, with the following title: " The Boke of Common
Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and
Ceremonies of the Church of England." And the licence
contained in the rubrics, allowing it to be either said or sung, and
ordaining that in choirs and places where they sing, the anthem
shall follow certain parts of the service, is a plain indication that
the choral, as well as the parochial service, was authorised and
established.
I have found no other Music printed expressly for the cathedral
service to English words during the reign of Edward VI. than that
of Marbeck (/), which was mere canto jermo, without counterpoint;
but the year after the publication of the English Liturgy by Queen
Elizabeth, the following choral work appeared: "Certaine notes set
forth in four and three parts to be song at the morning Communion
and evening praier, very necessary for the Church of Christe to be
frequented and used: & unto them added divers godly praiers &
Psalmes in the like forme to the honour & praise of God."
" Imprinted at London over Aldersgate beneath S. Martins by
John Day, 1560. Cum gratia & privilegio Regie Maiestatis."
The authors of these compositions were Tallis, Cawston,
Johnson, Oakland, Shepherd, and Taverner.*
For the performance of this kind of Music in our cathedrals,
great diligence was used, and indeed some violence, in the manner
of procuring singers. It seems as if our Monarchs of former times
had either rewarded the talents of their singers no more liberally
than sailors, or that musicians were then less sensible of the honour
of attending royalty than at present ; for it appears by a precept,
preserved in Rymer's Fcedera (g), so early as the reign of the gentle
Henry VI. 1454, that they attended with such reluctance as to
make it necessary to impress them into the service (h). Luckily
his present Majesty is reduced to the exercise of no such stretch of
(e) Strype, Vol. I. p. igi.
if) See Book II. p. 803. (g) Tom. XI. p. 375-
(70 The form of the placard is the following:
De Ministrallis propter solatium Regis providendis.
"Rex, dilectis sibi, Walthero Halyday, Roberto Marshall, Willielmo Wykes, & Johanni
Clyff, salutem. ...,,. . . , ,,
"Sciatis quod 110s, considerantes quahter quidem Alinistrallt nostrt jam tarae viam
universes carnis sunt ingressi, aliisque, loco ipsorum-, propter solatium nostrum, de necesse
indigentes, assignavimus vos, conjunctim & divisim, ad quosdam pueros, membris naturalibus
elegantes, in Arte Ministrellatus instructos, ubicunque inveniri poterint, tarn infra libertates,
quam extra, capiendum, & in servitio nostra ad vadia nostra ponendum," &c. The requisition
that the boys thus impressed should be not only skilled in the art of minstrelsy, but
handsome and elegantly shaped, seems to point at the theatrical use that was frequently made
of the choristers of cathedrals, as well as the private chapels of Noblemen, in acting plays,
mysteries, and moralities, on particular festivals.
* The B.M. (K. 7, e. 7) has a medius part book and the Bodleian a Bassus part book
(Douce B. 24S) of this publication.
28
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
power in procuring recruits, either for his band of music or chapel ;
for so many more volunteers now crowd to the standards of the
Chamberlain of the Household, and Dean of the Chapel Royal,
than can be received, that it is more necessary to press them to
depart, than to enter into the service.
In the time of Henry VIII. when Music was more cultivated in
England than it had ever been before, a similar power was given to
the Deans of cathedrals and collegiate churches for supplying their
several choirs with children possessed of good voices by this
arbitrary and oppressive method. John Tusser, the unfortunate
author of the Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie [1557]
one of the most pleasant and instructive poems of the time, tells
us, that he was impressed from Wallingford college, in Berkshire,
into the King's chapel. Soon after, by the interest of friends, he
was removed to St. Paul's, where he received instructions in Music
from John Redford, an excellent contrapuntist, and organist of
that cathedral. There seems, however, to have been care taken
of the general education of boys so impressed, as we find that
Tusser was sent from St. Paul's to Eton school, and thence to
Cambridge. He afterwards tried his fortune in London about the
Court, under the auspices of his patron Lord Paget, where he
remained ten years ; then he retired into the country, and embraced
the occupation of a farmer, in the several counties of Sussex,
Suffolk, and Essex ; but not prospering, he procured a singing-
man's place in the cathedral of Norwich ; where he does not seem to
have remained long before he returned to London. But being
driven thence by the plague, he retired to Trinity college,
Cambridge ; returning afterwards, however, to the capital, he
there ended his restless life in 1580 ; not, as has been said, very
aged, if he was born about 1523 (i).
Records are still extant to prove that the immediate descendants
of Henry VIII. continued the full exercise of this prerogative of
impressing singers for the chapel royal.
1550. " A commission to Philip Van Wilder, Gent, of the
privy chamber to Edward VI. (k), in any churches or chapels, or
other places within England, to take to the King's use such, and
as many singing children or choristers, as he or his deputy shall
think good (/)."
1551. A warrant was issued to Richard Gowre, master of the
children of the King's chapel, to take up, from time to time, as
many children to serve in the chapel as he should think fit (m).
In the first year, however, of Edward's reign, a privilege which
had been granted by Henry VIII. to Windsor, exempting the
(i) Hist, of Poetry, Vol. III. p. 298, et seq. where is given an ample and interesting
account of Tusser and his writings.
(k) Philippe de Vuildre was a Flemish musician, who settled in England; there is a
pater-noster of his composition, Libro quarto Ecchsiasticarum cantionum, published at
Antwerp, 1554. See the Museum Collection [K. 8. i. 4] 1500?
(I) Dated in February. Strype, Vol. II. p. 539.
(m) lb. June.
29
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
singers of that chapel from being impressed for any other service,
was renewed. Queen Mary confirmed this privilege likewise in the
first year of her reign (n). And among the MSS. of the Ashmolean
Museum (o), at Oxford, a copy of Queen Elizabeth's warrant, of
the same purport, is preserved entire (p), which is so curious, and
different from the present spirit of our government, that I shall
present it to the reader.
" Eliz. R. Whereas our castle of Windsor hath of old been
well furnished with singing men and children. — We willing it
should not be of less reputation in our days, but rather augmented
and encreased — declare, that no singing men or boys shall be taken
out of the said chapel by virtue of any commission, not even for
our Household chapel. And we give power to the bearer of this
to take any singing men or boys from any chapel, our own
Household and St. Paul's only excepted. Given at Westminster, the
8th day of March, in the second year of our reign.
" Elizabeth R."
This Princess, who relinquished no prerogative which had been
exercised by her ancestors, kept in full force during her whole
reign that of issuing placards or writs for impressing singing-boys
for her chapel, as well in the capital as at Windsor. The original
of one of these, signed by herself, being preserved in the Sloane
Collection, British Museum (q), it seems to merit a place here ; as
it will not only manifest the care that was taken to supply the royal
chapel with the best treble voices which could be found throughout
the kingdom, but convey to the reader an idea of the state of our
civil liberty during the sixteenth century.
By the Queen.
" Whereas we have authorised our servaunte Thomas Gyles,
maister of the children of the cathedrall churche of St. Paule, within
our citie of London, to take up suche apte and meete children as are
most fitt to be instructed and framed in the arte and science of
(n) Sloane MSS. Brit. Mus. No. 1124 from Dr. Evans's Collections, A.
(o) lb. No. 1124. Hugget's MSS. Vol. IX.
{p) No. 1113. (9). The original is in the chapter-house, at Windsor.
(q) No. [87].
30
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Musicke and singing, as may be had and founde out within any
place of this our realme of England or Wales, to be by his education
and bringing up made meete and hable to serve us in that behalf,
when our pleasure is to call for them. Wee therefore by the
tenoure of these presents will and require you that ye permitt and
suffer from henceforthe our said servaunte Thomas Gyles, and his
deputie or deputies, and every of them, to take up in anye cathedrall
or collegiate churches, and in every other place or places of this
our realme of England and Wales, suche childe and children as he
or they, or anye of them, shall find and like of, and the same childe
and children, by virtue hereof, for the use and service aforesaid,
with them, or anye of them, to bring awaye without anye your
lette, contradictions, staye, or interruptions to the contrarie.
Charginge and commanding you, and everie of you, to be
aydinge, helpinge, and assistinge unto the above named Thomas
Gyles, and his deputie or deputies, in and aboute the execution
of the premisses, for the more spedie, effectuall, and better
accomplyshing thereof from tyme to tyme, as you, and everie of
you, doe tender our will and pleasure, and will answere for doinge
the contrarie at your perille.
Yeven under our Signet at our Manour of Greenwiche, 26
day of Aprill, in the xxvii yeare of our reign.
To all and singular Deanes, Provostes, Maisters and
Wardens of Collegies, and all Ecclesiastical Persons and
Ministers, and to all other our Officers, Mynisters, and
Subjects, to whome in this case it shall appertayne, and
to everye of them greetinge."
Notwithstanding the attention that was paid to Choral Music by
her Majesty, and the Deans of cathedrals throughout the kingdom,
it was in frequent danger of utter abolition by the fury with which
some of the reformers, actuated by a spirit of change and extirpation
rather than of reformation, attacked every thing that was right,
wrong, or even indifferent, in the ancient service of the church (r).
By the statute of the 27th of Henry VIII. cap. 15, 1536, the
year of the suppression of the monasteries, power was given to the
King to nominate thirty-two persons among the clergy and laity
to examine all canons, constitutions, and ordinances, provincial
and synodical, to compile a body of such ecclesiastical laws as
should in future be observed throughout the realm. Nothing
material, however, was done in this important work during the
life of Henry; but in the next reign it was again taken into
consideration, and a commission granted to eight Bishops, eight of
the inferior clergy, eight civilians, and eight common lawyers, which
(r) One of Latimer's injunctions to the Prior and Convent of St. Mary-house, in Worcester,
s° early as the year 1537, when Bishop of that diocese, runs thus: "Item. Whenever there
shall be any preaching in your monastery, that all manner of singing, and other ceremonies,
be utterly laid aside."— Burnet, P. ii. Collect. Ree, No. 23.
3*
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
constituted the Ecclesiastical Court of Convocation. The result of
their debates was published under the title of Reformatio Legum
Ecclesiastic arum, in 1571, by Fox, the martyrologist; and after-
wards, in 1640, when the fury of religious disputation was at its
height. But as these laws were framed during the violence of
contention between the puritans and Roman catholics, and never
received the royal assent, they have been only had in remembrance
from time to time for polemical purposes.
Reformation was doubtless at this time necessary, and sincerely
wished by the most reasonable and truly pious Christians in the
kingdom; yet the fanaticism with which it was carried on by
others, made the lovers of Choral Music, who had a veneration
for this part of the solemn service of the church, tremble for its
safety during the compilation of these laws (s).
The reasonable complaints made in them against the abuse of
Music, and those subtilties in figurative melody, which were then
termed curious singing, are nearly the same as those of the Council
of Trent, about the same time (t); and seem with equal wisdom
and good taste to be levelled at the pedantry of operose Music and
complicated measures, which not only rendered the words, but the
Music, difficult to be comprehended. And the fears of those who
wished well to our cathedral service were abated, on finding that the
thirty-two commissioners had not wholly condemned Church Music,
but confined their censures to that species of singing which was
productive of confusion, and that rendered unintelligible those
parts of the service which required the greatest reverence and
attention.
In 1565, our ecclesiastical composers, encouraged, probably, by
the reception of the former publication, and favour of the Queen,
printed another collection of offices, with musical notes, under the
following title : ' ' Morning and Evenyng prayer and Communion,
set forthe in four partes to be song in Churches, both for men and
children, wyth dyvers other godly praiers & Anthems, of sundry
meins doynges."
The musicians who contributed to this collection were Thomas
Cawston, Heath, Robert Hasleton, Knight, Johnson, Tallis, Oak-
land and Shepard. In order to gratify the musical reader's
(s) Among the proposals prepared by the puritans for further reformation, 1562, there is
one, "That the Psalms may be sung distinctly by the whole congregation; and that organs
may be laid aside." Neal's Hist. Purit. p. 180 and Strype in Ann. Burnet likewise, P. iii. p. 103,
tells us, that "Organs and curious singing were near being banished the church; their
continuance being carried by only one vote, and that given by the proxy of an absent
member."
(t) Qua propter partite voces et distincte pronuntient, el cantus sit illorum clarus et
aptus, ut ad auditorum omnia sensum, et intelligentiam proveniant; itaque vibratam illam, et
operosam musicam, qua jigurata dicitur, auferri placeat, quce sic in multitudinis auribus
tutnultuatur, ut sape linguam non possit ipsam loquentem intelligere. Reform. Leg.
Eccles. Tit. Divinis Officiis, cap. v.
The Council of Trent, 1562. made a decree against curious singing, prohibiting, among
other things, L'uso delle Musiche nelle chiese con mistura di canto, 0 suono lascivo, tutte le
attioni secolari, colloquie projani, strepiti, gridori. — Hist, del Concil. Trid.
32
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
curiosity, I shall select from this publication the following com-
position by the admirable Tallis, as one of the most early to which
I have seen his name prefixed in print.
A Prayer.
This Contra Tenor
is for Children
This Meane is
for Children
This Tenor is for Men
This Base is for
Children
8
gH
|j I 1
vg/me tv
m
m g'
HEAne -
j^jjg
topeh TK/tfiaf
pip p
ne Vuyes. md
6 ? a
OF THf S&t
E
Thos. Talys.
3S=
*=F
P/r#y&? o" Thy
riJ^ 1
«» Q
//fiM» 7V)H
p^Ts P I g^
^=
F? E If r E j
^^
«B<
SSRmMTSOF
Thy £b?t -v/tvrrTS
Dmr TUey im <te BSFoK nee
i gg a
pVd p
^±
?^
g^g-F
i
*b», re . ere
THffr Th£% er :.
a^ — ri^r^
*M=^
^
^^
T*/ $sfivfii>*r$
th»? Tkey r»AH£ --■
US?
#=0=
^
^
i=3
*>» voyeab fwty&i of thy sea - imins or rny > &*-- v/t*>v$ ' Ttotrfey, ere
OFttHKM
Vol. u. 3.
33
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
i
?^p
OOP
IS
m
is m »h
4+
r r r
-=o=
lwi«!S^w/ti««S
ruexe
%
■MBXkyM
~Se£E
^VJ?^
^
FF
^
I
meff-ey <?,
Them ~%tf
ThemTb WE*
^
Jet j-
^
¥=£
itgfr-
//£/8*J;r -i.
/»/«> NH£'Ti# I
3
r85-?^
3=£
£
3?
-ton-
^ c
by/fQme
THSftty
w& nr<eii
e^
P^
as
js^j
^
£=:
o o «>
.
I
HHaitTHMHEflB
O/ Of>
Tnem & wesd Wta Haadyr *>&•*£.
vp. -o* 7~t4f/n
S
B
^
tsccc
^"r-r
qfoo^aptt
ts
7//01/ HSAfi'sT
hm> mb*
men--
ey- M -
TtfLM
B
p pg
^
&
+±
d=t
x=x
>if©r
tf/V 71* '/n
fi/ub *»m -r
?)/£>» A*a •
msA-cy
3
io.;
f—t-
Efe
d i o
±X
g-iSSF
f • J f r
af
aiSCr
/?/va /Wfit'
7ȣn
Imprinted at London by John Day dwellyng over Aldersgate,
beneath Saynte Martynes. Cum gratia & privilegio Regise
Majestatis.
The Bookes are to be solde at hys shop under the gate, 1565.
The two publications by John Day, fixed for near a century the
style of our Choral Music; of which the movement was grave, the
harmony grateful, and the contrivance frequently ingenious.
Yet, besides the censures of the puritans, modern times have often
charged this kind of Music with obscuring the sense of what was
sung, by too frequent fugue, as well as by an utter inattention to the
accent and expression of the words. These imperfections, however,
were not peculiar to the productions of our countrymen during
the sixteenth century, but were general in the compositions for the
church of every author, in every language, throughout Europe.
In 1570, Cartwright, one of the most violent and intolerant
reformers, attacked Cathedral Music; and afterwards Field and
Wilcox, two puritan ministers, and Brown. Against these the
pious, learned, and excellent Hooker, then Master of the Temple,
undertook its defence (x).*
In 1571, in the confession of the puritans, they say, " Concern-
ing singing of Psalms, we allow of the people's joining with one
(w) Transcribed from a printed copy in the possession of the Revd. Dr.
Queen's College, Oxford, and corrected from several typographical errors.
Monkhouse,
(x) See his Eccles.
Music.
Politie, book v. sect. 38 and 39. Eulogium and defence of Church
* The first four books of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity were not published until 1593 or 4,
although completed by 1592. The fifth book, which contains the defence of Church music was
not completed until 1597.
34
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
voice in a plain tune, but not of tossing the Psalms from one side
to the other, with intermingling of organs (y). And in 1586,
at the time that the puritans were framing innumerable bills of
further reformation in the church, a pamphlet was dispersed, in
spite of all the restrictions at that time laid on the press, entitled
" A Request of all true Christians to the House of Parliament;"
which, among other things, prays, " That all cathedral churches
may be put down, where the service of God is grievously abused
by piping with organs, singing, ringing and trowling of Psalms
from one side of the choir to another, with the squeaking of
chanting choristers, disguised (as are all the rest) in white surplices;
some in corner caps and silly copes, imitating the fashion and
manner of Antichrist the Pope, that man of sin, and child of
perdition, with his other rabble of miscreants and shavelings {£)."
All this fanatical cant was greatly discountenanced by the
Queen, though it was wholly out of her power, extensive as it was,
to suppress the levelling principles of these enemies to all elegance
and comfort; whom nothing less than the utter subversion of
Church and State, which they effected in the next century, would
satisfy.
Having shewn the manner in which Figurative Music was
established in our cathedrals, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
it now remains to trace the origin and progress of Metrical or
Parochial Psalmody, different from the plain-song, or chanting,
of cathedrals and collegiate churches.
Singing of this kind, among the reformers and schismatics,
seems in all ages to have been the favourite mode of addressing
the Divinity: for not only the Arians practised it in their
processions (a), but the Albigenses, who may be called the first
protestant martyrs (b); and who, according to ecclesiastical writers,
when Simon Montford, their persecutor, in 1210, had lighted a pile
of wood for their destruction, precipitated themselves in the
flames, to the number of a hundred and forty, singing Psalms (c).
The disciples of Wickliff, in England, during the fourteenth
century, and those of John Huss and Jerom of Prague, in the
(y) Neal, p. 290. (z) lb. p. 480. (a) See Book II, p. 413.
(6) The term Protestant, however, did not subsist till the year 1529, when it was given
to such as adhere to the doctrines of Luther; because the chiefs of his party protested
against the decree of the Diet of Spire, made the same year by Ferdinand, Archduke of
Austria, and other catholic Princes.
(c) The sect of Waldenses had its rise in the twelfth century; its errors were first
condemned in the Council of Thoulouse, 1119. Can. 2. Again in the Council of Lateran,
1139. And in the Council of Tours, 1163. And the end of this century the disciples of Peter
Valdo. called Vaudois, Waldenses, and the poor of Lyons, joined these heretics. _ And all the
several sects were called by the general name of Albigeois, from the city of Albi, where they
were established. The first crusade against the Albigenses was published 1210. The inquisition
for extirpating the whole sect was established at Thoulouse, 1229. And in 1233, they seem to
have been totally destroyed, except a few that had escaped, and joined the Waldenses in the
Valleys of Piedmont, France, and Savoy. There they persevered in their opinions till the time
of Zwingle, to whom they sent deputies, desiring him to become their chief. Zwingle, who
was a Swiss by nation, born 1487, perished by the sword, while he was fighting valiantly at
the head of his sect, 1531, in support of his religious opinions.
35
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
fifteenth, were Psalm-singers; and the Hymn Book of the Picards,
and Bohemian brethren, printed with musical notes, at Ulm, 1538,
shews, that the melodies used by these sects originated from the
chants to which the ancient Latin hymns of the Romish church
were sung (d). For in this book there are translations and
imitations in German metre of most of the hymns and proses still
used in the Romish church: such as the Stabat Mater dolorosa,
Te Deum laudamus; O lux beata Trinitas; Pange lingua gloriosi,
&c. Some of these melodies indeed are in triple time, which never
is the case in canto fermo, or cathedral psalmody (e). But Stabat
Mater, and 0 lux, in this book, are set to old Romish chants, and
Te Deum to the same that is inserted in the preface of Meibomius
to the ancient Greek musical writers, as the most ancient melody
which the church has preserved (/).
Among the first reformers who interested themselves about the
manner of performing the Psalms, we have not only Wickliff , Huss,
Jerom of Prague, and Zwingle, but Luther, Cranmer, Calvin,
Beza, Buchanan, and John Knox ; who, though each of them had
different ideas on the subject of Sacred Music, yet they agreed in
stripping it of all the energy and embellishments of measure and
melody, as indeed the Calvinists did likewise of harmony. Nor
were the original institutes of psalmody more favourable to Poetry
than Music ; for by giving to each syllable, whether long or short,
a note of the same length, all prosody, rhythm, and numerical
cadence, are destroyed. And however beautiful the poetical
measures may be to read, when sung in this drawling and
isochronous manner, they not only afford the ear no pleasure, but
become unintelligible.
The bold and intrepid reformer, Luther, was the first who
shook the Papal Throne, and had sufficient abilities and address to
gain proselytes to his doctrines among the Princes of his country,
as well as the people. No religion is ever firmly established till
embraced by the Sovereign, and supported by government. The
Christians were not only oppressed and persecuted for more than
three centuries, but regarded with horror, till the conversion of
Constantine. Luckily for Luther, preaching against the sale of
indulgencies, Peter-pence, celibacy, monasteries, and papal
tyranny in general, coincided with the interest of the Nobles, and
power of the Prince. His opinions, therefore, in spite of imperial
authority, catholic zeal, and persecution, were adopted with greater
(d) Ein hubsch new Gesang buch, &c, or, a fine new Hymn Book, " containing the
Usage of the Church, and the Hymns belonging to the country of Fulneck, in the kingdom of
Bohemia, and by the Christian brotherhood of the sect called Picards, who have hitherto been
reckoned heretics, and anathematized as unworthy of salvation. By these the following
Hymns are sung, to the honour and glory of God." I was favoured with this scarce and
curious book by my honoured friend, Mr. Emanuel Bach, at Hamburgh, from the collection oi
nis father, the celebrated Sebastian Bach.
(e) See fol. ix. xiii. xxviii. &c. of this Hymn Book.
(/) See Book II. of this Hist. p. 767, et seq.
36
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
rapidity in the northern parts of the world, than those of Mahomet
had been in the south (g).
With respect to Music, Luther, being himself a judge and lover
of the art, was so far from banishing it from the church, that he
rather augmented the occasions for its use (h). Indeed Luther
must have had an insatiable passion for Poetry, or at least for
rhyme, and Music ; as, besides translating, himself, most of the
ancient ecclesiastical hymns, the creed, Lord's prayer, and many
other parts of his Liturgy, into German verse, in order
to be sung, he wrote his catechism in verse, which was set to
Music, in four parts, by Henry of Gottingen ; and even the
confession of Augsburg was done into verse, and likewise set to
Music (t).
It appears that the ancient ecclesiastical tones still regulated the
Music of the Lutheran church at the time of the reformation ; and
most of the old melodies to the evangelical hymns are composed in
some of them (k). The Cantaten, or anthems and services of
this reformed church, in the German language, are, however, as
elaborate and florid as the motets to Latin words, used in Italy
during the celebration of the mass. But in the Hymnologia, and
metrical psalmody of this, as well as all other protestant churches,
there seems to have been one common principle, totally inimical to
Poetry, which is that of destroying all quantity, and distinction of
syllables, by making them all of the same length (I). The modern
(g) Luther began to preach against indigencies 1517. In 1520, he and his doctrines were
anathematised by Leo X., after which he published his Captivity of Babylon. In 1521, his
writings were burnt at Rome, and the Pope's bulls and decretals at Wittemberg. In the same
year he pleaded before the Imperial Diet, at Worms, contrary to the advice of his friends,
who told him, that he would share the same fate as John Huss and Jerom of Prague, who
were both burned for heresy; when he protested, that "if he were certain there were as many
devils at Worms, as tiles on the houses, he would still go thither." (Havne's Life, p. 34). The
same year he procured the abolition of the ancient mass at Wittemberg. In 1523,
Lutheranism was established in Denmark and Sweden; and in 1525, in Saxony, Brunswic,
Hesse, Strasburg, and Francfort. In 1530, the Confession of Augsburg was presented; and
before his death, which happened in 1546, his doctrines were received in almost every part
of the German empire, except Austria and Bavaria.
(h) Henry VIII. who began, and his children who finished the reformation of religion
in England, being likewise delighted with Music, and able to distinguish harmony and melody
from noise and jargon, took care to support its dignity in the service of our cathedrals; which
has not been the case with the founders of other protestant sects.
(?) In Luther's epistle to Senfelius, of Zurich, the musician, and scholar of Henry Isaac,
he places Music above all arts and sciences, except theology, as that and religion are alone
able to sooth and calm the mind. In the same epistle Luther says, "We know that Music is
intolerable to dasmons." Scimus Musicam dcemonibus etiam invisam & intolerabilem esse; and
therefore thus concludes: "I verily think and am not ashamed to say, that, next to divinity,
no art is comparable to Music." Plani judico, nee pudet asserere, post theologiam esse nullam
artem, qua possit Musicce aequari.
{k) It was by degrees that the Latin language gave place to the German in the Lutheran
Liturgy. Concerning the Lord's Supper he says, (To. II. Ep. p. 72), "I wish the mass might
be used in the mother tongue, rather than promise it, as it is not in my power, being a matter
requiring both Music and Spirit." He first celebrated the mass in the German language,
1525, as he himself says (To. II. Ep. p. 301). "This day we attend the Prince's command,
the next Lord's Day we will publickly sing in the name of Christ; and mass shall be in the
mother tongue for the lay people. But the daily service shall be in Latin, however we will
have the lessons in the vulgar tongue." Yet the Psalms, and ancient chants of the Romish
church, were still long retained in the Lutheran service, as appears by a book with the
following title : Psalmodia, hoc est cantica sacra veteris ecclesitz selecta, per Lucam Lossium
collecta, cum prcefatione Phillippi Melancthonis. WittebergcB, 1561. No German Liturgy,
Agenda, or Kirchenordnung, for this sect, appears to have been printed during the life of
Luther. The most ancient I can find in Draudius is the Agendbuchlein der Kirchen, zu Basil
& Mulhausen, 1565. Becken printed at Leipsic, 1621, the Psaltry of David, in the German
language, with the melodies used in the Lutheran church.
(/) These equal syllables alone admire,
Though oft the ears the open vowels tire. — Pope's Essay on Criticism, v. 344.
37
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Methodists, indeed, have introduced a light and ballad-like kind of
melody into their tabernacles, which seems as much wanting in
reverence and dignity, as the psalmody of other sects in poetry and
good taste.
Music, in itself an innocent art, is so far from corrupting the
mind, that, with its grave and decorous strains, it can calm the
passions, and render the heart more fit for spiritual and pious
purposes ; particularly when united with language, and the
precepts of religion. It has already been said (m), that " Music,
considered abstractedly, is in itself a language ; " and we may add,
that it is more universally understood by mankind in general, whose
nerves vibrate in unison with its selected tones, than any other
language among all the dialects of the earth. That articulation
must be rough and violent indeed, which, without singing, can
easily be comprehended in buildings so vast as some of the Christian
churches ; in such it is the spirit, not the letter of supplication or
thanksgiving which must employ the mind (n). St. Paul says,
' ' I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding
also (o)." And in this sense, even Instrumental Music, without
words, if composed with propriety, and performed with reverence,
seems worthy of a share in sacred rites. As there never was a
national religion without Music of some kind or other, the dispute
concerning that which is most fit for such solemnities, is reduced to
one short question : If Music be admitted into the service of the
church, is that species of it which the most polished part of mankind
regard as good, or that which they regard as bad, the most
deserving of such an honour?
That Metrical Psalmody, in slow notes of equal length, had its
origin in Germany, and was brought thence by reformers to other
parts of Europe, is demonstrable : for the 128th Fsalm, Beati omnes
qui timent Dominum, had been translated into German verse, in
order to be sung in this manner, by John Huss, in the beginning
of the fifteenth century ; which translation was afterwards
modernized in the same measure, and to the same tune, by Luther
(p). And the same melody which we sing to the 100th Psalm, is
not only given to the 134th, in all the Lutheran Psalm-books, but
by Goudimel and Claude Le Jeune, in those of the Calvinists ;
which nearly amounts to a proof that this favourite melody was not
produced in England. It is said to have been the opinion of
Handel, that Luther himself was its author ; but of this I have been
able to procure no authentic proof. Tradition, however, gives to
{m) See Book II. p. 527.
(«) Indeed speech itself, when very loud and slow, becomes singing : that is, each
syllable is rendered a musical tone, which may be fixed, and its unison found in a musical
instrument of the same pitch. As may be proved in calling very loud to any one at a
distance.
(o) 1 Cor. ch. xiv. ver. 15.
{p) John Huss was likewise the author of the German Easter Hymn, Jesus Christus unser
heyland, &c, which was also modernised and re-published by Luther, 1525, and from which
the modern Methodists have taken the Easter Hymn, "Jesus Christ is risen to-day," &c. Luther
has Kyrie eleison for the burden of his hymn, instead of Hallelujah.
38
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
this celebrated Heresiarch, as he is called by the Roman catholics,
several of the ancient melodies which are still used in Germany:
particularly the following psalm and hymn tunes, that are preserved
in the Choral and Gesang Biichern, and still sung in all the Lutheran
churches (q).
PSALM CXXVIII.
First translated into German by John Huss, and afterwards
modernised and set to Music by Martin Luther.
SEELIG 1ST DER GEPREISER, &c.
A 6 4- i
m
^w
p o
IS—Qr-
^m
— 5s5
ths. mulcts
BLGsrrtwr Fem s u>KO,Nonom.y
v/oksmp rttya,
"But nasPS his
{2!$o#foftf | j lA^Q-J-jo
STEPS Con/f/Ktb
WITH
-^h
"O:
fe
^^^
H!
5p
xt
■o
CRR^ToHisrg^ .-pont-reo yrNj he. sholx ue -on rye s*z£rT£-7w#s op
HIS OW/V LflBOOH
3=3=
^r*4^
^^5
fe£
%
6 *
46 6 *
f^
=F
=^£
1=-
"Or
*/* wiSH-es
FEED) tVlTH-tUrBEPStlDffr&a UVS.i>3SB
All SilC-CZeD.
2HE
S
^3C
-©-
=Sc
6 6
4^ #
(q) The 30th Psalm was the first which Luther versified; then the 12th, 46th, 14th, 53d,
67th, 124th, and 128th, which last Huss had done before, and it was only modernised by
Luther. The following are the titles of the three first Psalm and Spiritual Song books which
he published at Wittenberg:
I. ENCHIRIDION, or Etlich Christlich lieder, und Psalm, &c, 1524.
II. Etliche Christliche Gesenge und Psalmen, with a preface by Luther, 1525.
III. Geystliche Gesenge. — "Spiritual Songs, which ■ (blessed by God) are sung in the
Church, taken from the sacred writings of the true and holy Evangelists." Wittemberg, 1525.
with the same preface as that to the preceding publication. To this he prefixes his name.*
It has been erroneously imagined by Sir John Hawkins, Vol. III. p. 447, and Mr.
Warton, Vol. III. p. 165, that no Psalms or Hymns in the vulgar tongue were used in the
church, or printed in Luther's time, and that Clement Marot's Psalms were the first of the
kind with which France and Germany were instantly infatuated : For, besides the numerous
Hymns and Metrical Psalms of Luther and his friends, there was a complete translation of
the Psalms published at Augsburg, in German verse, 1523, by John Boschenstein, under the
title Psalter des Koniglichen Propheten Dauids geteutscht, &c. "The Psalter ot the Royal
Prophet David, Germanized." &c. Kurtzgefassete Historie der Hymnop, p. 20.
It does not appear in the Life or Letters of Luther and Calvin, that these reformers had
ever conferred or corresponded together; and yet Mr. Warton, Vol. III. p. 164, says, that
it was by the "advice of Luther," that Calvin established his Psalmody, with which both
Germany and France were soon over-run. Germany was certainly furnished with innumerable
Psalmodists and Hymnologists long before Calvin, who was born 1509, became the head of a
sect. He was but thirty-six when Luther died.
* The earliest Protestant hymnbook was Walther's Etlich christlich lieder _ (the
" Achtliederbuch") published in 1524 (B.M. 1220, f. 26). The Enchiridion was published in the
same year. 1524 also saw the publication of Walther's Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn with a
preface by Luther. This book contained 35 tunes for 32 hymns, of which 24 were by Luther.
In 1529 Klug published for Luther the Geistliche Lieder. No copy of this edition is known, but
from an edition of 1535 it is gathered that Luther was responsible for 29 of the 50 German
hymns of the collection. All of Luther's hymns were issued in a collection published by
Bapst at Leipzig in 1545 (B.M. 3437, e. 51). This was the last hymnbook to be published for
Luther.
39
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Original Melody to the Easter Hymn, as sung by the Followers of
John Huss and Martin Luther ; from Miiller's " Psalmen und
Choral-Buch," printed at Franckfort on the Mayne, 1754.
J Tesuscwan
m
^
±£AU-
^
f 6 o
TESVS CWIISTI 5 VNSSR JiEl—
Lnno d£r
Ssnrov uber-
WHHB
1ST
f)UF- £S3T»N-
J.
m
S
te
I Q &-
O-
©:
J^E
-6-^-^
JC
-tseh die
SuND HftT G.E
■ran-aen *Y-
tii—e e-Le-r-
5§
¥
E
^
m
*3jt
Hymn written, set to Music, and sung by Luther, at his Entrance
into Worms, whither he was summoned to plead before the
Emperor, 1521.*
<?»
X-Qi
*
gg
SLxUUL
^^^
•v/V ' va-sre burs ist M-sen sott. sin
<■# \MH-rrun3 FBey/us fn--r*.f> not*, bis
M^
tF
aur-TS wstvi two
v&r j-jfj.
^
pE$g
^^
=fr
6 4 d A
o - o
^^
3*
i- Sg. FElNDJflltT ERNST ERsTenr rnSMT, CM HHCHruiiO vet.
CRnuSatn T7US7VIVG
piipj.,uvP9 1^^
^
r;»
S-d-4-^
*>.•;
Efftfl* 1ST IWCH T\
rrrr^ r !j=^^
Hymn. — ^J^s z&>oZ/ wws GoZZ genddig seyn, &c.
is
T'.p >LP f
~y-gr
f=f=?=g
Efc£
wou'uKGorr £e-\- d/A -via sey^, uno
wgr'-irz uns fiur\ HELiem schbin, er
SEI--NEM se-aera
tavcHrSr x.vm en/-c& '
SSIN
GE-..-. STBErj.
I JSfiSS
*3
g
=g=oE
E£
s3
-*— t-
f ' d d &
:f-f-fi:
-gH-j-d
^^
i*^
(Mi? CT- kEH-MEH
H/» /MM LlEBT fluF
ER- — SEH l"*D
fEsue CHmsrve,
i=£
^-y4^
SE
E^E^
E£
**
-r— h
*$
f-^Ui
m
-a-
E£
j3:
-<3-
s
//f/t uHn$rht<2.i-iff>#*ri>E<*Hei-T>EiiWEZVeN, uno
Sib xu e,asr §e
■ KSH—TlEri.
E^Sg
roa
^^^
r^^
^E^^
ir=h
* The first appearance of this hymn was probably in the lost Geistliche Lieder of 1529, but
was probably composed about 1527.
40
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
If Metrical Psalmody can ever be tolerated and defended, it must
be in favour of such venerable melodies as these ; which, when
cloathed in good harmony, have a solemnity of effect, that totally
precludes every idea of secular Music.
When Luther published Psalms in the German tongue, and
introduced them into the church, he wrote to Spalatinus, 1524 (r),
informing him, that he intended, according to the example of the
prophets and ancient fathers of the church, to make Psalms or
spiritual songs for the common people, that the Word of God might
continue among them in Psalms, if not otherwise. " We seek for
poets," says he, " where we may. — I cannot perform the work so
neatly as I would, and therefore desire you to try how near you
can come to Heman, Asaph, or Jeduthun (s)."
What he says concerning ceremonies is liberal: " I condemn
no ceremonies but those which are contrary to the Gospel (t)."
And when he speaks of human learning, his sentiments must be
allowed to be still more enlarged: " I am persuaded," says he (u),
" that Theology could not be kept wholly sincere without the skill
of other arts. For formerly, when the knowledge of other learning
was decayed or despised, Theology fell to the ground, and remained
in a miserable state. Nay, I perceive that the revelation of God's
Word would never have become so glorious unless the arts and
languages had been sufficiently cultivated, to prepare the way for
divinity, as John the Baptist did for Christ. — I think they are
extremely mistaken who imagine the knowledge of philosophy and
nature to be of no use to religion."
Not so the gloomy, stern, and inflexible Calvin [1509-64];
whose doctrine was so rigid and comfortless, that he seems to have
shut up local monasteries, merely to make Carthusians of all
mankind. The Reformation, indeed, had been established at
Geneva in 1535, a year before the arrival of Calvin in that city;
that is, the Bishop was deposed, and the opinions of Zwingle or
Luther were generally received. But these innovations would not
satisfy the new reformer, who, on his return, determined not only
to strip the church of all its ancient rites and ceremonies, but the
inhabitants of all religious liberty. For in establishing a form of
ecclesiastical discipline and jurisdiction, he ordered disobedience to
be punished with censures, pains, excommunication, and even
death, in the case of Servetus; to which, though it bred much
disturbance in the city, and offended many, as worse than Papal
tyranny, he firmly adhered (x).
When Calvin first arrived at Geneva, 1536, the inhabitants,
unsettled in their belief, and agitated like chaff in a whirl- wind by
(/) Op. omnia, torn II. Ep. p. 230.
(s) See his Life, by Hayne, p. 127.
(t) Tom. II. Epist. 371.
(m) lb. p. 307. Luther's works were published at Wittemberg in Latin and German, in
nineteen volumes, large folio, and at Jena in twelve. See Draudius Bibl. Class Libror. Germ.
p. 207.
U) Bayle, in Art.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
difference of opinion (y), agreed in nothing but the determination
to get rid of popery. The reformer, during this contentious disposi-
tion, refusing to administer the sacraments, was ordered to depart,
and did not return till 1541.
The only amusement which Calvin seems ever to have allowed
his followers was Psalmody, and that of the most unmeaning and
monotonous kind; without harmony, variety of accent, rhythm,
and most of the constituent parts of mere melody. Not a musical
instrument was suffered within the walls of Geneva for more than
a hundred years after the Reformation; and all Music, except this
Metrical Psalmody, was proscribed wherever the doctrines of this
reformer were received. The inhabitants of Iceland, so celebrated
for the Poetry and Music of the Scalds, whose souls, in spite of
the rigour of the climate, seemed to glow with as great a love for
those arts as the bards of ancient Greece, were eternally silenced
and glaces by the comfortless religion of Calvin (z)*
The Metrical Psalmody which John Huss, the Bohemian
brethren, and Martin Luther, published in the German language
for the use of the common people, was soon imitated in other
countries. The celebrated poet, Clement Marot, in France, having,
about the year 1540 [1539], versified and dedicated to Francis I.
about thirty of the Psalms, from a prose translation by the famous
Hebrew Professor Vatable, they soon acquired such favour at
Court, as to be sung, in spite of the censures of the Sorbonne, by
the King, Queen, and chief personages of the kingdom, to the tunes
(y) Which di qua, di la, di qui, di su, gli mena. Dante Inf. V. 44.
(z) The learned seem to agree, that the Scalds of this country were the first cultivators
of Poetry and Music among the moderns; nof can a better reason, perhaps, be assigned, why
these arts, which were formerly in such high estimation among the people of this bleak and
rugged region, should be totally discountenanced and banished at present, than that of their
having been regarded with horror by the puritanical disciples of Calvin; who have thus
deprived the more than half-starved inhabitants of an innocent amusement, which might have
helped at least to alleviate wretchedness, and make their existence somewhat less like that of
the sinners with Count Ugolino, in Dante's infernal ice-house :
Eran Vonihre doTenti nella ghiaccia,
Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna.
Ognuna in giu tenea colta la faccia :
Da bocca il freddo, e dagli occhi'l cuor tristo
Tra lor testimonianza si -procaccia.
Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, when they visited this island in 1773, brought thence
a very ancient musical instrument, of a narrow and long form, which used to be played on
with a bow: and of which they did me honour to make me a present. It is called by the
natives the Long-Spiel, and has four strings oT_copper, one of which is used as a drone.
Pieces of wood are placed at different distances upon the finger-board to serve as frets.
Though this individual instrument has the appearance of great antiquity, yet, _ rude and
clumsy as it is, there can be no doubt but that it was still more imperfect in its first
invention. For to have placed these frets, implies some small degree of meditation, experience,
and a scale; and as to the bow, that wonderful engine! which the ancients, with all theii
diligence and musical refinements, had never been able to discover, it seems, from this
instrument, to have been known in Iceland at least as early as in any other part of Europe.
Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, when they found the Long-Spiel on the island, had very
great difficulty in discovering a person among the inhabitants who either could, or would,
dare to play on it. At length a wicked Icelander was found, who being rendered more
courageous and liberal than the rest by a few glasses of generous gin, ventured, in secret, to
exhilarate these philosophers — with a Psalm-tune.
* Iceland adopted the Lutheran and not the Calvinistic form of the Reformation. Far
from killing the spirit of poetry in Iceland the Reformation revived what had almost become a
lost art. The great period of Icelandic literature finished shortly after the 13th cent., and
according to Chamber's Cyclopadia (1925 ed.) the 15th century is "almost blank as far as
literary activity is concerned." P. A. Scholes (The Puritans and Music, p. 333) : "Thus it will
be seen that at the very moment when, as Burney alleges, literature was killed, it, in fact, took
on a new life."
42
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
of the most favourite songs of the times (a). Marot, who had long
been suspected by the catholics of heresy, and once thrown into
prison for his religious opinions, fearing new persecution, flew to
Geneva, where he put into French verse twenty more of the Psalms.
These, with the thirty that had been published at Paris, were
printed at Geneva in 1543, with a preface by Calvin himself, but
without Music. Marot dying the next year, Theodore Beza versified
the rest of the Psalms in the same manner, and the whole hundred
and fifty were published at Strasburg, in 1545.* Bayle (b) says,
that during the whole sixteenth century there was no French poetry
that approached the salt and natural grace of that with which
Marot furnished it. And Menage says (c), that the French owe
the Rondeau, the Madrigal, and modern form of the Sonnet, to this
poet, who first confined himself to the mixture of masculine and
feminine rhymes, though he did not always strictly adhere to their
alternate use, as a law. The sale of his fifty Psalms was so rapid,
that they could not be printed fast enough to supply the public
demand for them; more than ten thousand copies having been sold
in a very short time. When those of Beza were added to them,
their favour still continued, and they were sung not only by the
Lutherans and Calvinists, but the Roman catholics. As yet,
indeed, they had never been used in the conventicles of the
sectarists, but in private, merely as moral and spiritual songs, to
secular tunes, such as were easy to learn, and play on viols, and
other instruments.
It was not till the year 1553, when these Psalms appeared in
the same book as the Catechism of Calvin, and the Genevan
Liturgy, that the catholics took the alarm, and prohibited the
further publication and use of them. After which, to sing a Psalm
in France was a declaration of heretical principles, and Psalmodist
became another name for Reformer, Huguenot, and Calvinist (d).
Indeed, the purposes to which this lamentable Music was often
applied, during the struggles and growth of Calvinism, seems to
have been worse than the Music itself, as, according to writers of
(a) Florimond de Remond. Hist, de la Naissance et Progres de I'Heresie
(6) Diet, in Art.
(c) Obs. stir les Poesies de Malherbe, p. 402.
(d) Flor. de Remond, ubi supra. Des Maizeaux says, that the French protestants had
other Metrical Psalms in their church-service before those of Clement Marot and Theodore
Beza, but neither he nor Bayle seems to know that these were mere translations of the
German Psalms and Hymns, by Huss, Luther, and others; as appears by the fragments given
in Bayle's Dictionary, article, Marot. These were probably sung to the same tunes at Zurich
and Geneva as in Germany.
* Whilst in exile at Strassbourg, Calvin compiled (about 1539) a Psalter with music, which
contained 18 psalms. Marot was responsible, for 12 of these translations, which differ slightly
from the edition compiled in 1542. Marot had translated 30 psalms by 1539, and there was an
edition of these from Antwerp in 1541.
In 1542 a Psalter with music was published at Strassbourg, which is said to have been
printed at Rome by command of the Pope, and is therefore known as the pseudo-Roman
psalter. It contains the 30 psalms translated by Marot and a Pater noster. The collection
known as the Cinguante Pseaumes, containing 49 Psalms and the Song of Simeon, was
published with music at Geneva in 1543-
For Beza's share in the completion of the Psalter, see editor's note, p. 44.
43
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the opposite party, it was made the signal of tumult, sedition,
sacrilege, and rebellion (e).
After this account of the poetry and use of Marot's Psalms,
previous to their reception into the church, it seems necessary to
speak of the Music to which they were first set for that purpose. It
has been long generally imagined, that Louis Bourgeois and Claude
Goudimel were the first who composed the melodies to which these
Psalms were sung in the church of Geneva ;* but this is no otherwise
true, than that they set different parts to them : and Bayle says (/),
" I am surprised that De Pours, in his Divine Melodie du Saint
Psalmiste, makes no mention of him who first composed the
common tunes to the Psalms of Clement Marot, that are used in
the church of Geneva ; for they have never been sung there in
different parts. A professor in the university of Lausanne,"
continues he, " has informed me, that a certificate under Beza's
own hand, in the name of the ecclesiastical society, still subsists, for
(e) Maimburg {Hist, du Calvinisme, liv. ii. p. 96) says, that after the French had lost
the battle of St. Quintin, 1557, the Huguenots taking advantage of this public calamity, held
their assemblies in open daylight in the most public streets of Paris, where they met in great
bodies, to roar out the Psalms of Clement Marot.
Mezerai (Hist, de France, Tom. II. p. 1139, Fol.) says, that the protestants rejoiced so
much at the death of Henry II. in 1559, that they composed Hymns, Songs, and Thanksgivings
to God, on the occasion.
And Strada (De Bello Belgico, lib. iii.) gives several instances of the seditious use of
Psalmody in the Low Countries a few years after the publication of Marot's version. About
the year 1562, he says, that two French Calvinist preachers, in the night, the one at
Valenciennes, and the other at Tournay, assembled a great croud in the market-place, to
whom they recommended their new Gospel, in a long fanatical discourse; and when they had
done, they were followed through the streets by the multitude singing David's Psalms in
French. In another part of his work (lib. v.) he says, that on the 21st of August, 1566, the
heretics came into the great church at Antwerp with weapons concealed under their cloaths,
as if they were resolved, after the slight skirmishes which had happened for some days past,
to come to a battle; and waiting till vespers were over, they shouted with a hideous cry of
"Long live the Ghetises," a name which they had taken at a drunken bout, to distinguish
their faction by. Nay, they commanded the image of the Blessed Virgin to repeat their
acclamation, in which, if she refused to comply, they madly swore they would beat and kill
her. And though John Immersellius, the praetor of the town, with some aparitors, ordered
them to keep the peace, they would not listen to him; and well-meaning people running away
to get out of the tumult, the heretics shut the doors after them, and like conquerors possessed
themselves of the church; where finding no resistance, when the clock struck the last hour
of the day, and the darkness increased their confidence, one of them, in order to give
formality to their wickedness, began to sing a Geneva Psalm. And then, as if a trumpet had
sounded a charge, the spirit moving them all together, they fell upon the effigies of the
mother of our Saviour, and upon Christ himself, and his Apostles; some tumbled them down,
and trampled on them; others thrust swords into their sides, or chopped off their heads with
axes; broke the picture frames, defaced the painted walls, demolished the organs and
ancient painted windows, threw down the statues from their niches and pedestals, and
committed every possible violence, outrage, and impiety, even to the greasing their shoes with
the chrisme or holy oil, and getting drunk with th.e consecrated wine, which they found in
the vestry prepared for the altar.
(/) Art. Marot.
* There has been much controversy as to the composers who were responsible for the
melodies of the Geneva Psalter. It has been variously attributed to Bourgeois, Goudimel, Le
Jeune, Franc, and others. It does not appear likely that either Le Jeune or Goudimel could
have participated in this production as neither of these composers ever visited Geneva, nor as
far as is known, had they any direct intercourse with Calvin. Again, the 1st edition of the
Psalter was issued in 1542, when Le Jeune was about 12 years' old, and he was only about 21
when Marot's complete work was published. Goudimel was still a member of the Roman
Catholic Church in 1557 when most of the Genevan Psalter had been published.
By the end of 1542 Marot had translated 49 Psalms and the Song of Simeon. After
Marot's death in 1544, no further psalms were published until 1551, when Beza supplied
another 34 translations. Seven more were added in 1554 and the work completed in 1562.
The musical side of the Psalter was put into the hands of Bourgeois and a notice in the
Archives of Geneva (28th July, 1552) puts on record that he had set Beza's translations to
music in 1551 and was responsible for the arrangement of the music of the earlier editions. It
is not likely that Bourgeois had any connection with the Genevan Psalter after 1557 as he
left the city in that year.
The responsibility for the 40 tunes added in 1562 has not been ascertained with any
degree of certainty.
44
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Guillaume Franc, dated 1552, declaring him to have been the
first who set Music to the translation of the Psalms, as they are sung
in churches."* He is likewise acknowledged to be the author
of that Music in a Geneva edition of 1584 : so that though Louis
Bourgeois set eighty-three Psalms to Music in four, five, and six
parts, which were printed at Lyons, 1561;** and Goudimel set the
whole psalter of Marot, in four parts, which was printed at Paris,
1565 [1st ed. 1564] by Adrian Le Roy and Robert Ballard ; yet,
as the Psalms are there said to be set en forme de mottets, or
Anthems, they seem to have been of too elaborate a species of
composition for the conventicles of Calvin, where it is thought
necessary for the whole congregation to be on a level ; and where,
if one singer were degraded by having a lower part assigned him
than another, it would destroy that entire equality of condition,
upon which the happiness of these solitary sons of liberty so much
depends.
The chronology, therefore, of Calvinistical Psalmody, seems to
be this: Zwinglius, the chief of the protestants in Switzerland,
before the arrival of Calvin at Geneva, had introduced among
them the same kind of metrical psalmody as John Huss and the
Bohemian brethren had recommended to their followers in
Germany ; and this seems to have been continued till the year 1543,
when the Psalms of Clement Marot, with a preface by Calvin
himself, were first published at Geneva [1542] (g), with the single
melodies of Guillaume Franc (h), an obscure musician, if such he
may be called, whose name has never had admission in any
catalogue of books, or been prefixed to any musical publication that
I have been able to discover. Ever since that time it has been
upon these melodies, which perhaps the German protestants had
used before, that Bourgeois, Goudimel, Claude Le Jeune, and many
other able harmonists, have worked, in constructing parts to them,
either in plain, or florid counterpoint.
The eighty-three French Psalms which Louis Bourgeois set in
four, five, and six parts, were printed both at Paris and Lyons, in
1561, with a royal privilege (i).
is) Jeremie De Pours, Divine Melodie du Saint Psahniste, p. 570.
{h) Theodore Beza, Voyez I' Art. Marot, Diet, de Bayle.
(») This author published at Geneva, 1550, Le droit Chemin de Musique. And in the
patent of Charles IX. for printing the Psalms of Marot at this time, it is said, not only that
"they are translated according to the true Hebrew text, and put into good French verse,"
but "good Music, as persons of profound learning in the said languages, as well as in the
Art of Music, who have examined them, allow." This honourable testimony in favour of the
Music seems to belong to that of Louis Bourgeois, published at a time which exactly agrees
with the date of the patent, as appears by the following article in Draudius, Bibl. exotica, p.
208 : Loys Bourgeois : Psalmes 83, de David en Musique, a 4, 5 & 6 parties, a Paris, chez
Ant. Le Clerc, 1561; a publication which seems to have escaped Du Pours, Bayle, and Des
MaizeaHx.
* Research made by Baulacre in 1745 and others, shows that there is no foundation for this
story and that it refers to an edition published in 1565 for use at Lausanne. In this edition
27 melodies were written or adapted by Franc. It is true that in 1552 Franc had obtained
permission to print an edition of a Psalter for use at Lausanne, but no copy of this work is
known, and there is no record of publication.
** The set of 83 Psalms by Bourgeois was published at Paris in 1561. He also published
from Lyons in 1547 a set of 50 psalms and another collection of 24. These harmonised versions
were for private use as the Genevan Church did not allow harmonised psalmody.
45
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The success of Clement Marot, in versifying the Psalms, excited
so much emulation in other rhymers of inferior abilities, either to
put the Psalms into metre, or write religious hymns in imitation of
them, under the title of Chansons Spirituelles, that the kingdom of
France seems at this time to have abounded in them, even to
satiety. Nor was this species of psalmody confined to the
Huguenots ; the catholics seem at first to have been equally zealous
in its cultivation (k).
Among the most celebrated composers of Music to Calvinistical
Psalms and Spiritual Songs, must be ranked Claude Goudimel
[fl. 1549-72] a musician, of Franche-Compte, who seems to have
lost his life at Lyons, on the day of the massacre of Paris, for setting
the Psalms of Marot. Goudimel has been much celebrated by
the Calvinists in France for this Music, which was never used in
the church of Geneva, and by the catholics in Italy, for instructing
Palestrina in the art of composition, though it is doubtful whether
this great Harmonist and Goudimel had ever the least acquaintance
or intercourse together. He set the Chansons Spirituelles of the
celebrated Marc- Ant. De Muret, in four parts, which were printed
at Paris, 1555. We may suppose Goudimel, at this time, to have
been a Catholic, as the learned Muret is never ranked among
heretics by French biographers. Ten years after, when he set the
Psalms of Clement Marot, this version was still regarded with less
horror by the catholics than in later times ; for the Music which
Goudimel had set to it was printed at Paris by Adrian Le Roy, and
Robert Ballard, with a privilege, 1565. It was reprinted in
Holland, in 1607, for the use of the Calvinists, but seems to have
been too difficult; for we are told by the editor of the Psalms of
Claude Le Jeune, which were printed at Leyden, 1633, and
dedicated to the States-General, that, " in publishing the Psalms
in parts, he had preferred the Music of Claude Le Jeune to that of
Goudimel ; for as the counterpoint was simply note for note, the
most ignorant in Music, if possessed of a voice, and acquainted with
the Psalm-tune, might join in the performance of any one of them ;
which is impracticable in the compositions of Goudimel, many
of whose Psalms being composed in fugue, can only be performed
by persons well skilled in Music (/)."*
Claude Le Jeune [c. 1523 — c. 1600] of whom some account
will be given elsewhere, had but few of his works printed during
(k) Certon, master of the boys at the Holy Chapel, at Paris, set and published thirty-
one Psalms of David, in four parts, 1545) and Rinvoysy, master of the boys in the Cathedral
of Diion, about the same time set all the Psalms in four parts. These two composers must
have been Roman Catholics, as several others seem to have been, by the licence they
obtained for publishing their Psalms and Spiritual Songs at Paris during the civil war,
occasioned by religious encroachments and persecutions. The authors, therefore, of _ the
following publications must certainly be ranked among Catholic Psalmodists: Contrepoisons
des LII. Chansons de Marot, intittilies Psalmes; a Rouen, 1560. And Plaisans et
Armonie'ux Cantiques de Devotion, qui sont un second Contrepoison aux LII. Chansons de
Clement Marot, a Paris, 1561. Draud. Libri Gallici, p. 187.
(/) A work, entitled. La Fleur des Chansons des deus plus excellens Musiciens du Terns,
Orlande Lassus & Claude Goudimel, was published in France, 1576.
* The first edition of the psalms of Marot was in 1564. A revised edition was issued in
1565 and an edition was published at Geneva in the same year. An edition with German text
was published in 1573. Henry Expert reprinted the whole work m 1895-97 from an edition
of 1580.
46
p
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
his life. The first book of his Melanges, in 6 parts, published at
Antwerp, 1585, and his Dodecachorde, or twelve Psalms of David,
according to the twelve ancient modes, 1598, are all the works,
except detached motets and songs, of this author, that I have been
able to find, which were not posthumous. A second book of his
Melanges, 1612 ; his Psalms of simple counterpoint, in four and five
parts, 1627 [1st ed. 1613] ; and his Octonaires de la Vanite &
Inconstance du Monde, a trois & quatre parties, were published
after his decease, by his sister Cecilia Le Jeune, and his nephew
[1606]. Of his Psalms I have three editions, printed in different
forms, and in different countries : for though, according to Bayle,
they have never been sung in the church of Geneva, yet, in
Holland, and in France, before the revocation of the edict of Nantz,
as they were universally sung in Calvinistical churches and
conventicles, except at Geneva, they went through more editions
perhaps than any musical work since the invention of printing.*
Claude Le Jeune was, doubtless, a great master of harmony,
which no judge of musical composition, who takes the trouble to
score his Metrical Psalms in plain counterpoint, will dispute. The
following is the Music he has set to the 134th Psalm of the French
version; in the taille, or tenor part of which, is the old melody of our
100th Psalm.
Harmony to the Hundredth Psalm-Tune, by Claude Le Jeune.
Dessus
Haute
Contre.
Edition of Leyden, 1635.
* Cecilia also published in 1606 the "Psaumes en vers," which was reprinted by Expert,
who also reprinted the Octonaire de la vanitd.
47
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The manner in which he first set twelve of the Psalms, in four
and five parts, that were dedicated to the Duke de Bouillon, 1598,
at that time head of the French protestants, very much resembled
the style in which our old masters used to write upon a plain song :
as one of the parts is continually singing an ancient melody or
well-known Psalm-tune, while the rest are discanting, or singing
in florid counterpoint upon it. In some of these, as well as his
posthumous works, under the title of Second Book of Melanges,
1612, and Octonaires de la Vanite et Inconstance du Monde.
1641 [1606], besides fine harmony, there is great merit and
ingenuity in the melody and contrivance.
Having traced Metrical Psalmody, in modern languages, from
its minute beginning in Germany, Switzerland, and France, it is
time to relate its arrival and progress in England, during the
sixteenth century.
Several of the Psalms were translated into English metre during
the reign of Henry VIII. by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and printed 1549.
The Earl of Surrey wrote a sonnet in their praise, and translated
others himself; but both his version and that of Wyatt are lost
(m). Indeed almost all our poets, good and bad, have attempted
to translate, or rather versify, the Psalms; but for want of success
in this, as well as in writing original hymns, or sacred songs, Dr.
Johnson has admirably accounted in his Life of Waller (n).
In the Act of Uniformity for the use of the Common Prayer in
English, 1548 [1549], there was a proviso for the singing of Psalms
and Prayers taken out of the Bible, " which were much sung by
all who loved the reformation; — at which time some poets, such as
the age afforded," says Bishop Burnet (o), " translated David's
Psalms into verse; and it was a sign by which men's affections to
that work were every where measured, whether they used to sing
these, or not."
" Singing Psalms in public," says Strype (p), " had been
customary among the gospellers, according to the manner of the
protestants, in other countries; yet without any authority. This
practice was now authorised by virtue of a proviso, which ran in
this tenor: ' Provided also, that it shal be lawful for al men, as
wel in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly
any Psalm or Prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time; not
letting or omitting thereby the service, or any part thereof
mentioned in the said book.' Hence it is that in the title page of
our present books, the Hymns and Psalms in metre carry these
words : ' Set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches of all
the people together before and after morning and evening prayer,
and also before and after sermons; and moreover in private houses,
for their godly solace and comfort.' Which may serve to explain
{m) See Warton's Hist, of Engl. Poetry, Vol. III. p. 39.
(n) Vol. I. p. 109. 1st edit.
(0) Hist of the Reform. Part. ii. p. 94.
(p) Memorials, Vol. II. p. 86.
4S
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
to us, what the ordinary times of their singing together these
Psalms were : namely, before they began the morning service, and
after it was don. Likewise, when there was a sermon, before it
began, and after it was finished (q). As for the Psalms or Hymns
thus allowed, they seem to be those that are yet set before and
after our present singing, don by Dr. Cox, W. Whittingham,
Robert Wisdom, eminent divines in those times, and others; and
some of David's Psalms, don by Sternhold, Hopkins, and others.
It is certain that Sternhold composed several at first for his own
solace (r). For he set and sung them to his organ. Which Music
King Edward VI. sometime hearing, (for Sternhold was a Gentle-
man of his privy chamber), was much delighted with them, which
occasioned his publication and dedication of them to the said King.
After, when the whole book of Psalms, with some other Hymns,
were completely finished in verse, (don, as it seems, by Hopkins,
and certain other exiles in Queen Mary's reign), this clause in the
aforesaid act gave them then authority for their public use in the
church hitherto (s)."
Heylin's account of the introduction of Metrical Psalmody
agrees with that of Strype in most particulars; yet he, and almost
all writers on the subject are mistaken in asserting, that " it was
a device first taken up in France by one Clement Marot;" for it
has already been shewn, that Luther, and before his time, John
Huss, and the Bohemian brethren, had Metrical Psalms and
Hymns in the German language, which they sung to unisonous
and syllabic tunes, that were either adopted or imitated by all
posterior reformers. Clement Marot had been charged by the
Roman catholics with ignorance of the Hebrew language; but, says
Heylin, " however unlearned he may have been, his version is
not to be compared with that barbarity and botching which every
where occurs in the translations of Sternhold and Hopkins : which,
notwithstanding they were at first only allowed in private devotion,
they were by little and little brought into the church: permitted,
rather than allowed, to be sung before and after sermons; afterwards
printed, and bound up with the Common Prayer Book; and at last
added by the stationers at the end of the Bible. For though it is
expressed in the title-page of these Singing Psalms, that they were
set forth and allowed to be sung in all churches before and after
(?) This is nearly the Genevan formulary, and that of Scotland, now; as it was that of
the puritans at all times.
"During the reign of Queen Mary, 1554, the puritan exiles, who retired to Frankfort,
agreed with the Calvinists that the public service should begin with the General Confession of
Sins, then the people to sing a Psalm in metre, in a plain tune; after which the minister to
pray for the assistance of God's holy spirit, and so proceed to the sermon; after sermon, a
general prayer for all estates, at the end of which was joined the Lord's Prayer, and a
rehearsal of the Articles of Belief; then the people were to sing another Psalm," &c. — Neal's
History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists, 2d. edit. 1732, p. 109.
(r) Sternhold, who died 1549, versified only fifty-one of the Psalms, which were printed
the same year, without Musical Notes. Nor was any melody published with them till 1502.
Hopkins, a clergyman and schoolmaster in Suffolk, versified fifty-eight; Whittingham, five;
among which is the 119th; Norton, twenty-seven; Wisdome, one; the 25th and 7th have the
initials of W.K., and the 106th those of T. C.
(s) Eccles. Memor. B. i. ch. ii. p. 86.
Vol,, ii. 4. 49
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
morning and evening prayer, and also before and after sermons;
yet this allowance seems rather to have been a connivance than
an approbation: no such allowance being any where found by
such as have been most industrious and concerned in the search.
At first, it was pretended only that the said Psalms should be
sung before and after morning and evening prayer and before and
after sermons; which shews they were not to be intermingled in
the public Liturgie. But in some tract of time, as the puritan
faction grew in strength and confidence, they prevailed so far in
most places, as to thrust the Te Deum, the Benedictus, the
Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis, quite out of the church (t)."
The first edition of Sternhold's fifty-one Psalms, printed in
1549, by Edward Whitchurch,* had the following title: " All such
psalmes of David as Thomas Sternehold, late groome of ye Kinges
Maiesties Robes didde in his lyfetime draw into English metre."
These were reprinted in 1552; but both impressions were without
musical notes; and in all probability those that were not in
possession of the tunes used by the German protestants, applied to
them such ballad airs as would best suit the metre; as had been
done in France, when the version of Clement Marot was in favour
at the Court of Francis I. Sternhold lived to write a dedication,
for the first edition of his Psalms, to King Edward VI. following
in this the example of Marot, who had dedicated his first thirty
Psalms to the King of France.
In the reign of Queen Mary all the Protestants, except those who
courted martyrdom, sung these Psalms sotto voce; but after the
accession of Queen Elizabeth, like orgies, they were roared aloud
in almost every street, as well as church, throughout the kingdom.
Archbishop Parker, .during his exile, translated the Psalms into
English verse, which he afterwards printed, but never published.**
He adhered to the Lutheran manner in setting them, by preserving
the eight modes of the Romish church; and gave, as specimens,
eight tunes, in four parts, which the strict Calvinists did not allow.
The entire version of the Psalter, however, was not published
till 1562, when it was tacked, for the first time, to the Common
Prayer, under the following title : ' ' The whole booke of Psalms
collected into Englysh meter by T. Sternhold, I. Hopkins, and
others, conferred with the Ebrue (u), with apt notes to singe them
withal. Faithfully perused and alowed according to thorder
appointed in the Queene's maiestie's Iniunctions. Imprinted at
London by John Day dwelling over Aldersgate. 1562."
There was no base or other part, but the mere tunes, in this
edition; which tunes are chiefly German, and still used on the
(/) History of the Reform, of the Church of England, p. 127.
(a) This manner of printing the word Ebrue (Hebrew) is peculiar to the Calvinists; and
one of the criteria by which the Geneva edition of the Bible is known.
* See editor's note, p. 18, with regard to Sternhold.
** This Psalter had nine tunes composed by Tallis, of which two— "Tallis" and "Canon" -
are still in use. Eight copies of this work, which was printed in 1567 or 8, are known (B.M.
Gren. 12025).
50
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
continent by Lutherans and Calvinists, as appears by collation (x) :
particularly the melodies set to the 12th, 14th, 113th, 124th, 127th,
and 134th Psalms. The versifying the Hymns Veni Creator, The
humble Suit of a Sinner, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc
Dimittis, Athanasian Creed, and Lord's Prayer, and singing them
in the manner of Psalms, was done by the Bohemian brethren even
before Luther's time (y). And Robert Wisdome's prayer against
the Pope and Turk, which gave rise to Bishop Corbet's pleasant
verses, addressed to his ghost, was but a literal translation of
Luther's Hymn upon the same occasion. And the tune to this
prayer, printed by Ravenscroft, being likewise Luther's composition,
and inserted as such in the German Hymn-books, as the reader
may be curious to see this melody, I shall insert it here from the
German Gesang-Buch.
Luther's Prayer against the Turks and Pope.
^m
sM^-f-^
jgg
:==£
a
VKEStnve USf LOVD, By TH</ S«»
WORD, FROM n/flK& TOM DE--
F£UD US, LOROl WHKH
Lb a ^gg
^ * **
4* 3
li
se£
t^F^
^s
^
w&
J BOTH (V* THRUST oi) f OF HIS THBONE, Cm LORD T£. S US CHRIST, TIN DEHtESot/l
•Pop
(*)
§§§§1
i' p d d if I m
i
William Damon seems to have been the first who composed
parts to these old melodies,* in England, which were published
(x) In the Gesang-Buch and Choral-Buck of Lutheran Psalm and Hymn tunes, published
1741 and 1754, at Halle and Frankfort, there are many of our old Psalm tunes, as well as in
those of Goudimel and Claude Le Jeune.
(y) Ein hubsch new Gesang-Buch — von der Christlichen Bruderschajjt, &c, Ulm, i^S.
See an account of this book above, p. 36, note (d).
(z) Bishop Corbet's Epigram, addressed to the Ghost o] Robert Wisdome :
Thou once a body, now but ayre,
Arch-botcher of a Psalm or Prayer,
From Carfax come! \
And patch us up a zealous lay,
With an old ever and for ay.
Or all and some.
Or such a spirit lend me
As may a Hymn down send me
To purge my braine :
But, Robert, look behind thee.
Lest Turk or Pope should find thee,
And go to bed again.
Poems, London, 1647, 12°, p. 49.
t He was buried in Carfax church, Oxford.
* Damon's work is not the first 4-part version as John Day published in 1563 a 4-part
version of the whole Psalter: "The whole psalmes in foure partes, which may be song to al
musicall instrumentes, set forth for the encrease of vertue, and abolishyng of other vayne and
triflying ballades."
51
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
with the following title : ' ' The Psalmes of David in English meter
with notes of foure partes set unto them by Guilielmo Damon, for
John Bull, to the use of the godly Christians for recreatyng them-
selves, instede of fond and unseemely Ballades. Anno 1579 at
London. Printed by John Daye. Cum privilegio." These parts
not being well received by the public, he published others in 1591,
and dedicated them to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh (a). In 1585,
Cosyns published sixty Psalms, in six parts, in plain counterpoint,
to the melodies which Day had printed before (6).*
But the most ample and complete edition of the Psalms, in
parts, that appeared in England during the sixteenth century, was
the following: " The whole booke of psalmes: with their wonted
Tunes, as they are song in Churches, composed into foure parts:
All which are so placed that foure may sing ech one a seueral part
in this booke. . . . Compiled by sondry avthors. Imprinted at
London, by T. Est, 1594." These authors were John Dowland,
E. Blancks, E. Hooper, J. Farmer, R. Allison, G. Kirby, W.
Cobbold, E. Johnson, and G. Farnaby, who are said in the title-page
to have " so laboured herein, that the vnskilfull with small practice
may attaine to sing that part, which is fittest for their voice."**
The former publications contained only forty tunes, but this
furnishes one to every Psalm. To the tenor part is assigned the
principal melody, as in the Psalms of Claude Le Jeune, and others,
on the continent. The additional parts are cantus, alius, and base.
The counterpoint is constantly simple, of note against note; but in
such correct and excellent harmony as manifests the art to have
been very successfully cultivated in England at that time.
In 1594, likewise, John Mundy, Gentleman, Bachiler of Musicke,
and one of the Organists of hir Majesty's free chappel of Windsor,
published " Songs and Psalmes composed into three, four, and five
parts, for the use and delight of all such as either love or learne
Musicke." These are dedicated to the unfortunate Earl of Essex,
with all the punning, quibbling, and efforts at wit, which the taste
of the times encouraged, and indeed required. Maister John does
not seem, however, to have been a very dexterous contrapuntist;
but let the musical reader judge of his skill by the following
composition, which is the best that I have been able to select.
(a) I am in possession of a Miserere, in five parts, composed by William Damon; it was
lent to me by Dr. Pepusch about the year 1746. The harmony is clear and good, and the
subject extremely simple and uniform, tho parts constantly singing a tetrachord in moto
contrario. a . G F E D &c.
A . B Cf D
(b) Musike of six and jive -partes; made upon the common tunes used in singing of the
Psalmes. By John Cosyn. These melodies were not now called by the names of particular
cities or towns, as they were, afterwards, by Ravenscroft and others.
* The Altus part is in the B.M. (K. 8. b. 6).
** The 1st edition of this Psalter was in 1592 (B.M. k. 2. c. 7). The Musical Antiquarian
Society reprinted the work in 1844.
52
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Four part Song By John Mundy Published 1694.
3=
m
SB
^
^
&
i=±:
w £sb> Mi ressse To
uvs WITHOUT
m^
g
=tt
^
(3 &T~
iH
h^-j.
^^
//V BStP £/. 1XSSS6 7b
uve nine ir Deuetr i"
User %c-
m&
m
^s
s
3E£
=tf
^3E
/*«£«■ 7J
^
uenr7b
If/ DG£P%t
3=&
ssbp btsTssssa fb
^=^
2e
^
g^
ASK «flj I 7ftnw tv J>
33
£.m&^
PS-
pa
j 1 1
* ia _'
=h=£
f-Kf
±=r
m/«r «w!»
^TF
W 'He such a
te
i/A* *5 *W 7
<?«««j >»*
^=5
s
=t=£
f^=
w* S — \-
frSfif «c
i/fif A*
PEWlTWI**
flaw* >v
^
t*fr
^
23E
"i*i
Iq.^ i —
^=^
»••"»
•*•
%l &=
LWSit
•» M&6E SKH ti Ufi£ M FE* I
-Ki-T
fei
$rTTf
^==g
St
//v TjawS?
ST
7W/W 7»
LfiMSt/'jgyg ni&Hr
IH THtKi
pi » i a
T E ' i
@
5£
$
T
/* nwayjfc
flew* ,«
^5=
t±
/v Pa*ss$r.
Dftf fiM
IfliHT $f>¥
/flO>
US?
5
1 HI ~
f-V^
ztac
JU-k — s-
1N PANSstt
tT&-
5-f
^ &
-J»/
^S
£=P
~J»^
7&j 75o meat aeons ^JSooLt ' rh
/W5
/A" »Vfi«£
fe
^^E
s
kcRE
Too Tie
rm#H F0ff
One
I
&OVl£ TtaDAl SOtfLS TO
^
F'oK
septs To
Too MUCH
0#B TooBe
ggg 1 1 i j j|p fr^o § g
^ t/ieHTt*eee Toe too «ww «>* io** ^w« »*£ 72> Hfoe~~iF
W&ug Ai»j>ues vita-
^
ffi
5^
H
fj-»
W&lg,
m
=S=£
tc
^_
^"p o"-
h!E»Afi
3=+
P=^
sfe
i i o
f1— ^
e o
i _ ?
)f£/?iS /9/W w»^
hill Thus
COHTiN-
ve smips
Coiitimiz smiee. a
ag
Usee
y?^
s
/fd gE
l » g
^
•*■, Tltus Coif'Tl-. NlfS. SrHlFg IF
Heme ft %oe hill "thus coh--tin-
53
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Sj
E^=£
^
±s
JSL
GEHTLZi
gg ■
i=ac
±±
B I
I
Garnabt
^
^^
^
&WS 7D
£<»r 7»
* G&NTt-S
s
££
^E
TO-
T=£
SsHfTTTSc'
STRIPS
n
ffejE
gj
p ! i r g
C&tru&c
lips
g^&
+• >
S£
a
iT-R-H
I """I I
~SMrIeSc
I
#=C^=
o y
^±=g
2B*TH gtf
*/** 7o
A/«T W
s
- O
Ggnrt-ebc
F.-P
ffi
f^f-J-j-
^P
I #d
P*
Geiijuhc
^^
To
Cutoff Such
B3
^^
"mi
±=^
fe
Ge/i/ne&c
££1
s
-s-
^=t
<»fivn.ff t&nt nee* Gooo
In 1599, another collection of Psalms appeared in folio, which
the Italians would have called S«Zmi Concertati, as they were
intended for instruments as well as voices. " The Psalms of David
in Meter, the plaine song being the common 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. With tenne short Tunnes in the end, to which for the
most part all the Psalmes may be usually sung, for the use of such
as are of mean skill, and whose ley sure least serveth to practize.
By Richard Allison Gent. Practitioner in the Art of Musicke, and
are to be solde "at his house in the Dukes place niere Aide-Gate
London, printed by William Barley, the asigne of Thomas Morley,
1599" [B.M. K. 7, f. 10].
The melodies in this collection are the same as in the earlier
editions of the version by Sternhold and Hopkins. The parts are
so disposed in this publication, that four persons sitting round a
table may perform from the same book. If the author's friends
may be credited, who have written verses in praise of the work, it
54
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
abounds with uncommon excellence. However, the puff-direct, in
the shape of friendly panegyrics prefixed to books, was no more
to be depended on by the public in Queen Elizabeth's time, than
the puffs oblique of present newspapers. The book has no merit,
but what was very common, at the time it was printed.*
The next publication of Psalm-tunes, in four parts,** and
perhaps the most complete which ever appeared in this country,
was that of Thomas Ravenscroft, Bachelar of Musick; a professor
not only well acquainted with the practice of his art, but who
seems to have bestowed much time in the perusal of the best
authors, and in meditation on the theory (c). This book,
published in small octavo, 1621 and 1633, contains a melody for
every one of the hundred and fifty Psalms, many of them by the
editor himself, of which a considerable number is still in use: as
Windsor, St. David's, Southwell, and Canterbury; there are
others likewise which are sung by the German, Netherlandish, and
French protestants. To these the base, tenor, and counter-tenor
parts have been composed by twenty-one English musicians;
among whom we find the names of Tallis, Dowland, Morley, Bennet,
Stubbs, Farnaby, and John Milton, the father of our great poet.
The tunes which are peculiar to the measure of the 100th Psalm,
the 113th, and 119th, were originally Lutheran, or, perhaps, of
still higher antiquity. And though Ravenscroft has affixed the
name of Dr. John Dowland*** to the parts which have been set to
the 100th Psalm, yet, in the index, he has ranked the melody
itself with the French tunes; perhaps, from having seen it among
the melodies that were set to the French version of Clement Marot
and Theodore Beza's Psalms, by Goudimel and Claude Le Jeune.
Ravenscroft, in imitation of these harmonists, always gives the
principal melody, or, as he calls it, the playn-song, to the tenor.
This part, indeed, he sometimes erroneously terms Fa-burden (d).
His publication is, in some measure, historical: for he tells us
not only who composed the parts to old melodies, but who increased
the common stock, by the addition of new tunes; as well as which
of them were originally English, Welch, Scots, German, Dutch,
Italian, French, and imitations of these.
No tunes of triple time occur in Claude Le Jeune, and but five
in Ravenscroft: the principal of which are Cambridge, Martyrs,
Manchester, and the 81st. This last is still much used, and often
(c) We shall have further occasion to speak oE this author, among musical writers,
hereafter; at present, Psalmody being our chief pursuit, we shall endeavour to keep it in view,
till entirely run down.
(d) This is a corruption of faux-bourdon, and falso bordone, which originally implied
such simple harmony as arises from a series of thirds and sixths to the base. See Book II. p. 461.
* This censure is undeserved, for without doubt Allison's Psalter was the best that had
appeared. He also published in 1606, "An Howres Recreation in Musicke, apt for Instrumentes
and Voyces," which was edited by Dr. Fellowes in the E.M.S. Vol. 33.
** At least two Psalters were published between Allison's and Ravenscroft's. Robert Tailour
published one in 1615 and Barley issued one before 1614.
***Dowland is called Doctor in the Accounts for 1623 (Bundle 392, Roll 61), but there is no
record of his proceeding to this degree at either Cambridge, Oxford, or Dublin. He was
admitted Batchelor of Music, Oxford, in 1588, and some years prior to that at Cambridge.
55
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
played by chimes; it is called an imitation of a foreign tune, and
has the name of Richard Allison prefixed to it. Miiller's German
edition of the Psalm tunes at Frankfort is exactly that of Claude
Le Jeune, in two parts only; except, that he has transposed some
of the melodies, and inserted easy leading and connective notes, to
assist, not only the singer, but sometimes the tunes themselves;
which without them, would now be very bald and uncouth. Many
of these old melodies are still sung to German Hymns as well as
Psalms.
In the reign of Charles I. the Psalms were paraphrased by Mr.
George Sandys, the ancestor of the present Lord Sandys, and put
into better verse than they ever appeared in before or since; and
the measures being different from those of Sternhold and Hopkins,
were new set for private devotion by Henry Lawes [in 1637] , whose
melodies are not so superior to those which were made by his
predecessors as the poetry deserved. His brother William and he
had first set them in three parts, to florid counterpoint; and these
were published 1648. Of the others, in two parts, John Playford,
in the next reign, was the last editor, 1676.*
But the most curious and beautiful publication of the kind,
during the seventeenth century, that has come to my knowledge,
was that of twenty-two of " The Psalms of David, in fowre
Languages, Hebrew, Greeke, Latin, and English, and in 4 parts,
set to the tunes of our Church, with corrections, 1652." Both
words and music are very neatly engraved on near sixty copper-
plates, in 16mo. The English version is that of Sternhold,
retouched, not always for the better; the music, selected from
Ravenscroft. The editor was Dr. William Slater, of Brazen Noze
college, Oxon; who, in 1621, published Pales Albion, or the History
of Britain, in Latin and English, folio.
This book, as well as Ravenscroft 's, soon becoming scarce,
honest John Playford furnished the lovers of Psalmody with the
whole Book ot Psalms and Hymns, in three parts [1677]; which
being printed in a pocket volume, and at a very reasonable price,
excited and encouraged a passion for this species of Music through-
out the kingdom, equal to that of the Calvinists, and other
protestants on the continent (e). Playford's Psalms afforded to
the performers an innocent, and, as was imagined, a pious amuse-
ment, which certainly could neither injure nor offend any but those
of nicer ears and taste, who, during divine service, were necessarily
obliged to hear them. For it seems hardly credible that an action
in itself so harmless and insipid as vociferating a Metrical Psalm,
(e) Since that time, the parochial tunes have been so generally and firmly established,
that it would be difficult to prevail on the whole nation to agree in admitting any new
melodies of this kind, by whomever composed. Diligent and zealous organists sometimes
compose, and prevail on their own particular congregation to learn new tunes to the old or
new version; but their celebrity and use seldom extend even to the neighbouring parish of* the
same town. The only two tunes that have been so honoured as to be adopted, and used
throughout the kingdom within the last hundred years, are perhaps those of the 104th Psalm,
and the Easter Hymn.
* The two-part setting of Sandys' version of the Psalms was published in 1637. The music
is by Henry Lawes. Other editions appeared in 1648 and 76.
56
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
in which there was little sense, less poetry, and no Music, should be
made subservient to such pernicious purposes as the contempt and
subversion of established religion and government.
Menestrier (/) says, that Psalms and Hymns were the Opera
Songs of the fifteenth and sixteenth century; and Varillas (g),
that the airs applied to the first French version of the Psalms, were
those of the best songs of the times. Indeed all melody seems now
to have been Psalmodic, however gay the subject of the words to
which it was applied. Macropedias, author of Latin Mysteries
and Moralities, in a farce or drama called Bassarus, Fabula
festivissima, printed at Utrecht, 1553, terminates every scene with
the following lively tune:
gj 3 °- - o noil J uoii olioti'o ||j J nan Quaii |g j ^ o gggjl
W.
Andrisca, Fabula Lepidissima, written 1537, has melodies set
to the choruses in the same measure, which is likewise that used
by this author in the Mysteries or Moralities, called the Prodigal
Son, Lazarus, Joseph, Adam, &c. except one or two in the Prodigal
Son, still more dolorous.
Lovers of mere harmony might receive great pleasure from
Metrical Psalmody, in parts, devoid as it is of musical measure,
and syllabic quantity, if it were well performed; but that so seldom
happens, that the greatest blessing to lovers of Music in a parish-
church, is to have an organ in it sufficiently powerful to render
the voices of the clerk, and of those who join in his out-cry, wholly
inaudible. Indeed all reverence for the Psalms seems to be lost
by the wretched manner in which they are usually sung; for,
instead of promoting piety and edification, they only excite
contempt and ridicule in the principal part of the congregation,
who disdain to join, though they are obliged to hear, this indecorous
jargon. There can be no objection to sober and well-disposed
villagers meeting, at their leisure hours, to practice Psalmody
together, in private, for their recreation; but it seems as if their
public performance might be dispensed with during Divine Service,
unless they had acquired a degree of excellence far superior to what
is usually met with in parish-churches, either in town or country,
where there is no organ.
All these particulars concerning Psalm-singing may appear
superfluous ; but the History of Psalmody during these times, is
not only the History of Music, but of the Reformation, in some
parts of Europe, where little else was to be heard, except these
lamentable strains, and the comfortless doctrines and terrific
denunciations of fanatical preachers. Indeed Christians of all
denominations now thought that, by such metrical and musical
(/) Des Repres. en Mus. p. 124.
(g) Hist, de VHeresie. liv. xxi. p. 49. An. 1559.
57
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
devotion, they were performing a pious and salutary work ; and,
because it was amusing and delightful to themselves, that nothing
could be more acceptable to the Divinity than these vocal effusions.
Roger Ascham, in a letter from Augsburg, dated the 14th of May,
1551, says, " Three or four thousand singing at a time in a church
of this city is but a trifle (h)." And according to Beza, in 1558,
some of the Geneva sects (Huguenots) being in the Prez aux Clercs,
a public place at Paris, near the University, began to sing Psalms,
in which others, who were there at the time, joined. This was
continued for several days by great numbers, among whom was
the King of Navarre, and many Huguenot Nobles. And in Bishop
Jewel's Letters to Peter Martyr, March 5, 1560, he says, " 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 neighbouring places: sometimes
at Paul's Cross, there will be six thousand people singing
together (i)."
Italy, indeed, does not seem to have been equally infected by
this malady with the rest of Europe ; however, an experiment was
made of the force of the virus in that climate, by Diodati of Lucca,
a Genevan minister, who versified the Psalms in his native tongue,
and had them secretly printed with unisonous Music, and dispersed
through Italy. Yet, though his countrymen seem to have been
insensible to the charms of Puritanical Psalmody, the Latin Psalms,
Motets, Cantiones, Lamentations, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs,
which were set and sung in and out of the church, were
innumerable.
In Scotland, Psalmody was practised by the reformers very
early ; but to prose words, till about the year 1555, when it appears
that Elizabeth Adamson, a follower of Knox, died singing metrical
Psalms. And at the time of an insurrection, it is said of the
insurgents, who had insulted the Bishops and the Queen Regent in> her
own palace, after destroying the statue of Saint Giles, that " search
(h) See Ascham's Works, published by Bennet, 4to. p. 382.
(«') Master Mace, in his Mustek's Monument, tells us, with quaint rapture, that the Psalm-
singing at the siege of York, during the grand rebellion in the year 1644, "was the most
excellent that has been known or remembered any where in these our latter ages. Most
certain I am," continues he, "that to myself it was the very best Harmonical Musick that ever
I heard; yea far excelling all other either private or publick Cathedral Musick, and infinitely
beyond all verbal expression or conceiving." "Abundance of people of the best rank and
quality being shut up in the city, viz., Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen of the countries round
about, besides the souldiers and citizens, who 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, together 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 shake 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."
58
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
was made for the doers, but none could be deprehended: for the
brethren assembled themselves in such sort, in companies, singing
Psalms, and praising God, that the proudest of the enemies were
astonished (&)."
In our own country, for more than a century after the
Reformation, the spirit of change being fomented by an intercourse
with the Calvinists in France, Geneva, Holland, Frankfort, and
Scotland, prevented the restless and turbulent part of the nation
from being satisfied with the important points which had been
gained, by being liberated from Papal power, and from such
doctrines as were deemed erroneous ; by having divine service
performed in our own language ; and by the abolition of such rites
and ceremonies as were thought to be the offspring of ignorance,
priestcraft, and superstition. For the sluices of innovation once
thrown open, such torrents of incongruous opinions, such wild
expositions of Scripture, such absurd and fanatical ideas of purity
and divine dispensations, deluged the whole kingdom, that nothing
less than the direct reverse of all that virtue, wisdom, and piety had
once thought right, would content the zealots, who wanted to
persuade mankind that they were gifted with a New Light, by which
they could not only see their road in this world better than the rest
of their species, but in the next.
Some call it Gift, and some New Light,
A lib'ral art that costs no pains
Of study, industry, or brains. Hudibras.
Many of the Roman-catholic ceremonies and superstitions seem
to have been more puerile and popular than noxious ; and whether
the multitude is able to comprehend a pure, refined, philosophic,
and spiritual religion, divested of all that captivates or deceives the
senses, is still to prove: for history tells us of no people, however
civilized and polished, whose religious worship has been merely
intellectual.
More than sufficient has, I fear, been already said on the dull
subject of Unisonous and Metrical Psalmody ; and yet, before the
article is finally closed, I cannot help trying to obviate the principal
objection that has been urged against the admission of a better
species of Music in the service of the church.
The Puritans, who, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, had
devoted our cathedral service to destruction, and who seemed to
wish not only to hear the Psalms, but the whole Scriptures,
syllabically sung in metre, assigned as a reason for such an abuse of
words, as well as annihilation of Poetry and Music, the absolute
necessity of such a simple kind of Music as would suit the whole
congregation (I). But why is the whole congregation to sing any
(k) Neal's History of the Puritans, 2d edit. p. 99, and 105.
{I) It is said in the Nineteenth of Fifty-two Articles of Reformation, drawn up in the
reign of King Edward VI. and intended for the Royal Assent, but which never received it, that
"In the Anthems (of cathedrals) all figured Music should be taken away." Burnet's Hist. Ref.
Vol. II. p. 200.
59
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
more than preach, or read prayers? Indeed it seems to have been
the wish of illiterate and furious reformers, that all religious offices
should be performed by Field-preachers and Street-singers ; but it
is well known by all who read the Scriptures, or hear them read,
that both singing-men and singing-women were appointed to perform
distinct parts of religious rites among the ancient Hebrews as well
as Christians ; and it does not appear by any passages in the Bible,
by any thing which the most ancient and learned commentators
have urged concerning the performance of the Psalms, or by
Rabbinical traditions, that they were all originally intended to be
sung by the multitude, or whole congregation, indiscriminately.
Singing implies not only a tuneable voice, but skill in Music: for
Music either is, or is not an Art, or something which nature and
instinct do not supply; if it be allowed that title, study, practice, and
experience may at least be as necessary to its attainment as to that
of a mechanical trade or calling. Every member of a conventicle,
however it may abound with cordwainers and taylors, would not
pretend to make a shoe or a suit of cloaths; and yet in our churches
all are to sing. Such singing as is customary in our parochial service
gives neither ornament nor dignity to the Psalms, or portions of
Scripture, that are drawled out, and bawled with that unmusical
and unmeaning vehemence which the satirist has described :
-So swells each wind-pipe-
Such as from lab'ring lungs enthusiastic flows,
High sound, attemper'd to the vocal nose. Dunciad.
It cannot be for the sake of the sentiments, or instructions, which the
words contain ; these are better understood when read by the
clergyman and clerk; and why, after being read, they should be sung,
unless Music is supposed to add to their energy or embellishment,
is not easy to discover ( m) .
After bestowing so many pages on Lutheran, Calvinistical, and
English Psalmody, of the sixteenth century, it is time to speak of a
superior species of Church-Music, which, during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, was no where more successfully cultivated than
in our own country, by Robert White, Thomas Tallis, William
Bird, Thomas Morley, and others.
To do justice to the musical learning and genius of these
harmonists would require a dissertation of considerable length,
with specimens of their compositions, that would occupy more
space than I shall be able to spare; but as my late worthy friend,
Dr. Boyce, in his excellent Collection of English Cathedral-Music,
has inserted examples of the style of all our greatest masters,
except White; and as many of their productions are preserved in
manuscript by the curious, there will be the less occasion to exhibit
them here.
(m) In many conventicles, and even parish churches, each line of a Psalm is pronounced
aloud by the clerk, before it is sung by the congregation; which is confessing that even their
own syllabic and unisonous singing is not sufficiently plain to render the words intelligible; and
indeed they are more disguised and injured by psalmodic singing than by the most rapid
and artificial cantilina of florid song.
60
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
As none but the highest mountains and most lofty promontories
of a country are visible at a great distance, so none but the most
towering and exalted characters of a remote age are prominent to
posterity. In proportion as we recede from any period of time,
inferior actors, however they may have distinguished themselves to
their cotemporanes, are rendered invisible, and, like telescopic
stars, can only be discovered by the assistance of art. In Musical
History, therefore, it is only a few protuberant and gigantic
characters that the general eye can see stalking at a distance.
History, indeed, sometimes lends her hand to a deserving name,
that has been obscured or eclipsed by accident or injustice, and
lifts it from oblivion.
Robert White [c. 1530-74] who preceded Bird and Tallis, and
who died before their fame was well established, was an excellent
composer of church services in the style of Palestrina; which,
however, he did not imitate, as he was anterior to him*, and a great
master of harmony before the productions of this chief of the Roman
school were published, or at least circulated, in other parts of
Europe (n). The works of White seem never to have been printed;
but in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, a sufficient number of
them in manuscript has been preserved, to excite not only wonder,
but indignation, at the little notice that has been taken of him by
musical writers (o). Morley, indeed, has given him a place in the
list of composers at the end of his Introduction, and ranks him
with Orlando di Lasso, among excellent men, who had ventured
to begin a composition with a fourth and sixth (p); he likewise
(q) places him with Fairfax, Taverner, Shepherd, Mundy, Parsons,
and Bird, " famous Englishmen who have been nothing inferior
to the best composers on the continent." And no musician had
then appeared who better deserved to be celebrated for knowledge
of harmony, and clearness of style, than Robert White, as the
following Anthem for five voices will sufficiently shew.
(n) White was dead in 1581, when his Latin Full Anthems and Services were beautifully
transcribed in a set of books, still preserved at Oxford, as we find by a distich at the end
of a prayer, in five parts, upon a plain song: "Precamur Sancte Domine."
Maxima Musarum nostrarum gloria White
Tu peris; ceternum sed tua Musa manet.
(0) The collection of printed and manuscript Music, bequeathed to Christ Church, Oxon,
by that great judge and patron of the art, Dr. Aldrich, joined to that of its late organist, Mr.
Richard Goodson, which was very considerable, is one of the most complete, in old masters,
that I have seen. To these valuable books I have not only been honoured with free access
by the Rev. Dean and Canons, but allowed, in the most liberal manner, to take many of the
most curious in the collection out of the library, for a considerable time, in order to consult
and make extracts from them at my leisure.
(p) Annotations.
(<?) P. 151.
* Palestrina who was born in 1525 or 26, was slightly the elder of the two. A few
compositions by Whyte have been published by Arkwright (O.E.E. No. 21). In Burn's
Anthems and Services (2nd series c. 1847) will be found an anthem in 8-parts. C K. Scott
includes a work by Whyte in Euterpe, vol. 8. Vol. 8 of the T.CM. has his Church Music.
The MS. of the Bittes, of three Parte, once in the possession of Dr. Burney appears to
have been lost.
6l
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Anthem for 5 Voices, by Rob : White.
Scored from single parts transcribed 1581 without Bars.
Superius
Mtdius
Cantus.
Tenor.
Bassus.
P
££===
s
uono
i^^
m
m
^^
who tn/tu. vw- : wmyr/isai
=8=
m
Lord mo $weu. i/*7ty
J^jE
?*-?3-
o — "
LomWHoswuj.
T 1
7)t-*SWH—
^^
=FF
_ coxa.
cur ,*
££
53=
3£_
f^
-sm&
i> *«u 11* r»y
B r r
(*Mo £v*a *»«» x. //f r^i/ mBqr~iM - £**•
s
-%i c
&K
a-
^g
S
r^
IOP.0 MOW iiWW
^-^f
g i - ,4-=iF^^^
-rr g
S*5r-3-
d? klHOSHfiU.
netrupom ThV
^^
//«/ Mitt.
"S" fff'/V
HBT"&ff£i ^'CMfMfT-
= ^S
5E=2
y ro
m
- a* TaeizxK 7 — ct-s
==£
fef!
HOLf
HIH. SV'l*
&*>*SJZ1
o— fa
=P^
PSteE
E
n 'iTi
i^
M;
»«OSH*u*&cilTHfHo~
_ A/ AZO.
fP
r/*y
HO--I-Y
V I g P
===F^
g — H
E
r rrr 1
ftesrt/POAiTit?
HO(.y hiu. {US'
my
Houy mh.u
LGGV&TTV &c
7-j's dd
zO^
o^o-
QrC^
*£2=s:
//v r#y&c
Olf hr/M Sniu.ff£rr )jx
•^ T>neu. %<:
TH/Ho-I-Y
^g
ftW
#=SHM-
S
^=at
o - s
Z7«e
fi/YOSOTH 77*
TH/#G7iOtr IS
Tficur
^m
r T dd-:-
^^
3^=£
^^
1
HET0irr%c
b nag
fits
iOTM %C
OT
rJES
g=^=
?• p y
C=- Ov
ry©-
0 1 I 1
-t 1
rg-
TfiirevWie
Doftt THSTHlAfi &<:
Lfc
- § I
w=
/./«?
/?/«> 0tf7>/ r« f rw/»<? &£
g|
■> 9
^=^
I 1 S "> I —
ttF
ev'i h& %c
H/VDDOTH %c
b SpSOSth JC*
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
gg^=
S
o P
33^3
S=
rr^g ^gg
g^r*-^
J.«'dj
as
s^
w «« tmm „-«,* n ."Sk*,*** "*** TO "J *wff/"
CT
o1 gj a j
■»?g
e=^g=
|
s
^3"
£VM. To
I
^g
*»
S Cj
^^
s^
g a
■IT
I OL_g
r*^
bo ^ r
Tonsue
Dons evit
sg
Iff
76 h/s NS/ar-- sour;
m
'Op'i
^
o ,
o g o
< — r
r^t
AW
fc ///* /W/6V--BOVK,
To his ntcie* Bouk; AW
Burn lowly ,»ntsow* °£fe&-^-*'H,s 90»» eyes
flHD maXETHmutHOpTHgm THtTFOW^c
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
M
e^
JHd J
^
o 9 f*
^^
g t '
~ /9A&
TsiSHPPoitjrz -M
no'
t weitero his
OVfil
^s
s d gj
-jfp
?S"£S
ffi
^
=Ft=
E*»jo
hEffl^
i
TOufBTH mm
~S*or
HINDS)
^-p-g
^ffgff1
o p p
- r r i
^
j jj r g
- ■ E r
no' it wafk
To mS N£H1 Sotlft
a/to thshpt- 11 nt — *r*
^F=^
a o
QgOf
13-©-
s— i
rHhi-
Q=9=
S^E
*/«£
2>i$#pPoi#r~
Aior tw?
Ss
^*
o a g
:5=3=
S
^'P° Bga
■i — >-
g^^
7i» tf/y NBCH-BouR
ana t>i3AT>r>oi»r£Tn Se fimo 3>/s»ppotMrern mm
^g5
O p
jpag
ws
^
e>g» fr<
aj»
fffr
m'-D£MAC£
H6 THAT
mont</uPt>ft
=0=
pa^s
gfgf
^^
5^ff
fe^frrpc
#« r«r
_g/w
*5 ^
^r
/top miaul' '*w»o fiMi/fsr
f^rr^
=j=p=
s^
Oil? I
jjp^
#=g
trS:
5S awomv
HINDS'
fesS
SMe*___f^
SSq
rMnrnATH»oT 9C
psp
^E
#=Tf^
ej??-
3^E
H±
P3=t
/w* 7?Mrtf/v B^
64
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Besides this composition, and a great number of others, to Latin
words, which I have scored from the Christ Church books, and
which were probably produced at the latter end of Henry VIII. 's
reign, or during the time of Queen Mary, when the Romish service
was still in use, I am in possession of a small manuscript, which,
by the writing and orthography, seems of the sixteenth century,
entitled, " Mr. Robert Whyte, his Bitts, of three Parte Songes, in
Partition; with Ditties, 11, withoute Ditties, 16." These are short
fugues or intonations in most of the eight ecclesiastical modes, in
which the harmony is extremely pure, and the answer to each
subject of fugue brought in with great science and regularity.
Though Choral Music had been cultivated by several able
harmonists before Tallis and Bird had distinguished themselves;
yet, as few compositions, anterior to the time in which these
admirable masters flourished, have been preserved, and of these
few, scarce any continue to be used in our cathedral service, they
may with truth be called the fathers of our genuine and national
Sacred Music. Indeed I have been able to find, in all my
researches, no choral compositions in other parts of Europe, of
equal antiquity, superior to those which have been preserved of
these authors, the pride of our country, and honour of their
profession !
Thomas Tallis [c. 1505-85], the master of Bird, and one of
the greatest musicians, not only of this country, but of Europe,
during the sixteenth century, in which'so many able contrapuntists
were produced, was born early in the reign of Henry VIII. but
though it has been frequently asserted that he was organist of the
Chapel Royal during the reigns of that Monarch, Edward VI.,
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth; yet it would be difficult to
prove that, in the three first of these reigns, laymen were ever
appointed to any such office. In the reign of Henry, and his
daughter Mary, when the Roman catholic religion prevailed, the
organ, in convents, was usually played by monks; and in
cathedrals and collegiate churches and chapels, by the canons, and
others of the priesthood. The first lay organists of the Chapel
Royal upon record were Dr. Tye, Blithman, the master of Dr.
Bull, Tallis, and Bird; all during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.*
Though the melody of the cathedral service was first adjusted to
English words by Marbeck (r), yet Tallis enriched it with harmony.
Indeed the melody used by Tallis is not exactly similar to that of
Marbeck, it is only of the same kind: consisting of fragments of
the ancient ecclesiastical can to fermo. But the harmony in which
he has clothed it is admirable; and the modulation being so antique,
chiefly in common chords or fundamental harmony to each note
of the diatonic scale, often where the moderns have sixths,
sevenths, and their inversions, produces a solemn and very
(r) See Book II. p. 804.
* Tallis was joint organist at the Chapel Royal with Byrd in 1575 as is shown by the
title page of the Cantiones Sacra which they published in that year.
Vol,, ii. 5. 65
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
different effect from any Music that has been composed during the
present century (s).
There are two compositions by Tallis for the organ, preserved
in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, one of which is dated 1561
[1562], and the other 1564; both built upon a dull and unmean-
ing ground, or fragment of plain-chant, (fcslix namque), and both
alike dry, elaborate, and difficult, to hands formed by modern
Music. The little melody and rhythm in the compositions of these
times required all the harmony that could be crowded into them.
Notes are multiplied without end, and difficulties created without
effect. It is not by the Instrumental Music, which had been but
little cultivated, that we must judge of the genius of old masters;
but by Vocal, in parts : where the harmony and contrivance
compensate for want of accent, taste, and invention. A Prayer,
in four parts, published by Tallis in 1565, has been already given
(t); but the Latin Motets and Hymns, or Cantiones sacra, which
he published jointly with those of his disciple Bird, are perhaps the
best of his compositions that have been preserved. These appeared
in 1575, under the following title: Cantiones qua ab Argumento
sacra vocantur quinque et sex Partium. Autoribus Thoma Tallissio
et Gulielmo Birdo, Anglis, Serenissimce Regince Majestati a privato
sacello Generosis et Organistis. At the time of this publication, a
very arbitrary and monopolising patent was granted by Queen
Elizabeth to these composers, for twenty-one years, not only for
the publication of their own productions, vocal and instrumental,
but those of all other musicians, whether English, French, or
Italian, as well as for the sole ruling and vending of Music-paper
Most of these excellent compositions, of which the words were
originally Latin, were afterwards adjusted to English words by Dr.
(s) As all melody, in which the semitones are avoided, must resemble that of Scotland :
so all harmony, in which neither the tritonus nor false fifth occur, and where the second, third,
and sixth of the key, are only accompanied with ccmmon chords, must remind us of that
which prevailed in the sixteenth century; and though so ancient, appear new to our ears,
from its long disuse.
(t) See above, p. 33.
(u) " The Extract and Effect of the Qvenes Maiesties letters patents to Thomas Tallis and
William Birde, for the printing of Musicke :
"Elizabeth, by the grace of God Quene of Englande, Fraunce, and Irelande, Defender
of the Faith, &c. To all printers, bokesellers, and other officers, ministers, and subiects,
greting : Knowc ye, that we for the especiall affection and good wil that we haue and beare
to the science of Musicke, and for the aduauncement thereof, by our letters patents dated the
xxii. of lanuary, in the xvii. yere of our raigne, have graunted full priuiledge and licence
vnto our welbeloued seruaunls Thomas Tallis and William Birde, Gent, of our Chappell, and
to the overlyuer of them, and to the assignes of them, and the suruiuer of them, for xxi.
yeares next ensuing, to imprint any and so many as they will of set songe or songes in partes,
either in English, Latine, French, Italian, or other tongues that may serue for Musicke either
in churche or chamber, or otherwise to be either plaid or soonge; and that they may rule, and
cause to be ruled, by impression, any paper to serue for printing of pricking of any songe or
songes, and may sell and vtler any printed bokes and papers of any songe or songes, or any
booke, or quieres of such ruled paper imprinted. Also we straightly by the same forbid all
printers, bookeseller;. subiects and straungers, other than as is aforesaid, to do any the
premisses, or to bring, or cause to be brought out of any forren realms into any our dominions,
any songe or songes made and printed in any forren countrie, to sell or put to sale, vppon
Paine of our high displeasure; and the offender in any of the premisses for euery time to
forfet to us, our heires, and successors, fortie shillings; and to the said Thomas Tallis and
William Birde, or to their assignes, and to the assignes of the suruiuer of them, all and every
the said bokes, papers, songe, or songes. We haue also by the same willed and commaunded
our printers, maisters and wardens of the misterie of stationers, to assist the said Thomas
Tallis and William Birde, and their assignes, for the dewe executing of the premisses."
66
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Aldrich, and others, for the use of our cathedrals.* The canons,
inversions, augmentations, diminutions, and other learned and
fashionable contrivances of the times, which were of very difficult
accomplishment, are carried to a wonderful degree of ingenuity in
these productions.
Dr. Thomas Tudway, of Cambridge, made a very valuable
collection of English Church Music, in score, from the Reformation
to the Restoration, in six volumes, thick 4to. for Lord Harley,
afterwards Earl of Oxford, which is now among the Harleian
manuscripts, in the British Museum, No. 7337. In the first volume
of this collection we have the whole service of Tallis in D minor,
in four parts, consisting of the Te Deum, Benedictus, Kyrie Eleison,
Credo, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and Litany, as printed in 1760,
by Dr. Boyce; with several anthems in four and five parts: as,
" Wipe away my sins; With all our hearts and mouths; O Lord,
give thy holy spirit; I call and cry: " and his anthem, " Discomfit
them, O Lord! " erroneously said by Dr. Tudway to have been
set for the victory over the Spanish Armada, 1588.
In Christ Church, Oxford, are manuscript scores of his Preces,
Litany, and Anthems, among others by Bird, Farrant, Bull,
Gibbons, and Child. Five of his motets and full anthems, in five
parts, to Latin and English words, are likewise here preserved
among the works of other English masters, in Dr. Aldrich' s
collection. But the most curious and extraordinary of all his
labours, was his Song of Forty Parts,** which is still subsisting
(x). This wonderful effort of harmonical abilities is not divided
into choirs of four parts: soprano, altus, tenor, and base, in each,
like the compositions a molti cori, of Benevoli, and others; but
consists of eight trebles, placed under each other; eight mezzi
soprani, or mean parts; eight counter-tenors; eight tenors; and
eight bases; with one line allotted to the organ. All these several
parts, as may be imagined, are not in simple counterpoint, or filled
up in mere harmon}^ without meaning or design, but have each
a share in the short subjects of fugue and imitation, which are
introduced upon every change of words. The first subject is begun
in G, by the first mezzo soprano, or medius, and answered in D,
the fifth above, by the first soprano; the second medius in like
manner beginning in G, is answered in the octave below by the
first tenor, and that by the first counter-tenor in D, the fifth above;
then the first base has the subject in D, the eighth below the
counter-tenor; and thus all the forty real parts are severally
introduced in the course of thirty-nine bars, when the whole vocal
phalanx is employed at once, during six bars more (y). After which
(x) After being in the possession of the Earl of Oxford, it was attracted into the vortex
of Dr. Pepusch; but is, at present the property of Mr. Robert Bremner, Music-printer, in the
Strand.
(y) The entire composition consists of one hundred and thirty-eight bars, in alia breve
time.
* It must not be assumed that all the works of Tallis to English words were adaptations
from Latin texts. Grove's (Vol. V. p. 260) gives 18 Anthems which are original settings of
English words.
Volume VI. of the T.C.M. is devoted to Latin Church Music by him.
** A copy of the 40-part motet Spent in alium non habui is in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 29968).
and other copies exist.
67
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
a new subject is led off by the lowest base, and pursued by other
parts, severally, for about twenty-four bars, when there is another
general chorus of all the parts; and thus this stupendous, though
perhaps Gothic, specimen of human labour and intellect, is carried
on in alternate flight, pursuit, attack, and choral union to the end;
when the Polyphonic Phenomenon is terminated by twelve bars of
universal chorus, in quadragintesimal harmony (z).
This venerable musician died in November, 1585, and was
buried in the old parish church of Greenwich, in Kent. The
following epitaph, which Dr. Boyce has printed in the first volume
of his Collection of Cathedral Music, Strype, in his Continuation
of Stow's Survey, printed 1720, says he found engraved in Gothic
letters, on a brass plate in the chancel.
lEnterreB fjere Botfj In a toorfyg toggjjt,
WLfyo for long tgme in fflwitn oore tfje bell :
Hts name to sbeto bias Thomas Tailis ijsgfjt,
En fyonest bertuous Igff fje tJijfci ereell.
He serb'U long tgme in ©tjappel tottf) grete pragse
jFotoer Soberejognes retgnes, (a rinng not often seene) ;
$ mean 3fttng Henry anB ^rgnee Edward's trages,
<&,uene Marie an& Elizabeth our <&rtene,
He margeti toas, tfjougi) eljtlftren ije ijafcf none,
&nB Igb'B in lobe full tijree antr tijtrtg geres
®2Etti) logal snomse, b)l>os name gelept bias Jone,
Mfjo l)ere entomtj'U, ijtm eompang nob) Bears.
as Ije BgB lj>be, so also BgB ije Bg,
In m»lQ anB quget sort, © ijaong man !
2To ^5oti ful oft for merej) tftD fje erg,
Wherefore i)e Igbes, let Betlj Bo mljat lie ean.
The stone to which this plate was affixed had been renewed by
Dr. Aldrich; but the old church having been pulled down, about
the year 1720, in order to be rebuilt, no memorial remains of Tailis,
or any other illustrious person, who had been interred there, anterior
to that period (a).
(z) If ever any other compositions than those of Handel were to be performed in
Westminster-Abbey, during the stupendous Annual Congress of Musicians, it seems as if this,
and others of Tailis, Bird, Gibbons, and Purcel, should have the advantage of such a correct
and numerous choral band.
(a) In the tenor part of the beautiful set of manuscript books in the musical library of
Christ Church, Oxon, already mentioned, containing many admirable compositions, chiefly to
Latin words, by the best English masters of the sixteenth century, among which are several by
Tailis, which were entered in these books during his life; we find at the end of No. 42, the
following distichs :
Quatuor illustris vixit sub Regibns iste
Tallissius magno dignus honore senex.
Sub quibus eximius si Mttsicus esset habendus
Tallissius semper gloria prima fuit.
In the base part, p. 20, is likewise this distict :
Talis et tantus Tallissi Musicus, ut si
Fata senex auferrent Musica muta joret.
And p. 43, it is said, Mortuus est 23° Novembris, 1585. Sepultus Grenovici in Chori Ecclesia
Parochialis. Which being recorded at the time, invalidates Dr. Tudway's supposition, that his
anthem, "Discomfit them, 0 Lord," was composed for the Spanish invasion, 1388.
68
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
I shall here insert two movements, by this admirable contra-
puntist, from the Cantiones Sacrce, (No. I. and No. XIII.) which
are become very scarce; and though they are somewhat long,
and will require more plates than I can well afford to give, yet,
if foreigners should ever deign to look into my book, it is my wish,
for the honour of our nation, they should see, that long before
the works and reputation of Palestrina had circulated throughout
Europe, we had Choral Music of our own, which for gravity of
style, purity of harmony, ingenuity of design, and clear and
masterly contexture, was equal to the best productions of that
truly venerable master.
All that is likely to disturb modern eyes and ears in the first
of these compositions, is the frequent use of the 3d. with the f , (at
this mark +), which occurs likewise in most of Tallis's other
productions: a combination that later contrapuntists have long
since avoided. The ear, however, may tolerate this triple dissonance
on most occasions, except when it immediately precedes a close,
(as at this sign -ff ), where it must offend every cultivated and
well-organised ear.
In the second example, the answers to the two first subjects
of fugue, or imitation, are curious: being very ingeniously given
in the third below each part; which, though uncommon, is pleasing,
and productive of good effects, from the alternate use of major
and minor keys : j=^P
*
3^
At the
introduction of new words, there are six other subjects of fugue
and double counterpoint in this movement; all which are treated
in a very masterly manner.
From the Cantiones sacrse of T. Tallis.
Cantio ima.
Superius
Discantus
Contra
Tenor
Tenor
Bassus
Sal - va ■
i5
^
fe
m
^s
-Ton NWNbl
0""-
SflL - VA To1fl"UHDI
SAL- 1*9-
:R=^
f=c
g cL.3j^p
NOS SAL.
Sal- va
SAL- va —
a p*
i i i
^
IbH tn\WDI
Sal-va-
zsz
SSI
£5
gg^
■*/&/? flW/VDI
69
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
32
3^
g§
NoSSRL-VR
/vo-i
SlRL-
mr - Tor
fili/NDI SftL--
vr no$
SRL - l/A
-3?=5-
~ o
gE
o - o
^
.T/tt- M
/«?/ i&t.-
»W TbR
mutDi Sal-
^fK
«IJ»¥? d
si
i
/X<tf //9i-
NoS Srl- M
NOS SflL-
09 ToR
gBI d ^ ^
±S
a 0.
o o
SflL-VR
NOS SAL-
m
&
^m
s
rfW*- w - -Tor mi>Na sal- va
NoS SflL-VR
IsS
i^gs^
^^
^
fVoigOL
va nos
Qui T£p CA< -C£n> £r san
-eJiNem ve-
¥=*
jgjgg
^3
>3:
&
is
=*!
*— p
g~r
te
tat- k»
*w <*//
VsrCrv-cl m ET SAN —
Sui- N&n
ETSANGtllM*
a - J
7^
4=SC
° deL^s^C^
a?
WrfceUcerfiri'
toVNDI SRL-
VR NOS
SAL--VR
NOS SDL -
NOS 9i"
■ Ih'lrp-Jj
3*
&E
F=3G£
"KM- T0JP
muHtiSRL-
Vfi
NOS SfiL- *R COS
9i/i Tee CBu-Cem sts/hh
m
F^
a=g=
v^W^
£flu --VR 7&f mUNDI SfiL- VH NOS SfU.--VR--- NOS All TER CRv-cem ET
' O' WQ I : 1 1 I g mi iq : |
toN4ui»E*B£WW&''>£'mQ~7' NViXe-VZ-fiXt' Ti
NOS AIT*. -/- LI- A- R£.
m
tt
s=m:±
^
f^jLcL
s
g
r-±
+^
-3&
"O^
v-gsm-i-u
A-fig NO-- .'.., . BIS TS
T>Bi*e-c£mim -De. UJ No&
HE££
ipS
^^^
-new- -■
3HAU*-I-
■BtS TS
T>EP^-£Amur
De- us nos
e*
©-©-
^p^
as
w
^p
w?
~s*-p-
t±
i
- tfa /IW.
to-3/^ rs- - -dephs-cr
■mvRveus
^^
r»? g
d-^^
n=
8ismi*-i-Li
R- ve wo ■
wm
3>gpfie - CROIUR $
£
o=p
§?e£
±±
Ms - . B/S flUf-l-LJ- R -RS NO ■
70
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
g^
i£££
^^=^^
sSSSig
i^^
*
?a 7>£P8B •&>-/»!//? T>E"-
m
cN^&
=£
s
3ESi
^^H<F=^^
fffsF^
B5
-7£tf £^- - - US Not - -
■ nv
7£ D£--?6B C# mADEttS /ftVt
^^SE
^^
©5
^|
w?=&
^E
&
-TSiP JAtf
tut.
TTSPT£
■DeeMMf&t z>s-us tvus
gs^a
g
1^
ZEC
3^
5:
I
^
#?i- /»»*- T£fiD£USKc.'" T£V
De- -Fae-crt/HiS®
»
i=3S
IS
s
ss
75 nente- camun se- - os iws- ----- T^^
Tr*—^^^
pg 5 dj
pE;
tOttr
HKlHh
-ftOife
_ 7&f
i»«tf ms
on? rp-
n%^=
ES
4— g-
e
2BE
it ) i r
*-©-■
pp^jjgqrt
-7^* ".»£■
i/# /*itf ■
T£89eosftoi
rsft
0 O
i£
"^=9=
iJEggE
--^i^'ft-— rtpSJt-1
- - -. 7£tf £#_
tfS" /?<#.
..7XP
Z>£fce? /Sag T&t~
=S=
*
^fe
Sfca£E
4k
s
5s?
3ps
-»^g-4-
$Sl^r-ii£M
Ze-
vs KGS-
TB» &£- US
Tgadsus &&S
s
^2
£=&
w^
g?
£
§=
3
>^7 "l^^grf
it_g ll
7? 9S*FlRa OHW8 Z>S- t/$ DSVS /MOS ■ -rek ~Z£us fe&S ■
Motet from the Cantiones sacrse of T. Tallis.
Cantio 13.
pEEE
^^
33im
m
OOP'
s
£3=3:
-a-f-
^
X>£- XS-
unaitiT /m-
Tius 17-
/9/w 1// flni St>
PP=
a^
^
^g
*EE5£
He --Jte-
E
3z
^
»tt
^
.a? — sw- • u/vat/rr
m
^^^^
2?a=
ea
3S
»
o<
- KB- L/n>at4T ""Pl'-trS
■ fl/n
Dem-ufii-
s
<*//7~ //»
C//?/n ^f •
^/« .ft/ /?/»»
^^
^
B
^=5C
lor
1S?S
ap
^
^^
^s
-^O O^
r ' r r
fe
5Cg=
g-C« p
' 1 i » ' :
m
1 Su-
Vif m Su
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Uli
i»«da
^^
m
^^^^^
5j^E
H
£T C//P /A-/ -• au/f J Co&i-T/i-ti
o/res Su
£T f?BVER-
•fc£
nm
■io o o
8^=^
-Ptr-t
~r g j
cr^-g-
O I i
-fimSo
/£#/?* CoSi-
So
»» O Q~
o oik A
-i — i *-'
o o o
^ff^
3P£
J - r
t'/fl/n iV-
5^
^If^H^
ffo=i
? r" r «
g=ps
r i i rr
n=3=F
1
EOXt
c ^o
3^E
^ p
-©-©-©-
©-H-
±=i
=ffo$:
tor
a/- - -
*-f>m$u- -
fg^s^^
o-e-
Si
^^fe
^^
-■T/ffuH flDDo
to
TtevexTArvi?
AD DO- mi n urn er /n,fe—
P »Q
*E
i^
^
33
ftp
s
^
t=4=?
t±i
ffl
iSff
ErneveRrAn.
mae $£—&/-
a a'
o -
-ooo
Ndd 6
■RSt/Elf- T»-
o a
ETW£V£X-
S
-- /novum
7I//V #j>J)omi
33+=S=
3£
nevsx-T/iTuR
f»J3 so — /W-
g
r^^is^
--SH3-9-
£zt
I' i i
^T 1fBV£VTATl/li
^^
P^
iffiE
g "
^?2
_ 7P£- S/A/i? f-
///.?
/»/-/£ - ffS-'Bnvfi £
<a//
?^
fc^
^^
3 -
■JP?
lot
±zx
f=c
-n« £■-
TZy
ET /nt-SG-
7?£&/7i*? e-
Tus
Qa/-
ff«4s
o ..
^3=©=
gg j i
^^
E
5k=gCp=
SE
Nimsr migf-
)1° -
4fcy —
?*? r
aca:
W^
g-er
o -
fi^E
^=t
5=i
fcf3
~77jUT
TUT
Qui-
ermiss-
7!£S/Ti/ E
31
>^g-
^
K
^^
x±
S
^r9-
fi-r
^/-
" -Jc*d
=F5
TT^f
-S— Jet
^
i?
ST/ni-£c-m
"EGrtiG-ms
Co*S
EST
3£m<*vs
■S£g
ggEg
^g*
OOP
1 I 1
1=C
ET/i>ise-~
^SC
Bf */«/V«5 £T/w
P-^
> tSEM&f/Oi
WZE
Wcffhr
^=£
y-g-
sa
?
S:
OTg
R
g^
£^
51* /l /aVi'S
Sfi- /v'/tf/i/to
e^3t
£$r £T Al/S£f!
±±
>"?' »♦
m
■TA
^^rA^-^
w£&
HSM/&/WS
O a
£KT *. 3^-
^^r a?-
72
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
B&Hhi
E
bat
i^3E
E±
ET V/t/BST, 1-&IU3 &IPER
f- m a «J
>- »T y-t—
Qfl**
,-s-g^-
=-g-
S|^gB^
4=f=±
3S
t=H=
r /»/ SESiCOR. \ m/sefii&Si
m
esrerPfi/esv -Bius Super?
£=££
3 I 0
s
^p^
fg^xJ i d
g*— »
i i i
i$CZ
«.A,
esr er m/E-srxB'us Su-psa mau-T/ ..
t=P
&&
^^
±±E
*t
•iu&noSGTmt- se-R icons
est
ervfifEsr, ?- ijivs -ru- -
^
fcfe
^^
=S=^
c)j?o
£4
c^=
3E*
O I I
XC
^-tf'&im ETm- se. tocoKs ESrsrFYf/sitTf- bius sv — 7te* mu-n - - - -it
m*
zs=Oz
&
I I I
mau-- ti
voibiiws ne
os no-.
^=*s;
S5
gSp:
5
■ o- »
±x
gqr
5+
^
t±
-» — f
t±
:H=t
2>0i»iiyis Dp
«5 A'O.
• ster, 2>0' *i#m ie
c#
3=5=
«®^a£
S
=H=?
~r~r
££
f=t
:H=rt
7»
•-Pssmpu-Ti-
-est-
m
*
Pomiiws 2>E
1/3 ffo
i ■ g
^
ftp
o -
-Pfif IhHU-TI -/? 2>omi-3f VSDEtlS No
STe/t
JiOmi-
* ■ WF*1 — ^g gfrrr^ ■ <fc-'<w
n
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
William Bird [1543-1623] the worthy and admirable scholar of
the profound Tallis, is supposed to have been the son of Thomas
Bird, one of the Gentlemen of Edward the Sixth's chapel, in which
he was, himself, a singing-boy.* By the great number of his
ecclesiastical compositions to Latin words, and the several portions
of the Romish ritual which he so frequently set to Music, and
published late in life, he seems to have been long a zealous adherent
to that religion. He must, however, have conformed to the church
establishments of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; for, in 1563, he was
chosen organist of Lincoln cathedral, where he continued till 1569,
when, upon the accidental death of Robert Parsons (b), who was
drowned at Newark upon Trent, he was appointed Gentleman of the
Chapel Royal. Notwithstanding which office, he seems to have
composed the chief part of his Choral Music to Latin words, and to
have published it in that language, as late as the middle of the
reign of King James I.
In 1575, it appears by the title-page of the Cantiones Sacrce, and
the patent annexed to that work, that he and Tallis were not only
Gentlemen of the Royal Chapel, but Organists to her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth.** Indeed both must have been great performers
on the organ , :o have been able to play such of their pieces for that
instrument as are still preserved ; in which the passages, though
awkward to performers who are only accustomed to modern Music,
must have been suggested by hands that were habituated to the
complicated, and now, almost, invincible difficulties of the sixteenth
century. And though the compositions for keyed-instruments, by
these great masters of harmony, are totally unimpassioned, and
without grace it is impossible not to regard their ingenuity and
contrivance in the texture of the parts, with respect and wonder !
If we consider the elaborate style of composition which prevailed,
particularly in the church, during the time of Bird, and that he, like
his master Tallis, was not only ambitious of vanquishing its usual
difficulties in the construction of fugues and canons, but sought new
complications, perplexities, and involutions in the motion and
arrangement of the parts, the following list of his works will not
only manifest diligence, but fecundity.
Besides the great share he had in the Cantiones Sacra, published
in conjunction with his master Tallis, in 1575, when his name first
appears as an author ; and without enumerating many admirable
compositions for the church and chamber, still subsisting, but which
were never printed, or, at least, not till after his decease, he published
(b) See Book II. p. 795.
* The first authentic record of Byrd is his appointment as organist at Lincoln Cathedral
in 1563. It is probable that on his being admitted as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal he
did not relinquish his post at Lincoln immediately, as we hear of his daughter Elizabeth being
baptized there in 1571-2. In December of the same year William Butler succeeded him as
organist, and Byrd then terminated his connection with Lincoln.
** After the death of Tallis in 1585 he remained as sole Organist of the Chapel Royal.
74
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs of Sadnes and Pielie, of five parts
(c), 1588.
Liber primus sacrarum Cantionum, quinque vocum (d), 1589.
Songs of sundrie Natures, some of Gravitie, and others of Myrth,
fit for all Companies and Voyces (e), 1589.
Gradualia ac Cantiones Sacrce, Lib. primus et secundus (/), 1607
and 1610.
The last work published by himself, was entitled,
Psalms, Songs, and Sonnets: some solemne, others joyfull,
framed to the Life of the Words (g): fit for Voyces or Viols, of three,
four, five, and six partes, 1611.
(c) This work is dedicated to Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor, calling it his first
production to English words. At the back of the title we have
"Reasons briefly set downe by th' Auctor, to persuade every one to learn to sing.
"First, It is a knowledge easily taught, and quickly learned, wher there is a good master,
and an apt scoler.
"2. The exercise of singing is delightful to nature, and good to preserve the health of man.
"3. It doth strengthen all parts of the breast, and doth open the pipes.
"4. It is a singular good remedie for a stuttering and stammering in the speech.
"5. It is the best means to preserve a perfect pronunciation, and to make a good orator.
"6. It is the only way to know where nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce :
which gift is so rare, as there is not one among a thousand that hath it : and in many that
excellent gift is lost, because they want an 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 tc honour and serve God therewith : and the
voyce of man is chiefly to be employed to that end.
" Omnis-spiritus laudet Dominum.
Since singing is so good a thing,
I wish all men would learn to sing."
{d) The style of these Sacred Songs, which are dedicated to Edward Somerset, Earl of
Worcester, is peculiarly grave and solid.
(e) Dedicated to Lord Hunsdon; to whom, as well as in the preface, he observes, that
"since the publishing his last labours in' Musicke, the exercise and love of the art had
exceedingly increased."
(/) The first book of these admirable pieces of harmony is dedicated to the Earl of
Northampton, who had prevailed on King James to augment the salaries of the Gentlemen of
the Chapel Royal. The second book is dedicated to Lord Petre. These composiitons are
equally grave and solemn with those of Palestrina, to the same words, and seem in no respect
inferior to the choral works of that great master.
(g) Notwithstanding this boast, he does not seem to have been more attentive to accent,
or successful in attempts at expression, in these songs, than elsewhere. Indeed among his
Songs of sundrie natures, the obvious imitation of the words, by musical intervals, in setting
the 130th Psalm, "From Depth of Sinne"; and that of the trussing, or soaring and stooping
of the falcon, in "The greedy Hawke with sooden Sight of Lure," have not escaped him. But
imitative and picturesque Music, and such beauties as proceed from light and shade, and
variety of effect, were not in contemplation till some time after the musical Drama was
cultivated; so that, deficient as the compositions of our countrymen of the sixteenth century
may be, in these particulars, they are not more deserving of censure than those of the best
masters of Italy, France, and Flanders, of the same period. After pointing out, therefore, the
general inattention at this time to prosody, accent, and quantity, in setting to Music every
language, ancient and modern, it would be more candid to others, and, perhaps, kind to
ourselves, to examine the compositions of old masters by such rules as were at that period
established, than by ex post facto laws. We should then find a grateful purity of harmony,
such as the age allowed, in which a sparing use was made of such discords only as were least
offensive; an ingenuity of design and contrivance; a solemnity of style, and a sober modulation;
which, though not appropriated to Ecclesiastical Music only, in the time of Tallis and Bird,
renders its performance peculiarly grave, and the sensations it excites totally remote from all
those which are now produced by modern Music of any kind, ecclesiastical or secular.
75
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Dr. Tudway's collection, in the British Museum, contains a
whole service in D minor, by Bird, with responses, and the anthems,
Sing joyfully unto God — 0 Lord, turn thy Wrath — (all published
in the second and third volumes of Dr. Boyce's Cathedral Music). —
0 Lord, make thy Servant — Save me, 0 God — Prevent us, 0 Lord.
Civitas sancti tuo, one of his Sacrarum Cantionum, or Sacred Songs,
published 1589, has been long sung in our cathedrals to the English
words, " Bow thine ear, O Lord," and is one of the admirable pieces
of harmony in the second volume of Boyce's printed collection.
Dr. Aldrich, who was a great admirer and collector of the works
of Bird, and who adapted English words to most of his compositions
which have been used in our cathedrals, and that were originally
set to parts of the Romish service, in Latin, has bequeathed to Christ
Church, Oxon, beautiful and correct copies of most of his
productions. In the small quarto set of books, already mentioned,
near forty of his compositions are preserved ; and in another set,
many more, with those of Tallis, Taverner, Tye, White, Redforde,
both the Mundys, Shepherd, Bull, and other cotemporary English
masters.
His pieces for the organ and virginals are almost innumerable.
In a magnificent folio manuscript, curiously bound in red Morocco,
already mentioned (h), which is generally known by the name of
Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book,* there are near seventy of
his compositions (i) .
The first piece by Bird, in this book, and the eighth in the
collection, is a Fantasia, which generally implies a Fugue, in which
the subject is as frequently changed as in ancient Choral Music,
where new words require new accents and intervals ; for as yet, it
was not the custom in composing fugues to confine a whole movement
(/[) Vide p. 24.
(i) This book, equally valuable for its antiquity and contents, was purchased at Dr.
Pepusch's sale, in 1762, by Mr. Robert Bremner, whose property it is at present. The writing
is small, but uncommonly neat, upon six lines. The compositions are in general extremely
elaborate and difficult; particularly those by Bird, Dr. Bull, and Giles Farnabie, who have all
contributed largely to the furnishing of this volume, which contains near three hundred pieces.
The first movement in the book is an old English tune, called Walsingham, beginning in C
natural, and ending in A major, which Dr. Bull has varied, in a most full and complicated
style, thirty different ways. Signora Margarita, the wife of Dr. Pepusch, when she quitted the
Opera stage, applied cloely to the practice of the harpsichord; upon which instrument she
became a great proficient. However, with all her own diligence and talents, assisted by the
science and experience of her husband, she was never able to vanquish the difficulties of this
piece, by Dr. Bull. And several of Dr. Pepusch's friends and pupils, who went frequently to
his apartments at the Charter-house, have assured me, that though this manuscript was
constantly open upon her harpsichord desk, she never advanced to the end of the variations;
as seems likewise manifest from the colour, as well as wear and tear, of the leaves, which are
much more clean and entire in every other part of the book, than at the first strains of this
composition.
* This is now known as the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and is deposited in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. A modern reprint was edited by J. A. Fuller MaitJand and W. Barclay
Squire, and published by B. and H. between 1894-99 in monthly parts.
A cheap reprint of this important collection is urgently needed. The complete work
contains 297 pieces for the virginals, of which number Byrd contributed 72 original works or
settings of music by other composers.
76
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
to one theme : and here Bird introduces five or six, wholly different
and unconnected with each other (k).
The subject of the second composition, by Bird, in the Royal
Virginal Book, is the tune of an old ballad, " Jhon come kiss me
now; " of which, with great labour and ingenuity, he has varied
the accompaniments sixteen different ways ; for while the treble,
base, or some inward part is always playing the original air, three
other parts are moving in fugue, or running rapid and difficult
divisions (l). No. 52, is another Fancie ; and 56, a Pavan, by
Bird ; which implied a grave majestic dance, in common time,
similar to the movement of the Peacock (m). This strain was
usually followed by the Galliard ; which, on the contrary, was a gay
and lively dance, in triple time, but on the same subject as the
preceding Pavan (n). No. 58, is entitled, The Carman's Whistle.
From No. 58 to 69, the compositions are all by Bird ; consisting
chiefly of old tunes, with variations ; among which is Fortune, a
plaintive and expressive melody, to which the ballad, called Titus
Andronicus 's Complaint, inserted in Reliques of ancient English
Poetry, Vol. I. p. 204, was originally written. It has been
imagined that the rage for variations, that is, multiplying notes,
and disguising the melody of an easy, and, generally, well-known
air, by every means that a spacca nota, or note splitter, sees
possible, was the contagion of the present century ; but it appears
from the Virginal Book, that this species of influenza, or corruption
of air, was more excessive in the sixteenth century, than at any
other period of Musical History.
(k) The first regular fugue, for the organ, upon one subject, that I have seen, was
composed by Peter Philips, about the end of the sixteenth century, and is inserted in the
Virginal Book of Queen Elizabeth, which contains eighteen or twenty of his compositions. He
was an Englishman, but resided chiefly abroad, being for some time organist of the collegiate
church of St. Vincent, at Soignies, in Germany; and afterwards engaged in the service of the
Archduke Albert of Austria. Draudius (Bibl. Class, et Exotica,) has given the titles of several
of his vocal compositions; and Peacham (p. 102) says, " Nor must I forget our rare
countryman, 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." Second Edit, 1634. This author has
manifested considerable abilities in treating a single subject, which he has introduced no less
than thirty-nine times: simple; in augmentation; and in diminution. The harmony is very
full, but the modulation being chiefly confined to the key-note, and its fifth, is somewhat
monotonous; and the divisions, in accompanying the subject, are now become too common and
vulgar to afford pleasure, or even to be heard with patience, by fastidious judges of modern
melody. It has been said by M. Marpurg (Traite de la Fugue), that fugues enjoy the privilege
of greater longevity than any other species of Music; {les fugues composees il y a cent ans
sont encore aussi neuves que si elles I'avoient ete de nos jours); but then the subjects must
be sober, pleasing, and rigorously pursued, without extraneous episodes, or fashionable
divisions, which being the agremens, or trimmings, of the times, become antiquated, and often
ridiculous, in a very few years. The simplicity of Corelli's style has doubtless greatly
contribued to the longevity of his compositions; and it seems as if the more transient general
use and favour of Purcell's productions, who flourished about the same time, may be ascribed
to the temporary graces and embellishments with which, for the use of ignorant singers, he
loaded his melodies, which his other excellencies of invention, modulation, and expression of
words, could not save from neglect. And in the course of my musical reading, I have
constantly found, by the Riffwramenti recommended at different times bv musicians of taste
in Italy, that written graces have the same fate in every country : they are the jurbelows and
flounces of the day, which become the sooner obsolete and ridiculous, in proportion to the
degree of caprice and fantasticalness with which they are made.
(I) I should have inserted this air, and the variations, but that they are too numerous,
and indeed too difficult, ever to be vanquished by many of my musical readers.
(m) It is sometimes, however, written by the Italians, Padoana, as if it was peculiar to
the city of Padua.
(«) See Morley's Introd. p. 187, 1st edit,
77
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Crowded and elaborate as is the harmony, and uncouth and
antiquated the melody, of all the pieces in this collection by various
composers, there is a manifest superiority in those of Bird over all
the rest, both in texture and design (o). In a later age his genius
would have expanded in works of invention, taste, and elegance ;
but at the period in which he flourished, nothing seems to have
been thought necessary for keyed-instruments, except variations to
old tunes, in which all the harmony was crowded, which the singers
could grasp, and all the rapid divisions of the times, which they
could execute. Even nominal Fancies were without fancy, and
confined to the repetition of a few dry and unmeaning notes in
fugue, or imitation. Invention was so young and feeble, as to be
unable to go alone ; and old chants of the church, or tunes of the
street, were its leading-strings and guides.
Though the Reformation had banished superstition from the
land, fragments of canio fermo, like rags of Popery, still remained in
our old secular tunes, and continued to have admission in the new.
Indeed the melodies of all the rest of Europe had no other model
than the chants of the church, till the cultivation of the Musical
Drama ; whence all the rhythm, accent, and grace of modern Music,
have manifestly been derived.
As The Carman's Whistle has more air, and is less complicated
in the texture of the parts, than the rest of Bird's Virginal Music,
I shall present it to the reader, as a specimen of the manner in which
these vulgar tunes were played, on keyed-instruments, by the best
masters of Queen Elizabeth's time.
The Carman's Whistle with Variations, by W. Bird.*
(o) La Volta, an Italian dance, Wohey's Wilde, and Callino Castorame, all artificially
wrought, and manufactured for the Virginal Book, by Bird, were melodies of the best and
most chearful kind, of the times, and are still airy and pleasing.
* As this piece is so well known it has not been given entire, but enough is printed to
enable the reader to get a good idea of Byrd's manner of writing for the virginals.
78
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
jjggwngg *'■
Besides the great number of Bird's compositions for keyed-
instruments, which are preserved in the Virginal Book of Queen
Elizabeth, another manuscript collection of his pieces still subsists,
under the title of Lady N evil's Music Book* It is a thick quarto,
very splendidly bound and gilt, with the family arms beautifully
emblazoned and illuminated on the first page, and the initials H N
at the lowest left hand corner. The Music is all written in large,
bold characters, with great neatness, on four staved paper, of six
lines, by Jo. Baldwine, a singing-man at Windsor, and a celebrated
copyist of Queen Elizabeth's time. The pieces contained in this
collection, sixteen of which are entered in that Queen's Virginal
Book, amount to forty-two, with variations to many of them, of
* This fine MS. was in the possession of Dr. Burney, and at the sale of his effects in 1S26
realised £\i os. 6d. It is now in the possession of the Marquess of Abergavenny, and was
published by Curwen in 1926, edited by Miss Hilda Andrews. The MS. contains 42 pieces, all
by Byrd, and according to an inscription at the end was finished in 1591: "By me Jo. Baldwine
of Windsore. Laudes Deo."
Other collections of virginal music are : Will Foster's Virginal Book, which has 78 pieces
and dates from 1624. A number of the works by Bull and Byrd is also found in the
Fitzwilliam Book. This book does not appear to have been printed.
Benjam Cosyn's Virginal Book has 98 pieces and is not dated. It probably was completed
before May 1622. A selection of pieces from this MS. has been published by J. and W.
Chester, Ltd.
Parthenia was published in 1611. A reprint was issued by the Musical Antiquarian Society
in 1847 and also by Madame Farrenc in part vi. of her "Tresor des Pianistes."
Parthenia lnviolata, the second book of keyboard music printed in England (c. 1611-14) is a
companion volume to Parthenia. Only one copy of Parthenia lnviolata is known, and this is
now in the New York City Public Library. It is described in an article by E. Brennecke, Jun.,
in the Musical Times for August, 1934.
There are many more virginal pieces in MSS. in the B.M. and on the Continent, and it is
high time that a collected edition of all known Virginal Music was undertaken.
7y
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the most laboured and difficult kind. The notes, both white and
black, are of the lozenge form, like those of the printed Music of
the same period. A A 4
Lady Nevill seems to have been the scholar of Bird, who
professedly composed several of the pieces for her Ladyship's
use (p).
None of Bird's pieces for keyed instruments seem to have been
printed, except eight movements in a thin folio book of lessons
that was engraved on copper, and published in the reign of King
James I. under the following title: " Parthenia, or the Maiden-
head of the first Musicke that ever was printed for the Virginalls.
Composed by three famous masters : William Byrd, Dr. John Bull,
and Orlando Gibbons, Gentlemen of his Majesties most illustrious
Chappel (q)." These lessons, though not equally difficult with
some of those in the Virginal Books of Queen Elizabeth and Lady
Nevill, are rather more dry and ungraceful.
The canon, Non nobis Domine,* appears in none of his works
published by himself, or collected by others, before the year 1652;
when Hilton inserted, and prefixed the name of Bird to it, in a
collection of Catches, Rounds, and Canons. But as no claim was
laid to it by, or in favour of, any other composer, before or since
that time, till about the middle of the present century, when it was
given to Palestrina by Carlo Ricciotti, who published, in Holland,
among his concertos, a fugue in eight parts, on the same subject,
(p) The first composition in the book is entitled Ladye Nevill's Grownde; the second,
Qui passe; for my Lady Nevill. The rest are entered in the following order: \ The March
before the Battell. This in Queen Elizabeth's book is called, "The Earl of Oxford's March."
The Battell; the March of Footemen; the March of Horsemen; the Trumpetts; the Irish
Marche; the Bagpipe and Drone; the Flute and Broome; the March to fight; Tantara; the Battells
be joyned; the Retreat; the Galliarde for the Victorie; the Barley Breake; the Galliarde Gygg;
t the Hunt's upp; t Ut. re. mi. fa. sol. la. Then follow nine Pavians, and nine Galliardes,
several of which are in the Royal Virginal Book. After which is the Voluntarie Lesson; t Will
you walk the Woods soe wylde (composed in 1590); f the May den's Songe; a Lesson of
Voluntarie; the second Grownde; | Have with you to Walsingham; All in a Garden grene; the
Lord Willobie's Welcome Home; f the Carman's Whistle; f Hugh Ashton's Grownde; a
Fancie, for my Lady Nevill; f Sellinger's Rownde; Munser's (Monsieur's) Almaine; the tenth
Pavian; a Fancie; a Voluntarie.— The pieces with this mark t are in Queen Elizabeth's
Virginal Book.
It is recorded by the copyist that his labour was "ffinished and ended the leventh of
September; in the yeare of our Lorde God, 1591, and in the 33 yeare of the raigne of our
Sofferaine Ladie Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, &c. By me, Jo. Baldwyne, of Windsore."
(3) Bird being here called "Gentilman of his Majesties chappel," seems to imply, that he
was still living when it was published. King James died 1525, and Bird 1523. The three
first movements in this collection, consisting of a Preludium; Pavana; Sir William Peder; and
a Galiardo; are in G minor, and may be called a Suite of Lessons. The fourth and fifth
movements, Preludium; and Galiardo, Mrs. Marye Brownlo, in C; and the sixth, seventh and
eighth, Pavana, the Earle of Salisbury; Galiardo primo; and Galiardo secundo, Mrs. Marye
Brownlo, in A minor; constitute what may likewise be regarded as two other Suites de Pieces,
or Sets of Lessons.
* The author of this canon is not mentioned in either the 1652 or 1658 editions of Catch as
Catch Can. It is however generally attributed to Byrd and in Playford's Musical Banquet,
1651, it is found on the title page with his name.
80
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
there seems no doubt remaining of our countryman Bird having
been the author of that pleasing and popular composition (r) .
Bird died in 1623, surviving his master Tallis thirty-eight years;
and if we suppose him to have been twenty in the year 1563, when
he was chosen organist of Lincoln, he must have been eighty at his
decease. Peacham, in his Complete Gentleman, speaks of him
with great reverence (s); as does his pupil, Morley, in his
Introduction, as well as every professor and musical writer of his
own and later times. At this remote period but little, however,
can be known of his private life, which was too studious and
sedentary to have furnished history, at any time, with events of
general interest (t). That he was a diligent cultivator of his art
appears from his numerous works, which are more the productions
of meditation and study, than of haste and enthusiasm. That he
was pious, the words he selected, and the solemnity and gravity
of style with which he set them, sufficiently evince. Of his moral
character and natural disposition, there can perhaps be no
testimonies more favourable, or less subject to suspicion, than those
of rival professors, with whom he appears to have lived during a
long life with cordiality and friendship. And, of the goodness of his
heart, it is, to me, no trivial proof, that he loved, and was beloved,
by his master, Tallis (u), and scholar, Morley (x); who, from their
intimate connexion with him, must have seen him en robe de
chambre, and been spectators of all the operations of temper, in
the opposite situations of subjection and dominion.
(f) Zarlino, Palestrina, and many others of the old Italian masters, have made the same
series of sounds the subject of incidental points in their compositions, but in none of their
works have I been able to discover a regular Canon on the same; motivo. Morley has worked
upon it, p. 160, but calls it "a most common point." — This celebrated canon has been lately
said, by the ingenious aifthor of "Letters on various Subjects," to contain "some passages not
to be endured." And indeed the established and fundamental rules for the use of discords are
thrice violated in this favourite composition; for bar 6 and 9, the 7th is resolved on the 8th; and
bar 10, an unprepared 7th ascends to the 8th. while the base is stationary. But I believe this
last fault is occasioned by our performing this species of canon in a manner different from
that used by our ancestors; who finished, one at a time, as they began. I am sorry, however,
to be of a different opinion from a writer of acknowledged good taste in the polite arts, with
respect to Catches of all ki?ids; but it seems to me as if the censure he has passed on them
were too severe, and too general. There are surely some catches, not only ingeniously
composed, but of which the humour is at once pleasant and innocent, and which may, therefore,
without degrading human nature, in their turn, have admission into good company during times
of hilarity, as well as elegies, and the musical Comedies Larmoianles, or serious glees, in the
more maudlin moments of artificial melancholy. Catches acted on a stage, or over-acted in a
room. I pretend not to defend. Humour is the gift of too few for it ever to be found equally
distributed to a whole club, or company of singers, either in public or private.
(s) "For Motets and Musicke of piety and devotion, as well for the honour of our nation,
as the merit of the man, I preferre above all others our Phoenix, Mr. 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 their commendation of strangers, in
regard of that conceipt they hold of themselves. His Cantiones Sacrce, as also his Gradualia,
are meere angelicall and divine; and being of himselfe naturally disposed to gravity and piety,
his veine is not so much for light madrigals or canzonets; yet his Virginella, and some others
in his first set, cannot be mended by the first Italian of them all." Second Impression, p. 100.
(t) With respect to what Ant. Wood asserts in his Fasti, that "Bird was excellent in
mathematics," it is, in his usual way, supported by no proof; and indeed mathematicshave so
little to do with practical Music, either in composition or performance, that those musicians who
are most ignorant of the ratio or philosophy of sounds seem constantly to have arrived at the
highest degree of excellence in the selection, combination, and refinement of them in practice,
by the mere assistance of experience, and the gift of good ears and powerful nerves.
(u) The Cantiones Sacrce were composed and published jointly by these great masters
in I575-
(.t) His Introduction is dedicated to his master Bird.
VOL. ii. 6. 81
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Indeed, the best memorials of a professional man's existence are
his surviving works; which, from their having been thought worthy
of preservation by posterity, entitle him to a niche in the Temple
of Fame, among the benefactors of mankind. The physician who
heals the .diseases, and alleviates the anguish of the body, certainly
merits a more conspicuous and honourable place there; but the
musician, who eminently sooths our sorrows, and innocently diverts
the mind from its cares during health, renders his memory dear to
ths grateful and refined part of mankind, in every civilised nation.
Of this great harmonist's Sacred Music, besides what is contained
in the collections of Dr. Tudway and Dr. Boyce, as admirable
monuments still remain in all our cathedrals, it seems the less
necessary to insert specimens here. I shall, however, present the
lovers of antiquity with a Sacred and a Secular Song, as examples
of his clear and learned style : the first is valuable for the gravity
and simplicity of the subjects in fugue, as well as for the purity of
the harmony; and the second is rendered extremely curious by the
ingenuity and abilities with which each theme proposed by the
superius is perpetually answered by the other parts, from the
beginning to the end of the composition.*
The second of the following compositions, in order to hear the
effect of the harmony and contrivance, may be performed as an
instrumental piece, with three violins, tenor, and base; or sung as
a single song, making the Superius the vocal part, and the other
parts the accompaniments.
Sacred Song. From the Songs of sundrie natures, of Wm. Bird;
Printed 1589.
M
£i
?
Q?Q-
^5
as
IeS a
rsz
j— f
m
te
0 uonn
mysoi
M>rst/8D is Tkyseovfrn-
TUy seavAitr fat
\Q O,
S
S3i
S
^?^*
/nySeo
m
FUSM&SUKS)
es
- p£d
-o^-
e±
v±
LErnetH it
be
o Lom> i*Y God
g
S
Sj
o^-g
W
%
O LOKD
myeoD
%c
-g-Q-
O -
^^
^
*v3r
P -d
^£
Sim --bus. o LofD my
GOD LET FLB£H &e
IST-THS Y>C1tLb
Be.-
£-±k&24
^^ii^
3£i
25^
ff
CBAVflNT/ltr
woau> iecetve.
^fe
^g
S??2
5S
b"r r ? ?
gj^o
— -s-
*
n~ r
5=t
Nor subdub suex.ua "o uanD w god %c ~ /vox t3rrngwoau>Da
*Vols. II, VII and IX of the T.C.M. are devoted to Byrd and Vols. XIV, XV, and
XVI of Dr. Fellowe's E.M.S. contain his madrigals, etc. Messrs. Stainer and Bell have issued
cheap editions of the 3, 4, and 5-part Masses. Albums of his keyboard music are published by
Novello's; Stainer and Bell; and Wihthrop Rogers, Ltd.
82
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
fiwfiys Tmms 4- ClS#srAA,.cSTM*r
83
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
rai
^jd-bJ
^
i^i
s
»♦
■© — ^=
2?« FiRm
O
/ m/ty 0s
F//T-
*• %>Su/?e ve
%^m
■IHm^tc
FlRm "% SURS
i2=t
^5
m
•££
' Suns. 1
fe
mf>y8£FfK~ ~ ■
Sure Be FiRm%>
^^
&~m~
J^ji, i a
e=
i 9 g
- 0
+— F
3=P
%SVR£B6 FIR
m /)no Sure
mnyBS Fiff- -
^
vfra "■
• i g r
^z
££5E
±t
t^ SUR&
I mny Be Fia
■/n"f>it oSiffig BE P/**> "i*o
m
OO g, — w
rn Ms Suae se
F/ff/rt /)ND
HOT
Ip
/ mny Se
S
S
IS
FT***
^S^3
ft
/fc*K W ^/*-
• /»» a no sure Be
;FlRm&
Suss.
^^
U^
g o *p
i^3^
E^S
F:o=^
&/«?
/»/7y" 3£ Fir /ft
r /nny
be FiRm /)m ' ■Suite
m
j TrrdH I dd Id- »?P
*W
.nJwst / f^V se fir— i*> *"* Jv«* / *»*V BoFwm
Secular Song, from the Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of Sadnes and
Pietie, made into Musicke of 5 Partes, by William Bird.
Printed 1588.
Superius.
Medius.
Quintus.
Tenor.
Base.
r*fi
0 a
1 ^7.
j. ° a
0
¥yt "
1 1
Ai X.
J
/»y /»/*/>£ s>
me a
KinaDome
t
\ \? * — , j
l H> '
_^ _J
j-. _J
A r ri
.' j t 1 5
J
d
O n
0 c*
C C?
n finy minae.
o-e-
x KipiisDome.
IS A
itmtBomB.
<5 '*>-'
'Lb 9 ~
1 0 _J
A O
_- J
H-* ?■
0 '
O J 1
1 1 1
fl
T
my miHDS 76
^4-
me R
KineoomE
/# ^
KiNenome
^
l\ ■»
r^US —
rPP S
l P -J
„ P
1 h
H r c
C r
■&■ ~r.
a ^ ^
my/n/soe
To
^ff TO
'hi «?
z? 0
^ /»/
mmoe to
me. *
Hirtattome
IS
R
KiMCDoma.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
'-Or-
C I P
SE
g »■
-^ft^y >?^
w///c« God on
hrth as-
z^St
=£
3=
77//»r /r ex -
SA/iW£ ru. o - -- r//e*,
3=4
^Cb^r
i a j
THfir it Ei--csi-i-3 /"-'■
"blksb Mutt con on
P=^
^=
wry >w-
it
aiisse rw aon ok
^
=©=
=g=Q^
g=F
-^ /?*.£ 0--T/J£lt 3USSE TMfT fcoI> &C
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
EE
■©-
^^
^3
isrsnu.
my
m/ffis ?ov-
Cffive y#r
srtu. my
mtf/*a fbtn 'to* To
Cfifiva^
g£^
TS^-p.
^
E =
3qS
rr
^
t==t
Fbf>Bis>* "b
cxnve }s?
.ST/JU. /«y~
^'"^^kW^
XT.
^&
-£$-=-
/»//**£ fin. Bids Po/f.
8'DS To
cr>fiv%r
Post Bids rj>
3
C/30V*,
^^
enmjs. ysr sr.'t.i. /ny rvnios To/iSios rb CftovB
■» PlllfDB Pbl30IOi To
Thomas Morley [1557 — c. 1603], a disciple of Bird, Bachelor
of Music, and one of the Gentlemen of Queen Elizabeth's chapel,
acquired more celebrity by his treatise, entitled, A plaine and easie
Introduction to Practical Musicke, than by his performance or
compositions, though eminent for both.
If due allowance be made for the quaintness of the dialogue and
style of the times, and the work be considered as the first regular
treatise on Music that was printed in our language, the author will
merit great praise for the learning and instruction it contains. At
present, indeed, its utility is very much diminished, by the disuse
of many things which cost him great pains to explain; as well as
by the introduction of new methods of notation, new harmonies,
and new modulations, since his time, which, to render intelligible,
require a more recent elementary treatise. Yet though this work
is redundant in some particulars, and deficient in others, it is still
curious, and justly allowed to have been excellently adapted to the
wants of the age in which it was written. However, its late
republication in the original form, totidem verbis, whatever honour
it may reflect on the memory of the author, somewhat disgraces
later times, which have not superseded this, by producing a better
and more complete book of general instructions in English, after
the lapse of so many years, and the perpetual cultivation and
practice of the art, in our country, both by native musicians and
foreigners (y).
(y) Analysis of Morley's Introduction: The Gammut and Time-table employ the eight or
nine first pages of this work. After which, Moods, Ligatures, Points of Imperfection, and
Alteration, Augmentation, and Diminution, all now obsolete, occupy fifty pages. The old and
exploded proportions given under the names of Figuration, Tripla in the minim, Quintupla,
Sesquialtera, Induction, and Scsquitertia, would now be studied a pure perte, as no good ear
can bear, or sound judgment make use of them.
The second part likewise is wasted in frivolous dialogue and now useless matter. The
definitions of concords and discords, indeed, and their use in discant, or plain counterpoint,
are the subjects of conversation; but the knowledge it conveys is so inadequate to present
purposes and the student is led to it by such an indirect road, that it is to be feared he will
be so bewildered in the pursuit, as to acquire but little clear gain for his trouble. Indeed the
prohibitions are such as will lead a student of the present time into doubt and error. Page 75,
he utterly condemns, as against the principles of Music, the use of two fifths, though one be
false. Indeed the use of the Tritonus and false fifth is constantly avoided by old harmonists;
which is excluding the use of one of the most abundant sources of beauty and passion in
86
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Having spoken of Morley as a theorist, I shall proceed to
consider his merit as a practical musician. And, in comparing his
compositions with those of his predecessors, they do not appear so
original as I at first imagined them. During the time of writing his
Introduction, he must of course have consulted the productions of
many authors; and he has not done it unprofitably, as a composer,
any more than a theorist. It has been said, that " we often
remember what we read, without recollecting that we ever had
read it; hence it frequently happens, that what we take for invention
is only reminiscence (z) "', which is a charitable apology for seeming
plagiarism. The melodies, however, of Morley, are somewhat more
flowing and polished than those of the old authors, on whose
property his memory, perhaps imperceptibly, had fastened: but
besides these, it is plain that he sometimes condescended to use
the same materials as his cotemporaries, and to interweave the
modern Music. Whoever first combined the sharp 3d and 7th to the 5th of the key, and
inverted this chord into 4 to the second, £ to the sharp seventh, and 4 to the fourth of
a key, conferred as refreshing a benefit on the craving lovers of Music, as Moses on the thirsty
Israelites, in producing water with his wand from the rock on mount Horeb. These
combinations, though unknown to old masters, are utterly indispensable in the present Regie
de I'Octave.
To say the truth, Maister Morley is not very nice or accurate in these examples of
counterpoint which are given as his own, and left as models of perfection. Page 76, in the last
examples, there are two faults, which would not be pardoned by modern ears or judgment : in
the first of the two, bar 5, the fourth between C and G, is insipid and unmeaning; and in the
second of the examples, bar 5, the modulation from the chord of D major to C, is used sans
liaison, and, in two parts, without a warrantable or good effect, -p q Few of the examples
are elegant, or worthy of imitation, now; and it appears as if the attentive examination of
good modern compositions, in score, would be of infinitely more service to a student, than the
perusal of all the books on the subject of Music that were written during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Corelli, Handel, and Germiniani, for Fugues; Haydn, Vanhal, Boccherini,
J. Chr. Bach, Abel, Giardini, &c. for Symphonies, Quartets, Trios, and other Music for violins;
Alberti. Domenico Scarlatti, Emanuel Bach, Schobert, Eichner, Haydn, and Kozeluch, for
harpsichord and Piano forte pieces; Pergolesi, Hasse, Jomelli, Galuppi, Piccini, Sacchini,
Paesiello. and Sarti, for vocal compositions; and, above all, Handel for organ and choral
Music : all easy to be found in our own country, and all models of perfection in correctness ol
composition, knowledge of instruments, rhythm, modulation, new effects, pathos, fire, invention,
and grace.
It has been my wish constantly to do justice to the learning and contrivance of old
masters, and to recommend the study and performance of their works to my readers, as curious
and historical specimens of the best Music of their own times; but not as the sole studies and
models of perfection to young professors, who wish to please, prosper, and are expected to
keep pace with modern improvements. To such I would first recommend the study of the
best modern authors; and then, as matters of curiosity and amusement, to enquire into the
productions and genius of former times, in order to extend their knowledge and views, and
prevent embarrassment or surprize, whenever they happen to be called upon to perform or
speak of such works.
The third part of Morley's Treatise contains more curious specimens of useful knowledge
in old counterpoint, than the rest of the book. He is much obliged, however, to Tigrini, whose
Compendium was published 1588, and others, for many of his examples, whose names ought
not to have been concealed. Tigrini has indeed been pillaged with such haste, that a
typographical error has not been corrected; a few of these cadences have even been
disingenuously disguised, and their places transposed.
Upon the whole, though the book is curious, and full of information concerning the Music
of the sixteenth century, it must be owned, that the language in which it is written, is at once
uncouth and affected; and that neither the melody nor harmony it recommends and teaches,
is of this world, at least, of this age; no certain scale is given of major or minor keys; nor is
the modulation he uses, that of the present times. Indeed no keys are determined except F
major, and D and A minor; and though so much is written concerning the moods, or measure,
yet nothing is said of accent, or the preparation, use, and resolution of discords in general.
U) Essais de Trublet, To. I. p. 26.
87
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
favourite passages of the times into his works, oi which the following
is a chronological list : *
Canzonets, or little short Songs, of three voices
[reprinted 1606 & 1631] 1593.
Madrigals, to four voices [2nd Edition 1600] 1594.
Ballets, or Fa las, to five voices [2nd Edition 1600] ... 1595.
Madrigals, to five voices 1595.
Canzonets, or little short Airs, to five and six voices ... 1597.
Of the following publications he was little more than the
editor :
Madrigals, to five voices, collected out of the best Italian
authors 1598.
The Triumphs of Oriana, to five and six voices:
composed by divers several aucthors. Newly
published by Thomas Morley, Batchelor of Musicke,
and Gentleman of hir Majesties honourable chappel
(a) 1601.
Consort Lessons,** made by divers exquisite authors, for
six different instruments to play together, viz. the
treble lute, pandora, citterne, base violl, flute, and
treble violl. Dedicated to the Lord Mayor, 2d edit.
(6) 1611.
A plaine and easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke,
1597 & 1608.
(a) These madrigals, in number twenty-four, of which the Music of the 13th and 24th was
composed by Morley, were v/ritten, set, and published, in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who is
figured under the name of Oriana. The composers of the rest were Michael Este, Daniel
Norcome. John Mundy, Batchelor of Music, Ellis Gibbons, John Benet, John Hilton, B.M.,
George Marson, B.M., Richard Carlton, John Holmes, Richard Nicholson, Thomas Tomkins,
Michael Cavendish, William Cobbold, John Farmer, John Wilby. Tnomas Hunt, B.M., Thomas
Weilkes, John Milton, father of the great poet, George Kirbye, Robert Jones, John Lesley, and
Edward Johnson, B.M.
As Italy gave the Ton to the rest of Europe but particulariy to England, in all the fine
arts, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it seems as if the idea of employing all the best
composers in the kingdom to set the songs in the Triumphs of Oriana to Music, in honour of
our Virgin Queen, had been suggested to Morley, and his patron, the Earl of Nottingham, by
Padre Giovenale, afterwards Bishop of Saluzzo. who employed thirty-seven of the most
renowned Italian composers to set Canzonetti and madrigals in honour of the Virgin Mary,
published under the following title: Tempio Armonico delta beatissima Virgine nostra Signora,
fabbricatole per opera del Reverendo P. Giovenale, A. P. della Congregatione dell' Oratorio.
Prima Parte, a tre voci. Stampata in Roma da Nicolo Mutii. 1599. in 4to.
(b) Master Morley supposing, perhaps, that the harmony which was to be heard through
the clattering of knives, forks, spoons, and plates, with the gingling of glasses, and clamorous
conversation of a city-feast, need not be very accurate or refined, was not very nice in setting
parts to these tunes, which are so far from correct, that almost any one of the city waits would,
in musical cant, have vamped as good an accompaniment sur le champ, or rather sur le chant.
which seems the original and true reading of that phrase. (See Book II. what has been said
of Extemporary Discant. p. 506). I remember, very early in my musical life, to have heard
one of the town waits, at Shrewsbury, vamp a base upon all occasions, he bein? utterly unable
to read any one that was written; and as my ears were seldom much oliended by the
dissonance. I suppose that, by habit, he contrived at least to begin and end in the right key,
and was quick in pursuing accidental modulation.
* Burney does not mention the charming Canzonets for two voices which were published
in 1595, and there are no Madrigals to 5 voices for that year. German translations of the 1593
set appeared in 1612 and 24, and an Italian edition of the 1st set of Ballets was published in
1595 (London). A German version of this set was printed at Nurcmburg in 1609.
The volumes in the E.M.S. devoted to his works are Vols. I (2 parts), II, III and IV.
** The 1st edition of the Consort Lessons was in 1.599, and it is quite probable that Burney
never saw a complete set of parts. For an account of the discovery of the missing parts see
The Story of English Music, p. 171 (Scott Publ. Co.).
In 1600 The First Booke of Ayres or little Short Songs; to sing and play to the Lute
with the Base Viole, was published. The popular song, "It was a lover and his lass" is found
in this volume,
88
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
It does not appear that any of Morley's Church Music was
printed during his life. Dr. Tudway, however, has inserted several
valuable choral compositions, by him, in the collection made for
Lord Harley, 1715; among which are his " Funeral or Dirge
Anthems, as performed at Westminster Abbey at Royal and Noble
Funerals," and printed by Dr. Boyce, in the first volume of his
Cathedral Services; and an Evening Verse Service, in five parts, in
D minor, which has never been printed. In Queen Elizabeth's
Music-book there are likewise five different sets of lessons, or pieces
for the virginal, composed by Morley.
As so many of his pieces have been lately printed in score for
the new edition of his Introduction, I shall only give here, as
specimens of his lighter style of composition, the two following
canzonets; in the performance of which, those who are not
accustomed to the Music of the sixteenth century, will be much
embarrassed with the broken phrases and false accents of the
melody, in which there is so total a want of rhythm, as renders the
time extremely difficult to keep with accuracy and firmness.
Canzonet, by Thos. Morley. Printed 1593.
^^
_
CSflSS
my/v£ eyes
TmsyM m
■ men— rm,rm'yk
lgi -menT'—Tifte
d-H^-
^
p£
m
•=*£
Cease
/*y<vs eyer cease Yrm
•/nawwJ, ui metr-TiA'Z T)>,f,fe>L<i-in8 iWUfyTHtsy®
^
cen'ss.
/ny/f/a
3=
S
f»-»-b-»r
s
M.-+",
^j-W-^z
to
I ) 1 1l
=t£
•las! This yt la, lift
yam Lameitnuti o Cease/)- vis o c&tse/>-
TING; in WIN IfJ
s
^^
ji^-jy
M
77 mas 0 Csssek :.
Th'is YovR !■£• metif.
I
. Tines;
5EE
^=±-
~W~S cs*geys /./>- «£SjJ| Jkiifl - - - men - - -- -&-tim
*> W'.V O* T* Y<* KOP& <*.
op Hen #0&>
hurts ns-LBNT /ma; o
89
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Si
«=*
*=t
^^
^=ff
'£,"■«• W? fi^K //V<*
AVJT
/»fer o
S
s
IS
S
m
i^prirg:-
^
Geasey- plou
ins o
VRO*M ip not mop
NOrfROl' NOT So
fe
=£§=
*
W/ZDZ
A/0
m
Ce/isey? flohinS UpopUot o
2SPOP NOT 2UU?NOT SO FfiST 3>MP NOT O WHBXB.
m
3
iTTTB
£*=*
&
~SeTsh2
HHEEE NO
gems js
Glon-
/NG
&C-.
NlTHClJib-
^*
a-— -
3
^S
=*
&
-p-k-
o^^a
mc
gMCE
SEE SHE SmiaS
SHE
Lflvsushc
hiTti
Toy— Rn.
■ 9
J J I L
RMS i$ v
4=t
±=i
£ra* 7j ^iovW®" *f<Sw wiMHSSHrsmiJBPiflyeiiNh/roV bas.NO— /vssse
NO
S
E
s
Pt./iph>Smijji^
' WlTN
SEE SUB?*
Toy wfy Toy and
..nzsss
sue
-=*«
^:
^t^=f
*
» •
Zg 9
G led nets
SesSHtbc.
SmiLES%e.*
Toy wVw Toy
? — *h\? H
g^
l=3c
**
Suivifiys S> smiles %c
See s)/g&e,
~3W
AND
s
^s
jr7 *» fl j
4-f-^U
-» — *-
P=^^Ti^-
tfy
Er±
Glru-
NESS S£SSHE LRUSHS &&
SHE LfHJCHS
Shu
S/m/lss SHKfmts
S SB SHE U)V&/tS
SHE.
^^
^s
^^
4/V.O &/?o- •
i'ffg SHS&e.
Ses &e.
±
Gluq.
Ses &?.
3 -
3=3
E3
art
Smaeshn^yi
Pinys wT%y
& &/90-
73
5^£ y r Gmei*
&
S/JO-nl£SS£
o
I=i33$H
ss
g * r
cL^J-
S^
Sm/L£S n't//
m
^Zy
rf/W tfi/70-
/V£tf£ ^> ofiSS
>iw9 tf/?/ffP
OLoveTtM i
4e
^
%UJ J f J
gc
=S
S
a
p=c
3
A'''* 7<y 4 Glad- -nesse 7j> aV y" amer &>Sf>DNsss&d'-oKaT7iou)
feg a a
^
fee
g=B
*±
=j=t
i.Of<? TuouHRTR-
■Seo Thou
NKT N- 31/--—
N/iS E-V£8
raus love so
J /n?r /}■
T=5=
^S
F=!=
nr^-
NET /). SO - -
£• ^,S--?if<»
ja.
f'rWTll'P v g
?=F
iE
raz
S
3s
pt
TNOO Wrj) r- -BU-
SED WHS e-VOf TEt/E LOi/ESo sc33ivrt/uy Se£C/j-
90
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Oit „ j— f-j
Q y -
[-• j, b ■ p
W 1 L *crq==
J ^ionm^uLuy thus
rw/ 0
/it/5
</ —
_ .*■«» o
aiw O
LOVS THOt! 1W A-
~ $COK*IFUt-t.y THUS
7?/W 0
Wtf i/ • - —
sen o
Love thou
fl- BO SEB j
T** *■* Pi/Li* 7Wtf*
0 77/0*
- *«> o
L.0VBTHOU flU
\ /)... .. hu
u» » —ses o t-ove o Love olovsthov /mr/)- su — sbd ms e-vet r/ei/e toveso Teo*m-fw-
i-
^iy seoM- ntt---t.y thus o this* v. . .
Canzonet, from the 2d Edit: of Morley's short songs to 3 voices.
Printed 1606.
1 j j y^r-*1-^ 1 ^ 1 ^
b o f-
^^
*=c
.?£*", ^e-fi, /"//»»£ wy
on/ire smser
Tew-£LL
i=i
ff^J
9=^
^
^3E
5££, s^e; &.
w«r T>ftas£*srs
m
' ' 4 Y -» r y^g
ffl jSJ
q » T a ) ^
I ? J N '
£; ©
SeTS, 5eT^ Sj<r-
NMrv/ia&frs vh»t
\ r p"
^^
1=3
i r
I> (jZ
-seivrs T Hfive fou nay ona-unc 4 Ho
--■BiH Do- BlU "RED VRESr & /j
5335E
s
53
-,«i Jflg gE
»— •;
i"£f Wr T HM£ HEfifS mf T=S£!Ty Ft i V tfrtBT M/»- £"Vtf
/? WO"
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
. « » r i — jb— i — *-^-
f
s
1 » I
=F=£
7b move
rneeyerrHoH thhtIuovb^ no,Ilovs nee, thou
' Shut noJ,\ »r Saisr I
*#
doe Not. I doe not
lov£
W
if=S=
■4-±
r=r^
*=fc
' r g r
*^
1 i i !
Civ&doTHMHorE
lencTh Tq move Thegjb
IN HOPE fiT To move
Set THouSmsri 2>o
r*oT} Tpoe NoT Love.
.J \
s
^^
*=*&
^ Borw //¥
xopf To move ruee, Ystthoushist i doe not, t toe tier love
—^ :
-f— t-
_^_S
s
r«ee
in HOPE
To move
tubs, Setthoo
t=h*± \ *>?-
S
d el V
=St=*a:
i=g
, r |g 1 1 : 1
Give Both hope./nhope at length
in To i»ove
THEE, HO, I BOE. NOT mo, IDOE.
NOT
Love thee, These I
s
3CS=
¥
%/££, NO, I DOE NOT, I DoE MT LOVE THEE, THESE. JOVE SoTH IN HOPE
£
4-JUU^
T^Ff
• o o
Bt
E
3=E
Sni3rrHf>riLweNorNo,i Lone not thei; Thou mist i 2oe not, t 3>os
a ^
/v«r a^wt thee.
i
ac
±
E^EEIE
?
=fc
-» — r
To movE THEE, HMO VET THDUSflUT T SOS
NOT L.Oi/e THEE.
3
3=3=
32:
F=F
±3E
^
To /?«►£ r#££, yer thou sm'st i $0g
-W =*=^ at 1 £3 ■
/ Doe n0r Love ** thus.
The Burial Service, set by Morley, which is supposed to be the
first that was composed after the Reformation, still continues to be
used in Westminster Abbey, on great and solemn occasions (c).
(c) I heard this Service admirably performed in the year 1760, by the three united choirs
of Westminster, St. Paul's, and the Chapel-Royal, at the funeral of his late Majesty, George II.
in Westminster Abbey, where it had a most solemn effect. Nothing seems better suited to
so awful an occasion than this Music, in a minor key, and chiefly in simple counterpoint, but
with a grave, and now uncommon, harmony and modulation, which added to the grandeur ot
the effect The few short points of fugue and imitation introduced in this composition are such
as were not common when the service was produced, nor have any of them been debased
since by vulgar use. As this composition is so admirably printed by Dr. Boyce and may be
easily consulted. I shall detain the musical reader with a few remarks on it, referring to that
copy without reprinting it here. And I shall begin by observing, that the four first bars are
remarkably solemn, and that the major third to G, after being strictly in G minor, the
preceding part of the phrase, is unexpectedly grand and pleasing. The point at And though
after my skin, worms destroy this body," is admirably conducted. And, though in simple
counterpoint only, the harmony and modulation to "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away " convey something peculiarly majestic and grateful to my ears. The points at He
cometh up, and is cut down," and " Of whom may we seek for succour, diversify and give
relief to the plain counterpoint in an ingenious manner; but the passage, Shut not thy
merciful ears to our prayers " is extremely beautiful in the three essentials of good Music :
melody, harmony, and accent. Every part is chantante, or sings, without any seeming
subserviency to the rest; and the words, which seldom happens in Music of the sixteenth
centurv are well expressed, if we except the length given to the particle to in the treble and
counter-tenor parts, which might easily be corrected by assigning the two first sounds to the
more important word "ears," and allowing only a crotchet to the following preposition. And
in this manner the words of many of our old and venerable compositions for the church might
be adjusted in order to obviate the objections that are justly made to the want of attention
in their authors to accent and syllabic quantity : and this seems to be infinitely more desirable
than the superseding these admirable specimens of choral harmony, in favour of more insipid
modern oroductions, which can boast of no other perfection than that, which, according to
PoDe is "in the power of every dull grammarian and critic, who Commas and points can set
exactly right " But this alone will not constitute good Music, without genius, invention,
melody, harmony, modulation, and variety of measures and effects I shall only mention one
point more in Morley's Burial Service, where the greatest Musical Art is united with the
92
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
It is uncertain when this ingenious and studious musician died;
but it is supposed to have been about the year 1604.
The prosperous reign of Queen Elizabeth was perhaps not
rendered more illustrious by the musical productions of Tallis,
Bird, and Morley, than the performance of Doctor John Bull
[c. 1562-1628], 'whose abilities on the organ and virginal seem to
have been truly wonderful. This great musician was born about
1563 in Somersetshire. His Music-master was William Blitheman,
organist of the chapel-royal to Queen Elizabeth, in which capacity
he was very much celebrated. Bull, on the death of his master, in
1591 * was appointed his successor in the Queen's chapel; and in
1596, at the recommendation of her Majesty, he had the honour
of being the first that was appointed Music-professor to Gresham
college. And though unable to compose and read his lectures in
Latin, according to the founder's original intention, such was his
favour with the Queen and the public, that the executors of Sir
Thomas Gresham, by the ordinances, bearing date 1597, dispensed
with his knowledge of the Latin language, and ordered " The
solemn Musick lecture to be read twice every week, in manner
following, viz. the thoretique part for one half hour, or thereabouts;
and the practique, by concert of voice or instruments, for the rest
of the hour: whereof the first lecture should be in the Latin tongue,
and the second in English. — But because at this time Mr. Doctor
Bull, who is recommended to the place by the Queen's most
excellent Majesty, being not able to speak Latin, his lectures are
permitted to be altogether in English, so long as he shall continue
in the place of Music lecturer there (d)."
At first, application was made to the two Universities, by the
Lord Mayor and corporation of London, jointly with the Mercer's
company, left trustees of this institution, to nominate two persons
in all the liberal arts fitly qualified to read lectures in their several
faculties; but this application was not continued, as some jealousy
seems to have been awakened at Oxford and Cambridge, lest this
new college should be prejudicial to those ancient seats of learning.
happiest verbal expression, at "Surfer us not at our last hour," and where the supplication is
made in each part with great reverence and solicitude. Indeed I see but one passage which I
could wish otherwise than the author has left it: and, that is at "I heard a voice from
Heaven," where the word "from" being in the same harmony as the substantive "Heaven,"
is insipid and unmeaning. The natural combination for that leading and unaccented part of
the bar, seems to be C, with a 6th. I cannot conclude this note without requesting such of
my readers as understand and feel good composition, to attend to the solemn, unusual, and
pleasing effect produced in many places of this service by mere common chords : particularly
at these words, "He fleeth as it were a shadow"; and by the fiat 6th given to G, when the
tar is habituated to expect a 5th : as at these words, "Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord."
(d) Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, Pref. p. viii. The first lecture
read by Bull, at Gresham College was printed the same year that it was pronounced, under
this title : "The Oration of Maister John Bull, Doctor of Musicke, and one of the Gentlemen
of hir Majesties Royall Chappell, as he pronounced the same, beefore divers worshipful persons,
the Aldermen and Commoners of the citie of London, with a great multitude of other people,
the 6th day of October, 1597, in the new erected Colledge of Sir Thomas Gresham, Knt..
deceased: made in the commendation of the founder, and the excellent science of Musicke."
Imprinted at London by Thomas Este.
* Earlier dates of importance in Bull's career are :
1582. Appointed organist at Hereford Cathedral.
1585. Re-entered the Chapel Royal.
1586. Mus. Bac, Oxford.
1592. Mus. Boc, Oxford and Cambridge.
93
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
What effect this liberal foundation had on other faculties let the
friends and patrons of each particular science say; but as to Music,
it is hardly possible to read the lives of the Professors without
lamenting that the design of so noble an institution, established on
such an extensive plan, should be so entirely frustrated as to become
wholly useless to that city and nation for whose instruction it was
benevolently intended. Dr. Bull, the only person on the list of
Music professors, who seems to have been able to inform by theory,
or amuse by practice, those who attended the musical lectures,
resigned his professorship in 1607 (<?). So that except about nine
years from the date of the establishment, to the present times, it
does not appear that the science of sound, or practice of the musical
art, has been advanced by subsequent professors. For in the
following list, given by Dr. Ward, up to the year 1740, including
Dr. Clayton, elected 1607; John Taverner, 1610, who was no
relation of the musician of that name, mentioned in the second
book; Richard Knight, 1638; William Petty, 1650, afterwards the
famous Sir William Petty; Dr. Thomas Baynes, 1660; William
Perry, 1681;* John Newy, 1696; Dr. Robert Shippen, 1705; Dr.
Edward Shippen, his brother, 1710; John Gordon, 1723; and
Thomas Brown, 1739; though all men of learning and abilities in
other faculties, yet no one of them had ever distinguished himself,
either in the theory or practice of Music; nor are any proofs
remaining that they had ever studied that art, the arcana of which
they were appointed to unfold! What an abuse of reason and
munificence does it seem, that those who had never meditated on
the art, or been taught, themselves, should be fixed upon to teach,
and direct the studies of others!
A silly story has been told by Ant. Wood (/), concerning a feat
performed by Dr. Bull, who, at St. Omer's, when he first visited
the continent, to a composition originally written in forty parts,
added forty more in a few hours; which is so impossible, as not to
be worth relating.
After the decease of Queen Elizabeth, he was appointed organist
to King James. And July the 16th, 1607, when his Majesty and
Prince Henry .dined at Merchant-Taylor's hall, the royal guests
were entertained with Music, both vocal and instrumental, as well
as with several orations. And while his Majesty was at table,
according to Stow, " Mr. Doctor Bull, who was free of that
company, being in a citizens gowne, cappe, and hood, played most
excellent melody upon a small payre of organs, placed there for that
purpose onely (g)." In December, of the same year, he resigned
his professorship of Gresham college, but for what reason does not
appear, as he continued in England several years afterwards.
(e) Indeed during more than a year of his professorship, Mr. Thomas Bird, son of the
venerable William Bird, exercised the office of a substitute to Dr. Bull, while he travelled
on the continent for the recovery of his health.
(/) Fasti Oxon. Vol. I. c. 131.
(g) Chron. p. 891, edit. 1615.
* Grove's does not include the name of William Perry in ':he list of Gresham Professors.
94
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
In 1613 he quitted England,* and entered into the service of the
Archduke, in the Netherlands. He afterwards seems to have been
settled at Lubeck, at which place many of his compositions in the
list published by Dr. Ward, are dated; one of them as late as 1622,
the supposed year of his decease.
Dr. Bull has been censured for quitting his establishment in
England; but it is probable that the increase of health and wealth
was the cause and consequence. Indeed, he seems to have been
praised at home, more than rewarded; and it is no uncommon thing
for one age to let an artist starve, to whom the next would willingly
erect statues. The professorship of Gresham college was not then
a sinecure. His attendance on the chapel royal, for which he had
forty pounds per annum, and on the Prince of Wales, at a similar
salary, though honourable, were not very lucrative appointments
for the first performer in the world, at a time when scholars were
not so profitable as at present; and there was no public playing,
where this most wonderful musician could display his abilities, and
receive their due applause and reward.
A list of more than two hundred of Dr. Bull's compositions,
vocal and instrumental, is inserted in his Life, which, when it was
written in 1740, were preserved in the collection of Dr. Pepusch.
The chief part of these were pieces for the organ or virginal; near
sixty of them I have now before me, in the Music-book of Queen
Elizabeth, and the printed collection, called Parthenia. An
In nomine, of five parts, I have scored from the Christ Church set
of manuscript books in Dr. Aldrich's collection, and have atten-
tively perused his choral composition jn the collections of Dr.
Tudway and Dr. Boyce, which is the same verse anthem, with
different words, for two voices, with a chorus (h). In all his vocal
Music that I have seen, there seems to be much more labour and
study, than genius. Tallis and Bird had so long accustomed
themselves to write for voices, that the parts in their compositions
are much more natural and flowing than those of Bull. In looking
at the single parts of Tallis and Bird, there are notes and passages
which appear wholly insipid and unmeaning, as melody; but
which, when heard in harmony with any other part, produce
admirable effects.
Indeed, possessed as he was of such extraordinary powers of
execution on keyed-instruments, I have been frequently astonished,
in perusing Dr. Bull's lessons, at the few new and pleasing passages
which his hand suggested to his pen. It has been said, that the
late Dr. Pepusch preferred Bull's compositions to those of Couperin
(k) In Dr. Tudway's MS. the words are "Almighty God, who by the leading of a star";
and in Dr. Boyce's printed copy, "O Lord my God, I will exalt thee." In Dr. Ward's list of
Bull's works, we have the initial words of the following anthems: "Deliver me, O God"; "In
thee, O Lord"; with two Misereres, one of two, and another of three voices; an In nomine, of
five parts; and five madrigals and motets, to English words, for four, five and six voices.
* Bull left England without permission and a formal protest was made to the Archduke by
Trumbull, the English Ambassador to the Netherlands. Trumbull's report and a letter from
Bull about the affair are preserved in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 6194). Bull died at Antwerp in
1628.
95
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and Scarlatti, not only for harmony and contrivance, but air and
modulation: an assertion which rather proves that the Doctor's
taste was bad, than Bull's Music good. Though I should greatly
admire the hand, as well as patience, of any one capable of playing
his compositions; yet, as Music, they would afford me no kind of
pleasure : Ce sont des notes & rien que des notes; there is nothing
in them which excites rapture. They may be heard by a lover of
Music with as little emotion as the clapper of a mill, or the rumbling
of a postchaise.
After such frequent mention of the extreme difficulty of these
old pieces, in mercy to modern performers, it may with truth be
said, that the loss, to refined ears, would not be very great, if they
should for ever remain unplayed and undeciphered. For being
generally built on some old and vulgar psalmodic tunes, unmean-
ing in themselves, the crowded harmony and multiplied notes with
which they are loaded, have not rendered them more pleasing.
Indeed the infallible consequences of a young practitioner bestow-
ing such time and labour on them as may be necessary to subdue
the difficulties of execution they contain, would be corruption of
taste, and neglect of more useful studies. A preference to such
obsolete Music, at the exclusion of all other, would be like studying
and speaking no other language than that of Chaucer, which,
though once the dialect of the Court, is now, if used at all, only
that of the lowest clowns and rustics, in provinces the most remote
from the capital.
The Instrumental Music of Queen Elizabeth's reign seems to
partake of the pedantry and foppery of the times: eternal fugues
upon dry and unmeaning subjects were the means of establishing
reputation for learning and contrivance; as dull divisions and
variations, in which the change was generally from bad to worse,
seem to have been the only qualifications which entitled a professor
to eminence for taste and invention.
The very terms of Canon and Fugue imply restraint and labour.
Handel was perhaps the only great Fughist, exempt from pedantry.
He seldom treated barren or crude subjects; his themes being almost
always natural and pleasing. Sebastian Bach,* on the contrary,
like Michael Angelo in painting, disdained facility so much, that
his genius never stooped to the easy and graceful. I never have
seen a fugue by this learned and powerful author upon a motivo,
that is natural and chantant; or even an easy and obvious passage,
that is not loaded with crude and difficult accompaniments.
* It would be interesting to know how much of J. S. Bach's music was known to Burney.
A few works for the clavier had been published, viz. :
Clavierubung, Part I. 6 Partitas. 1726-31.
„ Part II. Italian Concerto and Partita in B minor, 1735.
Part III. 4 Duets, Catechism Choral Prelude, and Prelude and Fugue
in E flat.
Part IV. The Goldberg Variations.
The Musikalisches Opfer, some of the Chorales arranged for organ, selected by Emmanuel
Bach from the Church Cantatas, and The Art of Fugue published by Marpurg in 1752.
During his musical tour in Germany, Dr. Burney visited Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach in
1772, but" it does not appear that any of J. S. Bach's music was played !
96
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
As the youth of Bull must necessarily have been spent in
subduing the difficulties of other composers, he seems, in his riper
years, to have made the invention of new difficulties of every kind,
which could impede or dismay a performer, his sole study. It
seldom happens that those possessed of great natural force of hand,
on any instrument, submit to the drudgery of much dry study;
but this gift was so far from relaxing the labour and diligence of
Dr. Bull, that he entered deeper into all the arcana of the art, and
pedantry of the times, than most of his cotemporaries. That he
was " exquisitely skilled in canon," has been given as one of the
most irrefragable proofs of his being a great musician; and canons,
recte et retro, and per arsin et thesin, in triangular, and other
fantastical forms, are carefully preserved, as stupendous specimens
of his abilities.
Walsingham has been a subject upon which Dr. Bull and Bird
have exercised their abilities in the most elaborate manner. In
the fifteenth century, popular tunes were the foundations upon
which the greatest contrapuntists constructed even the masses which
they set to Music; and in the next, the English, no longer in want
of these tunes in the church, polished, and tricked them up for the
chamber, with every art and embellishment they could devise.
Both Bird and Bull have likewise worked on the hexachord, ut
re mi fa sol la, ascending and descending; upon which theme they
have constructed elaborate and ingenious lessons, of the most
difficult execution. That of Bull has passages for the left hand,
which perhaps none but himself could play during his own time,
and which I have never seen introduced in any compositions of the
present century, except those of Sebastian Bach, or heard executed,
but by Palscha, near forty years ago; who must have vanquished
them by the incessant labour of several years, out of his short life;
for he was then but eight years old. A new, but similar difficulty,
has lately been devised for keyed-instruments, in the rapid
divisions for one hand, in octaves, which great application only
can vanquish. The execution of long and rapid divisions of thirds
and sixths, and even of common chords, is not frequently wanted
in modern Music, and therefore they would baffle and embarrass
the greatest performers, who have not worked at such passages with
unremitting labour. But besides these difficulties, there are others
of measure, in Bull's Lessons, where, in four parts, the left hand
has two of six crotches in a bar, while the right plays nine to each
semibreve of the hexachord.
Specimens of the difficulties abounding in the compositions of
the golden age of Queen Elizabeth, shall be laid before the musical
reader, in order to invalidate the vulgar cant of such as are
determined to blame whatever is modern, and who, equally devoid
of knowledge and feeling, reprobate as trash the most elegant,
ingenious, and often sublime compositions, that have ever been
produced since the laws of harmony were first established.
Voi.. ii. 7. 97
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Indeed, we should suppose that the pieces of Bull were composed
to be tried, not played; for private practice, not public use; as they
surpass every idea of difficulty that can be formed from the lessons
of Handel Scarlatti, Sebastian Bach; or, in more modern times,
Emanuel Bach, Miithel, and Clementi.
There are near twenty lessons in Queen Elizabeth's book, by
Giles Farnaby [c. 1560-c. 1600], little less difficult than those of
Bird and Bull (i). These great musicians, the wonder and delight
of their times, seem to have had no conception of brilliancy or
embellishment, but what arose from breaking common chords into
Arpeggio, or rapidly running up and down the scale in notes tied
three, and often four times. They seem, however, to have been
the greatest players in Europe, till Frescobaldi introduced a superior
style of treating the organ, divested of rapid and frivolous divisions,
which disgrace that most noble and comprehensive of all
instruments (k).
At present, the pieces of Bird, Bull, and Farnaby, must doubtless
appear dry and monotonous, for want of air, variety of movement,
and modulation; yet before these qualities were cultivated, expected,
or indeed existing, they fed the ear with pure and simple harmony,
in a manner which none but keyed-instruments could effect; and
perhaps their favour with professional musicians was not a little
augmented, by the learning of their contexture, and difficulty of
execution. For however the old masters may be celebrated for
their simplicity and sobriety of style, and the moderns indiscri-
minately censured for multiplied notes, rapidity of performance,
tricks, whip-syllabub, froth, tumbling, and mere difficulties: it
would not be very easy to find, among the most complicated pieces
of modern times, difficulties equally insurmountable with those in
which these old Fancies and variations abound.
Before I quit the organ and virginal pieces in Queen Elizabeth's
book, it may be worth remarking, that throughout the collection,
consisting of upwards of four hundred folio pages, written extremely
small and close, no transposed keys are used; all the pieces being
confined to the modes of the church, in which no sharp was ever
placed on the clef; or flat, except sometimes on B : so that few of
the keys are determined by such characteristic intervals or
modulation, as at present belong to each of the twenty-four.
In the following tune, called Dr. Bull's Jewel, of only three
strains of eight bars each, the modulation from C natural to B flat,
and from B flat to C, is sudden and violent in the first part, though
it begins and ends in the same key; in the second part, the transition
(t) Giles Farnaby was of Christ Church, Oxford, and, in 1592, admitted Bachelor of
Music. There are extant of his compositions, Canzonets to jour voices, with a Song of eight
parts, London, 1598. He assisted Ravenscroft in putting parts to some of the Psalm-tunes,
published at the beginning of the next century. [His Canzonets are published in the E.M.S.,
Vol. XX, and Noveilo and Co., Ltd., issue a volume of his virginal music]
(k) We shall have occasion hereafter to speak of this admirable musician, whose fugues
upon marked and pleasing subjects, were treated with such genius and learning, as have never
been surpassed, unless by those of Sebastian Bach apd Handel, which seem to include every
perfection of which this ingenious and elaborate species of composition is capable.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
from G natural to B flat, and then back again to G, is unexpected
by modern ears. And in the last strain, after the second had
closed in G natural, the modulating instantly into F, is such a
violation of all present rules and sensations, as seems rude and
barbarous. Indeed, Bull seems to have had a bad taste in
modulation, and to have been as harsh and strained in this
particular, as Bird was natural and pleasing.
I shall insert here likewise, from the same Virginal Book, an
Allemand, by old Robert Jhonson (I), as a proof how much secular
modulation was governed by ecclesiastical, and how undetermined
the keys were, at this time, by any rules in present use. This
short air begins in D minor; but in the first bar, we have the chord
of C natural, as fifth oi the key of F; then, at the third bar, the
author returns, in no disagreeable manner, to D minor, ending, in
the church style, with a sharp third. The second part is chiefly
in D and G minor, but ends, alia Capella, in D major (m).
On the following plates, the musical reader will not only find
specimens of Bull's Difficulties, with tunes by him and old Jhonson,
but the favourite ancient ballad-air called Fortune, mentioned
above, p. 77.
Specimens of Dr. Bull's difficult Passages, from Queen Elizabeth's
Virginal Book. Variations to the Accompaniments of the
Hexachord.
Doubling upon Jig time.
I
W^=3E,
SSJTugg
CI) See Book II. p. 795 and 814, for an account and specimen of this composer.
(m) Padre Martini (Saggio di Contrap. prima Parte, 23), recommends the terminating
minor movements with a sharp third; a practice which Rousseau (Diet, de Mus.) censures as
Gothic, and a proof of a bad taste. If the first of these excellent writers wished only to
preserve its use in_ the church, and the second to banish it elsewhere, they were both right,
however their opinions may seem to clash. The learned author of the Saggio di Conirappunto,
who was so perfectly acquainted with all the beauties and effects of Choral Music, is certainly
more to be relied on in whatever concerns it, than the animated author of the Dictionaire de
Musique] who, with the most refined taste and exalted views, with respect to Dramatic
Compositions, had neither time nor opportunity sufficiently to explore the mysteries of Canto
fermo, or to become a very profound contrapuntist. For my own part, though I never wish
to hear a Song in a minor key, end with a sharp third, which the French call Tierce de
Picardie, on account of the great number of cathedrals in that province, where it continues
still in use; yet there is something so solemn and grateful in these terminations of ecclesiastical
compositions, that I should be very sorry if the practice were not continued. And if we
consider the relation and composition of the several stops in an organ, we shall find, that as
every single key in the chorus of that instrument has a complete chord with a sharp third to
it, when we dwell on a chord with a flat third, while the tierce, cornet, sesquialier, and
sometimes the furniture, are sounding the sharp third, it affords an additional reason for the
origin and continuance of the practice, besides the peculiar properties of tonal modulation.
99
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
u 1
O «
r °
Vrn :
~;.? fffitf
\JTa U U 1 f i8^^
""fTjJU>^ ■
r3=fec^ tjrr V v u
**»
•V-y-% • *
Ift " 1
0 i
! <">■ <4»fi»y« & urn a,
(S^rpr
— Z^~
■jri — j w ja —
[/ rT"FrK ^r 1*
v a ~*51 lid
* »5>!* —
J ETC.
■ • —
CLr^.
*ki n^F
fc=]
J '.
■ 1 h -I
F^F^^
..^mriy4=
"•* a»» f_U —
[r LUL
[-—-fc u-J ^L-
..IV" l«w- -
^ '-U |>1 u^
U^ — i-Ul^
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
ff :)•..- — A — |
SZl&\ — yr&*\ (T
iH.h i— nl<v
T,&th'r.^
, ** i£:
1 ■ J ^-^bg^ld
— »
a. " w?o-\~u-p
'rr- rt W.«
*jt«« p»*f» »*"»
k ^ j, i„jj
i
• U*" — bis —
Fragments of a Miserere in 3 parts.
,F3==F^
i ., n
Ptt
~ l
■g^-fr
P^XPJW^^-^ig^^^^^
Dr. Bull's Jewel.
Bfr-cL. d ih
J.J> i ^fPi.
^-^■U-4-^J^ jJ 1
-^ — £ — -
kp — S* ©»
■* a "* b«
a it" 'P
-f* f5
-Ve-e gj.
1 ■ y » ©.
9 • d j ■ ■
PI I ' ■-
11 — *pn=i
1
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Alman, by Robert Jhonson.
Fortune, set by Bird for the Virginal, with Variations.
*
f
3&
miniDs %*~
BS
y
-*** J-
^iA
i V~ i T
dec
-?^-ff
g ay ■©■
32:
r~t— 3
±\
rf-r
=t
ifEfqp^jz
T^
ftw* o- sa
_^—t — i , i i —
*V. h V if —
-H^
^ fc> jr*1 §
"ST **
L
Our secular Vocal Music, during the first years of Elizabeth's
reign, seems to have been much inferior to that of the church, if
any judgment can be fairly formed of it from a Book of Songs,
printed by John Daye, in 1571, under the following title: " Songes
of three, fower, and five voyces, composed and made by Thomas
Whythorne, Gent, the which Songes be of sundrie sortes, that is to
say, some long, some short, some hard, some easie to be songe, and
some between both; also some solemne, and some pleasaunt or
mery: so that according to the Skil of the Singers, (not being
Musitians), and disposition or delite of the Hearers, they may here
find Songes to their contentation and liking."
(a) A Point which continued in favour from the time of Jusquin to that of Handel, is here
well adjusted to the Manual of Keyed-Instruments.
(6) For account of this Tune, see above, Page 77.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Both the words and music of these Songs, which were published
before those of Bird had appeared, are truly barbarous; but it is
not now certain that they were ever in much public favour. We
have at present Music-books published in England, every day,
without genius or science to recommend them. Now, if it should
happen that one of these, by escaping the broom of Time, should
reach posterity, and fall into the hands of some future antiquary,
critic, or historian, who should condemn all the compositions of
the present age by one, that had, perhaps, been never performed
or heard of by cotemporary judges and lovers of good Music, the
sentence would surely be very unjust.*
Our countrymen were not at first taught to admire the Music of
Italy, by the sweetness of the language to which it was originally
set, or by fine singing, but by Italian madrigals, with a literal
translation into English, adjusted to the original Music, and
published by N. Yonge, 1588 (n). These being selected from the
works of Palestrina, Luca Marenzio, and other celebrated masters
on the continent, seem to have given birth to that passion for
madrigals which became so prevalent among us afterwards, when
the composers of our own nation so happily contributed to gratify
it.**
If allowance be made for the wretched state of Lyric Poetry
in England at the time these madrigals were translated, which
was long before the publication of the sonnets of Spencer, or
Shakspeare, the undertaking seems to have been tolerably
executed. Indeed, sometimes with such care and felicity as to
transfuse the expression of the original words into that of the
version. The Italians themselves, at this time, had but little
melody or rhythm in their Music; but their Poetry having been
long cultivated, and brought to a much greater degree of perfection
than ours could then boast, it indicated to the musical composer
traits of melody, more airy and marked, perhaps, than we could
derive from the prosody or phraseology of our own language. The
translator of these madrigals, whoever he was, for the editor does
not tell us, seems in general to have imitated the original Italian
(«) Musica Transalpina, Madrigales translated of jour, jive, and sixe parts, chosen out
of divers excellent Authours, with the first and second Part of la Virginella, made by Maister
Bird upon two Stanzas of Ariosto, and brought to speak English with the rest. The editoi
was an Italian merchant,*** who having opportunities of obtaining from his correspondents the
newest and best compositions from the continent, had them frequently performed at his house,
for the entertainment of his musical friends.
* Burney's criticism is rather unjust. It may be said, however, that these songs are, on
the whole, historically rather than musically important. The work comprises 76 compositions,
and is the only published collection of secular music between Wynkyn de Worde's song book
of 1530 and the set of Psalms, Sonets and Songes by William Byrd published in 1588.
Philip Heseltine has edited and published twelve of the songs.
Vi'hythorne also published, in 1590, some Duos, or songs for two voices.
Some part books of the 1571 publication are to be found in the B.M.; the Bodleian, and
Christ Church.
Beyond the fact that he was bom about 1528, nothing is known regarding this composer.
** In the Fellow's Library at Winchester College is a set of four MS. Part-books on one
of which is written the date 1564. This seems to show that Italian Madrigals were sung ip
England long before 1588.
*** Burney is mistaken with regard to Yonge who was probably a member of the Choir at
St. Paul's.
103
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
measure and structure of verse, as well as ideas; and though they
abound with Concetti, to which not only Italian poets, but those
of all the rest of Europe were then so much addicted, the general
taste of the times was indulged in Poetry as well as Music, and
metre and melody were at once furnished with new models.
If these books were not become too scarce for such observations,
to be worth writing or perusal, I could point out several of the
particular madrigals, where the verbal accent and poetical passion
have been happily transferred to the Music, by the translation: as
Number V. by Baldassar Donato, " O grief, if yet my grief be not
believed, cry with thy voice out-stretched," &c.
However, the perpetual double rhymes in Italian madrigals and
sonnets have so much .distressed our translator to supply them in
English, that, as the preservation of the original Music obliged him
to render his version totidem syllabis, his embarrassments on this
account are sometimes truly ridiculous (o). No. VII. in which the
old British termination of the present tense of the indicative mood
of our verbs is conveniently preserved, was doubtless not thought
the worst, as it is applied to several compositions in the collection.
In vayne he seeks for beauty that excelleth,
That hath not sene hir eyes where Love sejorneth,
How sweetly here and there the same she turneth.
He knows not how Love heateth, and he quelleth,
That knows not how she sighes, and sweet beguileth.
And how she sweetly speakes, and sweetly smileth (f>).
These madrigals were celebrated, near forty years after their
publication, by Peacham, who has pointed out the peculiar
excellence of several, particularly those of Luca Marenzio, which,
he says, " are Songs the Muses themselves might not have been
ashamed to have composed;" and of those by Alfonso Ferrabosco,
the Father, he says, " they cannot be bettered for sweetness of ayre
and depth of judgment." Upon the ditty (words) of one of these,
/ saw my Ladie weeping, (he says) Master Byrd, and Alfonso, in
a friendly emulation, exercised their invention." The words of
the 'Nightingale, and Fayre Susanna, were so much admired, that
they seem to have been set by all the best composers of the times.
A few lines of each will perhaps convey to the reader an adequate
idea of the poetical beauty of these favourite songs.
(o) It seems as if the constant double rhymes in Italian poetry, which throw the accent
on the pcnultima, instead of the final syllable, of a verse, gave a peculiar cast to the melody in
which it is clothed, and rendered it specifically different from that of English songs, in which
but few double rhymes occur. The constant and regular mixture of masculine and feminine
rhymes in French poetry may likewise have had a latent effect on the vocal melody of France,
different from that of the other two neighbouring nations. But, after mentioning these
suspicions, I shall leave the further investigation of so subtle a subject to philosophers, not
only possessed of the necessary knowledge, but an equal zeal for the cultivation of Philology,
Poetry, and Music.
<p) These lines, if we substitute the modern termination of the present tense, would be
much less uncouth than they now appear. And the last couplet will remind the classical
reader of Horace's
Dulce ridentem Lalagcn amabo, dulce loqueritem.
No. II. of the second set is still a better specimen :
Zephyrus brings the thyme that sweetly scenteth.
104
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The Nightingale.
But my poore hart with sorrowes over-swelling.
Through bondage vyle, binding my freedom short,
No pleasure takes in these his sports excelling,
Nor of his song receiveth no comfort.
Fayre Susanna.
To them she sayd, if I, by craft procur'd,
Do yeld to you my body to abuse it,
I lose my soule; and if I shall refuse it.
You will me judge to death reproachfully.
But better it is in innocence to chuse it.
Then by my fault t'offend my God on hye.
Indeed, in more than twenty sets, published between the year
1588 and 1624, during a period of near forty years, including
almost four hundred and fifty madrigals and songs in parts, it
would be difficult to find any one, of which the words can be
perused with pleasure (q). The sonnets of Spenser and Shakspeare,
many of which are worthy of their authors, were indeed not
published till about the end of the sixteenth century; but afterwards,
it is wonderful that none of them were set by our best musical
composers, except one of Shakspeare's, which will be mentioned
hereafter.
The second collection of the same kind that appeared in
England, was published in 1590, by Thomas Watson, Gent, under
the following title : " The First Part of Italian Madrigals Englished,
not to the Sense of the original Dittie, but after the Affection of the
Noate." This collection, as we are told in the title-page, includes
" Two excellent Madrigalls of Master William Byrd's, composed
after the Italian Vaine, at the Request of the said Thomas Watson."
The poet is as much distressed for double rhymes to suit the stanza
and Music of these madrigals as in the former publication. That
indeed which Bird set, first in four parts, and then in six, seems
original English, and is the best of the collection.
This sweet and merry month of May,
While Nature wantons in her prime.
And birds do sing, and beasts do play,
For pleasure of the joyful time;
I chose, the first for holly daie,
And greet Eliza with a ryme :
O beauteous Queene of second Troy,
Take well in worth a single toy.
The editor seems to have been a man of some learning, as well
as knowledge in Music, as he dedicates the work, in a Latin copy
of verses, to the Earl of Essex, then at the summit of favour with
Queen Elizabeth; and addresses Luca Marenzio, from whom most
of the madrigals were taken, in another.
In 1597, Yonge published a second collection of madrigals, out
of sundry Italian authors; in which, among others, there are three
by Croce, three by Luca Marenzio, and six by Ferabosco. The
words of these have as little claim to poetical merit as those of
(q) Those genuine English songs, set and published by Bird, must be excepted, in some
of which there is not only wit, but poetry.
I05
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the former set. There is, however, some Bacchanalian humour,
perhaps, in the following, applied to the Music of Ferabosco.
The wine that I so deerly got,
Sweetly sipping, my eyes hath bleared
And the more I am bar'd the pot,
The more to drink my thirst is stered;
But since thereby my heart is chercd,
Maugre ill-luck and spiteful slanders.
Mine eyes shall not be my commanders;
For I maintaine, and ever shall,
Better the windows bide the dangers,
Than to spoil both house and all.
In Morley's collection, of the same kind (r), published 1598,
the words are still more unmeaning and ungrammatical, than in
the three preceding collections.
In 1597, Thomas Weelkes and George Kirbye published their
First Books of English Madrigals; in 1598 appeared those of John
Wilbye; and the year following, Thomas Bennet's.
Of these four composers, the best madrigalists of our country,
many productions have lately been revived at the Concert of
Ancient Music, and Catch-Club; where, by the perfection of
performance, effects have been produced, of which it is probable
the authors themselves, even in the warm and enthusiastic moments
of conception, had but little idea: so that from the care, accuracy,
and expression, with which they are sung by the performers of these
well-disciplined societies, it may perhaps with truth be said, that
they are not only renovated, but rendered much better compositions
than the authors intended them to be.
Of the excellent madrigals by George Kirbye [d. 1634], as
several have lately been revived at the Concert of Ancient Music,
and Catch-Club, there seems the less necessity to insert specimens,
or give a further account of them here.
In the first set of madrigals, by John Wilbye [1574-1638], the
following are well known : Lady, when I behold the roses sprouting;
— and Flora gave me fairest flowers; — but Hard by a crystal
fountain, which, according to Hearn (s), used to be annually sung
by the Fellows of New college, Oxon, I am unable to find.* These
words are adjusted to the Music of Giov. Croce, in the second book
of Musica Transalpina, and are set by Morley in the Triumphs of
Oriana; but appear not either in the first or second set of madrigals,
published by Wilbye, and I know of no other.
John Bennet, one of our best madrigalists, seems to have a
melody more phrased and chant ante than most of his cotemporaries.
Besides his Madrigals to four voices, published in 1599, mentioned
above, and of which several have lately been called into notice by
(r) Madrigals to fine voyces, celected out of the best Italian authors.
(s) Lib. Nig. Scacc. p. 587.
* In Dr. Fellowes' E.M.S. these composers are included as follows : —
Kirbye, Vol. 24.
J. Wilbye, Vols. 6 and 7.
J. Bennet, Vol. 23.
Thos. Weelkes, Vols. 9-13.
The Triumphs of Oriana is Vol. 32 of the series.
106
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
the admirers of Old Music, he contributed largely to the
compositions inserted in a work published by Thomas Ravenscroft
[c. 1590-c. 1633] in 1614, entitled, A briefe Discourse of the true
but neglected Use of charact'ring the Degrees in mensurable
Musicke, &c. But as this is a theoretical tract belonging to the next
reign, its merit will be considered hereafter.
In the first set of madrigals by Thomas Weelkes [d. 1623], to
three, four, five, and six voices, of the II. III. and IV. the words
are by Shakspeare, and were published, with the Music, two years
before they appeared elsewhere. In 1599, however, they were
inserted in our great Dramatist's collection of poems, called the
Passionate Pilgrim, to which he prefixed his name. In 1600, they
likewise had a place in a collection of songs by different authors,
under the title of England's Helicon (t). Many of Weelkes's
madrigals are well known, and justly ranked among the best secular
compositions of the time; I shall, however, give, as a specimen of
his style, the three that were written by Shakspeare, not because
the Music is superior to the rest> but because the words were
produced by an author whose memory is so dear to the nation, that
every fragment of his works becomes daily more interesting.
Madrigal by Thos. Weelkes, a 3. The Words by Shakspeare from
his Passionate Pilgrim. The Music printed 1597.
3^
iEte
-&± (t>-
e
B0
^EgE
if
fry flo&KS. \ P£B&fif<S1C
.{«
IS f>
9=^
3 — r
^t
&z
^
S£
&^T
flu. if A
f*y suss
&
S=:^
£E
sr-J-
ZBZ±
1 — i-
my !}/>nisSP£e3firr
QU IS f* miss 6
ffU. Si # - -
fc=s
^ l^ ~
e
ts:
h
-if.
F=t=?=5
-^x
isis. Lord 6
oyi/ve
Cai See amis
M
£S
g=^=
30
EEE
■miite tf Whs
Bert— im
ChMSG OFTHlf
^^
Q» f 3=C
p 6 w==i
£m M
t=S=
Cai/SiW arrnta "•■'
Heflnrs *£ivy/*4
£j»
p-o-
*^S
*3=
3=4
Al£ ovR/tiamy
JlQf
S?
5^
^
p Qf
^
3
*=*
I V K
/?XX <W/? &
(fc///2- /S> ?
^
^E
S
£
F*
ALA (91//7 Sc
/»«•
K60-
-&or
{%) See Supfil. to Shakspeare. Vol. I. p. 722.
107
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
'TueteoMy tsf&at'o
ft--*-?-
!F T T_ 1L_ ±
^^
3=t
k±
-move. ort£Siiru(
flu. /*/
^—4^-
ii Jry
¥^^=
s/t-'i-y cscssc
Vfftou&H~f)u. my
e
^
w
_a a» a ^
^S
rw i i
5=C
cws sii.-Ly ctiotse &&
r'i
•S ' 1 k
*=t
ifck:
zF=f=FF
cutis £&
OH from ewes
4
». <B /-»
^=t
f — -v
i H T
\ w r
FRDKtfin'a FOR--
tlT^-y
±rt
^M^L
K=t
;'U
7 m'-y •
V. i *»
VH^-r
Cu/liBO Fi^Kt-s tofliae oh FOow/wHti F&a-ru/*E.
£f=
55S^
^^ ffi
2=
> w i i
^Vtf --ffLS
Fcb \f anises
uiu>ivs7m/>/fey
^
E£
/ty*f!C /•y* K0-iK£lV
-»-~ «£ »_,
Cl/fXEAFlC-
• KLS
fbe not/ 1 set •
nkia£/*f m>- meA/
I
Co/vsr/9rtc/
v^-J^i|
jfff^
f> g=
^=^
^
i 1-
pfc
/=?i/«w» j£
CbSSED FlC- KL£ /fffnif F!C— Kt£ &4/IX
108
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
J3L
hi- ifSp Thrhin fenf in meri To £ ui/ne mo us no Wo - /"f/v
fte
FFF
*^TI
S5
men to B !■*<*(
Bl-f)r*G
•» J
Q?
men To Bui/tte
file* To Bui/^iT
&
*■» men Ta Blf)/H£ thk» If men ~ To
The second < t^^tpt:
r O
=i^F
±=3
Love H#T«
Ft>e
TufiALP
5to
^
g^F
^*
^
>fc* f-sn/vscefn
FEGP Si. f/tf f
^^
e£
//» SUicn &C
tJlfliie iro He
U , vz/vs;
*» 0 BLfttK IHMItlll
d=F
+y
fc^
spssom^
MTh
QftU.
££
ra»
t=t
3=5E
s
3*=*=
m^
S=S:
Q»
TV -THWmH ovarii di££t>m/n n B/Jafriw pa/ivMnb St
* rAs}i/<inn.Ei>
"^ — i!5 —
3=l=n
i i
P/AF &£
<2*W
mysnep#a& t
my wmte/x
B
P
3=F
ii
V I- "
Hirji
Gflu.
ft»/ SHE?H£ft[}i PiPS Ale
Sav/nD &m Sfveu. my
werneaf ffeu
7?/"4S Dol£-
-©-
Ms*.-A&—— *C~
i i . i
=s
>fJiWW^aTt»«?T^F'
32
WW £>wi mySHSPH£il&'3 &£
Eg
Sac
&
t3=
e U
! i 1
EEEE
dOLS-PUu
Ktiatj. fl*V
£uor&s. Das
^S
A±
±=r
d±id
S3L&
su.
/»/
Hsp NOT & ■
£— u-*
±=c
^ *'-- /r^_ /fAtet nnfeuimu. %c '
log
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
klstps \*'Th noKui«G flt>is£Tp see mf Jsoul-
■PLIGHT.
m * ci
^F==
i«L
1
■mr*-m
-a^-al
^^?
ii-ci 33
P
SpVlVD
QeoOHb LIKE » THOUSflfilB
3==M
a-tJOJ J
frCr^
Tl I 1 '
s
-/Less
6/?6Uf&
-ei>/e*/'.D
B.
B
SB
=®=:3
Hfim; HON SGitS 1*Z-- SpUfto 7wV&e
^^^
M»«'»f 5 r
£&
?=0=
BE£
EE
^ja-
Vr>f/auiiHj> M£?i
LI>tS.li &&
Unea &
Blooz/
3 tl&li ""**
JhJ^wf
^F=T
s
=S
£g
^-■^■^a^
p^
SE
Blood? FGHT
WSLOODf
ib=Ag
dfefe
^=^
try
^
F5
>^=F
W/V M 8toa-J>y
JJ1** g
ff=3
£2
S
c -
IL^ 1*
P^
Hgff
• o |i
Pisur
JS-
Vuy>dy8ucaz>Y
i — e^
£E
^
^r
Pl6»T UH£S%c
Stoaay Fiauri"
Bldcd?
I
-■ -r— A-
EE
£§E
msKpi
>/4«r kllt£rt be
ii* SLoooy PGttrii* BuooDf fight
&=4p
jt»0
^y
=M=
i I I
as at
^^
S
±=T
J=+
CL&tetiem
HOT
inernt-
ftALy
tPtiiH ; for
Cneai' flit- l\' Swafe
ei
^E
gEg
6
g=8
c=g
22=
£tt^
Sinn nor
Cuem Fuu.v
&
S#g
^-Ct
iwrcvt nfiFtiL-
4=C
£A<fl ^fiUiS /P//WS /M»" tofGrff- FUL -iV VlMi AW CHOW- Pi>L-
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
e a .re
jgg:
g=o?
^^
#^=^=^^
i o -g
i=t
I
^±
t=i
tgg
STDUD
vesflrM
Fucks *i
FL6S — //«
?&)(}■
■Wis
A*~6-
W
^
IS
S
^
jjgjgg
i/
H*
fLESP/NQ
FeflK rvA-i.y
te£
m
B=
ist
/vy^wswiitS^ ^a«e-
*/
^»=FP
£«
&>=
.5* sU^i
s
:FFT
^r-
*y
vflu Wff
S'tr/V/vf
All eoa/tia/wy
SE
S^P
=P=^
3=W
3=P
^
/?£<■ 7fof
Pl£asuOes
os f00*
oTJo
iwuy^
W==.
^
ae±
^
B
— ■ "2? PLINTHS PLOfiSuBBS WOWM £
,*u Cvaneenyineer-
"l/VSS
O" rue t>l*i"$ fit*.
itt
^g
:« 0 ^
F=!
^rt
fci
±=i
£
04//? EVEMUZ
7*t» US
fisl titom
&^
p-^s-
=£
3
gg
^ — h
"/Gll- wtf bvoiihg
PtMS fSSi
PUL9 Fib*
g^^g=^^
e «► y
T~Q-
&E
s
to— E
o^ |,o
STbsrs fWMt us nxe flbb
f>K6
J5Si3
^3£
»
#3:
LoSBSlXS LOST
LorA IS 2040
•I -I —
3E
^SSE
=r=C^3^ss
4=t
/9SS
Mve$ in ■ Zj>57"
/=*>*
imi
r~nrd
3t
Aef9 /JtA &l
Pit!? La us is
^Lk^Jlfr^
^^E
33=
^FFF
^
fe
rygLms'
Swarr lass
\we£ra>i* .
tew I'M
3S
*c=&
cWSy^rr
tt~cr
^^FF
r*^-
^
e=t
i — i-
■yeu.
PMl-t*£u.
Sneer
Tke uiet nb'b/i
I
{£L
*
S&eer
=-&-
' jP cq^lJjdJe) 4|f 1
rr-+-
=t=t
y«r«r "llSsr r>w:AJw «'« >«/ rt* s***r tc
K >^>Mff- Wfftfc
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
=ES=
Sa «»£973 ^
use
i&o*-
-t sr_
H 1-
■tvr PoK fmser
-srftt:
11=^^
++=^
4a=t
«*«
*?£
o *y
-i 1 — \-ViT i 1 1 :
♦ s
?• I
T-[l ^7 1 1
SB
'-Tent
Con - tsut
rnrr
3=^P
i^
S
=t=t
1H&sr~Se
Co*l-
"PdoR
CO- Hi Don)
I
i i h
5HFF?
I ' 1
Co - - 1/- -.ZtoiW
mvsruve a - tome
musri-nrs
TteHCotif-
m
dk
IS
i=r
^^
SE
»«r Sc
f » »
I ill
8=?#
^
j^* ■
5^
Eg
i—i-
r=r
F*
tzh
«ftp
MM
T=F
truest Tu^i tout
Tata »cp> FoftHm I trNtu
Tturr
3EE£
O — Q
±±
±=C
Do*mi)ST %t
fxogt uve.
I
*t- ^
^
t±=W
£
g i
r i i
0- %W HOPfW Him I K/wy THATTfleSS Is w*£ T MUM th/it iweff 7?
i^
3=£
* . m =^==j:
S
S^
lOF
THEfe IS
NONS 0-1 HPg flECP,
■rz>*
Him I
KM)* THAT
THE/?e
nons
lm
^
±±
n
wise
/?
/w/v£ o-rieit hecp^
Him 7 fno*
mar
THEGE
ife
3E3C
4tOt
/To/ve o~t*b6 helppoS
KIWW. THHT Th£*£
none,
In scoring most of the twenty-four madrigals in the Triumphs
of Oriana, so frequently mentioned, though no less a number than
twenty-two different composers were employed, and among these,
Bennet, Kirby, Weelkes, Wilbye, and Morley, they all resemble
each other so much in modulation and style, that they might very
well pass for the productions of one and the same composer. There
is no one that towers above the rest sufficiently to give a modern
ear the least idea of invention or originality (u). However, it is
(u) The harmony of these Minor Musicians, or second class of English masters of the
sixteenth century, is pure and regular; but, however well received, and justly admired by their
cotemporaries, they are, in general, so monotonous in point of modulation, that it seldom
happens that more than two keys are used from the beginning to the end of a movement;
which renders the performance of more than one or two at a time, insipid and tiresome. "If,"
says a worthy Nobleman, and enthusiastic admirer of Handel, "some of that great master's
oratorio choruses were well performed, by voices only, in the manner of madrigals, how
superior would their effect be to the productions of your Bennets, Kirbys. Weelkes's, and
Wilbye's!" The idea was so just, that I wish to hear it put into execution: as there is
doubtless more nerve, more science, and fire, in the worst of Handel's choruses, than in the
greatest efforts of these old madrigalists.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
but candid and natural to suppose, that many passages and traits
of harmony, which now seem dull, vulgar, and common, were
comparatively ingenious, elegant, and new, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
The most agreeable madrigal in this collection seems to be the
twelfth, composed by William Cobbold [1559/60-1639], a
musician, whose name occurs no where else, within my reading
and memory, except in Thomas Este's edition of the Psalm-tunes,
in parts, 1592.* The beginning, however, of this madrigal is not
very happy; and the modulation, Throughout, is chiefly confined
to the key-note, and its fifth. Yet, at the fourth bar, a pleasing
subject is led off, and pursued with ingenuity; and as there are
several other points, in the course of this song, which discover art
and experience in the composer, I should insert it here as a specimen
of the contents of this celebrated publication, were it not too long.
We should suppose, from the words of these madrigals, that our
Lyric Poetry, which has never been much cultivated by real judges
and lovers of Music, was in a state of utter barbarism when they
were written; if the sonnets of Spenser and Shakspeare did not bear
testimony to the contrary. Indeed Bird's songs, published long
before, contain considerable poetical merit, for the time; and it is
to be feared that the blame will ultimately fall on the musical
composers, who seem to have been more deficient in taste and
judgment, than the nation in good poets, when they set such
wretched trash to Music. These madrigals or songs, written in
honour of a great and learned Queen; dedicated to the Earl of
Nottingham, one of the first Nobles of her Court, who is said to
have stimulated exertion in the poets and musicians of the time,
by a prize; and set and published by one of the Gentlemen of her
Chapel, in conjunction with the best musicians then alive; are
inferior, in poetry, to the present Christmas carols of London
bell-men.
Some of the other composers employed in the Triumphs of
Oriana, having distinguished themselves elsewhere, have a title to
particular notice here; though they continued to flourish late in
the next reign. These are John Mundy, Michael Este, John Hilton,
Thomas Tomkins, John Farmer, and John Milton: of whose
compositions I shall speak " as they are — nothing extenuate, or
set down aught in malice;" nor shall I ever praise, or censure upon
system, by previously determining, unheard and unexamined, that
the ancient Music is always better than the modern, or the modern
than the ancient. The rest being of the common mass of musicians,
who contributed but little, either by invention or refinement,
towards the advancement of their art, have no claim to a separate
niche in its annals.
John Mundy [d. 1630], Bachelor of Music, and one of the
Organists of her Majesty's free chapel of Windsor, was an able
* Cobbold was organist at Norwich Cathedral about 1599 — 1608. There are some MSS. of
his in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 18936-9, and 31421) and also in the Library of the Royal College
of Music.
Vol. ii. 8. 113
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
performer on the organ and virginal, as is manifested by several
compositions for those instruments, preserved in Queen Elizabeth's
Virginal Book; and among the rest, a Fantasia, in which he
endeavours to convey an idea of Faire Wether; Lightning; Thunder;
Calme Wether, and a Faire Day; in which attempt, if he has failed,
it was not for want of hand, as the passages are such as seem to
imply a great command of the instrument. Some of his Songs,
and Psalms [1594], which I have scored, are above mediocrity in
harmony and design. Indeed, I think I can discover more air in
some of his movements than in any of his cotemporary musicians
of the second class (x).
Michael Este [c. 1580, d. 1648], Bachelor of Music, and
Master of the Boys of Litchfield cathedral, has little concern with
Queen Elizabeth's reign, except in setting one of the madrigals in
the Triumphs of Oriana. He was a very voluminous composer of
madrigals, and other Vocal Music; having published six books, of
three, four, five, and six parts; which, in the beginning of the last
century, either from the constancy of the public, or the barrenness
of the composers, was sufficient to give him the reputation of great
fertility. One of his three part songs, How merrily we live, has
been lately revived, and honoured with the public favour; and there
are several others among his works, that equally deserve it.
Of John Hilton [d. before 1612], an early publisher, and an
ingenious composer of Catches, we shall likewise have occasion to
speak at a later period; for though he furnished a madrigal to the
Triumphs of Oriana, in 1601, he continued to flourish more than
fifty years after.*
Thomas Tomkins [c. 1575-1656], a scholar of Bird, M. B. and
Gentleman of his Majesty's chapel, was an excellent musician. He
published songs of three, four, five, and six parts, without a date.
It has been imagined that they were printed before the year 1600;
but there are two stubborn circumstances against this conjecture:
the first is, that in the very title of his book, he calls himself
organist of his Majesty's chapel royal; which certainly throws the
publication into the reign of King James I. who was crowned in
1603; the second is likewise furnished in the body of the book itself,
where he dedicates each song to some relation, friend, or eminent
musician; and among the rest, the twenty-fourth song is addressed
to Mr. Dr. Heather. Now it is upon record, that Heather, who
founded the Music-Professorship at Oxford, was honoured with his
degree of Doctor in that university, May 18th, 1622; and as
another of these songs is dedicated by Tomkins to his " ancient and
much reverenced master, William Bird," who died 1623, it seems
(x) See above, his Four-part Song, already printed, p. 53.
* John Hilton of The Triumphs of Oriana was not the John Hilton who published Catches,
etc. The Oriana Hilton was probably dead before 1612, and may have been the father of the
other John Hilton who was born in 1599 and died in 1657. Grove's suggests that some of the
compositions attributed to the younger Hilton may be by the Oriana Hilton.
114
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
to fix the time of the publication to be the latter end of the year
1622, or beginning of 1623.*
There are two very curious compositions by Tomkins, in the
third volume of Dr. Tudway's collection, in the British Museum:
the one is a full anthem, in twelve parts; and the other an anthem
in canon throughout, of four parts in one, both well worthy the
disciple of the admirable Bird. Indeed, by the compositions I have
scored, or examined in score, of Tomkins, he seems to me to have
had more force and facility than Morley. In his songs there is
melody and accent, as well as pure harmony and ingenious
contrivance.
John Farmer [c. 1565-c. 1605] published his First Set of
English Madrigals, to four voices, in 1599; professing in his preface
to have " fully linked his Musick to number, as each gives to other
their true effect, which is to move delight; a virtue," he adds, " so
singular in the Italians, as under that ensign only they hazard
their honour." This boast made me examine his accentuation of
the words of his madrigals, with some expectation of finding greater
accuracy in that particular, than was general at the time; but, on
the contrary, his assertion is so far from true, that there appears
more false accent in his songs, than in those of his cotemporaries.**
We come now to John Milton [c. 1563-1646/7], the father of
our great poet, who, though a scrivener by profession, was a
voluminous composer, and equal in science, if not genuis, to the
best musicians of his age; in conjunction, and on a level with whom,
his name and works appeared in numerous musical publications of
the time, particularly in those of old Wilbye; in the Triumphs of
Oriana, published by Morley; in Ravenscroft's Psalms; in the
Lamentations, published by Sir William Leighton; and in MS.
collections, still in the possession of the curious (y)***
(y) Mr. Warton, in his Notes upon Milton's Poems on Several Occasions, tells us, from
the MS. Life of the Poet, by Aubrey, the antiquary, in the Mus. Ashm. Oxon, that "Milton's
father, though a scrivener, was not apprenticed to that trade : having been bred a scholar, and
of Christ Church, Oxford; and that he took to trade in consequence of being disinherited."
Mr. Warton, therefore observes, that Milton, in his Latin Epistle to his father, addresses him
in a language which he understood. Aubrey adds, "that the elder Milton died very old in
1647, and was interred from his house in Barbican, in St. Giles's church, Cripplegate; where
the great poet was afterwards buried, near his father, in 1674."
* In the E.M.S. the above-named composers are represented as follows : —
J. Mundy, Vol. 35, Part 2.
M. Este (or East), Vols. 29-31.
T. Tomkins, Vol. 18 and also in T.C.M., Vol. 8.
The correct date of publication of Tomkin's set is 1622. A feature of his book is that each of
the 2S compositions is dedicated to a different person, instead of the whole being dedicated to
one individual as was the custom.
** His madrigals are in Vol. 8 of the E.M.S. In 1591 he published "Divers and sundry
wails of two parts in one, to the number of fortie, upon one playn song," etc. The Bodleian
Lib. possesses the only known copy.
The composition of canons and involved contrapuntal exercises became a popular mode o<
musical recreation. There is a record in the Stationer's Register of two sets by Byrd and
Ferrabosco, but these have been lost.
George Waterhouse wrote over a thousand canons upon one plain song. These are to be
found .in the Cambridge MSS.
For examples of the contrapuntal exercises of the late 16th cent., see an article by Miss
Warner in Music and Letters, Vol. II. January, 1921.
*** Compositions in MS. by Milton are in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 29372-7), and at Christ
Church (Oxford) is a 4-part church composition and also some Fancies for instruments. Six
Anthems by him have been reprinted by Arkwright in his O.E.E.
115
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
His son celebrates his musical abilities in an admirable Latin
poem, Ad patrem, where, alluding to his father's musical science,
he says, that Apollo had divided his favours in the sister arts
between them; giving Music to the father, and Poetry to the son.
Nee lu perge, precor, sacras contemnere musas.
Nee vanas inopesque puta, quorum ipse peritus
Munere, mille sonos numeros componis ad aptos.
Millibus et vocem modulis variare canoram
Doctus. Arionii meriio sis nominis hares.
Nunc tibi quid mirum, si vie ger.uisse poetam
Contigerit, charo si tarn prope sanguine juncti
Cognatas artes, studiutnque affine sequamur}
Ipse volens Phoebus se dispertire duobus.
Altera dona mihi, dedit altera dona parenti,
Dividuumque Deum genitorque puerque tenemus (z).
Ver. 56, usque 66.
His effusions of gratitude for the education he had received from
his parent's bounty, and his apology for cultivating poetry, of
which he gives a charming eulogium, seem to contain ideas as
beautiful and sublime, as any in his Paradise Lost.
There was, at this time, a kind of maudlin piety, which had
seized Christians of all denominations; among Calvinists it exhaled
itself in Psalmody ; and in others, not less dolorous, in
Lamentations (a). The Italians sung them in Latin, like the Salmi
Penitentiali; and of both, as well as others in their own language,
the sixteenth century was extremely prolific. In these Lamentations,
whence I shall give one that was set by Milton's father, the poetry
is too mean and gloomy for any readers but modern saints or
methodists : indeed some of it seems much inferior to that of
Sternhold and Hookins. However, the best English composers
of the times thought them worthy of the best Music they could
set to them, in four and five parts. Sir William Leighton, Knt.
who set many of them himself, was the editor; and in the list of
composers we have Bird, Dr. Bull, Orlando Gibbons, Dowland,
Robert Jhonson, Forde, Hooper, Kindersley, Nat. Gyles,
Coperario, Pilkington, Lupo, Peirson, Jones, Alfonso Ferrabosco,
Ward, Weelkes, Wilbye, and Milton (b).
John Dowland was born in 1562 [1563-1626], and admitted
to a Bachelor's degree in Music, at Oxford, in 1588, at the same
time as Morley (c). His instrument was the lute; for his perform-
ed) Nor blame, Oh much lov'd sire ! the sacred Nine,
Who thee have honour'd with such gifts divine;
Who taught thee how to charm the list'ning throng,
With all the sweetness of a siren's song;
Blending such tones as ev'ry breast inflame,
And made thee heir to great Arion's fame.
By blood united, and by kindred arts,
On each Apollo his refulgence darts :
To thee points out the magic pow'r of sound;
To me, the mazes of poetic ground;
And foster'd thus, by his parental care,
We equal seem Divinity to share.
(a) Even the Lute was to weep, and be sorrowful : for Dowland published about this
time Lachrymce, or Seven Teares figured in seaven Passionate Pavins. [Modern edition edited
by Peter Warlock and published by the Oxford Press.]
(6) The Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowful Soule. Composed with musical Ayres
and Songs, both for Voices and divers Instruments. Fol. Lond. 1614.
(c) He is stiled Doctor by Tomkins, Peacham, and Ravenscroft; but A. Wood is silent
concerning his ever having obtained that degree.
Il6
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
ance upon which he was so much celebrated, that Anthony Wood
(d), who never could have heard him, scrupled not to say, " He
was the rarest musician that his age did behold."
After being at the pains of scoring several of Dowland's
compositions, I have been equally disappointed and astonished at
his scanty abilities in counterpoint, and the great reputation he
acquired with his cotemporaries, which has been courteously
continued to him, either by the indolence or ignorance of those who
have had occasion to speak of him, and who took it for granted
that his title to fame, as a profound musician, was well founded.
There are among the Lamentations, published by Leighton,
mentioned before, several by Dowland, which seem to me inferior
in every respect to the rest: for, besides want of melody and
design, with the confusion and embarrassment of a Principiante
in the disposition of the parts, there are frequently unwarrantable,
and, to my ear, very offensive combinations in the harmony; such
as a sharp third, and flat sixth; an extreme flat fourth and
sixth, &c.
I make no doubt but that Dowland was a captivating performer
on the lute, to which Shakspeare has borne testimony in his
Passionate Pilgrim, (No. VI.) where addressing his friend, he says:
If Music and sweet Poetry agree,
As they must needs, the sister and the brother,
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me,
Because thou lov'st the one, and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heav'nly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such,
As passing all conceit needs no defence.
Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound
That Phoebus' lute, the Queen of Music makes;
And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd.
When as himself to singing he betakes.
One god is god of both, as poets feign;
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain.
Suppl. to Shakspeare, Vol. I. p. 713.
It has frequently happened that a great performer has been
totally devoid of the genius and cultivation necessary for a
composer; and, on the contrary, there have been eminent composers
whose abilities in performance have been very far from great.
Close application to the business of a composer equally enfeebles
the hand and the voice, by the mere action of writing, as well as
want of practice; and if the art of composition, and a facility of
committing to paper musical ideas, clothed in good harmony, be
not early acquired, even supposing that genius is not wanting, the
case seems hopeless; as I never remember the difficulties of
composition thoroughly vanquished, except during youth.
(d) Fasti, 1588.
117
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
I think I may venture to say from the works of Dowland, which
I have had an opportunity of examining, that he had not studied
composition regularly at an early period of his life; and was but
little used to writing in many parts.* In his prefaces, particularly
that to his Pilgrim's Solace [1612], he complains much of public
neglect; but these complaints were never known to operate much in
favour of the complainants, any more than those made to a mistress
or lover whose affection is diminishing, which seldom has any
other effect than to accelerate aversion. As a composer, the public
seem to have been right in withdrawing that favour from Dowland,
which had been granted on a bad basis; but with regard to his
performance, we have nothing to say : as at this distance of time
there is no judging what proportion it bore to that of others who
were better treated.
I have my doubts likewise concerning the genius, at least, of the
second Ferrabosco, who had the Poets and Dilettanti all on his
side; but whose works, that have come under my inspection, seem
wholly unworthy of a great professor. The elder, Alfonso
Ferrabosco [d. 1588], was a native of Italy, and a composer of
great eminence, throughout Europe (e); his son [d. 1627/8], who
is said to have been born at Greenwich, published Ayres, with an
accompaniment for the lute, in London, 1609, which contain as
little merit of any kind as I have ever seen in productions to which
the name of a master of established reputation is prefixed: these
he dedicated, with no great humility, to Prince Henry, the eldest
son of James I.
Three herald minstrels, ycleped Ben Jonson, T. Campion, and
N. Tompkins, proclaimed the high worth and qualities of these
Ayres in three encomiastic copies of verses, prefixed to the
works; but these friendly bards, who praise not with a very sparing
hand, seem to have less exalted ideas of the author's merit and
importance, than himself; " For," says he to the Prince, " I could
now with that solemne industry of many in Epistles, enforce all
that hath been said in praise of the Faculty of Musique, and make
that commend the worke; but I desire more, the worke should
commend the Faculty : and therefore suffer these few Ayres to owe
their grace rather to your Highnesse judgment, than any other
testimonies. I am not made of much speech; only I know them
worthy of my name; and therein, I took paines to make them
worthy of yours.
Your Highnesse most humble Servant,
Alfonso Ferrabosco."
(e) It is of him that Morley and Peachum speak, and of whom there are compositions in
almost all the collections of motets and madrigals printed in Italy during the middle and latter
end of the sixteenth century. Some of his motets appear with those of Cipriani Rore, printed
at Venice so early as 1544, and are written with great purity.**
* Dowland's Songs or Ayres have been published by Dr. Fellowes in the English School oi
Lutenist Song-writers, 1st series, 6 vols.
** The early motets mentioned here are by Domenico Ferrabosco (1513-74) who also
a volume of madrigals in 1542. He was the father of the elder Alphonso.
Il8
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
As these Ayres are short and scarce, the musical critic in the
following plates shall have it in his power to discover such beauties
in them as may have escaped my observation.
From a book entitled The Tears or Lamentations of a sorrowful
soule, set forth by Sir William Leighton Knight 1614.
John Milton.
S
O - i -r— r^r
E= i I *| c
J=s?
f-g^ g 3 SH
=c=c=:£3
mSCOXKECTBl W/rnTH/M3B
WouuasPHis'seULE turn
f Ah
±3=+
« g
g^f
asi!
i3
S^S:
r si.jp *>mo!$Z.
3=33
*
g^al«>-^
Thou Goo
»e
ac£
Sfc±
^
»0O fll£
%c
Houn aeo Sc
til
S:-=tfe5
3$S^=
M»-d-
^
i£
fc~
t=i
rr
HOi/masc &c
anions Cofyiacrea win THfnos
b/i r* mi - -- so.
K THovGaBttc
Ivov/foeo &c
F^f1
£
i^3^
^. ~j g"^"
TF^
gpi^
^O
j^»i> \
^
BE
r±
p2=ec
WoumOeo &r
/ivvok/ /»/
s*
fg=Ft
SE
tc±
fci
^g
Q-*Q 1
=£ff£
SB
ffigE
r w '
izt
j — I
— 9^
WOc.voso&c
'&<*
ViOU; <OEO &C
/f/»o»v mysoo
7S /mvow/wy &3Z»
=^p-
^?cs^=5
^s
tot
trt-*r
TSSi^vSSSSt
/»/ £?#/,ff
=*s=*
F^$=3
f ***?■
amo HUmstjBp ma
To KNoWMy SOD.
\ 'T i
:gE
jar
WOUMOSD Sv.
VIOusSEB &
/?/««» HumZuza ms To Kncni /»/ <W.»
Lamentation a 4 by Jo. Dowland, Bachelor of Musicke. Pub-
lished 1614.
Cantus with the
Treble Viol
Wtus with a
Flute
-QS~ven — Tdxr S'f- tens
119
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Lamentation, a 5.*
I
I U IT:
Jo. Dowland, Bachelor of Musicke.
$=tez
m.
±©t
f
|§i
±
Ar mi he uh- wo
e - r*/- /m»»
3S
^
upp r^
±±
^
6- jgjg g
r 5">w/% /
sum£AT mii/E ^r
r>//_ . . /Wf5 tf r
£E
^F
^^
>^
^a=
g' * o
|g
jM/nf /?7" /n//«f &£
UH worrTM - ■
fcs
g ga
S
O^
±=^
he.
^
^^^
-vr rr~
q^r
-a>-e-
^
_ O
^
x=c
Zsnfim£ trr
THI- - - nes
ier Fftits
=&
£?s£
p ^ r?
g^^
~wr~
I
TJ ^> d J JU
g^
aa -
3506
:fcfe
/I7//T£ &C
_©-._
/ SHflme
Hi* mine 4k
^^
^
?fm
$E3
s
&
_g_" JT SHUmE \s
m
c> p*
■tf^V-^-
ysr /=»//«!
&=i
3=S=
T Sunns T sunmS. &c
* A copy in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 31,418) has several more bars than the above version.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Ayre by Alfonso Ferrabosco, the younger, printed 1609, with an
xA.ccompt. for the Lute in Tablature.
mt
jjW
I
J2 W»ff
s^
-♦rr-f-sM-
i=t
p^--h*g -%&H&\
TUnia WHKM4V&ft8
$=5L
zmSi
TIMS HIM.
~W3~
m
76- f 4*"
-w
The Lute Accompt. is mere thorough base which the Chords
implied by the figures placed over this Base wholly comprehend.
Ferabosco XII (a).
g±g
PEES
±j££z
.r_g__u_
OF His Ff**£
3C
^
5H:
JlsU
J*f-^£
^^
F5
^E
i i i ij
¥
•s^
* QsTHSsma
TH/IT
Ye
aaoy Btrnvr *>* p#*rt*
Vhola , Tut •esrsear
±st
y— 1-
p
t— r-
»
3^
giTfi
£E
fez*:
HE
Soon
wm te us- r=os — eo Least
. 3y/v/*n/*e , ptw£gt.y
stsbmsth
.a ac
9=^
5&
S
*=P
Hot
j a>. -g— n^
Second Part.
^
jfi:
inr
b »
^^
=£5
57/r.S fSS
skill, Lens sy
ILL, _ »f/ti W*J ■
/yevst? <!.- is
7t/M — es
me iieR
OF MS
Gui — X>ern
S
35
^
T0OUI-
tfi//- ------
o
=s^
e±
(a) The words of this and the two following Avris, are part of a Poem on the
Sr. Philip Sidney.
Death of
121
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
1* h
|n j h
fa— n •-
-»5-: •—
S
r«i — a a ^*^°»
Tudcoimit
yy "^ — i—
TH/rr Can
vesruscet *£j me-mo-
- g -0^ =-
-*/
THtrr
, 3-
- mf —
Ccon/tat _
— — £-*-
-P 1
r.._
— ^
^
3E£
^
iflczjn
Ji.*r,
.72/* r/. K
tiny his unrsas
P - I —
s
t=t
35
^»=3
Third Part.
^
Vjj . 1 f?
rfcfc
""t^> his Gio-- zy
SlfiG Ths
Posies or his
m
^
s
«u-
fca=
IF^
33E
d=j
:gFg
BfWDS op.
TLfice,
£ND- -LESS
a-Ges fJGetess
Sto ■
77 V j -Tr/^
&
I3E
^
^
)«J J
BE
d. J
=s=c
TO=
SE
±±t
Thrt mmrcTH obe of
Too
mofte THfiniFit£#
W/)7!DB CtvJb
DOE,
m
e
as S
^
3E=fe
2~^ k > h
m
^^
S±L
men- cySTtLL wfnt
WW
ED.
7£PVD'?
CnfiSfjy T£R*o*CHafB. TviTice ?!*£& mexy
Justice Pi* -
3EEE
tot
The preceding plates exhibit specimens of the composition of
Milton, Dowland, and Ferrabosco ; of which, notwithstanding the
greater celebrity of the two last musicians, Milton's production is
the best, not only in point of ingenuity, but correctness (/).
Instrumental Music seems as yet to have made but a small
progress towards that perfection at which it has since arrived:
indeed, the lute and virginal were the only instruments for which
any tolerable Music seems to have been expressly composed. The
violin* was now hardly known, by the English, in shape or name ;
and, therefore, that superior power of expressing almost all that a
human voice can produce, except the articulation of words, seemed
at this time so utterly impossible, that it was not thought a
(/) The places in Dowland's second composition marked with a f, will not be found very
grateful to nice ears.
* Two violinists are mentioned amongst the members of Henry VIII's band, but these were
probably viol players. There were a few violinists in Queen Elizabeth's band, but nearly a
century had to elapse before the viol was ousted.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
gentleman's instrument, or one that should be admitted into good
company. Viols of various sizes, with six strings, and fretted like
the guittar, began indeed to be admitted into chamber-concerts:
for when the performance was public, these instruments were too
feeble for the obtuse organs of our Gothic ancestors; and the low
state of our regal Music in the time of Henry VIII. 1530, may
be gathered from the accounts given in Hall's and Hollingshead's
Chronicles, of a Masque at Cardinal Wolsey's palace, Whitehall,
where the King was entertained with " a Concert of Drums and
Fifes." But this was soft Music compared with that of his heroic
daughter Elizabeth, who according to Henxner (g), used to be
regaled during dinner "with twelve trumpets, and two kettle-drums;
which together with fifes, cornets, and side drums, made the hall
ring for half an hour together. ' ' *
The Lute, of which hardly the sound or shape is known at
present, was, during the two last centuries, the favourite chamber-
instrument of every nation in Europe (h). Sir Thomas Wyat, the
elder, has left us a Sonnet to his Lute, written very early in the
sixteenth century ; and Congreve, at the end of the last, has
celeberated the performance of Mrs. Arabella Hunt on that
instrument.
Indeed choral compositions, madrigals, and songs in this style,
always of many parts, being the only Vocal Music that was in
favour with masters and their most powerful patrons, precluded
much refinement in the performance: as fugues, canons, and full
choruses, of which they chiefly consisted, are founded upon
democratic principles, which admit of no sovereignty; and whatever
good they contain is equally distributed to all ranks in the musical
state. The art of Singing, therefore, in these times, further than
was necessary to keep a performer in tune and time, must have
been unknown : ** the possessor of the most exquisite voice had no
more frequent opportunities allowed of displaying it, than the most
disagreeable ; solo songs, anthems, and cantatas, being productions
of later times. The penalty for the crime of playing a solo at the
Concert of Ancient Music, is five guineas ; but at this time, if instead
of that sum being forfeited, five hundred had been offered to the
individual who could perform such a feat, fewer candidates would
have entered the lists than if the like premium had been offered for
flying from Salisbury steeple over Old Sarum, without a balloon.
It is therefore upon the Church Music, Madrigals, and Songs in
Parts, of our countrymen, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
(g) Itinerarium, Edit. 1757, p. 53. Strawberry-hill.
(h) Vincenzo Galilei says, that the Lutes made in England, in his time, were the best.
Dial, della Mus.
* There is nothing in Henxner's account to lead one to suppose that this was any more
than a call to dinner.
Burney is also unhappy in his remarks on the first episode. It is true that a good deal of
noise was made on the occasion mentioned, but it was for the purpose of surprising the
Cardinal.
** One can hardly understand this statement in view of the fact that Burney knew, even
if he did not admire, the work of the Lutenist song writers.
123
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
that we must rest their reputation ; and these, in point of harmony
and contrivance, the chief excellencies of such compositions, appear
in nothing inferior to those of the best cotemporary productions of
the continent. Taste, rhythm, accent, and grace, must not be
sought for in this kind of Music ; indeed we might as well censure
the ancient Greeks for not writing in English, as the composers ot
the sixteenth century for their deficiency in these particulars, which
having then no existence, even in idea, could not be wanted or
expected; and it is necessarily the business of artists to cultivate and
refine what is in the greatest esteem among the best judges of their
own nation and times. And these, at this period, unanimously
thought every species of musical composition below criticism,
except canons and fugues. Indeed what is generally understood by
taste in Music, must ever be an abomination in the church ; for as it
consists in new refinements or arrangements of notes, it would be
construed into innovation, however meritorious, till consecrated by
age : thus the favourite points and passages in the madrigals of the
sixteenth century, were in the seventeenth received as orthodox in
the church ; as those of the opera songs and cantatas of the
seventeenth century are used by the gravest and most pious
ecclesiastical composers of the eighteenth.
It does not, however, appear just and fair to slight old
compositions, though a totally different style at present prevails.
History does not imply constant perfection: the vices, follies, and
even caprice of Princes, as well as of mankind in general, constitute
as necessary a part of their annals as their virtues. The fugues and
canons of the sixteenth century, like the Gothic buildings in which
they were sung, have a gravity and grandeur peculiarly suited to the
purpose of their construction ; and when either of them shall, by
time or accident, be destroyed, it is very unlikely that they should
ever be replaced by others in a style equally reverential and
stupendous. They should therefore be preserved as venerable relics
of the musical labours and erudition of our forefathers, before the
lighter strains of Secular Music had tinctured melody with its
capricious and motley flights.
Indeed, while there was little melody, less rhythm, and a timid
modulation, Music could not support itself without fugue : as it is
necessary that the French Dramas, for want of blank verse, or
nervous prose, should be written in rhyme. And as simple subjects
are best for fugue, and the composers of this period spent their
whole lives in their contexture, it seems natural to suppose that
they should be superior to those of the present age, when musicians
have so much more to do. A fugue is now seldom produced but
upon some particular occasion, or in an ostentatious fit of pedantry,
as a specimen of that science which professors at other times affect
to despise.
The modulation of the sixteenth century, though it has a grave
and uncommon effect in the Church-Music of that time, is not
accommodated to musical students of the present times ; for being
confined to the ecclesiastical modes, it precludes the use of the most
124
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
agreeable keys in Music. Zarlino (i), who, like Glareanus, allowed
of twelve modes, speaks of himself and a few others having
composed in the eleventh, or key of C natural, which was not one of
the ancient original eight ecclesiastical modes, to which they were
led by the vulgar musicians of the streets and villages, who generally
accompanied rustic dances with tunes in this key, which was then
called II modo lascivo, or the wanton key. Here we have an
instance of the mischief of system : for what was prohibited by the
laws of ecclesiastical modulation to men of science, was suggested by
nature to the hands and ears of ignorance and rusticity, who dared
to please the sense, without first obtaining the permission of
intellect.
Bird, and other old masters, have been censured by the
Reverend Mr. Mason, in his excellent Essay on Church-Music (k),
for inattention to prosody, accent, and quantity, in setting English
words; and indeed, besides the negligence in that particular
common to all the composers of their time, the accentuation of our
language has received such changes since the time of Tallis, Bird,
and our other best church composers, that it seems absolutely
necessary for the words to be newly adjusted to the melodies by
some judicious person, equally tender of the harmony of these
admirable compositions., as of the prosody of our language ;
constantly taking care to place the accent of each word upon the
accented part of each bar in the Music (I).
With respect to the most unexceptionable manner of singing in
the church, it is difficult to suggest any one that will obviate all
objections. In our cathedral chanting, and the canto fermo of the
Romish church, some of the words are uttered with too much
rapidity, while others at the mediatio, or half-close, and termination,
are protracted to an unreasonable length. In our Parochial
Psalmody, as there is no distinction of syllables, but all are made
as long as the lungs of the clerk and congregation will allow; so
(0 P. 333-
(k) A copious Collection of those Portions of the Psalms of David, Bible, and Liturgy,
which have been set to Music, and sung as Anthems in the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches
of England.— Published for the Use of the Church at York; to which is prefixed a Critical and
Historical Essay on Cathedral Music. York, 1782.
(I) It is much to be lamented that this task was not performed by the late Dr. Boyce,
when he revised and prepared these Services for publication. In the Te Deum of both Tallis
and Bird, printed in his first and third volumes, the accent in all the parts is given to the
second syllable of the words holy , glory', glorious, and upon the first in apostles. In Tallis's
Service, Vol. I. p. 5, long syllables are made short, and short, long: The goodly' fellowship of_
the prophets praise thee. The noble army — The holy church throughout all, &c. The
father. P. 7. Servants. 8. We worship; ever. 9. upon. Mercy lighten, &c.
In Bird's Service, p. 2, we have to thee. 4. also of glory'. 5. To deliver; abhor; the
kingdom; the glory ; iky' precious. 7. People; we worship; ever; world. 8. upon. 9. Mercy";
lighten our trust.
In Tallis's Benedictus, p. 11. Perform the mercy promised. Covenant is made a dissyllable,
and has only two notes allowed to it. P. 12. perform; being delivered. In the beginning of
the Sanctus, by Tallis, p. 33, the words are likewise very ill accented.
Where no fugue or imitation is concerned, all the voices should pronounce the same word,
in the same accent, at the same time; which would greatly facilitate to the congregation the
intelligence of what is sung; this is often unnecessarily prevented by ligatures, and divisions
in one part more than another.
A few slight arrangements of this kind in the words, would render these Services, as well
as Morley's Burial Service, and others in Boyce's collection, as unexceptionable with regard
to accentuation of the words, as texture of the parts in the harmony.
125
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
with respect to Services, Full Anthems, and the Romish Mass in
Music, besides the artificial contexture of the parts, divisions upon
particular words, and repetitions of whole sentences, the nature of
canon and fugue is such, that the singers are constantly pronouncing
different words at the same time, with the clamour of ill-bred
disputants, who are all talking at once.
Salvator Rosa, who was as severe with his pen, as bold and
original with his pencil, in his Satires has not spared the pedantry
of false refinements, and abuse of Church Music. However, almost
all his coarse censures, except those levelled at the Castrati, may
be found in Erasmus (m). The bitterness of invective with which
these two writers have loaded Ecclesiastical Music and Musicians
will have the more weight, when it is remembered, that Erasmus
had been himself a singing-boy in the cathedral of Utrecht; and
that Salvator Rosa, besides being an excellent painter and poet,
was a good musician.
Salvator, in his first Satire, after treating Secular Music and
Musicians with extreme uncharitableness and severity, criminates
those of the church with more than puritanical fury.
Who blushes not to hear a hireling band,
At times appointed to subdue the heart.
Profane the temple with Sol-fa in hand,
When tears repentant from each eye should start?
What scandal 'tis within the sacred wall,
To hpar them grunt the vespers, bark the mass,
The Gloria, Credo, Pater-noster bawl,
With the vile fury of a braying ass !
And still more scandalous, in such a place,
We see infatuate Christians list'ning round,
Instead of supplicating God for grace,
To Tenor, Base, and subtilties of sound.
And while such trivial talents are display'd
In howls and squeaks, which wound the pious ear,
No sacred word is with the sound convey'd,
To purify the soul, or heart to chear.
Like drunken Bacchanals they shameless roar,
Till with their noise and jargon all are weary;
And in the Sanctuary they God adore,
Sing to a vile Chaconne the Miserere (n).
A certain degree of simplicity is necessary, in Choral Music, to
render it suitable to the purposes of devotion, which seem to
(w) Commentary on the first of Corinthians, xiv. 19.
(n) Vergognosa follia d'un petto insano !
Nel tempo eletlo a prepararsi il core
Si sta nel tempio con le Solfe in mono. —
Che scandalo e il sentir ne sacri rostri
Crunnir il vespro, ed abbajar la messa,
Ragghiar la Gloria, il Credo, e i Paternostri. —
Quando stillar dovrian gl' occhi in humore,
L'impazziio Christian gl' orecchi intenti
Tiene all' arte d'un Basso, 6 d'un Tenore. —
Apporta d'urli, e di mugiti impressa
L'aria a gl' orecchi altrui tedj, e molestie,
Ch'udir non puossi una sol voce espressa.
Sicche pien di baccano, e d'immodestie
II sacrario di Dio sembra al vedere
Un area di Noe fra tante bestie.
E si sente per tutto a piu potere,
Ond' e, che ogn'un si scandalizza, e tedia,
Cantar su la Ciaccona il Miserere.
126
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVI CENTURY
demand a clear, distinct, and articulate pronunciation of the words,
and that the duration of the notes, whether applied to verse or
prose, should be proportioned to the length of the syllables : indeed,
I see no other method of accomplishing this end in choruses, than
by simple counterpoint of note against note, in all the parts, at least
the first time the words are uttered; afterwards, as the congregation
will be already in possession of their sense and import, nothing will
be lost, on the side of instruction, if they should be repeated in
canon, fugue, or other musical contrivance (o).
When the verse of a Psalm or Hymn is set in fugue, if the part
that leads off the subject were to pronounce the whole verse or
sentence, to complete the sense, before the answer is introduced, it
would perhaps obviate the objection that is made to this ingenious
species of composition, on account of the confusion occasioned by
the several parts singing different words at the same time.
I have dwelt the longer on the state of Music in England during
the long and fortunate reign of Queen Elizabeth, for the honour of
our country; as I fear no other period will be found in which we
were so much on a level with the rest of Europe, in musical genius
and learning. And however uncouth the compositions of these
times may appear to those who think all Music barbarous but that
of the present day; it seems as if those productions, which, at any
period of an art, universally afforded delight to the best judges of
their merit, were well entitled to examination and respect, however
the revolutions of taste and fashion may have diminished their
favour.
(o) The solemn Music of the church, without words, Dryden emphatically calls
Inarticulate Poesy. Pre], to Tyrannick Love; or, the Royal Martyr. And such should bt the
Voluntaries of our organists, at least in the middle of the service.
127
Chapter II
Of the State of Music in Italy during the Sixteenth
Century: including an Account of Theorists, with the
Progress of Practical Music in the Church, as well as of
Madrigals, Ricercari, or Fantasias, and Secular Songs, of
that Period
MELODY, itself the child of Fancy, was still held in
Gothic chains; and though there was no rhythm, or
symmetry of measure, the subject of every movement was
symmetric and invariable. To check Imagination's wild vagaries,
and restrain her wanton flights in the solemnity of supplication,
humility of contrition, funereal sorrow, or even the grateful song of
gladness and thanksgiving, when addressed to the Divinity, during
the celebration of sacred rites in the temple, is not only required
by propriety, but duty. Yet, as the confining Music merely to
religious purposes borders on fanaticism, so the treating secular and
light subjects with ecclesiastical gravity; making a fugue of every
movement, and regarding grace, elegance, and fertility of invention,
as criminal, or, at best, as frivolous, are equally proofs of want of
taste, and want of candour. But these points will be best discussed
when we come to treat of Lyric and Dramatic Compositions, and
trace the progress which Instrumental Music has made during the
present century.
What kind of Music the Italians cultivated before the general use
of counterpoint was established, I know not; but we find in the
Lives of their first Painters, that many of them had been brought
up to Music, as a profession. Leonardo da Vinci was a great
performer on several instruments, and invented a new species of
tyre, in the shape of a horse's skull (a). Italy had likewise at this
time singers with great talents for execution and expression,
according to Castiglione, who, in his Cortegiano, speaking of the
variety and power of contrast in the arts, observes, that ' ' Instances
of dissimilar things producing similar effects that are equally pleasing
and meritorious may be given in them all; particularly Music, in
which the movement is sometimes grave and majestic, and
{a) Da Tescliio di Cavallo. — Vasari, Vite di Pitt. [See also E. McCurdy's, "The Mind of
Leonardo da Vinci" (Jon. Cape, 1932 ed.) p. 31 and 2.]
128
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
sometimes gay and animated, yet equally delightful to the hearer.
Thus, in singing, what can be more different than the performance
of Bidon and Marchetto Cara? The one artificial, rapid,
nervous, vehement, and impassioned, elevates and inflames the
soul of every hearer; while the other, more gentle, pathetic,
and insinuating, sooths, calms, and affects by a sorrowful and
tender sweetness, which penetrates the heart, and affords it the most
exquisite pleasure of a different kind." This description the late
Mr. Galliard (b) has thought applicable to the different powers of
the two great female singers, Faustina and Cuzzoni, the superiority
of whose abilities was so disputable when they performed on the
same stage in England, 1727, that the patrons and friends of the
one became inveterate enemies to those of the other.
Great natural powers will sometimes astonish and charm without
much assistance from art; and so late as the year 1547, Pietro
Aaron (c) gives a list of such extraordinary performers as were
able to sing by book, cantori a libro; by which we may suppose that
the art was new and uncommon. And according to Tartini (d),
" The old Italian songs being only made for a single voice, were
simple in the highest degree; partaking of the nature of recitative,
but largo;" (as the gondoliers at Venice still sing the stanzas of
Tasso). " None were confined to regular bars; and the key was
determined by the kind and compass of voice that was to sing
them."
However, during the sixteenth century, when the works of
Palestrina appeared, the Italians may with justice be said to have
given instructions to the rest of Europe, in counterpoint, as, ever
since operas were established, they have done in singing. But
before we proceed to give specimens of the composition of this
admirable composer and his co temporaries, it seems necessary to
speak of the chief Theorists of Italy, who established the principles
upon which their productions were founded; and as not only the
Italian School of Music, but that of every other country, seems
much indebted to the labours of Franchinus Gaffurius, and the
many useful books he published, I shall place him at the head of
their Musical Classics.
Franchinus Gafurius, or Gafforio, of Lodi (e), born 1451,
was the son of Betino, a soldier in the service of Gonzago, Duke
of Mantua, and Catherine Fixaraga, of the same place. He was
first intended for Priest's orders, but after studying Music for two
years under Fryar John Goodenach, a Carmelite, he manifested
so much genius for that science, that it was thought expedient to
make it his profession. After learning the rudiments of Music at
Lodi, he went to Mantua, where he was patronized by the Marquis
Lodovico Gonzago; and where during two years he pursued his
(b) Transl. of Tosi, p. 170. (c) Lucidario in Musica, fol. 31.
(d) Trattato di Musica, p. 17.
(e) Walther mistakenly makes him a native of Lyons, in France. Laudensis.
Voi,. ii. 9. 129
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
studies with unwearied assiduity night and day, and acquired
great reputation both in the speculative and practical part of his
profession (/). From this city he went to Verona, where he read
public lectures on Music for two years more, and published several
works; after which he removed to Genoa, whither he was invited
by the Doge Prospero : there he entered into Priest's orders. From
Genoa he was invited to Milan by the Duke and Duchess Galeazzo,
but they being soon after expelled that city, he returned to Naples,
where Philip of Bologna, Professor Royal, received him as his
colleague; and he became so eminent in the theory of Music, that
he was thought superior to John Tinctor, William Guarnieri,
Bernard Yeart, and many celebrated and learned musicians, with
whom he now conversed and disputed. He there composed and
published his profound Treatise on the Theory of Harmony, 1480;
which was afterwards corrected, enlarged, and republished at
Milan, 1492; but the plague raging in Naples, and that kingdom
being likewise much incommoded by a war with the Turks, he
retreated to Otranto, in Apulia; whence, after a short residence,
he returned to Lodi, where he was protected and favoured by
Pallavicino, the Bishop, and opened a public school, in which,
during three years, he formed many excellent scholars. He was
offered great encouragement at Bergamo, if he would settle there;
but the war being over, and the Duke of Milan, his old patron,
restored, he preferred the residence of that city to any other. It
was here that he composed and polished most of his works; that
he was caressed by the first persons of his time for rank and
learning; and that he read Lectures by public authority to crowded
audiences, for which he had a faculty granted him by the
Archbishop and chief magistrates of the city in 1483, which exalted
him far above all his cotemporary brethren : and- how much he
improved the science by his instructions, his lectures, and his
writings, was testified by the approbation of the whole city; to
which may be added the many disciples he formed, and the almost
infinite number of volumes he wrote, among which several will
live as long as Music and the Latin tongue are understood. He
likewise first collected, revised, commended, and translated into
Latin the old Greek writers on Music: Aristides Quintilianus,
Manuel Briennius, Bacchius sen. and Ptolemy's Harmonics. The
order of the works he published is as follows: Theoricum Opus
Harmonicce Disciplines mentioned above, Neapolis, 1480. Milan,
1492. This was the first book on the subject of Music that issued
from the press after the invention of Printing, if we except the
Definitiones Term. Musicce, of John Tinctor (g). Practica Musicce
utriusque Cantus. Milan, 1496. Brescia, 1497, 1502. And
Venice, 1512. Angelicum ac Divinum Opus Musicce Materna
(/) His biographers inform us not when or where Franchinus met with Bonadies, of
whom he so frequently makes honourable mention in his works, constantly calling him
Prceceptor mens. P. Martini has given a fragment, from a Kyrie Eleison, composed by
Bonadies in 1473, when Gaforio was twenty-two years old.
(g) See Book II. p. 717. Note (y).
I30
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Lingua Scrip. Milan, 1508 [1496] (h). Be Harmonica Musicor.
Instrumentorum. Milan, 1518. This work, we are told by
Pantaleone Melegulo, of Lodi, his countryman, from whom some
account of the author appeared in the first edition, was written
when Gaff orio was fifty years of age, that is to say, in the year
1501; and though the subject is dark and difficult, it was
absolutely necessary for understanding the ancient authors. If,
says Pantaleone, a life spent in labour for the advancement of
science, and in a series of laudable actions, can entitle a human
being to fame in this world, and felicity in the next, the claim
of Gafforio to both seems indisputable.*
The doctrines of this excellent theorist, who died 1520 [d. 1522]
have been so frequently cited in the course of the preceding
volume, that, after the ample list of his writings just given, a table
of their contents, or further extracts from them, seem unnecessary.
Pietro Aaron [d. ca. 1545], a Florentine, of the order of
Jerusalem, and canon of Rimini, was a voluminous writer on Music.
He first appears as an author in 1516, when a small Latin tract in
three books, Be Institutione Harmonica, which he wrote originally
in Italian, was translated into Latin, and published at Bologna,
by his friend, Joh. Ant. Flaminius, of Imola.
His second [third] publication is entitled Toscanello delta
Musica.** This treatise, the most considerable of all his writings,
was first printed at Venice, 1523; then in 1529; and lastly, with
additions, in 1539. In the Dedication to this work the author
tells us, that he had been admitted into the Papal chapel, at Rome,
during the Pontificate of Leo X. in speaking of whom, he says,
" Though this Pontiff had acquired a consummate knowledge in
most arts and sciences, he seemed to love, encourage, and exalt
Music more than any other; which stimulated many to exert
themselves with uncommon ardor in its cultivation. And among
those who aspired at the great premiums that were held forth to
talents, I became," says he, " a candidate myself; for being born
to a slender fortune, which I wished to improve by some reputable
profession, I chose Music; at which I laboured with unremitting
diligence, till the irreparable loss I sustained, by the death of my
munificent patron, Leo."
Those who have read Boethius and Franchinus, will not find
many new discoveries or precepts in this treatise of Pietro Aaron.
However, as the writings of his celebrated predecessors were chiefly
in Latin, his works became perhaps the more useful and acceptable
to the secular musicians of Italy, from the language in which
they were published. 77 Toscanello is divided into two books: the
first contains a common-place panegyric on Music, and an enumera-
tion of its inventors, with definitions and explanations of musical
terms and character. In the second book, after the usual parade
(h) The title only of this book is Latin, the rest is in Italian.
* Copies of most of Gafforio's works are to be found in the B.M.
** His second publication was Gli errori di Franchino Gafuri, etc., issued in 1521.
131
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of science concerning the genera of the ancients, he proceeds to
counterpoint, for which he gives a decalogue, or ten precepts (i).
After this, we have a short explanation of arithmetical, geometrical,
and harmonical proportion, with directions for dividing the
monochord, according to the principles of Guido.
His third work, published at Venice, 1525, was likewise written
in Italian ; for which, as it had been so long the custom for Latin
to be the vehicle of science, he makes an apology. This Treatise
is upon the tones, or keys, of Canto-figurato, which he regulates
entirely by those of Canto-fermo (k).
Pietro Aaron upon all occasions manifestly exalts the character
of Bartholomeo Ramis,* a Spaniard, at the expence of
Franchinus. Ramis was the first modern who sustained the
necessity of a temperament (/) ; he was answered by Nicholas
Burtius, 1487 (m), who imagined the honour of Guido to be injured
by the Spaniard, as Guido used the Pythagorean proportions, and
had never thought of a temperament. Burtius again was handled
very roughly by Spataro, the disciple of Ramis (n) ; and the
venerable theorist, Franchinus, finding himself very rudely treated
in this dispute, by the favourers of temperament, in 1522, when he
was upwards of seventy years of age, took up the defence of
Pythagoras, as Fontenelle (o), at near a hundred, did of Des Cartes.
After this, the war became general, and continued to rage with
great violence for more than a century, between the friends of
tempered scales, and the adherents to ancient proportions, and
equal harmony.
The fourth tract of Pietro Aaron is called Lucidario in Musica
di alcune Oppenioni Antiche e Moderne — Composto doll' eccellente,
e consumato Musico Pietro Aaron, &c. Ven. 1545 (p). In this
work we have discussions of many doubts, contradictions, questions,
and difficulties, never solved before. Here the timidity of early
contrapuntists appears, in the use of accidental semitones, which
the pure diatonic scales of Canto-fermo did not allow.
(j) Franchinus and the more ancient writers gave no more than eight rules of counterpoint.
(k) Trattato delta Naiura, e Cognizione di tutti li Tuoni di Canto figurato.
(I) De Musica, Tractatus, sive Musica practica. 1482.
(m) Musices Opusculum cum Defens. Guidonis Aretini adversus uendam Hispanum
veritatis prevaricator. Bonon, 1487. — This tract, printed in black letter, is in the Ashmol.
Collect, among Anthony Wood's books.
(n) Joannes Spadarius Bononiensis. Musices ac Bartolomii Rami Pareie ejus Prmceptoris
honesta Defensio in Nicol. Burtij Parmens. Opusc. Bologna, 14.91.
(o) Theorie des Tourbillons, 1752; I'annce de sa Mori. The editor of this Theory calls
it, Preservatif contre la Seduction de Newtonianisme. Pref.
(p) The splendid and magnificent titles given to authors in books, published by
themselves, are no otherwise reconcileable to modern ideas of literary humility, than by
supposing them to proceed from the courtesy of the printer; as the recommendatory verses
which succeeded these hyperbolical title-pages, and continued in fashion as late as the
publication of Pope's works, did from the partiality of friends. One of the tracts of
Franchinus, and that which least deserved it, is styled Angelicum ac Divinum Opus Musicce;
and the Lucidario in Musica, as the author himself seems to inform us, was composed by the
excellent and consummate musician, Pietro Aaron, &c, &c.
* Better known as Ramos di Peraja. He was born c. 1440, was settled in Rome in 1491,
and died between that date and 1521. His Musica practica {Bologna, 1482) was reprinted by
J. Wolf in 1901.
132
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The following passages, which in 1545 were thought licentious,
have since become the common materials and ground-work of
composition.
in „ -i
=
1 i- O a t|Ott~~
-^,-g- o o
3 — S"4-1
_3 — w _
9 M
• — o--
76
"
■ '1
The Use of the False Fifth, prohibited by Franchinus, L. III.
cap. 3. is allowed by P. Aaron, Lucidario, Lib. II.
Two 5ths, one false, one true.
' 1 — 1
F*=
' Q O ""
^ o 0 <* lloll
J ilOH
O O Q rffO llQll
J O w-O O noil
— i o '
=£ *—
^ — o °
S-6
rv _
5 7-6 #*>
ol P
-o #f@-
—43k —
J lloll -
° ° * o feE
np_
For the extent of the several modes, he very frequently confirms
his opinion by the authority of Marchetto da Padua, whom he
calls 77 nostro eccellentissimo Marchetto Padovano (q). It is easy to
discover through verbal respect for the person of Franchinus, that
this author wishes on all occasions to depreciate his doctrines.
Another small work, entitled Compendiolo di molti dubbj Segreti
et Sentenze intorno il Canto-fermo e figurato, by this author, has
no date, and seems but a kind of supplement to his Lucidario.
The next writer upon Music to Pietro Aaron, in Italy, is
Lodovico Fogliano [d. 1539], who published, in 1529, a Latin
tract upon the Theory of Sound (r). This work is divided into three
sections : in the first, he treats of musical proportions ; in the second,
of consonances ; and in the third, of the division of the monochord.
In the second section, the foundation seems to have been laid for
another branch of the musical controversy already mentioned, which
was afterwards agitated with great warmth ; this author contending,
contrary to the doctrines of Boethius, from whom two-thirds of his
book are taken, for the distinction of greater and less tone, in the
diatonic tetrachord (s). Of the nature of this dispute some idea
may be derived from the account given of the ancient musical sects
in Greece, in the first volume of this work (t), where the discovery
of a temperament is given to Didymus.
In 1531, Giov. Spataro, already mentioned among the enemies
of Franchinus, published at Venice a work, entitled Tractato di
(q) P. Aaron is obliged to this author for the title of his book; as Marchettus calls
written in 1274, Lucidarium in Arte Musicce plants. See Book II. p. 519.
(r) Musica Theorica. Fol.
(si De Utilitate Toni majoris et minoris. (t) P. 356.
work.
133
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Musica, in which he renews his attack with redoubled scurrility.
Quarrels of this kind, which are never interesting to any but the
combatants and their partizans, are rendered still more offensive to
others, by time ; as the truths for which they would be thought to
contend, are either too well known, or too much forgotten, to merit
the attention of posterity.
In 1538 [1533], Giov. Maria da Terentio Lanfranco
published his Scintille di Musia, a work which is frequently cited
with great praise by subsequent writers ; as is the following:
Recanetum di Musica aurea, published at Rome, the same year,
by Steffano Vanneo [b. 1493]. It was written originally in
Italian, and translated into Latin by Vincenzio Rossetto, of Verona.
And this is all that I am able to say of these two books, as they are
now become so scarce, that I have never been so fortunate as to
procure copies of them.*
Dialoghe delta Musica, by Antonfrancisco Doni [1513-1574],
published at Venice, 1544, is likewise among the Libri rari. I have
never seen it, except in the library of Padre Martini, where I
transcribed a considerable part of it. The author, a whimsical and
excentric character, tinctured with buffoonery, was not only a
practical musician and composer by profession, but connected and
in correspondence with the principal writers and artists of his time.
His Libraria must have been an useful publication when it first
appeared ; as it not only contains a catalogue and character of all
the Italian books then in print, but of all the MSS. that he had seen,
with a list of the academies then subsisting, their institution, mottos,
and employment ; but what rendered this little work particularly
useful to my enquiries, is the catalogue of all the Music that had been
published at Venice since the invention of Printing ; to this list
I shall have frequent occasion to refer hereafter. The author has
published a collection of his letters, and the answers to them ; and a
wild satirical rhapsody, which he calls La Zucca, or the Pumpkin.
In all his writings, of which he gives a list of more than twenty,
the author aspires at singularity, and the reputation of a comical
fellow ; in the first he generally succeeds, and if he fail in the
second, " his stars are more in fault than he (u)."
At the beginning of his Dialogue on Music, the author gives a
list of composers then living at Venice, amounting to seventeen; of
whom seven are Netherlanders, the rest chiefly Italian. In the
course of the dialogue, compositions by most of them are
performed.** In the first conversation the interlocutors are Michele,
(u) Apostolo Zeno, in his notes on the Bibl della Eloq. Hal. of Fontanini, seems to give
a very just character of this whimsical writer, when he says, II Doni solito setnpre tener
dubbioso il lettore ne suoi jantastici scritti tra la verita, e la falsita, talchi non
siscuopre, quando da senno, e quando da burla egli parli. To. II. p. 180, edit, di Venezia, 1753.
"It is so much the practice of Doni, in all his fantastical writings, to blend truth with falsehood,
that the reader is unable to discover when he is ludicrous, or when serious."
* The original Italian MS., completed in 1531, was not published. The Latin translation
by Rosetti was issued in 1533.
Book 1 treats ot the Gregorian Chant and the Modes.
Book II. Mensural Music.
Book III. Counterpoint.
** The Dialogo della Musica is fully described by Alfred Einstein in Music and Letters for
July, 1934-
134
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Hoste, Bargo, and Grullone, all performers, who sing madrigals and
songs by Claudio Veggio and Vincenzo Ruffo. In the second
conversation, instruments are joined to the voices : Anton, da Lucca
first playing a voluntary on the lute, Fa cose divine ; then Buzzino il
violone ; Lod. Bosso, S. G. Battista, Pre Michele, Pre Bartolomeo,
and Doni himself, play on viols ; these all perform in pieces of
Riccio da Padua, Girolamo Parabosco, Berchem, Archadelt (x),
&c. Here Doni speaks with triumph and exultation of the superior
state of Music in his time, compared with that of any former period :
for, says he, " there are musicians now, who, if Josquin were to
return to this world, would make him cross himself. In former
times people used to dance with their hands in their pockets ; and
if one could give another a fall, he was thought a wit, and a dexterous
fellow. Ysach (Henry Isaac, detto Arrigo Tedesco), then set the
songs, and was thought a Master ; at present he would hardly be
a Scholar (y) . "
Fior Angelico di Musica, published at Venice, 1547, by P.
Angelo da Picitono, an ecclesiastic, is a work which, however
difficult to find at present, is, from its dulness and pedantry, still
more difficult to read.
Two dialogues on Music, by Luigi Dentice, a Neapolitan
gentleman, were published at Rome in 1553. Of these, though the
subject turns chiefly upon the musical proportions, and modes of
the ancients, in attempting to explain which, Boethius seems to
have been the author's principal guide; yet, in the second dialogue,
we have an account of what was then a modern concert, from which
an idea may be formed of the state of practical Music at Naples,
when this book was written. One of the interlocutors, speaking
with rapture of a performance which he had heard at the palace of
Donna Giovanna d'Arragona (z), tells us, that the principal
musicians who played on instruments, and were of the first class,
were Giovan Leonarda de l'Harpa Napolitano, Perino da Firenze,
(x) Parabosco was organist of St. Marc's church, at Venice, and, according to Crescimbeni,
Stor. del. Volg. Poes. a most admirable performer. "Whoever," says Ant. Fran. Doni.
Libraria Tratt. imo. "is endowed by Heaven with the power of receiving and communicating
pleasure, should imitate Parabosco; who, not content with that musical excellence, with which
he has given such delight, both in public and private, and acquired such fame, has afforded
equal pleasure by his literary and poetical talents, in the publication of works, that are as
much esteemed for their wit and learning, as originality." He then gives a list of his Tragedies,
Comedies, Miscellaneous Poems, and Letters; adding, that "he hoped his Novels would soon
appear in print, which, for their invention and style, he thought the most admirable productions
of the kind that he had ever read." They were afterwards published under the title of Gli
Disporti, 1586, and I purchased them at the sale of the late Mr. Beauclerc's books; but find,
on perusal, that Doni spoke of them as he did, perhaps, of his musical abilities, with the
partiality of a friend. Several of the motels and madrigals of Parabosco are inserted in the
collections that were published about the middle of the sixteenth century, some of which I
took the trouble to score, but found in them no subject, and but little design, _ or contrivance.
And if his literary abilities did not impose on the writers who speak of his musical productions,
his character as a composer must have been established on works superior to these, which are
mere remplissage._ The compositions of the two Netherlanders, Jachet Berchem, and
Archadelt, of which we shall give specimens hereafter, are infinitely superior to those of
Parabosco.
(y) "Hannibal," says Capt. Bluff, "was a very pretty lellow in those days, it must be
granted. — But alas. Sir ! were he alive now, he would be nothing, nothing in the earth."
[Capt. Noll Bluff is a character in Congreve's play, The Old Bachelor.']
(2) The Emperor Charles V. of the House of Arragon, was at this time in possession of
the kingdom of Naples.
135
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Battista Siciliano, and Giaches da Ferrara; and that the singers were
Giulio Cesare Brancazzo, Francisco Bisballe, Conte de Briatico,
Scipione di Palia, and a Soprano, whose name, as his perfomance
was censured, the author has concealed; but of the others, he says;
they were most perfect musicians, and sung in a wonderful manner
(a). It appears by this dialogue, that the vocal performers were not
accompanied by a band, but that each sung to his own instrument.
Pochi Musice si travano che cantono sopra gli Stormenti che
m'abbian finito di contentare, perche tutti errano in qualche cosa, o
nella intonatione, o nella pronontiatione, o nel suonare, o nel fare i
Passaggi, o vero nel remettere & rinforzare la voce quando bisogna;
le quali Cose, parte per arte & parte per natura s ' acquistano .
" There are few musicians," says the author, " who sing to their
instruments, that have entirely satisfied me : as they have almost
all some defect of intonation, utterance, accompaniment, execution
of divisions, or manner of diminishing and swelling the voice
occasionally; in which particulars both art and nature must conspire
to render a performer perfect." The interlocutors then celebrate the
talents of two female singers: Donna Maria di Cardona Marchese
della Padula, and Signora Fagiola, as being possessed of all the
requisites of vocal perfection.
It may be concluded from this conversation, that the Soprano
among the male singers was an Evirato; that much art and refine-
ment were expected in vocal performers, besides singing in time
and tune; and that, by the titles of Count and Marchioness given
to some of the personages whose talents are celebrated, whether
they are regarded as professors or Diletanti, it appears that the
successful cultivation of Music in the city of Naples was at this time
in great estimation.
During the sixteenth century, and a great part of the next, many
of the most eminent musical theorists of Italy employed their time
in subtle divisions of the scale, and visionary pursuits after the
ancient Greek genera; nor was this rage wholly confined to theorists,
but extended itself to practical musicians, ambitious of astonishing
the world by their deep science and superior penetration, though
they might have employed their time more profitably to themselves,
and the art they professed, in exploring the latent resources of
harmonic combinations and effects in composition, or in refining the
tone, heightening the expression, and extending the powers of
execution, upon some particular instrument. These vain enquiries
certainly impeded the progress of modern Music; for hardly a
single tract or treatise was presented to the public, that was not
crowded with circles, segments of circles, diagrams, divisions,
sub-divisions, commas, modes, genera, species, and technical terms
drawn from Greek writers, and the now unintelligible and useless
jargon of Boethius.
In 1555, Nicolo Vicentino [b. 1511] published at Rome a
work, with the following title : L'Antica Musica ridotta alia moderna
(a) Miracolosamente.
136
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Prattica; or, "Ancient Music reduced to modern Practice," with
precepts and examples for the three genera and their species; to
which is added, an account of a new instrument for the most
perfect performance of Music, together with many musical secrets.*
Vincentino having the title of Don prefixed to his name, seems
to have been an ecclesiastic, of the Benedictine order. He was a
practical musician, and appears to have known his business; in his
treatise he has explained the difficulties in the Music of his time,
with such clearness, as would have been useful to the student, and
honourable to himself, if he had not split upon enharmonic rocks,
and chromatic quick-sands. He gives a circumstantial account of
a dispute between him and another musician at Rome, Vincentio
Lusitanio, who sustained that modern Music was entirely diatonic;
while Vicentino was of opinion, that the present Music was a
mixture of all the three ancient genera, diatonic, chromatic, and
enharmonic. This dispute having produced a wager of two gold
crowns, the subject was discussed in the Pope's chapel, before judges
appointed by the disputants, and determined against Vicentino;
whether justly or unjustly, depends upon the precise sense assigned
to the term Chromatic by the several disputants.
What use was made of the enharmonic genius in the Music of the
sixteenth century, I know not; but whenever other sounds are
used than those of the scale, strictly diatonic, by introducing F, C,
or G sharp, or any flat, except that of B, which the Greeks them-
selves allowed in the Synemmenon Tetrachord, and the most
scrupulous writers upon Canto-fermo, in the modes of the church,
the diatonic is mixed with the chromatic; and to this licence the first
contrapuntists were reduced, at a cadence in D and A minor, as well
as G major.
We are now arrived at a period when it becomes necessary to
speak of Zarlino, the most general, voluminous, and celebrated
theorist of the sixteenth century. Gioseffo Zarlino da Chioggia,
Maestro di Capella of St. Mark's church, at Venice, was born in
1540, and author of the following musical treatise, which, though
separately printed, and at different periods, are generally bound up
together in one thick folio volume. Institutioni Harmoniche,
Venice, 1558, 1562, 1573, and 1589. Dimostrationi Harmon.
Ven. 1571 [1578], and 1589. Sopplimenti Musicali, Ven. 1588.
We discover by these dates, that Zarlino first appeared as an author
at the age of eighteen; and from that period till he had arrived at
forty-nine, he was continually revising and augmenting his works.
The musical science of Zarlino, who died 1599,** may be traced in a
right line from the Netherlands; as his master Willaert, the founder
of the Venetian school, was a disciple of John Mouton, the scholar
of the great Josquin.
* The instrument referred to was a clavier with several keyboards called the
" Archicembalo" upon which he hoped, with the help of a small choir to demonstrate his
theories. For a description of the controversy with Lusitanio see Hawkins' History of Music.
** Zarlino was born in 1517 and died in 1590. Copies of his works are in the B.M.
(785 — 1- 13-14) and also in the Leeds Public Library.
137
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
A commentary upon the voluminous writings of this author
would occupy too large a portion of my work; and to refer the
curious reader to the analysis of his several treatises, by Artusi,
would be doing him little service, as the writings of Artusi will be
difficult to find. There are few musical authors whom I have more
frequently consulted than Zarlino, having been encouraged by his
great reputation, and the extent of his plan, to hope for satisfaction
from his writings concerning many .difficulties in the Music of the
early contrapuntists; but I must own, that I have been more
frequently discouraged from the pursuit by his prolixity, than
enlightened by his science : the most trivial information is involved
in such a crowd of words, and the suspence it occasions is so great,
that patience and curiosity must be invincible indeed, to support a
musical enquirer through a regular perusal of all his works (b).
However, as there is perhaps more pedantry discovered by
writers upon Music in general than on any other art, from their
ambition of being thought profoundly skilled in the useless jargon
of ancient Greek theorists; if we make allowances for Zarlino' s
infirmity in that particular, many useful precepts, and much curious
information concerning the Music of the sixteenth century, may be
collected from his works.
He begins his Institutes with a panegyric upon Music, in the
usual strain; then we have its division into mundane and humane,
faithfully drawn from Boethius; after this, there is a great waste of
words, and parade of science, in attempting to explain the several
ratios of greater and less inequality, proportion, and proportion-
ality, &c. where, in his commenting on Boethius, we have divisions
of musical intervals that are impracticable, or at least inadmissible,
in modern harmony.
In his account of the ancient system, he discovers much reading;
and that is what he chiefly wishes the reader should know.
In describing the diatonic genus, in which the tetrachord is
divided into tone major, tone minor, and major semitone : -f , ^-,
and x|, for which division, commonly called the syntonous, or
intense of Ptolemy, he constantly contends, we have the substance
of his dispute with Vincenzio Galilei, which will be mentioned
hereafter. The second part of his Institutions is chiefly employed
in measuring and ascertaining intervals by means of the Mono chord,
and an instrument called the Mesolabe, which is said to have been
invented either by Archytas of Tarentum, or Eratosthenes, for the
purpose of halving an interval. Whether the practical musicians
of antiquity applied these calculations to their flutes and lyres, I
know not; but of this I am most certain, that the greatest performers
(6) It has often astonished me to find the Italians, who are in general possessed of such
animation and impetuosity, so prolix and verbose in their prose writings; and that a people of
such exquisite taste in the fine arts, should have so little in literature. It seems as if their
old authors were so conscious of the sweetness of their language, that they thought their
readers could never have enough of it; and therefore, giving them credit for no previous
knowledge, they kindly mounted up to the principles of things, and informed them in belle
parole, that in the regular enunciation of the letters of the alphabet, A precedes B, and B is
immediately subsequent to A. I find among the most enthusiastic admirers of the Italian
language and poetry, but few who have had patience to read many of their old prose writers,
Boccacio and Machiavelli excepted.
138
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
of modern times are Aristoxenians, and make the Ear the only
instrument of calculation; which, by means of harmony, and the
constant opportunities of comparison which the base or other
accompaniment affords them, during performance, is rendered a
much more trusty guide than it could be in playing a single
part (c).
The elements of counterpoint, and fundamental rules of
composition, which chiefly concern the practical musician, are given
in the third part of the Institutes; and these are more ample, and
illustrated with more examples, than in any preceding writer;
particularly the laws of canon and fugue, for which no instructions
have been given by Franchinus, though they were in such high
favour during his time. P. Aaron and Vicentino have indeed
started the subject, but the pursuit of it was left to Zarlino.
In the fourth part of the Institutes we have a short historical
account of the inventors of the several ecclesiastical modes: it is
indeed a mere skeleton of assertions, or conjectures without proof,
more derived from traditional than written evidence. He here
likewise gives instructions for composing in all these modes, in
which he religiously keeps within their legal limits, and submits
to all the restraints which antiquity had prescribed (d).
He gives excellent rules for composing motets and madrigals;
but it is remarkable, that he advises the composer to make the
Tenor proceed regularly through the sounds of the mode he shall
chuse; and above all, that this part be so much the more smooth,
regular, and beautiful, as the rest are to be built upon it; whence,
says he, its sounds may be called the nerves and ligaments of all
the other parts : by which it appears, that the cantilena, or principal
melody, was not given, as it is by modem composers, to the
soprano, or highest part; that castrati were not so common as at
present; and that the tenor being the kind of voice most easily
found, and more generally good than that of any other pitch, was
judiciously honoured with the principal melody.
Zarlino says, that so great was the rage in his time for
multiplying parts in musical compositions, that some masters, not
content with three or four, which sufficed to their predecessors, had
(c) It seems, however, as if the ancient instruments, upon which all the tones were
fixed, had more need of the assistance of calculation and mathematical exactness in
regulating their intervals than those of the violin-tribe, at present; which, except in the open
strings, which often lead the performer to erroneous intonation, depend on the strength and
dexterity of the musician's hand, and accuracy of his ear, during performance. See an
ingenious and useful work, called Essay upon Tune, published at Edinburgh, 1781; where the
imperfections in the scales of modern instruments are clearly shewn, and remedies for
correcting them prescribed.
(d) Padre Martini, Saggio di Contrappunto, in recommending the study and imitation of
ancient masters, has well described the difficulties they had to encounter; where, after
confronting the ecclesiastical scales with the secular, we have the following passage: "From
an attentive and comparative view of these scales, any one desirous of learning the art of
counterpoint for the service of the church, will see what diligence and efforts were necessary
to unite the different qualities of Canto-fermo and Canto-figurato; and by carefully examining
the examples given of both, will discover what artifices were used by ancient masters to avoid
such sounds as differed from the Canto-fermo, and with what parsimony they admitted such
accidents as Canto-figurato requires, particularly in the third and fourth tones; where, instead
of modulating into B mi, the fifth of the mode or key, as is constantly practised at present,
they have passed to the key of A in the fourth tone, and C in the third; by which means they
have been able, dexterously, to unite the different qualities of Canto-fermo with those of
Canto-figurato." P. I. p. 30, & 53.
139
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
increased them to fifty; from which, he truly observes, nothing but
noise and confusion could arise (e). However, in another part of
his book (/), he tells us, that Adriano Willaert had invented masses
a Due Cori, over a tre, or, as some call them, a Cori Spezzati
which had an admirable effect. We know not how Okenheim
disposed his thirty-six parts, in the motet already mentioned (g) ; but
they would have furnished nine choirs of four voices each. In
the large churches of Italy, where the performers are divided into
two bands, placed in opposite galleries, all the imitations and solo
parts are distinctly heard, and when united in at least eight real
parts, completely fill the ears of the audience with all the charms
of congregated sound (h).
Zarlino has very exalted ideas of the qualifications requisite to a
Complete Musician, and tells us (i), that it is necessary he should
have a knowledge in Arithmetic for the calculation of musical
proportions; of Geometry, to measure them; of the Monochord and
Harpsichord, to try experiments and effects; that he should be
able to Tune instruments, in order to accustom the ear to distinguish
and judge of intervals; that he should Sing with truth and taste,
and perfectly understand Counterpoint; that he should be a
Grammarian, in order to write correctly, and set words with
propriety; that he should read History, to know the progress of his
art; be a master of Logic, to reason upon, and investigate the more
abstruse parts of it; and of Rhetoric, to express his thoughts with
precision; and further, that he would do well to add to these
sciences some acquaintance with Natural Philosophy, and the
Philosophy of Sound; that his ears being perfectly exercised and
purified, may not be easily deceived. And adds, that he who
aspires at the title of perfect musician, has occasion for all these
qualifications, as a deficiency in any one of them will frequently
render the rest useless. An additional qualification is now become
necessary to be added to those enumerated by Zarlino, which is a
(e) Dalle quali ne nasce gran&e strepito, & gran rumore, & qnasi confusione.
(/) P. III. p. 268.
(g) Book II. p. 728.
(h) I have never heard this species of composition attempted in our cathedrals, when a
powerful band of instruments and additional voices are joined to the usual choral performers.
Indeed, all our chanting and common choir service, derived from the ancient antiphonal
singing, is of this kind: the performers being equally divided, and placed on each side the
choir, form two bands, one of which is called the Dean's side, and the other the chanters' :
Decani, Cantoris; but the number of voices in our cathedral establishments is not sufficient to
produce the great effects which might be obtained from the united force of all the vocal and
instrumental performers that are assembled upon particular occasions, such as the Feast of the
Sons of the Clergy at St. Paul's; the Triennial Meetings of the three choirs of Worcester,
Hereford, and Gloucester; the Feast of St. Cecilia, at Salisbury; and occasional performance
of oratorios in other cathedrals and churches of the kingdom; but above all, from the
stupendous congress of musicians at Westminster-abbey. The admirable pieces composed for
two orchestras by the late Mr. J. C. Bach, with which the public has been so delighted, lose
much of their effect for want of distance between the two orchestras. Such elaborate
compositions would have a fair trial, if a powerful band were placed in each of the galleries
at tne Pantheon.
(i) P. IV. p. 342, & seq.
140
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
perfect knowledge of the genius and powers of all the instruments
for which a musician writes; otherwise he will not only embarrass
performer by useless and unmeaning difficulties, but lose oppor-
tunities of producing effects by the bow of a violin, the coup de
langue of flutes, and a selection of the purest and best tones on other
wind-instruments.
The quotations from other masters, and the little circumstances
which frequently occur concerning them, are curious and amusing;
but it has been often a cause of wonder, that Palestrina, his country-
man and cotemporary, some of whose works were printed at Venice,
in the very place of Zarlino's residence, before the last edition of his
treatises came out, should never once have been mentioned among
the great musicians whom he has celebrated. Of his master and
friend, Adrian Willaert, he always speaks with reverence and
affection; referring to his compositions in illustration of his rules
and precepts. And in the dialogue Delle Dimostrationi H. armoniche,
which he places under the year 1562,* the interlocutors are all
musicians: consisting of Francesco Viola, Maestro di Capella to
Alphonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara; Claudio Merula, Organist of
St. Mark's church, at Venice; Adriano Willaert, Maestro di Capella
to the Republic, at whose house they assembled; Signor Desiderio,
a philosopher of Pavia; and Zarlino. The plan is manifestly an
imitation of Baldassare Castiglione's Cortegiano, as Castiglione's
was of the dialogues of Cicero, and Cicero's of Plato.
The subjects discussed in these Ragionamenti are too speculative
and mathematical to render their conversation very brilliant; foi
what can possibly enliven the propositions and demonstrations
concerning the sesquioctave tones, ratios of consonances,
parallelograms, diagonal lines, angles of incidence, division of the
monochord, &c.
After all the eulogiums bestowed upon Zarlino by the learned,
who are ignorant of Music, it would perhaps be more difficult to
prove that the art of composition, or science of sound, was greatly
advanced by his writings, than that much better Music was produced
in the Roman school by Palestrina, and others, who never perused
them, than by himself, or any of his disciples. The truth is, that
Zarlino was not a man of genius, though possessed of great
diligence, and a considerable share of learning; hence, his precepts
are better than his examples. The pains he took to be correct
degenerated into pedantry; and his compositions, of which he has
given several specimens in his theoretical works, are totally devoid
of facility and pleasing effects. He has been cited, in the second
Book (k), in support of the modern Greeks being partial to the
fourth, as a concord; but his own fondness for that interval in the
(k) P. 445-
* 1562 was the year of publication of the 2nd edition of the Institutioni armoniche. The
1st edition of the Dimostrationi armoniche was from Venice in 1571.
14I
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
two parts which he has set to a plain song, in which there are no
fewer than ten naked and insipid fourths, will appear by the
specimen of his style, No. I. on the following plates.
If the Canto-fermo upon which these parts were constructed was
not made on purpose, or rendered subservient to his design by
alterations, the composing a canon upon it, was certainly an enter-
prize of very great difficulty. Indeed the labour appears but too
plainly in this, as in every composition of Zarlino. How much more
successful is his cotemporary, Palestrina, in elaborate under-
takings! He never seems to meet with a difficulty; all flows as if
Canto-fermo and fugue were out of the question; as the musical
reader will discover in the short movement, No. II. extracted from
his Magnificat, in the second tone, in which art and simplicity are
so well united, that a regular fugue, almost in canon, is carried on
without the least appearance of restraint! But Fugue seems as
natural to Palestrina, as Rhyme to Dryden.
No. I.
Canon. Zarlino Jpst. Harmon P. 3. Cap. Ediz. 1573.
fc-
h.rr*irr\r r.T.'n" Pr&rL ->i»Jl* ^iW^fca
i^^^^S^^^
^c *Tj
i
p=^
H*&&
^
^r^
gEEE
''VilM
±±
Vi - - Si- -
™1 im
.■PBK - - - lift
i^|--j|^J3-Uj.tJ3J^g
-=-©
■tt-
I
^m
»Sfl-»
FS^g:
^^
gcgU
3=^
^^
^
-r-t
<?/?*- 77
ftS-- 17
^
»— «-
142
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
No. II.
Palestrina. Extracted from his Magnificat in the 2d. Tone.
jbg=«ljj n 1^
J^-JU
Be
«S2PE
tl
(fc)
2>ff TO —
-te-s-
M
?ee£
r" gi^yyg
*=rfS3«
2>£ 7%>
j# it Tb-
T£N
Tes z>* se
1
H
^
J^IP p-jfcp-fc=g=g
a g g^a»^ I FT?
=F?=?
rr? «u
^
BE
■-»»-*■
fr?rff
13=?:
=«=
t=a
f=E
t-f
R>- r^*
7fe» *tf
«*->«.- 7>9
p^uifr— rlt-p" L - jIjj" p||§|igg
s
^§
£g=SgjSfcj^t
w^
i
JL
g o P^,»
yr» o
^g i
gB5|
S
s
ti
w- mi-t.es
£T E*-ftL-
TA
• VlT
HV nh
&.
^
££
9=^j
e*£2
«=s=
If we compare the example of Zarlino with that of Palestrina,
the harmony of the celebrated theorist, though strictly regular, will
be found to be dry, ungrateful, and totally devoid of entertain-
ment. He is merely able to do just what may be done; but nothing
comes from him spontaneously, as if rules were forgotten, and art
was become nature.
The best composition which I have ever seen, by Zarlino, is an
Antiphon, in one of his works, entitled, Modulationes sex Vocibus
(/). Three of the six parts are in strict canon, in moto contrario,
and the other three in free fugue. This composition, which is
built upon a fragment of Canto-fermo, and extremely artificial,
is printed in only four parts; as the canon, three in one, was to be
deciphered by the following motto: Prima locum servat, thesim
altera sentit, & arsim octavam duo post tempora tertia habet. It
is too long for insertion here, or I would give the curious reader an
opportunity of seeing the ingenuity of the author's contrivance, in
(k) Corelli has taken this for one of the subjects of his double Fugue in the same Key.
Concerto V.
(/) Per Philip bum Usbertum edit a. Venetiis, 1556 [1566]. See also Paolucci's Arte Prattica
di Contrappunto, To. II. p. 250. Ven. 1766.
143
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
a full score of six parts, without the trouble of solving so difficult a
musical problem: a labour which, if any one should have the
patience to accomplish, it is very doubtful whether he would think
himself sufficiently repaid for so hard a task, by the pleasure which
this production would afford him, either in contemplation or
performance.
Zarlino has been celebrated by Thuanus, and many other
cotemporary as well as later writers, who never speak of Palestrina,
or perhaps knew that he had existed; and yet, if that divine
musician, instead of composing the most exquisite Music that ever
had admission into the Christian church, had been the author of
one dull book upon the theory of his art. he would have had his
merit blazoned, and his name handed down to the latest posterity,
by journalists, biographers, and all the literary heralds!
Vincentio Galilei [c. 1533-1591], a Florentine nobleman,
and father of the great Galileo Galilei, had received instructions in
Music from Zarlino; but being a performer on the Lute, and of
course a friend to the doctrines of Aristoxenus, which Zarlino, a
favourer of tempered scales, constantly combats, he censured his
master in a small tract, entitled, Discorso intorno all' Opere di
Zarlino; which not passing unnoticed in the second volume of the
theorist's works, Galilei, in 1581, published Dialogo della Musica
antica e modema, in sua difesa contra Giuseppe Zarlino, in which
he becomes an open antagonist. To analyse the reasoning on both
sides of this controversy, would afford the reader very little
satisfaction, as it would be difficult to render the subject interesting;
I shall therefore only observe, that besides the dispute with Zarlino,
this work contains many miscellaneous articles, some of which are
amusing and curious; however, there are others which are
contradictory, and hazarded without sufficient information or
enquiry; and the author manifests no deep research into
antiquity, when he boldly asserts, p. 101, that the BatUria, or
beating time, was not practised by the ancients (m); and p. 133,
that the monochord was invented by the Arabians.
It was the opinion of Galilei (n), that in his time there were not
more than four great performers on the organ, who were likewise
composers, in all Italy, which more abounded with musicians than
any other part of the world; and these were Annibale Padovano,
Claudio da Coreggio, Giuseppi Guami, and Luzzasco Luzzaschi.
He mentions the Viola d' Arco and Violone (o), but not the Violin.
And complains of the musical Embroiderers of his time, who, by
their changes and divisions, so disguised every melody, that it was
no longer recognizable, but resembled the representations of the first
painters in oil, Cimabue and Giotto, which required the names to
be written under them for the convenience of the spectator, who
(m) See proofs to the contrary, Vol. I, p. 75.
(») P. 138.
(o) P. 141, & 147.
144
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
without such assistance would be unable to distinguish a rose from
a lily, a rabbit from a hare, a sparrow from a linnet, or a lobster
from a trout.
He says (p), that the Italians who were in possession of the harp
before the time of Dante, had it from Ireland; and adds, that it
is only a cithara with many strings; having, when Galilei wrote,
four octaves and a tone in compass. And as the harp came from
the cithara, so "the harpsichord had its origin from the harp: being
nothing more than a horizontal harp, as every one who examines
its figure with that idea, must see. The Cetera, or guittar, he
says, was furnished to Italy by the English, who were formerly
famous for making such instruments.
Galilei is said to have been assisted in this controversy by
Girolomo Mei, a Florentine nobleman, mathematician, philosopher,
and theoretical musician (q).
Gio. Maria Artusi [c. 1550-1613] of Bologna, though he is
ranked only among the minor writers on Music, yet if his merit and
importance are estimated by the celebrity and size of his volumes, he
certainly deserved the attention of students and collectors of musical
tracts. In his Arte del Contrappunto ridotta in tavole, published at
Venice, 1586, he has admirably analysed and compressed the
voluminous and diffused works of Zarlino and other anterior writers
on musical composition, into a compendium, in a manner almost
as clear and geometrical as M. d'Alembert has abridged the
theoretical works of Rameau (r). In 1589, Artusi, who, like most
of the musical writers of Italy, was an ecclesiastic, published a
second part of his Arte del Contrappunto, which is a useful and
excellent supplement to his former compendium (s). And in 1600
and 1603, this intelligent writer published at Venice the first and
second part of another work: Delle Imperfettioni delta moderna
Musica. Here the author gives a curious account of the state of
instrumental music in his time ; and in describing a grand concert
that was made by the nuns of a convent at Ferrara, in 1598, on
occasion of a double wedding between Philip the III. king of Spain
with Margaret queen of Austria, and the archduke Albert with the
ip) P. 143-
{q) Battista Doni, in his Trattato 2do. sopra gl' Instruments di Tasti, or Keyed-Instruments,
says, that in the beginning of his musical studies, his partiality for the music of the ancients
was greatly increased by the perusal of the Dialogue of Galilei, in which Mei had the greatei
part {dove it Mei ebbe la meggior parte), and still more by a Treatise written by this learned
personage (Mei) De Modis Musicce, a MS. presented to the Vatican Library by Monsig.
Guarengo. Op. Om. To. I p. 324. Doni has supported this assertion by no proof; but in the
Vatican Library, among the queen of Sweden's MSS. there is a volume of inedited tracts and
letters, written by Girolamo Mei, upon the Music of the Ancients, in which are discoverable,
not only opinions similar to those of Galilei, but frequently the words in which they are
expressed in his Dialogue; particularly in a letter from Mei, dated Rome, 1572, in answer to
two that he had received from Galilei, in which he seems to have been consulted concerning
the usual difficulties which those have to encounter who undertake to discuss the music of the
ancients. I procured a copy of this letter entire, and considerable extracts from the other
writings of Mei, which indeed contain the whole substance of Gailei's Dialogue, except what
concerns the controversy with Zarlino relative to the musical scales and proportions of the
ancients.
(r) Elemens de Musique — Suivant les principes de Rameau.
(s) The whole work was reprinted, with additions, con aggiunte, 1598.
Vol. ii. 10. 145
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
infanta Isabella, the king's sister, he enumerates the several
instruments that were employed, and points out their excellencies
and defects. Among these, though the Violin is just mentioned,
yet nothing is said of its properties, while the cornet, trumpet, viol,
double-harp, lute, flute, and harpsichord, are honoured with
particular remarks, both on their construction and use ; but among
these, the cornet, which has been supplanted in the favour of the
public by the hautbois, seems to have stood the highest in the
author's estimation. The elder Doni, in his dialogue written about
fifty years before, mentions the Cornet more frequently than any
other instrument: 77 divino Antonio da Cornetto, perfettissimo — &
M. Battista dal Fondaro con il suo Cornetto ancora ; che lo suona
miracolosamente .
I have not been able to discover what instrument is to be
understood in this dialogue, when Girolamo Parabosco says, lo
suonerd lo strumento : and when it is said, M. Gio. Vaniacopo
Buzzino suonando di Violone il Soprano, come egli fa
miracolosamente, I am utterly unable to guess what instrument is
meant, unless the word Violone, by a typographical error, has been
printed for Violino. But to return to Artusi's Remarks upon
Instruments : his hero on the cornet was Girolamo da Udine. In
speaking of defects in the intonations of different instruments, I
expected the violin would be celebrated for its superior perfection in
that particular ; but by the author's silence on the subject, I am
convinced that it was either then but little used in concert, or was
very ill played.
Orazio Tigrini, Canon of Arezzo, published at Venice, in 1588,
a Musical Compendium ; Compendio della Musica, which he
dedicated to Zarlino, from whom he received a letter of thanks for
the laurel-crown with which he had bound his brows ; which
letter is prefixed to the work, with complimentary verses
innumerable from other friends. This Compendium is not only
well digested by the author, but rendered more clear and pleasant
in the perusal, by the printer, who has made use of large Roman
types, instead of Italic, in which most of the books that were
published in Italy, before the present century, were printed. This
author (t) is the first, in my recollection, who has censured the
impropriety and absurdity of composing Music for the church upon
the subject of old and vulgar ballad tunes. The cadences which he
has given (u) in three, four, five, and six parts, and which are good
examples of ecclesiastical counterpoint, have been almost all used
by Morley (x), without once mentioning Tigrini's name, either in
the text or catalogue of authors whom he has cited. Zarlino, who
had adopted the four new ecclesiastical tones proposed by Glareanus,
was followed by Tigrini, with whom they seem to have stopped : as
{t) Lib. II. cap. xin.
(u) L. III. cap. xxvi.
(x) Introduction, Part III. from p. 129 to 142. Old edit.
146
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
no more than the eight ancient tones appear afterwards to have been
acknowledged by orthodox ecclesiastical composers ; and Zarlino
himself, in the last editions of his works, relinquished the idea of
twelve modes : as no new harmony or modulation was furnished by
the additional four to the contrapuntist, without violating the ancient
rules of Canto-fermo, which confine all its melody to the different
species of octave. It appears from this Compendium, that
Contrapunto alia mente, or extemporary discant upon a plain-song,
was still practised in the churches of Italy : as p. 125, instructions
are given for this species of musical divination.
In the same year Don Pietro Pontio, at Parma, printed his
Musical Discourses: Raggionamenti di Musica. This last work,
which is in dialogue, was written by an eminent composer, of
whose productions there are still excellent specimens subsisting.
The author, however, though a practical musician, could not shun
the pedantry of the times ; but instead of going directly to work
like a man of business, loses his time in calculating ratios, or
transcribing them from Boethius, or other authors who had pillaged
him already, bestowing upon the reader twenty pages of his small
quarto tract upon speculative definitions, and arithmetical,
geometrical, and harmonical proportions ; to which, if a practical
musician understood them, he would never apply for help while he
had the free use of his hands and ears. At length, having impressed
his reader with a due sense of his profound science and erudition,
the author, descending from the Spheres, deigns to treat of the
Music of this nether world ; and in his second Raggionamento gives
precepts and examples for the use of all the concords and discords ;
in the third he goes through all the ecclesiastical tones ; and in the
fourth and last, all the moods and divisions of time ; terminating his
discourse with short instructions for composing masses, motets,
psalms, madrigals, and ricercari (y). In the course of this little
work, the author, though a composer himself, frequently refers to
the productions of others. Among these, his favourites seem to
have been Josquin, Giachetto, Morales, Adriano, Cipriano,
Palestrina, and Vincenzio Ruffo. The theorists he cites are chiefly
Franchinus, P. Aaron, Lanfranco, Fogliano, Zarlino, and Galilei.
As a specimen of his own abilities in composition, I shall present
the reader with a movement selected by the learned Padre Martini
(z), from the second book of his Magnificats. The subject of the
composition is the Romish chant of the Magnificat in the eighth mode
or tone, which is led off by the treble, accompanied by the
counter-tenor and base in counterpoint. At the fifth bar, the
second tenor begins the chant, and at the seventh, is answered by
the first tenor, in the 5th, at the distance of which interval these two
parts continue in strict canon to the end.
(y) This term, which implied any work of fancy, and original invention, was succeeded
by Fantasia, as Fantasia was by Sonata. Adrian Willaert, and others of his time, composed
Ricercari, without words, for the voice, which were a species of Solfeggi.
(z) Saggio di Contrap. P. I. p. 178.
147
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
From the book of Magnificats for 5 Voices, by Pietro Pontic
tp^s;
fcfe
?i?S33 Q .&—=
-&&
3=£
1-H
Si
Cut £■
— iter in Pf>i<X4-^i
Si-
£
g^JE
S
Xs 3„
^=5
^^
^»
c? -a
W&a-
%
Si- - cur
'*.&
S--71H7
PRM-a-pi- o
TfesoLL
no
JOJC
-frgfr-
~3^
m
ion-
ntoit
Si :. cur
H»T
3SE
HjHPrr" 1^5
fcK
^5gh
^=^+
53TCT
$/ A/r b
■ "for in -pftwci-pPo
.=£=*:
W&-
El
3*3
p/^o S"
ito» —
/wr in
TKlN- a- ■
cU^ d
^
=*S
J rvu>
•♦9-9-
£•7
HUHC & ^g
♦**!
.0 o o
tsat
/« WW-
Ct — TI-O
j£
^Q=z
OOP
cn
In Win •&■ pi-o
fir
NUNC
3=
^
i^i=g
^^
35
3^i
^
-t-=t
P*MK}J?**> NVNC fr Sem—'-PEQ
xp£
Og o
sT ^S"*
^rfjff-r^f
^^
=3C
3
P
I i !
//V
sm-Cv-iASA-tiyio
^^S
3E
its
-t±
i^
O — »
OT
^— a
& tew-
-O^-S
O O
/» as-a/.
i/» &*
#£
O 0
■Q&
xd
er"
er sem-
SlS-CU-CH
I
-i*
5^
= I i
fe
$£»>-
?ER
& IN
SflS-CU-Lfl
Sn£-
S*£
O+tO b: I I l l
=a:#
s
^
g 3
*=p
•:-Cf-Z/
Sff/».
•p<5?
» //v s/s-ev-fa sie- cu-io
Ofaffl
3 l . ^q:
3^2
S3
^?
o-^
f^tat^r
tffP
=p=*3
T=0
■9-S-
*SF
fzt
Rum A
.... MEN
SlB- Cu-LO-J&imR
=R
m
9^F
- Cu-LOfivm A
m
3=1
is^fcy^i
^
I
/wey»
tn
?*3:
y/E--
■ ° O
3PE
itom
• Co- i-o-
» -
ItOH
itolt-
s a -3-
m +
itor
qteatf
/ns/^
/«£A
- -J ^^*
B
1 go
scat
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The last Treatise upon Music which appeared in Italy during
the sixteenth century, was the Prattica di Musica, by P. Lodovico
Zacconi [1555-1627], of Pesaro, the first part of which was printed
at Venice, 1592, and the second 1596;* a publication in which the
author not only proposes to give instructions for the regular
composition, but the accurate performance, of every species of
Music. The idea is splendid; but the world has been so frequently
deceived by the titles of books, that authors are obliged to abate
in their promises, in proportion as the expectations of the public are
diminished. If Arts and Sciences could be acquired by the dead
letter of silent instruction, every one who could read, in Italy,
might, during the times under consideration, have been a musician.
But though no ingenious occupation was perhaps ever yet
completely taught by books, without a master, or by a master,
without books, yet they are excellent helps to each other. It is
hardly possible for a didactic work to satisfy all the doubts that
arise in an enquiring mind during solitary meditation; particularly
in the first stages of a student's journey through the rugged roads
of Science. But when he has made some progress, if he should be
separated from his guide, the way becomes daily so much more
straight and smooth, that by the help of these kinds of charts, he
will be enabled to advance with tolerable speed and facility, by
himself.
Zacconi's work, though sometimes dry and tedious, contains
much useful and practical knowledge. And as he is almost the
only Italian writer on the subject of Music who has not bewildered
himself in enquiries concerning the systems of the ancient Greeks,
or the philosophy of sound, he has had the more leisure for
analysing the art, and facilitating the student's progress. This
author regarded Okenheim, Josquin, Isaac, Brumel, Mouton, and
Senfelio, as ancients compared with Willaert, Morales, Cipriano,
Zarlino, and Palestrina; and these last, ancient, with respect to
himself, and cotemporaries; and says (a), that as the ancient Greeks
and Romans produced their musical effects by mere melody, united
with poetry, and Josquin and other early contrapuntists, by notes
of .different lengths, harmonized, and worked into perpetual fugue;
so the more modern, though the rules of harmony are the same,
by a different disposition of concords, inventions, and contrivances,
produce a greater variety of effects.
He likewise observes (b), that " every age has vainly thought
its Music brought to as great a degree of perfection as was possible;
but it is always found that the next age continues to change, and
still to think the same. Okenheim, the master of Jusquin, and
even in the days of Jusquin, John Mouton, his scholar, had the
same ideas of their own improvements; yet, since their time, Music
(a) Lib. I. cap. x.
(6) Cap. xxiii.
* The second part of this treatise did not appear until 1619. The first part was issued in
1502 and reprinted in 1596.
149
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
has not stood still, but made great advances towards perfection,
being more light and pleasing (c)."
The change in musical modes has continued to our own time,
and will doubtless continue to the end of all time (d); for melody,
as has been already observed, being a child of Fancy and
Imagination (e), will submit to no theory or laws of Reason and
Philosophy; and therefore, like Love, will always continue in
childhood (/).
Zacconi's chief labour and merit in the third book have been the
explanation of the moods, and correction of errors in the notation
o.f old composers, to which his work will serve as a useful Errata.
In Book I. he dwells much on the superiority of the singing and
singers of his own time, over all that preceded them (g); and has
a long chapter (h) upon the manner of gracing and embellishing a
melody, where he tells us, Che stile si tenghi nel far di gorgia;
dell' uso de i moderni passagi, come si fiorischino le cantilene; and
speaks of acconciature, as the modern Italians do of riffioramenti,
or graces. The divisions, however, into which he breaks passages,
in order to embellish them, if adopted by an Opera-singer of the
present times, would be like a modern fine lady appearing at Court
in the furbelows and flounces of Queen Elizabeth, or a fine
gentleman in the peruque of Sir Cloudesley Shovel.
After this account of the musical Theorists in Italy, we shall
resume our enquiries into the state of Composition, and endeavour
to trace its progress in the several Schools of that country.
Roman School of Composition
Andrea Ad ami (i) tells us, that the records of the Pontifical
Chapel were destroyed at the burning of Rome, in 1527, by the
army of the Emperor Charles V. and that the names of composers
(c) We as frequently mistake concerning the past as the future, and judge, from what we
hear, of all that is to be heard in Music. It has been generally imagined that there were no
good fugues or choruses, particularly accompanied with instrumental parts, till Handel's time;
but Colonna, long before, had composed many in the same rich and bold style. We supposed
that Tallis and Bird almost invented, and greatly surpassed all others in the Church style;
but whoever examines the works of Constantio Festa, Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Costanzo
Porta, Cipriano di Rore, and many of their cotemporaries, and even predecessors, will be
obliged to acknowledge, that the opinion was formed sans connoissance de cause. Palestrina,
however, has not only been said to have flourished in the time of Leo X. who died before he
was born, but imagined the Father of good Church Music, and the first, even in Italy, who
settled the laws of harmony, and fugue. This opinion has been formed and adopted with
equal haste and ignorance of Musical History, and the progress of the art; for we find that
Okenheim, Josquin, Henry Isaac, De la Rue, Brumel, Mouton, Feven, or Feum, Richefort,
Morales, &c, &c, were all great composers before Palestrina had existence; and this has
already been proved, not only from the writings of others, but from their own works, which
still subsist.
(d) P. 217 and 337. {e) See above, p. 128.
(/) A description of the godling, given in a song, seems applicable to melody :
Love is just like April weather.
Ne'er the same an hour together;
Froward, fickle, wanton, wild :
Nothing, nothing but a Child.
(g) Cap. LIX. (h) Fol. 58 Cap. LXVI.
(*') Osserv, per ben regol. il Coro.
150
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
and singers had been entered in the chapel books since that event
in a very confused manner, till the time of Palestrina. However,
from the dates affixed to memorandums concerning some of them,
we may gather, that not only Netherlanders and Spaniards had
been employed to compose, and sing in the chapel, before the time
of Palestrina, but natives of Italy; of these Adami names, as
Maestri di Capella, Lodovico Magnasco da Santa Fiora, afterwards
Bishop of Assisi, between the time of Josquin and Arcadelt; Carlo
d' Argentilly (k), an excellent composer, some of whose works,
transcribed in 1543, are preserved in the Vatican library; and
Simone Bartolini Perugino, sent at the head of eight singers to the
Council of Trent, 1545.
In Anton-Francesco Doni's Dialogo delta Musica, printed at
Venice in 1544, when Palestrina was only fifteen years* old, we
find, among the names of many Tramontane composers, several
natives of Italy, as well as in his Libraria, edit, of 1550, which was
not the first. Indeed most of the performers mentioned in his
Dialogues are Italians; but in his Libraria, where we have a list of
such Music as had been printed at Venice before 1550, are the
Motets and Madrigals, in four parts, of Animuccia; Anselmo, two
books; Antonio Cimello, Bernardino, two books; Bertoldo
Baldassare Donato, Claudio Veggio, Fran. Corteccia, Fran. Biffetto
Candonio, Ferabosco, Fama, Giov-Gero, Gian da Ferrara, Giordan,
Gabriel Martinengo, Hoste da Reggio, Lod. Novello Mascarate,
Martoretta, Perisson, two books; Paolo Aretino, two books of
Madrigals and Lamentationi; Pietro Paolo Raguzzoni, and Vincenzo
Ruffo.
Among the composers of motets and madrigals, in five parts,
sixteen are Italians; of duos and trios eleven; and in his list of
masses published by Petruccio, as already related, besides those
composed by Josquin, Giachet, and Morales, a set by Gasparo
Alberti is mentioned, who seems by his name to have been an
Italian, and perhaps was the same musician as is called Gaspar by
Franchinus and the printer Petruccio T**
Pietro Aaron, in his Lucidario in Musica, described above, seems
to defend the Italians from the injustice with which they had been
treated in proverbial national characters, which say, that the
"French sing, the English shout,*** the Spaniards cry, the Germans
howl, and the Italians make the noise of goats: Caprizare (I)."
"These general censures," he says, "can only have proceeded from
envy and malignity, as Nature has not been so partial to the
French, but that the Italians and other people have had as
{k) This seems a French name, Italianized.
{I) In a set of MS. Music-books belonging to Christ-church, Oxford, transcribed 1581, we
have these national characters in Latin : Galli cantant, Angli jubilant, Hispani plangunt,
Germani ululant, Itali caprizant.
* Palestrina was about 19 years eld in 1544.
t- *?t^e GasPar compositions published by Petruccio were by Weerbecke, who used to sign
himself Gaspard.
***The original text is. "Angli jubilant"; "jubilant" is- badly translated here.
15,1
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
excellent musicians as they; indeed it may with truth be said, that
the natives of every country in Europe have been at school in Italy,
which is the standard of excellence in all the arts, and where there
not only have been, but still are, so many admirable singers, that
it would be tedious to enumerate them; however, in justice to my
country, I must name a few, who will be long remembered." He
then gives a list of fifteen singers, by book, Cantori a Libro; twelve
singers to the lute; and eleven female singers, both by book, and
to the lute (m).
The Italians themselves place Palestrina at the head of the
Roman School; however, it is easy to prove that this celebrated
establishment was not formed by Palestrina, as that wonderful
harmonist, though perhaps the first in abilities, did not precede all
his countrymen as Maestro di Capella either of St. Peter's Church, or
the Pontifical Chapel. The imperfect list given by Adami,
mentions several who were placed at the head of the chapel anterior
to Palestrina; and all the accounts of this gifted man allow that he
succeeded Giovanni Animuccia as Maestro di Capella of St. Peter's,
at Rome, in 1569 [1571].
Giovanni Animuccia [c. 1500-71], a native of Florence, was no
less admired on account of his musical abilities, than respected for the
excellence of his morals. He is celebrated by Adami (n), and Padre
Martini (o), as one of the companions of St. Filippo Neri, who
first applied Music to the purpose of attracting company to the
Chiesa Nuova, or New Church, at Rome, on Sunday evenings, to
hear his pious discourses, or Orations', whence sacred dramas, or
mysteries and moralities, in Music, were afterwards called
Oratorios. Animuccia composed the first Laudi* or hymns in
parts, that were performed on these occasions; which, from a desire
of rendering them more interesting, being sung in the cathedral and
antiphonal manner, in alternate stanzas, and in dialogue, with a
solo part now and then for a fine voice and favourite singer, were,
at length, wrought into regular dramas (p).
In a manuscript which I procured at Rome, under the title of
Studij di Palestrina, besides the intonations of the church in counter-
point, there are chants in four and five parts, not only by himself,
but the following great composers of the Roman School, during
the sixteenth century: Jusquin, Morales, P. Aaron, Anton Cifra,
Bernard, and Giov. Maria Nanino, Animuccia, Palestrina, Anerio,
Soriano, Rubino, Giovanelli, Ruffo, Vecchio, Montanaro,
Magiurana, Matalarte, Rosello or Ruscello, Tortora, Anibale, and
Benevoli.
(w) It is not clear what was meant by the expressions of singing by book, and singing to
the lute; unless to distinguish those who accompanied themselves upon that instrument, from
others who likewise sung by note, but without accompaniment.
(n) P. 172. (0) Sagg. di Contrap. P. I. p. 129.
(p) Oratorios still continue to be performed at Rome on Sunday evenings before the
sermon, in the Chiesa Nuova. See Ital. Tour. Art. Rome.
* The first book published by Animuccia was in 1565 (or 1563) and the second in 1570.
A much earlier collection of Laudi Spirituali was published in 1485.
152
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Some of these admirable fragments of choral harmony and
modulation are in contrappunto semplice, of note against note, and
some figurato, where the parts move in notes of different lengths,
but not fugato, or in fugue or imitation.
The following chant to the Miserere, in almost simple counter-
point, has the name of Animuccia prefixed to it.
fe
o o o»
^g
lx^° | °
s
OOP:
-^ do J j.g^
d g*«!J0llcft
o o HOI ^cj
jT6 T6
& a BCHh
#
OOP
OOP
OOP
OOP
^loPil P"
o o iioy BH
=^^£
6 +3
xs^et
But compositions of a higher class are still subsisting of this
master. His madrigals and motets, of four and five parts, published
at Venice, 1548 [1547, 1551, 1554, and 1565], and his masses at
Rome, 1567, dedicated to the Canons of the Vatican, were the most
celebrated. From these Padre Martini (q) has selected two move-
ments, as illustrations of his own excellent precepts for composing
in the sixth and eighth tones, a capella; and to these I refer the
admirers of ancient choral compositions, as they are too long for
insertion here.
It has been frequently observed, that the life of a studious man,
whose mind is more active than his body, affords few materials for
biography, even if every transaction of his life were known; but at
a remote period, when every lineament and trace of character is
obliterated, it is with difficulty that the time and place, even of his
existence, can be established, or the works enumerated which his
genius and diligence have produced.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose works have been
so justly admired and celebrated, is of this class; for little more
has been recorded of his life than if it had been wholly spent in
a hermitage. His birth, however, has been fixed, with some
degree of certainty, in the year 1529 [1525 or 6], at Palestrina, the
Prceneste of the ancients. Italy being divided into many independent
states, each of which has a distinct and separate honour to maintain,
the natives are not only very careful in settling the spot where a
man of genius was born, but of recording the place where he was
educated, with the name of his master; and as the painters of
Italy are appropriated to different schools, so are the musicians; and
a composer or performer of great abilities is seldom mentioned
without his country, by which it is known that he is of the Roman,
Venetian, Neapolitan, Lombard, or Bolognese School, each of which
(g) Sagg. di Contrap. P. I. p. 129 and 181.
153
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
has some peculiar characteristic that enables one intelligent musician
of Italy immediately to discover the school of another, by his
works, or performance. To these distinctions, the natives of other
countries so little attend, that when it is known that a musician
comes from Italy, no further enquiry is made.
From this ancient custom of naming the master with the scholar
and his country, all the writers of Italy who have given any account
of Palestrina have thought it necessary to say that he was a scholar
of Gaudio Mell, Flamingo, a Fleming;* by whom they have been
generally understood to mean Claude Goudimel, a native of
Franche-Comte, and a Huguenot, who was one of the first that set
the translation of the Psalms, by Clement Marot and Theodore
Beza, to Music; and who was murdered at Lyons in 1572, on the
fatal day of the Massacre of Paris (r).
There are certain difficulties in this account and supposition,
which it is not easy to solve : Antimo Liberati (s), Andrea Adami (t),
Padre Martini (u) , and others, as Italians, could have no interest in
falsifying or misrepresenting facts, in order to prove the greatest
composer for the church which their country has ever produced,
the disciple of a foreigner; yet they not only assert this, but likewise
that Gio. Maria Nanino, a learned Roman composer, was a
fellow-student with him under Goudimel; that they were united in
strict friendship, and opened a college, or Music-school, together,
at Rome, in which they had many scholars, and among the rest
Bernardino Nanino, the younger brother of- Gio. Maria, Antonio
Cifra, and others. Who Mell was, if different from Goudimel, I
know not; of his works or name I have met with no memorial;
Walther, indeed, speaks of one Renatus, and Mattheson of Rinaldus
De Mell, a Flemish composer, who flourished about 1538, and who
published Litanie de B. Virgine, at Antwerp, in 1589; yet though
these dates correspond sufficiently well with the age of Palestrina, it
does not appear by these or any concurrent circumstances that he,
or Goudimel, was ever at Rome, or that Palestrina had taken
a Tramontane journey to acquire instructions in Flanders or
Franche-Comte. Indeed the fact is not of sufficient importance
to merit a long discussion; I shall therefore leave it as I found it:
for who can be very solicitous to know of what Master Palestrina
learned the mechanical rules of his art, which were established and
very well known, at least a century before his superior genius turned
them to so good account?
In some miscellaneous publications during our author's younger
time, before his fame was established, we find him frequently called
(r) See above, p. 46.
(s) Lettera Scritta in risposta ad una del Signor Ovidio Persapegi, 1688, p. 22.
(t) Osserv. per ben regolare Coro della il Cap. Pontij. p. 169.
(«) In a MS. list of the Roman School of contrapuntists, with which he favoured the
author of this work.
* It is now established beyond doubt the Palestrina was born in 1525 or 26. Whoever Gaudio
Mell was. he could not have been Goudimel, for there is no evidence of this composer ever
visiting Rome. For Goudimel's connection with the Genevan Psalter, see editor's note, p. 44.
154
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Gianetto da Palestrina (x). He has this title in the Secondo Libro
delle Muse, a set of madrigals so called, that was printed at Venice,
1559; and in another set, under the title of Amorosi ardori di diversi
eccellenti Musici, as well as in the second book of Cipriano's
Madrigals, printed likewise at Venice, 1571, in four parts, where
there is a Canzon di Gianetto, sopra di Pace non trovo, con 14
Stanze, published about the same time. It has, however, been
doubted whether this was not a different composer from the same
city; but having scored these several pieces from the printed copies,
preserved in the British Museum, and elsewhere, I find them so
much alia Palestrina, that I have not the least doubt concerning
their author. Indeed, critical enquirers, who wish to be more
perspicacious than their predecessors, sometimes carry research and
doubt so far as to dispute the most trivial as well as the best
authenticated facts. Thus, with respect to Palestrina, the records of
the Pontifical Chapel; the fidelity of Antimo Liberati, and Andrea
Adami, both of the same chapel, and curious enquirers, who lived
on the spot almost a century nearer his time than the present; and
the respectable authority of the candid and cautious Padre Martini,
are all rejected, seemingly to answer very little purpose.
However, the few circumstances and outlines of Palestrina's life
that have been preserved from oblivion, and seem the most
indisputable, are: that he was born in the year 1529 (y) [1525/6]
that having distinguished himself as a composer, about 1555, he
was admitted into the Pope's Chapel, at Rome; in 1562 [1561], at
the age of 33 [c. 36], he was elected Maestro di Capella of Santa
Maria Maggiore, in the same city ; as upon the death of Giovanni
Animuccia, in 1571, he was honoured with a similar appointment at
St. Peter's ; and lastly, having brought choral harmony to a degree
of perfection that has never since been exceeded, he died in the
year 1594, at the age of sixty-five (z) [Feb. 2nd, 1594, at the age
of 68] .
The following account of his death and burial was entered in the
register of the Pontifical Chapel by Oppolito Gamboce, Puntatore,
who at that time had the care of the records.
" February the 2d. 1594. This morning died the most excellent
musician, Signor Giovanni Pierloisci, our dear companion, and
(x) It has ever been a common practice with the Italians, in familiarity and good-humoui,
to call a young person of the name of Giovanni, Gianetto; as John with us, during youth, is
styled Jack, or Johnny. Indeed, if farther proof were necessary that this title was sometimes
given to the great Giovanni Palestrina, it could be furnished from his mass upon the subject of
an old Italian song, Vestiva i Colli, which is the third in his ninth Book of Masses, being
printed in one of the Antwerp collections, under the name of Gianetto Palestrina.
(y) This date invalidates a note of Mr. Galliard's translation of Tosi, p. 3 § 4, and
somewhat diminishes the force of a nourish in Dr. Brown's Rise, Union, Separation, and
Corruption of Music and Poetry, in which it is said that Palestrina was "one of the ornaments
of Leo X.'s time"; as, unluckily, that Pontiff dying in 1521, quitted the world eight years
before Palestrina arrived in it.
U) The few incidents that are recorded of this divine harmonist have already been
extracted by the author of this work from Andrea Adami, and inserted in a preface to the
Miserere of Allegri, and other pieces that are performed in the Pope's Chapel during Passion-
week, printed by Bremner, 1773, to which the reader is referred.
155
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Maestro di Capella of St. Peter's Church, whither his funeral was
attended not only by all the musicians of Rome, but by an infinite
concourse of people, when Libera me Domine was sung by the whole
college." To this account Adami adds that of Torrigio (a), who
says: " In St. Peter's Church, near the altar of St. Simon and St.
Jude, was interred, in consequence of his extraordinary abilities,
Pierluigi da Palestrina, the great musical composer, and Maestro
di Capella of this church. His funeral was attended by all the
musicians of Rome, and Libera me Domine, as composed by
himself, in five parts, was sung by three choirs. Upon his coffin
was this inscription : Joannes Petrus Aloysius Prcenestinus Musicce
Princeps."
It would be endless to transcribe all the eulogiums that have
been bestowed upon Palestrina, by musical writers, though he has
seldom been mentioned by others ; but it is left to artists to take care
of their own fame: none but Painters have written the Lives of
Painters, or Musicians those of Musicians. Heroes, indeed, are
consigned to historians ; and the learned are seldom negligent of
themselves.
Indeed very honourable mention was made of our great
contrapuntist during his life-time by Giovanni Guidetto [b),
chaplain to Pope Gregory XIII. who being appointed to collate,
correct, and regulate the choir service of St. Peter's Church, 1582,
says, that he was unwilling to depend solely on his own judgment
in this undertaking, and therefore had applied to that Prince of
Musicians, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, to superintend and
correct the whole work, an office which he was so obliging as to
undertake; " and if," says he, " the compilation be found to have
any merit, it must be chiefly ascribed to his kind assistance (c)."
Some judgment may be formed, says the learned author of the
Essay on Counterpoint, so often mentioned (d), of the great
veneration in which he was held by the professors of his own time,
from a collection of Psalms, in five parts, that was published in 1592,
and dedicated to Palestrina by fourteen of the greatest masters of
Italy at that time ; among these were Pietro Pontio, already
mentioned, and Costanzo Porta, who will be distinguished hereafter,
as a composer, whose abilities, in point of learning and contrivance,
were truly wonderful.
By the friendly assistance of Signor Santarelli, I procured at
Rome a complete catalogue of all the genuine productions of
Palestrina, with the several dates and forms of their publication,
[a) Grotte Vaticane. Parte II. p. 166.
[b) Director Chori ad Usum Sacros. Basilic. Vatic. Epist. ad Capitul.
[c) Licet in Musicis notis collocandis, conjungendis, separandis, augendis, expungendis,
cum vetustis Vaticanee nostra Basilica, turn recentioribus Antiphonarius, ac Psalteriis usus
fuerim, nequaquam tamen, aut Mis, aut judicio meo fidere volui, sed viro Musica Artis facile
principi Joanni Petro Aloisio Praenestino Capella nostra Magistro, opus totum inspiciendum, ac
corrigendum tradidi, &c.
[d) Saggio di Contrap. P. II. p. 74.
156
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
title of each piece, and the name and residence of the printer. These
are classed in the following manner :
Masses in four, five, and six parts, twelve books ; of which
Lib. I. appeared at Rome in folio, 1554, when the author was in
the twenty-fifth year of his age ; and in that city only went through
three several editions during his life. Lib. II. of his Masses, which
includes the celebrated composition entitled Missa Papce Marcelli,
was published likewise at Rome, in 1567. Of this production it has
been related by Antimo Liberati, in the letter above cited, and
after him by Adami, Berardi, and other musical writers, that the
Pope and Conclave having been offended and scandalized at the
light and injudicious manner in which the mass had been long set
and performed, determined to banish Music in parts entirely from
the church ; but that Palestrina, at the age of twenty-six, during the
short pontificate of Marcellus Cervinus, intreated his Holiness to
suspend the execution of his design till he had heard a mass,
composed in what, according to his ideas, was the true ecclesiastical
style. His request being granted, the composition, in six parts,
was performed at Easter, 1555, before the Pope and College of
Cardinals ; who found it so grave, noble, elegant, learned, and
pleasing, that Music was restored to favour, and again established in
the celebration of sacred rites. This mass was afterwards printed,
and dedicated to the successor of Marcellus, Pope Paul IV. by whom
Palestrina was appointed Maestro di Capella to the Pontifical
Chapel (e).
The rest of his masses appeared in the following order: Lib. III.
Romce per Valerium Doricum, 1570, in folio — Ven. 1599. Lib.
IV. Venet. per Ang. Gardanum, 1582, quarto. V. Roma?, 1590.
VI. [Rome 1593-4] Ven. 1596 (/). VII. 1594. VIII. and IX.
Ven. 1599. X. and XI. Ven. 1600. And XII. without date, or
name of the printer [1601]. Beside this regular order of
publication, these masses were reprinted in different forms and
collections, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in
most of the prinicipal cities of Italy ; of which editions I was
furnished with memorandums (g) [XIII. — 1601].
The next division of Palestrina' s works consists of Motets for
five, six, seven, and eight voices, five books, at Rome and Venice.
1569, 1588, 1589, 1596, and 1601. Motets for four voices, Lib.
I. Romce, 1590. II. Venet. 1604. Two book of Offertorij,
(e) The friends of Choral Music will doubtless be curious to have a faithful and minute
account of a composition which had sufficient power to preserve their favourite art from
disgrace and excommunication; and having before me an accurate score of it, which Signor
Santarelli himself procured for me out of the Sistine Chapel, where it is still performed, I can
venture to assert, that it is the most simple of all Palestrina's works : no canon, inverted
fugue, or complicated measures, have been attempted throughout the composition; the style
is grave, the harmony pure, and by its facility the performer and hearer are equally exempted
from trouble.
(/) This, and all that were published after the author's decease, which happened in 1594,
must have been second editions.
(g) Signor Santarelli was so obliging as to consult the archives of the Pope's Chapel, in
order to complete the catalogue of his favourite Palestrina's works, concerning many of which .
he furnished me with interesting and curious remarks.
157
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
a 5 & a 6 voc. Roma, 1593. Lamentationi, a 4 voc. Roma,
1588. Hymns for five voices, Ven. 1598. Litanie a 4, Few. 1600.
Magnificat, 8 Tonum. Roma. 1591. Madrigali Spirituali, two
books, Rome and Venice, 1594.
In the copy whence this motet was taken, it is written in D
Minor, but it is so much more pleasing in F Major, that it seems
to have been originally composed in that Key.
Motetus.
Aloisii Praenestini.
^m
*=tErrrnWfrrmpfp5
Pa - - - . . - . _ . . . . mi- /i
E
-&:
±55:
^
§5g|
I ~ J
^S
£=r
a s g
£^
/at- r/igo
Hs £* -*•-■-
*=*£
m
sc£
Sffi
*S
»g
*=*
£t-
BE
^£^
d — b
£>- -«A
£e
m^
9^
=p±t
£* -- fiL •-Tfi.lt
g g I ? •mti
is
?
.gi ngn
SS
±?
¥=&
5=1=+
~^5T
fiL-m-Bo 7?
ATa ^«
J><» . 01/-
^*tepEE=a
S=
S
^=«
g <r^
T — 5:
1
I Of 9
9- ?• •
. fiL- T*-io
/*e QvorJ'
Sa
«ggg
^^
f^-
s@
p-»,
*^g
f-^
l»C«
td
£±=±=1
s^
±fct
*is
ft- **-7*
-£ •=•
7/»Ou
Hall
■e-'
zt=^
4- 1 1
.SfHixm ' 95"
f=*=
♦ -S-
■g- - s-
Quo -rti ■ *>> sus- ce
PI3- Ti
% J* J
»«t» g.
&^
g .
^^=?
^^
^
&s±
fin Si/s-ce
■ Pun- /»£.
P?=&
- - '
<Jte- /V/-/7/M ^s;
$tft-CSPti 7>
&
Bg
g 1 r
g g
&l
.at g —
3B
Ouo-rti-iHx fc
*v*
- g
158
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
^^^gffig
1^
^
^=&L
^m=A
£
ri
s
A JiJ»<
5£^giB5gj
^
^±a 6
at ~*«
5 »«
<Ttf p//r/
S
rrff
&
=^
QUO-"H>ih &
/Tfc
5E
S
^■f*
tT*-
g pa
-p-Pifr
tf
ULV-M-A i f ^/5
cs--p/sn- me
&-~
53
= ^^
ops
1 ■ liTTfri i
Quo.*!-/)/* ic
^m
>5g5n
- - r
ffl
Efc3
fa£g
s
.^^
/T«
-- ?s /
/»f- o< fi/
5rcf
I^S
&£iiJi
£35
3=1
=±^§
E^^E^
^&2
s-o a 1 g-
r i '■»*
g i
^S
g^ff^
,OTfo
g g a
/ - Hi mi Cos • >j.
i
t±*u
t±=
^
e i lido
np^T
3=^=
ftwf
s
=» g -3 -
*=£=£
ptf
x=tx
t\ -. 1
»„
A* """»
J J
J ^
/ b ° - £
i i
^
l+S) ""».
'B 1 p ""
Dp B J
S ?
.
Xu PS*
0 Zfe.
ft«z
/»/- • me . .
£/>»- ">/»-
' i ,
> h J M
5 f 1 1
' • s y*
C7 » ■» "'•'
■■ P aJ
~ £ ~
| f M
1 ••
1
JVPE
Z J>o- ■
Me
- mi fie Cut
mt-xii /to..
4* #
/Lih «»? iff
— r
i r
!:• a
r 1
1
1 1
t ' I
-VV 1 1 61
1 I
FT-1
'- /f-
/!■>/ Ctfi /DC -
of gip en
~ X>oo>i'
me ct.A-
a 7"
■ flO
7"P a
P P ^ 5 5«
°
1 1 p
hv 1 1 ' i
1 r ■*
nS>a
1
pp
1 1
/ J ~r/imi Cci
JS.
/n£. OS
Su - . . Pee
me
2>o- mi-
a- 0
~s- 5 * —
fl =
&€£
^' "
1
l |
■
i
«
>
s
2>o- #»'-
159
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
fe£
?■ m -
o1 e> r ' 5
/r/9jr-77 /"if
ite
^s
^^
3*
a g' c:
e=gbE
^=^n
es^e
=t=p
e p g
&
g g
+— t
ir 1
£«- HAS-Tl
me. ct ft>
nm-D- Ms
g^ho?' \m
-^fr^1
^
• Ti me
■?' P*.
^^
/>»«
<*
I g
sfirffii-f' #i£~
•Si — MIS' r'
Attempt at Expression, in a Madrigal of Palestrina.
Xt-
\ \ \ \
$4=$
';-jfo-»-
a a u -a.
i a ,n
i=t
£P</- jm i)f.
/) ZELLfl /»«
±=F
*^
^S
^s
3S
5=
£*£
b^
S
TT
WrT
i — r
But a more curious instance of Musical imitation and Expression
occurs in one of his Madrigali Spirituali, where the words
Amarissimo fele are expressed by the following crude discords.
Tfc7
To the above ample list of the works of this great and fertile
composer, are to be added, La Cantica di Salomone, a 5; two other
books of Magnificats, a 4, 5, & 6 voc. One of Lamentationi, a 5;
and another of secular Madrigals. These have been printed in
miscellaneous publications after the author's death; and there still
remain in the Papal Chapel, inedited, another mass, a 4, upon the
hexachord, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la; with his Missa Defunctorum, a
5, and upwards of twenty motets, chiefly for eight voices, a due
cori*
* The following are the dates of publication of Palestrina's chief works other than Masses :
Motets: 4-voices, 1563 and 81; for more than 4 voices 1569, 72, 75, 84 (two sets).
Madrigals: 1555, 81 (1st book of Spiritual Madrigals); 1586, and 94 (2nd book of
Spiritual Madrigals).
Lametitations : 1588.
Hymni Totius Anni, 1589; Magnificat Octotonum, 1591; Offertoria Totius Anni, 1593
(two books); Litanies, 1593.
A complete edition of the works of Palestrina was issue by B. and H. in 33 volumes between
1862-94.
160
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Nothing more interesting remains to be related of Palestrina,
than that most of his admirable productions still subsist. Few of
his admirers are indeed possessed of the first editions, or of all his
works complete, in print or manuscript; yet curious and diligent
collectors in Italy can still, with little difficulty, furnish themselves
with a considerable number of these models of counterpoint and
ecclesiastical gravity.
If we consider the operose and slow manner in which works of
this kind are conducted, from the many real parts they contain, and
of which some are generally moving in canon, and the rest always
in fugue, we shall be as much astonished at the number of his
productions, as pleased with their effects. Indeed the works of
Aristotle, Cicero, or the elder Pliny, among the ancients, or of
Fabricius, among the moderns, were hardly more numerous. With
the union, indeed, of great erudition and great industry we are not
surprised; but Genius is not often so voluminous.
"Palestrina having brought his style to such perfection, that the
best compositions which have been produced for the church since
his time are proverbially said to be alia Palestrina, it seems as if
this were the place to discuss its merit.
Though good taste has banished fugue, canon, and elaborate
compositions from Dramatic Music, yet sound judgment has still
retained them in the Church; to which, from the little use that is
made of them elsewhere, they are now in a manner appropriated
(h). On this account, like the Canto-fermo of the Romish service
however one chant may resemble another, and the subject and
modulation of fugues may be stolen, yet they will still be in the
style of Choral Music, and never awaken ideas of secular songs or
profane transactions, as they will at least be grave and decorous, if
not learned and ingenious.
In the compositions of Palestrina there is, indeed, no unity of
melody, but as all the parts have an equal share of importance, and
as hardly a note appears in them without some peculiar intention
and effect, they cannot, like the remplissage of a modern concerto
or opera song, be composed with as much rapidity as they could
be transcribed; little invention and few flights of fancy are required;
yet there is a degree of happiness and genius in finding a few
uncommon notes that are favourable to fugue and canon, as well
as in creating new and graceful passage in melody. Indeed, both
the choral and secular style have their peculiar difficulties, beauties,
and defects.
Whoever is accustomed to the vocal fugues of Palestrina,
Carissimi, or Handel, will be fastidious with respect to those of
ether composers of equal learning. Preaching upon a text has been
called a Gothic contrivance; and yet what admirable lessons of
piety and virtue have been produced under the denomination of
[h) Indeed there seems no more impropriety in their being occasionally used in the
chamber, than private prayer, or family devotion. It is the Church and Stage that I wish
wholly to be separated; for it has long appeared to me, that whoever brings the rites of the
Church to the Theatre or theatrical levity to the Church, is guilty of want of taste, judgment,
and due reverence for the religion of his country.
Vol. ii. ii. 161
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Sermons ! Fire., genius, and harmonical resources are discoverable
in fugues, as well as in modern songs, solos, or concertos; a musical
student, therefore, unacquainted with the laws of fugue, is
advanced but a little way in composition; as the hearer who receives
no pleasure from ingenious contrivance and complicated harmony,
is but a superficial judge. My wish is to resolve the discords of
contention, to augment the pleasure of both parties, and extend the
compass of their views; that, like the Music composed a due cori,
the friends of harmony and melody may agree, though performing
different parts, at a distance from each other.
But to return to Palestrina. It appears from the writings of this
most venerable and exquisite harmonist, that he had not only
studied the greatest masters of his own time, but of the preceding
century; and after vanquishing the difficulties of their style and
contrivances, he demonstrated, by his early works, that he could
put them all in practice, with the admirable improvement of a more
polished harmony, and flowing melody; consulting in every
difficult enterprize the Ear more frequently than the Eye (i).
However, with all his merit of simplicity, he was not the first
to quit the strange proportions which pedantry, and an affectation
of mystical science, had introduced, as he uses them all in his mass
upon the melody of L'Homme Arme, which is full of vain and
useless difficulties (k). He likewise, for some time, adhered to the
absurd practice of composing masses upon vulgar tunes, as appears
by the titles as well as subjects of those in his second and third
books. However, he discontinued this Gothic custom, after the
year 1570, when, perhaps, a better taste became general.
The first instance I have seen of an attempt to express the
sentiment of the poet by extraneous modulation and unusual
discords, is in a madrigal of our author's second book, a 4. Alia
riva del Tebro, where, after a flat sixth to D, the fourth of the key
of A, we have a s unprepared, or rather a pedale; which, in the
sixteenth century, was a very bold and uncommon combination
(/); and, upon the whole, it appears to me, notwithstanding the
general gravity and elaboration of Palestrina's style, that genius
glows in all his productions, in spite of the trammels of Canto-fermo,
canon, fugue, inversions, diminutions, augmentations, or whatever
would chill or petrify any other than himself.
It is hoped that no apology will be necessary for the length of
(*') He not only knew, says Padre Martini, how to avoid the roughness, but the languor
of anterior composers; and with a harmony more full and grateful, he infused a modest and
decent chearfulness in the melody of every part : and without incommoding the singer by
unnatural difficulties, formed a complete whole. Saggio di Contrap. Parte I. p. 51.
(k) Indeed, Palestrina's mass upon L'Homme Armi is so difficult to decipher, that
Zacconi has selected and written a Commentary upon it, for the use of those who study
Musical Proportions. It is, however, notwithstanding Zacconi has bestowed 13 folio pages in
explaining the notation, and solving the canons, still extremely difficult to score; and if, as
has been said, the "combination in Palestrina's harmony naturally suggest themselves to a nice
and unprejudiced ear," it is wonderful that such composers are not more common.
(/) Many of the best works of Palestrina, and other great composers in the church style,
with an excellent Commentary upon them, have lately been very correctly published, in
score, by the learned Padre Martini, in his Saggio di Contrappunto, so often cited. But for
instances of Palestrina's expression of words, by modulation, see above, at the bottom of the
plate, p. 160.
162
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
this article, which " the reader can make as short as he pleases."
In a general History of Ancient Poetry, Homer would doubtless
occupy the most ample and honourable place; and Palestrina, the
Homer of the most Ancient Music that has been preserved, merits
all the reverence and attention which it is in a musical historian's
power to bestow.
Giovanni Maria Nanino [b. c. 1545-d. 1607], da Vallerano was
admitted into the Pontifical Chapel, as a tenor singer, in 1577. He
was a fellow-student and in strict friendship with Palestrina. These
two excellent masters opened a Music-school together at Rome,
where they formed many great scholars, among whom was Giov.
Bernardino Nanino [c. 1560-1623], a younger brother of Maria,
according to Walther, but called by P. Martini, his nephew, and
Antonio Cifra. Antimo Liberati informs us of a circumstance,
which will be readily believed; that Palestrina had no relish for the
drudgery of attending a school, having his thoughts so much
absorbed in his own studies; and that, leaving the care of the
disciples to Nanino, his visits were not very frequent or long,
calling only from time to time in order to explain to them such
uncommon difficulties and doubts as impeded the progress of their
studies, and to adjust the disputes which arose among the professors,
who in great numbers constantly attended the lectures there.
Though Nanino was regarded by the Romans as one of the most
learned musicians of his time, yet Sebastian Raval, a Spaniard,
then at Rome, thinking they were all mistaken, and that he was
himself very much his superior, challenged him and his countryman
Soriano, another friend of Palestrina, to a musical combat, which
was to be determined by a weapon they had both frequently wielded,
the pen : in this engagement, however, the Spaniard was defeated.
Many different sets of madrigals, by Nanino, were published at
Venice during the latter end of the sixteenth century, which are now
difficult to find (m) ; there are, however, in the Studij di Palestrina,
described above, several of his chants, which are excellent.*
Bernardino Nanino, whom Antimo Liberati likewise calls the
younger brother of Maria, has been celebrated by this writer as
a person of very extraordinary abilities, who, by an inventive and
original style, joined to a perfect knowledge of harmony, had greatly
improved the art of composition (n). The only productions which
I have seen of this master are two or three chants in the Studij di
Palestrina.
(m) P. Martini, Storia della Musica, has given in his catalogue of authors the titles of two
very curious works : the first of these, by G. M. Nanino, is called Centocinquanta sette
Contrappunti e Canoni, < 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11 Voc. Sopra de Canto-fermo intitolato la Base
di Costanzo Festa; the second is styled Trattato di Contrap. con la regola per far Contrappunto
a mente, di G. M. Nanino e Bernardino Nanino, suo Nipote.
(n) As the expressions of Liberati, who is a high colourist, are very strong, the reader
shall have them in the original words : speaking of the School of Palestrina and Maria
Nanino, and the scholars it produced, he says, "Tra i quali ju primieramente Bernardino suo
iratello minore, che riussi di mirabile ingegno e diede maggior lume alia projessione con la
novita della sua vaghissima harmonia in ogni stile, e plena di grand' osservanza e dolcezza."
* G. M. Nanino published Motets in 1586; Madrigals in 1579, 81, and 86, and other works.
Several specimens were reprinted in Proske's M.D. His brother, G. B., also published many
books of madrigals and motets, and as a composer must be regarded as one of the best of
the period.
163
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Felice Anerio \c. 1560-1614] is said by Walther to have been a
disciple of Maria Nanino, and by Adami to have succeeded
Palestrina as Maestro di Capella of the Pontifical Chapel. These two
circumstances alone imply no common degree of merit; and,
according to Adami, many admirable compositions by this author
were preserved in the Pope's Chapel, and in daily use, and he seems
to have been regarded as a great master of his profession. His
madrigals for six voices were printed at Antwerp, 1599; and
canzonets for four voices, at Francfort, in 1610, which for a time
enjoyed a considerable share of public favour (o).*
Antonio Cifra [c. 1575-c. 1638], a disciple of Palestrina and the
elder Nanino, after being employed as Maestro di Capella to
several churches in Rome, and to the Archduke Charles of Austria,
brother to the Emperor Ferdinand II. was invited to Loretto,
where, in the same capacity, he spent the rest of his days. His
publications, though very numerous, are excellent in their kind:
correct, artificial, and as flowing as the respect to Canto-fermo and
ancient rules would then admit. His abilities are much celebrated
by Antimo Liberati; and it is observed by Walther, that in the
latter part of this composer's life many musical improvements and
discoveries were made, in which he had a considerable share. One
of his works, printed at Venice, 1629, contains motets and psalms
for twelve voices, a tre cori; and Padre Martini, in his Saggio di
Contrappunto (p), has inserted an Agnus Dei, for seven voices, from
a mass by this author, entitled Conditor Alme Syderum; in which it
is contrived that two of the parts of this movement are in perpetual
canon, alia roverscia, while the other five parts are in close, but
free, fugue. The subject of this inverted canon is an ancient chant
of the church to the Advent hymn. The answer is made in the
sixth above the subject, in precisely the same intervals, in moto
contrario.
The skill, perseverance, and resources which the author has
manifested in this composition, would astonish secular composers of
the present times. It would, however, comfort them, and keep off
despair, if they were to see what a wretched figure this learned
author cuts in secular Music. In 1614, he published at Venice a
work, entitled, Scherzi et Arie a una, due, tre, et quattro Voci, per
cantar nel Clavicembalo, Chitarone, b altro simile Istromento.
Nothing can" be more confused, uncouth, and inelegant, than the
melodies of this work, in which he meant to be gay and gallant. In
the first air, as it is called, there are faint glimmerings of taste in
io) Canzonets for four and five voices are said by Adami, p. 174, to have been invented
by Alessandro Romano, a singer, admitted in the Pope's Chapel 1560, who was likewise so
exquisite a performer on the viol, that he obtained the cognomen of Alessandro della Viola. He
likewise composed motets, accompanied by many instruments, which seem to have been the
first of the kind.
(j>) P. I., p. 88.
* His chief published compositions were :
3 books of Madrigals, 1587, 90, and 98.
3 books of Sacred Madrigals for 5 voices, 1585.
2 Books of Hymns and Motets, etc., 1596 and 1602, and volumes of Responsoria and
Litanies, etc.
Proske, in M.D., has reprinted 12 motets and a mass.
164
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
a few of the passages and closes; but the whole movement is
unphrased, unaccented, and more inclining to recitative than air.
We cannot help respecting these old masters for their science in
ecclesiastical compositions, in which they have left such admirable
examples of pure harmony and ingenious contrivance; yet,
whenever, like Mr. Vellum, in Addison's comedy of the Drummer,
they chuse to be jocular, or to attempt grace and gaiety, they
become grotesque and ridiculous. Harmony and fugue are long-lived;
but no powers of invention can give longevity to divisions and
embellishments, which are either written for particular talents, or
the gratification of caprice and fashion.
Ruggiero Giovanelli [1560-1625], of Velletri, who, though he
was not admitted in the Pope's Chapel till 1599, had distinguished
himself, and received the meed of merit long before, by being first
elected Maestro di Capella of the church of S. Luigi [1584], S.
Appoiiinare, and afterwards, upon the demise of Palestrina, had
the singular honour of being appointed his successor, in the same
office, at St. Peter's [1594]. Giovanelli published many motets,
psalms, madrigals, and masses; compositions which, at this time,
supplied the place of services, anthems, oratorios, opera songs,
and cantatas, throughout Europe.*
After the examples already given of Palestrina' s style of writing,
that of the five masters last mentioned, as they were all of the same
school, and nearly the same period, needs no illustration. Indeed,
the works of cotemporary composers, at this time, of grave and
sober science, were more likely to resemble each other than at a later
period, when imagination was unchained, and her wild and wanton
effusions had insinuated themselves into every musical production.
There are, however, in the Studij di Palestrina, chants by all these
great contrapuntists, which are relics of harmony and modulation,
truly ecclesiastic and venerable.
Ears not accustomed to ancient modulation would at first be
surprised, and perhaps, offended, with some of the transitions in
these fragments; but they must be differently organised from mine,
if, after the prejudice of habitude is a little subdued, they should
continue insensible to the solemnity and grandeur of such harmonical
combinations.
The most chearful species of secular Music that was now cultivated
by masters of the first class, was that of Madrigals: a style of
composition that was brought to its highest degree of perfection
about the latter end of the sixteenth century, by the superior genius
of Luca Marenzio [d. 1599] . This ingenious and elegant composer
was born at Coccaglia, in the diocese of Brescia, and the scholar of
Giovanni Contini (q). His inclination leading him very early to the
composition of madrigals, he cultivated that style more successfully
than any of his predecessors, and the number he composed and
(?) This was a voluminous composer: in 1565 he published Cantiones, 6 Vocum; Introitus
& Halleluja, 5 Voc. for Festivals : Hymnos, 4 Vocum; Threnos HieremicB, 4 Voc. for Passion-
week; and a Mass in four parts.
* Specimens of his work will be found in Torchi's A.M. I., Vol. II. and Morley included
translations of four madrigals in his Madrigals to 5 Voices, 1508.
165
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
published is prodigious (r). Of this style he was called in Italy
77 phi dolce Cigno; and the proud antagonist of Nanino, Sebastian
Raval, the Spaniard, who was editor of some of his works, styles
him a divine composer. He was some time Maestro di Capella to
cardinal Luigi d'Este; and, according to Adami and others,
caressed and patronised by many Princes and great personages,
particularly the King of Poland, and Cardinal Cinthio Aldobrandini,
nephew to Pope Clement VIII. Upon his return to Rome, after
quitting Poland, he was admitted into the Pope's Chapel, and dying
in that city, 1599, he was buried in the church of S. Lorenzo, in
Lucina (s).
Our countryman, Peacham (t), speaks of his " delicious aire
and sweet invention in madrigals;" and says, " that he excelled
all other whatsoever, having published more sets than any author
else, and hath not an ill song." Adding that " his first, second,
and third parts of Thyrsis, Veggo dolce il mio ben, &c. are songs
the Muses themselves might not have been ashamed to have
composed." To all this I can readily subscribe, and will not dispute
his stature, or the colour of his hair, when he further tells us, that
" he was a little black man;" but when he asserts, that " he was
Organist of the Pope's Chapel, at Rome, a good while," he loses
all credence with me : as there never yet was an Organ in the Pope's
Chapel; nor is it likely, however great his musical merit may have
been, that the niece of any reigning Pope could have been sent for to
Poland, with so little ceremony, as he tells us, in the character of a
lutenist and singer, in order to gratify the curiosity of his Polish
Majesty, and the affection of Luca Marenzio. Indeed, the whole
account savours of hear-say evidence and absurdity; and is so much
the more incredible, as no other musical writers, who were eager to
record every memorial they could procure concerning Luca
Marenzio, have ventured to relate these circumstances.
There are no madrigals so agreeable to the ear, or amusing to
the eye, as those of this ingenious and fertile composer. The subjects
of fugue, imitation, and attack, are traits of elegant and pleasing
melody; which, though they seem selected with the utmost care
for the sake of the words they are to express, yet so artful are the
texture and disposition of the parts, that the general harmony and
effect of the whole are as complete and unembarrassed as if he had
been writing in plain counterpoint, without poetry or contrivance.
The first set of his madrigals for five voices, however, seems the
most elaborate; the fugues and imitations here are more ingenious
(r) At Venice, between the years 1587 and 1601, were printed nine books of his madrigals
for five voices; the two last were posthumous. I was so fortunate as to purchase a manuscript
score of all these nine sets at Rome. Besides these, this author composed six books of
madrigals, in six parts. Madrigals for three voices; another set for five, and still another for
six voices, different from all the former. Canzonets for the Lute. Motetti, a 4, & Sacras
Cantiones, 5, 6, ac 7 Vocibus modulandas. All these works were first printed at Venice; and
afterwards at Antwerp, and many of them in London, to English words: See Musica
Transalpina, two books, and a collection of Italian madrigals, with English words, published
in 1589, by Thomas Watson. Quadrio, To. II. P. ii. p. 324, gives a long list of his Villanelle,
a 3 Voci; and Draudius, p. 1614, of his motets, a 4, for all the festivals throughout the year.
Ven. 1588. Et ejusd. Completorium & Antiphone, a 6, 1595.
(s) Adami, Osserv. per ben reg. il Coro Pontif. p. 185.
it) Complete Gentleman, p. 101, edit, of 1634.
166
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
and frequent than in his other works. He has, indeed, in those of
later date more melody; but as yet there was too little to compensate
for the want of contrivance. Whoever takes the trouble to score
and examine this set, will discover marks of real genius with respect
to harmony and modulation, with many attempts at melody of a
more graceful kind than is to be found in the works of his
cotemporaries; as we may reasonably conclude this to have been one
of his early productions, of nearly the middle of the sixteenth
century (u).
The words of his ninth book of five-part madrigals are all from
the Canzoniere of Petrarca, and of these the composition seems the
most free and fanciful of all his works.*
Though the madrigals of the sixteenth century appear now so
grave as to be scarcely distinguishable from the Music of the church,
yet the masters of that period had very distinct and characteristic
rules for composing in both styles. Pietro Pontio, who had himself
produced many that were excellent, in giving instructions for
composing madrigals, says, that " the subjects of fugue and
imitation in them should be short, and the notes of a quicker kind,
and more syncopated than in Church Music; otherwise they would
not be madrigals. The parts likewise should frequently move
together; but the greatest care should be taken to express the
sense of the words as exactly as musical imitation will allow, not
only by quick and slow passages, or notes ascending and descending
occasionally, but by modulation, which, when the sentiment of
the poet implies harshness, cruelty, pain, sorrow, or even joy,
pleasure, or the like, will assist the expression more than single
notes." Here he refers to the fourth madrigal of Orlando di
Lasso, Book I. for an example of the happy expression of words.
Though composers were now very timid in the use of flats, sharps,
and transposed keys, yet licences were taken in madrigals which
were inadmissible in Music a Capella (x). The answers to subjects
delivered were more imitations than regular replies, according to
the strict laws of fugue; yet, with respect to the melody of the
short passages or musical sentences which were used, and the
harmony with which they are accompanied, great pains seem to have
been taken in polishing both. Indeed, as this was the chief Music
of the chamber, where it is probable the critics and lovers of Music
attended, for neither public concerts nor operas had as yet existence,
there can be no doubt but that every refinement was bestowed on
this species of composition, which the ideas of musical perfection
could then suggest.
(a) I have never met with more than one entire movement, in triple time, among all the
works of this excellent composer; and that is in the eighth set for five voices : La mia Clori e
brunetta. In a collection of his madrigals for six voices, published at Antwerp, 1594 [B.M. K.
3- f. 15.] . some of the movements are gay and spirited, and contain passages that continued in
fashion more than a hundred years after publication, as appears by the use that Purcel and
Handel have made of them; and indeed there are others which modern Italians have not
disdained to adopt.
{x) In the eighth madrigal of Luca Marenzio's ninth book, a 5. Solo e j>ensoso, a bold
and curious composition, the upper part ascends from the key note G, to A, the ninth above,
by a series of fifteen semitones', and then descends from A to D by the same intervals.
* Proske and Harberl have reprinted many of Marenzio's motets. The B.M. [C. 210] has
copies of his madrigals for 5 and 6 voices.
167
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Madrigale di Luca Marenzio dot Libro IX de Madrigali a 5 Voci.
i
&-
^h-^-
£
*±d
wm
ffm Tj KSL
m
m
M
^=*=
Tu net its - * - • • 6"i
Jo cue dm
fcf
m
lM r g
■J ilu. XlMSt,
^E
^~-t-
/}av w*
4///
© as
£> «wj »«•
,4 -
8
33
i£s
/9/W Z< /B/5.
Zo C.8S. oc
9 • i
^e:
f
&E
H
£gg
J Fiu mi
iV &u-/otrt&
-et'Otaiw/k t>
eHu-- -• bi r
.D I g
1 I I
*figv-&
I /»* -
HI I Pit) Ml
fie
¥^*&
±3c
To f£
Iosna-foH eC
jy>« — -^
^
- * f:
in
J _ 0
b ■fl«a-:ac=
^g
^S
P
•=F
S?
■o •» l»
/««/
K
£f=TB
^S
»» p
O B
^B
^■^
VJ^f
fit
1i 2M j}> srui. p »-at cu',r> T7i
^=f=
£^£
s
j3 *»"*
CUv-le imp-.n
^Pf^
^JTTm^
im
\ A"/!/ Al/ O'P
a>* r*> Tt*
i58
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
1^
_2_=.
P^g
mal„.
mootea * ft *n&ia *>** ' *»■---
S
-V+-
7>a>H&>
iEf^
^E
Eft
jgg
53?
ff
»
T5roA4^>
s
££fE
fe£
5E
Tfto »/«5 *
TiDtL f>mn-
•rofi l£i DMt & -f&
3
£?£
yyfr
E£
£« . — ^
_ 3
«l jvNj
^
BSL-i.ii m- m, \
W&
^^
mi
TROWCO &£
tS-
^=3
^r
ft)- ns
PffoDlSO t»-
^^
J *
* OJS-so £ £o ■
e£
2E=^£
^
S^
t^
«-»-
ft> eu-La7?»
EL LH D'/i-
-3- »
Paoovo he.
¥ «»!
% ' B
EE
s
3^^
n/a«i/?ss«»
/m>
?sg
S
n
seb
"^TulSLLt BBL-Lfl immn
Noevoi&c
-C0EL-LM>'ft
s
pj^E
^F
J b
K
s ministers
ft
^
3b^
3^
»
Tfiosiao fe.
Fl/I lds-- fog so -
m
3=?
^
M
3^5^
5S*
ta:
4*
CO
lu T£Ut
^m
-&-A-
w
CO EL i.f) &h
VlfiNTo LSI
3>eL
CO- — KB
BSLLH IHi' AM
-■mo
^
TZ=*
^wsP-.
ra
^
5fc3*
^
5 vu %e
So EL-Lfit\'-mo—VS,
SU—Lftsy.mo
n
s
£ voi %c.
169
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
IE
f3*ff
^E
a _
=*=*
vr— zg
S
f — g^
^5-
j_* J>Sf-/na-
=Fff
g£
±F
F=C
"£ 2>fXM
gig
ggs
s
Ss
ff vo/ 8e
fc*
Sea* inJcmn---so
Lt> d'A-io-
\n^m
-J Igf
^
-t-h-
1 I ."W
L .Hii
- «*/*/-*-
^Fg=
Kumm-mn
co e
TV MU4 Sc
gt- LA 2>'a - mo
jg»,
agg:
^2=^=
^
feaz
f*
Venetian School
Having recorded all that seems to merit attention concerning
the most able musicians of the Roman School, and their works,
during the sixteenth century, I shall now pass to Venice, a city
which has always patronised and encouraged Music, more, perhaps,
than any other in Europe; for, from the peculiarity of its local
position, having no field-sports, suburban diversions, or land near
enough for the purpose of riding or walking for recreation, it was
natural for them to cherish and refine such amusements as were
compatible with their insulated situation.
At the head of this School the Italians themselves place Adrian
Willaert [c. 1480-1562], the disciple of John Mouton, and master
of Zarlino. Willaert, or, as he is usually called in Italy, Adriano,
was born at Bruges, in Flanders,* and, during his youth, studied
the Law, at Paris; if with the view of making it his profession, there
must have been an early conflict between Legislation and Music,
which, having a powerful advocate in his own heart, gained the
cause : for, by his own account (y), he went to Rome in the time of
Leo X. where he found that his motet, Verbum bonum [dulce] et
suave, was performed as the composition of Josquin; he therefore
had been a composer some time before he went to Rome.
The account which Zarlino (z) gives of this motet having
passed for a production of Josquin, excited my curiosity to see it;
and finding it among the Motetti delta Corona, in the British
Museum, I scored it, and discovered that the predilection for a great
name had operated too powerfully in favour of this composition
while Josquin was imagined to be the author of it; for it is neither
(y) See Book II. p. 736.
(z) P. I. p. 175.
* Jacques de Meyere, a contemporary of Willaert, states that he was born at Roulers, near
Courtrai. The Musica Nuova mentioned below was published at Venice in 1559, although the
dedication by Viola is dated 1558. The book contains a portrait of Willaert. There is a copy
in the B.M. (K. 3. m. 14).
170
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
written with the clearness, dexterity, nor even correctness, of that
wonderful contrapuntist : there is not only confusion in the parts
and design, in many places, but something very harsh and
unpleasing in the harmony, particularly in the closes without a
sharp seventh, both in the key-note, and its fifth (a). Some of them
would doubtless have been made sharp, in performance, by the
singers of those times, in compliance with a rule for sharpening
ascending sevenths, in minor keys, and flattening them in
descending.
The list of his works, in Walther's Dictionary, though ample,
is far from complete. The motet, Verbum bonum, just mentioned,
was published at Fossombrone in 1519, forty -three years before
Zarlino made him an interlocutor in his dialogue (Ragionamente),
at Venice; and it can hardly be imagined that no others of his
compositions appeared till 1542, when, we are told, that his motets
for six voices were published (b). Indeed, for near fifty years after
his name first appeared, hardly a collection of motets or madrigals
was published to which he did not contribute; but the most splendid
and curious work of this author, that I have seen, is preserved in the
British Museum. It was published at Ferrara [Venice], 1558, by
his scholar and friend, Francesco Viola, another of the inter-
locutors in Zarlino's Ragionamente, under the title of Musica Nova,
in three, four, five, six, and seven parts. In the dedication of this
work to Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, the editor, his Maestro di
Capella, calls Adriano his master, and says, that he is strongly
attached to him, not only for his wonderful abilities in Music, but
integrity, learning, and the friendship with which he has long
honoured him. Zarlino, in like manner, omits no opportunity of
exalting the character of his master. These are honourable
testimonies of regard, which seem the more worthy of being recorded,
as, either from the worthlessness of the master, or ingratitude of
the scholar, they are but seldom bestowed.
In the cantus part there is a wooden cut of the author: "Adriani
Willaert Flandrii Effigies." And indeed the compositions are of
that kind for which he was most renowned, and such as the editor
thought would constitute the most durable monument of his glory.
In the tenor part there are many canons of very curious construction;
some with two and three clefs, and a different number of flats
and sharps for the several parts, which are moving in different
keys at the same time; and one particularly curious, in seven parts :
Praeter rerum seriem, of which three are in strict canon of the fourth
and fifth above the guide; the tenor leading off in G, the sextus
(a) This motet is in six parts, soprano, two contratenors, tenor, baritono, and bass.
(b) In the Fior de Motetti, Lib. I. Ven. 1539, there is a Pater-noster, in four parts, by
Adriano; and in the same year the first book of his motets, for four voices, was republished in
the same city by Ant. Gardano, in folio, under the following pompous title : Famosissimi
Adriani Willaert, Chori Divi Marci illustrissima Reipublica Venetiarum Magistri, Musica
Quatuor Vocum {qua vulgb Motectce nuncupatur) noviter omni studio, ac diligentia in lucent
edita. This edition, which, we find by the title, was not the first, is preserved in the British
Museum.
171
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
following in C, and the septima pars in D, while the rest move
in free fugue.
Zarlino (c) assigns to Adriano the invention of pieces for two or
more choirs; and Piccitoni (d) says, that he was the first who made
the bases in compositions of eight parts, move in unisons or octaves;
particularly when divided into two choirs, and performed at a
distance from each other, as then, they had occasion for a powerful
guide. The dexterity and resources of this author, in the
construction of canons, are truly wonderful, as is, indeed, his total
want of melody; for it is scarcely possible to arrange musical sounds,
diatonically, with less air or meaning, in the single parts. But there
are many avenues through which a musician may travel to the
Temple of Fame; and he that pursues the track which the learned
have marked out, will perhaps not find it the most circuitous and
tedious; at least Theorists, who are the most likely to record the
adventures of passengers on that road, will be the readiest to give
him a cast. A learned and elaborate style conceals the want of
genius and invention, more than the free and fanciful productions
of the present times.
Adriano lived to a great age, and filled a very high musical
station (e). His works and scholars were very numerous; and
among those to whom he communicated the principles of his art,
there were several who afterwards arrived at great eminence; such
as Cipriano Rore (/), Zarlino, and Costanzo Porta (g).
Neapolitan School
This School of Counterpoint, which has been so successfully
cultivated, was established in the fifteenth century, during the time
of Ferdinand of Arragon, King of Naples, who reigned from 1458
to 1494, and who, according to Biancardi (h), was not only an
encourager of learning, but learned himself. During this period
Naples abounded with extraordinary men of every profession,
among whom Franchinus Gafurius, John Tinctor, William
Guarnerio, and Bernard Yeart, cultivated both the theory and
practice of Music in that city, with great diligence and success . Of
Tinctor and Gafurius, an account has already been given (i); but
(c) P. III. p. 268.
(d) Guida Armonica.
(e) Maestro di Capella of St. Mark's church, at Venice.
(/) In the title of a book, published at Venice, 1549, there are Fantasie, or Ricercari,
composed dallo eccellentissimo Adrian Vuigliart, and Cipriano Rore, suo discepolo.
(g) P. Martini, in his Saggio di Contrappunto, P. II. p. 266, calls Adrian Willaert the
•naster of Costanzo Porta.
(h) Vite de Re di Napoli, &c. p. 343, 344.
(»") Book I. p. 106, Book II. p. 712, and in the present volume, p. 129.
X72
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
as it is only in the writings of these authors, last mentioned, that
the names and professional merit of the other two are recorded,
time and oblivion seem to have carried them beyond the reach of
further historical enquiry.
Padre Martini (k) places Rocco Rodio [b. c. 1530], author of
Regole di Musica, printed at Naples, 1620 [1600, 1609, 1626], at
the head of the Neapolitan School, after John Tinctor (Z). Among
theorists (m), during the sixteenth century, the Neapolitans indeed
had but few whose writings have reached the present times. Luigi
Dentice, who published Dialogues on Music in 1553, has been
already mentioned (n); and Scipione Cerreto [1551, d. after 1631],
author of a treatise in quarto, Delia Prattica Musicale vocale &
strumentale, though it was only published at Naples in 1601, yet
as the writer was then arrived at his fifty-fifth year, he may be said
to have acquired his knowledge in the preceding century. This
book contains much curious and useful information with respect
to the Music and musicians of Naples during his time; when it
appears by the copious list which he gives of favourite performers
on the lute, organ, viol, guittar, trumpet, and harp, that the art
was very much cultivated by professors, and cherished by the
natives of that city.
Walther (o), indeed, enumerates among Neapolitan cultivators
of Music, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the celebrated
Aquivivus, Duke of Atri, who, in the first book of his Commentary
on Plutarch's Treatise on Moral Virtue, published at Naples, 1526,
folio, twenty-two Chapters on Music, which he treats in the same
dry and unprofitable way, with respect to the practice of harmony,
as Boethius; and Marcangelo Accorso, or Accursius, (not the
great civilian), who being a profound critic and philosopher, was
(k) Storia della Musica, Tom. I. p. 447.
(I) It is difficult to ascertain the exact period when Rocco Rodio flourished. I have been
so fortunate as to find an edition of his Precepts, to which P. Martini alludes, that was printed
at Naples, i6oq; but this date tells us nothing, as the work had certainly appeared much
earlier in another form. Battista Olifante, the editor of this edition, seems not to give the
rules of Rocco Rodio in his own words, but explanations of the doctrines and examples he had
left. If this exposition of the rules established by Rocco Rodio was written by himself, he must
have flourished late in the sixteenth century: as Adriano Willaert and Cipriano Rore are both
mentioned in the text; and both these masters were living after the year 1550. The full title of
my edition is the following : Regole di Musica di Rocco Rodio, sotto brevissime risposte ad
alcuni dubij propostogli da un Cavaliero, intorno alle varie opinioni de Contrapontisti. Con la
Dimostratione di tutti i Canoni sopra il Canlo-jermo, con li Contraponti doppij, e rivoltati, e
loro regole. Aggiontavi un' altra breve Dimostratione de dodici Tuoni regolari, finti e
trasportati. Et di nuovo da Don Batt. Olifante, Aggiontivi un Trattato di Proportions
necessario a detto Libro, e ristampato. In Napoli, MDCVIIII.
The rules and examples for composing canons of all kinds are remarkably short and
clear, in this tract, which is so scarce, that I have never seen it in any public library or
catalogue of books; and P. Martini, who mentions the work, seems never to have been in
possession of it. My copy was purchased at the sale of the late Mr. Kelway's books, 1782.
{m\ I do not confine the word Theory to mere speculative doctrines, concerning the
generation and ratio of sounds, but call every didactic writer, who gives instructions for the
composition of Music, a Theorist; supposing that there is a theory for harmony, or the
combination of sounds, as well as for calculating their proportions.
(n) See above, p. 135.
(o) Musicalisches Lexicon.
173
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
accused by his enemies of bestowing too much time and attention
on Music and Poetry (p).
But though we know of but few musical treatises that were
produced by Neapolitans during this period, the names and celebrity
of many practical musicians have been recorded, and the works of
a considerable number of composers preserved, which have been
scored and examined, in order to speak of them here, not from
tradition, but actual perusal.
The first Secular Music in parts, after the invention of counter-
point, that I have been able to discover on the continent, is the
harmony that was set to the rustic and street tunes of the kingdom
of Naples; and these, under the several denominations of Arie,
Canzonette, Villotte, and Villanelle, alia Napolitana, were as much
in fashion all over Europe during the sixteenth century, as
Provengal songs were in preceding times, and Venetian ballads
have been since. Besides the old tunes which were collected, and
published in four parts, others were composed, not only by the
natives, but in imitation of these short familiar airs, by almost all
the principal composers of other places, of which innumerable
volumes were printed at Venice, Antwerp, and elsewhere, under
the same titles (q).
But the most genuine, and the best that I have seen, are the
Canzone Villanesche, alia Napolitana, by Perissone Cambio, 1551
[1545-1551], and those of Baldassare Donato [1548-1603],
published at Venice, in very good counterpoint of four parts, 1555.*
In these little national songs there is generally more humour in the
words, and more air and vivacity in the melody, than in any other
songs, equally ancient, that I have seen. They seem to have been
sung about the streets, in parts, as the words of several imply. In
one of them, a singing-master speaks, who offers to teach the
Guidonian hand, or gammut, in an hour; and in one of the following,
the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, &c. are ingeniously applied in most of
the parts, to such sounds as require them, in solmisation.
(p) In a fable, called Tesludo, which he annexed to his Diatribes, Accursius, addressing
himself to two Princes of the House of Brandenburg, says, "You know how they exclaimed,
that to play on instruments or understand Music was unworthy of a philosopher; and how
much I was insulted for joining the study of Optics to that of the Belles Lettres, and for
writing Italian as well as Latin verses."
Ipsi principes, turn fidibus scire Musicen callere,
Philosopho indignum prczdicant, &c.
This author, who spent thirty-three years at the Court of Charles V. by whom he was much
respected, died about the year 1540. Padre Martini, among Neapolitan writers on Music,
enumerates Gio. Camillo Maffei da Solofra, of whose writing was published at Naples, in 1563,
Discorso Filosofica della Voce, e del Modo d'imparare di Cantar, di Garganta, raccolte da D.
Valeria de' Paoli di Limosinano; a book that I have never seen, nor do I very well
comprehend the title.
{q) Of the poetry to which these tunes were sung, Crescimbeni and Quadrio give an
account by the name of Villanelle. Adrian Willaert, Ven. 1540. Macque, 1555. Textore, 1566.
Riccio, 1577. Bernardino Draghi, 1581. Pinelli, 1585. Luca Marenzio, 1584, 1586, 1592.
Ferrabosco, 1593, and Orlando di Lasso, 1594, all published Canzonette and Villanelle, alia
Napolitana.
* Donato's Canzone, etc., were published in 1550 and were reprinted several times.
[74
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Villota, di Perissone, alia Napolitana. 1551.
3f£*
3=C
m
±3
s
s^
^^g
*^
3=p
5S
V£ K*su)Jwawtf
LARTlNH ---7°/*
k# r»*
fi!
a^
£*»«• 71f7=.
SSSS
w
ss
±*
q^
t±
» 1 ! P
±±
w^
l/f W£A<0~j
L'anre
VM
T/H.VO&UM T TUTT*. g
IS
&s
hs
23
IS
^F*l
t*=E
§
£^p
t±*E
d=bt
1-r-H
i'/*»ne
ve
•taa
m
ss
^
S3E
^si
E^^E
^E±
tTt-f
i±
33=
"• 1 — »*«-
sjwrsr aw- ra* vg
TUrre.
fi±t
£SE
S
£Efe
^
^^
m
=t=t
-w
snai.*.
^^
pi CAN
CANTA -Tiff
^
i^
BSE
py=?
St
t — r
*
ct
4— F
I
trwt-fi-
A* Simm
SE±
»■ e
ma
o ■■
E
@i
fill
t±
l=F^
1 Hr
izr
J)*«
^^s
IS
s
-/ eg g g g
cc±
Si
£q=3=
Si
ii£
±=t
£333:
^
4-F
^t=^
i
/mm
6»-
mAur &a
Sftmiwr vo& tiAMComtn-
SE
iF^f=
ft
Sg
f^g
^
■Tfl
r »*■
^E
FF=^
4— -H
1 '
i
.flw, tft
weufnt
¥
*SH
S
IB!
S£
y=F
3=t
r*/ 6c
2W <?* - /"/ft; T />/»
HE
s§
§s§
^^
±£
L^
rrt
Tiuvuei £e
J?* £* Gauhaut Jda 6AmAur VoGuflm eoi"nv~em-fiA
^^
^
z^
3E=
s
^^^
=^2
^^
FA Sol
ut ne if
\ 1 ,'*s~c-
S==Bh
B Jj*
! I ■
s
S=M
r*=y
s
=t==E
fe
FA Sol la
WAemi PA Sol
la Sol
ur
La t»u
ea&> /it mi
^
s
^3£
Yld?
fcibj
t/r *s /*/
/r/» iV>*
/.>» Xoa
LA SOL
UT Rs
^rrrrjf r^ |JP i>r|r g , § | jb g 1^^
Se ami la virtute, figlia mia, La prima Ietone cativo dare
Io metto penna e tu Io calimaro Siam maistri Che sacci ben costru ere la mano Siam maistri
175
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Di Baldassare Donato Canzon Villanesche alia Napolitana a 4.
i
»G- V
^^^^
as
^s
Venez. Dal Gardane, 1558.
5£
^
0=E
g=s=?
<!/m
ifl 6MUHS Oft
VO //»?%%»- I7S. CHI
ve **•
^=^
bCO ■ f g
^^
-i=P=
O g
-t — r
Chi UAdfi«-t-itni>o
f^=y
7>o
(W/w* • ito
-fltf MS-
»
est
•F J
o o
1 1 g
tf*/
t/V &c
-/7a Vtf-
§§5
£&§
«>»«>■ ^o-
£5*E
tCjI
i ' ' ■ :
4=CC
^O/i
tr
Doiws vo imPAQ/* • £s emi.naiti-0/je vd-
CH{ Lf*G/KuAR~0O
1
B
i-^
-fr-g_:p
^=*
JET2*
^^
SB tr j
S&tA$t*»
NOi Che
s/fi/tio n>n
stri "1
IVlCHS 31
^m
mi
^^
^^
Q-&
•M-
T==C
I I 1 p
I I
t±t
/»/ 8>£
FFj^
Q?R
O m m
^
5
«>-®-0~
I I I
CT
»* 9£
trt
aj< &i
^yLci
*=^
S=
^-Wr^
st
^
y t
/v/r$ f) mi St
J=+
Q I*
^
^3
3=3=
a
hg- au g 78-
2*
•± I «>' s— »g »'
t~±=±
* -77/y/> n),\i m fine hi
2>i SO' i\r» —
Tf)Q-/iA T/}/i/T/t<v
-o-&*
m,m
<s Q. )
J O
^PT
1 Hi g 1
r=c
-+— t
r/mi&c
-J-— > -V-
J m — ns-
i
g— ±
f^g-^T
4==
3=t=P
1 >." I I
T/M'fc'
Prouvance un poco cance vuoi chiamare
Appassa died volte che falimo
Che di sera, &c.
Se la Gagliarda Donna vuoi imparare
Sotto lo Mastro el te besogna stare
Che di sera, &c.
A che e principiante li vo dare
Questo compagno ch' ha Nome Martini
Che di sera, &c.
176
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
In this last Villanella, and in some others of the same author, the
effect of iteration has been tried; and by that expedient alone, more
energy and interest seem to have been given to the melody, than I
have discovered in any other of higher, or, indeed, equal antiquity.
If, however, we analyse this air, we shall find no regularity of
metre : the first phrase consisting of five bars and a half, a limping,
incommensurate, and untoward quantity in all the arts; and yet, by
the arrangement and repetition of some of the notes, the ideas of
an air is impressed on the ear, though it seems wild and irregular.
Indeed, with respect to Air, which consists in symmetry and
grace, it was long wholly unprincipled; and till the establishment
of Operas, no better was perhaps produced than are to be found
among the Neapolitan Villanelle : for during these times, even the
key was seldom ascertained; and the number of bars are indeed
still more regular by chance and sensibility, perhaps, than principle.
The repetition of a lucky series of notes, by which they are deeper
impressed on the mind of the hearer, was hardly begun to be
practised so late as the sixteenth century; though in the next, the
secret was not only found, but men of small genius and resources
availed themselves of it to a disgusting degree.
Besides composers and compilers of Villanelle (r), Gioan
Leonardo Primavera, called dell' Arpa, published at Naples, 1570
[1565-84], three Books of Songs, of which he was author both of
the Poetry and Music (s); and Luzzasco Luzzaschi, one of the four
whom Galilei honoured with the name of musician (t), published
at Naples, 1576, Madrigals, that were much admired throughout
Italy, where this author's fame as an organist was higher than that
of any of his cotemporaries, except Claudio Merula. Antonio
Cieco Valente, likewise, published Versi Spirituali sopra tutte le
Note, con diversi Capricci per sonar negli Organi. Nap. 1580.
But no Neapolitan composer, of this high period, is mentioned
with such unlimited praise, as Don Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of
Venosa [c. 1560-1613]; it will be necessary, therefore, to stop and
pay our respects to the abilities of this celebrated and illustrious
Dilettante, in consideration of the honour he has done the art of
which we are tracing the history.
This Prince, whose fame has been extended by his musical
productions more than by his high rank, though his rank will be
found reciprocally to have added lustre to the compositions, was
nephew to Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo, Archbishop of Naples, and
had his title from the place which gave birth to Horace (u), the
Venusium of the ancients. Pomponius Nenna, a voluminous and
celebrated composer of madrigals, had the honour to instruct him in
Music. His productions consist of six sets of madrigals for five
(r) Draudius, Bibl. Class, tells us, that Giul. Policreto, Ant. Scandello, Pierantonio
Bianchi, Ascanio Trombetto, and Regolo Vicoli, authors of Neapolitan songs, published them
in six volumes, at Venice, 1571.
(s) This author is one of the musicians celebrated by Luigi Dentice. See above, p. 135.
(t) Dial, della Mus. Ant. e Mod.
{u) Satira I. Lib. ii. v. 35, & Lib. iii. Od. iv. v. 9.
Vol. ii. 12. xjy
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
voices, and one for six. The principal editor of his works was
Simone Molinaro, Maestro di Capella at Genoa, who, in 1585,*
published the first five books in separate parts; and, in 1613, the
same madrigals, with the addition of a sixth book, in score (x).
The numerous editions of these madrigals in different parts of
Europe, and the eulogiums bestowed on the author by persons who
rank high in Literature, as well as Music, made me extremely
curious to see and examine them. Gerard Vossius (y), Bianconi
(z), Bapt. Doni (a), Tassoni (b), and many others, speak of him
as the greatest composer of modern times; as one who, quitting the
beaten track of other musicians, had discovered new melodies, new
measures, new harmonies, and new modulation; so that singers,
and players on instruments, despising all other Music, were onlj
pleased with that of this Prince (c).
Tassoni tells us, that James I. King of Scotland, had not only
composed Sacred Music, but invented a new species of plaintive
melody, different from all others; " in which he has been imitated
by the Prince of Venosa, who, in our times, has embellished
Music with many admirable inventions (d)." This assertioi
greatly increased my desire to examine works in which so manj
excellencies were concentred; particularly as I had long been
extremely desirous of tracing the peculiarities of the national
melodies of Scotland, from a higher source than David Rizzio. But,
in a very attentive perusal of all the several parts of the whole six
(x) Partitura delli sei Libri de' Madrigale a cinque Voci, dell' illustrissimo & eccellentissimo
Principe di Venosa, D. Carlo Gesualdo, Fatica di Simone Molinaro, Maestro di Capella nel
Duomo di Genova.
The first and second books were re-published, in parts, at Venice, in 1603, and dedicated
to the author by Scipione Stella, a Neapolitan monk, and himself likewise a composer of
madrigals; both the dedications are dated 1594. An edition of the third book was published
at Venice, 1619, by Gardano. The fourth book was also reprinted at the same place, and
dedicated to the author, by Hettorre Gesualdo, 1604; and a third impression of the fifth book,
with a new edition of the sixth, were both published at Venice, by Gardano, 1616. Copies of
all these, except the fifth book, are preserved in the collection of Music bequeathed to Christ
Church, Oxon, by_Dr. Aldrich, and Goodson, with the use of which I have long been indulged,
by the liberal spirit of the Dean and Canons.
(y) De Natur. Art. Lib. III. cap. lix. § 26.
(z) Chronol. Mathematicorum, ad sec. xvi.
(a) Op. Omn. To. I. p. 93, 243, and To. II. p. 42.
(b) Pensieri diversi.
(c) Hie enim Rhythmis in musicam revocatis, eos, turn ad cantum, turn ad sonum,
modulos adhibuit, ut caeteri omnes Musici ei primas libenter detulerint. Ejusque modos cantores,
ac jidicines omnes, rehquis post habitis, ubique avide complectuntur. Blancanus.
Opinions of ancient things are more frequently taken upon trust than formed upon real
examination : thus Rousseau, who had too much taste and knowledge to like such compositions
had he heard or seen them, tell us, after Vossius and Blanchini, that "the elegant and learned
Madrigals of the Prince of Venosa, were admired by all the Masters, and sung by all the
Ladies of his time." Diet, de Mus. Art. Madrig.
{d) Noi ancora possiamo connumerar tra nostri Iacopo Re di Scozia, che non pur cose
Sacre compose in canto, ma trovb da se Stesso una nuova musica, lamentabile, e mesta,
dijferente da tutte I'altre. Nel che poi e Stato imitato da Carlo Gesualdo, Principe di Venosa,
che in questa nostra eta ha illustrata anch' egli la Musica con nuove mirabili inventioni. Lib.
X. cap. xxiii.
Angelo Berardi, in his Miscellania Musicale, gives Tassoni's op'nion on this subject, as his
own, without knowing whether it was well founded.
* This date is incorrect. Gesualdo's 1st and 2nd sets were published in 1594, the 3rd set
in 1595, the 4th in 1596, the 5th and 6th in 1611. In 1603 was published a collection of
Sacrce Cantiones, for 5, 6 and 7 voices, and a set of 6-part madrigals was published
posthumously in 1626. Some of the sets were reprinted at various times.
Torchi in A.M.I. , Vol. 4; Ricordi in Rascolta Nazionale, Vols. 59-62; Barclay Squire in
Selected Madrigals (B. and H.) have published works by Gesualdo.
Gray and Heseltine have written a life (London, 1926).
178
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
books of the Prince of Venosa 's madrigals, I was utterly unable to
discover the least similitude or imitation of Caledonian airs in any
one of them; which, so far from Scots melodies, seem to contain no
melodies at all; nor, when scored, can we discover the least
regularity of design, phraseology, rhythm, or, indeed, any thing
remarkable in these madrigals, except unprincipled modulation,
and the perpetual embarrassments and inexperience of an Amateur,
in the arrangement and filling up of the parts.
The passage in Tassoni, which has so often been cited by Scots
writers, seems to imply, not only that James, King of Scotland,
had invented a new species of melody, but that his melody had been
imitated by the Prince of Venosa; at least, this is the sense in which
the passage has been understood by the Scots, and indeed by
myself, till on finding no kind of similarity betweeen the national
tunes of North Britain and the melodies of the Prince of Venosa,
I examined the passage anew, with more attention; when it
appeared to me as if Tassoni's words did not imply that the Prince
of Venosa had adopted or imitated the melodies of King James;
but that these princely Dilettanti were equally cultivators, and
inventors, of Music.
This illustrious Dilettante seems to merit as little praise on
account of the expression of words, for which he has been celebrated
by Doni, as for his counterpoint (e); for the syllables are constantly
made long or short, just as it best suited his melody; and in the
repetition of words, we frequently see the same syllable long in one
bar, and short in another, or the contrary; by which it is manifest
that their just accentuation was never thought of.
The remarks of Tassoni, if he meant otherwise, certainly must,
have been hazarded either from conjecture or report; as is but too
frequently practised by men of letters, when they become musical
critics, without either industry or science sufficient to verify their
assertions.
The Prince of Venosa was perpetually straining at new expression
and modulation, but seldom succeeded to the satisfaction of
posterity, however dazzled his cotemporaries may have been by his
rank, and the character he bore among the learned, who so
frequently get their musical information from tradition, that whether
they praise or censure, it is usually sans connoissance de cause.
Dilettanti usually decide in the same summary way, with an
additional prejudice in favour of their own little knowledge, and a
disposition to censure whatever they are unable to acquire, be it
science or execution.
Cicero has long since said, that " it is not with Philosophy and
Science, as with other arts; for what can a man say of Geometry
or Music, who has never studied them? He must either hold his
tongue, or talk nonsense (/)."
(e) II Principe Venosa con V espressione di Melodia poteva vestire qualsivoglia Concetto.
Trattato defla Musica scenica, p. I. cap. xvii.
([) Non est enim Philosophia similis artinm reliquarum. Nam quid faciet in Geometria,
qui non didicerit? Quid in musicis? Aut taceat oportebit, aut ne sanus quidem judicetur.
Cic. de Orat. iii. p. 188. Vol. I. Edit. Lambin.
179
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
With respect to the excellencies which have been so liberallv
bestowed on this author, who died in 1614 [1613], they are all
disputable, and such as, by a careful examination of his works,
he seemed by no means entitled to. They have lately been said
to consist in '• fine contrivance, original harmony, and the sweetest
modulation conceivable." As to contrivance, it must be owned
that much has been attempted by this Prince; but he is so far from
being happy in this particular, that his points of imitation are
generally unmanageable, and brought in so indiscriminately on
concords and discords, and on accented and unaccented parts of
a bar, that, when performed, there is more confusion in the general
effect than in the Music of any other composer of madrigals with
whose works I am acquainted (g). His original harmony, after
scoring a great part of his madrigals, particularly those that have
been the most celebrated, is difficult to discover; for had there been
any warrantable combinations of sounds that Palestrina, Luca
Marenzio, and many of his predecessors, had not used before him,
in figuring the bases, they would have appeared (h). And as to
his modulation, it is so far from being the sweetest conceivable,
that, to me, it seems forced, affected, and disgusting (i).
(g) Battista Doni, another Dilettante, says, "that he never aimed at Canons, or such
Sophistry." Appen. Tom. I. p. 177. He is, however, always struggling at fugue and
imitation.
(h) The frequent use of the sharp third and minor sixth, if it be reckoned among his
harmonies, does little honour to the delicacy of his ear; for even Purcell and Handel, with
all their own weight, and the due reverence of the public for their superior genius and abilitie,
were not imitated in the use of this combination. It is, indeed, admitted by Handel in his
Organ Fugues, more through necessity than choice, in order to bring in an answer, or make
one subject serve as an accompaniment to another; but it has always the effect of a wrong
note in the performance. Padre Martini gently censures this harmony in Palestrina, and
Angleria says it is buono per autorita, e non per regola; it is, however, so detestable to my
ears, that no authority, rule, or effect, can justify its use. In Opera songs, indeed, it is
tolerated in notes of taste, appoggiaturas, and passages of passion; but in church music, and
regular counterpoint, to admit it in the texture of the fundamental harmony, can never be
recommended to students in composition, who wish to please the natural and uncorrupted ear
of the public.
(«) Whenever he attempts chromatic, the base is as unprincipled as unpleasing. In the
5#
b # # tl 6 # 5# # #
key of G, with a flat third, he begins in the following manner : G E D G F# F# Bfl B E
5#
* 6 7 6# b
C#. And in the key of E minor, we have this passage in the base : C Ab Db C Eb Ab
b7 6b te
b6 b 4b \ % ...
G F E, lib. iv. p. 3. Through the whole book he seems to be trying confusions; for in
#
the same key, p. 11, we have D Eb D Db C — B Gf E. P. 13. in F natural, at the end
of the madrigal, E Cjf F# D C F£ ! and p. 14 in a movement that begins and ends in G^.
, A
we have G Eb Efl F Bb Db DJJ G ! ! Most of these sounds, it must be observed, are
fundamental, and accompanied with common chords. But such extraneous modulation, as it
was neither learned nor pleasing, was never adopted by other Contrapuntists. It is not every
one who ventures to violate established rules, that has knowledge and genius sufficient to
find either a series or combination of sounds which has escaped all other Composers, and
which, by the pleasure it affords the ear, is above the reach of censure. New modulation,
when guided by science and a nice ear, is always welcome, and certain in its effect; but when
it only consists of such licentious and offensive deviations from rule, as have been constantly
rejected by the sense and intellect of great Professors, it can only be applauded by ignorance,
depravity, or affectation.
180
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The following madrigal, being the seventeenth of his sixth book,
is presented to the musical reader as a specimen of his style, and
harsh, crude, and licentious modulation; in which, the beginning
a composition in A minor, with the chord of C sharp, with a sharp
third, is neither consonant to the present laws of modulation, nor
to those of the ecclesiastical tones; to which, as keys were not
settled and determined on the fixed principles of major and minor,
in the time of Venosa, composers chiefly adhered. But a more
offensive licence is taken in the second chord of this madrigal than
in the first; for it is not only repugnant to every rule of transition
at present established, but extremely shocking and disgusting to the
ear, to go from one chord to another in which there is no relation,
real or imaginary; and which is composed of sounds wholly
extraneous and foreign to any key to which the first chord belongs.
I have bestowed more remarks on this Prince of Musicians,
and more time in the examination of his works than they perhaps
now deserve, in order to furnish my readers with what seems, to
my comprehension, a truer idea of their worth than that which
partiality and ignorance have hitherto given.
Madrigal. By the Prince of Venosa.
as
+++
rrTObii r
*■ «
VUOt>fi$Vi 777
M B
J J-1 J i^Ui
3EE3E*
I *~ n
?S=f¥
S
frs t[rjs
mio Duouo £
CmmiTuoBiw i// rv?
S/vom &>c
E/von Joe
X8l
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
m i«»*%*~f~»r r r:
$- igg
j i ♦?
its bs^g
EB
fno-Tto
MIO Duouo
£ cm mi f"° -a»>»
s
ff- j £5
^^
m
3p£
EE
£ £«/ &«
ff tf^&c
i J a m m :
ggg
SgfP"
3=
^i3
5^_
Pfo iMw w ■
T>? £"£>// dpr.
^S
5EE5;
±±
s J B
s — s-
fllo- So
J}/>ff m
^^
?=F
I < i
£V«/ A/ P</0 »/>/P W --TA
i
- _ rir .MO^u^tPrri \im
5
/?///
CM m'nnci-Dt
£#0/t$>
% r j ri
v+
Fr* i
i
Aui/ ere
<&
_o — a _[_
Jj * J J j
?P
±±1
H
r?
flw Cme m'n v-ei JDS
= I
^S
£ /font if
as a
;t=t=t
Sg
- imw
* ■ »'i r
«=
#*/
CM &c
si
3^
f-4-
3E333
ES
=E
£ /Vfe/V &£
"eTnoMte
^
a g
±±
^ i>OiC -710-SA FoHTE
TVoSmmfa
s
g^
r»r'M?
u
^=3=
^^
*±
t=±r±£
Ti*g
0 Dolo-
Qas» Foxrg
CuiDHRVir/i sm.
P
s
5S
ggp
*95Tt
»
-t-S
O 2>Oi.o-
ROSA F0RT£
Ff&F
fc
^
5
EEEE?3
•> • •od&
0 J>ou>
rosr Poire
&
%
-^S-
gg g-
ggg^
~CHI&C
0 j>ow-rfo-s/j pox- re
^frg-
*#•-*
-•^--g
^
iN^E
/HoJ?re
fiHr mi da /hop- re
/ni S/) /no ?- re
J mi T\n noUT s
F¥^
^
9 9 d,
':49 d
at
il
mi b» fitonr ^ ffHI miJ>A
monre ***'
n>/»/> moe-
- a
'PIP e^
^^
s
^
T=t
«^F
"^v/
/9#
/»/ JwfiPiire
f=*fr
/vol?- -
r v g
3t=3C
t±
*l
/JI/fl/9 IQok
-re Am /» i
j>/> /»ol- re
mi
%a_
mi »/? /»oi •- re.
$»
Wu ni pa /nop- re
182
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The Lombard School
The Lombard School would furnish an ample list of eminent
musicians .during the sixteenth century, whose compositions are still
extant, if the limits of my plan would afford room for specimens;
but as it is difficult, at this distance of time, not only to furnish
criteria of the difference between one composer and another of the
same country, but between school and school of different countries,
I shall content myself with affording a niche in this part of my
work to two or three of the principal founders of this class of
contrapuntists. Padre Martini very justly places at the head of the
Lombard School, Father Costanzo Porta [c. 1530-1601], of
Cremona, a scholar of Willaert, and fellow-student with Zarlino.
He was at first Maestro di Capella at Padua [1564], next at Osimo,
in the March of Ancona [1552-64]; then at Ravenna [1567]; and
lastly, at Loretto [1575]; where he died in 1601. He was author
of eighteen different works for the church, full of elaborate and
curious compositions, which have been always sought and admired
by masters, and collectors of learned Music. This author seems
not only to have vanquished all the difficult contrivances for which
John Okenheim, Jusquin del Prato, and Adrian Willaert, from
whose school he sprung, were celebrated, but considerably
augmented their number: for, as orators, lawyers, and commenta-
tors have the art of twisting and subverting words to any meaning
that favours their cause or hypothesis, so Costanzo Porta had
equal power over any series of musical notes, in a canon or fugue;
which he could not only work in recte et retro, but invert, augment,
diminish, divide, or subdivide, at his pleasure. In this faculty he
very much resembled our Tallis, his cotemporary. He began
to flourish towards the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII. as
did Tallis. According to Draudius, his five-part motets were
published at Venice in 1546 [1555]; and between that period
and 1599, the rest of his works were published, either by
himself or scholars, of whom he had a great number;
particularly Lodovico Balbo, who flourished about 1578, and
Giacomo Antonio Piccioli, 1588, both voluminous composers,
in their master's artificial and elaborate style, and consequently
great canonists.
The composition of Costanzo Porta, inserted on the following
plates, is in seven parts, and was taken from the author's Fifty- two
Motets, for five, six, seven, and eight voices, printed in 1580,
while he was Maestro di Capella at the Holy Church at Loretto;
it consists of four parts in canon, two per moto retto, and two per
moto contrario, while the other three are in free fugue. Though
long, it is so curious, and constructed with so much art, that it is
exhibited as an example of that scientific species of writing, by
which alone the abilities of a contrapuntist were measured in the
sixteenth century, when there were no musical dramas, or full
pieces for instruments, and but few single songs, or solos of any
kind, to exercise genius and invention. Masses and motets for the
183
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
church, and madrigals for the chamber, in three, four, five, six,
and more parts, comprised almost all the Music that was then
composed.
Besides Costanza Porta, and his scholars, the Lombard School
can boast of many able and distinguished composers during the
latter end of the sixteenth century; among whom are Giuseppe
Caimo, Gio. Giacomo Gastoldi, Giuseppe Biffi, and Gio. Paolo
Cima, all voluminous composers at Milan: with Pietro Pontio, of
Parma, already mentioned; Orazio Vecchi, of Modern; and Claudio
Monteverde, of Cremona.
Gastoldi [d. early XVIIth cent.], sometimes called Castaldi,
born at Caravaggio, was author of thirty musical works; the titles
and dates of which may be seen in Draudius and Walther. Of
these I have only seen his Ballads, printed at Antwerp, 1596
[Venice, 1591-5], under the following title: Balletti a 5. co i versi
per cantare, sonare, e ballare; con una Mascherata de Cacciatori a
6. e un Concerto de' Pastori, a 8. This puts the derivation of our
word Ballad out of all doubt, which originally meant a song that was
sung and danced at the same time (k) . The tunes of Gastoldi are
all very lively, and more graceful than any I have seen before the
cultivation of melody for the stage. The first edition of these
ballads was published at Venice, 1591; many of them are called
Fa las, under which title our Morley, four years after, published
short airs, in five parts : so that it seems as if the name of Fa la,
silly as it is, was not originally English. For two Fa las of
Castoldi, see the plates p. 188.
Fuga a Sette Voci.
DEL COSTANZO PORTA.
Subjectum ordinarium, & contrapositum septem vocum, in se tantum, continens Quatuor
partes, nempe, Cantum, Tenorem, Sextam partem, & Septimam. Consequentia Quatuor
Temporum in Diapason remissum juxta posita.
Altus.
Tenor.
Quintus.
Sexta
Bassus.
3er>r %m voei/n- E*s iotbc t&
?=g:
P&OLU~/0
CAVrtOi
jpEJE
m
s-g
»*==
et-sueT&fTo
rue.*
bl- FU Y SA EST
(3ubi~tjo/Z Te.i <POi>u/» £.*
J./» g
7>m-PO- SA 6.*r
E*. Si e7eerat a re
Gan- Ti
^S
A in u>-*r-
et?A- ti-
S
±©
Dux-py.
g. Eg I
^^F
A 1*1 LA- BI-
TS/» St""-
5H
... IS If
--SI £ST
3=5^
F r rp
iE3
**• i i r
1-1 -Si- is TO-
^
(k) See Book II. p. 641.
184
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
-P.s-f I- g a if?
-7!rg-
a
s
sq=±
f=F
GRFhTi-
R IHLffQ-IS TU-
PftOTTE-HkX-A S£-Hi
autre T>a-
w^
±±
SlF-FU S4 esr
SM-Tl-
3 = 5
t) ML/)-$ff/3 TV —
g=^2
I »fll
J=E
3
te
£^
±±±
2^
l I K
x=t
3Zg
^liZiF-rv-M&StoTift
in ut-ei-
it III Lfl
-Si-is Tl
IS Elf - -FU-SA
arcdfi-
Ti a if i-ft&i
m
^=w-
^^
*° *a g{-
^^
=tt=t
3)tF-FU-
-SftEST
TfiOVTe-Rz
3E
ti
T^
S^=-g-
:p=
±±
3
i^-
/5 «"r-
!V- J& £»"<} W-Tf-A 0
IS Tso-
rTc, — ,?£
-/» #£
^=I=S£
t£
-#-©•
7>IF-Fu-
GflflTI-
(g.a
^
^^U
n±
5ffi
gcsszpi
Tu-- ,?
TRoPTE-RE- A Be- "Wl-DI tif^re
@gg=
£H
o?o
tUSS:
xrt
Sur-
^S
3^ J
r s g
i35
^tS7
C+
S
Fiictpre-ze
ft SE-tje-si.
ft 8E-HS-
tfTTE &e
iS
g O"
FF^
±=t
*m
334 4"
-+S-
5fo <^-
^■5 ^
*^
jf ~
/£-- 7»p — mm
SS
^
i£?S
gj&
£/-iJTr£D,
■ a
/e-rsi?-
&P9
^^¥
iO ffl-
o r 1 i
q=t
QcM
^^
s?
id
TRO--
■FT£.. T!£
R 8E-#E-Bl-*ir T£
3E-NE
-g-odf-
■00-?
^^
&®z
g^fe
fttzt
pnopre-tii' f) SE-ne
sa^ »■«. ar 4 ft*. Air-*/ rf-r n?
IN
il-ilTTB.
JOE.
SE- aM~Jt/-JUT
w
=©=
fE-TER-
tfS
HE --US IMfE-
I85
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
^^-^oa.
m
EjC GUI-
—Sus rei, --lscTa- vb-
"OOP
a^
«35
^
e^
S^g=
t±
fM^R
■C3gQ
menr/s ru—
Iff
s
s
i^fi^iiiips^
g «d i
*„U I 1 pzrrr
ife-sri- mBy
e/vts/Evs a-
te
Sl£
05G5=
-a* ff- Bl"t-
sus re it - LE-cn ve—
I
=f3=
BT»J-
^k
a=gf
-s=-
=t=3E!
4 Kff - -
fe
£5=*^
3fe
^-J««3-
!^P#:
^EEjE
.ttf:
m
g=C3
t=t
■H-
- msKTit -ru-
IS A Gf}Q!»
BUSG- - Sv ?-/V£-/S
e* am- 'Xusrazuf
— r L-iy
773 rv- O/s
9«
186
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
offoooe
33i
-sf^s-
i ri i
pi- u-fS. Tfs- -
m
je-^Q-
^
to-
m
— tfww //*-
» _ e-
g o
stet©^i^
5
-o — ©-
--- 1PC//W
L£-m ve
S
§§§
3^
Fi-u-entZ-Gitn IN
//o-mo-ft
m
m
po„ s
n i
o o
gi
i^g1
r * '
^
QUl-BOS
ts 3£-tfi cr» «r—
Wvr 7S se-i-$-ct4 vz-hunt
m
p£W
£
I
-££- cr* y£-
Fi-t4-fiR Ttar-eum in
\ J la*^
5^h
^gg
a
^a
©£
T^ Xlf.*l£-f759 ME KVHT Ft- U-SB VS- Gum IN HO-HO
Qui . - . "Bus
187
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
// Bell' humor e. Balletto a 5 Voci. First Published 1581.
Di Gio : Giacomo Gastoldi da Caravaggio.
t=S
g:-9— a
g Wv
m
^^=r==PT=^=i
^3
! 3B
p -^
i i i
VI-VER LI£To
V0&-UO
BOS—UOtLfiU **
A>? (4M
3=?
o a
33£
5=T*
i3Ei
s
6fc£
» • m »
I 1
V/V£C X«7& ic
Lawn*
a ,.
-m—m—r-
~ I J
c • 7 J J
■e a
^
i • i
i i
^=&
5=F
y^=
*M
*S»
3
m
tfi L* *-#
:c" r rr ^+f^= a ,,4 ^f- j . g ^^^
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
L'Innamorato. Fa La, by Gastoldi.
I
3E
^
9=£
4=+
t=t
*
±=3
i:!£±
/» tie-r/»
m« <v //*-
£*, X/», £/J
A/?, t/9,
CmSV-iR
E&
c» B
Q g»
HI
o y
-*-»■
FR
±q=
t3
tfw 1st,.
A ue- th
woo
bt
i — r
£
±±
^T
5e7
A» SI
F», f.1%
a s
gr
ft ue-Tf)
F6, LB,
xsc
o - g
EB
o y :g
^^
tofe
^
k /» i/£-r/? be,
OT, a>?, &c
C/w&«
-© »
3SZ=±
^
iS
+==t
x±
tzzhzt
S£ Z/t&i
ZO-HBM
It.
til/ATfU.
Ffi,if),t#;
Utt^Lfi
V$lJi,V),
IS
=^£
^^
*t
t±
i
■o — g-
O g-
a p
+=p
f a a
^PF
"R1^
^=^^
3=4
3=F
o ■ »-
ai
fet
a=a
g-o-
£db
¥3
r — rij^rij;
The counterpoint, as well as the melody of these Ballads, is
excellent; except at the places marked with a cross: where the
Chord of F Natural immediately succeeding the Chord of G, is too
unrelative and sudden a Modulation for modern ears.
Concerning the compositions of Biffi and Cima, though
numerous, and still preserved in many collections, I am unable to
speak, having seen none of them in score; however, not only of
Pietro Pontio, of whom a specimen has already been given (I), but
of Orazio Vecchi and Monteverde I have scored many. These
two last musicians are deserving of particular notice, not only on
account of their numerous compositions for the church and
chamber, but for their early attempts at Dramatic Music. In this
last capacity, their abilities will be considered hereafter; at present,
we shall only speak of their other productions.
Orazio Vecchi, born at Milan [c. 1551-1605], and many years
Maestro di Capella at Mantua, obtained a great reputation, not
only as an able musician, but poet. His numerous canzonets for
{l) Page 148.
189
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
three and four voices, published at Milan and Venice, from 1580
to 1613, were re-printed and sung all over Europe. Our country-
man Peacham, who had received instructions in Music from this
composer, during his residence in Italy, speaks of him in the
following manner: " I bring you now mine own master, Horatio
Vecchi, of Modena, who, beside goodness of aire, was most
pleasing of all other for his conceipt and variety, wherewith all his
works are singularly beautified, as well his madrigals of five and
six parts, as those his canzonets, printed at Norimberge (m)." He
then instances and points out the beauties of several of his composi-
tions, that were most in favour during that time. Besides secular
Music, Vecchi composed two books of Sacred Songs, in five, six,
seven, and eight parts; Masses of six and eight voices; and four-part
Lamentations (n).*
Claudio Monteverde, of Cremona [1567-1643], was one of the
most eminent composers of the period now under consideration. He
first distinguished himself as a performer on the Tenor Viol; and
being taken into the service of the Duke of Mantua, applied
himself to the study of composition under the direction of
Marcantonio Ingegneri, of Cremona, Maestro di Capella of that
court, and a considerable composer for the church. Soon after he
went to Venice, where the republic appointed him Maestro of St.
Mark's church [1613], a place which has been always filled by
professors of great abilities. Here, in 1582, he published
Madrigals for three [1584], four [1583], and five voices [1587] in
the style of the times; but his courage increasing with experience,
in his subsequent productions he dared to violate many rules of
counterpoint, which, having been long established, were held
sacred by orthodox professors. He had, therefore, many
opponents, who treated him as an ignorant corrupter of the art.
Among these, the principal was Gio. Maria Artusi, of Bologna, who,
in the first part of his tract on the Imperfection of Modern Music,
published in 1600, as well as in the second, which appeared in
1603, inveighed with great asperity against Morteverde. Musicians
entered the lists on both sides, and the war became general.
Monteverde defended himself in prefaces and letters prefixed to his
works; but his best defence was the revolution he brought about in
counterpoint; for his licences pleasing the public ear, were soon
adopted not only by Dilettante, but professors.
As the innovations of Monteverde, form a memorable epoch in
the history of the art, it seems necessary to acquaint the musical
(m) Complete Gentleman, p. 102.
(n) Sacrarum Cantionum, Ven. 1597, Messe, 1607, and Lamentationi, 1608. Miton is said,
by his nephew Phillips, in the life which he prefixed to the English translation of his State
Letters, to have collected, during his travels, a chest or two of choice music-books of the
best Masters of Italy at that time, but particularly of Luca Marenzio, Monteverde, Orazio Vecchi,
&c. Draudius and Walther, after some Italian writers, speak of Orfeo Vecchi as a composer
cotemporary with Orazio. [Orfeo Vecchi was born c. 1540 and died before 1604.]
* The Madrigal opera, Amfipamasso, is dealt with in a later chapter. Torchi in A.M.I. .
Vol. II., prints examples of his work.
19O
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
reader in what they consisted. The laws of harmony, like those of
tragedy, comedy, and epic poetry, when once established check
invention, and frequently impel men of real genius to become
imitators. Unluckily musicians had not such perfect models before
them, as antiquity has furnished to poets in the dramatic works of
Sophocles, Euripides, and Terence, or the epic poems of Homer
and Virgil. In the infancy of musical composition, men saw but
a little way into the latent resources of harmonic combinations;
rules were formed upon few and narrow principles, derived from
monotonous and insipid compositions, when timidity was feeling
its way in the dark, and every deviation from the practice of the
first contrapuntists was thought licentious. However, men were too
great friends to the pleasure of the ear, not to encourage such
happy licences as those with which Monteverde was charged; and
since that time, every fortunate breach of an old rule seems to be
regarded as the establishment of a new, by which means, the code
is so enlarged that we may now almost pronounce every thing to
be allowable in a musical composition, that does not offend
cultivated ears.
Monteverde was the first who used double discords, such as the
|, ?, and i, as well as the flat fifth, and the seventh unprepared;
and as he was possessed of more genius and science than the Prince
of Venosa, his innovations were not merely praised, and then
avoided, but abused, and adopted by other composers.
Monteverde' s New Discords, in five Parts.
1 1 1 & rn ' 6 * *
But it was not only by the use of these discords that he improved
music, for by quitting ecclesiastical modulation in his secular
productions, he determined the key of each movement, smoothed
and phrased the melody, and made all his parts sing in a more
natural and flowing manner than had been done by any of his
predecessors (o). In the first set of Monteverde's madrigals the
(o) Monteverde. in composing for the church, adhered religiously to the tonal laws of
ancient practice, delta prima pratica, as appears by an Agnus Dei from his Mass, called In ulo
tempore, for six voices, inserted by Padre Martini in the second part of his Saggto di Lontrap.
p. 242, which is constructed in strict fugue, with great purity of harmony and modulation And
as it was in his madrigals and operas that he ventured to violate such established rules ol
counterpoint as precluded variety, energy, pathos, and every bold expression of words, which
has since been so necessary in the picturesque and impassioned scenes of Dramatic Music;
Padre Martini calls these licences la seconda pratica, differing in many particulars from that of
all the masters who preceded Monteverde.
191
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
composition is not only correct, and simple, but so dry and
fanciless, as to threaten no attempts at such new harmonies and
effects, as would bring about a revolution in the art. And it seems
to have been by design, and in his dramatic experiments at the
expression of words, that he ventured to violate ancient rules, and
militate against prejudice and pedantry: for neither his Church
Music, nor the two first books of his madrigals, contain any licences
that would offend or surprise orthodox ears, even in the fifteenth
century. But in his fifth and last book of madrigals, almost every
species of discord and modulation is hazarded, for the use of which
the boldest composers of modern times have been often thought
licentious.
Of his merit, as a dramatic composer, we shall have occasion to
speak elsewhere : but something so free, facile, and similar to
music of much later times appears through all the trammels of
fugue and contrivance in the melody, harmony, and modulation of
his madrigals, that I cannot refuse a place to one of them here.*
Madrigal, by Claudio Monteverde. dal Libro 3. a 5 Voce.
G==
30^
m
w.
STR/ica/iM
p»im.co*u**Gu*2 ~
S
US
m
I
IS
s
Si
^
fefEE
tntaummiPu*
wm
W^=£
n^=t=
Stntttmm t^mii-
to -itg/>A6'c*e
esruir- 6#A-
To
^=
¥%m
s
m
ChF
1 — f j» •• ■
^^
^S
m
s
tnnteo* -y
Cue
eT,HO'- ■
A-m*
*=*
77ro. *»' fl
Cue
te.
^
F=F
a a'
«^=f»
CHS J6
TtoV
S
=^j
S-9-
f=fr
+— r
T'ho
73tow»' R
se.
T'ho
7i> TOR
as
g=3=-s — zdk
\ T'ffO TtoPP' A - m* To
* The collected works of Monteverde have been issued, edited by Malipiero, in 14 volumes.
192
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
^=F
^-a--»
"i -g r*
a
&
crfc£=t
TO
7^/>_ 77
2JfiZ
Con-flH'ss £jf
T-rzT
3^ ^3
*— f
±=t
3
»
ii
Pafc - TV
Dsl
iom-nsj*'
¥*=
f$
t&
f=t
W
s
f=tf
B
&
SB
"77 A*
ret
£$/«/»£ pa en
m
■pS—.riA
Dst
S
«
Da Commeae' at.
193
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
f-F
Til
&E
h
UR PS De
/»//> Pw'bb.
Lfibc.
n*
m
d >i
S
^
H
foxee-nA
si ps-ivi--
■a- Tgr
fit
«=:
ck:
•=£
SokcBSR^VSL
mo-
S
f T> ,1
gs
^^
FF^
Ponce- Q/>
if si. ma- m* w» * ^f- <*'- •
Cs
Per oe m Iff Pitt
QSUHePIU
3
^
^^
>L« $ORGEiji?N£i.n<i>-i><i* &=•
i/» pa-»s fee
=3=
i/5 PS-2>- IWAVIU BS.'LS. *"*.*
p-ff Kff /»//» P» 1/ BgL-Uf B
■LI - - - - -
<**■
HH
^
fcOt
s^a
x.* re ae
&e
Pn?PS-t-t
es. l# pep, xmiR »i/'
*»/t/ /="«■ £/
HP
^
rg-- w-
ce. un
Fe-BcaiifiT'n.
BSL-t-fi £"
Pto Fe-
^
^^
■ I*
d-sf
-e — »
Lfl f£M W* PW BSU
VlU* PB-- U --
Bologna School
The works of but few practical musicians of this School are
preserved or recorded during the sixteenth century, though in the
next, the masters of the cathedral of S. Petronio, and other
professors of the city of Bologna, were at least equal to those of the
first class in any other part of Europe.
An account has already been given (p) of a musical controversy,
carried on in the beginning of the sixteenth century, between
Franchinus and Spataro, of Bologna, a disciple of Bartholomeo
Ramis, a Spaniard, and professor of Music in the same city where
Spataro published a tract, in 1521, called Errori di Franchino
Gafurio. In the same year was born, at Bologna, II Cavaliere
Ercole Bottrigari, a man of rank, fortune, and erudition, who
seems to have spent his whole life, which extended to eighty-eight
years, in the study of Music, and in musical controversy. He
was author of a great number of tracts, chiefly polemical; some of
which were printed (q), but many, consisting of translations and
commentaries of ancient musical authors, with annotations on
those of his own time, still remain in manuscript; and of these
Padre Martini is in possession of the greatest part.
(p) See above, p. 132.
(q) II Patrizio. ovvero de Tetracordi Armonici di Aristosseno, Bologna, 1593. II melone,
dtscorsi Armonici, 1602, &c. *«««.
195
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Artusi, an excellent musical critic (r), and a native of Bologna,
contributed considerably to the progress of the art by his several
writings; and Andrea Rota [c. 1553-97], of the same city, who
published five-part madrigals, in 1579, appears to have been an
admirable contrapuntist. Padre Martini (s) has exhibited a move-
ment of his composition, Da pacem Domine, in six parts, which
does honour to his abilities in writing a. Capella, in which style he
seems to have been equal to any of the masters of this learned
period. The subject is a fragment of the ancient Antiphona, to
which these words used to be sung, and upon which the first
Contralto and Tenor move in perpetual canon; the Soprano, second
Contralto, and Base, in free, but close fugue; while the Baritono,
after resting nine bars, sustains the whole canto fermo, from the
beginning to the end. This composition is constructed with great
art and contrivance, and is truly grave, solemn, and reverential.
Florentine School
Though neither the city of Florence, nor any part of Tuscany,
is included among the Schools into which the Music of Italy is
usually classed, yet this, as well as every other art, has had great
obligations to the activity, ingenuity, and talents of the inhabitants
of this Dutchy; for it is well known that the Florentines, under the
auspices of the Medici Family, at a time when almost all the rest
of Europe was immersed in barbarism, were the first to polish their
own language, revive the ancient good taste of their ancestors, the
Etruscans, in all the fine arts, and to disseminate their discoveries
and improvements, not only through the rest of Italy, but almost
every civilized part of the world.
The reader has been already informed (t), that the oldest
melodies, I was able to find in Italy to Italian words, were in a
collection of Laudi Spirituali, or Sacred Songs of Praise, produced
and preserved at Florence; for the performance of which, a society,
which still subsists, was formed in that city so early as the year
1310. It has likewise been shewn (u), how much Music was
cultivated, encouraged, and practised there in the time of Boccaccio;
and the extraordinarv abilities of two Florentine Musicians in
performing upon the organ , at the latter end of the same century,
and beginning of the next, have already been recorded (x).
These, if there were no other to be found, would be sufficient
proofs that the Florentines could not justly be anathematised by
the other Italian States, like the Cynsethians, in Greece (y), for being
afAovooi; as there is no period of their history, since the
inventions of their countryman Guido d'Arezzo, in which they have
p. 30.
organist, and
w
See p. 145, of the present
volume.
(s)
Saggio
di Cc
ntrap.
P.
I
«
Book II.
p, 629.
(«)
Book II. p.
637 ff
Antonio
Ibid. p.
Landino
643 et seq. in
dagl' organi.
the
account
of
Francesco
Cieco
the
blind
(y)
See Book I. p. 152.
196
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
not contributed their share towards the cultivation and performance
of good Music.
We have seen (z) in how many parts the Canti
Carnascialeschi or Carnival Songs [published by Grizzini, Florence,
1559], were sung through the streets of Florence, in the time of
Lorenzo il Magnifico; and to the history of Music there, during that
gay and happy period, may be added the favour of Antonio
Squarcialuppi, organist of the Duomo at Florence, not only with
that Prince (a), but with his fellow-citizens; who, for his great
musical talents, erected a monument to his memory, in their
cathedral, of which he was organist, which still subsists, with an
inscription which I copied myself on the spot, in the year 1770 (b).
The learned and eloquent Politian, tutor to Leo X. and the other
children of Lorenzo il Magnifico, who left among his works a
discourse on Music, is said to have died in the act of playing on the
Lute, 1494. We shall have farther occasion to speak of this
illustrious Tuscan, in tracing the origin of the Musical Drama in
Italy.
Francesco Corteccia [d. 1571], a celebrated organist and
composer, was Maestro di Capella to the grand Duke Cosmo II.
thirty years. In his youth he published, at Venice, a set of Madrigals
for four voices; afterwards Motets, and lastly Responsoriaet Lectiones
Hebdomadcs Sanctes. I scored one of his motets, but found it dry
and uninteresting, both in fancy and contrivance : he died in 1581
[1571], Signor Betinelli, who, in his Sorgimento d' Italia, has lately
celebrated his abilities, in all probability took his character of him
fiom tradition. He was succeeded at the court of Florence by the
celebrated Alessandro Striggio [c. 1535-87], a lutenist and
voluminous composer, whom our Morley frequently mentions and
cites in his Introduction. He is much commended by Garzoni in
his Piazza Universale, and by the historians of Italian poetry,
Crescimbeni and Quadrio, as one of the earliest composers of Music
in Italy for the stage (c). In the preface to Descrizione degV
intermedii fatti nel pallazzo del gran Duca Cosimo, per onorare la
presenza delta serenissima altezza dello eccellentissimo Arciduca
d' Austria, V anno 1569; it is said that the music to these Inter-
ludes, which seem to have been only madrigals, was set by
Alessandro Striggio, Nobilissimo Gentiluomo Mantovano (d).
His madrigals, in six parts, were published at Venice, 1566.* A
(r) Book II. p. 758. (a) See his life by Niccolo Valore.
(6) Multum profecto debet Musica Antonio Squarcialupo, organistce. Is enim ita gratiam
conjunxit, ut quartam sibi viderentur Charites Musicam adscivisse Sororem. Florentia civitas
grati animi ofjicium rata ejus memoriam propagate, cujus manus scepe mortales in dulcetn
admirationem adduxerat, civi suo monumentum donavit.
(c) See Quadrio, Tom. V. p. 503, for account of his Intermezzi.
(d) Intermedie che vi jece le Musiche Soavissime, e dottissime, il Virtuoso Alessandro
Striggio, &c.
* The dates of the 1st edition and of the 1st edition of the second volume of madrigals
are unknown.
In the B.M. is a copy of some Intermedii written in 1566 for the occasion of the marriage
of Francesco de Medici to Johanna of Austria. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th of these interludes are
by Striggio. See article by 0. G. Sonneck in the Musical Antiquary, Vol. Ill, p. 40.
Torchi in A.M. I., Vol. I, prints 5 madrigals by him.
197
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
copy of these is preserved in the Christ-church collection, at Oxford.
Some of them, however, were printed seven years earlier in the 2do
Libro de la Muse, from which I scored several in the British
Museum; but I did not find them remarkable either for genius or
science. There seems an attempt at singularity, in accelerating the
parts, but clearness is wanting in the harmony, and accent in the
melody; the subjects of imitation were neither new nor striking at
the time they were composed; and the modulation is almost wholly
confined to two keys. Compared with the best compositions of
his time, they would only be allowed, perhaps, to be good for a
Dilettante.
Vincenzo Galilei, of whom we have already spoken (e), was
a Florentine : it is, therefore, indisputable that Florence was not
deficient in men of abilities and talents, either in the theory or
practice of Music, during the time that the inhabitants of the other
parts of Italy began to distinguish themselves in the art.
But besides the works of such musicians as have been classed
under the several Schools of Italy, there are many excellent
productions of this high period, preserved in the collections of the
curious, by Italian composers, the particular place of whose birth
and residence has not been recorded : among these there is one who,
for his genius and abilities, well deserves a place in every history of
Music : this is Constantius Festa [d. 1545] , of whose composition
the musical reader will be enabled to judge, by the following motet
and madrigal.
Motetus.
CONSTANTII FESTI.
fik^
?9]£E^e^^
^
istsfc
3 &-^>-
Sf=fc
Quftm
'PulCRr
es ft- mien me-
m
«* — '- —
j — ^/ ^
Ctsjfrj '
Ouftm
es o~
m
g^ a -»-
£•** O
Quftm TVLtaa es A- ft"t# && — *
•*. - rwt» /*]£• a
Coi-umaa me 'A
Fan/nos f} a>S ■
(e) Page 144.
198
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Madrigale.
COSTANTIO FESTA.
in
^^
m
3333
5f3
3"
mc-ao
CHBTlW'E
%
Si??
V&u &c
op »7T
»2±
= OOP
t r i
i i i
iW &r
ttei«^8c A-mo-
^0:
O Q
p
pjjlfff'^r^ .1° I
- P?
£
K AW- Don-M IO Virfs -rfiC-ClO v&\ tjoGiultofiA- fi>C- - - WS CHeTfirfS
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
s
m Q G-&-
m
^at
P o
3^*=
■/?OA
/\lo i. Fo v& ism-Ma ma m/t £.
T&
lb
0 Q^^Q=g
vi ncmTf nsl
CoSg
^S^
i£gj£
g *o
^s
gag
-77-««
/foi. «>/%> £<:
/o </v *><?;? V >*6i.eoK£
35
g=jg=
^g
39=
=m
BE
-fcr
/vpl «j «e &
gp ^
=£3
^3
3a
^S
1st
s
1
=af¥
--©-
W/ VlBflLfit-
09 fPOrn
Si #4 & OtffiVf VOSTAa
?^m>
55^
ffiE
^g
^fcEi
??-$P
?m^
SE
^ST
te
■2V9I4V&
^
^^
Hoi
iS
HI
O^
*ef
ff-l-
2>* Ifar ic
m&?££ &c
m
m
3335
o a
o«F^
=33=^
» o
72T- .so
' — W
l— SO
ft/H»mlACC&
t
SO V6RR0 S8f-2A TSK- LA/ft SS-
^^
P^JQ
T??*?
y«g'
Pfe^
5E33£
I I T
fe
S
S
ggP?
estmt w- re— so
3=E
B&
^^
f3^
?&-
There is a motet, by this ancient master, inserted in the fourth
book of Motetti delta Corona, which was printed so early as 1519,
ten [six] years before Palestrina was born.
In the third book of Arkadelt's madrigals, printed at Venice,
1541, there are also seven compositions by Costanzo Festa, in which
more rhythm, grace, and facility appear, than in any production of
his cotemporaries, that I have seen. Indeed, he seems to have been
the most able contrapuntist of Italy during this early period; and
if Palestrina and Constantius Porta be excepted, of any period,
anterior to that of Carissimi. The preceding motet, for three voices,
printed in 1543, is, in the church style of the times, a model of
elegance, simplicity, and pure harmony; the subjects of imitation
are as modern, and the parts sing as well, as if it was a production
of the present century. I could not resist the pleasure of scoring
his whole first book of three-part madrigals, from the second
edition printed at Venice, 1559 [1st ed. 1537] ; for I was astonished,
as well as delighted, to find compositions so much more clear,
regular, phrased, and unembarassed, than I expected.
And now, having traced the progress which the inhabitants oi
the several States of Italy had made in Music, as far as the end of
the sixteenth century; we shall quit, for the present, this elegant,
ingenious, and enthusiastic people, and endeavour to describe the
improvements which the art received, about the same time, in other
parts of Europe.
(a) The ancient partiality for the 4th prevails in this Madrigal.
Chapter III
Of the Progress of Music in Qermany
during the Sixteenth Century
THE inhabitants of this extensive empire have so long made
Music a part of general education (/), and able professors of
all countries have been so much patronized by its princes,
whose passion for the art, and establishments in its favour, have at
all times powerfully stimulated diligence in its votaries; that they
are, at least, entitled to the second place among its most successful
cultivators. Indeed, their instrumental Music seems at present
superior to that of every other country in Europe. But though
treatises innumerable, written during the sixteenth century on the
subject of Music, are preserved, yet it would be extremely difficult to
furnish many specimens of composition equally ancient, though
much was produced; for the Germans seem as fickle in their musical
taste as the Italians, and have been still more willing to consign
their old authors to untimely neglect and oblivion. However, it
seems the duty of an historian to record, at least, the names of
artists who were once dear to their cotemporaries; and, in spite of
the ingratitude of posterity, to endeavour to renovate a sense of
their virtues and talents (g).
Specimens of composition by Henry Isaac, a very able German
contrapuntist of the fifteenth century, before the Italians had
distinguished themselves in the art, have been given in the second
Book (h). Qaudrio (i) says, that he was Maestro di Capella of
the church of San Giovanni, at Florence, and the first who, in
different ballad-airs, set the songs of Lorenzo de' Medici, in three
parts, for a processional masquerade. He flourished about 1475.
And we are told that Bernhard, a German, so early as the year
1470, invented pedals for the organ, at Venice; a discovery which
reflects great honour upon the organists of their country, as it
implies ideas of harmony and effects beyond the power of human
hands; in the use of which, the difficulties had been so entirely
vanquished, as to allow the player to superadd to his performance,
(/) See The Present State of Music in Germany.
(g) In the Elector of Bavaria's Collection of Music during the sixteenth century, the most
complete in Europe, among innumerable Italian composers, there are many works preserved,
by German masters, of that period.
(k) Book II. p. 760 et seq. (•') Tom. II. p. 321.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
those of the feet. The fact is not only related by German writers,
but by Sabellicus (k), an Italian, Bernhard's cotemporary, who
resided at Venice at the time of the invention.*
Geo. Reischius, of Friburg, author of a work in twelve books,
comprising a distinct treatise on all the seven liberal sciences, in
Lstin, called Margarita Philosophica (/), first published in 1503, in
which one of the books is appropriated to Music, is the most ancient
German writer on the subject that I have been able to find. His
book, however, though frequently cited by Italians, contains no
instructions for the practice of harmony, as the author, though
posterior to Gaffurio, chiefly follows Boethius.
Michael Rcswick, in 1519, published likewise at Leipsic,
Compendium Musicce, a Musical Compendium, which was too short
and superficial to afford much assistance to the student. However,
the next year, John Galliculus, who was cotemporary with
Luther, and is said, by Schamelius and Walther, to have composed
several of the Lutheran hymn and psalm-tunes, published, at
Leipsic, a more ample treatise, which he reprinted in 1548 and
in 1553, addressed to Geo. Rhaw, the learned bookseller and
musician of Wittemburg, of whom we shall soon have occasion to
speak farther. This tract, which has for title Libellus de
Compositione Cantus** contains twelve chapters, which are chiefly
employed on counterpoint (m).
But the most general and extensive treatise on practical Music
that was produced in Germany, after the writings of Gaffurio had
appeared, was the Micrologus of Andreas Ornithoparchus,
Master of Arts in the University of Meyning, which was published
at Cologn, 1535; though Walther thinks that was not the first
edition.*** The author chiefly cites John Tinctor, Franchinus, and
the tract written by our countryman John Cotton, whom he calls
Pope John XXII. His treatise, though the best of the time, seems
too meagre and succinct to have been of great use to the students of
such Music as was then practised. It was, however, translated into
English, in 1609, seventy years after its first publication, by our
countryman John Douland, the celebrated lutenist; a labour which
he might have well spared himself, as Motley's Introduction, which
(k) Sabellicus died in 1507. at 70 years of age; it is in the 8th book of his Enneads, or
History of the World, that the circumstance is related.
(I) The Philosophical Pearl.
(m) There is another Galliculus (Michael), a Cistertian Monk of Zell, who,_ in 1520,
published a short treatise de vero psallendi modo, to which Ornithoparchus refers his readers
who are curious concerning the ecclesiastical chants. This book is in Ant. Wood's Coll. in the
Ashmol. Museum, Oxford.
* There is, however, a description of a two manual organ with pedals, which is said to have
been built in 1120 at Utrecht. In any case there can be no doubt that organ pedals were
known long before 1470. Some writers ascribe the invention of pedals to Vaelboke of Brabant
in the early 14th cent!
** The original title of this work was Isagoge de compositione cantus, and it was
published at Leipzig in 1520. In 1538 Rhau published it from Wittenberg with the title printe '
by Burney.
***The first edition of the Micrologus was in 1517 (Leipzig). Further editions were issue
1517, 19, 33, and 35. The B.M. (K. I. h. 16) has a copy of the 2nd edition, and also a cop
of Dowlands translation (K. 2, i. 7).
202
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
was so much more full and satisfactory, precluded all want of such
a work as that of Ornithoparchus, in England.
Between the publication of this work and the Dodecachordon of
Glareanus [1547], which was only twelve years, five or six more
musical treatises appeared in Germany : such as Opusculum Return
Musicalium, by John Froschius, Strasburg, 1535. Enchiridion
utriusque Musicce practices, for the use of children, by Geo. Rhaw,
Wittemberg, 1536 [1st ed. 1520] (n). De Arti canendi, by
Sebaldus Heyden, Nuremberg, 1537. This treatise, which
extends not to composition, pretends to teach nothing more than
the mere characters and rudiments of reading Music. Compendium.
Musices, by Lampadius, a chanter of the church atLuneberg, 1537,
12mo. This little work, which is in dialogue, and designed for
incipients, has, at the end, a few short rules for composition, with
examples. Harmonics Poeticcs, by Paul Hofhaimer, Nuremburg,
1539. The second part contains a notation of all the rhythms and
measures of the feet of Latin verse (o). Musurgia, seu Praxis
Musicce, by Ottomarus Luscinius [1487-1537], a Benedictine
Monk, born at Strasburg, but an inhabitant of Augsburg. This
work, which was published in 1542,* in small oblong 4to, is chiefly
curious and valuable for the representations of such musical
instruments as were used in Germany at the time it was written;
which, though but coarsely cut in wood, are accurately represented.
There are, among keyed-instruments, the Virginal, Spinet, and
Clavichord, all three in the form of a small modern Piano Forte;
an upright Harpsichord; a Regal, or portable Organ, chiefly
composed of reed-stops, and in Roman Catholic countries used in
processions; and a Large, or Church-organ. Of bowed-instruments,
we have here only the Monochord, Rebec, or three-stringed Violin,
and the Viol da Gamba. The Vielle, Lute, Harp, and Dulcimer;
Cornet, Schalmey, or Base Clarinet, both played with reeds; Flutes
of various size, among which is the Zwerchpfeiff , Flute Traversiere,
or, as we call it, German-flute. Four other wind-instruments, peculiar
to Germany and northern countries, are here exhibited: as, first,
the Ruspfeijf, or Russian Flute; second, the Krumhorn, or crooked
Horn, a kind of Shawm, in imitation of which we have a reed-stop
in our old Organs, called the Cromhom, which has by some been
imagined to be a corruption of the word Cremona; third, Gemsen
Horn, or wild goat's Horn; and, fourth, the Zincke, or small
Cornet. After these we have the Bagpipe, Trumpet, Sacbut, Side-
drum, Kettle-drum, French-horn, Bugle-horn, and even the
in) Walther speaks of an edition of this useful little work, in 1531. It contains all that
was necessary for beginners, till they proceeded to the study of composition, concerning which
tne author is wholly silent. Glareanus, p. 220, has given a specimen of his counterpoint.
(0) The two last-mentioned tracts are likewise among Anthony Wood's printed books,
m the Ashmol. Museum. Paul Hofhaimer is celebrated by Luscinius not only as an admirable
performer on the organ, on whom the Emperor Maximilian conferred great honours, but as a
composer of the very first class, whose productions, which were not only learned and correct,
but florid and pleasing, had remained unrivalled during thirty years. [There has been a
modern reprint of the Harmonics poeticcs.]
* The Musurgia was published in 1536 and is chiefly a Latin translation of Virdung's
Musica getutscht (Basle 1511).
203
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Jews-harp, and Clappers. Most of these instruments being in
common use, and well known, need no representation after the
rude types of them given by Luscinius, as they have been since
much better delineated and engraved in Mersennus, Kircher, and
in still later musical writers.
We are now arrived at the period when the Dodecachordon was
published by Henry Loris or Lorit, commonly called Glareanus,
from Glaris, a town in Swisserland, where he was born, in 1488.
Glareanus may be more properly ranked among men of letters, and
Dilettanti in Music, than musician by profession; and his abilities,
as a scholar and critic, have been much less disputed by the learned,
than his knowledge of Music, by musicians.
He studied at Cologn, Basil, and Paris; his preceptor in Music
was John Cochlaeus; and in literature, Erasmus, with whom he
lived in strict friendship, and by whom he was warmly recom-
mended, in a letter still extant, to the Archbishop of Paris (p).
He is called by Walther, a philosopher, mathematician, historian,
geographer, theologian, and poet; indeed, he distinguished himself
in most of these characters. Gerard Vossius calls him a man of
great and universal learning; and for his poetry, the Emperor
Maxirnilian I. honoured him with the laurel crown.
His treatise on Music, which was published at Basil, in
Swisserland, 1547, has been already so frequently mentioned, and
so many extracts have been given from it, in the second Book,
that little more seems necessary to be said of it here, except to
explain the title and chief design of the work. AQAEKAXOPAON
implies twelve modes; to which number he wished to augment the
ecclesiastical tones, which had never before exceeded eight, from
the time of St. Gregory. Zarlino, and a few more, adopted the
opinion of Glareanus, but soon relinquished it, on finding that they
had made no converts. Indeed, the whole twelve modes of
Glareanus contain no other intervals than those to be found in
the key of C and A natural, or in the different species of octave,
in those two keys; and though his augmentation extends the
compass of sounds used in the modes, it offers no new arrangement
of intervals, as may be seen by his title-page, when it tells us that
the authentic modes are D, E, F, G, A, C, and the plagal A, B,
C, D, E, G; where we perceive that A, C, E, G, are repeated,
by being made both authentic and plagal.
If instead of twelve modes, Glareanus had augmented the eight
to twenty-four, by assigning two to each semitone in the octave,
he would have done real service to the Music of his time; but his
cotemporaries were not yet ready for such an innovation, being
still held too fast in the trammels of the Church to dare use any
other sounds than those which time had consecrated, and authority
admitted within its pale.
His book, however, contains many curious anecdotes and
compositions of the greatest musicians of his time, which were
(p) Epist. 235.
204
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
excellent studies for his countrymen and cotemporaries, and, if
scored, would be still very instructive and useful to young contra-
puntists. Glareanus died 1563, aged 75.
Gregory Faber, 1552, published at Basil, Musices Practices
Erotematum, in two books, octavo, containing 230 pages; which,
when they were written, could have been but of small use to a
student without the colloquial commentary of a master; and now,
when there are more and different things to teach, the utility of
this work is contracted into a very narrow compass.
In 1556, Herman Finck [1527-58] published at Wittemberg,
Practica Musicce [B.M. 1042, K.l], with examples of various
characters, propositions, canons, and opinions of the ecclesiastical
tones.
The next theoretical or didactic publication in Germany, that I
have met with, is the Erotematum Musicce of Frederic
Beurheisius, Nuremburg, 1573; but, upon examination, this
appears to be a short elementary tract, which contained nothing
new or uncommon, even at the time it was written.
In 1580, the Dodecachordon, of Glareanus, was very severely
handled by Jacob Bilenius, whom Walther calls a doctor and
excellent musician. Criticism, doubtless, sometimes checks modest
genius and effusions of originality; but every art approaches
perfection with the greater rapidity, when the productions of
ignorance and inexperience are submitted to its lash. Glareanus
offended pious ecclesiastics by his innovations in the modes of
the church; and those who had a reverence for antiquity, by his
dislocation and new arrangement of the Grecian modes; among
these, Salinas, Battista Doni, and Meibomius, have severely
censured him for his superficial acquaintance with the musical
writings of the Greeks that have been preserved, and his absurd
application of the ancient names of their modes to modern
compositions, that are constructed upon principles entirely different.
In 1582, Eucherus Hofman published at Stralsund, where he
was corrector of the public school, a treatise on the Tones or Modes
of the Church; Doctrina de Tonis, seu Modis Musicis. This author,
who is a follower of Glareanus, pretends that the science of modes,
or canto fermo, which is the most excellent and useful part of
Music, is but little understood by the moderns; and that he .draws
his information from musicians of the highest antiquity.
Cyriacus Snegasius, in 1590, published at Erford, a tract
upon Harmonics, or the Use of the Monochord, an instrument for
measuring and ascertaining the proportion of sounds by a single
string, of which he ascribes the invention to the Arabians; the only
new idea I could find in the book, of which the original title is,
Nova et exquisita Monochordi dimensio.
The same author published, likewise, in 1590, an elementary
tract, entitled Isagoges Musicce, in two books, the chief merit of
which seems brevity; consisting of little more than definitions of
musical terms, with short examples in notation.
205
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Sethus Calvisius [1556-1615], or Calvitz, who, according to
Walther (q), was the son of a poor peasant, and born in Thuringia,
1556, was a very learned theorist, and good practical musician;
of which he has left ample proofs to posterity in his short treatise
called MEAOIIOIA, sive Melodies condendce ratio, quam vulgb
musicam poeticam vocant, ex veris fundamentis extract a et
explicata, 1592. This ingenious tract contains, though but a small
duodecimo volume, all that was known, at the time, concerning
Harmonics and practical Music; as he has compressed into his little
book the science of most of the best writers on the subject; to which
he has added short compositions of his own, to illustrate their
doctrines and precepts. With respect to composition, he not only
gives examples of concords and discords, and their use in combina-
tion, but little canons and fugues of almost every kind then known.
He composed, in 1615, the 150th psalm in twelve parts, for three
choirs, as an Epithalamium on the nuptials of his friend Casper
Ankelman, a merchant of Hamburg, and published it in folio at
Leipsig, the same year. Several of his hymns and motets appear
in a collection of Lutheran Church-music, published at Leipsic,
1618, in eight volumes quarto, under the following title:
Florilegium portens CXV. selectissimas cantiones, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
voc. prcestantissimorum auctorum. Some of these I have had the
curiosity to score, and found the laws of harmony and fugue
preserved inviolable.
How much the musicians in Germany were enlightened by such
numerous treatises, I know not; but as they were all written in Latin,
it seems as if they could not have been read with much profit by
every student and professor who was in want of their assistance; and
perhaps all these theories had less effect in stimulating and guiding
genius, than the many excellent examples of composition published
by Glareanus in his Dodecachordon, and the learned musician and
Bookseller Rhaw [c. 1488-1548] who printed, at Wittemburg, 1538,
not only Select Harmony for four voices, consisting of two Latin
Passiones, the one by John Galliculus, and the other by Jacob
Otrecht, with Masses, Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Motets by
John Walther, Lewis Senfels, Simon Cellarius, Benedict Dux, Eckel,
Lemlin, Stoel, and Henry Isaac, to which Melancthon furnished him
with a Latin preface; but in 1544, published, in oblong quarto, 123
German Sacred Songs, of four and five parts, for the use of schools.
Prefixed to the second part of this publication, containing
ecclesiastical hymns, set by sfxteen different German composers,
there is a print of the editor, Geo. Rhaw, Typographus, Wittemb.
anno cetatis suce LIV.*
The titles, at least, of many other Teutonic compositions of the
sixteenth century, by Alexander Agricola [d. c. 1506]** Utendal,
(q) Musical Lexicon.
* The Passion Music by Otrecht (Obrecht) is the earliest known example of the Motet
Passion. Obrecht died in 1505.
** Agricola published Motets in 1501-02, 4-part scngs in 1503, and a volume of masses in
1504. All these were printed at Venice by Petrucci.
206
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Knefal, Amerback, Hoenel, Paix, Rosthius, Hasler, Aichinger, &c.
are preserved; but though the musical treatises above mentioned are
still subsisting, it would be very difficult to find the musical
compositions of these venerable authors; for literary productions
have ever enjoyed greater longevity than musical.
Alexander Utendal [d. 1581], who published, in 1571, Cantiones
Sacras, for five and six voices, and afterwards Masses, Motets, and
French Songs, of many parts, is the first German composer recorded
by M. Marpurg, in his Traite de la Fugue, though he was much
posterior to those who furnished examples of composition to Rhaw
and Glareanus (r).
John Knefal, in 1571, published likewise Cantiones, for five, six,
and seven voices; and, in 1575, others, accommodated as well to
instruments as voices. There are the first vocal pieces concertanti,
or accompanied with instruments, that I have seen, by a German
composer.
Jacob Hasnel, Handl, or Gallus, a native of Grain, in Germany,
acquired great reputation, about the year 1580, by a motet of his
composition, in twenty-four parts, for four choirs.
Elias Nich. Amerbach, Leon Hasler, and Jaques Paix, all famous
performers on the organ, published fugues, and other pieces for that
instrument, during the latter end of the sixteenth century.
Several particulars concerning the use of Music in Germany,
during the same century, may be gathered from Montagne, who
travelled through that country, in 1580. At Kempten, in Bavaria,
he says, that, " the Catholic church of this city, which is Lutheran,
is well served; for on Thursday morning, though it was not a holyday,
mass was celebrated in the abbey, without the gates, in the same
manner as at Notre Dame, in Paris, on Easter-day, with Music and
Organs, at which none but the priesthood were present (s)."
At the church of the Lutherans, Montagne heard one of the
ministers preach in German to a very thin congregation, " when
he had done, a psalm was sung, in German likewise, to a melody a
little different from ours. At each stave the organ, which had been
but lately erected, played admirably, making a kind of response to
the singing (t)." This is an early instance of the use of interludes,
in accompanying psalmody on the organ. "As a new-married
couple," continues Montagne, " went out of church, the violins and
tabors attended them {u)." This circumstance is mentioned to
prove, that the violin was then a common instrument in Germany.*
At Lansperg, the same author tells us, that " the town-clock,
like many others in this country, struck quarters, et diet-on que celui
(r) Utendal's name occurs in Morley's list of composers, whose works he had perused
"for finding the true use of the moods."— Introd. ad Calcem.
(s) Journ. d' un Voyuge, Tom. I. p. 102.
(t) Ibid. p. 106. See Germ. Tour, Vol. II. p. 220.
(u) Les Violons (not Violes) et Tambourins.
* The instrument mentioned may have been a violin, but the violin could not have been a
common instrument in Germany so early as 1580.
207
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
de Nurembergh sone les minutes." This is likewise an early proof
of chimes, in Bavaria, whence they are said to be brought into the
Low Countries.*
It is here that this author gives an account of the Cantor or
Chanter, who directs the singing in Lutheran churches. " Two
seats are placed, one for the minister, and for the preacher, when
there is one, and another below for the person who leads off the
psalm. After each verse the congregation waits till he has pitched
and begun the next; then they all sing together, Pele mele, right or
wrong, as loud as ever they can {%)."
Besides the theoretical writers on Music, and composers of this
vast empire already mentioned, the talents and abilities of
innumerable practical musicians, and performers of this early period,
are celebrated; particularly by Luscinius and Ornithoparchus. This
last author dedicates the fourth book of his Micrologus to Arnold
Schlinck, a celebrated blind organist, in the service of the Count
Palatine. But great organs and great organists seem, for more
than two centuries, to have been the natural growth of Germany.
The organ which is still subsisting in St. Martin's church, at
Groningen, North Holland, and of which some of the stops are
composed of the sweetest toned pipes I ever heard, was partly made
by the celebrated Rodolph Agricola, the elder (y). And from that
time to the present the number of organ-builders, whose names are
well known to the lovers of that noble instrument in Germany, is
hardly credible in any other country. But to shew my English
readers what a serious concern the erection of an organ is in this part
of the world, I shall close my account of the progress of Music in
Germany, during the sixteenth century, by relating the manner in
which the magistrates of Groningen contracted with David Beck, of
Halberstadt, to construct an organ for the castle-church of that city.
In the year 1592, articles were drawn up between the magistrates
and organ-builder, in which it was agreed by the former, that for
an instrument, the contents of which were minutely described, a
(x) Deuz chaises, I'une pour le ministre, et lors il y en avoit un qui prechoit, et au dessous
une autre bu est celui qui achemine (entonne, commence) le chant des psalmes. A chaque
verset Us attendent que celui-la donne le ton au suivant;ils chantent pesle-mesle, qui veut, et
convert qui veut. See Germ. Tour, Tom I. p. 116.
(y) Rod. Agricola, who died in the flower of his age, 1485, was a prodigy in literature and
science. Vossius says he was a great philosopher; that he understood Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, and was a great musician. Walther, that he not only set to Music_ in four parts
many hymns in his mother-tongue, in seiner mutter-sprache, but played on the lute and sung
admirably. Erasmus in a pompous eulogium, places him among the first of mortals. But
Agricola himself, thought little of his fame, and published none of his own works, which
were, however, very numerous. Card. Bembo regarded him as the first man of his age; and
Paul Jovius expressly says, that Agricola shamed the Jews for Hebrew, and the Athenians
and Romans by his Greek and Latin. He was born at Bastion, a small town in Friseland,
near Groningen, and died at forty-three. Melchior Adam extends his praises so far as to say,
that in eloquence he had the cadence of Lactantius, the period of Pliny, the penetration of
Socrates, the richness and variety of Cicero, the points and subtilty of Quintilian, and the
vehemence and prejudices of St. Cyprian. Several celebrated Germans of the name of
Agricola have contributed to the progress of Music, by their writings and compositions,
particularly Martin and Alexander Agricola; the first having published from 1529 to 1556,
when he died, many very useful theoretical tracts at the time; and the latter, in the beginning
of the same century, according to Sebaldus Heyden, was an excellent composer. [The works
of Rod. Agricola were published at Cologne in 1539 by Alard Amstelredam.J
* Mechanical chimes were being made in England in 1335 by Peter Lightfoot, Abbot of
Glastonbury.
208
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVI CENTURY
certain sum stipulated should be paid to the latter upon its
completion, provided it was approved, after trial and examination,
by such organists as they should nominate for that purpose. The
instrument in its construction employed the builder four years; and
in 1596, the most eminent organists in Germany being invited, the
names of all those who signed the certificate of approbation, to the
amount of fifty-three in number, are recorded in a book called
Organum Gruningense redivium, published by Andrew
Werckmeister, 1705 (z).
{z) This organist and voluminous writer on Music, who was born in 1645, was appointed,
by the father of the late king of Prussia, inspector-general of all the organ-work in his
dominions. He published two books, called Orgel Probe,* which are very curious and
instructive, concerning the history and construction of organs in Germany.
* This work was first published in 1681. Other editions followed in 1698, 1716, 54 and 83.
Dutch translations were issued in 1755 and 75.
Voi,. ii. 14. 209
Chapter IV
Of the State of Music in France
during the Sixteenth Century
THE inhabitants of this kingdom, though ever active in the
cultivation of the arts, made but small progress in any of
them, if we except the art of war, during the sixteenth
century. " Before the reign of Francis I.," says Perrault (a),
" nothing was thought worthy of attention by the king and nobles
of France, that was not military; and it seems as if the chace, tilts,
and tournaments, and the game of chess, which are images of war,
had been the only pleasures which they were capable of tasting:
dancing itself was only animated by the fife and drum, and
architecture gave no other form to their palaces than that of a
fortress." Even during the reign of this active and splendid
prince (b), Music does not seem to have received much
improvement, either in the court or kingdom of France.
According to Marot, however, the spinet seems to have been an
instrument in common use among the French ladies at this time;
for in the dedication of his version of the psalms to his fair country-
women, he tells them, that, he hopes, divine hymns will supersede
love-songs, and fill their apartments with the praises of Jehovah,
in accompanying them on the spinet.
E vos doigts sur les Espinettes,
Pour dire Sainctes Chansonettes (c).
Specimens of the abilities of several great French musicians have
been given in the first volume, among the most early cultivators of
counterpoint; but it does not appear that the works or names of so
many able composers have been preserved of those who flourished
in France, during the time of Francis I. and his successors in the
sixteenth century, as in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, or
England, during the same period; and M. La Borde (d), a very
diligent and patriotic enquirer after every species of Music that
can do honour to his country, has furnished us with but few
(a) Pref. a la Traduction de Vitruve. (6) From 1515 to 1547.
(c) Oeuvres de Clement Marot. a Lyon, 1551. 12 mo. p. 192. Parmi les Traductions.
(d) Essai sur la Musique.
iio
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
examples of counterpoint produced in France before the seventeenth
century. Orlando di Lasso, born at Mons, whom we have classed
in the Flemish School (e), and Claude le Jeune, a native of
Valenciennes, who in downright courtesy is granted to France (/),
are the chief composers of the preceding century of whose works he
has exhibited examples; except Charles d' Heifer, whose name,
country, or period of existence, is neither to be found in M. La
Borde's work, nor in any other that I have been able to consult.
Rabelais' list of celebrated musicians of his acquaintance (g)
would however, have furnished more names for France: among
those whom Lodovico Guicciardini (h) has not claimed for the
Netherland, these shall now be mentioned, and a few more who
deserve a place in a general history of their art, though they were
not quite of the first class among professors then flourishing in
Europe. But France seems not only to have produced fewer practical
musicians, but theorists, during this century, than any other, since
the invention of counterpoint; for in Latin, I hardly find any
musical tract of the least importance, except the Elementa Musicalia
of Faber Stapulensis, printed 1552; and in the French language,
though the titles of eight or ten small elementary tracts are come
down to us, the books themselves have been thought so little worth
preserving, that they are now not to be found in the most numerous
and general receptacles of literature in Europe.
This paucity of French musicians cannot, however, have been
occasioned by any sudden paroxysm of mental relaxation,
indolence, or insensibility; for not only during the middle and lower
ages, but even since the arrival of Lulli in France to the present
times, their national poetry and Music have been cultivated,
cherished, and pursued, with a degree of ardour and passion that
has hardly ever been equalled in any other nation. The truth is,
that from the death of Francis I. to the total suppression of the
league, in the time of Henry IV. the kingdom never enjoyed that
internal peace and domestic tranquillity, which are necessary to the
k cultivation of the liberal arts; for during this period the inveterate
enmity of Spain, and implacable fury of bigotry and fanaticism
which involved the nation in a civil war of forty years, must have
been invincible impediments to the progress, and even use, of
Music; which, among all the miraculous powers ascribed to it by
the ancients, has never been said to drive away the evil spirits of
party rage and religious rancour.
» During the reign of Francis I. which was frequently turbulent
and unfortunate, though we hear but of few great musicians at his
»(e) Mons was under the dominion of the Spaniards till the year 1696, when it was taken
by Lewis XIV. but was restored at the Peace of Ryswick, and now belongs to the Emperor.
(/) Valenciennes belonged to the house of Austria till 1677, when it was surrendered to
Louis XIV.
(g) Tom. V. p. 52 fiartie id du Rabelais modeme, Amst. 1752.
{h) Descrit, di tutti i Paesi Bassi. Fol. Anversa, 1588, p. 42.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
capital, yet so many excellent masters of harmony subsisted,
particularly in the Low Countries, that Music in parts became
common all over Europe.
The first French composer I shall name, during the reign of this
prince, is Clement Jannequin, who, though he is placed by
Walther in the middle of the sixteenth century, must have flourished
much earlier; as a curious composition by him, called La Battaille,
printed in the tenth book of French Songs for four voices or
instruments, is preserved in the British Museum [K. 3. a. 10] ; which
though it did not appear in this edition, by Tylman Susato, of
Antwerp, till 1545, must have been composed long before that time;
for the song was written and set on occasion of the famous and
obstinate battle of Marignan, which lasted two days, and was
fought during the first year of Francis I. 1515, between the French
and Swiss, who disputed their passage to the Milanese.
As the whole title of this tenth book of songs suggests reflections
upon the state of Music at this early period, different from any
which there has yet been occasion to make, it shall have a place
here.
Le Dixiesme livre des Chansons, contenant La Battaile a 4, de
Clement Jannequin, avec la cinquiesme partie de Phillippe Verdelot,
si placet, et deux Chasses du Lievre a 4 Parties, et le Chant des
Oyseaux a 3, 1545.
La Battaille, ou defaite des Suis- 1» . , _ ~, T
< , • • j n/r • \ a 4 ou a 5, Clem. Jannequin.
ses a la youmee de Marignan. { > j i
Le Chant des Oyseaux, a 3. Nic. Gombert (i).
La Chasse du Lievre, a 4. Incognito Authori.
La Chasse du Lievre, a 4. Nic. Gombert.
In the Battle-piece, which, as well as each of the compositions
printed with it, is, at least, as long as seven or eight of the songs
contained in the other books of this collection, there are several
movements, in each of which, the noise and din of war, during this
memorable conflict, are imitated. In the Song of Birds, and in
each composition called the Chace, or hunting of the hare, the
composers have severally tried to express the words with more
exactness than I have seen attempted before. Indeed, the best
counterpoint and the most ingenious contrivances, with respect to
musical composition, anterior to this period, are contained in the
masses and motets of the church; where nothing like expression,
or even the true accent of words, is attempted.* The songs in parts
(*") This author has been already mentioned among the Flemish composers, in the
preceding volume, p. 753.
* Burney scored La Bataille and his MS. is now in the B.M. {Add. MSS._ 11588).
It was first published by Attaingnant in 1529 and was reprinted many times. In the 1545
edition (Susato) a part for a 5th voice was added by Philip Verdelot. Expert reprinted the
original 4-voice edition of 1529 in L.M.M.F. Other works by Jannequin have been reprinted
by F. Commer and the Prince de la Moskowa.
212
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
already given from the Fairfax MS. (k) are likewise totally deficient
in these particulars. But here, though clumsily done, musical
imitation is attempted, and, it seems, for the first time. Indeed,
our countryman, Ravenscroft, a hundred years later, has not been
more successful in his harmony of four voices, with which he
endeavours to express " the pleasure of the five usual recreations
of Hunting, Hawking, Dancing, Drinking, and Enamouring (I).
The name and works of Jannequin had penetrated into Italy
early in the sixteenth century (m). I am sorry that this singular
composition is not only too long for insertion, but of such a kind
as is incapable of extract; otherwise, I should have wished to
present my curious readers with the Military terms then used in
battle; the imitation of guns, trumpets, fifes, and drums; with the
clashing of arms; all wnich are described in old French, and
sometimes imitated in the Music, which is all vocal (n).
I shall give a list in chronological order of French musicians
who chiefly distinguished themselves after the death of Francis I.
for during his reign, I meet with none that were very eminent.
We are told (o) that Certon [d. 1572], master of the boys of
the Holy Chapel, at Paris, published in 1546 [1554], a work
containing thirty-one psalms of David, set to Music in four parts;
but are not informed whether the Music was good or bad, or if
the words were Latin or from the version of Clement Marot, which
about this time was in great favour at the French court.*
Of this composer, however, whose name, though not mentioned
by Walther, occurs in Rabelais' list of celebrated musicians, there
is an admirable motet, Diligebat autem eum Jesus, in the first
book of Cipriani's motets, published at Venice, in 1544; which
appears to me equal, if not superior, to any composition of the same
(k) See Book II. p. 775, et seq.
(I) These compositions are given by Ravenscroft in illustration of the doctrine contained in
his Brief Discourse, published 1614.
(m) See Zarlino. the elder Doni's Catalogue of Music, P. Pontio, and Zacconi. A work
of his, called Inventions Musicales, in four and five parts, was published at Paris and Lyons,
I544-
(») A more successful attempt, however, at musical painting was made in the spring oi
1783, in London, with instruments, by M. Kloefler, a German musician of genius, knowledge,
and experience, who undertook to imitate by sounds, in a kind of musical pantomime, every
circumstance belonging to an army, even to a council of war. It was unluckily out of my
power to attend this performance myself, but I have been assured that the composer, with the
assistance of an excellent band, kept his word in the most essential parts of his promises; that
there was much good Music, much ingenuity of imitation, and far greater effects produced by
musical painting, than had been imagined possible by those who had given the greatest
encouragement to expectation. But even this effort at imitative Music has been far exceeded
since, by the Bataglia of Sigr. Raimondi, which has been often performed, and justly
applauded, not only for the intelligence and ingenuity with which military sensations have been
excited, but as an elegant and agreeable composition.
(0) Essai sur la Musique, Tom. III. p. 404.
* Modern editions of Certon's works :
Henry Expert in Repertoire Populaire.
Ch. Border in Chansonnier du xvie siecle.
The Motet Society in Ancient Church Music, prints a 3-part work.
213
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
kind that I have seen by a native of France. The tenor part in this
motet, which is in five parts, does not sing the same words as the
other four, but is constantly making supplication to St. John, in a
fragment of simple melody, or Canto fermo, repeated in the
key-note and the fifth of the key, after two bars rest, from the
beginning to the end of the composition.
Didier Lupi II. another of Rabelais' favourite musicians, set
Chansons Spirituelles, Sacred Songs, in 1548 (p); as did Guillaume
Bellen, the Canticles in four parts, 1560. Joachim Burck was
author, likewise, of twenty-five pieces, chiefly ecclesiastical, for
voices and instruments, 1561; and Philibert Jambe de Fer, set
Marot's Psalms, in many parts, the same year. Pierre Santerne
set all the psalms which were printed at Poitiers, 1567 (q), and
Noe Faignient composed songs, motets, and madrigals, in three
parts, 1568.
Among these are found the original words of a song, called
Susanna, which was in such favour at the time, as to be set by
several of the principal composers of Europe, particularly by
Cyprian Rore, and Orlando di Lasso. Peacham, in speaking of
Orlando, instances this song as a delightful composition, " upon
which ditty many have since exercised their invention " (r).
John D'Etree, a performer on the hautbois in the service ol
Charles IX. published four books of Danseries, first writing down
the common lively tunes, which, till then, had been probably
learned by the ear, and played by memory, about the several
countries specified in the title (s).
The name of Crespel appears in many of the best collections
of motets and songs that were published about the middle of the
(p) This and several other curious books were purchased in 1782, at the sale of the late
excellent organist's collection of Music, Mr. Jos. Kelway, master to her majesty, to whose
professional merit, with which alone I was acquainted, it seems but justice to take this
early opportunity of bearing testimony. During many years of his life his manner of playing
the organ, at St. Martin's in the Fields, was so masterly and original, that it was the fashion
for the first musicians in London to frequent that Church, in order to hear him; and, among
the rest, I have often seen Mr. Handel there. Mr. Kelway was an enthusiast who had nothing
symmetric or studied in his voluntaries, which, if they resembled any written Music, were
more in the wild and desultory style of Geminiani, his master, than any other. He composed
too little to write with facility; and, by despising every thing that was common, and a
determination to be new and masterly, he seems, in the few works which he published, to
want grace, melody, and experience. His extempore flights, however, on the organ, and
his manner of executing the Lessons of Scarlatti, on the harpsichord, will long be regretted by
those who had the pleasure of hearing him; for till a new style of Music and execution on
keyed-instruments was introduced here, by the use of piano fortes, the fire and precision ol
his performance were such as few of the greatest professors of any country ever attained.
(g) In these publications, the psalmodic rage which, about the middle of the sixteenth
century, and which has already been traced from its source, begin to appear.
(r) I found the Music of Orlando di Lasso in a set of Dr. Aldrich's books, at Christ
Church, Oxford, without the words, and had the curiosity to score it; but though the harmony
and imitations are masterly, the melody is so much divided among all the five parts, that it
is not very easy to determine which was intended by the author to be the principal. Indeed,
the effect of each is rather heavy, psalmodic, and doleful, than airy or pathetic.
(s) The editor of these books tells us, that they contained Les chant des branles communs,
gais, de champagne, de Bourgogne, de Poitou, d'Ecosse, de Malte, des Sabots, de la Guerre,
& autres gaiilardes, ballets, voltes, basses dances, hauberrois, allemandes. Printed at Paris, 1564.
214
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
century. And in the first book of the Lou vain Collection, printed
1558, there is a song by this composer, in four parts: Fille qui
prend facieulx Mary, in which a double fugue is carried on, the
first subject by the soprano and counter-tenor, and the second by
the mezzo soprano and base, in such an ingenious manner as does
honour to his memory (t).
Ronsard, the favourite bard of France, during the reigns of
Henry II. Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. had his songs
frequently set to Music; particularly by Anthony Bertrand, who
published them in four parts, 1578, under the title of Amours de
Ronsard; and by Francis Regnard, in four and five parts, 1579
[1st ed. 1575]. This was during the life of the poet, whose
decease did not happen till 1585, when he was honoured with a
public and magnificent funeral, at which the eloquent Cardinal
Du Perron pronounced an oration, and the first personages in the
kingdom attended in such numbers that Cardinal Bourbon and
many other princes and nobles were obliged to return, after
attempting in vain to penetrate the croud, in order to join the
procession. The burial-service on this occasion was new set, en
musique nombree, that is to Music in parts, in florid counterpoint,
accompanied with instruments instead of Canto-fermo; and was
sung by the best singers in France, those in his majesty's service
being there by command; the king justly lamenting the death of a
person who had been so great an ornament to his kingdom (u).
It is said by the biographers of this poet, that he was very fond of
Music and sung agreeably.
But another poet of great reputation at this time, and a friend
of Ronsard, John Anthony Baif [c. 1532 — c. 89], set his own
verses to Music; not to such Music as might be expected from a
man of letters, or a Dilettante, consisting of a single melody, but
to counterpoint, or Music in parts. Of this kind he published, in
1561 [1562], twelve Hymns, or Spiritual Songs; and, in 1578,
several books of Songs, all in four parts, of which both the words
and the Music were his own. When men of learning condescend to
study Music a fond, professors think the art highly honoured by
their notice; but poets are very unwilling to return the compliment,
and seldom allow a musician to mount Parnassus, or set his foot
within the precincts of their dominions. Baif, however, was
allowed to be as good a musician as poet; and what entitles him
to the more notice here, is the having established an academy,
or concert, at his house, in the suburbs of Paris, where the
performance was frequently honoured with the presence of Charles
IX. Henry III. and the principal personages of the court (x).
Charles IX. of whose reign even French Roman Catholics are
ashamed, was as fond of Music as Ptolemy Auletes, Nero, our
(f) This collection is in the Brit. Museum.
(«) Binet, Vie de Ronsard.
{%) See Mersennus in Genes, p. 1683, for an account of this establishment.
215
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Henry VIII. and several other princes, whose hearts it could not
mend. Many musicians were patronised by this king, particularly
Francis Costeley, his organist and valet de chambre; Adrian Le
Roy, a lutenist, and Stephen, a singer, both brothers in-law to
Ballard, the first printer of Music in France: with Granier, who
composed hymns, proses, canticles and songs, some of which he
dedicated to queen Margaret, sister to Charles IX. Mersennus (y)
gives a curious description of a viol sufficiently spacious to contain
young pages, who sung the treble of ravishing airs, while he who
played the base part on the viol sung the tenor, in order to form a
complete concert in three parts, such as Granier and others used
to perform in the presence of queen Margaret. Besides these
musicians, Antoine Sue-iet, surnamed Cardot, a singer, stood so
high in this prince's favour, that, in the year 1572, so fatal to the
Hugonots, he made him bishop of Montpellier.
This seems the place to speak of poor Goudimel, the greatest
musician in France at this time, whose compositions are become so
scarce, that his name and reputation are more preserved in pity of
his misfortunes, by Protestant historians, than by any knowledge
of the excellence of his works, which are now only in the hands
of tradition. Of the psalms and tragical end of this musician, an
account has already been given (z) ; and with respect to his having
been master of Palestrina, that point has likewise been discussed
(a) : indeed, his history is here resumed, in consequence of the claim
which the French lay to him as a native of their country, which
might well be disputed, as Franche Compte, the place of his birth,
was not taken by Louis XIV. till the year 1668, near a century
after Goudimel was massacred at Lyons. But though he was not
strictly obliged to France for his birth, he was indisputably its
debtor for his death.
The earliest mention of Goudimel, as a composer, that I have
been able to discover, is in a work entitled Liber quartus
Ecclesiasticarum Cantionum qualuor vocum vulgb Moteta vocant,
printed at Antwerp, by Susato, 1554, eighteen years before his
death ;* the first part of which will be inserted on the next plates,
p. 218 et seq. as a specimen of very pure and correct harmony,
constructed entirely upon the principles of the Romish ecclesiastical
modes, probably before he became a disciple of Calvin (b).
[y) Harmonic Univ. Liv. iv. des Insirumens, p. 191.
(2) Page 46. (a) Page 154.
(b) Draudius, Bibl. Class. Tom. II. p. 169, gives the following title of his Psalms, without
the date: Claud. Condinelli ad Psalmos^ Davidis Harmonics, 4 vocum. Paris ap. Adrian
Regium, 40. But in another place, Bibl. b.xot. p. 209, he gives us the French title in a more
correct and satisfactory manner: Claude Goudimel. Les Pseaumes de David, mises en
Musique a quartre parties, en forme dc Motets. A Paris, par Adrian Le Roy, et Rob. Ballard,
15O5. Chansons Spirituelles de M. Ant. de Muret, mises en Musique a 4 parties, par le mime:
a Paris, Nicol. du Chemin, 1555.
Claudii Goudimelli F lores Cantionum, 4 voc. Ludg., 1574. La jleur des Chansons des deux
plus exccllens musiciens de notre terns assavoir d'Orlande de Lassus et de Claude. Goudimel,
d Lyon. 1576. Les Pseaumes mises en rime Francois, par Clement Marot et Theodore Beze,
mises en Musique a 4 parties, par Claude Goudimel, i2mo., 1607.
* Earlier publications are to be found in collections of Chansons issued at Paris from 1549,
by Du Chemin, Re Roy and Ballard.
2l6
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Another great psalmodist and follower of Calvin, whom the
French rank among their best composers of the sixteenth century,
was Claudin or Claude Le Jeune [c. 1523 — c. 1600], a native of
Valenciennes (c). Though Le Jeune was his family name, and not
added to Claude merely to distinguish him from Claude Goudimel,
these composers are frequently confounded; and I am inclined to
believe that Claudin is sometimes an appellation given to Goudimel
as well as Claude Le Jeune: for among the Motetti del Frutto,
published at Venice, 1539, there is a motet by Claudin, which could
hardly be Claude Le Jeune, who was living in 1598; at which time
a print of him was prefixed to his Dodecachorde, or Compositions
upon the twelve Modes of Glareanus, in which he does not appear
above forty years of age. He was not only in the service of Henry
IV. but in great favour at the court of his predecessor Henry III.
particularly in the year 1581, at the wedding of the Due de Joyeuse,
when his Music is said, by several writers of the times, to have had
marvellous effects. Thomas d'Embry (d), who was his intimate
friend, and had the story from Claudin himself, relates what
happened upon this occasion in a less suspicious manner than the
rest. " This great musician," says he, "at first caused a spirited
air to be sung, which so animated a gentleman who was there, that he
clapped his hand on his sword, and swore it was impossible for him
to refrain from fighting with the first person he met; upon which
Claudin caused another air to be performed, of a more soothing
kind, which soon restored him to his natural temperament. Such
power," continues he, " have the key, movement, measure, and
inflexions of voice over the affections."
His works consisted chiefly of miscellaneous songs, and psalms;
de melanges, des chansons, des pseaumes, of which he published
many books. His melanges consist of songs and motets, in French,
Italian, and Latin. His songs are chiefly French, and in many
parts like the madrigals of Italy; of his Psalms, an account has
already been given (e). Many of his single productions appear in
the collections of the times, that were published in Italy and the
Low Countries: I have scored several of them, but have been
generally disappointed in my expectations of excellence. In
comparing them with the best cotemporary composers of Italy and
the Netherlands, he appears to have been more a man of study and
labour than of genius and facility.
The best of his compositions that I have found, except his psalms,
the musical reader may see on the plates, p. 220-222.
(c) See above, p. 47.
(d) Comment, sur la Vie d'Appollonius, Lib. I. chap. xvi. p. 282.
(e) Ubi supra.
217
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Motetus.
Claudi Gaudimelli.
g
t^rTFf
jjjj ° r ^— ^i-ULsU
±ac
-&&
x=c
/»«£- T/ tH-SiMSVMT /)£>- VSR- Sl/Jn
li»J 4 JgSJiEEg
^^
35==
S
-g-S-
3=S:
-GuniTtlDVBasun
avnroo^vefi-sum me.
sd&
lJUt/*-a
^^
a
££
»~g 8-Q=
tE»«®LM
=^TF
Ami.
rtl«
^KU^
£^3
s
IEES£
t-i
=^
oodJ
«=ffl
^
- vea- sum
tt\VI.-Ti DlCUMT ft-
0&E
oSqS:
m - ^^^ a
fFJ^T^
J A |
r irr'
tzH
JzSZ
gg^
^
^^
fg^F
s
SffliE
^
rnuu-ri s/-.
I
eumrn-m--
rnfB tms ■
me-
^^
tzs-
=«S:
^g
S3 ^j-G-^-
CuNTH-Ni-tnp ma-~ (£
nthiiifz/ne—
£
TfT
^^
^
^^
SS^
40H
ti
-/?/ — m/emje
/9-<vy— /W/l
S
^^S
fro go
^
/WA- 7V B/ftAVT ft- - AV - itf/? /»£./£ /?-/#- /D« /»£ — /E
2l8
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
vo-- ee *>£--* no »»--— mt-i*m ^ur-/s/>— 1/1
219
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ft
5=3=
^s
tS^
3E3S
4st
J -- miNum CLR- -ma - - Vi
riD X>o-
- milium ql#-
en-/tu-s/~-
^=^
iszcazffp:
rae
?33=
=r=r=t
^^
^ „ p2-"^"
feg a^z
r' r
ffif«o
^s4-®-
S3=S=
«» g
*+
»
em- i»i
s
OHs-r1-
s^
s^=a_v:f
f-:i
Szfe*>r-=
1 — vf-Q-r?
=M
H^
S
j^— crn
?^
3==^=g=
e-gj-
AS
morrrs same--
^
3=3
33=
5SE
JftNC--- To
fe
SEEEiE
IF^1
„ J ^
grp-
£>-0-
SC
=0=gg
itsz
-O— ty
^
S:
====#
£T El-flU • & - - ViT
Z>£ HIO/V- Tf S01& To Su 0
u
mEE&
3^
JT
SC
-^S-js-
To su-o
1=^53
— 0 SANC-To
Su- O 3>E
fnomreSnM-
a/wc- ro
I
V=X-
t!3-45 rJ y
t=E
^=&g=
jg «^
CtE
i
■ re j/»a<? - • ro xs moAirg
SftfiW TO
su — o sm
=SE-
-g— 1^
SE
^to-T
3w
EPSE^
ǤS:
*
AWtf- to .fi/
£> i)£
mott-TB. sm'.—To
Su
^m
■&■
?&FF^
■ g. Ig
J>£
« <?</ .
yjrrr"
k
■■ TO SO--
m
S=
£=&!
SrncTo Su-
59=1:
ffi
PSt
t=IBB
Chanson par Claudin le Jeune, 1559.
r^p-gc^c
^^
^t
.Bcw
IbuRMD fni£ 3o#
Tdua soMJbuft er
m
=S
rtfc
*# itffrg.v1 -™~
^#
=F=3=
^
£=F»
" o
gjff v
30H Toon BT-
7bi/Ri»/> ttii-e &#*
SomToufi &e
f^=3^
=f^
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
=3=
'+^=g=£
t-r-g
dHnJ^
33
gjEl ^
t=E
Sw
#«tf &<!
8o*x>ua ma toys er Beit
=s4 .1 M
S
fct
+-S-
£t
*i£ mp fliy-e
n**
%/# ST 5o/V
9«W &(/A &t
-'♦■at"3'-
i^r E
^ — i-
4=V
SO* J&e/t i».<
a. O
/»/-«
!-©-*-
90NIM loV-.B.
rem ___
Son
g=S=
= 3
~n^=i
3=1
-9-
SW TZtFiTliC
Set ToveerBofi *#
Seuvsivr &&
JtSt
=f3^
O* »•
ff^-fi-
30E
:§=c
I l-l
p.y eetivi- enir
my
&T Tflff &
a , •>-
3BE
fct^Hh)-
®— e
s^^jd-
<h»
1
ViSNT
P** &£
/■/
gfcjg
=t«
£r TttaeenHB %c.
C~Si*
3SE
g „
-1 — \
fc£
^r t>/w aaam fer
221
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
^^
33i?E*
Tr1 9
•d O f*j:
*rrt
BIgB
7bu8
"Boa JLvan*
t
/»/<? £T Jkw
s
BE
3=a
s^
^^
tf/V
Sj/v TMfiflv) /»y-
Sen Jbi/0
-s=>-£r«-g^
^5=
?=st
^
=J=f
3=t
n r
4tott
£"7" JAk/9/"
ma my-e Bom
Jbva Er Bpn
^
ten
iflsafc
Bo* Jbva £? Sor/ ~fi^3MlSofi~^r~BoN
The determined spirit of fugue perhaps never appeared stronger
than in this song, where there is, indeed, great art and skill, but so
little melody and rhythm, that the time and modulation are equivocal
from the beginning to the end: for the subject is begun on an
accented part of a measure, and answered upon an unaccented; and
though the melody manifestly begins and ends in the chord of G,
yet by keeping F constantly natural, there is a stronger impression
throughout of the key of C than of any other (/). Indeed, this
composition renders the assertion of Mersenne very probable, who
tells us that " when Claudin first presented his pieces of five, six,
and seven parts to the masters of Italy and Flanders, they would
not look at them; and his compositions would never have been
performed by them if he had not written something in two parts;
in which, however, he at first succeeded so ill, that he confessed
himself ignorant of the true principles of his art (g)."
The names and works of several minor musicians of France, of
the latter end of the sixteenth century, are recorded in catalogues;
but though I have been able to procure none of them, I shall point
them out to the curious reader, whose enquiries may be more
successful.
Jean de Castro composed and published from 1570 to 1592
[1599], many songs, sonnets, and madrigals.
Louis Bisson transformed Nicholas du Chemin's four-part songs
into duets, and published songs of his own, in 1576, which were
esteemed.
Francois Roussell composed songs of four, five, and six parts,
1577.
Jean Pervin printed at Lyons, songs of four to eight parts, 1578.
Nicholas de la Grotte, organist to the French king Henry III.
composed and printed songs in many parts, 1583.
Jean Chardavoine made a collection of songs in the manner of
Vaudevilles, 1585.
Jean Serven set Buchanan's Latin version of the psalms, in four,
five, six, and eight parts, which were printed at Lyons, 1579, quarto;
(/) This was still adhering to the ancient modes of the Church, and may be called a Rag
of Popery; for however reformed the author may have thought himself in religion, his Music
was still Papistical.
(g) Harm. Univ. Lib. iv. p. 197 and Dissert. Vol. I, p. 148.
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
and French songs, in the same number of parts, that were likewise
published at Lyons, 1587.
The Lute was the most favourite and general instrument in
France, as well as other parts of Europe, about the end of the
sixteenth century; and James and Charles Hedington, natives of
Scotland, are said to have been excellent performers upon it, and
much in favour with Henry IV. the most amiable prince in history;
who, though he is not said to have either understood or felt Music
much, had the art of attaching his servants by his condescension
and benevolence more than many others have been able to do by
temporary rapture and munificence.
Julien Perichon was another celebrated lutenist during his reign,
whose performance seemed more agreeable to Henry than that of
any other.
The Violin seems to have been brought into favour at the court
of France before any honourable mention is made of it elsewhere,
by the arrival of Baltazarini [d. c. 1587] , a great performer on that
instrument; who, at the head of a band of Violin-players, was sent
from Piedmont, by Marshal Brissac to Catherine de Medicis [1555],
and appointed by that princess her first valet de chambre and
superintendant of her Music (h). Baltazarini having contributed
greatly to the amusement of the royal family and nobility, by his
ingenuity in suggesting magnificent plans, machinery, and
decorations, for Balets, Divertissimens, and other dramatic
representations, received the quaint title of Beaux-joy eux, by which
he ever after continued to be called: and Henry III. having, in
1581, married his favourite minion, the Due de Joyeuse, to
Mademoiselle de Vaudemont, sister to his queen Louise de Lorraine,
almost ruined his kingdom in balls, masquerades, tilts, tournaments,
(h) The Violin with four strings, tuned 5ths, and without the finger board being fretted,
is an instrument of much later invention than the treble-viol, with six strings, tuned chiefly
by 4ths : thus,
and with a fretted finger-board. Galilei {Dial. p. 147) says that "both the violin and base, or
violoncello, were invented by the Italians, perhaps by the Neapolitans"; and I am unable to
confute that opinion. Corelli's violin, now in the possession of Signor Giardini, was made in
1578, and the case painted by Annibal Caracci, probably several years after the violin was
finished, at which time Anib. Carach was but eight years old. Montagne, who was at Verona,
1580, says that there were organs and violins to accompany the mass, in the great church.
Journ. du Voyage.
M. Bonnet, in his patriotic Hist, de la Mus. et de ses Effets, Tom. I. p. 212, however
unwilling he was to allow Italian Music to be superior to that of his own country, makes in
an unguarded moment two very important concessions in favour of Italy: first, allowing that
the most curious books and manuscripts in the Bibliotheque du Roy were brought thither by
Qu. Catharine de Medicis, from Florence, out of the collection of her great grandfather,
Lorenzo il Magnifico" : secondly, that "what contributed most to the i>erjection of Music in
France, was the great number of Italian musicians who followed that princess, and excited
emulation in his country men; it was then that they began to change their rude and simple
method, in order to conform, in some measure, to the delicacy of the Italians both in vocal
and instrumental Music." To the conclusion of this period, few of the present patrons of
Italian Music, or even the exclusive admirers of Rameau, will perhaps subscribe, where he
says, that "since the time of Catharine de Medicis, Music in France was brought to the
highest perfection possible, by the great genius of the Sieur Lulli, the most celebrated musician
we have ever had in our country." Such is the transient state of this art, that as soon as a new
style is in fashion, it seems necessary for a country not only to burn all the old Music, but
even the books in which it is intemperately praised !
223
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and every species of expensive festivity, which could be devised on
the occasion (i).
The queen likewise, in honour of her sister's nuptials, gave an
entertainment at the Louvre, in which a Ballet was exhibited, called
Ceres [Circe] and her Nymphs, which was then a new kind of
spectacle in France, avec une grande Musique, composed by the
celebrated Claude le Jeune. The Entrees de Balets, in this fete, were
invented by Baltazar de Beaujoyeux, the famous Piedmontese
performer on the violin, who having published an account of his
devises in a book which is now become extremely scarce, I shall
present my readers with a sketch of its contents (k).
The description of this Balet, which is printed in quarto,
dedicated to the king, Henry III. is preceded by innumerable copies
of complimentary verses to the author, in Latin and French, all in
the fade and tumid style of the times on such occasions. In the
preface, Beaujoyeux tell us, that " he had blended together Poetry,
Music, and Dancing, in a manner, which if ever done before, must
have been in such remote antiquity, that it may now well be called
new; as the ancients never recited verses without Music, so Orpheus
never played without song. I have, however, given the first place
to Dancing (/)," says he, " and assigned the second and third to
Poetry and Music, in order to gratify at once the eye, ear, and
understanding. ' '
And this seems the origin of the Balet Heroique, as well as Balet
Historique, in France; where Dancing has been long more
successfully cultivated than elsewhere, and where is still holds the
first place on the stage. It would be a vain imagination now to
expect any Musical Drama to succeed in France without Dancing,
either analogue, or en divertissimens; interwoven in its texture, or
introduced between the acts. And, unluckily for Music, the
theatres, in other parts of Europe, have so far adopted the Costume
of the French stage, that no Opera, however excellent in poetry,
composition, and performance, can support itself without the aid of
such splendid ballets as double the expence of the exhibition.
Indeed, it has for some time seemed probable, that singing at the
Italian Opera, in England, would soon be so totally neglected and
forgotten, that posterity would only know by tradition that it had
(») // y eut chaque jours des divertissemens nouveaux, qui consistoient en concerts, bals,
mascarades, combats a pied et a cheval, joutes, tournois, et generalement tout ce qu' on peut
imaginer pour contribuer au plasir d' une cour la plus magnifique et la plus galante qu' on eut
jamais vu en France, dont la depense jut estimee monter a pres de quatre millions. Menestriei
des Representations en Musique, p. 192, & Hist, de la Mus. Tom. I, p. 217.
A more modern French writer estimates the expence of this fete at 112,000 crowns, equal
to six millions of the present French Livres, and ^250,000 sterling.
(k) My copy, the only one I ever saw, was purchased at the sale of the late honourable
Topham Beauclerc's library; and has for title, Balet comique de la Royne, faict aux nopces de
Monsieur le Due de Joyeuse & Mademoyselle de Vaudemont sa sceur. Par Baltazar de
Beaujoyeulx, Valet de Chambre du Roy, & de la Royne sa mere. A Paris, 1582. Par Adrian
le Roy, & Robert Ballard. The types and paper are equal in beauty to those of Elzevir in the
next century. And the Music, though cut in wood, is much more clear and neat than any I
ever saw of the kind.*
(/) /' ay toutefois donnd le premier iiltre & honneur a la Dance, &c.
* The Ballet had been a popular form of entertainment in France for at least 200 years
before this date. Froissart in his Chronicles recounts one performed in 1392, at which several
of the performers were burnt to death.
224
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
ever constituted the principal part of such an amusement. At some
future period, not very distant perhaps, somebody or other may
be bold to say, that " there used formerly, as I have been told, to
be singing at the Opera; " which the fine gentlemen of the time,
who only enter the theatre for the Dance, and constantly to the great
comfort of lovers of Music who are near them, retire into the
Coffee-room when it is over, will find it difficult to believe.
What the Dancing at the superb and costly fete, described by de
Beaujoyeux, may have been, I know not; but of the Music, which
is printed, we are enabled to judge : and, upon scoring a great part
of it, both vocal and instrumental, I find it very contemptible, even
for the time when it was composed. The counterpoint, indeed, is
not incorrect; nor can the French be justly accused of ever being
deficient in the mechanical rules of composition, since they were first
established; but for fancy, air, and rhythm, there is not a passage
in this whole performance, except in a few of the dances, by which
we are reminded of their existence (m).
In the Operas of Lulli and Rameau, the Music of the dances was
always infinitely more admired by foreigners than that which was
sung; because it was necessarily more marked and accented: that
is, in what was danced, some determined measure and movement
was always perceptible; but this was so little the case in what was
sung, that it is related of Faustina, the celebrated singer and wife of
Hasse, that in her way through Paris to England, being carried to
the serious French Opera, she remained silent there full half an
hour, and then cried out, " but when shall we have an air (n) ? " So
confounded were airs and recitatives together, at this theatre, it was
a natural enquiry for an Italian to make. But had this excellent
performer heard the Music to de Beaujoyeux's Balet, which was
composed long before the invention of recitative, she might have
asked the same question; for there is in it nothing that resembles
an air, or which seems to imply a selection of notes, or to suggest a
reason for one sound being higher or lower, quicker or slower, than
another.
It must be remembered, that the Music of this old French Ballet
was not composed by Baltazarini, the Italian, who only acted as
Ballet-master on the occasion, but by Messrs. de Beaulieu, and
Salmon, of the king's band, whom his majesty had ordered to assist
him in composing and preparing all that was most perfect in Music
for this festival; " and M. Beaulieu," says Baltazarini, " whom all
professors regard as an excellent musician, has, on this occasion, even
(>n) It seems as if Dancing could not subsist without a marked measure; indeed, when
Poetry is sung to sounds without measure, it becomes worse than prose. In the same year
that this Balet was performed at Paris, a book was published at Venice with the following
title : II Ballerino di M. Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta, diviso in due Trattati; con Intavolatura
di Liuto, & il Soprano della Musica nella sonata di ciascun Ballo, 1.581. The tunes for all these
dances, though not very beautiful in other respects, are well accented, phrased, and divided
into an equal number of bars, with as much symmetry as those of the present times. And
there is a circumstance attending this publication of importance to a musical historian, which
is, that the pulsations of the measure throughout the Music of these dances, are regularly
barred, which is not the case with that of Le Balet de la Royne, nor with any Music of the
sixteenth century that I have seen.
(w) MS. papers of M. Diderot.
Vol,, ii. 15. 225
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
surpassed himself, assisted by Maistre Salmon, whom M. Beaulieu
and others highly esteem in his art."
The instruments employed in the performance of this Music
were des orgues, doulces (douces). In the vault, or roof of the
building, were placed ten bands of Music (dix concerts de Musique)
of different kinds, which were to serve sometimes as echos to the
singers; by which is meant the players of the Ritornels, or
Symphonies of the vocal airs. There were other performers for the
interludes, or pieces between the songs (o).
Of the excellence of this Music a judgment may be formed by the
specimens on the following plates.* And to convince the musical
readers of the wretched state of melody at this time in France, it
will be sufficient to present them with the two Solo verses p. 228 and
229 in writing which, the inventor had not even the embarrassment
of a base to check his fancy; and yet, it does not seem possible to
produce a more unmeaning melody by any other arrangement of
the same notes.
Dix Violins are said to come in, five of a side, pour jouer la
premiere entree du Balet. These violins seem merely introduced to
play to the dancers, without being suffered to accompany the singing,
or join in the concerts or symphonies. The only fragment of
tolerable melody, which the whole book can furnish, is what
Baltazarini calls un son fort gay, nomme la Clochette (p).
Extracts from Le Balet comique de la Royne, Published by
Baltasar de Beaujoyeulx, 1582, one year after the Performance.
The Music was Composed par les Sieurs Beaulieu et Salmon, by
command of his Majesty King Henry III of France, on occasion of
the Nuptials of the Duke de Joyeuse.
Le Chant des Sereines, or Siren's Song. A 4 Parties.
m
&
t> i
M
*
0- C£-
m
p
W+ 1
£=-=
=Sj
/tor PS.--
*K CHP-I^U
3=y
£33
0-- ce.-- an 7>e-
TtSL CHE.- mu,
sag
I I J
i ' ♦ O
7>e- xe 2>es
±zt
7>e- 7f£ DBS
3=t
g^i
X*
3/SV* rt&-
=g^
(o) The instruments mentioned are hautboys, comets, sacbouttes, violoncelli, lutes, lyres,
harps, flutes, and le flageolet, played by le Sieur Juvigny, its original inventor.
{p) In scoring the dances, in five parts, they suggest a reason for the accent appearing
stronger in them than in any other old French Music; which is, that they are almost all in
simple counterpoint, of note against note, which prevents confusion in the measure, and gives
energy to every passage that is well phrased by the composer. There are a few passages in the
other dances in gavot time, which afterwards became common throughout Europe.
(a) Either the Time is changed here to Triple, or the Bar is to be compleated by some
rule of Prolation to which I am a stranger.
* J. B. Weckerlin published a vocal score of Circe in his Collection des chefs — d'osuvres de
I'opera francais.
226
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Reponse de la Voute doree aux Sereines. A 5 Parties
~J BL- LE
c p-
m£
SE
=pfc
fUTLEZ
££
WRCHG-LOSS.
J J
4-4—
TWI-rort 0U>
I ^ J
J^
J H. 1
=S=£^
J^Eg
5 g~
•=3=
^5
-1—1-
OT
-p*-
f^
^^
3^
g — &-
P=f
1— r
^^
■9-fr
^^
^£=&
3t
P5=F
±z£
bg» (/-
p er
-a> Q
e=t±
o o
Rj /Jf- Coft-
VO/X *fej/fl
j| g
1WJ
-HSD-
5B3Jf
-gfr^
EQE
ii
(II
» » o
te
T=^=
^£
Wt
»
9l Jb« l ^g^
^
» !
§§
This Movement is repeated to six different stanzas, which the
Sirens sing to the preceding Music.
Though this Movement begins and ends on the Chord of G, yet
the Key is so far from being ascertained, that no two Bars, or
indeed half Bars, are in the same Key.
227
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Chant pour Glauque.
Em
P^j m m
/iwtf <yyg t>f jaw T£. 7*yy tf£*rv £*- cmt. - ua Tiou.vku"-t.e
Que Tesuss pit* vascii-eu* eFow mna-ir/ Fog-%£? J~g it>J- --- DSois rf'&ms 0/&S&
tm
-9- ~f.
3E
J-HoaJ
Hg
W
$z±=^
3
i ir o
#=;
OS avl-le as-TKea</-mi, Poti/t /fs sav-ie/f fiv v/tin d\mib tnjtmZSr esu.BL.Ta.
W-
Tethys. ytoH^-R
-O-^Se
•■'. g
^EEEi
4^WT J)5»-/»W ^^ W- 7S "Rl-EJH Corl-TffS LSS /«/!»
-—IVES FT /./»< ts,a,,< ffj- Sac «vrc 1~I3mrs / /? j»/ trtenoa a* /?tt/l~
—mes ft lcs Dieufi er Ses SES TRmrs lq -bless use /? £>«*•
-g-«-
P'l ? c* 1 <j
IgtF
ci//v qjt
l$ VE-cpir3 flv. -pov-te urt Mftt. Com? mufif.
As Recitative was not now invented, the following is the manner
in which musical dialogue was set.
Glaucus
Tethys
Non, CHf> I.R msn /»'/? PciHT T£t/£ (vym-PHE Com- geo
Glaucus.
TE $CW
BlEM C 'EST VS. jTjZ .... - - _ - 7??. „ /tfljj
Tethys.
Glaucus
Ttf BS EN-CoR 2>E CEO Et- L£.n CfMS- S£
C'esr
Dome ru--Ncnl
(a) Here is a division to the conjunction Et.
228
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Glaucus.
I7>
« Tu Tk DS- CfilS EST c
g-H^-HazfaCT
i h
7S VS-COlS
-©-
Est es £/» 7u- moh pes Ftttu*-$oisi
£>£ rv.' — -- — — HQrt
Le Son de la clochette, auquel Circe sortit de son Jar din.
gjj^tigftiaj-r^yf
ff+T
i^S3=
*&— ©— *»^
±=P±
g±^+
^SXC=:rrrt
ti t» O
£3
^
1
£?
=t=f
±i
j=j=
«-«-t^-
3=±
"«
-9-
^^
3^5
£SE
+=c
s=!=p
I have dwelt the longer on this performance as it is the only
French Theatrical Music extant of the time. And in comparing
it with that of Lulli, it appears that he did not disdain to comply
with the national taste, which had been long established, with
respect to measure and melody: he certainly added much to both,
but conformed to the Genre.
Francis Eustache du Caurroy, born 1549, was the most
celebrated musician of his time : being called by his cotemporaries
le prince des professeurs de Musique, the prince of musicians.
He was Maestro di Capella to Charles IX. Henry III. and IV.
Canon of the Holy Chapel at Paris, and Prior of S. Aioul de
Provins. This composer was very much beloved by the learned
and elegant Cardinal du Perron, who not only wrote verses
frequently for him to set to Music, but, after his decease, 1609,
honoured his memory with an epitaph, which is inscribed on his
(b) Queen of France, wife of Henry III.
(c) This Roulement and that on the preceding page will serve as specimens of the
divisions then in fashion.
229
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
tomb,* near the pulpit of the Church des grands Augustins (q).
This tomb is said to have been erected by the successor of ,du
Caurroy, Nicholas Forme; and an act of generosity and goodness
of heart, so uncommon, deserves to be recorded, however difficult
it ma}7 be to produce testimonies of his musical abilities.
I am sorry that the compositions of du Caurroy do not correspond
with the expectations which his great patron and panegyrist has
excited, or with those which Mersennus encourages, when he
proposes it as a problem of difficult solution, whether Claude le
Jeune or Du Caurroy was the best composer? I have scored one
of his canons which is given as a miraculous effort of genius, and
said to be in six parts, though three of them are mere remplissage ,
that have nothing to do with the subject, and I find it miserable (r).
It is observed, by the author of Essay sur la Musique (s), that
none of Caurroy' s works remain, except a Mass for the dead for
four voices, without accompaniment; " of which," says he, " it is
impossible to judge, being in perpetual (meaning, perhaps, plain)
counterpoint, and composed in square notes, like plain-chant."
It is hardly possible to suppose this learned musician is not able
to read square notes, or to judge of the perpetual counterpoint, if
he had thought it worth studying. And it is unlucky that he was
unable to find a work called Melanges de la Musique de Eustache
du Caurroy, Maistre de la Musique de la Chappelle du Roy,
published at Paris by his nephew [grand-nephew] Andre Pitart,
and dedicated to the Due de Bouillon, 1610; because, he would
there have found the very Noels, or Christmas Carols, which have
only arrived at his knowledge by tradition (t). It does not,
however, appear that they contain many pretty melodies or minuets.
(q) In this epitaph it is said, in the flourish of friendship and monumental praise,
quern virum, nee Hispania,
Nee Gallia, nee Italia modo, sed omnis
Europa, Musicorum principem, invidia
Admirante, conjessa est
but in all my musical reading and enquiries I have never found that either his name or works
had penetrated into Italy, Germany, or England. It has perhaps with as little truth been
said by the panegyrist of our Dr. Blow, that his compositions had been sung at St. Peter's
Church in Rome. It must be owned, however, that the praise we bestow on our old
ecclesiastical composers, Tallis and Bird, the cotemporaries of du Caurroy, though less
splendid and extensive, is somewhat more sincere and solid; for we still continue to perform
their works in our cathedrals.
(r) There are no people in the universe so grateful to their musicians as the French; noi
so much perhaps for the love of the art, or abilities of the artists, as the honour of theii
country; and it seems on this principle, that long after their performance is forgotten, and
every vestige of their productions annihilated; when their genius and talents rest so entirely
on tradition, that to furnish specimens of composition by Orpheus and Amphion would be
scarce more difficult; still making the most of the faint whispers of Fame, they augment their
force by uttering them through her Stentorophonic Tube, or speaking-trumpet, till they become
audible to all mankind. Indeed, their writers, like the ancient monks of Psalmody Island, in
the diocese of Nismes, who vowed eternal praise, laus perpetua, never let a single circumstance,
which will reflect honour on their country, remain a moment unsung.
(s) Tom. III. p. 403-
(t) C'est une tradition generalement repandue que nos Noels, tant connus et tant chantes
etoient des Gavottes et des Menuets, d'un Ballet que du Caurroy avoit compose", pour Charles
IX. Si cela est, outre le Talent du Contrepoint, il avoit celui de composer de Jolis Chants,
lb. There certainly is not one minuet or single movement in triple-time throughout the Melanges,
which are now before me, and consist of Noels, Hymns, Chansons, and Fantasies to the
number of thirty. Nor is it easy to prove, that the dance called a Minuet (Menuet, Fr..) was
invented so early as the reign of Charles IX. at least no such term appears in any Glossaries
of the times. Cotgrave defines Menuet "a sweet apple that yields excellent cyder."
* This monument was destroyed during the Revolution. Expert in L.M.M.F., Vol. 17, has
reprinted some of Caurroy's music, and some instrumental Fantaisies have been published by
Senart, Paris. The Noel which Burney inserts is to be found in the Melanges.
230
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
The Fantasies [Paris, 1610] are extremely dry and destitute of
ideas; many of them being only Discants upon hymn tunes, used
as themes or Canto-fermo, like those of Claude le Jeune in his
Dodecachorde, but less ingenious and pleasing.
The following Noel, or Carol, is the most pleasing composition
that I have been able to find in this collection.
Noel.
Par Eustache du Caurroy.
S5
w
s
fit NO-EL.
1— J"
fm
No-El no
OL NOEL NO-Ei. NO -EL
■Si
^^
\-*-
No -■ 6.L
g
*-}-*+-
^=V
/V0- fix
?^3E
ifgi
~ : «»
33
=cm
B
t=t
^
AiUna
?»*'
d e-
3=0=
3
fc±
^
*zt
"... El. No-
^ — o
t^
2
Mb
:5=F
3F^^£r=J
33
7 - £s. *»
^=5=
5^
6
<* e o«~
i=t
'II'
E
fctst
■ -El no
N0£L
-V"*^
m
±=t
«-•— o-
g -
- -s •
i i i
■o o Q
Si AV.
££ NO
A/0~
S
^C
35
E
dt^£
"7»7®r
id:
s
^— V
fcd
.fops- 2>f Ton
lit Se Ton
*V». -KB' Con MS l/N foo
S
^=3=
X=p=
^^
^z^E
.EL
Comme MkbU'
m.
4 — a-
uT
I 1 I
- 5i /Vo •
$07?S
DSToi* ur
VEToDLlT ft ■•- *?£
Comme i//v
■y-r
N££J JtO EL.
SoRs He Ton lit
231
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Tfonps He
ffn--Ce $u Ct)fwa Con -sen. WT^-
^sa
&
-MS. Dieo
BU TRSS-HXUrX QUI von
5E£
^^
3=3=
s
"• est-
iva/ Fits ~Se -3^
_
-r/mr
mttis&c
St
tdb
4=1=
•S-
Jmk3 a(o»i-
~lne~3>iav~
Su mas H/)irr cm TOff
/w>9*y HO/n-mg
Turrx
^=v
"FAnr
mats Hom-/»e j>igv fils mi rgesu/tur-
ill
^ « je^
J j«fr
gg
£f=3p
±rt
t=±
7*^ aw svff-
r* ryiafi/ii'D pvwei-
r>/iu- re sun
Text Ef-T&u--
im
is£
5 J j i
5t=^=F
T>01f-"Tg
&i
^^
t=«P
3-=t
^FF
-7» 7» <M*« S«W' »8»
5
^ *.
T>AULt f?OX —
F¥
^^^
^
TV? — r« T/>GM*b Pfit*ici-r*>i/—7~6 atfii ran &Z
I - g
S
^
S:
ir=c
F^
Ssrtfct
1 S
a3=T
iS
s
«
st
J=3F
Ss
«44^
arc
«=-P
f/a- £L 00 -£u
I
i£±
33
3E=
/K0-
=R=^
->'J
e — «min
=t=*
t±
«*&■
■chW
S2
ttSi:
as
No-su 5e
FFFT
3^
SB
r » ■ n^
W-*-*^
=£t
±±
ff* AOffA &t
5
^5
±=t
*S
?3=F
=^*3
H*-*-*
e d * W„ g^5=i
s
ttoe. no ?l .
l^e^
^=^
^
i \ «-
1 m ' \, \
NO-EL.—
Et \ ' <*m -&
_ »' | i r
I Jl«. g:
+=F
r \ •«
±E
St
HO- EL NO-EL NOEL
~z*r
232
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Jaques Mauduit [1557-1627] is said to have been a great
musician in the time of Henry IV. who accompanied wonderfully
on the Lute (u). We are likewise told, that he added a sixth string
to viols, which had originally but five; and that he was the first
in France who introduced these instruments in concert, instead of
base- viols (x).*
Pere Mersenne, who had a particular regard for this musician,
has given us an engraved head and eloge of him in his Harmonie
Universelle (y); with the chief part of which I shall present the
reader, and then close my account of the Music and Musicians of
France, during the sixteenth century.
" Jaques Mauduit, descended from a noble family, was born
1557. He had a liberal education, and travelled during his youth
into Italy, where he learned the language of that country, together
with Spanish and German, which, with the literature he had
acquired at college, enabled him to read the best authors of almost
every kind. He had a general knowledge of most sciences as
well as of mechanics; and studjring Music with unwearied diligence,
without any other assistance than that of books, he rendered himself
so eminent that he was honoured, even .during his life, with the
respectable title of Pere de la Musique," Father of Music. " And
with reason," says his panegyrist, " being the inventor of good
Music in France, by the many excellent works he published, both
vocal and instrumental, which have been long the ornament of our
concerts.
"His merit obtained him admission into the famous Academy
of Music, instituted by the learned Baif, 1583; and many writers
of his time seem to have produced their poetical effusions, in order
to have them immortalised by the airs of Mauduit.
" The first composition in which he distinguished himself as a
learned harmonist, was his Mass of Requiem, which he set for the
funeral of his friend, the celebrated poet Ronsard; it was afterwards
performed at the funeral of Henry IV. and, lastly, at his own,
1627, under the direction of his son Louis Mauduit, at which time
Mersennus officiated in the sacred function, as priest.
" He left behind him innumerable masses, hymns, motets,
fancies, and songs. A small hereditary place at the court of requests
descended to him from his father, which he seemed to exercise for
no other purpose than to oblige and serve his friends. At the
siege of Paris, when the Fauxbourg was taken by storm, he
ventured through the victorious soldiers to the house of his friend
Baif, then dead, and saved all his manuscripts, at the hazard of
his own life.
(u) Essai sar la Musique, Tom. III. p. 519.
(x) Harm. Univers. de Mersenne, i>ref. generate.
(y) Liv. 7 des Instrum. p. 63.
* Long before the time of Mauduit, the number of strings on the viol was six. Specimens
dating from about 1450 prove this. See G. R. Hayes' The Viols and other Bowed Instruments,
p. 8 (Oxford Press, 1930).
Permission to form the Academie Francaise de Musique et de Poesie was given in 1570.
Expert in L.M.M.R.F. has published some Chansons by Mauduit.
^33
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" Upon a similar occasion, in which there was still greater
difficulty and danger, he saved the douze modes de Claude le Jeune,
and his other manuscript works, at the time that this composer
was seized at the gate of St. Denis, as a Hugonot; so that all those
who have since received pleasure from the productions of this
excellent master, are obliged to Mauduit for their preservation,
as he saved them from destruction by seizing the arm of a serjeant
at the very instant that he was going to throw them into the flames;
persuading the soldiery that these papers were perfectly innocent
and free from Calvinistical poison, or any kind of treason against
the League : and it was by his zeal and address, with the assistance
of an officer of his acquaintance, that Claude escaped with his
cwn life."
Such are the praises bestowed on Jaques Mauduit, by his friend
the learned and benign Mersennus, whose diligence, science, and
candour, far surpassed his taste. The Requiem, by Mauduit, is
printed in the Harm. Univ. in five separate parts; but in scoring it,
neither the harmony nor modulation offer any thing that is either
curious or uncommon, at any period of counterpoint. It is in
literally plain counterpoint of crotchets and minims moving all
together, as in our cathedral chanting. The chief merit of this
production is in the exact accentuation of the words, a V antique:
a minim for a long syllable, and a crotchet for a short.
Mersennus, in his Commentary on Genesis, has illustrated his
musical remarks with many of his friend Mauduit's compositions,
whence I have not been able to extract the least fragment that will
do honour to this composer, or his country.
234
Chapter V
Of the Progress of Music in Spain
during the Sixteenth Century
IT seems as if the Spaniards were placed lower among European
musicians at this time than in equity they ought, by those
who imagine Morales to have been the first practical musician
of eminence in that country, and Salinas the only theorist that was
produced there during the sixteenth century. Indeed, we know
but little of the state of Music in the interior parts of that kingdom
during this period; but, if we may judge by the musicians it
furnished to the Papal Chapel, both composers and singers, we
may conclude, that the richest and most powerful nation in Europe,
as Spain then was, would not breed musicians as the Africans do
slaves, or the Circassians women, merely to transport them for the
use or pleasure of others; they could doubtless then have afforded
to keep a few for their own amusement.
The Spaniards, so far from neglecting Music, seem to have taken
it very early into the circle of the sciences in their universities; for
Salinas tells us (z), that the musical professorship, which was
conferred upon him at Salamanca, had been founded and endowed
by Alfonzo, king of Castile, surnamed the Wise (a). And
Bartolomeo Ramis, the opponent of Franchinus, in 1482, we have
already seen (6), was public professor of Music at Toledo, and
afterwards at Bologna. Of Guillerm de Podio, a priest, we have
likewise a work entitled Ars Musicorum, sive Commentarium
Musicce Facultatis, published 1495, and another written in the
Spanish language, by Francesco Trovar : Libro di Musica Pratica,
Barcelona, 1519. Arte di Canto Llano, del Alfonso de Castillo,
Salamanca, 1504. El Maestro o Musica de viguela de mano, by
Don Ludovicus Milan, a nobleman of Valentia, 1534. Silva di
Sirenas, or a treatise on the Vitruela, or viol, by Henrico de
Valderrabano, Valladolid, 1547. Arte de la Musica, by Melchior
de Torres, alcala de Herrares, in New Castile, 1554. At the same
place likewise was published, in 1557, Tratado de Cifra nueva para
(z) De Musica, in preef.
(a) This Prince, who reigned from 1252 to 1284, was the great astronomer, whence the
Alphonsine Tables had their name.
(b) Supra, p. 132.
235
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Tecla, Harpa y Vieguela Canto Llano, de Organo y Contrapunto,
by Lud. Venegas de Hinestroia. There was likewise published at
Alcala by Cyprian de la Huerga, a Cistertian monk, who died
1560, a treatise De Ratione Musicce et Instrumentorum usu apud
veteres Hebrceos; and, at Granada, 1555, Libro de la Declaration
de Instrumentos, by Joan Bermudo.
All these writers on the subject of Music, and many more,
appeared in Spain before Salinas; of whom, and of his treatise, in
consideration of its scarcity, as well as the great reputation he
acquired as a theorist, it seems necessary to give a more ample
account.
Francis Salinas [1513-90], a native of Burgos in Spain, was
blind from his infancy, having, as he says, sucked in that calamity
with the infected milk of his nurse. His parents, soon perceiving
that the study of Music might be pursued by him in spite of this
misfortune, had him taught very early to sing, and play upon the
organ. It was by mere accident that he acquired any knowledge
in the learned languages; for while he was a boy, a young woman,
celebrated for her knowledge in the Latin tongue, and who was
going to take the veil, having a great desire to learn to play on the
organ, came to his father's house, and, in return for the lessons
which she received from Salinas in Music, taught him Latin. After
this, he was so eager to pursue the study of literature, that he
prevailed on his parents to send him to Salamanca, where, during
some years, he applied himself closely to the study of the Greek
language, philosophy, and the arts in general (c). But being unable
to support himself longer in that university, he was introduced
in the king's palace to Peter Sarmentus, archbishop of Compostella,
who received and treated him very kindly, and who being soon
after created a cardinal, carried Salinas with him to Rome [1538].
Here he had not only an opportunity of conversing with the learned,
but of consulting ancient manuscripts, particularly those on Music,
in the Greek language, which have been since collected and
published by Meibomius and Dr. Wallis (d). In these studies
he spent thirty years; when the death of his patrons, Cardinal
Carpensis, Cardinal Burgos, and the Viceroy of Naples, by whom,
he says (e), he was more beloved than enriched, determined him
to return to Spain, and pass the reminder of his days in humble
obscurity: but, on his arrival at Salamanca, he was appointed
public professor of Music, and read lectures in that university both
on the theory and practice of the art [1567-87]. However, by
his long study of Boethius, as well as the ancient Greek theorists,
his doctrines seem to have been chiefly speculative, and confined
(c) Dr. Smith, who seems never to have seen Salinas's treatise on Music, though he
quotes it, says that "after his return into Spain, he applied himself to the Latin and Greek
languages, and caused all the ancient musicians to be read to him, &c." Harmonics, p. 50, 1st
Edit. It is not, perhaps, of much consequence, whether Salinas studied the learned languages
in youth or age; but inaccurate assertions on one subject, throw doubts upon others.
(d) Antiq. Mus. Auct. seplem, Amst. 1652. Claud. Ptol. Harm. & Man. Bryennii, Lond.
1699.
(e) In Prcsj.
236
MUSIC IN SPAIN DURING THE XVI CENTURY
to calculations of ratios, divisions of the monochord, systems of
temperament, and the musical pedantry of the times, without
bestowing a thought upon harmony, modulation, or even melody;
except such as the ecclesiastical modes and species of octave
supplied.
However, the treatise upon Music written by Salinas is not only
scarce, but, on many accounts, valuable; as it is written with
clearness, by a practical musician- who satisfactorily explains several
parts of ancient Music, which, though of little use to the modern,
will at least gratify the curious; and though he treats of sects and
subtil ties, concerning which the present students either in the
theory or practice of the art, are not much interested; yet as the
curiosity of some enquirers is boundless, and as the doctrines now
exploded or contemned are here collected into a point, those who
fancy they can be amused or instructed by the perusal of such
discussions, will think themselves in possession of a great literary
treasure, when they are so fortunate as to find this work, which has
for title, Francisci Salin^e Burgensis, abbatis Sancti Pancratii
de Rocca Scalegna in regno Neapolitano, et in academia Salamanti-
censi Musicce professoris, de Musica libri septem, in quibus ejus
doctrines Veritas tarn quce ad Harmoniam, quam quce ad Rhythmum
pertinet, juxta sensus ac rationis indicium ostenditur, et demon-
strate. Salamanticse, 1577. [B.M. 786. 1. 24.]
The first book, containing twenty-eight chapters, is merely
speculative, treating of nothing but the different methods of
calculating the ratios of sound; and of arithmetical, geometrical, and
harmonical proportion. Second, Definitions of sound, intervals,
concords perfect and imperfect, and discords; greater and less tone
and semi-tone, the diesis, apotome, limma, and comma; twenty-
nine chapters : in one of which he takes up the gauntlet in defence
of the 4th being a concord, which practical musicians had then but
lately began to rank among discords (/). Third, treats of the three
genera, diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic, such as were used by
the ancients; for the moderns have no chromatic strictly ancient
nor enharmonic of any kind (g). He says nothing of the major
or minor modes or keys in present use, which are more the business
of a modern musician than the chromatic or enharmonic of the
ancient Greeks and Romans. It is in this book that the author
has incurred the displeasure of the Abbe Roussier, by treating of
the different methods of correcting false consonances and intervals
(/) Salinas says, that he had with pleasure often heard it used in the Greek church at
Naples; and that the prince of all contrapuntists, Josquin des Pres, in the beginning of the
verse resurrexit, of two parts only, in Mass sur I'Homme Arme, in the 6th tone, has used it
naked and unaccompanied by any other interval, which he would not have done, if he had
regarded it as a discord.
(g) Dr. Pepusch has asserted, in his letter to M. de Moivre, that Salinas had discovered
the true enharmonic genus of the ancients. How much it is to be lamented that neither Salinas
nor Dr. Pepusch has obliged the longing world with enharmonic compositions in counterpoint,
to confirm their converts in the faith, and not only renovate, but extend the use of this
long lost genus! As it is, the discovery of Salinas, and positive assertion of Dr. Pepusch
remain, to vulgar ears, as useless, and as much matters of faith, as the Music of the spheres.
237
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
by temperament (h). Fourth, chiefly treats of the different species
of diapason and octave; of the hexachords, said to have been
invented by Guido, and of their correspondence and connexion
with the tetrachords of the Greeks. Of the ancient modes or tones
of Aristoxenus and Ptolemy, of the doctrines of Pythagoras,
Aristoxenus, and Boethius; all which he freely censures. The
participation or equal division of semitones by Aristoxenus,
defended. The doctrines of Didymus, Ptolemy, Bryennius; and
of the more modern theorists, Faber, Franchinus, Glareanus,
Fogliano, and Zarlino; thirty-three chapters: in the last of which
there is an encomium upon Zarlino, and an epitome of his writings.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh books chiefly concern rhythm, and
the feet of ancient Greek and Roman verses; all these he has
expressed in musical notes; and though he uses only two kinds, the
semibreve and minim, for the long and short syllables, the variety
of measure arising from this mixture is wonderful! These four
sounds only
-o-^r
affording thirty-four
different mutations of measure, in the arrangement of long and
short notes and syllables. Salinas seems of opinion, that the
ancients had no Music strictly instrumental; but that all melody was
originally derived from the different order of syllables in versification,
and had been first set to words, before it was played by instruments;
and this was the opinion of the late Rousseau (i). Even for the
movement and measures of dance-tunes, such as the pavan and
passa-mezzo, he finds corresponding Latin and Spanish verses; and
the most curious parts of these last chapters, to me, are the little
fragments of old Spanish melody, which belong to his specimens of
versification. Some of them are very graceful and pleasing,
particularly those in triple time, which resemble the Neapolitan
measures more than any other in present use. I shall exhibit here,
to the musical reader's view, characteristic fragments of several
kinds of Latin and Spanish metre, in notation.
Page 262.
Page 267.
Tu nftumi-sHi Ttoc?H. us
Vfuse. 298 common throughout SPMtt
5C
'BHR-To-u-iiD
•pace. Z99.
^yrprla| ferUrV^l^r^Uu^
^^
**-t
m-GRotio hag-cys DA-m si me wen-i/s.
J Qua a-vt-nts ove WSSuSSSeim So meiiam
VR6Z 309.
E+TffFrff
m
tt
X±
±=t
j— F
Out A-iit-ettoue MLisiiiHKsm WmefSh mi wmm kma m^e««w5jS a JmOu Enfuen-re w.s*-te
THB vsum. movGmsnr fov. Hisrovieai. Soiree amb Bpllhss. partes.
£
&IWTPrl?^? rp^l"^"^
{h) Essai sur la Musique, Tom. III. p. 366. Temperament was probably not a thing of
choice with Zarlino or Salinas; but an expedient to obviate the greater imperfections which
would accrue to harmony, by partial perfection (all that can be attained), on fixed instruments.
(i) Diet. Mus. Art. Musique. Edit. 8vo. p. 3°9-
238
MUSIC IN SPAIN DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Old Song, on the Expulsion of the Jews.
:t=£
H=C
I I I
3=t=+
±=r
e#~ F/nt-ne- i.ai> Que mnNDM tos ve/es avs -passe?* ** mat.
Line, ths VflST&Mt. tn Cov£u-/'s v///. Co^cekto.
E- a tvs bos
(jtef
£=ac£
IS
• -•*»
=t=C
I ■ I '
-g-r?
g -
M
4=c
3S
4=C
I
a o
^=C:
-p-o-
o o
£=^EP^
a=t
1 l '
1 ' '
1 ) '
a id,j|ifri^s
oTTJ
» o o
o o
4=3
+=5=
¥=♦:
S
•zat
SEP
E£¥
±rt
4=F
dw 6 A MS P£- /V/J MEM M CtN-OO—TM, mi BIO* AF~ru> — -*4t mas *e niTea:
^3
:§=?5:
r rlc* J
3=+
±3
is-ufi, museo j& Amo»ea vitn em so-- LO--*t$ ps me con
It must be remembered, that melody had at this time received
no polish at the Opera, and that these are mere elementary sounds,
of one note to one syllable, which obscure not the meaning of the
words by lengthened tones or refinements. Such Music, in plain
counterpoint, be the parts ever so numerous, would never impede
articulation, or disguise poetry. This seems the kind of composition
that would be the most likely to satisfy those musical Purists, who
are equally displeased with florid counterpoint, and metrical
psalmody; accusing the one of taking too great liberties with the
words, and the other of making no distinction of syllables.
Salinas is said to have been an admirable performer on the organ;
an instrument which seems peculiarly happy in its construction for
the display of great musical talents, after the privation of sight:
for not only Salinas, but Francesco Cieco, the first great organist
upon record; Pothoff, the late excellent organist at Amsterdam;
and our own Stanley who delighted the lovers of that instrument
more than fifty years, seem, with respect to their performance,
rather to have gained than lost by this calamity. Milton, we are
told, could amuse himself, and Handel, we know, had the power of
delighting others upon this instrument, after total blindness, though
it came on late in life.
Salinas died in 1590, at seventy-seven years of age.
The writers already enumerated, sufficiently prove that the
theory of Music has not been neglected, though it has been thought
" not to have been at all cultivated in Spain before the time of
Salinas; " and the number of composers and singers of that
country, who were employed in the Pontifical Chapel at Rome only,
if all inserted here, would furnish a list of Spanish musicians so
far from scanty, that few readers would have patience to peruse it;
for before the year 1600, when, according to Santarelli, Castrati
239
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
were first employed in the service of the Papal Chapel to sing the
soprano or highest part, it was the custom to have it performed by
Spaniards in Falset (k). Near twenty of these are named from the
records of the Chapel by Adami (I); and among these some were
learned musicians, and excellent composers. Salinas speaks of
Escobedo as a profound theorist; and we have already had a proof
of the high opinion that was entertained of his science at Rome, by
the choice that was made of him, as an umpire, in the musical
dispute between Vicentino and Lusitanio (m); and the works of
D. Cristofero Morales [c. 1500-53]* were celebrated and published
all over Europe, from the year 1540 to 1564. He preceded
Palestrina, who was not twelve [sixteen] years old when Morales
first appeared as a composer. Several of his productions were
published at Venice, among those of Costanzo Festa, Adrian
Willaert, and Arkadelt, with whom he was cotemporary, besides the
following works, to which no other name was prefixed than his
own.
Two books of masses, the first for five voices [1544] , the second
was dedicated to Pope Paul III. for four, 1544, Venice [Rome].
Magnificat 8 tonorum, 4 voc. Ven. 1562. Lamentationes Hieremia,
4, 5, & 6 vocum, Ven. 1564. Adami (») tells us that his famous
motet, Lamentabatur Jacob, which was preserved in the archives of
the Pontifical Chapel, at the beginning of the present century, and
annually sung on the first Sunday in Lent, is a wonderful
composition (o).
Several of his motets were published at Venice 1543, among the
Motettce trium Vocum ab pluribus Authoribus composta**; the style
of which, though learned for the time, is somewhat dry, and the
harmony, by his frequent use of unaccompanied 4ths and 9ths,
uncouth and insipid; yet, till supplanted by the more pleasing
works of Palestrina, his compositions were in very high favour at
Rome, in the Papal Chapel, where he was a singer during the
Pontificate of Paul III.
(k) Du Cange derives the word Falset from Fausetum, a term used, during the middle
ages, in the same sense; and this, he supposes, from faucibus, whence the high tones of voice
proceed. Pipeth was sometimes used in a similar sense to express piping, or such high singing
as imitated the sound of pipes or small flutes. These feigned voices, as we should call them,
seem to have been much in request, for the treble parts of vocal compositions, at the beginning
of the last century, when women were not allowed to sing; as appears from a letter written
by the celebrated traveller Pietro della Valle, to Bapt. Doni, of which more notice will be
taken hereafter.
Lodovico Falsetto, Gio. Luca Falsetto, Giuseppino Tenore, and Melchior Basso, singers
mentioned in this letter, had their cognomens from their species of voice. Singing in falset had
very early admission in the Church, during times of Discant.
(I) Such as Bartol. Escobedo, Ant. Calasans, Ernest Bultezo, Francesco Palavera,
Cristofero Morales, Juan Sanchez, Francesco Bastamente, Juan di Figueroa, T. Gomez di
Palenza, Juan di Pareds, Fran, di Priora Toletano, Fran. Sottoda Langa, Juan Pantos
Toletano, Diego Vasquez di Conca, Fran. Spionosa, Tomaso, Lod. da Vottoria, and Diego
Lorenza, who were all Spaniards employed during the sixteenth century.
(to) Vide supra, p. 137. (w) Osservazioni, p. 165.
(o) 11 quale in vero h una maraviglia dell' arte. lb.
* Some of his works have been reprinted by Rochlitz; Schlessinger; and Martini. Burney
scored two motets and a magnificat. (B.M. add. MSS. 11,584).
** These are preserved in the Brit. Mus. [K. 3. d. 7].
240
MUSIC IN SPAIN DURING THE XVI CENTURY
Tomaso Lodovico da Vittorio [b. c. 1535-1611], another
Spanish performer in the Pope's Chapel, and an excellent
harmonist, was the first who published, in a very large size,
Motetti, for all the festivals throughout the year, in separate parts,
on two pages facing each other; the notes were so large, that four,
and frequently eight singers, performed their parts out of the same
book. Kerl afterwards printed masses in the same manner; and at
Milan, in the year 1770, I saw the whole choir, at the Duomo in
that city, sing a mass from a book of this kind (p) . The Motetti of
Vittoria, which are preserved in Dr. Aldrich's Collection at Christ
Church, Oxford, were printed at Rome, 1585. The author was
Maestro di Capella to the Church of St. Apolinare in that city,
before his admission into the Papal Chapel; and, among other
works, published masses, in 1583, which he dedicated to Philip II.
king of Spain. His burial service, or Messa de' Morte, was much
celebrated about this time, as were his penitential psalms. Peacham,
who styles him ' ' a very rare and excellent author, whose vein was
grave and sweet," tells us, that he quitted Rome, and resided at
the court of Bavaria, about the year 1594. Our countryman
distinguishes, among his French songs, Susane un jour, which
Orlando, and several other eminent composers, of these times, had
set.*
The works of Guerrero of Seville, Flecha of Catalonia, Ortiz and
Cabezon of Madrid, Infantas of Cordova, Duran of Estramadura,
and Azpilcueta of the kingdom of Navarre, appear in the musical
catalogues for the sixteenth century of Italy, the Netherlands, and
Spain (q). And this list might be swelled, for the honour of Spain,
with many more sonorous names of composers and performers of
that kingdom, who had contributed to the delight of several
countries in Europe, besides their own; but a sufficient number has
already been specified to acquit the Spaniards of the charge of
having made a slow progress in an art, which, at this time, and
indeed at all times, is so connected with the language, poetry, and
general civilization of a country, that it is often regarded as a mark
of barbarism to have neglected its cultivation.
(j>) See Present State of Music in France and Italy, p. 88.
(q) Vide Antonii Bibl. Hispanatn.
* A complete edition of his works, in 8 volumes, has been published by B. and H., edited
by F. Pedrell.
Vol. ii. 16. 241
Chapter VI
Concerning the Music of the Netherlands
during the Sixteenth Century
THE abilities of John Tinctor, John Okenheim, Jusquin des
Pres, Jacob Hobrecht, John Mouton, and Adrian Willaert,
the first great luminaries and founders of this excellent School
of Counterpoint, have been already celebrated in the course of this
work, and specimens given of their style. Flemish and French
musicians are so constantly confounded by the natives of France
in their musical writings, that few readers are able to separate them.
And yet the list which Lodovico Guicciardini (r) gives, in 1556,
of the great musicians, natives of the Netherlands, who were then
dispersed all over Europe, robs the French of many eminent
masters, whom they have long accustomed themselves to regard
as their countrymen.
The French in writing upon Music, contrary to their custom
on other occasions, forgetting the conquests of Louis le Grand in
Flanders, chuse to regard its inhabitants as having been always
under the dominion of France; but the most complete refutation
of this opinion is the book of Guicciardini itself, and the charts
annexed, all dedicated to the emperor Charles V. at that time
sovereign of the towns which gave birth to the musicians in .dispute.
But as this subject has been discussed in the first volume (s),
a more minute scrutiny into the claims that the French may have
to musicians which the Netherlands produced in places under the
dominion of Spain, or the house of Austria, during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, would perhaps appear invidious; and as
I am seeking musical talents, wherever I can find them, without
any other wish than to restore them to the right owners; after
specifying the place of each musician's birth, when it can be
ascertained, I shall leave the right of appropriation to be settled
by the French and Netherlanders themselves : only first observing,
that as the French never scruple allowing the Flemish School of
Painting to be different from their own, it seems as if the same
distinction should be admitted with respect to Music, at least,
during the times under present consideration.
(r) Descrit. de' tutti i Paesi Bassi, p. 42.
(s) Book II, p. 711.
242
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
The great musicians which Flanders and the Netherlands
produced, after Jusquin, Obrecht, and Willaert, of whose
compositions many still remain, are the following: Verdelot,
Gombert, Arkadelt, Jacket Berchem, Canis, Courtois, Clement non
Papa, Crequillon, Giaches de Wert, Pevernage, Verdonk, Baston,
Waelrant, Lupus Lupi, Richafort, Manchicourt, Philip de Monte,
Cipriano de Rore, and Orlando di Lasso. To these might be added
Claude Goudimel, and Claude le Jeune, who were neither of them
born in France; but as the greatest part of their lives was spent
in that kingdom, where they likewise died, an account of these
celebrated musicians and their works have been already given in a
preceding article.
Verdelot seems to have been best known in Italy; for though
Rabelais mentions him among the musicians of his acquaintance
in France, I find his name and works more frequently in Italian
catalogues and books than in any other (t). He is frequently
cited by Zarlino, Pietro Pontio, and others, among the best
composers of his time, which was about the middle of the sixteenth
century; I have, however, scored several of his productions, which
are always to Latin or Italian words; but, though the harmony is
pure, I find no characteristic excellence in any one of them that
inclines me to give it a place here. The same may be said of such
of the works as I have seen, of Giaches de Wert, Lupus Lupi,
Philip de Monte, Peverinage, Waelrant, and Verdonk, all
composers, a dozzina, who flourished about the middle of the same
century; but it would be great injustice to several other cotemporary
contrapuntists of the Netherlands not to endeavour to revive the
memory of their abilities.
Among these some distinction is due to Nicholas Gombert, a
scholar of Jusquin, who has been already mentioned (w), but not
with sufficient respect; for in scoring more of his numerous works,
I find him a great master of harmony, and a disciple worthy of his
illustrious master. He is claimed by French writers as a native
of France; but both Lod. Guicciardini and Daniel Federman, in
their descriptions of the Netherlands, rank him among the musicians
of that country. He was long Maestro di Capella to the emperor
Charles V. [1530-4] and furnished a very considerable portion
of almost all the numerous collections of songs and motets that
were printed at Antwerp and Louvain, during the middle of the
sixteenth century; besides a set of masses which were published
at Venice in 1541, and two sets of motets, 1550 and 1564, all in
four parts. The Museum collections contain a great number of
his French songs, in four, five, and six parts.
Jacques Arkadelt [c. 1514-75] was a scholar of Jusquin, and
seems to have spent the chief part of his life in Italy, as the first
(t) The only time that I have met with his name in any Tramontane publication, is in
a tenth book of French Songs, printed at Antwerp, 1544; where, to a long vocal composition,
called la Bataille, a 4, de Clement Jannequin, a fifth part is added of Philip Verdelot. See
above, account of this composition, p. 259.
(u) Book II, p. 753.
243
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
editions of his principal works were printed at Venice, between
the year 1539 and 1575 (x).
The number of his motets that was published then, in different
collections of the times, is very considerable; but his madrigals were
received with such avidity, that four books of them, in four parts,
were published at Venice, by Ant. Gardano, in one year, 1541;*
and his reputation, for this species of composition, was so great
in Italy, that, according to Adami (y), his name was sometimes
prefixed to the productions of others, in order to forward their
sale. The following madrigal, which the same writer says was a
favourite, is selected from his first book, as a specimen of his style.
Madrigal. Dal Primo Libro di Madrigali d'Archadelt a Quatro
con nuova Gionta Impressi.
Apud. Ant. Gardane. Ven. 1545.
m
^S
5£?E
m
s
5^3
3^C£
^
-Po G/u/v
3_
IL BMH-
ece Doue
CI&- NOCH
vthudo mo--
ue er
10 PlHNQSN
F=5
»=
S*Fg=g
^
o=£
^p
o-©
-o-^-
FF^
il BiAnteos Dolce
CICk-NO. E
fe
Op p
O pO
^^B
^
=P=o=
g-g-
3=5C
n. 3ifiA-cae $ol£6.
m
. o f=9fet?a
iSE
ST, ETC.
m
^=g= At±o - I - d ^g dj
— rh^r^^
pi
£r
/O 'P/ln/agA,
Po Gw"6
dLf=in db/.
Vitre/? mi- - o Sr/?*A '0 DwsRf/f
~3Bh.
po I
^
■a=st&
&&
&s
^j
ST/W/v'e &e.
he
a/t//*4
«rsr
Po a
E5
Q Q O
7*rO
^s?
f ' 1 u
r^PO=
- G
r?p
&
GlMCj
m. it
St/}& >'e £*
3»
9 ?bo fcg
^S
=^£
r?~^
^
Givi*6WAl *><:
iter
EcM-J
gg
g^=g
SgSE
- g
loWecTsi
mofK SComSo
-laTo er 10 /»o#o g&i
I
'SE2SE2
1 * I r
-a-?-
iFP^
r^
-9 0 e
^^
s=
H 1-
&
t 1 r
SCo/veow/o
o& o o
#0 8/)-fl
gg^gg
To /Jtatf.
-3 .
_ 9 90
=M^b=
o -
tt
I I ■!
CH£/>>I0«§
£f "> flV-
a cs
/9- ■
Tb fliofi-
^¥
m
£&
t — r
biT°g
P=c
l-» le j>jvju>*£- A&aTA
Brio /no- Ro B6*>
(x) French Songs, Cantiones Gallicte, as Draudius calls them, by this composer, were
published at Lyons, 1572, under the title of L 'Excellence des Chansons Musicales, 4to.
(y) Osservazioni, p. 161.
* Arcadelt was a native of Bruges. The first three books of madrigals were published
before 1539, and the 4th and 5th books appeared in 1544. Fine copies of ttr first four books are
in the B.M. (K. 2 h. 3-6).
244
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
^£j^^^j^U^^^
The sudden unrelative modulation from F to E[? in the 6th bar
of this Madrigal, which has a very antique effect, seems to have
originated from the rule which prohibited the use of the false 5th
to the sharp 7th of a key.
Why du Verdier and others have called Arkadelt a Frenchman,
I know not : his master, at least, was a Netherlander, and his name
has a very Flemish appearance. He was at Venice in the elder
Doni's time, and composed chiefly to Latin and Italian words.
Whatever country gave him birth, he was an excellent composer;
and, for the time in which he lived, his melodies are uncommonly
natural, smooth, and graceful.
The works of Jacket Berchem,* or, as he is called by the
Italians, with whom he was in great favour, Giachetto, (Berchem
being only the name of a village near Antwerp, where he was born),
chiefly appear in collections of motets and madrigals, published at
Venice; particularly in the first and second books of Motetti del
* Later authorities doubt his identity with Giachetto da- Mantova. It appears difficult to
identify the composers of many of the works inscribed Jacket. See the M.f.M. for 1899, p. 129,
for an article on tTiis composer.
245
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Frutto, and Fior de Motetti, printed in 1539, by Ant. Gardano,
whose name is likewise prefixed to several of these motets, as the
composer of them. Berchem's name also appears, with those of
the greatest composers in Europe, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, in a collection of motets for three voices; Motetti trium
vocum ab pluribus authoribus composita, quorum nomina sunt
Jachetus, Morales, Constantius Festa, Adrianus Wilgliardus, Ven.
1543. These compositions, which are preserved in the British
Museum, have a clearness, simplicity, and purity of harmony and
design, that have never been exceeded. In the first book of motets
by Cipriano de Rore, published likewise at Venice, 1544, there is
an Epithalamium, in the form of a motet for five voices, by Berchem,
which, in the elaborate style of the times, is admirable; but his
principal productions, to Italian words, were three books of songs,
or stanzas, selected from Ariosto's Orlanda Furioso, set for four
voices, and published at Venice, by Gardano, twenty-eight years
after the death of that great poet (z). Jacket Berchem, according
to Walther, who had his information from Federman's description
of the Netherlands, was living in 1580.
John Richefort, or Ricciafort, is placed by Walther in the
middle of the sixteenth century; but he was certainly a composer
many years before that period, as we find his name not only in
the second book of Motetti delta Corona, published at
Fossembrone, 1519, and preserved in the British Museum [K.i.d.
14], in which collection he was author of the fourth motet:
Miseremini mei; but to a motet in a music-book, preserved at
Cambridge, of Henry VIII. when prince of Wales. Glareanus (a)
says that " great praise is due, in our times, to the vocal composi-
tions of John Richafort." In the Museum collection of French
songs, in four, five, and six parts, printed in the Netherlands
during the sixteenth century, there is one by this author for three
tenors and a base, which, though it would be thought somewhat
monotonous by modern ears, has great merit for the artful
contexture of the parts, which are moving throughout in close fugue
and imitation. The words, indeed, of these old songs are generally
as rude and devoid of meaning as those of our own country, equally
ancient; this, however, contains a general censure of indiscriminate
urbanity.
Thomas Crequilon [d. c. 1557] was likewise in the service of
Charles V. somewhat later than Gombert. He published a great
number of different works, and, among the rest, a mass for six
(z) In the commentary of an anonymous author upon the seventy-ninth stanza of the
Orlando Furioso, lib. xvii. published the latter end of the sixteenth century, is the following
remark: "In a musical work printed in oblong quarto, under this title: Primo, secondo, e
terzo libro del Capriccio di Jachetto Berchem, con la Musica da lui composta sopra le Stanze del
Furioso, novamente Stampati e dato in luce. In Venezia, appresso di Antonio Gardano, 1561;
we meet with ninty-three stanzas, selected from different parts of the great poem of our author,
among which, p. 66 and 67, instead of the usual seventy ninth stanza, Tu gran Leone, &c, are
two others."
For this remark I am obliged to my worthy friend, Mr. Hoole, the excellent translator of
the three great Italian poets, Ariosto, Tasso, and Metastasio.
(a) Dodecachordon, p. 288.
246
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
voices in 1556, upon the subject of an old French song: Mille
Regrets; and, in 1576, a book of Sacred Songs (Opus Sacrarum
Cantionum) for five, six, and eight voices, at Louvain [B.M. A. 84] ;
besides a book of French songs for four, five, and six voices; of
which kind a great number, by this author, are contained in
different collections, published in the Low Countries, during the
reign of Charles V. fB.M. K. 3, a 3 & 11, etc.]-
Almost all the secular songs, in parts, published in Italy during
the sixteenth century, were called madrigals', but such as were
published in the Netherlands, to French words, were only entitled
chansons; of this kind no less than fourteen sets, of about thirty in
each, for four, five, and six voices, were printed at Antwerp
between the years 1544 and 1555, by Tylman Susato; and, about
the same time, six sets for four voices, at Louvain, by Pierre
Phalaise.
As frequent references to these songs, which are preserved in
the British Museum, occur in the course of this volume, I shall give
the title of the first set of each, a full length.
Premier livre des Chansons a quatre parties, au quel sont
contenues trente et une nouvelles Chansons, convenable tant a la
voix comme aux instrumentz. Imprimees en Anvers par Tylman
Susato, imprimeur et correcteur de Musique, demeurant au diet
Anvers, 1544 [K. 8, i. 4].
Premier livre des Chansons, a quatre parties nouvellement
composez et mises en Musique, convenable tant aux instrumentz
comme a la voix. Imprime a Lovain, par Pierre Phalaise, Van.
1553. To most of these sets a patent is prefixed, in French, from
Charles V. for three years, in which his titles are emperor of the
Romans, king of Germany, Spain, Castile, &c.
Both Susato and Phalaise, the editors of these songs, and of
innumerable other publications, were themselves composers: the
same may be said of Rhaw of Wittemberg, Gardane and Scotto of
Venice, Ballard in France, and Tallis and Bird in England; and
there are sometimes pieces inserted of their composition in these
collections, which would disgrace none of the authors in whose
company they appear.
Gian le Coick, or le Coq, is author of several songs in the
collections of the times, particularly of one in five parts, that was
printed at Antwerp, by Susato, 1545, in the sixth book of Chansons
a 5 et a 6 parties. In this song, the two upper parts are in canon,
in which the second part inverts the melody of the first, while the
other three move in free fugue. Tout e rebours va mon affaire, is
the motto of this canon, and all the information given for the
drawing the second treble out of the first. This kind of composition
is curious and valuable merely from the difficulty of its construction;
for no contrivance can be less amusing, or, indeed, perceptible to
the ear, than a constant inversion of the melody at the distance only
of a semibreve. In painting, if one or two similar figures were
placed with the feet in the air, it would be easily discovered, though
247
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the artist would not perhaps much increase his reputation for
superior skill. Indeed, this canon is truly a Gothic contrivance,
with no other merit than that of la difficulty vaincue.
In the same book of songs, there is another instance of patience
and pedantry producing a chef d'ceuvre insupportable; for here is a
similar kind of canon in the two lowest parts of a five-part song, by
Jan Cortois, or Courtois [ft. c. 1550], at the distance of two bars:
here it is said, that " when one part ascends the other falls," which
in old French is expressed thus: Quant lung monte V autre avalle.
Great art and labour have been bestowed on this composition to
very little purpose; but as genius and invention were not at this
time necessary requisites in a musician, it was thought expedient to
seek reputation by other means.
Cornelius Canis [d. c. 1561], however, whose name frequently
appears in the Antwerp and Louvain collections of songs, is author
of several canons which are not only ingeniously constructed, but
of good effect in the performance. Of this kind is the following, from
the fifth book, printed 1544, in which all the several parts sing as
well as they usually did at this early period of counterpoint, when
wholly unrestrained by canon or fugue.
As four or the five parts repeat the subject in the same key, the
effect would have been monotonous and insipid, had not this defect
been obviated by the canon ad secundam, which perpetually varies
the modulation, by repeating in a major key, what the upper part
proposes in a minor, and e contra. The accidental sharps, as usual
with the old masters, are omitted in the ancient copy, being left to
the divination of the singers. The passage at this mark + , was the
effect of habit and fashion about this time, as it very frequently
occurs in all cotemporary compositions; at present the intercalary
note would be inserted, thus:
£
gE3^gS
by which the melody would be more easy to sing, and agreeable
to hear.
Chanson par Cornelius Canis.
opflcio -;
g=^g
' i '"i
Gff/)~C£ El\mmrfTi
Tb 5b/tW£
aeu*.
^^
feS
s £3 B
*§&
*B3
7ft
8*™%o
fe gt/*a/v; ;-£tiGasKi£L>,
m
en a^sc/eo^
Fug n fin Sb. cu/vj>/)/n.
n,
fo*m&fi
&®
bo j jo
^
wm
-t-t
~ iQO
■Y-O-
p^
Ta -RoMnls /loan: GTmS)/l*fi-G"&!Aaeu£
t-a tu-AirtB. /ioarJ' &£
248
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
249
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Lod. Guicciardini tells us that this musician was dead when he
wrote his Description of the Low Countries, 1556; as was Jacob
Clemens non Papa [d. ante. 1558], an excellent Netherlandish
composer, who had been principal Maestro di Capella to the
emperor Charles V. Seven books of his motets, in four parts
(Cantionum Sacrarum),were published after his decease, at Louvain,
1567 [1559], as was his Missa Defunctorum, 1580. I have found
no better Music of the kind than that of this composer; his style
is clear, his harmony pure, and every subject of fugue or imitation,
simple and natural. In each of the great number of his different
works, that I have scored, there is always some excellence; the
last, however, that is seen, always appears the best. The parts in
his French songs sing better, and the composition is in general
more pleasing, and like the best productions of a much later period,
than any songs in the same collection (b).
Pierre Manchicourt, a native of Bethune, in Artois (c), and
director of the Music in the cathedral of Dornick, who flourished
about this time, and whose name frequently appears among the
composers of motets and songs, in four and five parts, does not
reward lovers of Music for the trouble of scoring his productions so
amply as Clemens non Papa, and, indeed, in three or four of them
that I examined, he seems not only a dry, but clumsy
contrapuntist.
Josquin Baston, however, of nearly the same period, wrote in
a clean and clear manner. We may imagine, by the first of his
names, that he was some way connected with the great Jusquin;
perhaps his relation, godson, or scholar. He was living, according
to Lod. Guicciardini, in 1556. A song of his composition was
printed in the second book of the Louvain collection, 1559 (d);
the words of which would not only serve as a specimen of the
coarse poetry, but gallantary of the times; there is, however, a
facility, rhythm, and melody in the Music, that was not then very
common; the kev too is well defined; but all the compositions of
this period, in the fifth or sixth ecclesiastical mode, which we
should now write in F and G major, are the more pleasing to
modern ears, on account of the key being ascertained.
In the third book of the Louvain collection of songs in four parts,
printed 1554, there is one by Petrus Heylanus, a Netherlander,
who either composed but little, or has been very unjustly treated
by posterity; as I find his name no where else. The points of
imitation in this song, though airy and familiar, are brought in
almost as closely and constantly as if in perpetual canon; indeed,
it would not be easy to find a composition in which more art is
discovered, with such seeming facility (e). It would occupy more
(b) Premier Livre des Chansons a 4 parties, a Louvain, 1558.
(c) This city was first taken by the French, 1645. Moreri.
(d) This must have been the second edition, as the third book in the Museum collection
was printed in 1554.
(e) In this composition there is another instance of a flat 7th in the base, to avoid a false
5th, like the passage already remarked in the madrigal of Arkadelt : II bianco e dolce cigno,
P- 245.
250
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
space here than so obscure a composer is entitled to, or I should
gladly insert this song, as a curiosity, during the sixteenth century,
for melody and close imitation.
Jacob de Kerl [c. 1531-1591], canon of the cathedral at
Cambray, was born at Ipres, in Flanders. His compositions,
which are chiefly for the church, were published in different parts
of Europe, from 1562 to 1573 [1558-85]. His masses were printed
at Venice, in large folio, 1562. The style in which they are
composed is dry and uninteresting; for though the harmony is good,
and the answers to fugues are warrantable, yet the ingenuity and
contrivances of a Jusquin or a Palestrina are necessary to keep
attention awake, with so little melody and modulation as the strict
adherence to the ecclesiastical modes, which was then thought
necessary, would allow.
Cyprian Rore [c. 1516-65], or, as the Italians call him,
Cipriano di Rore, one of the most voluminous and renowned
composers of the sixteenth century, was born at Mechlin, in
Flanders, 1516. In the title-page of a book, published at Venice,
1549, he is called the scholar of Adrian Willaert (/). In the
preface to the Canti Carnascialeschi, published at Florence, 1559,
he is called Cantore; as if he had been merely a singer in the service
of the house of Medicis. However, he seems to have spent the
greatest part of his life in Italy, as a composer; in which character
he is mentioned with great respect by Zarlino, Vincenzo Galilei,
Pietro Pontio, and almost every Italian musical writer of his time.
And, after having been successively Maestro di Capella to the duke
of Ferrara, the republic of Venice, where he was the immediate
predecessor of Zarlino, and the duke of Parma, he died at the court
of that prince, 1565, aged forty-nine (g). His motets and madrigals
were first published at Venice, 1544 [1542], and again, together
with his masses, and many other works, after his decease, in 1562
and 1565. His Cantiones Sacras, or motets, were likewise published
at Louvain, 1573* [B.M. A. 70 h].
Orlando de Lasso, a native of Mons, in Hainault, born 1520
[1530/2-1594], was the cotemporary of Cyprian Rore, and so much
(f) Fantasie e Recerchari a 3 voci, accommodate da cantare e sonare per ogni instrumenlo,
composte da M. Giuliano Tiburtino, da Tievoli, Musico eccellentissimo, con la giunta di alcuni
altri recerchari e madrigali a tre voci, composti da lo eccelldntissimo Adrian Vuigliart el
Cipriano Rore suo discepolo, &c. [B.M. A. 287].
(g) The following inscription still remains on his tomb, in the great church at Parma :
Cypriano Roro, Flandro.
Artis Musicts
viro omnium peritissimo,
cujus nomen famaque
nee vetustate obrui
nee oblivione deleri poterit,
Hercules Ferrariens. Ducis II.
deinde Venetorum,
Postremo.
Octavii Farnesii Parma et Placenlix
Ducis II. Chori Prafecto,
Lodovicus frater, fil. et hceredes
Mcestissimi posuerunt.
Obiit anno M.D. LXV. mtatis XLIX.
* His 1st book of Madrigals appeared in 1542. Many examples of his work are to be
found in the B.M. (A. 70, h.).
251
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
resembled him in genius, abilities, and reputation, that I shall unite
them in the same article, and with it close the account of the
Flemish and Netherlandish School of Counterpoint. Orlando not
only spent many years of his life in Italy, but had his musical
education there, having been carried thither, surreptitiously, when
a child, on account of his fine voice. The historian Thuanus,
who has given Orlando a place among the illustrious men of his
time, tells us that it was a common practice for young singers to
be forced away from their parents, and detained in the service of
princes; and that Orlando was carried to Milan, Naples, and Sicily,
by Ferdinand Gonzago. Afterwards, when he was grown up, and
had probably lost his voice, he went to Rome, where he taught
Music during two years; at the expiration of which he travelled
through different parts of Italy and France with Julius Cesar
Brancatius, and at length, returning to Flanders, resided many
years at Antwerp, till being invited, by the duke of Bavaria, to
Munich, he settled at that court, and married. He had afterwards
an invitation, accompanied with the promise of great emoluments,
from Charles IX. king of France to take upon him the office of
master and director of his band; an honour which he accepted,
but was stopped on the road to Paris by the news of that monarch's
death. After this event he returned to Munich, whither he was
recalled by William, the son and successor of his patron Albert,
to the same office which he had held under his father. Orlando
continued at this court till his death, in the year 1593 [,d. 1594],
at upwards of seventy years of age. His reputation was so great,
that it was said of him: Hie ille Orlandus Lassum, qui recreat
orbem*
As he lived to a considerable age, and never seems to have
checked the fertility of his genius by indolence, his compositions
exceed, in number, even those of Palestrina. There is a complete
catalogue of them in Draudius (i), amounting to upwards of fifty
different works, consisting of masses, magnificats, passiones, motets,
and psalms; with Latin, Italian, German, and French songs, printed
in Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
To form a comparative idea of the style of these two composers
with that of Palestrina, the specific difference seems to be this : that
the two Netherlanders, by having spent the chief part of their time
in the courts of princes, had acquired a lighter and more secular
cast of melody than Palestrina, who residing constantly at Rome,
and writing chiefly for the church, had a natural and characteristic
gravity in all his productions. Indeed, the compositions a Capella
of Cyprian Rore and Orlando Lasso are much inferior to those of
Palestrina, in this particular; for by striving to be grave and solemn
they only become heavy and dull; and what is unaffected dignity
(i) Bibl. Class.
* The year 1520 is now considered as being too early for the birth of Lassus. Somewhere
between 1530 and 32 is thought to be correct. Burney does not seem to have known the later
Church music which establishes the fame of Lassus.
A complete edition of all the known works of Lassus was commenced by B. and H. in 1894.
252
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
in the Roman, is little better than the strut of a dwarf upon stilts
in the Netherlanders. They were, however, great masters of
harmony, and, out of the church, prepared the colours, and
furnished the musician's pallet with many new tints of harmony
and modulation, which were of great use to subsequent composers,
particularly in dramatic painting.
In the same collection of songs, printed 1555, we have a Latin
poem set by Orlando di Lasso in the manner of a madrigal in which
the modulation is curious; but, though elaborate and recherchee,
it is pleasing, and has had many imitators.
Cyprian and Orlando were the first who hazarded what are now
called chromatic passages. At the end of the fourteenth book of
songs in four parts, printed at Antwerp, by Tylman Susato, there is
an irregular Latin ode, by Cypriano, set likewise in the madrigal
style, in which not only an A %, but an A|? occurs in the same
movement, and almost every accident usual in modern Music. I
shall insert part of this composition, as a specimen of the authors's
frequent attempts at new harmonies and modulation, which, when
laid before the learned musical reader in score, will afford him much
better information concerning the real history and progress of the
art of counterpoint, at this time, than all the catalogues of books,
and descriptions of their contents, which diligence and language
could furnish.
Many of the forced, crude, and unexpected modulations in the
motet of Cyprian Rore, however they may have been admired for
their boldness and novelty, were never adopted by subsequent
composers. Beautiful, natural, and pleasing passages and effects
are soon rendered common by plagiarism and imitation; whereas
the unnatural and difficult are long left in the possession of the
original proprietor. Perhaps in a series of years some other
composer, unable to astonish by his inventions in a natural way, and
determined to produce something that shall, at least, seem new,
will propose them again to the public, who will again reject, and so
on, ad infinitum. But these musical hunters after novelty, without
genius to find it, forget that such passages or modulations must have
presented themselves to thousands in the course of their studies and
ricercate, but that good taste and sound judgment had rejected them.
It is at all times easy to produce new arrangements and combinations
of sounds, if nature, grace, and propriety be renounced; but at
once to be new and natural, belongs only to genius of the first order.
The songs in this collection by Orlando, are said by the publisher
to be composed a la nouvelle composition d' aucuns d' Italie. I find
but little melody in any of them, though much modulation, different
from the other Flemish masters of this period. There is another
essential difference in the notation, as the diminutions into crotchets
and quavers, particularly in the songs alia Napolitana, are more
frequent than in any other compositions of the middle of the sixteenth
century. The chromatic accidental semitones are expressed by a
sharp, and no longer left to the mercy and sagacity of the singer, as
was before the constant custom. The occasional changes in the
253
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
intervals, which are necessary in counterpoint, though formed upon
ecclesiastical melodies, were at first smuggled into harmony, perhaps
by singers whose good ears suggested them, though the composer had
not dared to point them out, lest he should be accused of corrupting
the modes. Orlando seems the first who, in spite of ancient
prejudice and pedantry, when he wished to alter a note, dared to
express his intentions in writing. In his more gay and comic style,
however, the modulation is overcharged with wanton and
unnecessary transitions from one key to another, without remaining
long enough in any one to fix it in the hearer's attention.
Of the two following compositions by Orlando di Lasso and
Cipriano de Rore, to Latin words, the first is in hexameter and
pentameter, and the second, an irregular ode, partly in the choral
measures of the Greek tragedies. At this mark +, in Orlando's
composition, the first A# occurs that I had ever seen used in
counterpoint of equal antiquity; and this seems to have been
suggested by the words novumque melos. Which of these
productions was first composed I know not, as they were both
published together at Antwerp, 1555.
Cantio.
Orlandi Lassi.
d-airt-f
teF
in
4©«-
OU/E So~ ■
ST?' tc'^g
&=W
g-rfcrf-p
- . a
P3
'ti^jd f-rr
fli—
mn /re -—/n?s
At.- mi /trsm&s
Owaso-
t~e> ttrs mss
fe
TOR
(O I J <g-»-
^cot
s=
T+
±EE
fn..
">£5 QU/i So
LI AS-
^rt^
*cfc
3C
- I
fit.-
SU*B £o-~LA
Atf- « /»BS
^^
-jg^-y
3?
±t
B
^=
&i=&=±
SRP
*=±=±
w^
*-fHES Qu/g
Q* 8
I
Ptits /H-T&./&) eom
■PAL-utS/ii -TB 79*1
S
^=&
1 ~?
^
W=^
x=x
Ge/avi-ceiee cf- p"»
£^
Al-re-fta
<Bun\ Sc
Qu/E o>c
c-O-
©=♦}
g y
T=C
:HSF
(Sum he
QufE.
~Pfit. CflS
m
•©=-
^
z+
s
t=Oz
"• ?SJ-CS/>g £V.-7>/»lS Jti.-r.
JTi/tna "&ai-i*>a *)/ _ _ 7W-i^i1
QijB-B. to /fua.Bis a/a. TEL- US NV- --• sts
254
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
is
3te
3^e
^djjJr
s^S
es
-BBS GiTfe
z5 O O
CCELUm F8i iv-TT SB- *£■•
V43 ST tfl •
ttf^g^
^
33-
S=S
*?*#
5=P
» g I
±±
agfi:
„ ^
4=^=55=
r^S;
o -
— = a:
555
+f?^
^
tfwe &:
-g-C
J*©p.
ttfeST
o -
3C
-I — h
rnrr I ' f
<jV/f CCE--i.om F/O'CHTS SB-Hi- f^fis
p
HE
3
as
^s
g fl0 gstg
^^
O -
&^sr?s
FLnmme-A
Ni-Bus
I
„ g p* g
g, g,/
AL- m$
te/»ooe to —
flu-
^
gwg'
"cr-gr
s*s
rq=
H 1-
■/»# *f-
foc e *«*>£ TV—
S3:
F^F^
^
JEEjEg
ffi
PffPgg
H
o -
I o
l=t
xri:
--jsv £r
Lrernhx,
../n/t ve —
a«t VoecmBM
££
^
7TI=
--AI ETL/SfiS
-/»/} v«— */
Ift
3=3
^^s
g g <=L^^g
iff glo
tw
• /Wfl VE -■ -■ Ml
CEmoue tu-- nm au/e.
-JtU/M SIS
iLfcvS
tp—^
^g=g
i
-s-s-s-s-
£=©=
lilt
ifocemaue
flu- mi- n»
SIS- TIS
m
-c-g-
OSC a
-g*-
+-+-
E^EgE
Tuwn
Cam qua TV- -Am
fg^r «; Tr
•f1 bo
- o
I dd
S
-9-a-
i i ->
4"=r
RL--mt VS -— M I
VocB.maue ro-nm
«.<*: -- /»/ — '/V4
3^F
^P
i IJJ- =? o
- j
S2
r
s »,
fF=F?
BEE
3¥
3+
p:
4^t
^
S
o _ o-
■o»7i
©=§:
BE
rrri 'i
dta
S
gr*-.o
-0 -«T | "_»
' i "
=ff©B=
"^e"
^MM^:
-Q-jOi
&Q
^
g ■
i&£
Si
»g» tiioii
toECum Duu-
-cs no-- • vum&ue me-
bo O
■LOS &U,
•ce. No- - ■ vvkqub me. ■
■gg
hod lion
in±
¥9
n^^
rWp^T
1 — g"
it'rrr^
g^^-ijap-o-f
1^^^=^
O g g
H »au
I E ! !
^3
s
^
isn-
iF=0=
*ott
-S--Q
I ' I
*• mecuik. sul - . • ' cs no- W/n<*«€ me
A«5 J>ULCe no- tium — • sue me- tor.
255
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Cantio.
£
a
Cypriani Rori.
^-3
CA--U)-
^^3
^0-7-^^^
2z
— Nam ee-- vermes &'/- —Gu-u> ie-
O-OL
W=^
PHqQ-
=-cr
£/9- /*9-
/»/ .5b --
■ Ai//» *2r-
nsNres Si- - cw-o
Levem no- - /havo
^E
m
eK?£o 1 g To
?w=r
9*9*
^
-^.S/w HU,l£/iO
i-evem
Numeao
m
^^
*«
'-a-a- a
fC^O.
S3
^3
:9-«g^-
^
T~rr
"PecTo
nume-Rc
VsutiNr as --/VITUS
s
^=4^
gfe-l*
aatCTg-
£/?- - /./»-
MMI /5S ReNTSi Si- -tuuo /-e
vert Na- me
3
Hg. ^Jo' g ^
^S
5 id o
:f^JO"
W
rf„-N
^g
*«-S — 3-
■g-g- o-
=g=g
"to??
T>eu4/i
©
ffi
f-=F=;
T'fiA *// t Gem/- —
TVS -pecTone
m
^
3=
TBL-wmt G£ -- mi-
nis 7>ecTo as
m
m=&
gbo p'
/ra
£Sb
■ flri
T-t-1
*
Noh 7>£t<.u/yr he
ffS /mo
gy^~~d
^
=?
/ȣ /- /*>0
vecro- f?s
3^
C5=
sator
■cP o
g - »
e
33
^=e
fSEp
-93
//wo /K//a/-
<//*> <?**;
<V££ £0/V
sne-TeNTii toNT as
Sgl
=-St:
g^E
o— P-
?»i r J
^£2S
~imb~~8)e
met fa
£ffi
«^ 1 — —
fl5-
wa
3=
«£c=
=i=-J
fg^
$=Oz
"E"
G8M£S
nee
m
If lo l>o
^
±ot
te=£
a°o o-
«•» ^
Qe fives' . ..~3"
g
Siitcc
a o
qto^
7»P".
/Wg.
AD-
^408-
-- J»0 W-
4mt
VUU -■
ifcjgfc
^^
=»sg=
f^o-
^at
~m~
AD .:
g
256
tcr
IIQn
jS
flJo^P^
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
B
=*»=
P,J J3
a „ _
- /
me- no
^^
P^F?
Plgg
i£g-
3^
ffiF
to -
, a
- / X* - CES So Pi 'if/- Cl-TtS
•Tsm
§^
a^
-btott-
s
- o
^ q Q
77£
-CBS-SU
P
dgjjd^ c
3tcdt
3iE
- c.
— -3-g
Htcfr-
"RE-CSS-SU
- — O O
" jaJ:g=^g
/» rw-/ £M.
7Zte-
3
o o
diet:
^Su
■ff» a
£=£=+
&-
U-CI-SS TV-
nmr-
~Se-
m
ioa
o a
=-9-
-PP- *
g O
a?1
±r=3
--- Sf*
Sa
Dg-u-ct-
m
LP o =^^
ttri~W
" c J J. J j ,1
«
BS-Al-C/- 7£
&c
ve- u- c/-^£
^
g
-pl^-
t=£
. o
^J§L
tf« TKlS'Tl-
■ I CA- Tu. LI
Dt/u-.
CeTVtS-TI
TU um
%'\ 5i B
KjtJ-i^Jo.Jj
Ifgtt
7i«f- ££• £*<p- — /w^/y
/»- ve
The madrigals, in general, of both Cyprian and Orlando, to
Italian words, are excellent, in the style of the times; but of these
there need no examples, after the number of learned and elaborate
compositions with which the reader has been presented from the
works of their cotemporaries. Wherever innovation has been
attempted, which tends to a revolution in the art, it seems the duty of
an historian to point it out; and the two chromatic compositions have
been inserted above, with thatvintent. Indeed, the laboured and
equivocal modulation of these composers, though often learned and
Voi,. ii. 17.
257
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ingenious, sometimes borders so much on caprice and affectation as
to fatigue the attention, and disgust the ear.
The pedantry of crude harmonies and learned modulation, only
suits depraved ears that are grown callous to every thing that is
easy and natural. The Italians, when they quitted madrigals, and
no longer aspired at the applause of fastidious chamber-critics, whose
approbation was bestowed on no compositions that did not smell of
the lamp, simplified their secular Music, and instead of puzzling and
goading the hearer with complicated contrivances and extraneous
modulation, aimed at grace and facility in their melodies, which they
clothed with such plain and tranquil harmony, as, instead of disguise
and suffocation, added greatly to their energy and effect. Dramatic
Music was not yet even in idea, and concerts, or other assemblies of
gay and unlearned hearers, seem now not to have existed; so that
musical composers could not be said to write for the public, who
will ever prefer such pleasure and amusement as give them the
least trouble. Authors of all kinds, who seek for applause, conform
to the taste of their judges; and we find, in our own times, that those
musicians who are qualified by their genius and abilities to direct and
govern the public opinion, think it necessary, however false and
corrupt it may be, to humour and flatter it, by all the concessions in
their power. The art never long remains stationary at any one point
of cultivation; and if perfection could be attained, its reign would
inevitably be short. In Music, the learned are few, and silent; the
ignorant numerous, and noisy : in the chamber it was right to please
the former, and in the theatre, where
' ' the fair, the gay, the young
Govern the numbers of each song, ' '
there is no choice. A public and mixed audience is such a
many-headed monster, that all its ears cannot be pleased at the same
time; and whether the good or the bad predominate, the greater
number must be gratified at the expence of the less.
Two of Orlando di Lasso's sons, Ferdinand and Rodolph, were
able musicians, and both in the service of Maximilian, duke of
Bavaria; the eldest as chapel-master, and the other as organist to
that prince. These collected their father's motets, as well those
which had been published during his life, as those which remained
unpublished at his decease, and printed them in a very splendid and
sumptuous manner at Munich, in seven volumes, large folio, 1604,*
with a dedication to their patron the sovereign of Bavaria. The
general reception, however, of these compositions, seems not to have
equalled the expectations of the editors : other productions had taken
possession of the public ear and favour. It is, I fear, in vain to
hope for the revival of old Music; too many are interested in the
success of the new; and such are the vicissitudes of what are called
taste and expression in this art, that if sufficient probity and zeal
could be found in fashionable performers to incline them to attempt
* Six volumes were published in 1604 and the seventh in 1610.
25S
MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE XVI CENTURY
doing justice to the productions of former times, it is hardly possible
for them to succeed; the accent, energy, and expression are either lost
in the execution, or unintelligible to the hearers. There is, indeed,
as little chance for a musician of the present age to perform such
productions in the manner of the times in which they were composed,
as to pronounce a foreign language as well as his own; and if, against
all calculation, he should succeed, this Music will still be an unknown
tongue to the public.
259
Chapter Vll
Of the Progress of Music in England from the
Death of Queen Elizabeth, till the End of the
Seventeenth Century
James I
ELIZABETH, in the early part of her life, seems to have
studied Music, and to have made a considerable progress on
the Virginals (k). Her reign was long, and, in general,
tranquil; and in spite of the fanatical spirit of the times, and the
outcry of the Puritans against every species of Church-music, except
syllabic psalmody, our Cathedral service, by the diligence and
abilities of Dr. Tye, Tallis, Bird, Morley, and others, was brought
to a pitch of perfection, which was hardly surpassed by that of
Italy itself.
This, however, does not appear to have been the consequence of
royal munificence; for Elizabeth, though extremely fond of splendour
and shew, was so parsimonious in rewarding talents, that she
suffered the gentlemen of her chapel, till the time of her death, to
solicit in vain for an augmentation of salary, which the difference
in the value of money, and way of living since the first establish-
ment of the Chapel-Royal, seemed to have made necessary. And
though, among the nobility, the principal professors seem to have
met with solid patronage, yet Dr. Bull and Dowland quitted the
kingdom in pursuit of better elsewhere.
The accession of James I. to the crown of England [1603]
occasioned no immediate accession of science, or refinement in the
polite arts : as the country he quitted was still less polished than that
in which he arrived. Nor does it appear that this prince, either
from nature or education, was enabled to receive any pleasure from
Music; however, early in his reign, the gentlemen of his chapel,
assisted by the influence and solicitation of several powerful
noblemen, who pleaded their cause, severally obtained an increase
of ten pounds to their annual stipend.
(k) See above p. 24.
260
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
An entry is made of this event in the cheque-book of the Chapel
Royal, signed, not only by five of the great officers of state, but by
the subdean, chaplains, and gentlemen of the chapel then living.
Among these petitioners there is but one name, that of Edmund
Hooper (I) [c. 1553-1621], which ever appears afterwards in the lists
of musicians eminent for composition or performance, except Bird,
Bull, and Gyles, who had distinguished themselves in the preceding
reign.
Dr. Nathaniel Giles [c. 1558-1633], a native of Worcestershire,
took a bachelor's degree 1585, and was soon after appointed
organist and master of the boys at Windsor. On the death of
Hunnis, in 1597, he was appointed master of the children of the
Chapel Royal; in 1622, he was admitted to the degree of doctor in
Music at Oxford; and on the accession of Charles I. was appointed
organist of his majesty's chapel. He was a learned and able musician
of the old school, and composed many services and anthems for the
Church, which were regarded as masterly productions. Gyles,
however, like Ravenscroft, had a strong tincture of pedantry in his
disposition, which inclined him to regard with more reverence than
they deserved the complicated measures, prolations, augmentations,
diminutions, and other dissimular motions of the several parts of
polyphonic compositions, commonly called by the reformers curious
singing. There is extant a lesson of descant by Master Gyles, before
he had taken his doctor's degree, of thirtie-eighte proportions of
sundrie kindes. Most of these were become obsolete, unintelligible,
and useless, by the general reception of more simple, easy, and
modern characters and dvisions of time.* And it seems as if Gyles
and Ravenscroft wished, in pure pedantry, to revive the old
perplexities; as Dr. Pepusch, a century later, tried hard to bring us
back to the ancient ecclesiastical modes or species of octave. It is
difficult to determine which is most injurious to Music, or the greatest
impediment to its improvement, the pedantry which draws us back
to useless and exploded customs, or wanton and licentious
innovation, which quits the true and fundamental principles of the
art, in order to pursue visionary schemes of reformation and
singularity. Good Music is ever to be found between these two
extremes; and though Pedantry takes hold of one hand, in order to
draw her back to rusticity or exploded learning; and Innovation
seizes the other to drag her from the right path, into the company
of caprice, affectation, and singularity; she pursues her slow and
steady course towards taste, elegance, simplicity, and invention,
under the guidance of Judgment and Science.
To insert many examples of composition, during a barbarous
age, particularly if some value be not given to them by their scarcity
(i) This musician was likewise organist of Westminster Abbey, and author of several
anthems which are still performed in our provincial cathedrals, as well as one of the
Harmonists who set parts to the edition of the psalm-tunes, published 1594 [1592]. He died 1621.
* There is a number of compositions by Dr. Giles in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 17792-6; 30478-9;
17784, 17820, 31418, 30085-7), and also at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and Christ
Church, Oxford. Hawkins in his History reprinted the Lessons of Descant.
261
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is doing the reader but little kindness. Indeed, we are now
approaching better times, when productions of a superior class will
pour in upon us, and deserve insertion; of which, to point out the
peculiar beauties and excellence will be a much more pleasing employ-
ment, than to censure or ridicule the defects of such as were
produced during this reign.
Anthems, masques, madrigals, songs, and catches, seem to
comprise the whole of our vocal Music for the Church, the Stage,
and the Chamber, at this time. And with respect to instrumental
productions under the title of Fancies, &c. as they were chiefly
composed for lutes and viols, which are now laid aside, if they had
been replete with genius and learning, justice could not have been
done to them in the performance. Luckily the chief part of them are
of so artless and insipid a kind, that no loss would accrue to
judicious and reasonable lovers of Music by their utter annihilation.
The best English musicians of the early part of the seventeenth
century have been included in the end of the sixteenth. There are
many names come down to us of others who published works that
were still-bom, and can hardly be said ever to have existed. With
accounts of these and their authors I shall not long detain the
reader: the history of men who have done nothing cannot be too
short, as they can neither be made profitable nor pleasant.
Batson, Anmer, Litchfield, Pilkington, and Ward, published
madrigals, and other vocal Music, about this time; Jones, Corkine,
and Adson Ayres; but all so much alike, so unmarked, unmeaning,
and vapid, that there is not sufficient difference of style, melody,
or modulation in them to enable the most penetrating critic to assign
them to one composer more than another. And it would be as
vain for a cultivated and refined ear to hope for amusement in them,
as a plagiarist to seek for plunder.
It has been inferred that prince Henry was a lover of Music, and
a performer, from the list of musicians on his establishment; but
this seems to have been more a matter of dignity and ancient usage,
than the prince's choice for the gratification of a particular passion :
as it may be supposed that there never was a prince of Wales
without ministrels, or musicians in his service. And no memorials
remain of this promising young prince ever availing himself of the
advantage of such a band, in honouring them with his commands
in any particular exercise of their skill and talents.
In the list of his musical establishment, however, 1611, the
names of several musicians appear who merit some notice: these,
besides Dr. Bull, were Robert Johnson, Thomas Lupo, Thomas
Cutting, Thomas Ford, and nine more, at £.40. per annum salary
to each. Johnson, who was probably the son of the old composer
of that name, mentioned in the preceding volume, seems to have
been an active professor during the reigns of king James and Charles
I. his name frequently appearing in the publications of the times
262
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
(w); as does that of Lupo, not only in printed but manuscript
instrumental Music, particularly Fantasias for lutes and viols, of
which many have been preserved in the collections made by the
nobility and gentry who then patronized the art. Cutting was a
celebrated performer on the lute, in the service of the lady Arabella
Stuart, the king's niece; to whom his queen and prince Henry wrote
letters, requesting her to permit him to engage in the service of the
king of Denmark, her majesty's brother («). Ford [c. 1580-1648]
published some pieces for four voices, accompanied by lutes and
viols, 1607; and several of his catches appear in the first collections
that were published of these facetious and social compositions.
The reader will perhaps be best enabled to judge of the musical
productions of this reign by seeing them separately classed under
the three principal divisions of the art, as it has admission in the
Church, the Theatre, and Chamber.
Indeed, amidst many dull and worthless secular productions, the
Church was furnished with some good compositions; but these, it
is to be feared, will only prove, that such Music may be produced
at all times with less genius than that which requires imagination,
as well as science, to support it; as it depends more on mechanical
rules and labour than invention.
Thomas Tomkins, a scholar of Bird, who took a bachelor's
degree in Music, at Oxford, 1607, was an excellent contrapuntist,
who supplied the Church with a great number of admirable
compositions. Many of them are preserved in Dr. Tudway's
collection, British Museum, and in Christ-church and Magdalen
College, Oxford.
Elway Bevin must be remembered among the musical
luminaries of this reign.* He was a scholar of Tallis, which is
discoverable by his works; but it is not quite so easy to discover
how it could have been at the recommendation of his master
who died 1585, that he was sworn in gentleman extraordinary of
the Chapel Royal, as has been said, 1589 [1605]. His service in
D minor, printed in Boyce's collection, has the true ancient cast
of modulation, the ferrugo pretiosa upon it, which gives a dignity
to its effects, for which we can now hardly account. The accents,
as usual with the old masters, are often erroneously placed; but if
that imperfection be removed or regarded with indulgence, the
composition must be allowed, in point of harmony and modulation,
to be admirable. And there are some grand effects produced by-
pauses and long notes without changing or infringing the original
(m) His instrument seems to have been the lute or harp, as he is allowed £.20. per annum
for strings. See the grant in Rymer. He first set the Tempest of Shakspeare.
(») These letters, with the answers to them, are among the Harleian MSS. in the British
Museum : No. 6986, 42, 43, 44.
* There is no record of Bevin being a pupil of Tallis. There are MSS. by Bevin in the
B.M. of which might be mentioned, "Hark, Jolly Shepherds" in 20 parts. Other MSS. by him
are at Oxford, in the Music School and Christ Church.
263
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
measure, that afford me very pleasing sensations. Elway Bevin
was, indeed, a man of genius, and it is to be lamented that more
of his compositions have not been preserved. Besides his appoint-
ment in the Chapel Royal, he was organist of Bristol cathedral
[1589-1637], and the master of Dr. Child. But, notwithstanding
his abilities and great age, he was dismissed from all his employ-
ments, in 1636, on being discovered to adhere to the Romish
communion.*
In 1631 he published a work full of harmonical erudition,
entitled " A brief e Instruction, &c. and Art of Canon," which,
however useless it may be deemed now, must have been of singular
service to young students in times when canons were regarded as
the greatest efforts of human intellect, and the solution of these
enigmas was equally difficult with that of the most abstruse and
complicated problems in Euclid. Micheli Romano published a
similar work at Venice, 1615 (o), and Valentini another at Rome,
1655 (p).
But the best English composer for the Church, during the reign
of James I. seems, without exception, to have been Orlando
Gibbons [1583-1625]; who, though not blest with longevity, yet,
during his short life, contributed amply to the Music of the Church,
which he enriched with numerous compositions, that are still fresh
and in constant use among the best productions within its pale.
This excellent musician, a native of Cambridge, was brother
of Edward Gibbons, bachelor of Music, organist of Bristol,**
gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and master of Mathew Lock; and
of Ellis Gibbons, author of two madrigals in the Triumphs of Oriana,
who is stiled by Ant. Wood, "the admirable organist of Salisbury."
In 1604, at the age of twenty-one, Orlando was appointed organist of
the Chapel Royal, in the room of Arthur Cock. In 1622, he was
honoured at Oxford with a doctor's degree in Music, at the same
time as his friend Dr. Heyther [Heather], when both were
countenanced and favoured with indulgencies in the university in
consequence of letters from the learned Camden, who recommended
them with friendly zeal to its notice. According to Ant. Wood,
the academical exercise in six or more parts, performed at this
time for Heyther' s degree, was composed by Orlando Gibbons, " as
one or more eminent musicians then living had several times told
him." So that grown- gentlemen, as well as boys, through idleness
or ignorance, are sometimes reduced to the humiliating necessity
(o) Musica vaga et artificiosa, continente motetti con oblighi, e canoni diversi, tanto i>er
quelli chc li dilettano sentire varie curiosita, quanto per quelli che vorrano professare d' intendere
diversi studii della Musica. Folio.
(p) Canoni Musicali del Signor Pier Francesco Valentini Romano.
* There is no evidence to support this statement.
** It is now known that Edward Gibbons was not connected in any way with Bristol
Cathedral, and there does not appear to be any truth in the statement that Ellis Gibbons was
organist at Salisbury Cathedral.
264
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
of having recourse to the charity of friends, before they can exhibit
an exercise (q) .
The harmony of Gibbons's service in F, printed by Dr. Boyce,
is pure, clear, and grateful; and the melody more accented and
flowing than I have found in any choral Music of equal antiquity
(r). The two parts in one, of the Gloria Patri, though they may
be the cause of some confusion in the words, discover no restraint
or stiffness in the melody, which continues to move with the same
freedom, as if ho canon had existence. And though the purists,
on account of the confusion arising from all the parts singing
different words at the same time, pronounce the style, in which his
full anthems are composed, to be vicious; yet the lovers of fugue,
ingenious contrivance, and rich, simple, and pleasing harmony,
must regard them as admirable productions, alia Palestrina, a style
in which Tallis and Bird acquired so much renown.
Besides his admirable choral compositions, O. Gibbons was
author of melodies in two parts to the hymns and spiritual songs
of the Church, translated by Geo. Withers [1623], and of several
others works which will be mentioned elsewhere.
Dr. Tudway, in the dedication of the first volume of his
manuscript " Collection of the most celebrated Services and
(q) A manuscript copy of the exercise performed for Dr. Heyther's degree, is said to
have been found, signed with the name of Orlando Gibbons. It is an anthem for eight voices,
taken from the forty-seventh psalm; and appears to be the very same composition as the
anthem of Orlando Gibbons, to the words "O clap your hands together all ye people," printed
in Boyce's Cath. Mus., Vol. II., p. 59.
Writing in eight real parts, fugato, in this close manner, is perhaps more difficult than in
the same number of parts, a due cori. As the exercise for the degree with which I was
honoured at Oxford, was required, by the statutes, to be composed in eight real parts; previous
to supplicating for it in that university, besides the anthem consisting of solo, verse, and
choral movements, accompanied by instruments, I prepared a vocal chorus, which the musical
reader will find on the next plates, in eight real parts, in the same full and rigid manner as
Orl. Gibbons's "O clap your hands together," before I had seen that or any other of the same
kind. It was, however, not performed : as the late worthy Music-professor, Dr. William Hayes
said, that though this movement alone would have well entitled me to a doctor's degree, it
would not be wanting, the choruses of the anthem being sufficiently full to satisfy him and the
university of my abilities to write in many parts.
Upon shewing Mr. C. P. Emanuel Bach the score of the exercise that was performed at
Oxford, 1769, he honoured it so far as to beg a copy of it, and afterwards had it performed,
vocally and instrumentally, in St. Catharine's church at Hamburgh, under his own direction,
1773. It was repeatedly performed at Oxford, after it had fulfilled its original destination;
and once the principal soprano part had the advantage of being exquisitely sung by Miss
Linley, now Mrs. Sheridan. It is hoped that the reader will pardon this egotism, which has
been extorted from me by occasional and sinister assertions, "that I neither liked nor had
studied Church Music."
(r) A few false accents, however, occur, and harmonies not generally received, such as
the ? ; (see Boyce, ubi supra, Vol. I. p. 125, line i. 129, and elsewhere in the same service)
5 when the base is neither stationary nor preparing for a close; and (p. 126) the combination
of 1 . But these are licences, which, in their transient use, can give but a momentary
uneasiness to the most fastidious and learned ear. Vol. II. p. 52 1. i. bar 3d of the same
admirable collection, there is a false relation in the harmony, which no ear can tolerate; nor do
I imagine that the author ever intended that one part should sing Fff, while another was
singing F£, not merely in passing notes, but fundamental. The second F, in the tenor, should
certainly be natural, or the counter tenor should have F#. And in the penultima bar of the
same anthem, Bfl and C would please my ear much more than Bb and G; in the first soprano,
p. 64, 1. i bar fourth, I should also like the interval of the false 5th to C#, in the first tenor,
better than Cy which, so near a close in D, disappoints a modern ear. However, this is
a V 'antique; and, at the time this anthem was composed, a false 5th in melody and in harmony,
was equally prohibited, though that prejudice now no longer exists, and we find the greatest
beauties arise from the use of both.
265
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Anthems used in the Church of England," addressed to lord
Harley, for whom it was made; after a just and warm eulogium
on the abilities of Tallis and Bird, says that " none of the later
composers could ever make appear so exalted a faculty in
compositions for the Church, except that most excellent artist,
Orlando Gibbons, organist and servant to king Charles I. whose
whole service, with several anthems, are the most perfect pieces of
church compositions which have appeared since the time of Tallis
and Bird; the air so solemn, the fugues and other embellishments
so just and naturally taken, as must warm the heart of any one,
who is endued with a soul fitted for divine raptures." To this
encomium every candid judge of harmony will readily subscribe;
but when the doctor tells us, that the celebrated service in F was
composed by Orlando Gibbons in 1635, he furnishes no very
favourable proof of his knowledge in chronology; as it is recorded
on the monument erected to his memory by his widow, that he
died ten years before that period. For in 1625, being commanded,
ex officio, to attend the solemnity of the marriage of his royal
master, Charles I. with the princess Henrietta of France, at
Canterbury, for which occasion he had composed the Music, he
was seized with the small-pox,* and dying on Whitsunday, in the
same year, was buried in that cathedral.
The court, during this reign, seems to have been wholly
inattentive to Music. No royal concerts are on record, and the only
secular use that appears to have been made of the art, within its
precincts, was in the Masques performed for the amusement of
his majesty and the royal family, in which occasional songs and
symphonies were introduced.
Masques, which preceded the regular musical drama, required
such splendid and expensive decorations, that, like the first operas
of Italy and France, they seem to have been confined to the
palaces of princes, and the mansions of the nobility; and those of
Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Sir William Davenant, Milton,
and others, appear to have been all originally written for private
performers and particular occasions.
As the incidental songs in these dramas, and in our plays, with
the overtures and act-tunes, included the whole of Theatrical
Music, during the reigns of our first James and Charles, I shall
endeavour to save my reader the trouble of seeking indications of
its use in the writings of our dramatic poets, by collecting and
explaining such passages as immediately concern or allude to Music
in the principal pieces of the times.
In Gammer Gurton's Needle, the first regular comedy in our
language, written 1551, we have a song, and an instance of the
early use of Music between the acts of each piece in our theatres;
* Gibbons' death was not occasioned by small-pox. A letter and a medical certificate were
discovered by Barclay Squire which state that he was at first "lethargical" and after
convulsions "he grew apoplecticall and so died." The complete keyboard works of Orlando
Gibbons have been edited by Margaret H. Glyn and published in 5 volumes by Stainer and Bell.
266
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
for which, at the end of the second act of this play, we have the
following instructions to the musicians :
" Into the town will I, my friendes to visit there,
And hither straight again to see th' end of this gere.
In the mean time, fellowes, pype up your fidles (s). 1
say, take them,
And let your friendes hear such mirth as ye can make
them."
In the Tragi-comedy of King Cambyses, Music is introduced at
the banquet.
-they be at hand, sir, with stick and fidle;
They can play a new dance called Hey didle didle."
In another part of this play a psalm is sung (t).
Exhibitions on a public stage are of great antiquity in our
country, and had their beginning, as Stow tells us, at Clerks well,
or Clerkenwell; a name it acquired from the annual meeting of the
London parish clerks, in order to play some large history of Holy
Scripture. " For example, of later times, in the yeare 1369, the
xiv. of Richard II. I read, the parish clarkes of London, on the
18th of July, played interludes at Skinner's Well, neere unto
Clarkes Well, which play continued three dayes together, the king,
queen, and nobles being present. Also the yeare 1409, x. Henry
IV. they played a play, at the Skinner's Well, which lasted eight
days, and was of matter from the creation of the world. There
were to see the same, the most part of the nobles and gentiles in
England."
" Skinner's Well," says the same author, " was so called, for
that the skinners of London held there certaine playes yeerely,
played of Holy Scripture; in place whereof, the wrestlings have of
later yeeres been kept, and are in part continued at Bartholomew-
tide (u)."
According to Hall's Chronicle, the first Masque performed in
England, was at Greenwich, 1512, " after the manner of Italie;"
and Hollingshed says, that " there was not only a Masque, but a
good comedy of Plautus performed in 1520." In 1530, a Masque
was performed at Whitehall, " consisting of Music, dancing, and
a banquet, with a display of grotesque personages and fantastic
dresses." This piece seems only to have wanted machinery to
fulfil the idea of a complete Masque, such as were afterwards
written by Ben Jonson and others, which, with a constant musical
declamation in recitative mixed with air, would have formed an
opera exactly similar to the Musical drama of Italy, in the ensuing
(s) This shews the early use of fidles in the play-house; but how these fidles were to pype,
is not easy to discover.
(t) In the running title of this play, it is called a Comedy of King Cambises; but in the
title-page it is said to be "a lamentable Tragedy full of pleasant mirth, &c"
(w) Stow's Survey of London, black letter, 1598.
267
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
century. Langbaine tells us, that Jocasta, a tragedy by Geo.
Gascoigne and Fran. Kenwelmushe, was first acted in 1556; and
Giles Jacob says, that each act of this play was introduced by
dumb show, and concluded by a chorus; but whether this chorus
was sung or not, is as yet unsettled by the critics. However, as
it does not appear that the choruses to Shakspeare' s historical plays
were ever sung, there seems no reason for concluding that this
chorus was performed in a different manner.
The next directions concerning Music, which I find in any of
our regular old plays, is in " the order given for dumb show "
before each act of the tragedy of Gorbuduc, or Ferrex and Porrex,
written by lord Buckhurst in 1561, three years before Shakspeare
was born.
First, the Music of violins began to play.
Second act. The Music of Cornets.
Third act. The Music of flutes.
Fourth act. The Music of hautbois.
Fifth act. Drums and flutes.
In 1580, masques and poems of various kinds, written by
Gascoigne and others, were performed in a splendid manner before
queen Elizabeth, on her visit to the earl of Leicester, of which
festival there are several minute accounts extant, particularly in
Sir W. Dugdale's History of Warwickshire, 1656, from a book
entitled " The Princely Pleasures of Kenelworth Castle."
Riccoboni says, that James I. on coming to the crown, in 1603,
granted a licence to a company of players, in which Interludes
are included; but an interlude then was another word for a play,
whether comedy, tragedy, or farce. Masques are not mentioned
in this patent; but as masques, at this time, were court entertain-
ments, or performed in the houses of the nobility, on particular
occasions of festivity, the necessary machinery and decorations
rendered such exhibitions too expensive for the ordinary public
theatres. Indeed, the several parts in the masques of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries were usually represented by the first
personages in the kingdom; if at court, the king, queen, and princes
of the blood often performed in them. And this was the custom
in France and other parts of Europe (x).
The English seem at all times to have received more delight
from dramas, in which the dialogue is spoken and the songs are
incidental, than from such as were sung throughout. Shakspeare
(x) The French and German writers on our musical drama confound masque with
mascarade and mascherata, and interlude with the Italian intermezzo; but we had interludes
long before the Italians had intermezzi, and our poems, or dramas, called masques, bear no
resemblance to an Italian mascherata. M. de Missy, who, in the Bibl. Brit. 1740, has given a
regular series of our masques, particularly of the seventeenth century, is constantly mistaken in
these particulars. In MS. Memoirs of Music, written by the Hon. Roger North, of Rougham, in
Norfolk, brother of the lord Keeper, to which I was allowed access by his descendant the
late Dr. Montague North, canon of Windsor; it is said, that "during the reign of king James I.
the greatest encouragement was given to Music and musicians in the performance of masques
at court; which being at once balls and operas, found employment for a great number of
professors, who appeared in the royal theatres in a splendid uniform, composed of silk mantles
and scarfs of various colours, with rich caps. And, for the better decoration of the scene, the
master represented the character of Apollo." A custom practised in the early days of
musical dramas in Italy.
268
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
and Beaumont and Fletcher have frequently introduced masques
for Music in their plays (y). Of the fourteen comedies of
Shakspeare there are but two or three in which he has not
introduced singing; even in most of his tragedies, this wonderful
and exquisite dramatist has manifested the same predilection for
Music. And as Homer and Chaucer have furnished illustration
to my subject, why should not Shakspeare?
In the Tempest, the use that is made of Music is admirable, as
well as the description of its effects. Act I. Sc. 5. Ariel, invisible,
playing and singing to Ferdinand, says :
" Where should this Music be, i' th' air or earth?
It sounds no more : and sure it waits upon
Some god o' th' island."
and afterwards:
" This is no mortal business, nor no sound
That the earth owns: I hear it now above me."
Indeed, the serious part of this most fanciful play is very
fortunately calculated for an opera. Shadwefl, in the last century,
made one of it, in the manner of what were then called operas on
our stage (z).
Act II. Sc. 1. " Enter Ariel playing solemn Music." I never
could understand this indication: no Music seems to be heard by
the characters on the stage, nor do they take any notice of it
through the whole scene. Afterwards, when with Music and a song
he acquaints Gonzalo of the danger he is in, his mission has
meaning. " While you here do snoring lie, &c."
Even Caliban talks well about Music :
" the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not."
Ariel never appears or is employed without Music, which is
sweetly described, and introduced with perfect propriety.
Prospero calls for medicinal Music:
" A solemn air, and the best comforter
To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains."
Midsummer Night's Dream.
Act II. Sc. 5. " Come now a roundel, and a Fairy song."
— If, as Dr. Gray says, a roundel is " a dance in a ring," a
roundelay was the song and tune to such dance; as ballad, from
(y) It seems doubtful whether this species of drama acquired the title of masque from
the actors appearing in masques, a I'antique, or from the characters being imaginary, and
the actors in disguise.
(z) It has been lately performed, more as a musical masque than opera or play, at Drury-
lane, to the Music of the late Mr. T. Linley, as it used to be to that of Dr. Arne and others.
The songs in this play. Dr. Wilson, who reset and published two of them, tells us, in his
Court [Cheerfull] Ayres, or Ballads, published at Oxford, 1660, that "Full fathom five, and
Where the bee sucks, had been first set by Robert Johnson, a composer cotemporary with
Shakspeare."
269
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ballata Italian, so roundelay, from rondelet old French, rondeau
modern.
The ideas and language of Fairyism are wonderfully imagined
and supported in this play; and the use assigned to Music happy
and fertile.
Act IV. Sc. 1. " Rural Music, tongs, &c." Poker and tongs,
marrow-bones and cleavers, salt-box, hurdy-gurdy, &c. are the old
national instruments of Music on our island.
Queen. " Music ho! Music: such as charmeth sleep."
Still Music, meaning such soft and gentle Music as tranquillizes,
soothes, and lulls to sleep.
Act. V. Sc. 1. In the list of sports ready for the nuptial feast
of Theseus, is " the battle with the Centaurs; to be sung by an
"Athenian eunuch to the harp." This seems to imply a more
ancient practice of castration for the voice than can be found in
Opera Annals.
Speaking of Quince, in the clown's prologue, Hippolita says,
"indeed, he hath play'd on his prologue, like a child on a recorder
(a); a sound, but not in government."
Two songs alluded to in the last scene of this play are lost.
Oberon. " And this ditty after me
Sing and dance it trippingly."
Queen. " First rehearse this song by rote,
To each word a warbling note;
Hand in hand, with Fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place."
Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Though this comedy furnishes fewer occasions for Music than
the two preceding dramas, yet musicians are employed in it as well
as musical allusions. As Ben Jonson, in his masque of Cynthia's
Revels, speaks of the gamut or syllables of solmisation, ut, re, mi,
fa, sol, la, which psalm-singers had made well-known to his
audience; so Shakspeare, in this play, Act I. Sc. 3. introduces all
the musical terms then in use : as, a tune, a note, a light, a heavy
tune, burden, melodious, to reach high, keep in tune, sing out,
too sharp, too flat, concord, harsh, descant, the mean base, &c.
Act IV. Sc. last, there is a laboured description of the powers
of poetry and Music; Orpheus's lute; concert, spelt as now:
" to their instruments
Tune a deploring dump," or lament
(lamentatione) , sung by a wretched and sorrowing lover in the
dumps.
(a) A Recorder is a flageolet, or birdpipe.
270
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Sc. 2. A serenata, or notturno is introduced:
" now must I to her window,
And give some evening Music to her ear."
Enter Musicians.
" now, gentlemen,
Let's tune, and to it lustily."
Song. " Who is Sylvia? what is she? &c."
Measure for Measure.
Though this play has less Music in it than the three preceding,
yet at the beginning of Act. IV. a song, from his own passionate
pilgrim: " Take, oh, take those lips away," is sung to Mariana
by a boy, who is sent away on the arrival of the duke, in the
character of a friar; when apologizing for the seeming levity of
listening to Music, she says:
" I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish,
You had not found me here so musical."
To which the duke answers:
" 'Tis good; though Music oft hath such a charm
To make bad good; and good provoke to harm."
This is a heavy charge, which it would not have been easy for
Shakspeare to substantiate, and does not very well agree with what
he says in the Tempest of the innoxious efficacy of Music: "Sounds
and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not." Music may be
applied to licentious poetry; but the poetry then corrupts the
Music, not the Music the poetry. It has often regulated the
movements of lascivious dances; but such airs heard, for the first
time, without the song or dance, could convey no impure ideas to
an innocent imagination; so that Montesquieu's assertion is still
in force : that ' ' Music is the only one of all the arts, which does
not corrupt the mind."
Merchant of Venice.
Act II. Sc. 1. A flourish of cornets when the Moorish prince
comes in.
Ibid. Sc. 6. " The vile squeaking of the wry-neck 'd Fife."
Act III. Sc. 2. " Let Music sound, while he doth make his
choice;
Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
Fading in Music.
he may win;
And what is Music then? then Music is
As are those dulcet sounds at break of day,
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
And summon him to marriage."
Music within.
2? I
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
A song while Bassanio examines the caskets:
" Tell me where is fancy bred, &c."
The passages in the fifth act of this interesting play, are
beautiful, numerous, and celebrated:
" And bring your Music forth into the air, &c."
' ' soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony."
Jessica. " I am never merry when I hear sweet Music." — This
is the initial of a well-known, and now proverbial, eulogium on
modulated sound: " The man that has no Music in his soul.
&c. (b)."
As you like it.
Act II. Sc. 1. A song: " Under the green-wood tree, &c "
Remarks on Music by Jaques. Then another song:
" Blow, blow, thou winter's wind."
Music. Song: " What shall he have that kill'd the deer."
Song: " 'Twas a lover and his lass."
Still Music. Song: " Then is there mirth in heav'n."
Another song: " Wedding is great Juno's crown."
Love's Labour lost.
Act III. Armado. " Warble child; make passionate my sense
of hearing. ' '
This is a most beautiful and comprehensive request: none of
the fine arts can subsist, or give rapture, without passion. Hence
mediocrity is more intolerable in them than in other inventions.
Music without passion is as monotonous as the tolling of a bell.
But no song is printed: though the author tells us there is
singing. Dr. Johnson says, " here is apparently a song lost."
Music as for a Masquerade.
Songs for Spring and Autumn :
' When daisies pied." — And " When isicles hang on the wall."
Winter's Tale.
Two nonsensical songs, by the rogue Autolychus:
' When daffodils begin to peere." — " Jog on, jog on, the foot-
path way."
" He's main musical." This Autolychus is the true ancient
minstrel, as described in the old Fabliaux. See this Hist. Book
II. p. 593.
A three-part catch, ready planned by the poet, and another
pedlar's song: " Will you buy any tape? "
(b) See Pref. to Book I. Hist, oj Mus., p. 18.
272
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Twelfth Night.
Act I. Sc. 1. This play opens with a beautiful eulogium on
Music :
" If Music be the food of love, play on, &c."
The use of Evirati, in the same manner as at present, seems to
have been well known at this time (about 1600) (b). For Viola
says:
" I'll serve the duke;
Thou shalt present me as a Eunuch to him,
It may be worth thy pains, for I can singT
And speak to him in many sorts of Music,
That will allow me very worth his service."
And the Duke's sensibility to the power of Music is disclosed in
the first interview, when he says to Viola:
" thy small pipe
Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative — a women's part.
I know thy constellation is right apt
For this affair," supposing her to be a Eunuch.
Act II. Sc. 3. The Clown is asked for a love-song, and sings:
" O mistress mine, where are you roaming? &c." And
" What is love? 'tis not hereafter, &c."
Ibid. They sing a catch, beginning " Hold thy peace." (bb).
Sc. 4. Scraps of songs and catches are roared out by Sir Toby,
Sir Andrew, and Clown, as " Three merry men be we. — Tilly,
valley, lady! — There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady. — 0
the twelfth day of December. — Farewel, dear heart, since I must
needs begone. — His eyes do shew his days are almost done. — Shall
I bid him go? what, an if you do? — Shall I bid him go, and spare
not? O no, no, no, you dare not." All these, probably, were well
known in Shakspeare's time.
Sc. 5. The Duke, who is as constant in his passion for Music,
as for Olivia, says :
" give me some Music now —
Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song,
That old and antique song, we heard last night;
Methought, it did revive my passion much;
More than light airs, and recollected terms
Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times (c).
how dost thou like this tune? —
It gives a very echo to the seat.
Where love is thron'd, (d).
(b) Shakspeare died 1616; and though this play was not printed till 1623, yet it certainly
was written several years before the decease of the author.
{bb) The reader will see the original Music of this catch, among others, hereafter.
(c) Measures, in the musical sense. Mr. Stillingfleet, and other croakers, have eagerly
cited this passage as a satire on modern fine Music and singing; but, I believe, Shakspeare
meant the reverse; and points at merry jigs and vulgar levity of strain.
(d) The heart. Pope's idea of the sound being an echo to the sense, seems derived from
this passage.
Vol.. ii. 18. 273
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Ibid. " — the song we had last night —
it is old and plain;
The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,
And the free maids that weave their thread with bones
Do use to chaunt it: it is silly sooth (e),
And dallies with the innocence of love,
Like the old age (/)."
Song: " Come away, come away, death."
Act IV. Sc. 4. The Clown, as elsewhere, is much addicted to
singing. Song, by the Clown :
" When that I was a little tiny boy, &c." serves as an epilogue
to this entertaining play.
In The Taming of the Shrew, no other use is made of Music than
to introduce ministrels at the wedding, and disguise Hortensio in
the character of a man well seen in Music, to facilitate his admission
to the presence and courtship of Bianca; an expedient, however,
which was unsuccessful.
More fragments of old ballads are here quoted than in any
other of Shakspeare's plays; though, as Dr. Warburton said, " he
seemed to bear the ballad-makers a very particular grudge, and
often ridicules them with exquisite humour."
In The Comedy of Errors Music has no admission or concern.
Much ado about Nothing.
Music at the masquerade, Act II. Sc. 2. And in Benedict's
dainty description of such an all-accomplished woman as could ever
incline him to wed, he adds to her qualifications, Music : ' ' — of
good discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair of what colour
it shall please God." Sc. 8.
Act II. Sc. 9. The song: " Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no
more," is introduced by several reflections on Music, and the
affectation of singers. Baltazar, the musician and servant to Don
Pedro, was perhaps thus named from the celebrated Baltazarini,
called De Beaujoyeux, an Italian performer on the violin, who was
in the highest fame and favour at the court of Henry III. of France,
1577 (g). In the last act, sc. 8, the epitaph and song are beautiful
and well calculated for Music.
All's Well that ends Well.
Act I. Sc. 5. Flourish of cornets for the king of France's
entrance and exit.
Act III. Sc. 8. A tucket afar off (h). Ibid. A march afar
off.
Act V. Sc. 3. Sound trumpets.
(e) Simple truth. Johnson. (/) Times of simplicity. lb. (g) See above, p. 223.
ik) This word is manifestly a corruption of the Italian word toccata, a flourish.
274
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Historical Plays. King John.
No Music but trumpets and the din of war.
King Richard II.
Act I. Sc. 4. Military instruments are admirably described:
" rou'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums,
And harsh resounding trumpets dreadful bray."
Ibid. Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, on being ordered into
banishment, says:
" My native English, now I must forego;
And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unstringed viol, or a harp;
Or, like a cunning instrument cas'd up,
Or being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony."
Act II. Sc. 1. " the tongues of dying men
Inforce attention, like deep harmony:
— more are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before;
The setting sun, and Music in the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last "
Ibid. Sc. 3. Speaking of John of Gaunt's death — '"all is said,
His tongue is now a stringless instrument."
Act. V. Sc. 10 Richard in his prison, says — " Music do I hear?
Ha, ha; keep time: how sow'r sweet Music is,
Where time is broke, and no proportion kept? "
Here he plays on musical terms for several lines.
All instruments, played with the bow, in Shakspeare's time, were
fretted, except violins.
In the Taming of the Shrew, act II, sc. 3. he could not resist the
temptation of quibbling on the term fret.
" Frets call you them? quoth she : I'll fume with them."
" then call'd me rascal, fidler,
And twangling Jack,"
alluding to a famous street-musician of the time.
First Part, Henry IV.
Act I. Sc. 2. Falstaff says he's as melancholy as the " drone
of a Lincolnshire bagpipe."
Act II. Sc. 3. " An I have not ballads made on you all, and
sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison."
Act III. Sc. 3. " thy tongue
Makes Welch as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing division (i) to her lute."
(i) Divisions were very uncommon in vocal Music during the time of Shakspeare.
275
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Second Part of Henry IV.
Induction. " Rumour is a pipe,
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it (k)."
I advanced no farther, regularly, in my hunt through the
pleasant wilds of Shakspeare; but in dipping accidentally, the
following passages struck me as worthy of notice.
Henry V. Act I. Sc. 2. There is a manifest allusion to the
different parts of Music :
'"' For government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent (I),
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like Music."
In Othello, Act IV. Sc. 13. Desdemona says :
" My mother had a maid, called Barbara ;
She was in love; and he, she lov'd, prov'd mad, (false)
And did forsake her: she had a song of willow.
An old thing 'twas, but it express' d her fortune,
And she died singing it. That song, to-night,
Will not go from my mind; I've much ado,
Not to go hang my head all o' one side,
And sing it like poor Barbara."
King Lear, Act I. Sc. 7. " O, these eclipses portend these
divisions! fa, sol, la, mi."
None of the commentators have hitherto been sufficiently skilled
in Music to see the meaning of these syllables in solmisation, which
imply a series of sounds so unnatural, that ancient musicians
prohibited their use. Mi contra fa est diabolus. Shakspeare,
however, shews by the context, that he was well acquainted with the
property of the musical intervals contained in the Tritonus, or sharp
4th, which consisting of three tones, without the intervention of a
semitone, is extremely difficult to sing, and disagreeable when sung,
if mi, or fa, is the last note of the phrase or passage.
But to return to Masques, which were certainly the precursors
of operas in England, and belong to the chain of dramas which
completed the union of Poetry and Music on our stage : and it does
{k) This allusion to the flute is well supported.
(I) In a note on this passage, consent (or rather concent) has been defined unison. But
concent is connected harmony, in general, and not confined to any specific consonance.
Concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments in
what we should now call a chorus, or concert.
276
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
not appear, on examination, that the Italian Mascherate, published
by Lasca, which have been thought their prototypes, were dialogued
or performed on any stage. They seem to have been only
processional songs, sung through the street by the representatives of
different professions and trades, masqued, during carnival time.
And the interludes which De Missy and Riccoboni, and their
translators, think we had from the Italian intermezzi, seem to want
analogy: as interlude, with us, was a general name for every species
of stage representation, out of the Church.
Masques in England certainly bear some resemblance to operas :
as they are in dialogue; performed on a stage; ornamented with
machinery, dances, and decorations; and have always Music, vocal
and instrumental. But then the essential and characteristic
criterion, recitative, is wanting, without which the resemblance is
imperfect. Our musical pieces, which are sometimes honoured with
the name of opera, differ in this particular so much, that they more
resemble masques than the dramas which are entitled to that
appellation; for, in English musical dramas, the dialogue is all
declaimed or spoken in the same manner as in our old masques; and
in Italy, whence we have both name and thing, an opera consists of
both recitatives and airs, and is sung from beginning to the end.
In the Maid's Tragedy, by Beaumont and Fletcher, it is said of
masques, that " they must commend their king, and speak in praise
of the assembly; bless the bride and bridegroom in person of some
god; they are tied to rules of flattery (m)."
It has already been observed, that masques were generally
written for the use, and, consequently, the pleasure of courts; it was
therefore natural for the authors to render them as palatable to their
patrons and constituents as possible. It does not appear that either
Beaumont or Fletcher was often called upon to contribute his quota
to these splendid exhibitions; and the passage just cited has in it
something of sour and austere, that seems to savour of pique or
republicanism.
Most of the numerous masques, that were performed at court
and elsewhere, during this and the subsequent reign, were written
by Ben Jonson, and set to Music either by Alfonso Ferrabosco, jun.
[d. c. 1628] or Nicholas Laniere [1588-1666]. Of the dramatic
Music of these celebrated musicians of their time, it would now be
difficult to produce many specimens. However, one of Ferrabosco's
songs in the Volpone of Ben Jonson, acted 1605, being printed among
his Ayres, No. 6. will have a place on the next plates.
It is recorded, in the folio edition of Ben Jonson's works, printed
1640, that in 1617, his whole masque [Lovers made men], which
was performed at the house of Lord Hay, for the entertainment of
the French ambassador, was set to Music after the Italian manner,
(w) Milton, in his Paradise Lost, speaks contemptuously of this species of drama :
" court amours
Mix'd dance, and wanton Mask, or midnight ball, &c."
277
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
stilo recitativo, by Nic. Laniere (n), who was not only ordered to
set the Music, but to paint the scenes.
This short piece being wholly in rhyme, though without variation
in the measure, to distinguish airs from recitation, as it was all in
musical declamation, may be safely pronounced the first attempt at
an opera in the Italian manner, after the invention of recitative.
But in the same year, in the masque, by the same author, called
the Vision of Delight, presented at court during Christmas, there is
a manifest distinction of air from recitative; in both which styles
the whole piece, in verses of different measures, was performed. It
is opened by Delight, personified, who, stilo recitativo, " spake in
song." Then Night, likewise personified, sung: " Break Fancy
from thy cave of cloud, &c." This air ends in a chorus or quire.
After which Fancy spake, in stilo recitativo. Then Peace sung:
" Why look you so, &c." After which an air that terminates in a
quire. The song ended, Wonder spake (in recitative.) Then
dancing, singing, and chorus.
Here we have all the characteristics of a genuine opera, or
musical drama of modern times, complete: splendid scenes and
machinery; poetry; musical recitation; air; chorus; and dancing.
Though the Music of this masque is not to be found, yet of
Laniere 's Musica narativa we have several examples, printed by
Play ford in the collections of the time; particularly the Ay res and
Dialogues, 1653 [and 1659], and the second part of the Musical
Companion, which appeared in 1667; and in which his Music to
the dialogues is infinitely superior to the rest : there is melody,
measure, and meaning in it. His recitative is more like that of his
countrymen at present, than any cotemporary Englishman's.
However, these dialogues were composed before the laws and
phraseology of recitative were settled, even in Italy. His cantata
of Hero and Leander was much celebrated during these times, and
the recitative regarded as a model of true Italian musical
declamation* [B.M. Add. MSS. 14,399 and 33,236].
Vocal Music for the Chamber, or for social and private purposes,
distinct from that of the Church and Theatre, during the reign of
James I. consisted chiefly of madrigals, which had been composed
in the preceding century, and of which the favour began to fade.
To these, however, were added an excellent set by Orlando Gibbons,
1612, and eight several sets, at different times, by Michael Este,
with others of an inferior class, Batson, Pilkington, Litchfield,
and Ward. Besides these of the madrigal kind, but more dry,
fanciless, and frivolous, Ayres of four and more parts, were
(n) Nicolo Laniere was an Italian who came into England early in the last century; there
is a fine portrait of him at the Grange in Hampshire, by Vandyke. It was the sight of this
portrait that determined Charles I. to employ that excellent painter. Laniere professionally
practised Music painting, and engraving; but his greatest excellence was in Music. His own
portrait, painted by himself, is in the Music-school at Oxford. He etched a considerable
number of plates for a drawing-book; was an able connoisseur in pictures; and had the art of
giving modern paintings an air of antiquity, and putting off copies for originals. Granger's
Biog. Hist, of Engl. Vol. I. p. 539.
* There is a remarkable MS. in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 10444) which contains a collection
of 75 dance tunes for Masques. This MS. is fully described in an article by W. J. Lawrence,
in Music and Letters, for January, 1922.
278
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
published by Ford, Bartlett, Sir William Leighton, Ravenscroft,
Bennet, and Attey. Of songs for a single voice, but few were
printed,* and these with only a single accompaniment for the lute
or viol, without symphony or ritornel. Ferrabosco's ayres to the
lute have been already mentioned; and no other compositions of
this kind seem to have been produced, except by Adson, under the
title of Court Ayres, and Ayres to sing to the Lute and Basse-violl,
by William Corkine, Robert Jones, and John Danyel; all obscure
musicians, and of mean abilities.
Among vocal productions for the Chamber, and for social
purposes, must not be forgotten Canons, Rounds, and Catches'
of which ingenious and exhilerating species of composition, the
first collection that was ever printed, appeared during this reign
under the title of " Pammelia (o) Musicks Miscellanie; or mixed
varietie of " pleasant Roundelays and delightful Catches of 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 parts in one (ft). None so ordinarie as musicall,
none so musicall as not to all very pleasing and acceptable. London,
printed by William Barley, for R. B. and H. W. and are to be
sold at the spread eagle at the north doore of Paules," quarto,
1609. The names of none of the composers of these epigrammatic
and pointed effusions have been preserved; but many of them seem
of great antiquity, which is discoverable both by the words and
style of composition.** Great musical science is manifested in the
canons, and the harmony and contrivance of the rest are excellent.
The words, indeed, except those of the canons, which consist of
small portions of the psalms and other parts of scripture, in Latin
(which seems to imply that they were set before the Reformation),
are, in general, devoid of wit, humour, poetry, and common sense
(q). It has been before observed, in the course of this work (r),
(o) A word perhaps formed from ■aa.v meAos.
(i>) Canons, rounds, and catches were never published in score till after the institution of
the present Catch-club in 1762; and, therefore, one line often contained the whole composition;
the places where the several parts were to begin being indicated by signs or numbers. A
Round is sometimes called a canon in the unison, and sometimes, but erroneously, a Catch;
but it is distinct from both; being no more than a song of as many strains, or sections, as
parts; which, instead of being begun together, are performed after each other always singing
different words and different notes in harmony with the rest; till a signal is given, by holding
up the hand, for finishing upon the perfect chord of the key note, where the author has placed
this final mark, T* A Catch is sung in the same manner as a Round, the second performer
beginning the first strain, when the leader begins the second; however, in the course of the
performance, some latent meaning or humour is produced by the manner in which the
composer has arranged the words for singing, which would not appear in perusing them.
(q) In the same year was published another collection, entitled "Deuteromelia, or the
second part of Musick's melodie, or melodious Musicke of pleasant Roundelaies, &c. London,
printed for Thomas Adams, dwelling in Paules churchyard, at the sign of the white lyon, 1609."
This publication is much inferior to the preceding, and chiefly consists of songs for three voices,
in which different stanzas are sung to the same Music, after the manner of what are now
called Glees.
W Book II., p. 785.
* Burney is wrong when he says that only a few songs for a single voice were printed
during the reign of James 1st. This was the period of the great school of the luternist song-
writers. A full list of their publications is given by Warlock in The English Ayre, and a
large number of them has been edited and published by Dr. Fellowes as "The English School
of Lutenist Song Writers."
** Thomas Ravenscroft was the editor of Pammelia and its companion volumes, Deuteromelia
(1609), and Melismata (1611).
Deuteromelia contains the famous Three Blind Mice, whilst Melismata has a setting of the
Three Ravens. These three volumes and a Briefe Discourse mentioned on p. 107 are in the
B.&L (K. 1. e. 8-11L
37a
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
that our lyric poetry, during the sixteenth and part of the seven-
teenth century, was in a barbarous state, and far inferior to the
Music of the times. But the composers seemed so little solicitous
about the words they had to set, as frequently to prefer the
syllables of solmisation Ut re mi fa sol la; Hey down down, deny
down; or merely Fa la, to songs of Spenser and Shakspeare. I
shall, however, for the sake of the musical composition, as well as
to shew the humour and taste of the times, gratify the lovers of
such scarce and curious productions, with specimens of the contents
of this primitive Catch-book.
Catch in 5 Parts from Pammelia, the first Book of Catches, Canons,
Rounds and Glees, that was Printed in England.
fe
^
9=^
3EE&
S
A
you THDee
af- rat
— Q — •
m
Foua* l»6 M)^ lads
ISeeS
±=±L
BE
±T
Fa mm
/=V» /./USit*
1^3
BE
-j— t
3=+
Sun a, SB--
foxs. iron
F/}£T Hol. I FASr
Ss- T/m£ r/urs
hcsd *v yw miss n/orfiUR
^=5=
W
q=j=3r
«t3 7c T*nu miSS THE BASS A
I
£
8S
J fbuaW ae/»y
i
ft
IS
seemt /&»
m.
?=v^
FA mi-nut
tng "OK
?^E?
8Asak feu> ' Time
^
Nt'SA /» twi ®ei>N Sl*G A
l/T
o
LA VEU.
ZW1
~?5r
Thsab's tve'at a m/>/» <*■
Round, for Five Voices
-2*
^
ijMlTB wine AM
r, j § g
Si
#• £oo£ MmNt ^»ff
i , i.i -j u«*
^^
1
J</r #V<W 5*5 f*V w
a o
j — t
£s
^*
wr/ Fen. us i-oui> /nALm-3£tf. WAire
Canon, Four in One.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Canon, Four in One.
HO~ X/—.VA ff(H DB. - : US
Round, for Four Voices.
P^^
gsa
5^E
To "Po^rs/nru .To Ports-pwth ir is a 6at.~iMf town
3=*PS=
5
S
jgg m ~ I " ■ .» £i»:
JE«
ic=^
3=F
3=F
3^
Tut- Gat- wfi/rsi/P Ths. rnefrmQib Tug u. on ~S ■* _
O •■ — s — •- ~
3 I
1 I 1
$3E
Wd mire i/s to sperm Tifse. ovd s/tTsero •pews 7m. ovr.
Round, for Four Voices.
Canon, Four in One.
Sine I musrFftoHi Love 26.- paar
- /ny ivy & ȣS77
Um ET If Tft— 33B&- fit/} CO— LA.
Round, for Four Voices.
g p a I a i
3=
ttfve,
Love,
SWEET LOVE, FOR
V£l? MORS F/JBE— WELL To
I^S
3=iF
i i
^=W
nee Port for-— tuns with jjs — cSiv — -ed "me. "vx>e--csiv---bb
3" ~c ?£■ 5
g=?=iF
f— d^^E f^ rg
B:
p«?y — 7jw ny Pos mosr Co<*-
Tff/i .j}i/ HATH WKOV&Mr me THIS mi'SE-
I
0 Q
JC*.
^3
*~-HilBuTferi*t{ Lovely sneer love wmb- veu. ?& r^g, Ffnte--wstj- 7^ w«
Canon, Three in One.
M—reaoe vfcft. ei 6-*A'Tr' — —-o-ms me- & ne* me us & 3>e-
-& ,— * ■ , , I ■ r 1 g-
ms. us tyoiiifim
AE>re. o±-KH &»
281
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Song in Ben Jonson's Volpone, Set by Alfonso Ferrabosco, 1605.
THUS 7}£- mov-ED By Ou*
HHii
V/s No Sim loui •$ fbuits ra sre, ti, But rue swt sr T#**"
m
m^
i=M
t*n &*
fr 3 =g
i=y^
^=^>
»
^=fc
w-
7o5<r TfitfeA/,
To Be seat,
Vtase HfwacQimes HeeouNras
3
^S
Pfifi^ 73S<5
3
P^
BE
T^H
S
SB
7wm% g"
VhbsS Uflva CXit.i S.S RCCOt/i*-TeD
Gss/v.
^
The reign of our first James is a very early period in the
cultivation of Music, merely instrumental. The words Concerto
and Sonata seem at this time not to have been invented, even in
Italy; as the Crusca dictionary gives no instance of so early a use
of them in music-books. Concento and suono implied nearly the
same things in the days of Boccaccio, as concerto and sonata since;
but concertare and concertanti were at first applied to the union of
282
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
instruments with voices, in motets and madrigals, by doubling the
voice-parts. It was not till late in the seventeenth century that
instrumental pieces, of many parts, began to be called concertos,
and of few, sonatas.
The earliest compositions I have found in Italy, for three or
more instruments of the same species, are Ricercari and Fantasie.
But of these, none seem to have been printed, when the elder Doni
published the second edition of his Libreria, 1557; as all the
instrumental Music that appears in his catalogue of musical
compositions, which had then been published in Italy, are
Intabolature da organi, et da leuto, d' Anton da Bologna, di Giulio
da Modena di Francesco di Milano, di Jaches Buas, phi di died
volumi, e la continua.
About the beginning of the seventeenth century madrigals,
which were almost the only compositions, in parts, for the
Chamber, then cultivated, seem to have been suddenly supplanted
in the favour of lovers of Music by a passion for Fantasias of three,
four, five, and six parts, wholly composed for viols and other
instruments, without vocal assistance. And this passion seems to
have arisen, from the calling in these instruments to reinforce the
voice-parts, with which they played in unison, in the performance
of motetti and madrigals, thence termed concertati. At length,
the instrumental performers discovered, that both the poetry and
singing of the times might be spared without any great loss or
injury to musical effects; as the words, if good, were rendered
unintelligible by fugue, imitation, and multiplicity of parts; and
the singing, being often coarse and out of tune, could be better
supplied by their own performance. Thus vocal Music not only
lost its independence, but was almost totally driven out of society :
as the ancient Britons, calling in the Saxons to assist them in their
conflicts with the Picts, were themselves subdued and forced from
their possessions, by too powerful auxiliaries.
I am the better enabled to speak of the instrumental Music of
this period, by being fortunately in possession of several consider-
able manuscript collections of fancies; particularly one in six parts,
folio, which had been made for the L'Estrange family, in Norfolk,
by the celebrated composer of Charles the first's reign, Mr. John
Jenkins [1592-1678], and collated with other copies, and corrected
not only by himself, but by six or eight other eminent masters of
the times (s).
These pieces, which consist more of motets, madrigals, and in
nomines, originally designed for voices, than fantasie made
expressly for instruments, were the productions of William Bird,
Alfonso Ferabosco, sen. and jun. William White, John Ward,
Thomas Ravenscroft, William Cranforde, Thomas Lupo, Giovanni
Coperario, and others. The style would appear now very dry and
(s) At the decease of the late Sir Henry L'Estrange, Bart., of Hunston, in Norfolk, and
toe last survivor of that ancient family, I was favoured with this collection by his nephew,
Nic. Styleman, esq., of Snettisham, in the same county.
283
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
fanciless, in spite of the general title of these pieces. Indeed, it
would be difficult to select one of them that would afford any other
amusement to my readers, than that of discovering how ingenious
and well disposed the lovers of Music, during the former part of the
last century, must have been, to extract pleasure from such
productions.
Infinite pains, however, seem to have been taken in collating
and correcting these books; which only prove that however insipid
and despicable we may think their contents, our forefathers were of
a different opinion; and that, contemptible as they now seem, they
were the best which the first musicians of the age could then
produce. There is an infancy in every human production, that is
perfectible. The instruments to which these fansies were adapted,
were viols of different sizes, of which it was usual, during the last
century, for most musical families to be in possession of a chest,
consisting of two trebles, two tenors, and two basses, with six strings
upon each, all tuned alike, by 4ths and 3ds, and the necks fretted.
The compass, and accordatura, of this instrumental family were
the following:
Tenor-viol, or
Viol da Braccio:
Treble Viol.
Bass-viol, or
Viol da Gamba.
m
^
-&
-s-
i
The passages given to these several instruments, at this time, discover
no kind of knowledge of the expressive power of the bow; and even
Orl. Gibbons, who composed so well for voices in the Church, seems
very little superior to his cotemporaries in his productions for
instruments. Indeed, his madrigals of five parts, as well as those
of many others, are said in the title-page to be apt for viols and
voices: a proof that with us, as well as the ancient Greeks, and
other nations, there was at first no Music expressly composed for
instruments; consequently, the powers of these instruments must
have been circumscribed; and when this Music was merely played,
* Burney is wrong in giving Viol da Braccio as an alternative name for the Tenor-viol.
Two extracts from Praetorius make this clear.
I. Viole de gamba. 2. Viole de bracio, oder de brazzo : Und haben den Namen daher, dass
die ersten zwischen den beyden Beinen gehalten werden : Denn gamba ist ein italienisch Wort,
und heisst ein Bein, le gambe, die Beinen. Unnd dieweil diese viel grbssere corpora, und wegen
des Kragens lenge, die Saiten auch ein lengern Zug haben, so geben sie weit ein lieblichern
Resonanz, als die andern de bracio, welche uff dem Arm gehalten werden.
(Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum, 1618. Tom. II. Cap. xx. p. 44.)
Viola, Viola de bracio : Item, Violino de brazzo; Wird sonsten eine Geige ( ! ) vom
gemeinen Volck aber eine Fiddel unnd daher de bracio genennet, dass sie auf dem Arm
gehaltern wird.
Deroselben Bass — , Tenor — , und Discantgeige (welche Violino oder Violetta picciola, auch
Rebecchino genennet wird) seynd mit 4 saiten: . . . und werden alle durch Quinten gestimmet.
{Op cit. Tom. II. Cap. xxii. p. 46.)
284
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
without the assistance of the human voice and of poetry, capable
of no great effects. The subjects of Orlando Gibbons's madrigals
are so simple and unmarked, that if they were now to be executed
by instruments alone, they would afford very little pleasure to the
greatest friends of his productions, and those of the same period.
At the time they were published, however, there was nothing better
with which to compare them, and the best Music which good ears
can obtain, is always delightful, till better is produced. Air,
accent, grace, and expression, were now equally unknown to the
composer, performer, and hearer; and whatever notes of one
instrument were in harmony with another, were welcome to the
player, provided he found himself honoured from time to time
with a share of the subject, or principal melody; which happening
more frequently in canons, and fugues, than in any other species
of composition, contributed to keep them so long in favour with
performers of limited powers, however tiresome they may have
been to the hearers, when constructed on dull and barren themes.
Music is so much a work of art, study, exercise, and experience,
that every style must be best treated, even by men of the greatest
genius, in proportion to the attention and labour they bestow on
that particular species of composition. Orlando Gibbons, who
appears to such advantage as a Church composer, is utterly con-
temptible in his productions for instruments, of whose powers he
was ignorant. Indeed, all instrumental Music, but that of the
organ, seems to have been in a very rude state at this time
throughout Europe; and, if we except the fugues of Frescobaldi,
all the Music, even for keyed-instruments, is dry, difficult,
unaccented, and insipid.
Simpson in his Compendium, §xv. p. 115, speaking of fancies,
says, that " this kind of Music (the more is the pity) is now (1667)
much neglected, by reason of the scarcity of auditors that under-
stand it; their ears being better acquainted and more delighted with
light and airy Music." He instances as the best composers of
fancies, in England, Alfonso Ferabosco, Coperario, Lupo, Mico,
White, Ward, Dr. Colman, and Jenkins. Page 118, the same
author says, that " the lovers of instrumental Music need not have
recourse to outlandish authors for compositions of this kind; no
nation," says he, "in my opinion, being equal to the English in
that way; as well for their excellent, as for their various and
numerous consorts of three, four, five, and six parts, made properly
for instruments, of which Fansies are the chief."
It may perhaps be necessary here to mention, that James I.
upon what beneficial principle it is now difficult to discover, by
letters-patent incorporated the musicians of the city of London into
a Company [1604], and they still continue to enjoy privileges in
consequence of their constituting a fraternity and corporation;
bearing arms azure, a swan argent within a tressure counter-fmre,
or: in a chief, gules, a rose between two lions, or: and for their
crest the celestial sign Lyra, called by astronomers the Orphean
285
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Lyre (t). Unluckily for the bon-vivans of this tuneful tribe, they
have no hall in the city for festive delights! However, on days
of greatest gourmandise, the members of this body are generally
too busily employed in exhilerating others, comfortably to enjoy
the fruits of good-living themselves. And here historical integrity
obliges me to say, that this company has ever been held in derision
by real professors, who have regarded it as an institution as foreign
to the cultivation and prosperity of good Music, as the train-bands
to the art of war. Indeed, the only uses that have hitherto been
made of this charter seem the affording to aliens an easy and cheap
expedient of acquiring the freedom of the city, and enabling them
to pursue some more profitable and respectable trade than that of
hdling; as well as empowering the company to keep out of proces-
sions and city-feasts every street and country-dance player of
superior abilities, to those who have the honour of being styled
the waits of the corporation (u).
About the end of this reign a Music-lecture, or Professorship,
was founded in the university of Oxford [2nd Feb., 1626/7], by
Dr. William Heyther. It is imagined that he was stimulated to
this act of beneficence by the example and precepts of his friend
Camden, who having a few years before his decease determined
to found a history-lecture in the same university, dispatched his
friend Heyther on a mission thither, with the deed of endowment
property executed, and addressed to the vice-chancellor Dr. Piers
(x). It was in consequence of this embassy that Heyther obtained
his degree of doctor in Music, with little expence and trouble; and
perhaps it was in gratitude for the kindness he received from the
university upon this occasion, as well as in imitation of his learned
friend Camden, that he endowed the professorship, which is both
theoretical and practical. At the time of this endowment, in order
to promote the practice of the art, " he gave to the Music-school
an harpsicon, a chest of viols, and divers music-books, both printed
and manuscript."
(t) See the dedication of Butler's Principles of Music, 1636.
(u) The present ldng of France has lately dethroned the king of the minstrels, and
disfranchised and suppressed a similar establishment. See Essai sur la Mus. Tom. I., p. 419,
and Mercure de France, pour Avril, 1773.
[x) The following letter from Dr. Piers to Camden, which is printed in the collection of
epistles to and from that illustrious antiquary, published by Dr. Thomas Smith, 1691, p. 329, will
clear up a point concerning which Ant. Wood has thrown a doubt : whether Orlando Gibbons
had ever been admitted to an academical degree in Music.
Ep. CCLXIII.
G. Piersius. G. Camdeno.
"Worthy Sir,
"The university returns her humble thanks to you with this letter. We pray for your health
and long life, that you may live to see the fruits of your bounty. We have made Mr. Heather
a doctor in Musick; so that now he is no more master but doctor Heather; the like honour for
your sake we have conferred on Mr. Orlando Gibbons, and made him a doctor too, to
accompany Dr. Heather. We have paid Mr. Dr. Heather's charges of his journey, and
likewise given him the Oxford courtesie, a pair of gloves for himself and another for his wife.
Your honour is far above these things. And so desiring the continuance of your loving favour
to the university, and to me your servant, I take my leave.
"Yours ever to be commanded,
Oxon, 18 May, 1622. "William Piers."
"Mr. Whear shall make his oration this term; and I shall write to you from time to time
what orders the university will commend to your wisdom, concerning your history lecture."
286
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
It is the more likely that Heyther was instigated by Camden to
found this professorship, who had himself been a chorister at
Magdalen College, Oxford, and may be supposed to have still
retained a love for Music; and that Camden had a great ascendance
over him may be inferred from the intimate friendship which had
long subsisted between them. Their several employments recipro-
cally obliged them to reside in Westminster : for Camden was master
of Westminster-school, and Heyther a gentleman of the King's
Chapel. In town they resided under the same roof; and, in 1609,
when a pestilential disease had reached the house next to that of
Camden and himself, by which Camden was afterwards infected,
he retired to the residence of his friend Heyther at Chislehurst, and
by the assistance of Dr. Giffard, his physician, was cured. But of
his friendly regard for Dr. Heyther, he gave ample testimony at
his decease, by appointing him his executor, and bequeathing to
him and his heirs an estate of £.400 a year, for the term of ninety-
nine years, he and they paying to the history-professor £.140 per
annum; at the expiration of which term, the estate was to vest in
the university (y).
Charles I [1625]
This prince who, during the life of his father, had been a
scholar of Coperario, on the vicl da gamba, and, according to
Play ford, had made a considerable progress on that instrument;
when he ascended the throne, not only discovered a great affection
for Music in general, but manifested a particular attention and
partiality to compositions for the church (z). At his private
concerts he is said to have condescended to honour with his notice
several of his musical servants, who had the good fortune to be
frequently in his presence; and to gratify them in a way the most
flattering and agreeable to every artist of great talents, with smiles
and approbation, when either their productions or performance
afforded him pleasure. And, indeed, whatever political crimes may
be laid to the charge of this prince, he was certainly a most liberal
and gracious master to his domestics, and possessed a singular
power of attaching them to his person by kindness and
condescension, still more than by royal bounty and munificence.
Upon his accession to the crown, Nicholas Laniere was appointed
master of the king's Music; and in Rymer's Fcedera (a), is the
following grant in favour of him and the rest of his majesty's band.
(y) Biog. Brit. art. Camden, 133, in not.
(2) Playford (Pref. to his Introd.) speaking of the musical skill of our princes of the
house of Tudor, says; "Nor was his late majesty Charles I. behind any of his predecessors in
the love and promotion of this science, especially in the service of Almighty God, and with
much zeal he would hear reverently performed, and often appointed, the service and
anthems himself, especially that sharp service composed by Dr. William Child being of (from)
his knowledge in Music, a competent judge therein; and would play his part exactly well
on the base-viol, especially of those incomparable fancies of Mr. Coperario to the organ."
(a) Tom. XVIII. p. 728.
287
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" Charles, by the grace of God, &c. To the treasurer and
under-treasurer of our exchequer nowe beeing, and that hereafter
for the tyme shall be, greetinge, Whereas wee have beene graciously
pleased, in consideration of service done, and to be done unto us
by sundrie of our musicians, to graunt unto them the several
annuities and yearly pensions hereafter following, (that is to say)
to Nicholas Laniere, master of our Music, two hundred poundes
yearly for wages; to Thomas Foord fourscore poundes yearly for
his wages, that is, for the place which he formerly held, fortie
pounds yearly, and the place which John Ballard, lately deceased,
held, and now bestowed upon him, the said Thomas Foord, fortie
poundes yearly; to Robert Johnson, yearly for his wages, fortie
poundes, and for stringes twentie poundes by the yeare; to Thomas
Day yearly for his wages fortie poundes, and for keeping a boy
twentie-fower poundes by the yeare; also to Alfonso Ferabosco,
Thomas Lupo, John Laurence, John Kelly, John Cogshall, Robert
Tayler, Richard Deering, John Drewe, John Laniere, Edward
Wormall, Angelo Notary, and Jonas Wrench, to everie of them
fortie poundes a piece yearly for their wages (b). And to Alfonso
Bales and Robert Marshe, to each of them twentie poundes a piece
yearly for their wages.
" Theis are therefore to will and command you, out of our
treasure in the receipt of our exchequer, to cause payment to be
made to our said musicians above mentioned, and to everie of them
severally and respectively, the said several annuities and allowances,
as well presently upon the sight hereof for one whole yeare ended
at the feast of th' annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary last
past before the date hereof, as alsoe from the feast hitherto, and
soe from tyme to tyme hereafter at the fower usual feasts or termes
of the yeare, (that is to say) at the feast of the nativity of St.
John the Baptist, St. Michael th' Archangell, the birth of our
Lord God, and th' annunciation of the blessed Virgin Marie, by
even and equall portions, during their natural lives, and the lives
of everie of them, respectively, together with all fees, profits,
commodities, allowances, and advantages whatsoever to the said
places incident and belonging, in as large and ample manner as any
our musicians in the same places heretofore, have had and enjoyed
the same; and theis presents, or the inrollment thereof, shall be your
sufficient warrant and dischardge in this behalfe. In witnes
whereof, &c.
" Witnes ourself at Westminster, the eleaventh day of July.
Per breve de privato sigillo, &c." Charles.
The names, however, of such musicians as were in a more
peculiar manner honoured with this prince's notice, afterwards, do
not appear in the grant; as it was observed, that his majesty was
particularly delighted with the choral compositions of Dr. Child;
(b) This, at the present valuation of money, would be near /200 per annum. See Chron.
Preciosum.
288
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
the performance on the lute of Dr. Wilson; and the Music of William
and Henry Lawes, which was introduced in the masques that
were exhibited at court.
The productions for the Church during this reign, though
superior in excellence to those of any other species, yet, if we
except those of Dr. Giles and Elway Bevin, who more properly
belong to the reign of king James, are so few in number, that the
augmentation they make to our former stock lies in a very small
compass.
Dr. William Child [c. 1606-97], according to Ant. Wood was
a native of Bristol, and disciple of Elway Bevin. In 1631, being
then of Christ-church College, Oxford, he took his degree of
bachelor in Music; and, in 1636,* was appointed one of the organists
of St. George's Chapel at Windsor, in the room of Dr. John Munday,
and soon after one of the organists of the Royal Chapel at
Whitehall. After the Restoration he was appointed chanter of the
King's Chapel, and one of the chamber musicians to Charles II.
[c. 1660]. In 1663, the university of Oxford conferred on him the
degree of doctor in Music, at an act celebrated in St. Mary's
Church. Dr. Child, after having been organist of Windsor Chapel
sixty-five years, died in that town, 1697, at ninety years of age. In
the inscription on his grave-stone, in the same chapel, it is recorded
that he paved the body of that choir at his own expence; he likewise
gave £.20 towards building the town-hall at Windsor, and £.50 to
the corporation to be disposed of in charitable uses, at their
discretion (c).
His works are " Psalms for three voices, &c. with a continued
base either for the organ or theorbo, composed after the Italian
way. London, 1639. Catches, Rounds, and Canons, published
in Hilton's catch that catch can, 1652. Divine Anthems and
compositions to several pieces of poetry, some of which were
written by Dr. Thomas Pierce of Oxford." Some of his secular
compositions likewise appeared in a book entitled Court Ayres,
printed 1655, which will be mentioned hereafter. But his principal
productions are his services and full anthems, printed in Dr. Boyce's
collection. His service in E minor has something more varied and
interesting, in the modulation, than in most of his other works; and
in his celebrated service in D sharp [D Major], there is a glow of
rich harmony, which, without any great compass of genius or
(c) The following epitaph is also on his grave-stone in St. George's Chapel :
" Go happy soul, and in thy seat above
Sing endless hymns of thy great Maker's love.
How fit in heavenly songs to bear a part !
Before well practis'd in the sacred art;
Whilst hearing us, sometimes the choire divine.
Will sure descend, and in our consort join;
So much the Musick thou to us hast given,
Has made our earth to represent their heaven."
* Dr. Child's appointment as joint organist with Nath. Giles at St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, was in 1632. In 1634 he was the sole organist. 1632 was also the date of his
appointment as one of the organists to the Chapel Royal. The date of his degree exercise
is 1639.
VOL. 11. 19. 289
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
science, is extremely pleasing, the more so, perhaps, from being
composed in a key which is more perfectly in tune than most others
on the organ. His full anthems are not without imagination and
fire. Page 97, (Boyce, Vol. II.) " and upon our solemn feast-day,
&c." the modulation and contrivance are admirable to the end of
the anthem. His style was so remarkably easy and natural,
compared with that to which choirmen had been accustomed, that
it was frequently treated by them with derision. Indeed, his
modulation, at present, is so nearly modern, as not to produce that
solemn, and, seemingly, new effect on our ears, which we now
experience from the productions of the sixteenth century (d).
Adrian Batten [c. 1590-1637], organist and vicar-choral of
St. Paul's during the reign of Charles I. and II. was merely a good
harmonist of the old school, without adding any thing to the
common stock of ideas in melody or modulation with which the
art was furnished long before he was born. Nor did he correct
any of the errors in accent with which former times abounded (e).
So that his imitations of anterior composers were entire. He seems
to have jogged on in the plain, safe, and beaten track, without
looking much about him, nor if he had, does he seem likely to have
penetrated far into the musical terra incognita.
Thomas Tomkins [1573-1656], the son of Thomas Tomkins,
chanter of the choir at Gloucester, was of a family that produced
more able musicians, during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, than any other which England can boast. He had
several brothers, musicians, who distinguished themselves both in
composition and performance; among whom was Giles Tomkins.
according to Anthony Wood, a most excellent organist of the
cathedral at Salisbury; John Tomkins, organist of St. Paul's
cathedral, and afterwards gentleman of the Chapel Royal; and
Nicholas Tomkins, one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber to
Charles I. Thomas, the subject of the present article, the disciple
of Bird, and bachelor of Music [1607], was afterwards organist of
the cathedral of Worcester [c. 1596], gentleman of his majesty's
chapel, and, at length, organist [1621]. Though he contributed
to the Triumphs of Oriana in the reign of queen Elizabeth (/), he
was living after the breaking out of the grand rebellion, about
which time he published a work in ten books or separate parts,
(d) Farrant and Dr. Child were the two first English composers for the Church who in
setting the Te Deum, have accented the word holy right. Indeed, both give a ligature to it the
first time, though the second is correct. Child has erred, however (p. 147, Boyce, Vol. I.) at
"the glorious." And p. 155, the sharp 3d and flat 6th twice used, prove, that his ear was not
offended with their effect. The young musical student will do well neither to imitate this,
otherwise respectable composer, in such a combination, nor in that of * (Boyce, Vol. II. 1. ii.
bar 1.) though it sometimes appears in the works of the best masters of the sixteenth century.
There are several inedited and valuable compositions by Dr. Child preserved in Dr. Tudway's
manuscript "Collection of English Church Music," British Museum.
(e) In the word kindness, which is thrice repeated in the anthem, "O praise the Lord,"
the accent is thrown on the second syllable, see Boyce, Vol. II. p. 76. Take heed— vexed —
within had wings — like a dove! In his anthem, "Deliver us 0 Lord," the want of a B flat in
the second bar is disagreeable, and renders the key very equivocal.
(/) See above, p. 114.
290
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
entitled Musica Deo sacra et Ecclesice Anglicance,* consisting of
anthems, hymns, and other compositions suited to the church
service (g).
A set of his vocal Church Music, in four and five parts, MS. is
lodged in Magdalen College, and a printed copy in Christ-church,
Oxford. The manuscript copy was presented to Magdalen College
by James Clifford, who, in 1663, published a collection of the
words, with the names of the composers of such services and anthems
as continued to be sung in our cathedrals. To this book Ant.
Wood and others frequently refer in speaking of our choral Music.
Besides the compositions by Tomkins, mentioned above, in the
collection made for Lord Harley, Brit. Mus. there are likewise
several very learned and curious compositions by this author;
particularly full anthems in eight, ten, and twelve real parts,
fugato. About this time there was a rage for multiplying parts in
musical compositions, all over Europe; and Herculean labours of
this kind, atchieved by Tallis, Bird, Benevoli, and others, have
been already mentioned.
The attention and favour constantly bestowed on our choral
service by Charles I. perhaps stimulated John Barnard, minor
canon of St. Paul's cathedral, to publish, in 1641, dedicated to his
majesty, the first book of the following admirable collection of
English Church Music, consisting of " Services and Anthems, such
as are now used in the cathedrals and collegiate churches of this
kingdom, never before printed, whereby such books as were here-
tofore with much difficulty and charges transcribed for the use of
the quire, are now, to the saving of much labour and expence,
published for the general good of all such as shall desire them either
for public or private exercise. Collected out of divers approved
authors by John Barnard, one of the minor canons of the cathedral
church of St. Paul. London, printed by Edward Griffin, and are
to be solde at the signe of the three lutes, in Paul's alley, 1641 "
[B.M.K. 7.e.2.]. Two years after this valuable collection was
published, organs were ordered to be taken down, and cathedral
service abolished!
It is much to be lamented, that the publications of Barnard and
Tomkins were not in score, as a complete copy of all the several
parts of either cannot now perhaps be found out of Oxford, in the
(g) The copy of these compositions, in Christ-church Coll. Oxford, is dated 1664. If this
was not a second edition, it is probable, that his son was either the author, or at least the
editor of the work. By a copy of his songs, in the same collection, that have been said above
to be of uncertain date, they appear to have been printed 1622.
Butler, in his Principles of Mustek, published 1636, speaking of the Lydian mood of the
ancients, which he seems to have persuaded himself he understood, says, "of this mood is that
passionate lamentation of the musical king, for the death of his son Absalom, composed in five
parts by Mr. Thomas Tomkins, now organist of his majesty's chapel. The melodious harmony
of which, when I heard it in the Music-school (Oxon), whether I should more admire the
sweet well governed voices, with consonant instruments, of the singers, or the exquisite
invention, wit and art of the composer, it was hard to determine." Page 5. And p. 92 he calls
Mr. Thomas and Mr. J. Tomkins aureum par Musicorum.
* The Musica Deo Sacra was not published until 1668 that is eight years after the
Restoration and twelve years after the death of Tomkins. Vol. 18 of the E.M.S. contains his
Songs of 3, 4. 5 and 6 parts. These were first printed in 1622. Vol. 8 of the T.C.M. is devoted
to his Church Music.
The Musica Deo Sacra has been scored by the Rev. A. Ramsbotham.
291
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
whole kingdom ! Each of the separate parts of Barnard's collection
was printed in folio,* and contained services for morning and
evening, and the communion, preces, and responses, by the following
fathers of our Church Music: Dr. Tye, Tallis, Bird, Morley.
Strogers, Bevin, Orlando Gibbons, Mundy, Parsons, Dr. Giles, and
Woodson; with the litany by Tallis, and a great number of full
anthems, in four, five, and six parts, by Tye, White, Farrant,
Shepherd, Bull, Parsons, Morley, Hooper, Mundy, Giles, Gibbon,
Batten, Weelkes, and Ward.
Though the following masters are not the immediate authors of
choral compositions, yet, as their productions are chiefly of a sacred
kind, this seems a proper place in which to mention them.
Martin Pierson [c. 1580-c. 1651], bachelor in Music, and master
of the choristers of St. Paul's, when John Tomkins was organist
of that cathedral, published " Mottects, or grave Chamber
Musique, containing songs of hue parts of severall sorts, some ful,
and some verse and chorus, but all fit for voyces and vials, with an
organ part; which for want of organs may be performed on
virginals, baselute, bandora, or Irish harpe. Also a mourning
song of sixe parts for the death of the late Hon. Sir Fulke Grevil,
knight, composed acording to the rules of art, by M. P. bachelor
of Musique, 1630." This musician died about 1650; and bequeathed
£. 100 to the poor of Marsh, in the parish of Dunnington, and isle
of Ely, to be laid out in a purchase for their annual use. His
partiality for this village, in the heart of the fens, probably arose
from its being the place of his birth.
Richard Deering [d. 1630], bachelor in Music, a composer
much respected in his time for purity of harmon}/ and gravity of
style, was of an ancient baronet's family in Kent which still subsists,
and had his musical education in Italy; where, according to Ant.
Wood (Fasti Oxonienses) " he obtained the name of a most
admirable musician." On his return from that country, he exercised
his profession in England with great reputation, till, being a Roman
Catholic, and prevailed on by urgent entreaties, he accepted the
place of organist to the English nuns at a convent in Bruxelles
[1617]. At length, after the marriage of Charles I. he returned to
England on being appointed organist to his queen Henrietta [1625],
in whose service he continued till, by the turbulence of the times,
he was forced to leave the kingdom. His works consist of Cantiones
sacrce quinque Vocum, cum basso continuo ad Organum, Antwerp,
1597;** Cantica sacra ad Melodiam Madrigalium elaborate senis
Vocibus, Antwerp, 1618; Cantica sacra duas et tres Voces composita
* It is doubtful if Burney ever saw a complete set of parts of this collection. At Hereford
Cathedral were 8 of the 10 part books. In 1862 the Sacred Harmonic Scty. purchased a set
of 8 of the parts, which fortunately contained the two missing from the Hereford collection.
From these and a MS. of Adrian Batten it was possible to score the whole work. This was
done by John Bishop of Cheltenham, but not published. The MS. is now in the B.M.
A full list of the contents will be found in Grove's, art. Barnard, Vol. I. p. 226.
* There is great doubt as to the date of this book. He certainly published a work with
the same title in 1617, but there does not exist any work by Dering with the date 1597.
There is doubt as to the authenticity of the Dering examples in the 1674 publication.
292
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
cum basso continuo ad Organum, London, 1662. dedicated by the
editor, John Playford, to the Queen Dowager, the author having
been dead four or five years. A second set of Cantica sacra was
published in 1674, composed by Deering, Dr. Christ. Gibbons,
Ben Rogers, Matthew Lock, and others.
Deering's compositions, of which I have scored several, are in a
very sober, innocent, psalmodic, dry, and uninteresting style; for
though he seems to have been a regular-bred and correct
contrapuntist, yet I have never been able to discover in any of
his works a single stroke of genius, either in his melody or
modulation.
There are anthems both by William and Henry Lawes in Dr.
Tudway's collect. Brit. Mus. which belong to this reign; but they
do not enable us to account for the great reputation which these
musicians so long enjoyed. There is, however, in the same
collection, an anthem in four parts, by John Hilton: " Lord, for
thy tender mercy's sake," which has considerable merit on the
side of air as well as harmony.
Masques appear to have been still more the favourite amusements
of the court during the early and tranquil part of this reign than in
that of James; and the queen, who seems to have brought with her
from France, at least as great a love for dramatic exhibitions as she
found here, frequently represented the principal character in the
piece herself. Most of the court masques were written by Ben
Jonson, who, in his station of poet-laureat, seems to have furnished
more of these dramas, than birth-day or new-years odes.
In 1630 [1631], he produced his masque entitled Love's
Triumph, which was decorated by Inigo Jones, and performed by
the king and thirteen noblemen and gentlemen at court. And the
same year, another, called Chloridia, which was represented by the
queen and ladies of the court. In 1631 [1632] , among several other
court dramas, Tempe restored, a masque written by Aurelian
Townshend, and decorated by Inigo Jones, was performed by her
majesty and fourteen ladies. But, in 1633, there were no less than
five masques performed at different places before the king and
court. A very circumstantial account of one of these has been left
in a manuscript, by lord commissioner Whitelocke, which is now
the property of Dr. Morton of the British Museum.
This masque, entitled the Triumphs of Peace, and written by
James Shirley, a dramatist of the second class, in the reign of
Charles I. and author of near forty plays, was acted at Whitehall,
and the whole expence defrayed by the gentlemen of the four inns of
court, as a testimony of duty and loyalty, on his majesty's return
from Scotland, after terminating the discontents in that kingdom.
As the subject is closely connected with the history of dramatic
Music, during this period, I shall give, from the authentic narrative
with which I have been favoured, such passages as are most
characteristic of the times, in the author's own words.
293
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" About Allhollantide this year (1633), severall of the principal
members of the tower Innes of court, amongst whom, some were
servaunts of the king, had a designe that these Innes of court
should present their service to the king and queen, and testify their
affections to them, by the outward and splendid visible testimony
of a royall Masque of all the 4 societies joyning together, to be
by them brought to the court, as an expression of their love and
dutie to their majesties.
' This was hinted att in the court and by them intimated to the
chief e of those societies, that it would be well taken from them,
and some held it the more seasonable, bicause this action would
manifest the difference of their opinion from Mr. Prynne's new
learning, and serve to confute his Histrio-mastix against
enterludes (A).*
" This designe tooke well with all the Innes of court, especially
the younger sort of them, and in order to putt it in execution, the
benchers of each society mett, and agreed to have this solemnity
performed, in the noblest and most stately manner that could be
invented.
' The better to effect this, it was resolved, in each house to
choose two of their members, whom they should judge fittest for
such a busines, to be a commute, by joint assistance to carry on
that affayre.
In the middle Temple were chosen of this committee Mr.
Edward Hyde and Whitelocke (the author); for the Inner Temple,
Sir Edward Herbert, and Mr. Selden; for Lincoln's Inne, Mr.
Atturney Noy, and Mr. Gerling; and for Greyes Inne, Sir John
Fynch, and Mr. .
' This committee being empowered by the benchers made
severall sub-committees, one of which was to take care of the
poeticall part of the busines; another of the properties of the masques
and antimasquers, and other actors; another of the properties of
the masquers and antimasquers, and other actors; another of the
dauncing; and to me, in particular, was committed the whole care
and charge of all the Musicke for this great masque. I made
choice of Mr. Symon Ives, an honest and able musitian, of
excellent skill in his art, and of Mr. Lawes, to compose the aiers,
(h) This virulent book was published the preceding year, and in the table of contents
referring to that part of his work which treated of female players, it having been said,
"women actors notorious whores," it was construed into a reflexion on the queen and her
ladies, who frequently performed in Court-masques; and he was sentenced, in the star-
chamber, to be imprisoned for life, fined £.5,000, expelled Lincoln's Inn, "disbarred and
disqualified to practice the law, degraded of his degree in the university, to be set in the
pillory, his ears cut off, and his book burnt by the hands of the common hangman; which
rigorous sentence," says Whitelock, "was as rigorously executed."
* The Hislriomastix was published in 1633, and contains justifiable attacks upon the gross
indecencies of the contemporary stage, and upon the use to which light music was put. He
begins the section on Music as follows: "That Musicke of itselfe is lawfull, usefull, and
commendable; no man, no Christian dares denie, since the Scriptures, Fathers, and generally
all Christian, all Pagan Authors extant, do with one consent averre it."
294
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
lessons, and songs for the masque, and to be masters of all the
Musicke under me (i).
" I also made choice of 4 of the most excellent musitians of the
Queen's Chapell, M. La Ware, M. Du Val, M. Robert, and M.
Mari, with divers others of forrein nations, who were most eminent
in their art, not in the least neglecting my own countrymen,
whose knowledge in Musicke rendered them useful in this action,
tc beare their parts in the Musicke, which I resolved if I could
to have so performed, as might excell any that ever before this time
had bin in England.
" Herein I kept my purpose, causing the meetings of all the
musitians to be frequent at my house in Salisbury Court; and
there I have had togither att one time, of English, French, Italian,
German, and other masters of Musicke, fourty lutes, besides other
instruments, and voyces of the most excellent kind in consort.
" The time for presenting this masque at Whitehall was agreed
to be on Candelmas night to end Christmas, and the several parts
of it being brought neer to a readiness for action, Hyde and
Whitelocke were sent to the lord Chamberlain, the earle of
Pembroke and Montgomery, and to Sir Henry Vane, the comtroller
of the king's house, to advise with them, to take order about the
sceane, and preparing things in the banquetting house.
" The dauncers, masquers, antimasquers, and musitians did
before hand practise in the place where they were to present the
masque, and the sceanes were artfully prepared (by Inigo Jones)
att the lower end of the banquetting house, and all things were in
readyness.
" The grand masquers were fower gentlemen of each Innes of
court, most suitable for their persons, dauncing, and garbe for
that busines, and it was ordered, that they should be drawne in
fower rich chariotts, fower masquers in each chariot, by six horses
in each.
" And to prevent difference about the order of their going, it
was propounded by Wh. and assented to by the committee, that
the chariots should be made after the fashion of the Roman
tryumphant chariots, and being of an ovall forme in the seats,
there would be no difference of place in them.
" For the severall colours, and from the precedence of the
chariots, it was agreed, that one of each house, of the committee,
should throwe the dice, and as that happened, the society to be
bound of which he that threw was a member.
" I threw the dice for the middle Temple, and by my cast, had
the place for the second chariot, and silver and blew for my colours,
(i) The compositions of Simon Ives are not devoid of merit; some of his Rounds and
Catches, published in Hilton's collection, still live, and are ingenious and pleasant : as, "Come
honest friends and jovial boys, &c." Though the commissioner does not tell us which Lawes
it was, he chose for Ives's colleague, it appears, in the words of the masque, published by the
author, Ja. Shirley, that it was William. The names of all the masquers, with the house or
inn of court to which they belonged, and an epigram addressed to each, was published in a
little book, written by Francis Linton, called The Innes of Court Anagrammatist, or The
Masquers masqued in Anagrammas, 4to. 1634.
295
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
which colours, I have ever since kept in my liveryes, and uppon
all solemn occasions.
" Candlemas day being come, and all things being in readyness,
the masquers, horsemen, musitians, dauncers, and all that were
actors in the business, sett forth from Ely house, in Holborne,
every one in their order, towards Whitehall, their way being
directed through Chancery-lane, and from thence through Temple
Barre, and so the high way to the court.
' ' The first that marched were twenty footmen in scarlet liveries
with silver lace, each one having his sword by his side, a baton in
one hand, and a torch lighted in the other, these were the marshalls
men, who cleered the streets, made way, and were all about the
marshall waiting his commands.
" After them, and sometimes in the midst of them, came the
marshall, Mr. Darrell, afterwards knighted by the king, an
extraordinary hansome, proper gentleman, one of Lincoln's Inne,
agreed uppon by the committee for this service.
" He was mounted uppon one of the king's best horses, and
richest saddles, and his own habit was exceeding rich and glorious,
his horsemanship very gallant, and, besides his marshall men, he
had two lacquayes, who carried torches by him, and a page in
livery, that went by him carrying his cloake.
" After him followed one hundred gentlemen of the Innes of
court in very rich clothes, five and twenty chosen out of each
house, of the most proper and hansome young gentlemen of the
societies.
" Every one of them was gallantly mounted, on the best horses,
and with the best furniture, that the king's stable and the stables
of all the nobility in towne could afforde, and they were forward
on this occasion to lend them.
" The richness of the apparell and furniture, glittering by the
light of the multitude of torches attending them, with the motion
and stirring of their mettled horses, and the many and various gay
liveries of their servants, butt especially the personal beauty and
gallantry of the hansome young gentlemen made the most glorious
and splendid show, that ever was beheld in England.
" After the horsemen came the antimasquers, and as the horse-
men had their Musicke, about a dozen of the best trumpets, proper
for them, so the first antimasque, being of cripples and beggars
on horseback, had their Musicke of keys and tonges, and the like,
snapping and yett playing in consort before them. These beggars
were mounted on the poorest, leanest jades that could be gotten
out of the dust-cartes or elsewhere, and the variety and change from
such noble Musicke and gallant horses as went before them, unto
their pittiful Musicke and horses, made both of them the more
pleasing.
"After the beggars antimasque came men on horsebacke playing
uppon pipes, whistles, and instruments, sounding notes like those
of birds of all sorts, and in excellent consort, and were followed
296
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
by the antimasque of birdes. This was an owle in an ivybush,
with many severall sorts of other birdes, in a cluster about the
owle gazing as it were upon her, these were little boys putt into
covers of the shapes of those birds, rarely fitted, and sitting on
small horses, with footmen going by them, having all of them
torches in their hands.
" After this antimasque came other musitians on horsebacke
playing uppon bagpipes, hornepipes, and such kind of northerne
Musicke. First in this antimasque rode a fellow upon a little horse
with a great bitt in his mouth, and uppon the man's head was a
bitt with headstall and raines, fastened, and signified a projector,
that none in the kingdome might ride their horses, butt with such
bitts as they should buy of him. Another projector, who begged
a patent of monopoly to feed capons with caretts, and several
other projectors were in like manner personated, which pleased the
spectators the more, bicause by it, an information was covertly
given to the king, of the unfittness and ridiculousness of these
projects, against the law, and the atturney Noy who had most
knowledge of them, had a great hand in this antimasque of the
projectors.
" After this and severall other antimasques were past, there
came sixe of the chief e musitians on horsebacke, uppon footclothes,
and in the habits of Heathen priests, and footmen carrying of
torches by them. Then a sumptuous chariot drawn by sixe horses
with large plumes of feathers, in which were about a dozen persons
in severall habits of gods and goddesses. Then other large open
chariots with musitians in like habit, butt all with some variety
and distinction. These going before the grand masquers played on
excellent loude Musicke all the way as they went.
" The chariot in which sate the 4 grand masquers of Grayes
Inne was drawn by 4 horses all on breast, coursed to their heeles
all over with cloth of tissue, of the colour of crimson and silver,
huge plumes of red and white feathers on their heads and buttocks,
and the coachman's cap and feather, his long coate and his very
whippe and cushion, of the same stuffe and colour. These maskers
had habits, doublets, trunke-hose and cappes of the most rich
cloth of tissue, and wrought as thicke with silver spangles as they
could be placed, with large white silke stockings up to their trunke
hose, and rich sprigges in their cappes, themselves proper and
beautiful young gentlemen. On each side of the chariot were 4
footmen in liveries of the colour of the chariot, carrying huge
flambois in their hands, which with the torches gave such a lustre
to the paintings, spangles and habits, that hardly any thing could
be invented to appear more glorious.
" After this followed the other three chariots with the grand
masquers of the Middle Temple, Inner Temple, and Lincoln's Inne,
alike richly habited and attended; and as the sixeteen grand
masquers were most hansome and lovely, and the equipage so full
297
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of state and height of gallantrye, it may be said, that it never was
outdone by any representation mentioned in our former glories.
' The torches and flaming huge flambois, borne by the side of
each chariot, made it seem lightsome as att noon day, butt more
glittering, and gave a full and clear light to all the streets and
windowes as they passed.
" The marche was slowe, in regard of their great number, butt
more interrupted by the multitude of the spectators, in the streets,
besides the windowes, and they all seemed loth to part with so
glorious a spectacle.
' This gave opportunity to Hyde and Whitelocke, who usually
were togither, to take a coach, and by the other way, to gett
before them to Whitehall, where they found the fayre banquetting
house, so crowded with fayre ladyes, glistering with their rich
clothes, and richer Jewells, and with lords and gentlemen of great
quality, that there was scarce roome for the king and queen to
enter in. They saw that all things were in readiness there, and
the lord Chamberlein carryed them up to the chamber of the
beautiful and ingenious countess of Caernarvon his daughter, whose
company was no smalle pleasure and refreshment.
" The king and queen stood at a windowe, looking streight
forward into the street, to see the masque come by, and being
delighted with the noble bravery of it, they sent to the marshall
to desire that the whole show might fetch a turne about the
Tiltyeard, that their majestyes might have a double view of them;
which was done accordingly, and then they allighted att Whitehall
gate, and were conducted to severall roomes and places prepared
for them.
" The horsemen of the masque, and other gentlemen of the
Innes of court, sate in the gallery reserved for them, and those of
the committee that were present were with them; only Hyde and
Whitelocke were placed below among the grandees, and neare the
sceane, that they might be ready to give assistance, if there should
be occasion, and as an extraordinary favour to them att that time,
and in that presence.
" The king and queen and all their noble train being come in,
the masque began, and was incomparably performed, in the
dauncing, speeches, Musicke, and sceanes; the daunces, figures,
properties, the voices, instruments, songs, aiers, composures, the
words and actions were all of them exact, none fayled in their parts,
and the sceanes were most curious and costly.
" The queen did the honour to some of the masquers to daunce
with them herselfe, and to judge them as good dauncers as ever
she sawe, and the great ladyes were very free and civill in dauncing
with all the masquers as they were taken out by them.
" Thus they continued in their sports untill it was allmost
morning, and then the king and queen retiring, the masquers and
Innes of court gentlemen were brought to a stately banquett, and
after that was dispersed, every one departed to his own quarters.
298
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
" The queen, who was so delighted with these solemnities,
desired to see this show acted over again. 'Whereupon, an intima-
tion given to my lord Major of London, he invited the king and
queen and the masquers to the citty, and entertained them with
all state and magnificence, att Merchant Taylor's hall. Thither
marched through the citty, the same show that went to Whitehall,
and the same masque was again represented in the same state and
equipage as before. This also gave great contentment to their
majestyes, and no less to the cittizens, especially those of the
younger sort, and of the female sexe, and it was to the great honour
and no less charge of the lord Major and freemen.
" After these dreames past, and these pompes vanished, all men
were satisfied by the committee justly and bountifully.
" For the Musicke, which was particularly committed to my
charge, I gave to Mr. Ives, and to Mr. Lawes £.100 a piece, for
their rewards; for the 4 French gentlemen, the queen's servants, I
thought that a handsome and liberall gratifying of them would be
made known to the queen, their mistris, and well taken. by her.
I therefore invited them one morning to a collation, att St.
Dunstan's taverne, in the great room, the oracle of Apollo, where
each of them had his plate lay'd for him, covered, and the napkin
by it, and when they opened their plates they found in each of them
forty pices of gould, of their master's coyne, for the first dish, and
the}' had cause to be much pleased with this surprisall.
" The rest of the musitians had rewards answearable to their
parts and qualities; and the whole charge of the Musicke came to
about one thousand pounds. The clothes of the horsemen reckoned
one with another at £.100 a suit, att the least, amounted to
£.10,000. The charges of all the rest of the masque, which were
borne by the societies were accounted to be above twenty thousand
pounds.
" I was so conversant with the musitians, and so willing to
gaine their favour, especially at this time, that I composed an Aier
myself, with the assistance of Mr. Ives, and called it Whitelocke's
Coranto; which being cried up, was first played publiquely, by
the Blackefryar's Musicke, who were then esteemed the best of
common musitians in London. Whenever I came to that house
(as I did sometimes in those dayes), though not often, to see a play,
the musitians would presently play Whitelocke's Coranto, and it
was so often called for, that they would have it played twice or
thrice in an afternoon. The Queen hearing it, would not be
persuaded that it was made by an Englishman, bicause she said
it was fuller of life and spirit than the English aiers use to be;
butt she honoured the Coranto and the maker of it with her
majestyes royall commendation. It grew to that request, that all
the common musitians in this towne, and all over the kingdome,
gott the composition of it, and played it publiquely in all places, for
above thirtie years after."
Among other moral reflexions, addressed to his family on such
vanities as he had been describing, lord commissioner Whitelocke
299
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
adds : ' ' yet I am farre from discommending the knowledge of this
art (Music), and exercise of this recreation for a diversion, and so
as you spend not too much of your time in it, that I aduise you
in this as in other accomplishments, that you indeavour to gett to
some perfection, as I did, and it will be the more ornament and
delight to you. I have here inserted this Aier, in order to preserve
it for your use, if any of you shall delight in it (k)."*
Whitelocke's Coranto.
v^&r-JTk^^
£
:«3?
i=l
^
as
TC" 5 <B~
te^^
=*==?
t=F
3=ba
tfl r
■» ,»«
A
f" •*£
1 — Trr-
ph=^
##=1
P-p-
■•
1 — 1 '
4— J — i
— ; \—
-L-^
-i — d-
1 \j*
53
i — i—
■L-a)
-s) — -*-
-§! «-
ii j
i — 1 —
"jf
■ « »--g a*
The same year, besides the Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher,
which was represented at court, to which Sir William Davenant
furnished a kind of prelude, or prologue, which was set to Music,
the masque called Caelum Britannicum, written by Thomas Carew,
was performed at Whitehall, by the King, Queen, duke of Lenox,
earls of Devonshire, Holland, and many other nobles of the court
(k) Whitelocke's labours remembered in the annates of his life, written for the use of his
children, MS. N
{I) Though the masques of this reign are frequently said, in the title-page, and dramatis
persona, to have been performed by the king, queen, and nobles of their court, yet it does not
appear, that these great personages often took part in the dialogue or songs of the piece; but
generally appeared on the stage in the splendid ballets only, _ as dancers, representing
mythological or allegorical characters. Indeed, the queen, at the time of the first masques of
this reign, can hardly be supposed sufficiently exercised in our language to undertake a part
in which declamation was necessary.
* Some of Lawes' music to The Triumph of Peace has come down to us. Prof. E. J. Dent
in The Foundations of English Opera (Cambridge Press, 1928) has printed some extracts.
300
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Inigo Jones was the machinest, and Henry Lawes the musician.
The vocal Music, however, was only introduced at the latter end,
where about a hundred verses were sung.
In 1634, an Entertainment, entitled Love's Welcome, written
by Ben Jonson, was represented before their majesties at Bolsover,
the seat of the earl of Newcastle. But this year furnishes a
memorable sera in the annals of Poetry and Music, by having given
birth to the Mask of Comus.
This drama, written by Milton, was set by Henry Lawes, who
performed in it the part of Thyrsis; and, in 1637, being likewise
the editor of the poem, when it was first published, dedicated it to
John Lord Viscount Brackley, who had represented the part of
the Elder Brother, at Ludlow Castle.*
This young nobleman was but twelve years old at the time of the
exhibition. His brother, Thomas, who played the Second Brother,
was still younger; and lady Alice Egerton, who acted the part of the
Lady in Comus, could not be more than thirteen years old. These
personages, and many more of the family, were buried at Gadesden,
in Hertfordshire, where their monuments are still to be seen. The
family lived at Ashridge, formerly a royal palace, in the parish of
Gadesden, and still the residence of their illustrious descendant, the
present duke of Bridgewater. Milton, when he wrote this mask,
lived at Harefield, in the neighbourhood of Ashridge. The two
brothers had appeared at court, 1633, in the mask of Caelum
Britannicum, even before they performed in Comus. Their sister,
lady Penelope Egerton, acted at court (or rather danced), with the
queen in Ben Jonson's mask of Chloridia, 1630 (m).
A letter from Sir Henry Wootton to the author, concerning
Comus, is still extant; in which he says, " I should much commend
the tragical (serious) part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a
certain Dorique delicacy in your songs and odes, whereunto I must
plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in our language :
" Ipsa mollities.*' The letter is dated 1638, and first appeared
prefixed to Comus, in the edition of 1645, when the author first set
his name to the poem.
Comus was published, by Lawes, without the author's name,
which Sir H. Wootton, in 1638, thanks Milton himself for
disclosing to him by letter. The editor, in his dedication to lord
Brackley, says, that " although not openly acknowledged by the
author, yet it is legitimate offspring, so lovely, and so much to be
desired, that the often copying of it hath tired my pen, to give
my severall friends satisfaction, and brought me to the necessity
of producing it to the publick view."
(m) See the notes of Mr. T. Warton's excellent edition of Milton's Poems upon several
Occasions.
* The identity of the author of Comus was not made known until an edition published
in 1645. The original music was first published by the Mermaid Scty. in 1904.
30I
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Milton put a fine eulogium on the musician Lawes, into his
own mouth, in the character of the Attendant Spirit, who says,
" -but I must put off
These my sky robes, spun out of Iris woof,
And take the weed and likeness of a swain,
That to the service of this house belongs (n),
Who with his soft pipe, and smooth-dittied song,
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar,
And hush the waving woods, nor of less faith — (o)."
A very small part of this mask, in its original state, was sung :
Sweet Echo; Sabrina fair; Back shepherds back; and the passages
beginning, To the ocean now I fly; and Now my task is smoothly
done, are said to have been all the portions of this drama that were
set to Music by Henry Lawes; and this opinion is founded on a
manuscript copy of the Music to~ these strains, in the composer's
own hand-writing; however, besides the Music for the measure, or
dance of Comus's attendants, between the verses 144 and 145, and
the soft Music, prescribed before verse 659, we are told in the drama,
after verse 889, that " Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs,
and sings,
" By the rushy fringed bank, &c."
And before verse 966, it is said, " This second song presents them
(the two brothers and the lady) to their father and mother."
So that though no more of the original Music is to be found
than that said to subsist in the composer's ov/n hand writing, yet
more seems to have been produced, even by Milton's own direction.
The notes set by Lawes to the song of Sweet Echo, neither
constitute an air, nor melody; and, indeed, they are even too
frequently prolonged for recitative. It is difficult to give a name,
from the copious technica with which the art of Music is furnished,
to such a series of unmeaning sounds. Nor does the composer,
otherwise than comparatively, seem to merit the great praises
(n) Lawes taught Music in lord Bridgewater's family, and the lady Alice, who played the
Lady in the mask, was his scholar. To this lady, nineteen years after, when she was lady
Vaughan and Carbury, and to her sister Mary, lady Herbert of Cherbury, he dedicated the
first book of his Ayres and Dialogues, for one, two, and three Voyces, &c, London. In his
dedication to these ladies, he says, "no sooner I thought of making these publick, than of
inscribing them to your ladyships; most of them being composed, when I was employed by
your ever honoured parents to attend your ladyships education in Musick; who, as in other
accomplishments, fit for persons of your quality, excelled most ladies, especially in vocal
Musicke, wherein you were so absolute, that you gave life and honour to all I set and taught
you."
(o) Again, v. 494, an encomium is pronounced upon him, with more delicacy and propriety
by the Elder Brother :
" Thyrsis? whose artful strains have oft delay 'd
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,
And sweeten'd every musk-rose of the dale ! "
Yet still another is put into his own mouth, v. 623:
" He lov'd me well, and oft would beg me sing,
Which when I did. he on the tender grass
Would sit, and hearken e'en to extasy."
302
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
bestowed upon him by Milton and others for his " exact accom-
modation of the " accent of the Music and the quantities of the
verse," which perhaps, without a very nice examination, has been
granted to him by late writers. As no accompaniment, but a dry
base, seems to have been given to this song by the composer, it is
difficult to imagine how the Lady was able
-to wake the courteous Echo
To give an answer from her mossy couch."
Here was a favourable opportunity suggested to the musician for
instrumental ritomels and iterations, of which, however, he made
no use.
I shall here present the critical reader with the song as set by
Lawes, and then refer to such places as seem indefensible, even
on the side of accent and quantity.
Air in Comus, as originally set by Henry Lawes.
£
i SI f f j a *
S3
m f c-
-• M. -9
r r • r i * ~ ° w • g
W I
• „ • Zy/m *P -8- -t • -
SHBLi.) &</sv>timc-'»>-**&'n'i*a
PA p S j
^m
3
^
it
s
&i
ses
35
=s=^
5
T> J J J J
=F^
BE
Qxeene,
Afo m rue vi-t
ter&n&ia&by/lu hhbkTik &»£-">• im#hMC0uEi*itHnif$ meg Hat sm>
^=^
■m m~ — s*~
^=^=
a»
p£
^
s'i^
3E
fp=F£
i^va moi/trw*
UMMTTHW tferTaj-mZ
oe /} Gertrn ****&.,
L iKgt rrxy NHttCitP?
l=E
£
^S
^s
gg j r gj
J A /^ TUoit
4- ■ JB-Jg — m* — 1 «
«=»:
0 /F 7J»i«
lit St>/nS
p/-6w'fy Cans Tin. meant
^g
l^=F
S^E
*=*?
i
^3z=m^-^=|
£3
^
-7?A #/■««
^^
TL.A»rs*TarrteSas fi/vo m>ij> R CounTea- pomr to
m
*
flit HCMrH HflU- mo-
HISS
4*
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The long note given to the first syllable of the word violet, to
sad (sad song), have (have hid), sweet (sweet queen), tell (tell me),
and the first syllable of the word daughter, on the unaccented part
of the bar, are all inaccuracies of musical accentuation. And in the
last bar, line first of this page, the interval from F sharp to E
natural, the seventh above, is certainly one of the most disagreeable
notes in melody that the scale could furnish.
I should be glad, indeed, to be informed by the most exclusive
admirer of old ditties, what is the musical merit of this song,
except insipid simplicity, and its having been set for a single voice,
instead of being mangled by the many-headed monster, Madrigal?
In 1635 [1636], was performed at the duke of York's palace in
the Middle Temple, The Triumphs of the Prince d' Amour, a
masque written by Sir William Davenant, of which the vocal and
instrumental Music, with the symphonies, are said to have been
composed by William and Henry Lawes. 1636, The King and
Queen's Entertainment, at Richmond, a masque. Simon Hopper is
said to have conducted the dancing, and Charles Hopper to have
composed the Music. It was contrived expressly, for the queen to
see prince Charles dance in it, who was then but six years old. In
1637 [1638], Britannia Triumphans, a masque, by Sir William
Davenant and Inigo Jones, was performed at Whitehall; as was
Microcosmus, another drama of the same kind, at the play-house
in Salisbury Court; which seems to have been the first English
masque represented on a public stage.* Luminalia, or the Festival
of Light, a masque, was also represented by the queen and the
ladies of court, with decorations by Inigo Jones. 1638, The
Glories of Spring, a masque, by Nabbs; and The Temple of Love,
another, by Sir William Davenant, and represented by the Queen
and her ladies at Whitehall, was one of the most magnificent of the
times. In this drama about one hundred and fifty verses were sung.
In 1639 [1640], Salmacida Spolia, a masque, written likewise by
Sir William Davenant, and set to Music by Lewis Richard, master
of his majesty's Music (p), with machines and decorations by Inigo
Jones, was the last drama of this kind in which their majesties
condescended to perform in person. Other scenes more tragic and
difficult to support, were preparing for these unfortunate princes,
in which they exhibited, to the wondering world, a spectacle that
required no mimic pathos to render it interesting!
During the reign of James I. the national rage for dramatic
representations seems to have been excessive, as we are told that
no less than seventeen play-houses were then open in London; and
in that of his successor, though their number was considerably
diminished, yet six were still allowed for the amusement of the
public : however, as these were little better than booths, erected in
(J>) This musician's name has occurred no where else in my researches.
* Microcosmus was written by Nabbes. Probably the first mask for the theatre was The
World Tost at Tennis, written by Thos. Middleton and Wm. Rowley in 1638, and produced at
the Princes' Arms, a well-known Inn.
304
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
tennis-courts, cock-pits, the large rooms of inns, taverns, ale-houses,
or in the gardens or yards of such places, it does not appear that
any one of them was sufficiently splendid or commodious for the
reception of their majesties and the first personages in the kingdom;
so that the royal passion for dramatic amusements vented itself
wholly within the walls of the court, for the meridian of which the
performance of masques was totally calculated. And the king,
over whose countenance and reign his subsequent misfortunes seem
to have cast such a gloom, at this time not only partook of all the
innocent and decorous gaieties of his court, but sometimes, in
particular masques, contributed to them himself, by his own
performance (q).
This prince, however his judgment, or that of his counsellors,
may have misled him in the more momentous concerns of govern-
ment, appears to have been possessed of an invariable good taste
in all the fine arts; a quality which, in less morose and fanatical
times, would have endeared him to the most enlightened part of the
nation : but now his patronage of poetry, painting, architecture, and
Music, was ranked among the deadly sins, and his passion for the
works of the best artists in the nation, profane, pagan, popish,
idolatrous, dark, and damnable. As to the expences of his govern-
ment, for the levying which he was driven to illegal and violent
expedients, if compared with what has been since peaceably and
chearfully granted to his successors, his extravagance in supporting
the public splendor and amusements of his court, will be found more
moderate, and perhaps more innocent, than that of secret service in
later times; and however gloomy state-reformers may execrate this
prince, it would be ungrateful, in professors of any of the fine arts,
to lose all reverence for the patron of Ben Jonson, Vandyke, Inigo
Jones, and Dr. Child.
Charles I. very early in his reign manifested a disposition to
encourage the liberal arts; particularly Music, by the charter
granted to Nicholas Laniere, already mentioned. In the eleventh
year of his reign he granted a more extensive charter to the most
eminent musicians living at the time, incorporating them by the
style and titles of marshall, wardens, and cominality of the arte and
science of Musick in Westminster, in the county of Middlesex;
investing them with various extraordinary powers and privileges,
which charter he confirmed in the fourteenth year of his reign.
The patent roll of this charter, which bears date 15 Jul. xi. Car.
is deposited in the Chapel of the Rolles; of which the following is
the purport.
" Whereas Ed. IV. by his letters patent under the greate seale
of his realme of England, bearing date the foure and twentieth
day of Aprill, in the nynth yeare of his reigne, did for him and
{q) The early pictures of this prince exhibit a much more serene and chearful countenance
than those that were painted during his troubles; particularly the admirable whole length at
Versailles, by Vandyke, which my worthy friend Sir Robt. Strange has so exquisitely
engraved.
Vor,. ii. 20. 305
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
his heires give and graunte licence unto Walter Haliday Marshall
and John Cliff, and others, then minstrells of the said king, that
they by themselves should in deed and name be one body and
cominality, perpetual and capable in the lawe, and should have
perpetual succession : and that as well the minstrells of the said
king, which then were, as other minstrells of the said king, and
his heires which should be afterward, might at their pleasure name,
chuse, ordeine, and successively constitute from amongst them-
selves, one marshall able and fitt to remaine in that office during
his life, and alsoe twoe wardens every yeare, to governe the said
fraternity and guild."
This* charter being manifestly intended to counteract the power
and effects of the musician's company in the city, recites that
" certaine persons, suggesting themselves to be freemen of a
pretended society of minstrells in the cittie of London, in prejudice
of the previledges aforesaid did by unlawful suggestions procure
of and from king James of ever blessed memory, letters patent — to
incorporate them by the name of master, wardens, and cominality
of the arte or science of the musicians of London. And amongst
divers others priviledges, to graunte unto them the survey, scrutiny,
correction, and government of all and singular the musicians and
minstrells within the said cittie of London, suburbs, liberties, and
precincts of the said cittie, or within three miles of the said cittie.
By colour whereof they endeavoured to exclude the musicians and
minstrells enterteyned into the king's service, and all others expert
and learned in the said arte and science of Musick, from teaching
and practising the same within the said cittie, and three miles
thereof, that would not subject themselves unto their said, pretended
fraternity, or purchase their approbation thereunto, although greate
part of them were altogether unskilfull in the said art and science
of Musick.
It further recites, that " at the prosecution of Nicholas Laniere,
Thomas Ford, Jerome Laniere, Clement Laniere, Andrewe Laniere,
Thomas Day, John Cogshall, Anthony Roberts, Daniell Farrant,
John Laniere, Alfonso Ferabosco, Henry Ferabosco, Edward
Wormall, and John Drewe, musicians enterteyned in the king's
service, a scire facias had bin brought in the king's name against
the said pretended master, wardens, and cominality of the art and
science of the musicians of London, in the high court of Chancery,
for the cancelling and making voide of the said letters patent; and
that judgement at their said prosecution had been had and given
by the said court accordingly, and the said letters patent vacated
and cancelled thereuppon."
The king therefore, " for and in consideration of the good and
faithful service which his said musicians had done and performed
unto him, and in pursuance of the intent and meaninge of the said
king Edward the Fourth, in his said recited letters patent
mentioned, of his speciall grace, certaine knowledge, and mere
motion, doth for him, his heires and successors, will, ordeine, &c."
306
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
The powers granted to this company extended throughout the
whole realm of England, the county palatine of Chester only
excepted, in favour of the ancient claim of the Dutton family to
sovereignty over the minstrels of that palatinate (r) ; and none were
suffered to exercise and practise the art or science of Music without
a licence granted to them by this company, after trial of their
abilities. Powers with which, it is to be feared, no men, or set of
men, can ever be safely trusted : as envy, selfishness, and mere love
of rule and importance, will incline them to shut the door on merit,
as a more formidable crime and disqualification than dulness or the
want of talents; instances of which unseraphic spirit have, however
strange, manifested themselves even in our own times.
From 1639, till the violent death of this monarch, every year
was marked by some calamity or tragical event: in 1640, open
discontents and preparations for rebellion; 1641, Strafford beheaded;
1642, civil war began ; 1643, the liturgy and cathedral service
abolished; 1644 [January, 1645], archbishop Laud beheaded; 1645,
the king obliged to quit Oxford, and take the field ; 1646, being
defeated at Naseby [1645], he surrenders his person to the Scots,
who deliver him to the parliament, by whom he is kept in different
prisons till his execution, 1649.
The total suppression of cathedral service in 1643,* gave a
grievous wound to sacred Music; not only checking its cultivation,
but annihilating as much as possible the means of restoring it, by
destroying all the church-books, as entirely as those of the Romish
communion had been at the time of the Reformation. Nothing now
but syllabic and unisonous psalmody was authorised in the Church;
organs were taken down, organists and choirmen turned adrift, and
the art of Music, and indeed all the arts but those of killing, canting,
and hypocrisy, were discouraged.
This accounts for much of the barbarism into which Music was
thrown during the reigns of James and Charles I. which were wasted
in an almost perpetual struggle between privilege and prerogative,
democracy and tyranny; the crown fearful and unwilling to grant
too much, and the people, almost all Puritans and Levellers, deter-
mined to be satisfied with nothing that could be offered, rendered
approximation utterly impracticable.
During such contentions, what leisure or disposition could there
be for the culture of arts which had no connexion with the reigning
interests and passions of men? The fine arts have been very truly
and emphatically called the Arts of Peace, and the celebrated periods
in which they made the most considerable strides towards perfection,
were calm and tranquil.
M See Book II., p. 651.
* It is not fair to the Puritans to think that their objection to elaborate music in Church
was something peculiar to their party or age. For an account of the antiquity of this objection
see. P. A. Scholes' The Puritans and. Music, Chapter xii.
The same may be said with regard to the silencing and demolition of Organs. In 1563 the
Lower House of Convocation negatived by only one vote a motion for the removal of all
organs, and a tract in the B.M. (Royal MSS.) entitled the Praise of Music, relates that "Not so
few as one hundred organs were taken down, and the pipes sold to make pewter dishes." More
evidence of a like nature will be found in chapter 15 of the work cited above.
307
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
But no war is so fatal to elegance, refinement, and social comforts
and amusements, as a civil war: it is not national hatred then, but
personal, which sharpens the sword and actuates vengeance. In a
foreign war, though we wish to humble and debilitate a rival nation,
we pity, and often esteem, suffering individuals ; but when the
objects of animosity are near us, and in a manner irritate the sight,
we never think we can be safe but by extirpation. We not only
assail their persons and property, but every sublunary enjoyment.
The Loyalists, in Charles's time, were attached to the hierarchy and
ancient rites of the Church, which included the use of the organ,
and the solemn and artificial use of voices; but if they had any one
custom or enjoyment which excited in the Puritans a more
acrimonious hatred towards them than another, it was that of
celebrating religious rites with good Music. The Cavaliers, in their
turn, were equal enemies to the coarse, vociferous and clamorous
psalmody of the Puritans ; so that a reciprocal and universal
intoleration prevailed throughout the kingdom, during more than
half a century : for though the mutual hatred of contending parties
did not burst into open war till late in Charles's reign, it was secretly
fermenting all the time his father sate on the throne; and, indeed,
nothing but the vigour and vigilance of Elizabeth's government
curbed the mutinous spirit of the times, while she was at the helm.
During the grand rebellion and interregnum, musicians who
had employment either in the chapels royal, cathedrals, or public
exhibitions in the capital, were forced to sculk about the country,
and solicit an asylum in the houses of private patrons, whose
mansions, and abilities to protect them, must have been very
precarious. And, indeed, if they could have been rendered
permanent, they would not so much have contributed to the
advancement of the art, as the pride, effort, and emulation of
working for a severe and fastidious public would have done. Many
a man of creative genius and gigantic abilities, has been manacled
by idleness, vanity, and self-applause in a private station, where,
safe from rivals, and certain of the approbation of a small, and
perhaps ignorant and partial circle of friends, he has degenerated
into listlessness, conceit, and affectation.
As there were few appeals to the public judgment in musical
productions or performances during these turbulent times, the
private patrons, as well as the professors of the art themselves, were
easily satisfied; as appears by the wretched and vapid compositions
that were published, and the unlimited praises bestowed on them
in encomiastic verses, still worse than the Music.
But though the musicians selected by Charles, for his private
concerts, were not men of great genius or abilities, yet his majesty
cannot be accused of either ignorance or partiality in his choice of
them, for the nation at that time could boast of no better.
William and Henry Lawes were at this time in such general favour,
that though the kingdom was divided into factions, and men not
only varied more in their principles, but disputed them with more
308
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
violence, than at any other period of our history, yet there was but
one opinion concerning the abilities of these musicians.
William Lawes [killed 1645], the elder son of Thomas Lawes,
a vicar-choral of the cathedral church of Salisbury, and a native of
that city, was placed early in life under Coperario* for his musical
education, at the expence of the earl of Hertford (r). His first
preferment was in the choir of Chichester, but he was soon called to
London, where in 1602 [/3], he was sworn a gentleman of the
Chapel Royal; which place, however, he resigned in 1611, and
became one of the private, or chamber musicians, to Charles, then
prince, and afterwards king.** Fuller says, " he was respected and
beloved of all such persons as cast any looks towards virtue and
honour; " and he seems well entitled to this praise. He manifested
his gratitude and loyalty to his royal master by taking up arms in
his cause against the parliament. And though to exempt him from
danger, lord Gerrard, the king's general made him a commissary in
the royal army, yet the activity of his spirit disdaining this intended
security, at the siege of Chester, 1645, he lost his life by an accidental
shot. The king is said, by Fuller, to have been so affected at his
loss, that though he was already in mourning for his kinsman lord
Bernard Stuart, killed at the same siege, his majesty put " on
particular mourning for his dear servant William Lawes, whom he
commonly called the Father of Mustek (s)."
His chief compositions were Fantasias for viols, and songs and
symphonies for Masques. Though his brother Henry, in the preface
to the Choice Psalmes for three voices, which they published jointly
[1648], boasts that " he composed more than thirty several sorts of
Music for voices and instruments, and that there was not any
instrument in use in his time but he composed for it as aptly as if
he had only studied that." In Dr. Aldrich's Collection, Christchuch,
Oxon. [I. 5, 1-6] there is a work of his called Mr. William Lawes's
Great Consort, " wherein are six setts of Musicke, 6 books." His
Royal Consort for two treble viols, two viol da gambas, and a
through-base (t), which was always mentioned with reverence by his
admirers in the last century, is one of the most dry, aukward, and
unmeaning compositions I ever remember to have had the trouble
of scoring. It must, however, have been produced early in his life,
as there are no bars, and the passages are chiefly such as were used in
(r) This musician was an Englishman; but having been in Italy, at his return he changed
his name from Cooper to Coperario.
(s) Wiltshire.
(t) Here the term thorough base occurs, without figures or reference to its being
accompanied with chords, and only implies a constant base, without rests.
_ * He could hardly have come into contact with Coperario (John Cooper) until 1602, in
which year Lawes came to London.
** He resigned from the Chapel Royal on either the 1st or 5th May, 1611. In October
of the same year, however, he is re-admitted to the Chapel Royal but "without paie." His
admittance as a musician to the King ordinary for the lutes and voices is dated April 30, 1635.
His salary, under a warrant dated May 14, 1635, is /40 per annum.
309
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
queen Elizabeth's time.* In the music-school at Oxford are two
large manuscript volumes of his works in score, for various
instruments; one of which includes his original compositions for
masques, performed before the king, and at the Inns of court.
His anthem for four voices, in Dr. Boyce's second volume, is the
best and most solid composition that I have seen of this author;
though it is thin and confused in many places, with little melody,
and a harmony in the chorus, p. 201, which I am equally unable to
understand or reconcile to rule or to my own ears. He must have
been considerably older than his brother Henry, though they
frequently composed in conjunction. I am, however, unable to
clear up this point of primogeniture : Henry's name is placed first in
the Choice Psalmes, published in 1648; in the preface to which he
says, " as for that which is my part in this composition — it takes
precedence of order only, not of worth." And yet he says of his
own tunes just before, " they had their birth at the same time as
his." Besides the psalms at the end of Sir William Davenant's
masque called the Triumphs of the Prince d' Amour, 1635 [1636],
it is said, that " the Musick of the songs and symphanies were
excellently composed by Mr. William and Mr. Henry Lawes, his
majesty's servants."
Several of the songs of William Lawes occur in the collections
of the times, particularly in John Playford's Musical Companion
[1672], part the second, consisting of dialogues, glees, ballads, and
ayres, the words of which are in general coarse and licentious. The
dialogue part, which he furnished to this book is a species of
recitative, wholly without accompaniment; and the duet at last,
which is called a chorus, is insipid in melody, and ordinary in
counterpoint. His boasted canons, published by his brother Henry
at the end of their psalms, as proofs of his great abilities in harmony,
when scored, appear so far from finished compositions, that there
is not one of them totally free from objections, or that bears the
stamp of a great master.
Henry Lawes [1595-1662], the brother of William, was likewise
a disciple of Coperario. By the cheque-book of the Chapel Royal
it appears that he was sworn in Pisteller, in January 1625 [-26] (u),
and in November following, gentleman of the Chapel; after this he
was appointed clerk of the cheque, and one of the public and private
musicians to king Charles I. [1631]. As the reputation of Henry
was still higher, and more firmly established than that of his brother,
it seems to require more ample discussion.
I have examined with care and candour all the works I can find
of this composer, which are still very numerous, and am obliged to
Cm) Skinner, Junius, Cotgrave, Howel, Baily, Johnson, and all the Lexicographers are
silent concerning this word; and unless it implied a reader of the epistles, I am utterly
ignorant of its import. Pistel, in Chaucer, implies not only an epistle, but a short lesson.
Tyrwhitt.
* The Royal Consort contains 66 short pieces for the viols and a few airs for violin and
bass. It is in the B.M. (Add. MSS. 10,445; 3*,43i and 2). Over fifty vocal works are also
in the last volume. Pieces by Lawes were published in Playford's Select. Musical Ayres and
Dialogues; in Catch as Catch Can; in Musick's Hand Maide; and in Court Ayres there are 53
two-part pieces by him.
3IO
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
own myself unable, by their excellence, to account for the great
reputation he acquired, and the numerous panegyrics bestowed upon
him by the greatest poets and musicians of his time. His temper
and conversation must certainly have endeared him to his
acquaintance, and rendered them partial to his productions; and the
praise of such writers as Milton and Waller is durable fame. Tallis,
Bird, of Gibbons, who were all infinitely superior to Lawes, never
had their abilities blazoned by cotemporary poets or historians of
eminence. Fenton, the editor of Waller's works, tells us, that " the
best poets of his time were ambitious of having their verses set to
Music by this admirable artist; " and, indeed, he not only set some
of the works of almost every poet of eminence in Charles I. reign,
but of young noblemen and gentlemen who seem only to have tried
their strength on the lyre for his use, and of whose talents for poetry
no other evidence remains than what is to be found in Lawes's
publications (x).
Waller has more than once bestowed his fragrant incense on this
musician. Peck says, that " Milton wrote his masque at the request
of Lawes; " but whether Milton chose Lawes, or Lawes Milton
for a colleague in Comus, it equally manifests the high rank in
which he stood with the greatest poets of his time. It would be
illiberal to cherish such an idea; but it does sometimes seem as if
the twin-sisters, Poetry and Music, were mutually jealous of each
other's glory: " the less interesting my sister's offspring may be,"
says Poetry, " the more admiration will my own obtain." Upon
asking some years ago, why a certain great prince continued to
honour with such peculiar marks of favour an old performer on the
flute, when he had so many musicians of superior abilities about
him? I was answered, " because he plays worse than himself."
And who knows whether Milton and Waller were not secretly
influenced by some such consideration? and were not more pleased
with Lawes for not pretending to embellish or enforce the sentiments
of their songs, but setting them to sounds less captivating than the
sense.
But bad as the Music of Lawes appears to us, it seems to have
been sincerely admired by his cotemporaries, in general. It is not
meant to insinuate that it was pleasing to poets only, but that it
was more praised by them than any other Music of the same time.
Though that of Laniere, Hilton, Simon Ives, Dr. Child, and others,
seems preferable; and the poets, whose praise is fame, perhaps
taught others to admire.
The time was now come for simplifying harmony and purifying
melody in England, as well as in Italy; and the beginning of this
enterprize was not fortunate here any more than in that country :
(x) In his first book of Ayres and Dialogues for one, two, and three voyces, published in
I653. four years after he lost his royal master and patron, besides a preface by himself, and
encomiastic verses by Waller, Edward and John Phillips, the nephews of Milton, and others;
there are songs, some of them excellent, by Thomas earl of Winchelsea, William earl of
Pembroke, John earl of Bristol, lord Broghill, Thomas Carey, son of the earl of Monmouth,
Henry Noel son of lord Camden, Sir Charles Lucas, and Carew Raleigh, son of Sir Walter
Raleigh.
311
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
harmony and contrivance were relinquished without a compensation.
Simplicity, indeed, was attained; but devoid of accent, grace, or
invention. And this accounts for the superiority of Church Music
over secular at this period in every part of Europe, where canon,
fugue, rich harmony, and contrivance, were still cultivated; while
the first attempts at air and recitative were aukward, and the bases
thin and unmeaning. Indeed, the composers of this kind of Music
had the single merit to boast of affording the singer an opportunity
of letting the words be perfectly well understood; as their melodies,
in general, consisted of no more notes than syllables, while the treble
accompaniment, if it subsisted, being in unison with the voice-part,
could occasion no embarrassment or confusion.
But there seems as little reason for sacrificing Music to poetry,
as poetry to Music; and when the sentiments of the poem are neither
enforced nor embellished by the melody, it seems as if the words
might be still better articulated and understood by being read or
declaimed than when drawled out in such psalmodic Ayres as those
of Henry Lawes and his cotemporaries. It has, however, been
asked " whoever reads the words of a song but the author? " And
there are certainly many favourite songs, which nothing but good
Music and good singing could ever bring into notice. However,
there are poems, I will not call them songs, on subjects of wit and
science, which must ever be enfeebled by Music ; while others,
truly lyric and confined to passion and sentiment, travel quicker to
the heart, and penetrate deeper into the soul by the vehicle of
melody, than by that of declamation (y). But the time is not yet
come for these discussions : when there is no poetry truly lyric, there
can be no graceful or symmetric melody; and, during the last
century, there was certainly none which merited that title, in any
language of Europe.
Though Henry Lawes severely censures the admirers of Italian
Music in his preface, yet his first cantata, Theseus and Ariadne, is
both in poetry and Music, an imitation of the famous scene in
Monteverde's opera of Arianna, which was afterwards formed into a
single heroic song, entirely like this, in stilo recitativo, without any
air from beginning to end [1653]. After the operas of Rinuccini
which had been set by Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, and Monteverde,
in that manner, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, had met
with such universal applause in Italy, from the lovers of poetry and
simplicity, and enemies to madrigals and Music of many parts, this
kind of composition had many imitators, not only in Italy, but
throughout Europe. All the melodies of Henry Lawes remind us
of recitative or psalmody, and scarce any thing like an air can be
found in his whole book of Ayres. As to his knowledge and
(y) I want not to set up one art against another, or to give a preference to singing over
declamation; but to assign to each its due place and praise. There are passages in our best
plays which could never be sung by the finest performer that ever existed, to so much effect as
they have been spoken by a Garrick or a Siddons; while in Metastasio's charming dramas, there
are lines and stanzas, by which an audience, has been often more completely enrapt, when well
set and well sung by a mellifluous and touching voice, than by the most exquisite declamation
of the greatest actors that ever existed.
312
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
resources in counterpoint, I am certain that they were neither great
nor profound.
His works were chiefly published under the title of Ayres and
Dialogues, of which he printed three several books, the first in 1653;
the second, 1655; and the third, 1658. Besides these, many of his
songs and dialogues were published by Play ford in collections,
entitled Select musical Ayres and Dialogues, by Dr. Wilson, Dr.
Charles Colman, Nicholas Laniere, and others [1652, 3, & 9].
Though most of the productions of this celebrated musician are
languid and insipid, and equally devoid of learning and genius, I
shall point out what seem the most meritorious of his Ayres in these
collections.
Book I. p. 11.
fH
ps*
aai
:©•:
CRKE-ISSS OF LOV£ ttr/D FXBE
FROM FSARS,
he.
is one of the most pleasing little airs that I have seen of this author.
I shall insert the following song entire, not so much on account
of the beauty of the melody or harmony, though it is one of the
best in those particulars, as for the singularity of the measure, which
is such as seldom occurs. Harry Carey's ballad, Of all the girls
that are so smart, &c. which is a slower kind of hornpipe, resembles
it the most of any air I can recollect.
Song set by Henry Lawes.
6fe
o | o
i 9 a
o' a o
-el^-**--^1
iEE3E
:F=i=
EEg
Ei&, hb trefr two
, .. . 1 V ^ W
ohu. I J>io es- ■ vy with Biesoin i ueanrSi ve£Pin&
r Lo-ven
mr
w=w
^=^=t
E Z o-
g^
-9*-
I
*
'><•■>• Pd
s=3^
J cm ed, HwG/r&tri
VHifi, thrt uves im toue.$ Loves m
VniM.
m
^g
-Hro-
Ce:
" Little love serves my turn," p. 18 of the same collection, is
the gayest air I have seen by H. Lawes. His other most pleasing
ballads are those beginning, " If when the sun," p. 18, and Ben
Johnson's song, " Still to be neat, still to be dress'd," see
Playford's Collection. But the best of all his songs seems "Come
from the dungeon to the throne," p. 167 of Playford's second part;
and " Amidst the myrtles as I walk," is pleasing psalmody.
The tunes which he set to Sandys's excellent version of the
psalms [1637], as well as those to the Choice Psalmes of the same
paraphrase which were composed by Hen. Lawes and his brother,
in a kind of anthem or motet style, though ushered into the word,
in 1648, by such innumerable panegyrics in rhyme, are so far from
3i3
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
being superior to the syllabic psalmody of their predecessors who
clothed Sternhold and Hopkins in Narcotic strains, that they seem
to possess not only less pleasing melody, but less learned harmony,
than may be found in anterior publications of the same kind.
And this seems to be the opinion of the public: as they were
never adopted by any vociferous fraternity, or admitted into the
pale of a single country church, that I have been able to discover,
since they were first printed. One of these, first published by
Henry, to the seventy-second psalm, has, indeed, long had the
honour of being jingled by the chimes of St. Lawrence Jewry, six
times in the four and twenty hours, in a kind of Laus perpetua,
such as was established in Psalmody-Island mentioned in Book II.
p. 414, Note (e).
During the Civil War, Henry Lawes supported himself by
teaching ladies to sing (z); however, he retained his place in the
Chapel Royal, and, at the Restoration, composed the coronation
anthem. Yet he did not long survive this event, for, in Oct. 1662,
he died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Dr. John Wilson [1595-1673/4], a native of Feversham, in
Kent, was a gentleman of Charles the First's chapel, and servant
in ordinary to his majesty, in the character of chamber-musician.
His instrument was the lute, upon which he is said to have excelled
all the Englishmen of his time; and, according to Ant. Wood, his
royal master was so pleased with his talents, and had even such
a personal regard for him, that he not only listened to him with
the greatest attention, but frequently condescended to lean or lay
his hand on his shoulder, while he was playing.
For the excellence of his performance we must now wholly
depend on tradition, as the compositions he has left behind him
for the lute are but feeble testimonies of a great hand. Nor will
his vocal productions, or Fantasias, either in print or manuscript,
generate very exalted ideas of his genius or abilities as a composer.
That he was admired by his majesty, and by the lovers of Music
at Oxford, where he was honoured with the degree of doctor in
Music, 1644 [1645], and where he long resided, proves more the
low state of the art at this time, before the ears of the public were
rendered discriminative, by a variety of great and rival talents,
than his own perfections. Little had been heard, and but little
was expected. Swift says, " we admire a little wit in a woman,
as we do a few words spoke plain by a parrot ' ' : and it might
more seriously be said, that the best Music, during times of
ignorance and inexperience, is perhaps more admired than the most
exquisite productions and performance of a more enlightened
perio.d. Nothing can prove this more clearly than the unbounded
(z) It lias, however, been roundly asserted, that "singing follows so naturally the
smallest degTee of proficiency on any instrument, that the learning of both is unnecessary;
and, in fact, those that teach the harpsichord are now the only singing-masters we know of,
except a few illiterate professors, who travel about the country, and teach psalmody by the
notes, at such rates as the lower sort of people are able to pay."
And a writer living in London had the courage to publish this opinion so lately as the
year 1776 ! in spite of all the Palmas, Cocchis, Tedeschinis, Ventos, Sacchinis, Piozzis,
Mortellaris. Parsonses, who wanted to persuade the world that they were singing-masters.
314
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
and hyperbolical praises bestowed in France on the operas of
Lulli, of which at present the whole nation is ashamed.
Dr. Wilson, indeed, seems to have set words to Music more
clumsily than any composer of equal rank in the profession; but
as he was respected by his cotemporaries, and held an exalted rank
in his art, a list shall here be inserted of his works; not so much
for their intrinsic worth, as to enable curious enquirers to judge for
themselves of the progress which Music had made in this kingdom,
when such productions were in high favour, not only with the
greatest personages but principal professors of the times (a).
" Psalterium Carolinum, the devotions of his sacred majesty
in his solitudes and sufferings, rendered in verse, set to Music for
3 voices and an organ or theorbo." Folio, 1657.
" Cheerful Aires or Ballads first composed for one single voice,
and since set for 3 voices." Oxon. 1660.
" Aires to a voice alone, to a theorbo or bass viol "; these are
printed in a collection [Playford's] entitled " Select Aires and
Dialogues," folio, 1653.
" Divine Services and Anthems," the words of which are in
Clifford's Collection, Lond. 1663.
He also composed Music to several of the odes of Horace, and
to some select passages in Ausonius, Claudian, Petronius Arbiter,
and Statius; these were never published, but are preserved in a
manuscript volume curiously bound in blue Turkey leather, with
silver clasps, which the doctor presented to the university, with an
injunction that no person should be permitted to peruse it till after
his decease. It is still among the archives of the Bodleian Library.
The compositions of Dr. Wilson will certainly not bear a severe
scrutiny either as to genius or knowledge. It is, however, not easy
to account for the ignorance in counterpoint which is discoverable
in many lutenists of these times; for having harmony under their
fingers, as much as the performers on keyed-instruments, it
facilitates their study, and should render them deeper contra-
puntists than the generality of flute-players, whose flimsy
compositions are proverbial.
On the surrender of the garrison of the city of Oxford, 1646,
Dr. Wilson left the university, and was received into the family of
Sir William Walter, of Sarsden, in Oxfordshire; but, in 1656, he
was constituted Music-professor, and had lodging assigned him in
Baliol College, where, being assisted by some of the Royalists, he
lived very comfortably, exciting in the university, according to
A. Wood, such a love of Music, as in a great measure accounts
for that flourishing state in which it has long subsisted there, and
for those numerous private music-meetings, of which this writer,
in his own life, has given such an amusing relation. At the
Restoration, Dr. Wilson was appointed chamber-musician to
(a) See the verses prefixed to the Psalterium Carolinum, and Ant. Wood's character oi
them, Athen. Oxon. xi. Fasti., col. 42.
315
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Charles II. and, on the death of Henry Lawes, 1662, was again
received into the Chapel Royal; when, quitting the University, he
resided constantly in London till the time of his decease, at near
seventy-nine years of age, in 1673.
John Hilton, a bachelor in Music of the university of
Cambridge [1626], organist of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and
also clerk of that parish, deserves a niche in the musical history
of this period. He began to flourish in the latter end of Queen
Elizabeth's reign; as his name appears among the composers who
contributed to the Triumphs of Oriana. His genius for composition,
however, did not much expand, at least publickly, during the next
reign; though early in that of Charles I. he published Fa Las for
three voices [1627], and in 1652, an excellent collection of Catches,
Rounds, and Canons, for three and four voices, under the quaint
title of Catch that Catch can', among which there are many by
himself, that were deservedly admired by his cotemporaries, and
which still afford great pleasure to the lovers of this species of
humorous and convivial effusions (b). He died during the
Protectorship, and was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey.
He is said to have had an anthem sung in that church, before his
body was brought out for interment; but as not only the cathedral
service was suppressed during this period, but the liturgy itself,
and every species of choral Music, the fact seems unlikely, and
ill-founded.*
Daring the most tranquil part of Charles's reign, it seems as if
musicians must have chiefly subsisted on the household and chapel
establishments, the munificence of their sovereign, and private
patronage of the great; as, in summer, no such places as Vauxhall,
Ranelagh, or other public gardens, furnished them with employ-
ment, or afforded them an opportunity of displaying their talents;
and in winter, there were no public concerts, either in the capital,
or in provincial towns; and, except the theatres, which employed
but small bands, there seem to have been no public means of
subsistence for singers out of the church, or, except organists, for
instrumental performers any where. Luxury was now less diffused
through the kingdom than in subsequent times; for, in proportion
as commerce has been extended, individuals have become rich, while
the state has been impoverished. Nothing renders men less
parsimonious and circumspect in their expences, than a sudden and
(6) The first thirty-two Rounds, &c, in this collection, are by Hilton himself, and the
best that preceded those pf Purcell; yet there are compositions in the subsequent part of the
book, by Bird, Cranford, Ellis, Brewer, Webb, Jenkins, Deering, Henry and William Lawes,
Thomas Holmes, Edmond Nelham, John Cobb, Dr. Wilson, Simon Ives, and two or three
canons, by Thomas Ford, that are excellent.
* The John Hilton of the Triumphs of Oriana was not John Hilton the organist of St.
Margaret's. It is not improbable that the Hilton of the Oriana was the father of the Hilton of
St. Margaret's. John the younger was born in 1599, and thus was only two years' old when
the Triumphs of Oriana appeared.
The Fa Las for three voices were published by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1844.
Hilton died in March, 1656-7. Anthony Wood relates that the "Anthem was sung in the House
over the corps before it went to the church, and kept time on his coffin." His burial is
recorded in the Registers of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and not in the cloisters of the Abbey.
316
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
unexpected influx of ready money. Our ancestors, whose income
was circumscribed, had little to spare for new modes and expensive
pleasures. The great were munificent, but the rest were necessarily
ceconomical.
Though the musical publications, during this contentious and
turbulent reign, were but few, and though most of them have
already been incidentally mentioned, they shall here be
chronologically arranged, for the reader's more easy inspection.
1627. Fa Las for three Voices, by John Hilton. Morley, in
imitation of Gastoldi, first published songs in English, under this
trivial title. He was followed by Weelks, and Weelks by Hilton,
who seem to have been the last that adopted it. The syllables fa
la are used, in these light and gay compositions, as a kind of
refrein or burden, at the end of each couplet, or stanza.
1629. French Court- Ay res with their Ditties Englished, of 4
and 5 parts, collected, translated, and published by Edward Filmer,
gent, dedicated to the Queen, folio. These Ay res were chiefly
composed by Pierre Guedron, with two by Anthoine Boisset. There
is very little musical merit discoverable in these songs; which are,
however, highly extolled in several copies of verses prefixed to the
book, and, among the rest, in one by Ben Jonson. The editor seems
to have taken great pains in translating the words, totidem syllabis,
in order to accommodate them to the original melodies.
1631. A brief e Instruction and Art of Canon, by Elway Bevin.
See above, p. 264.
1624 [1622]. The Compleat Gentleman, by Henry Peacham,
quarto. This book, though written in the reign of King James, seems
not to have been published till this year. Among the numerous essays
it contains, there is one on Music, which though not profound, yet
will supply a lover of musical history with the knowledge and
opinions of an enquiring and enlightened Dilettante, during the
early part of the last century.
1636. The Principles of Musik in singing and setting, with the
twofold Use thereof, ecclesiastical and civil, by Charles Butler,
Magd. Coll. Oxf. master of arts, 4to. This tract, which is dedicated
to Charles I. seems to have been the only theoretical or didactic
work, published on the subject of Music, during his reign. The
author appears to have been a learned and ingenious man. He had
previously published the Principles of Grammar, in which he had
proposed a new and more simple orthography for our language, of
which Dr. Johnson has given an account in the grammar prefixed to
his Dictionary. The Saxon and new characters he uses, in order
to explode such letters as are redundant, or of uncertain powers,
render this musical tract somewhat difficult to peruse. It is,
however, better digested, more compressed, and replete with useful
information, than any work of the kind that appeared for more than
a century after Morley's Introduction. The quotations are perhaps
317
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
too numerous, and the display of musical erudition may be thought
to border on pedantry; yet, allowing these to be censurable, the
book contains more knowledge, in a small compass, than any other
of the kind, in our language.
1637. Comus was published by Henry Lawes, but without the
Music.
1638 [1637, Grove's]. Sandys's Paraphrase of the Psalms was
published, with tunes by Henry Lawes.
1639. Aires and Madrigals for two, three, four, and five voices,
with a thorough-bass, for organ, or theorbo-lute,* in the Italian
way, by Walter Porter [c. 1595-1659]. These seem to have been
the last madrigals that were published in England; where, as well
as on the Continent, their favour being faded, this composer was
not possessed of sufficient genius or renown to revive it. , This
musician, who was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Charles I.
published likewise Hymns and Motets, for two voices, 1657; and
the Psalms of Sandys's version, set likewise for two voices, with a
thorough base for the organ.
1641. Barnard's selected Church-Music, of which an account
has been already given. And, soon after, but without a date,
Musica deo sacra el Ecclesice Anglicance, by Thomas Tomkins, a
publication which has likewise been already recorded.**
1648. The last musical publication during the unfortunate life
of Charles I. was " Choice Psalmes put into Musick for three
Voices, by Henry and William Lawes, Brothers and Servants to his
Majestic With divers Elegies, set to Musick by sev'rall Friends
upon the Death of William Lawes. And at the End of the
Thorough Base are added nine Canons of three and foure Voices,
made by William Lawes."
It is but justice to say, that these psalms are very inaccurately
printed; yet, in scoring them, it is not difficult to distinguish the
author's faults from those of the printer. There is, indeed, no
felicity discoverable throughout the work; no attempt at air,
expression, or new modulation; all the movements being in one
even tenor of mediocrity.
Of these productions, dedicated to the King but a very short time
before his execution, and recommended by four copies of verses,
one of which is a sonnet by Milton, an opinion has already been
given. However, to remove all suspicion of prejudice against two
men, of whose abilities I wished and expected to have had just
cause to speak with more reverence, the two following psalms from
this work are selected, in defence of my candour and fidelity.
* This may be a reprint of a volume of Madrigals and Ayres published in 1632, the only
known copy of which is now in the B.M. (K. 8. s. 20).
Porter is said to have been a pupil of Monteverdi.
** The Musica Deo Sacra was not published until 1668. See Editor's note, p. 291.
3i8
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Psalm.
Wm. La wes.
^JVf4-P
1 j> M = > j
J JVo
^9=^
S
or
Kims
Sins /muni i>Su»t- j. a yes
THWH/rfyiffttta »r
Nit (S)/v-
hi£s "vesrs
•-Q-
3^E
B
S
3*
*=M
«2*
^=^
?/*£ t&'W/ &c
^/Vtf //v ȣ
Th#thi>th %c
FT", Ml j j 1
^tfc
T^
t-yv-
?/ "/i -^
///»ff
"ThtTHftTH, en.
*}• h,
-y*
W? H g
-r>-
^^
TV»tS£
KfMtfS HAMB Ht^/Vf
/t#0 SACXBD
HMDS THEix/nvioi i B/nvos /Mrs
ovFurH&ih'x'iZ
±s
3=s
^w j;
SE
=M^Z
"S-
*/J Co»»t>svp
-O *•.
^Hh^i "k
knots M*f&c
nmt ovej/rHOotv/tie
rggfTPg
i _> gg
±=F
*£
3=fe
*"* Co*sv£srs he
- BfXHDS H/lve 0i/sarrf#oH>/**
P
s^
lEct
*.o
**t
VH'W
"««M> im pious
Biveu. out
e/txTHTHei
Dane wr, < vMiveosAj. r"fm
^F?
££=
S
T~r
•»»» g
?S
5=1=
E T '
YYYV \
Tune imvtous&c
&
ffl^^
=F=^
g&^
±±=t
tar
±=T
TTiffi1/? imviovs Ex
i~er »u neTos/es
with te.
319
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Psalm.
Hy. Lawes.
m=f
^ j j fi-Bi
^
^g^
-|— r
Wr&
Lo US JUD6SK) ' CtiUSB
Thy PieaciAia
£is
3BMOI.DS Aiy
•ry
E
5=C
-t— l-
t— rr
Lo/u> ruoce my
&
Wm
x=t
ioA^ JUbce my e*us&, &c.
^^
i^E
-»— g^
TTf>
^^
r+^
s
/^OW CA/v J
Jb -
ff«tz w/£y
Au /*/ w. '<y^ Ort
SEe
TH££ /?B-
±
f-ye.
/hj./»y
^=£
I I '
How Cfln/I
h/ysnfJ/l/vD
fiH flty
^^
3E
»- •• • „•-?
££c
«:
/to/y AwZ A>7_l; ^a;
Psalm.
WHE* He
Henry Lawes.
&
^^
g=^ra
5fe
yoff
fa
/foP^S 0/V
fe
THee
+
JPff-
/.)&•
JVmj TfiuSTi
mi
Thbb.o LET NOT
JH/tme D£- J~ecr
|j I a
BS
PS
@E
^^
^
//0?5SS 0/v
77/£ff
;?£•-
*>£•
/y/ia Tliars
TH86, O LET IYoT
SH/tr»e 2>E- TiScT"
¥?¥^
W*??
Q J o
j^
Ei
i^
«^i
.VtfP£* 0/V r^a-
t>Rd^?%
Mto ra///3 Xc
o -
%g$
7«)f Ev&iTusT my
tHftseJ) *« Jtf
LotDLEHO tvlL-UHti
SfiHe toii'H spgbo P#o-
^^
p up *rPf =fc^^
^g^a^^:
&
THDnevea *c
UoHo lbpi » tv/(.- um Bane
-*~*rr
hr/T» i*s
BO TfioTECT BE
^s
?=3^
^prrfr'? r"
£3:
H— f-
■» ThoubvEO Se
TtJp© St
/V/7>/ ,S7»,«S» flQo-TECT-
h?r ffl^
j gjjSlifii
TecT BBT/mu my
neat vhth rny
Sraone, nprnE
^A6* JJ
T4=^
S
ss
g J
Thov my floe* Etc
ST/ioma fl/!mB
i/n - mu/tE
7j??wA>.l ^^S
^?^
^
JgHQ-
K ^
It does not appear that either of the brothers had studied
counterpoint regularly, or acquired that facility and unembarrassed
arrangement of the parts; that purity of harmony, and graceful
selection of sounds, in melody, which are manifest in the works
320
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
of the best masters of Italy of the last and present century, and
which are perhaps only to be attained early in life, by the diligent
study of plain counterpoint upon canto jermo, or melodies equally
simple.*
Indeed, there seems no other way of accounting for the great
favour and celebrity of these musicians, than by imagining them to
have been possessed of qualities which endeared them to mankind,
exclusive of their skill in Music; for, besides the many panegyrics
bestowed on them by the first poets of their time, there are in this
book of psalms no less than eight elegies on the death of William,
set to Music by the first musicians of the age: Dr. Wilson, John
Taylor, John Cobb, Capt. Edm. Forster, Simon Ives, John Hilton,
John Jenkins, and his brother Henry.
There was but little instrumental Music of any kind printed
during this period;** and, for keyed-instruments, nothing appeared
from the time that Parthenia was engraved [c. 1611], till 1657,
when a book of lessons for the virginal was published in the names
of Dr. Bull, Orlando Gibbons, Rogers, and others. At a time
when all other instrumental Music was so easy and simple, as to
appear now perfectly artless and insipid, the extreme complication
and difficulty of all the Music that was composed for the organ and
virginal, is truely marvellous; and, indeed, though frequent
complaints are made concerning the difficulty of the harpsichord
and piano-forte-music of our times, it may be asserted, with the
utmost truth, that it has been simplified and rendered more prac-
ticable in every part of Europe, during the present century, while
compositions for almost every other instrument are daily rendered
more difficult.
Interregnum,
From the death of Charles I. till the Restoration, though the
gloomy fanaticism of the times had totally prohibited the public
use of every species of Music, except unisonous and syllabic
psalmody, yet it seems to have been more zealously cultivated,
in private, during the usurpation, if we may judge by the number
of publications, than in the same number of years, at any former
period.***
Several musicians began their career during this time, who
afterwards arrived at great eminence. Among these was John
* MSS. in the Bodleian Library disprove this assertion in the case of William Lawes.
** In 1635 a reprint of Parthenia was published. East's pieces for viols appeared in 1638.
We confess our inability to get any particulars regarding the book of Virginal Music which
Bumey states was published in 1657.
*** It is unfortunate that statements such as this have been repeated without any shadow
of justification by writer after writer, until at last that fictitious figure "the stage Puritan,"
has been created.
It is true that the Puritans objected to elaborate music in the Church Service, but that
they objected, as a body, to music, or frowned upon its use, is a belief that cannot be
substantiated. May we again draw attention to P. A. Scholes' book, The Puritan and Music.
Vol. ii. 21. 321
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Jenkins [1592-1678], a voluminous composer of Fancies for viols,
which were in great esteem during this rude state of instrumental
Music. His first publication, however, was vocal, being a collection
of songs under the title of " Theophila, or Love's Sacrifice," folio,
1651 [1652]. None of the infinite number of pieces that he
composed for viols, which occur in all the manuscript collections
of the times, were printed; yet, in 1660, he published twelve
Sonatas for two violins and a base, with a thorough-base for the
organ or theorbo, which were reprinted in Holland, 1664.* These
were professedly in imitation of the Italian style, and the first of
tin kind which had ever been produced by an Englishman. It
was at this time an instance of great condescension for a musician
of character to write expressly for so ribald and vulgar an instru-
ment, as the violin was accounted by the lovers of lutes, guitars,
and all the fretful tribe.
The Hon. Roger North, whose manuscript Memoirs of Musick
have already been mentioned, is very diffuse on the subject of
Jenkins, the circumstances of whose life have suggested to him
many moral reflexions on the instability of musical renown. " It
is of small importance," says he, " to the state of the world, or
condition of human life, to know the names and styles of those
composers of our own country, who have excelled the Italians
themselves in every species of Music, but that for the voice;
therefore the oblivion of all such things is no great loss. But for
curiosity sake, as other no less idle antiquities are courted, it would
doubtless afford satisfaction to professors and lovers of the art,
if they could acquire true information concerning their names,
characters, and works: of the latter, much knowledge might be
obtained, if the old collections, not yet rotten, of many patrons of
Music were accessible. In these we might still find the productions
of Alfonso Ferabosco, Coperario, Lupo, Mico, Este, and divers
others, especially of John Jenkins, whose musical works are more
voluminous, and, in their time, were more esteemed than all the
rest, though they now (1728) lie in the utmost contempt.
' ' I shall endeavour to give a short account of this master, with
whom it was my good chance to have had an intimate acquaintance
and friendship (c). He lived in King James's time, and flourished
in that of King Charles I. His talents lay chiefly in the use
of the lute and base, or rather Lyra- viol. He was one of the court
(c) Mr. North, the author of these Memoirs, was born in 1650, and lived till 1733, when
he had arrived at his eighty-third year. He had an organ, built by father Smith, for a
gallery of sixty feet long, which he erected on purpose for its reception, at Rougham, his
family seat in Norfolk. This instrument, though entirely composed of wooden pipes, was
spritely, and infinitely more sweet in its tone, than any one of metal that I ever heard. Jenkins
was born at Maidstone, in Kent, 1592, and lived to the great age of eighty-six, eighteen years
after the Restoration.
* It is doubtful if these volumes of Sonates were ever published. In the B.M. (Add. MSS.
31430) there are some works by Jenkins which the catalogue suggests are the 12 Sonates
published in 1660. Davy confesses his inability to verify the existence of these publications.
Some cf Jenkins' work is to be found in Smith's Musica Antiqua (1812).
322
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
musicians, and was once brought to play upon the lyra-vioi before
King Charles I. as an extraordinary performer. And when he
had done, the King said he did wonders upon an inconsiderable
instrument (d). He left London during the Rebellion and passed
his time at musical gentlemen's houses in the country, where he
was always courted, and at home, wherever he went; and in most
of his friends houses there was a chamber called by his name.
For, besides his musical excellencies, he was an accomplished and
ingenious person, and of such inoffensive and amiable manners,
that he was esteemed and respected for his virtues and disposition,
long after age had deprived him of his musical powers.
" It is not possible to give an account of his compositions, they
were so, numerous that he himself outlived the knowledge of them.
A Spanish nobleman sent some papers to Sir Peter Lely, containing
fragments of a Consort (Concerto), in 4 parts, of a sprightly kind,
such as were then called Fancies, desiring that he would procure
for him the rest, coute qui coute. Lely gave me these papers,
as the likelyest person to get them perfected. I shewed them to
Jenkins, who said he knew the Consort to be his own; but when
or where composed he knew not, and was unable to recollect any
more about it.
" His Fancies were full of airy points, grave and triple
movements, and other variety. And all that he produced till his
declining age, was lively, active, decided, and fanciful. And of
this kind he composed so much, that the private (or chamber)
Music, in England, was in a great measure supplied by him; and
they were the more coveted, because his style was new, and, for
the time, difficult; for he could hardly forbear divisions, and some
of his Consorts were too full of them. But it must be owned, that
being an accomplished master on the viol, all his movements laid
fair for the hand, and were not so hard as they seemed.
" His vein was less happy in vocal Music, though he was fond
of setting words, and, occasionally, of teaching to sing; but he
had neither voice nor manner fit for it. In his spritely moments
he made Catches (e), and strains that we called rants, with a piece
called the Cries of Newgate, which was all humour and very
whimsical. But of all his conceits, none flew about with his name
so universally as the small piece called his Bells. In those days
the country fidlers were not so well supplied with light Music from
London, as since; and a master that furnished them with new tunes,
that they were able to play, was a benefactor."
(d) The lyra viol was a viol da gamba, with more strings, but differently tuned from the
common six-string base. Its notation, like that of the lute, was written in entablature.'1
(e) Nothing of this kind now remains of Jenkins, but h:s little round : "A boat, a boat,
haste to the ferry," which is a happy selection and combination of pleasing sounds. [Also,
"Come, pretty maidens."]
* See Playford's Mustek's Recreation on the Viol, Lyra-way (1661). The original title of
this work was Musick's Recreation on the Lyra Viol.
323
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The Five Bell Consorte.
*££&feS5fe!g
m ?
By John Jenkins.
I
* ' '^T^Fff
PP=£
E^ffiS
Slo"
m <»*
> 3 .-,•»»
LCT
^
3CS=
^E
PF
3B
=te
P^
tff:t=t
^SJ-
T— H
fe^
e
^
ggr^rme^a^i
1 — t-
^^
gS
+*
13
&tt
s
s
nt
as r
^
in
r> • -r - rm
m ' riP'-lfr'rH1 rHf i
Bg
^
^^m^^^'^m
S2
J i ii r --it .'i^-tj-Ij. 4i
**=-+-
> -^ . /•«.-*> ».■»
rinrrri'rnrsB^g
mf^rtf^P
I " i IP: *
&s
3*
s
m
m
?a?
^
^s
ppfe
i=c
r±
7^frTfe*
tr e *
•"iSJSlB
t— ' irf gaga nrnj
^t £ ■ .•
^rri'rTirrr
fe
iPP+
FT
?=£=*
BE
±=P+
E8 E ^3
as
Sffzzt
*=
*" -3--
fen^
&
^E
^=4=
±±=C
^ •
g-t
^
pg=P
S
S
*
P-3P
[earning
^
i3C
s=t
-F — ^
s
324
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
te
i
ffJlJi
S
-\ — \-
$=9*
<e/ p.
^S
g »
o— y «h
e«
ll< I at1
•^»4*-
*«£
^S
3"-
<.-»?•
gg^
5 j p g
1^^«r<»
1 J" 1
m
A
^^
+^=hJ
F=F?
s
«
g c> '
sm
m
t=p^
iS&Ja
^^e
f^— g>— Q-^
^^L^J,^-
gS
±=*
3=+
Tft.
-•= =-Hf»
^g
B. « Or
^^
^
£^
^^
t=P?
^=P
What gave rise to this trio, or Consort, as it was called, seems to
have been a book called Tintinnalogia, or 2/ze 4^ o/ Ringing,
published 1668;* a work not beneath the notice of musicians who
wish to explore all the regions of natural melody :
as in this little book they will see every possible
change in the arrangement of Diatonic sounds,
from 2 to 12; which being reduced to musical
notes, would point out innumerable passages,
that, in spite of all which has hitherto been
written would be new in melody and musical com-
position. The reader will be able to form some
judgment of the wonderful variety which the
changes in bells afford to melody, by the annexed
calculations; whence it appears, that even in the
plain and simple arrangement of natural sounds
according to the species of octave, without the
intervention of either flat or sharp, eight notes will
furnish 40320 different passages, and twelve
notes, 479 millions 1600! so that supposing,
according to the usual calculation, that only 720
changes could be rung in an hour, it would
require seventy-five years, ten months, and ten
days, to ring the whole number of changes upon
twelve bells! ! Mersennus, in his Harm.
Bells
Changes
2
2
3
6
4
24
5
120
6
720
7
5O4O
8
4O32O
9
362880
IO
362880O
ii
399I6800
12
47900I600
* Burney is wrong in this assumption as the Five Bell Consort was published in 1662 in
Playford's Courtly Masquing Ayres. The author of Tintinnalogia was Fabian Stedman of
Cambridge.
325
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Universelle, published 1636, has enumerated these changes, and
reduced to musical notation those of the hexachord, as an illustration
of the amazing variety which may be given to the arrangement ot
only six sounds in melody. It must not, however, be imagined that
all the changes, in the above table, would be equally agreeable, or
even practicable, if introduced in an air; yet, in the almost infinite
number offered to a musician's choice, many would doubtless
frequently occur, which would not only be pleasing, but new. Out
of the great number of peals, which are given in numbers, on five,
six, and eight bells, in the Tintinnalogia, it is extraordinary, that
melody has not been consulted in the choice of changes : there seems
a mechanical order and succession in them all, without the least idea
of selecting such as are most melodious and agreeable. Even the
clams, or the collision of two bells together, in counterpoint, has
been settled by ringers without the least knowledge of harmony.
" Jenkins," continues Mr. North, " was certainly a great master
of divisions, and encouraged Sympson, the division-violist, by a
copy of verses at the beginning, and by some examples at the end
of his book. Unluckily all his earliest and most lively works are
lost and forgotten, and none remain but those of his latter time,
composed while he lived in country families, to the capacity of his
performers. As a man, he was certainly allowed a considerable
share of terrestrial happiness; for he had uninterrupted health, was
superior in his conduct to his profession, enjoyed the esteem of all
■who knew him, was easy in his temper, and never distressed in his
circumstances; and having, with philosophic calmness, seen himself
out-run by the world, he died in peace, after living like a good
Christian, at the house of Sir Phil. Wodehouse, at Kimberley, in
Norfolk, where, and at Hunston, the seat of the family of Sir Roger
L' Estrange, in the same county, he spent many of the last years
of his life (/)."
In spite of Puritanism, fanatic gloom, and psalm-roaring saints,
when Hilton ventured, in 1652, forty-three years after Pammelia
[1609], to publish " Catch that Catch can, or a choice Collection of
Catches, Rounds, and Canons, for 3 and 4 Voices," they helped to
solace the Royalists in private, during the triumphs of their enemies,
and suppression of all public amusements. Though many of
these Rounds and Catches were afterwards reprinted by
Playford, and retailed in later collections; the book, which is of a
small oblong form, is not only scarce, but valuable; as it contains
several canons and ingenious compositions which are not yet
common.
(/) The parish register of Kimberjey says, that John Jenkins, Esq., was buried Oct. 29th,
167S. In Blomfield's History of Norfolk, Vol. I. p. 759, an epitaph is inserted, which is said
to have been copied from his grave-stone in the middle of that church, but it is now gone.
Ant. Wood says,"he was a little man with a gTeat soul."
326
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Canon in the 4th above and 5th below. From Hilton's " Catch
that catch can."
By Thos. Ford.
m
m a * -a-
m a i-
> I I I
m
I fin So
wea ny of this
GfflEF
:££
S5
§s
32
/ ^/»AJ
Ttf OPTMIi l. i va- Rlrtf
Qr?t£F
^^
5V/»«fS>W] ^«7» 2"
S
=F=F
^ F7 f
±d
F
R/ OF THIS i-MG '- R/*4 GQl£F Jo/na Sc
5
^EEg
f^=^
^£^-
s
Sana 9c
Stuns &c
•*
S
^P
v?-
BE
3=X
F/HAir fltiD
vie
fo*£ Spssd/ #giP r
FaiAfr tuto
Bis
To i-lvea)
s
?• f»
=**
i5=F+T
S
I f p
35/52 gjfc
T FHimT 6*
•^.^
Jt
* g
+T
?=#
±zt
3
-sy-
Tbuvel
i./1/v <?</»#
77rt« (V/7W
-jg— O-
S^
S ' l l
^=
=5
epc
— 4SLTT
0£/r.
=F=F
f£=S
Canon in the 5th and 8th.
By Simon Jves.
327
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The Canon, Non nobis domine, reversed.
By Hilton.
r"o u
o
R C?)
o
7ft?*
r P —
•f-o= — •-
P P
flfrfl
— * — i —
t-f — t-
H 1
- r
r1
i fck o
NON
~7\ IT
do —mi-
-art
■ NB NON
— o
1 | j
1 — o
kr-$
^ non
rr.br -
r P
NO- SIS
So... mi-
■ A/e non
't~-i&
-O — a —
1 —
sea
~P — P —
-J J J
NOmi--Nl
0
NON
-4- — " —
NO- SIS
^ — p-
33o... mi—
-F F
NB. NON
/to
rti, -
cz)
(3)
_J
+)
— — e — i
0
/kL.o
—[ -t—
^, ^~
• o
— — f—
T^^
<hP Pf r
r4 d
U I
flr | | I
r i
J NOmi-Nl
TOO
m
<540-- W-
--4/w
S£D
NOIM-Nt
ruo
A vr
— P
l J
m?
I I
A 1
r
O ef
TUO-
JO °
04
&L0---ftl-
-• /?/W
sen
Ntmi- Ni
Tuo
m
"J'B *"
™ .J
1 1 -Q
1 !
— p
H 0
K. '-SJS
sea
W«U> #/
Tuo-.
zw
&L0 — W
• - Am
rffo
NOmi-NI Tuo
Dfl GLO-Ttl — /J/K
No. 1. A 7th unprepared & unresolved.
2. A naked 4th.
3. A 5th made a discord unprepared, and resolved
upwards.
4. An unmeaning 4th.
5. The same licence as No. 3.
6. 2d and 4th unresolved.
Canon in the Unison.
By Thos. Ford.
Down 0
loud op ■
oil i»y
e
Q A-
O m
T i
TVRHS
AMD
§=*
TURHS BUT
SP a
FINOS ALL
■ Tffom. spem,
Se3E
e 'Hi' p
Tft*
Ttf/.
5Mit m/ira jne /?'»e
fiHIO WRI.K.
328
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Catch, mentioned in Shakespear's Twelfth Night, Act 2d.
Sc. 3d. and supposed to be lost. See above p. 273
^
a «-» jj
-k-V-M*-
Hoa> TW peats. \ ™l™£Zg"-7>'20p&,c£.
at ■ *+ . m ** i* 3F-A 1
3E^
THOU K/yfivs
Homrny psacs
THOI) KNKVe.
THCU KNAVE.
In 1653, a translation was published, with a learned
commentary and notes by lord Browncker, the first president of the
Royal Society after its institution, of Des Cartes's short essay,
entitled Musicce Compendium. This little work added nothing but
method and geometrical precision to the praecognita of Music, except
a few very unphilosophical notions concerning the sympathetic
effects of sound. It was, however, the first importation relative to
the art, since Douland's translation of Ornithopharchus; and such
was the reputation of the author, till Newton confuted his
philosophy, that this little tract was purchased with avidity by the
lovers of the science, as a valuable acquisition.
Though Henry Lawes was much celebrated as a composer, his
works were wholly circulated through the kingdom in manuscript,
till this year, 1653, when he published the first book of his Ayres
and Dialogues, in folio. And the same year, whether before or
after the book of Lawes had appeared, I know not, John Playford
[1623-1686?] first became a publisher of Music,* by printing, in
the same size as Lawes, " Select musical Ayres and Dialogues, in
3 Divisions: first, Ayres for a Voyce alone, to the Theorbo, or
Base-viol; second, Choice Dialogues for 2 Voyces, for 2 ditto; third,
Short Ayres and Songs of 3 Voyces, which may be sung by one or
two Voices to an Instrument." The composers of these songs are
Dr. John Wilson, Dr. Charles Colman, Messrs. William and Henry
Lawes, Laniere, Webb, Smegergil, Edward Colman, and Jeremy
Savile, the principal English musicians then living: and yet the
whole collection does not contain one ayre which now seems worth
engraving, either as a specimen of individual genius, or national
taste.**
In 1655, Playford published the first edition of his "Introduction
to the Skill of Music," a compendium compiled from Morley, Butler,
* Playford had issued The English Dancing Master towards the end of 1650, but bearing
the date 1651. The Introduction to the Skill of Music is dated 1654 (or 1655), and the last
edition was published in 1730. According to Kidson, British Music Publishers, the copy dated
1654 is probably unique.
Burney's statement that Playford was the first music printer during the 17th cent,
obviously means that he was the most important.
For a full list of Playford's publications during the Protectorate see Davy, pp. 253 and 254.
** Smegergill was a little known composer of the period. In the 1653 edition of Playford's
Select Musical Ayres, he is mentioned as "Mr. William Smegergill alias Caesar." According to
Anth. Wood he was a noted Lute player.
329
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and other more bulky and abstruse books, which had so rapid a sale,
that, in 1683, ten editions of it had been circulated through the
kingdom. The book, indeed, contained no late discoveries, or new
doctrines, either in the theory or practice of the art; yet the form,
price, and style, were so suited to every kind of musical readers,
that it seems to have been more generally purchased and read, than
any elementary musical tract that ever appeared in this or any other
country.
John Playford was born in the year 1613 [1623], and seems,
by what means is now not known, to have laid in a considerable
stock of musical knowledge, previous to becoming the vender of the
chief productions of the principal composers of the time. As he was
the first, so he seems the most intelligent printer of Music during the
last century; and he and his son appear to have acquired the esteem
of the first masters of the art; and, without a special licence, or
authorised monopoly, to have had almost the whole business of
furnishing the nation with musical instruments, music-books, and
music-paper, to themselves; as, during more than the first fifty
years of the present century, Walsh and his son had afterwards.
In 1655, this diligent editor published, in two separate books,
small 8vo, " Court Ayres, by Dr. Charles Colman, William Lawes,
John Jenkins, Simpson, Child, Cook, Rogers, &c."
These being published at a time when there was properly no
court, were probably tunes which had been used in the masques
performed at Whitehall during the life of the late King.
This year, another volume of " Ayres and Dialogues " [2nd
vol.] was published by Henry Lawes. All the public theatres being
now shut, Music seems to have been more cultivated, as a domestic
amusement, than ever. In the violent invectives published at this
time by the Puritans, Music, its patrons, and professors, were not
spared. Gosson was the first writer who endeavoured to prove that
theatrical exhibitions were immoral, and wholly inconsistent with
the purity of the Christian Religion; and in this severe censure
players and pipers, by whom he means musicians, were alike
involved : as appears by his little book, published in 1579, entitled,
'" The School of Abuse, containing a pleasant invective against
poets, pipers, plaiers, jesters, and such like caterpillers, of a
common welth; setting up the flagge of defiance to their mischieuous
exercise, and ouerthrowing their bulwarkes by prophane writers,
natural reason, and common experience."*
These opinions were adopted and rendered still more acceptable
to the fanaticism of the times by additional invectives and scurrility
from the unbridled pen of William Prynne, who, in the book for
which he lost his ears, asserts that ' ' stage-players (the very pompes
of the divell, which we rennouce in baptisme, if we believe the
fathers) are sinfull, heathenish, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and
most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages as intolerable
* The School of Abuse was not the first published attack on the theatre. In 1577, John
Northbrooke had published, A Treatise against Dicing, Dancing, Plays, and Interludes, etc.,
which was reprinted by the Shakespeare Society in 1843.
330
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes,
and soules of men. And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-
players, together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage-
players, are unlawfull, infamous, and misbecoming Christians."
And though stage-plays are the principal objects of his satire, he is
not less severe in his censure of Music, vocal and instrumental;
asserting that one unlawful concomitant of plays is "amorous,
obscene, lascivious, lust-provoking songs, and poems," which he
says were so odious in the time of Queen Elizabeth, that church-
wardens were enjoined, in the first year of her reign, to enquire
" whether any minstrells or any other persons did use to sing or
say any songs or ditties that be evile and uncleane." And cites
Clemens Alexandrinus to prove that "cymbals and dulcimers were
instruments of fraud; that pipes and flutes are to be abandoned
from a sober feast; and that chromaticall harmonies are to be left
to impudent malapertnesse in wine, to whorish Musicke crowned
with flowers."* — But this is a sufficient specimen of the elegance
of his style, and candour of his reasoning. Prynne, however, spoke
but the language and sentiments of the sectaries of his time; and
Stubbs, another writer of the same class, calls those who play to
the lord of misrule and his company in country towns, baudy pipers
and thundering drummers and assistants in the devil's daunce (g).
Prynne's Histrio-mastix, in spite, and, perhaps, on account of
the rigour of his punishment, had a manifest effect in augmenting
the horror in which theatrical representations were held by the
Puritans, and even in diminishing the passion of the Royalists for
these spectacles. Yet, though the public theatres were shut up,
many plays seem to have been written and printed during the
Usurpation, if we may depend on the dates given to them by
Langbaine and Giles Jacob. However, in May 1656, Sir William
Davenant obtained a permission to open a kind of theatre at Rutland-
house, in Charterhouse-square, for the exhibition of what he called
" an Entertainment in Declamation and Music, after the Manner of
the Ancients." And Anthony Wood, imagining it to have been
the first Italian opera performed in England, says that " though
Oliver Cromwell had now prohibited all other theatrical representa-
tions, he allowed of this, because, being in an unknown language,
it could not corrupt the morals of the people."
A farther account of this exhibition will be given hereafter, in
tracing the origin and progress of musical dramas or operas, in
England; when the validity of Anthony Wood's assertion will be
examined.
In 1658, Sir William Davenant had a piece represented daily at
the Cockpit, in Drury-lane, called Sir Francis Drake, or the Cruelty
{g) Anatomie of Abuses, p. 107.**
* But see editor's note, p. 294.
** In the Preface to this work, published in 1583, the author declares that he had no
objection to amusements as such, but that "the particular abuses which are crept into every one
of these several exercises is the only thing which I think worthy of reprehension."
331
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of the Spaniards in Peru, expressed by vocal and instrumental
Music, of which farther notice will likewise be taken elsewhere.
We hear of no other dramatic performance till 1659, when Rhodes,
the bookseller, obtained a licence for acting plays at the Cockpit,
in Drury-lane, where the opera of Sir William Davenant, as Ant.
Wood calls it, " was translated; which delighting the eye and ear
extremely well, was much frequented for many years (h)."*
In 1657, were published the Lessons for the Virginalls, by Bull,
Gibbons, Rogers, and others already mentioned.** Of Rogers,
afterwards admitted to the degree of doctor in Music, at Oxford,
farther notice will be taken hereafter; and of Matthew Lock, who
this year [1656] appears as an author by the publication of his
Little Consort of three Parts for Viols or Violins, consisting of
Pavans, Ay res, Corants, and Sarabands, in two several Varieties, the
first twenty of which are for two Trebles and a Bass, it will be
necessary to speak frequently, after the Restoration : as he was the
first that furnished our stage with Music in which a spark of genius
is discoverable; and who was, indeed, the best secular composer
our country could boast, till the time of Purcell.
In 1658, a third book of Ay res and Dialogues was published by
Henry Lawes, with his head finely engraved, by Faithorne. This
year likewise produced "Ayres and Dialogues to be sung to the
Theorbo, Lute, or Base Viol, by John Gamble/' folio; who,
according to Ant. Wood, was regularly bred to Music, under
Ambrose Beyland, " a noted master of the art," with whom he
served an apprenticeship. When he quitted his master, he
performed at the playhouse, and afterwards was admitted into the
king's chapel, as a player on the cornet. In Charles the Second's
time he was appointed one of the violins in his majesty's band, and
composer to the theatre royal. A print of this musician, by-
T. Cross, is placed at the head of his book.***
In 1659, we have more Select Ayres and Dialogues \ by Drs.
Wilson and Colman, William and Henry Lawes, Laniere, Webb,
Jenkins, and others. It seems as if the fashion for musical
dialogues, which raged in England during the chief part of the last
century, had arisen from the narrative songs and cantatas of Italy,
to which the invention of recitative gave birth.
During this last year of the Usurpation, was published, " The
Division Violist, or an Introduction to the playing upon a Ground,
by Christ. Simpson " [d. 1669], a musician extremely celebrated
for his skill in the practice of his art, and abilities on his particular
instrument. The base-viol, or viol da gamba, was in such general
favour during the last century, that almost all the first musicians
(h) Athen. Oxon. Vol. II. Col. 412.
* Burney here combines two separate works. The Cruelty of the Spaniards was Davenant's
second "opera," and Sir Francis Drake the third.
** See editor's note, p. 321.
*** Gamble's first book of Ayres was published in 1656, and the second in 1659. A copy
of the second set is in the Library of the R.C.M. He died in 1687.
332
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
of this country, whose names are come down to us, were performers
upon it, and composed pieces purposely to shew its powers; but
particularly Coperario, William Lawes, Jenkins, Dr. Colman, Lupo,
Mico, and Loosemore. But this instrument, like the lute, without
which no concert could subsist, was soon after so totally banished,
that its form and construction were scarcely known, till the arrival
of Abel in England [1759], whose taste, knowledge, and expression
upon it were so exquisite, that, instead of renovating its use, they
seem to have kept lovers of Music at an awful distance from the
instrument, and in utter despair of ever approaching such excellence.
The instrument itself, however, was so nazal, that this great
musician, with all his science and power of hand, could not prevent
his most enthusiastic admirers from lamenting that he had not, early
in life, applied himself to the violoncello.
But if its general use had continued, or were restored, this book
of Simpson, from the universal change of taste and style of every
species of Music, would be of but little use to a student on that
instrument now; when rapid divisions, of no other merit than the
difficulty of executing them, have been totally supplanted by vocal
expression, learned modulation, and that rich harmony to which
the number of its strings is favourable. Rough, but warm
encomiastic verses, are prefixed to Simpson's works by Dr. Colman,
John Jenkins, Mathew Lock, and others, which only shew with
what perishable materials musical fame is built!
A translation of this book into Latin, for the use of foreigners,
with the original text on the opposite page, was published by the
author in 1665, under the title of Chelys Minuritionum; Editio
secunda, thin folio.
Besides these, Simpson published, in 1667,* "A Compendium
of practical Music in 5 parts, containing 1. The rudiments of song.
2. The Principles of Composition. 3. The Use of Discord. 4. The
Form of Figurate Descant. 5. The Contrivance of Canon."
Whoever expects to learn the whole principles of an art by a
single book, or, indeed, any number of books, without oral
instruction, or great study, practice, and experience, must be
disappointed. This compendium, like most others of the kind, more
frequently generates new doubts and perplexities, than removes the
old. However, something is to be learned from most books; and
what a student is unable to find in one, if out of the reach of a
master, must be sought in another.
Simpson, in his younger days, served in the royal army, raised
for Charles I. by Cavendish, duke of Newcastle; he was a Roman
Catholic and patronised by Sir Robert Bolles, of Leicester-place,
with whom he resided during the Interregum. He seems to have
been in close friendship with Jenkins and Lock, as, on all occasions,
they reciprocally praise each other.-
* This was the 2nd and enlarged edition. The 1st ed. which appeared in 1665 was
entitled, The Principles of Practicle Musick, etc.
333
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
State of Music at Oxford, during the Protectorate
Oxford, in the time of the Civil War, seems to have been the
only place in the kingdom where musical sounds were allowed to
be heard; for that city, during a considerable time, being the royal
residence, not only the household musicians, but many performers,
who had been driven from the cathedrals of the capital, as well as
those of other parts of the kingdom, flocked thither as to a place of
safety and subsistence; however, in 1646, after the King was
obliged to quit this post, and had been totally defeated at Naseby,
they were obliged to disperse, and those that were unable to find
an asylum in the house of some secret friend to the royal cause and
to their art, were obliged to betake themselves to new employments.
Ten years of gloomy silence seem to have elapsed before a string
was suffered to vibrate, or a pipe to breathe aloud, in the kingdom;
as we hear of no music-meetings, clubs, or concerts, till the year
1656;* when, by the peculiar industry of honest Anthony Wood,
whose passion for the art inclined him to regard every thing that
belonged to it worthy of a memorial, we have an exact account of
the state of practical Music in this university.
The obligations of English historians and biographers to this
diligent antiquary are such, that he seems to merit an honourable
niche in every literary fabrication to which he has contributed
materials; and here it seems as if he should not be passed without
some testimony of respect and gratitude, as a salute and ceremonial
due to his rank in the corps to which he belonged.
Anthony Wood, or a Wood, whose whole life was spent in
the service of the dead, and whose labours, since his decease, have
so much facilitated the enquiries, and gratified the curiosity of the
living, was born at Oxford, 1632. In his life, written by himself,
with monastic simplicity, he tells us, that in 1651, " he began to
exercise his natural and insatiable genie to Musick. He exercised
his hand on the violin, and having a good eare to take any tune
at first hearing, he could quickly draw it out from the violin, but
not with the same tuning of strings that others used. He wanted
understanding, friends, and money, to pick him out a good master,
otherwise he might have equalled in that instrument, and in
singing, any person then in the university. He had some companions
that were musical, but they wanted instruction as well as he."
The next year, being obliged to go into the country to try to
get rid of an obstinate ague, by exercise and change of air, he tells,
that " while he continued there he followed the plow on well-
days, and sometimes plowed. He learned there to ring on the
six bells, then newly put up: and having had from his most
tender yeares an extraordinary ravishing delight in Musick, "he
practised there without the help of an instructor, to play on the
violin. It was then that he tuned his strings in 4ths, and not in
* This statement is made despite the list of music, by no means complete, published by
John Playford, which Burney prints.
334
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
5ths, according to the manner; and having a good eare, and being
ready to sing any tune upon hearing it once or twice, he could
play it also in a short time with the said way of tuning, which
was never knowne before."
" After he had spent the summer in a lonish and retired condition,
he returned to Oxon. And being advised by some persons, he
entertained a master of Musick to teach him the usual way of
playing on the violin, that is by having every string tuned 5 notes
lower than the other going before. The master was Charles
Griffiths, one of the musitians belonging to the city of Oxon.
whom he then thought to be a most excellent artist. But when
A. W. improved himself in that instrument, he found he was not
so. He gave him 2s. 6d. entrance, and so quarterly. This person
after he had extreamly wondered how he could play so many
tunes as he did by 4ths, without a director or guide, tuned his
violin by 5ths, and gave him instructions how to proceed, leaving
then a lessen with him to practice against his next coming." In
1653, he found that " heraldry, Musick, and painting did so
much crowd upon him, that he could not avoid them; and could
never give a reason why he should delight in those studies, more
than in others, so prevalent was nature, mixed with a generosity
of mind, and a hatred of all that was servile, sneaking, or
advantageous for lucre sake.
" Having by 1654 obtained a proficiency in Musick, he and his
companions were not without silly frolicks, not now to be
maintained." — What should these frolicks be, but to disguise them-
selves in poor habits, and like country fidlers scrape for their livings?
After strolling about to Farringdon Fair, and other places, and
gaining money, victuals, and drink for their trouble, in returning
home they were overtaken by certain soldiers, who forced them to
play in the open field, and then left them without giving them a
penny. " Most of his companions would afterwards glory in this,
but he was ashamed, and could never endure to hear of it."
By 1656, his record informs us, that " he had a genuine skill in
Musick, and frequented the weekly meetings of musitians in
the house of Will. Ellis, organist of St. John's Coll. situated on
that place whereon the theatre was built." Here he gives a list
of the usual company, that met and performed their parts on lutes
and viols; among these eight were gentlemen. " The Musick-
masters were Will. Ellis, bachelor of Musick and owner of the
house, who always played his part either on the organ or virginal.
Dr. John Wilson, the public professor, the best at the lute in all
England; he sometimes played on the lute, but mostly presided
(directed) the consort. Curteys, a lutenist, lately ejected from
some choire or cathedral church. Thomas Jackson a base-violist.
Ed. Low, then organist of Christ-church; he played only on the
organ, so when he played on that instrument, Mr. Ellis would take
up the counter-tenor viol, if any person were wanting to performe
that part. Gervace Littleton, alias Westcot, or Westcot, alias
335
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Littleton, a violist. He was afterwards a singing-man of St. John's
Coll. Will. Glexney, who had belonged to a choire before the war :
he played well upon the base-viol, and sometimes sung his part.
Proctor, a young man and a new comer. John Packer one of
the universitie musitians; but Mr. Low, a proud man, could not
endure any common musitian to come to the meeting, much less
to play among them. Of this kind I must rank Joh. Haselwood,
an apothecary, a starch'd formal clisterpipe, who usually played
on the base-viol, and sometimes on the counter-tenor. He
was very conceited of his skill (tho' he had but little
of it) and therefore would be ever and anon ready to
take up a viol before his betters: which being observed by all,
they usually called him Handle-wood (i). The rest were but
beginners. Proctor died soon after this time. He had been bred
up by Mr. John Jenkins, the mirrour and wonder of his age for
Musick, was excellent for the lyra-viol and division-viol, good at
the treble-viol and violin, and all comprehended in a man of 3 or 4
and twenty yeares of age. He was much admired at the meetings,
and exceedingly pitied by all the faculty for his loss."
At this time A. W. tells us, that "what by Musick and rare
books that he found in the public library, his life was a perfect
Elysium.
"A. W. was now advised to entertain one William James, a
dancing-master, to instruct him on the violin, who by some was
accounted excellent on that instrument, and the rather, because it
was said, that he had obtained his knowledge in dancing and
Musick in France. He spent in all half a yeare with him, and
gained some improvement; yet at length he found him not a compleat
master of his facultie, as Griffith and Parker were not : and to say
the truth, there was no compleat master in Oxon. for that
instrument, because it had not been hitherto used in consort among
gentlemen, only by common musitians, who played but two parts.
The gentlemen in private meetings, which A. W. frequented,
played three, four, and five parts with viols, as treble-viol, tenor,
counter-tenor, and bass, with an organ, virginal, or harpsicon
joyned with them; and they esteemed a violin to be an instrument
only belonging to a common fidler, and could not endure that it
should come among them, for feare of making their meetings to
be vaine and fidling. But before the restoration of King Charles
II. and especially after, viols began to be out of fashion, and
only violins used, as treble violin, tenor, and base violin; and the
King, according to the French mode, would have 24 violins
playing before him, while he was at meales, as being more airie
and brisk than viols.
" In the latter end of the yeare 1657, Davis Mell, the most
eminent violinist of London, and clock-maker, being in Oxon. Peter
Pitt, Will. Bull, Ken. Digby, and others of Allsoules, as also Ant.
W. did give a very handsome entertainment in the taverne cal'd
19
(i) The reader will "excuse his being jocular."
336
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
the Salutation. The company did look on Mr. Mell to have a
prodigious hand on the violin, and they thought that no person,
as all in London did, could goe beyond him."
By connecting the scattered fragments of this zealous Diletante's
life, which concern Music, we shall be able to form an idea of the
state of the art, not only at Oxford, but in every other part of the
kingdom where it was more secretly practised, during the latter part
of the Usurpation.
Under the year 1658, A. W. tells us, that " he entertained two
eminent musitians of London, named John Gamble* and Thomas
Pratt, after they had entertained him with most excellent Musick
at the meeting-house of Will. Ellis. Gamble had obtained a great
name among the people of Oxon. for his book of Ay res and Dialoges
to be sung to the Theorbo or Base-viol. The other for several
compositions, which they played in their consorts.
' Tho. Baltzar, a Lubecker borne, and the most famous artist
for the violin that the world had yet produced, was now in Oxon.
and this day, July 24, A. W. was with him and Mr, Ed. Low,
lately organist of Ch. Ch. at the house of Will. Ellis. A. W. did then
and there, to his very great astonishment, heare him play on the
violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the
finger-board of the violin, and run them back insensibly, and all
with alacrity and in very good tune, which he nor any in England
saw the like before.** A. W. entertained him and Mr. Low with
what the house could then afford, and afterwards he invited them
to the taverne; but they being engaged to goe to other company, he
could no more heare him play or see him play at that time.
Afterwards he came to one of the weekly meetings at Mr. Ellis's
house, and he played to the wonder of all the auditory ; and
exercising his finger and instrument several wayes to the utmost of
his power; Wilson thereupon, the public professor, the greatest
judge of Musick that ever was, did, after his humoursome way, stoop
downe to Baltzar's feet, to see whether he had a huff on, that is to
say, to see whether he was a devil or not, because he acted beyond
the parts of man.
" About this time it was, that Dr. John Wilkins (k), warden of
Wadham, the greatest curioso of his time, invited him and some
of the musitians to his lodgings in that coll. purposely to have a
consort, and to see and heare him play. The instruments and
books were carried thither, but none could be persuaded there to
play against him in consort on the violin. At length the company
perceiving A. W. standing behind in a corner neare the dore, they
{k) Afterwards bishop of Chester, and called the flying bishop.
* John Gamble, violinist and cornet player, was one of the members of the King's Band.
His name first occurs in the records in 1660, when he is mentioned in a list of the King's
musicians who received ^16 2s. 6d. each for their liveries. He is mentioned in an order {L.C.
Vol. 774, p. 16) dated July 4, 1674, to the effect — "that the 12 violins following doe meet in
his Majesty's theatre within the palace of Whitehall on Wednesday morning next by seven
of the clock, to practice after such manner as Monsr. Combert shall enforme them," etc.
** Evelyn had heard Baltzar in London in 1656. See the Diary for March 4th of that year.
Vol,, ii. 22. 337
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
haled him in among them, and play, forsooth, he must against him.
Whereupon he being not able to avoid it, he took up a violin, as poor
Troylus did against Achilles. He abashed at it, yet honour he
got by playing with and against such a grand master as Baltzar
was. Mr. Davis Mell was accounted hitherto the best for the violin
in England; but after Baltzar came into England, and shewed his
most wonderful parts on that instrument, Mell was not so admired,
yet he pla3^ed sweeter, was a well-bred gentleman, and not given
to excessive drinking as Baltzar was (I).
" All the time that A. W. could spare from his beloved studies
of English history, antiquities, heraldry, and genealogies, he spent
ill the most delightful facultie of Musick, either instrumental or
vocal; and if he had missed the weekly meetings in the house of
W. Ellis, he could not well enjoy himself all the week after. Of all
or most of the company, when he frequented tiiat meeting, the names
are set downe under the year 1656. As for those that came in after,
and were now performers, and with whom A. W. frequently played,
were these: Charles Perot, M.A., fellow of Oriel Coll. a well-bred
gentleman, and a person of a sweet nature; Christ. Harrison, M.A.,
fellow of Queen's Coll. a magget-headed person and humourous;
Kenelm Digby, fellow of Alls. Coll. he was afterwards Dr. of L. he
was a violinist, and the two former violists; Will. Bull, M.A., for the
viol and violin; John Vincent, M.A., a violist; Sylvanus Taylor,
fellow of Allsoules Coll. violist and songster, his elder brother, Capt.
Silas Taylor, was a composer of Musick, played and sung his parts;
Henry Langley, M.A., a violist and songster; Sam. Woodford,
M.A., a violist; Franc. Parry, M.A., a violist and songster; Christ.
Coward, and Henry Bridgman, both masters of arts; Nathan Crew,
M.A., a violinist and violist, but alwaies played out of tune, as
having no good eare, he was afterwards bishop of Durham; Matthew
Hutton, M.A., an exellent violist; Thorn. Ken, of New Coll.
afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells, he would be sometimes among
them and sing his part; Christ. Jefferyes, a junior student of Ch.
Ch. excellent at the organ and virginals, or harpsicon, having been
trained up to those instruments by his father Georg Jeff ryes, organist
to King Charles I. at Oxon. Richard Rhodes, another junior student
oi Ch. Ch. a confident Westmonasterian, a violinist to hold between
his knees.
:< These did frequent the weekly meetings, and by the help of
publick masters of Musick, who were mixed with them, they were
much improved. Narcissus Marsh would come sometimes among
them, but seldom played, because he had a weekly meeting in his
chamber, where masters of Musick would come, and some of the
(/) At the restoration of King Charles II. Baltzar was placed at the head of his majesty's
new band of violins. His compositions have more force and variety in them, and consequently
required more hand to execute them, than any Music then known for his instrument; as
appears by a MS. collection of his pieces, with which I was presented by the late Rev. Dr.
Montagu North.
Ant. Wood tells us, that this celebrated violinist died in July, 1663, and was buried in
the cloister belonging to St. Peter's church, at Westminster. And adds, that "this person being
much beloved by all lovers of Musick, his company was therefore desired : and company,
especially musical company, delighting in drinking, made him drink more than ordinary,
which brought him to his grave." A Wood's Life, p. 190.
33*
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
company before-mentioned. When he became principal of St.
Alban's hall, he translated the meeting thither, and there it
continued, when that meeting at Mr. Ellis's house was given over,
and so it continued till he went over to Ireland, where he became
afterwards archbishop of Tuam.
" After his majesty's restoration, when the masters of Musick
were restored to their several places that they before had lost, or
gotten other preferment, the weekly meetings at Mr. Ellis's house
becan to decay, because they were only held up by scholars who
wanted directors and instructors. So that these meetings were not
continued above 2 or 3 yeares, and I think they did not go beyond
1662."
Our Oxford annalist terminates his account of the musical
transactions of that university, during the Interregnum, by the
following anecdote.
" In Oct. 1659, James Quin, M.A., and one of the senior
students of Ch. Ch. a Middlesex man borne, but son of Walter
Quin, of Dublin, died in a crazed condition. A. W. had some
acquaintance with him, and hath several times heard him sing
with great admiration. His voice was a bass, and he had a great
command of it. 'Twas very strong and exceeding trouling, but
he wanted skill, and could scarce sing in consort. He had been
turned out of his student's place by the visitors; but being well
acquainted with some great men of those times, that loved Musick,
they introduced him into the company of Oliver Cromwell, the
protector, who loved a good voice and instrumental Musick well.
He heard him sing with very great delight (w), liquored him with
sack, and in conclusion said: Mr. Quin, you have done very well,
what shall I do for you? To which Quin made answer with great
compliments, of which he had command with a great grace, that
your highness would be pleased to restore him to his student's place;
which he did accordingly, and so kept it to his dying day."
If this minute and indiscriminate antiquary and biographer is
sometimes thought to want taste and selection sufficient to give his
records due weight, it must be ascribed to the constant habit he was
in of journalizing, collecting anecdotes, and making memorandums
of every person, transaction and circumstance that arrived at his
knowledge, in the uncouth and antiquated language of his early
youth. For this dialect being inelegant and vulgar, even when he
learned it, renders his writings frequently ridiculous, though they
contain such information as can be no where else obtained. But
the few opportunities he had of knowing the gradual changes in our
colloquial dialect, by conversing with men of the world, or even the
language of elegant books by his favourite course of reading,
degrade him to a level with writers infinitely his inferiors both in
use and entertainment. An excellent apology has been made for his
imperfections by the editor of his life, written by himself, and
(m) Here's a man who though he seems to have had Music in his soul, yet it did not
render him unfit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
339
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
published, 1772 ; which is so interesting, that he must be an
incurious enquirer, indeed, who, having dipped into it, is not
sufficiently fascinated by the original simplicity of the style and
importance of many of the anecdotes, to give it an entire perusal
before he lays it down. Ant. Wood was credulous, and perhaps
too much an enthusiast in Music to speak of its effects with critical
and philosophical precision; however, without his assistance, the
state of the art at Oxford, and the academical honours bestowed on
its professors, as well as memorials of their lives and works, would
have been difficult to find. Upon his decisions in matters of taste,
we are not always perhaps implicitly to rely. The high character he
has given Dr. Wilson's productions and abilities may have
proceeded from want of experience, knowledge, and penetration into
the finer parts of the art; and as to Dr. Rogers, his judgment of him
seems to have been manifestly warped by friendship. Yet, upon
the whole, it must be allowed that it is only from such minute
records as those of A. W. that any true and satisfactory knowledge
can be acquired of the characters, manners, and domestic
occurrences of our ancestors. The great features of history, and
the events which occasion the ruin or prosperity of a state, must be
nearly the same in every age and country; but comforts,
conveniences, and the distresses of private life, furnish the mind
with reflexions far more varied and interesting to the generality of
mankind, than the rise of states or downfal of kings and heroes.
Charles II [r. 1660-1685]
The nation tired of the gloomy and tyrannical government of
Cromwell, manifested how much they languished for the restoration
of Royalty, by the degree of enthusiasm and intoxication with
which they received the son of their murdered sovereign. After the
fatal disputes concerning regal prerogative, and the noble struggle
made at the beginning of the troubles, by men of principle, with
motives truly honest and patriotic; it seems as if this had been one
of those favourite moments for amicably settling the limits of power
and extent of civil liberty, which nothing but a similar concussion
and total dissolution of ancient compacts, could again produce.
Charles, at a distance from the throne, would chearfully have
submitted to terms, which, when he had ascended it, he opposed
with all the power with which he was hastily invested. This was a
time for a new, clear, comprehensive, and indisputable Magna
Charta, which would have preserved our future kings from violent
encroachments on their just and constitutional rights, and the people
from invasions of their liberties, and all the turbulence, tumults, and
disaffection, which have since appeared in so many different shapes.
The republican and fanatical spirit, though by no means
annihilated, was, however, obliged to give way to the riotous and
unbounded joy of the adherents to royalty, and friends to ancient
establishments, in church and state. It is not difficult to imagine
340
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
how their exultation would operate in such circumstances : indeed,
that delight must be excessive, which can make so great a part of a
nation unanimous in forgetting, or at least neglecting, their own
interests. Charles's ancestors had been accustomed to free-gifts,
some of which had more the appearance of extorted surrenders of
property, than emanations of love and liberality; but now it seems
as if the nation would not only have willingly parted with all their
ancient charters, but titles to estates and most valuable possessions,
to please and gratify the immediate descendant of that prince who
had so lately lost his head on a scaffold ! Thus are men governed !
not by reason or established forms, but by the passions that are
afloat, and accidental circumstances of the times; which, like
volcanic eruptions, are equally unforeseen and irresistible.
The restoration of monarchy, and religious establishments, drew
from their retreats all the surviving musicians who had been
degraded and involved in the calamities occasioned by the Civil
War, and subversion of the national government and established
church. Many had died in, and during, the conflict. No more
than nine of the six and twenty bishops were living; and death had
probably made the like havoc among other orders of men, in
proportion to age and numbers. Of those that fell by the sword, I
know not the exact calculation; but, except archbishop Laud, the
prelates may be supposed to have died in their beds. Of the
gentlemen of Charles the First's chapel, none seem to have claimed
their former station, but Dr. Wilson, Christopher Gibbons, and
Henry Lawes. The last, indeed, did not long survive the
Restoration.
When the liturgy had been declared by an ordinance passed in
the House of Lords, Jan. 4th, 1644, a superstitious ritual, the
Directory, published by the assembly of divines at Westminster, to
whom the parliament referred all matters concerning religion,
established a new form of divine worship, in which no Music was
allowed but psalm-singing, for which the following rules were
enjoined.
" It is the duty of Christians to praise God publickly by singing
of psalms together, in the congregation, and also privately in the
family. In singing of psalms the voice is to be audibly and
gravely ordered; but the chief care must be to sing with
understanding and with grace in the heart, making melody unto
the Lord. That the whole congregation may join herein, every
one that can read is to have a psalm-book, and all others, not
disabled by age or otherwise, are to be exhorted to learn to read.
But for the present, where many in the congregation cannot read,
it is convenient that the minister, or some fit person appointed by
him and the other ruling officers, do read the psalm, line by line,
before the singing thereof (n)."
In the opinion of those that were then in power, it was thought
necessary for the promotion of true religion, that no organs should
(«) The Methodists, and some of our parish-clerks, still adhere to this custom.
341
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
be suffered to remain in the churches; that choral-books should be
torn and destroyed;* painted glass windows broken; the cathedral
service totally abolished; and that those retainers to the church,
whose function had been to assist in such profane vanities, should
betake themselves to some employment less offensive to the Lord.
In consequence of these tenets, collegiate and parochial churches
had been stripped of their organs and ornaments; monuments
defaced; sepulchral inscriptions engraven on brass torn up; libraries
and repositories ransacked for musical service-books of every kind,
which being all deemed alike superstitious and ungodly, were
committed to the flames, or otherwise destroyed, and the utmost
efforts used at total extirpation. And, indeed, their endeavours
had been so effectual, that when the heads of the church set about
re-establishing the cathedral service, it was equally difficult to find
instruments, performers, books, and singers able to do the requisite
duty. For organ builders, organ players, and choirmen, having
been obliged to seek new means of subsistence, the former became
common carpenters and joiners; and the latter, who did not enter
into the king's army, privately taught the lute, virginal, or such
miserable psalmody as was publickly allowed.
Child, Christopher Gibbons, Rogers, and Wilson, were created
doctors, and these, with Low of Oxford, though advanced in years,
were promoted; Child, Gibbons, and Low, were appointed organists
of the Chapel Royal, and Capt. Henry Cook master of the children
(o). Gibbons was likewise organist of Westminster Abbey; Rogers,
who had formerly been organist of Magdalen College, Oxford, was
preferred to Eton; Wilson had a place both in the Chapel and
Westminster Abbey; and Albertus Bryne, a scholar of John
Tomkins, was appointed organist of St. Paul's, where he had been
brought up.
In this manner the several choirs throughout the kingdom were
gradually supplied with able masters. At first, however, for want
of boys capable of performing the duty, the treble parts were either
played upon cornets, or sung by men in falset. And, indeed, the
cathedral service had so long been laid aside, that scarcely any two
organists in country cathedrals performed it alike; till the
appearance of a little book of instructions, which had been drawn
up by Edward Low, and printed at Oxford in 1661, entitled,
" Some short Directions for the Performance of Cathedral Service."
Low, who had been brought up in Salisbury cathedral, and
appointed organist of Christ-church, Oxford, in 1630, was, for some
time, according to Ant. Wood, deputy Music-professor to Dr.
Wilson, and upon Wilson's quitting the University, he was
appointed to succeed him in the professorship. Wood says, though
he was never honoured with a degree, he was esteemed a very
(o) Cook had been bred up in the King's Chapel, but quitted it at the beginning of the
Rebellion; and, in 1642, obtaining a captain's commission, he retained the title of captain
ever after.
* No such order with regard to choir books was issued.
342
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
judicious man in his faculty. His book was reprinted in 1664,
under the title of "A Review of some short Directions for the
Performance of Cathedral Service." Nothing of this kind had
appeared since Marbeck's book, in 1550, described in Book II. p.
803,* and as it is now more than 120 years since the second edition
of Low's little tract was published, it seems high time for another
to be drawn up by some able and regular bred organist, or choral
performer, in one of the choirs of the metropolis.
The services and anthems at first chiefly used were those
contained in Barnard's printed collection, with such others as
could be recovered in manuscript, till new compositions were added
by the reinstated and new-appointed masters.
As to organs, the difficulty of procuring them, upon short
notice seems to have been greater than of finding either performers
or Music to perform: for, except, Dallans, Loosemore of Exeter,
Thamar of Peterborough, and Preston of York, scarce a tolerable
organ-builder could be found in the whole kingdom. After the
suppression of cathedral service and prohibition of the liturgy,
some of the ecclesiastical instruments had been sold to private
persons, and others, but partially destroyed; these being produced,
were hastily repaired and erected for present use by the workmen
just mentioned. Dallans, indeed, is said to have been employed to
build a new organ for St. George's chapel, at Windsor; which
perhaps, from the haste with which it was constructed, though its
appearance was beautiful and magnificent, did not prove so
excellent as was expected.
A sufficient number of workmen for the immediate supply of
cathedrals and parish churches, with organs, not being found in
our own country, it was thought expedient to invite foreign builders
of known abilities to settle among us; and the premiums offered on
this occasion brought over the two celebrated workmen, Smith, and
Harris.
Bernard Schmidt [c. 1630-1708]** as the Germans write the
name, brought over with him from Germany [1660], of which
country he was a native, two nephews, Gerard and Bernard, his
assistants; and to distinguish him from these, as well as to express
the reverence due to his abilities, which placed him at the head of
his profession, he was called Father Smith. The first organ he
engaged to build for this country, was for the Royal Chapel at
Whitehall, which being hastily put together, did not quite fulfil the
expectations of those who were able to judge of its excellence. An
organ is so operose, complicated, and comprehensive a piece of
mechanism, that to render it complete in tone, touch, variety, and
power, exclusive of the external beauty and majesty of its form and
appearance, is perhaps one of the greatest efforts of human ingenuity
* There is a copy of Lowe's collection in the B.M. E. Pam., 1924 (2).
** He is usually known as Father. It has been stated that Smith's organ is meant when
Pepys, on July 8th, 1660, mentions having heard the organ at Whitehall, but this could not
have been the case.
343
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and contrivance. It was probably from some such early failure,
that this admirable workman determined never to engage to build
an organ upon short notice, nor for such a price as would oblige
him to deliver it in a state of less perfection than he wished. And
I have been assured by Snetzler, and by the immediate descendants
of those who have conversed with father Smith, and seen him
work, that he was so particularly careful in the choice of his wood,
as never to use any that had the least knot or flaw in it; and so
tender of his reputation, as never to waste his time in trying to
mend a bad pipe, either of wood, or metal; so that when he came
to voice a pipe, if it had any radical defect, he instantly threw it
away, and made another. This, in a great measure, accounts for
the equality and sweetness of his stops, as well as the soundness of
his pipes, to this day.
Smith had not been many months here, before Harris arrived
from France, with his son Rene Renatus, an ingenious and active
young man, to whom he had confided all the secrets of his art.
However, they met with but little encouragement at first, as Dallans
and Smith had the chief business of the kingdom; but upon the
decease of [Ralph] Dallans, who died while he was building an
organ for the old church at Greenwich, 1672 [or 1673], and of the
elder Harris, who did not long survive him, the younger became a
very formidable rival to Smith.
The contention between these eminent artists at the time of
erecting the admirable organ which still stands in the Temple-
church, was carried on with such spirit, not to say violence, as
perhaps never happened before, or since, on a similar occasion.*
About the latter end of King Charles the Second's reign, the
master of the Temple and the benchers being determined to have
as complete an organ erected in their church as possible, received
proposals from both these eminent artists, backed by the recom-
mendation of such an equal number of powerful friends and
celebrated organists, that they were unable to determine among
themselves which to employ. They therefore told the candidates, if
each of them would erect an organ, in different parts of the church,
they would retain that which, in the greatest number of excellences,
should be allowed to deserve the preference. Smith and Harris
agreeing to this proposal, in about eight or nine months, each
had, with the utmost exertion of his abilities, an instrument ready
for trial [1684]. Dr. Tudway living at the time, the intimate
acquaintance of both, says that Dr. Blow and Purcell, then in their
prime, performed on father Smith's organ, on appointed days, and
displayed its excellence! and, till the other was heard, every one
believed that this must be chosen.
Harris employed M. Lully, organist to Queen Catharine, a very
eminent master, to touch his organ, which brought it into favour;
* For this contest in 1684, Purcell and Blow were engaged by Smith, and G. B. Draghi (not
Lully) by Harris.
The Benchers of the Middle Temple were in favour of Smith's organ, but were opposed
by the members of the Inner Temple, and it was not until 1688 that Smith received payment
(£1,000) for his instrument.
344
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
and thus they continued vying with each other, for near a twelve-
month.
At length, Harris challenged father Smith to make additional
reed-stops in a given time; these were the vox-humana, Cromorne
(p), the double Courtel, or double bassoon, and some others.
The stops which were newly invented, or at least new to English
ears, gave great delight to the crouds who attended the trials; and
the imitations were so exact and pleasing on both sides that it was
difficult to determine who had best succeeded. At length, the
decision was left to lord chief justice Jefferies, afterwards King
James the Second's pliant chancellor, who was of that society, and
he terminated the controversy in favour of father Smith [1685]; so
that Harris's organ was taken away without loss of reputation,
having so long pleased and puzzled better judges than Jefferies (q).
The Hon. Roger North, who was in London at the time of the
contention at the Temple-church, says, in his Memoirs of Music,
that the competition between father Smith and Harris, the two best
artists in Europe, was carried on with such violence by the friends
of both sides, that they " were just not ruined." Indeed, old
Roseingrave assured me, that the partizans for each candidate, in
the fury of their zeal, proceeded to the most mischievous and
unwarrantable acts of hostilities; and that in the night, preceding
the last trial of the reed-stops, the friends of Harris cut the bellows
of Smith's organ in such a manner, that when the time came foi
playing upon it, no wind could be conveyed into the wind-chest.
As the benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple are at all the
expence of the organ in their church, and consequently appoint
the maker, tuner, and players upon it themselves, in order to have
this part of divine service as perfect as possible, they have the
instrument tuned every Saturday, for which a salary of £.20 a
year is allowed; and that this excellent instrument may be the
more seldom consigned to the hands of clumsy assistants, each of
the societies elects an organist, at a salary of £.50 (r).
($) Not Cremona, or violin stop, as Dr. Tudway calls it, nor does the double Curtel
mean the base flute. See Walther's Diet.
Cremorne means soft horn, and double Courtaud, or Curtel, the double bassoon.
(g) Harris's organ, after its rejection at the Temple, was part of it erected at St.
Andrew's. Holborn, and part in the cathedral of Christ-church, Dublin; but about thirty
years ago, Byfield having been sent for to repair the latter, he prevailed on the chapter to
have a new instrument, taking the old organ in exchange, as part of payment. Soon after,
having had an application from the corporation of Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, to build them
a new organ for St. Margaret's church, he wished very much to persuade them to purchase the
instrument made by Harris, which had been a second time excommunicated; but being already
in possession of an old organ, they determined to have a new one; and, by the advice of the
author of this book, employed Snetzler to construct one, which he did very much to his own
credit and their satisfaction, consisting of thirty stops, three ranks of keys, and full compass.
One of the metal stops of this instrument, called the borduun, is an octave below the open
diapason, and has the effect of a double base in the chorus. It was in the Lynn organ that
this builder first introduced that sweet stop called the dulciane, which he and Green have
since so happily introduced as a solo stop, in their chamber organs. Part of the old organ at
Lynn had been made by Dallans, the rest by some more ancient workman; as the wooden
pipes were so worm-eaten as to fall to pieces when taken out to be cleaned. Upon the church-
wardens asking Snetzler what this old instrument would be worth if repaired, he said, " if
they would lay out a hundred pounds upon it, perhaps it would then be worth fifty."
(r) The first organist of this church was Francis Piggot, who dying in 1704, was succeeded
by his son. Upon the death of the younger Piggot, in 1726, Mr. Stanley was elected; and when
I first arrived in London, 1744, Mr. James Vincent, son to Mr. Vincent of the guards, and
brother to the performer on the hautbois, was his colleague. Mr. Jones, one- of the present
organists, was elected by the benchers, at the decease of Mr. Vincent, about the year 1750.
345
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Besides the sweetness of the several stops, and power of the
chorus, in order to render the tuning more perfect, two of the five
short keys are divided in the middle, and communicate to two
different sets of pipes: so that G# and A [7, D# and E[?, are not
synonimous sounds.*
It being the fashion, during the latter end of the last century, to
erect organs in the principal parish churches of the city of London,
Harris seems to have built a greater number than Smith; among
these some are thought very excellent, such as the organ at St.
Mary Ax, St. Bride's, St. Lawrence, near Guildhall, and others (5).
In consequence of the reputation which father Smith had
acquired by every piece of work he had put out of his hands, since
the organ at Windsor, he was employed to build an instrument
for the cathedral of St. Paul; which is generally allowed to have
the sweetest tone (except that at the Temple), the most noble
chorus, and a swell which produces the finest effects of any in the
kingdom. In short, it is an instrument in every respect worthy
of that beautiful and stupendous structure [2nd Dec, 1697] (t).
It seems as if Harris had been a candidate for building St. Paul's
organ, as well as that at the Temple; for in the Spectator, N° 552,
for Dec. 3. 1712, a proposal of Mr. Renatus Harris is recommended
in the following words : ' ' The ambition of this artificer is to erect
an organ in St. Paul's cathedral, over the west door, at the entrance
into the body of the church, which in art and magnificence shall
transcend any work of that kind ever before invented. The
proposal in perspicuous language sets forth the honour and
advantage such a performance would be to the British name, as
well as that it would apply the power of sounds in a manner more
(s) It is not easy to discover what is meant by a late writer, when he says, that " the
organs made by Smith, though, in respect of the workmanship, they are far short of those
of Harris, and even of Dallans, are justly admired." If the utmost care in the choice of
wood, and composition of the metal; the neatest and most happy manner possible of forming
and voicing them; together with the most grateful sweetness, and durability of his pipes, may
be called good workmanship, surely father Smith cannot, without injustice, be denied that
praise in its full extent. — That part of the organ which was originally built for the Temple-
church by Harris, and sent to Dublin, was sold after the death of the elder Byfield, by his
widow, Harris's daughter, to Wolverhampton, for ^500. It still stands in the church of that
town, and is thought a very good instrument. The number of organs built and enriched with
new stops by father Smith is prodigious, and their fame equal to that of the pictures or
single figures of Raphael. A single stop known to be of his workmanship is still invaluable.
The touch and general mechanism of modern instruments are certainly superior to those ol
Smith; but, for sweetness of tone, I have never met with any pipes that have equalled his in
any part of Europe. At Oxford he built the organ at Christ church and St. Mary's; at
Cambridge that of Trinity College; and in London those of St. Margaret, Westminster; St.
Mary at Hill; St. Clement Danes; and others, all excellent.
(I) It is said, that notwithstanding the power of the chorus of this admirable instrument,
several more excellent stops were made for it, which lay many years useless in the vestry,
but for which Sir Christopher Wren, tender of his architectural proportions, would never
consent to let the case be sufficiently capacious to receive. And there is little doubt but that
he had reason and science on his side. Indeed, I cannot help wishing, much as I admire the
instrument, that it had been entirely kept out of its present situation, and placed on one side
of the choir, that the whole extent of the structure from west to east might be seen, like St.
Peter's at Rome, its prototype, at one glance. This was formerly the general place allotted to
the organ in our cathedrals. At Canterbury its situation is still on the north side of the choir.
At Chester the small primitive organ of that cathedral is still standing on the left side of the
choir, though that which is now used is at the west end.**
* For further particulars and a copy of the Schedule for Smith's organ see Grove's Art.
Organ, Vol. 3, pp. 751-2.
** The specification of this organ will be found in Grove's, Vol. 3, p. 752.
346
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
amazingly forcible, than perhaps has yet been known, and I am
sure to an end much more worthy. Had the vast sums which
have been laid out upon operas without skill or conduct, and to
no other purpose but to suspend or vitiate our understandings,
been disposed this way, we should now perhaps have an engine
so formed, as to strike the minds of half a people at once, in a
place of worship, with a forgetfulness of present care and calamity,
and a hope of endless rapture, joy, and hallelujah hereafter (u)."
The establishment of Charles the Second's Chapel, at the time
of the coronation, appears by the following entry in the
cheque-book.
April the 23d, being St. George's day, 1661.
Ministers Gentlemen
Dr. Walter Jones, subdean. Thomas Piers
Roger Nightingale Thomas Hazzard
Ralph Amner John Harding
Philip Tinker William Howes
John Sayer Thomas Blagrave
Durant Hunt Gregory Thorndall
George Low Edward Bradock
Henry Smith Henry Purcell
William Tucker James Cob
_, . Nathaniel Watkins
Organists John Cave
Edward Lowe Alfonso Marsh
William Child Raphael Courteville
Christopher Gibbons Edward Colman
Master of the Children Jrhom^ Purce11
Henry Cook Henry Frost
John Goodgroom
Clerk of the Cheque George Betenham
Henry Lawes Matthew Pennel
Thomas Haynes, Serjeant of the Vestry
William Williams, Yeoman
George Whitaker, Yeoman
Augustine Cleveland, Groom
(«) As this is one of Steel's papers it is probable that Harris had acquired his patronage
and friendship by lending or building an instrument for his concert-room, in York-Buildings. If
he had not been biassed by some means or other, and had been a real judge of what he
recommended, he would certainly have inserted the name of Bernard Smith in his paper,
instead of Renatus Harris. When the professional merit of two artificers is not very unequal,
small and often latent considerations turn the scale : acquaintance, figure, countenance,
address, the misrepresentation and prejudice of others, all, or any one of them operating, will
tear the bandage from the eyes of Justice.
The organ builders who succeeded father Smith and Harris were Schreider, who built the
organ in St. Martin's in the Fields, which King George I. presented to the church upon being
chosen church-warden of the parish soon after his majesty's arrival in England; Schwarbrook,
another German, who built several organs, but repaired more; with Byfield, Bridge, and
Jordan, who after severally distinguishing themselves, entered into partnership and had nearly
the whole business of the kingdom to themselves; till Snetzler, by the instrument he made for
Lynn Regis, gave such a specimen of his abilities that he was soon called to almost every
quarter of the kingdom. At present Green, an Englishman and an excellent mechanic, is
deservedly in possession of the public favour.
347
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" At which time every gentleman of the chapel in orders had
allowed to him for a gown five yards of fine scarlet; and the rest
of the gentlemen being laymen, had allowed unto each of them
foure yards of the like scarlet."
The salaries of the gentlemen of the chapel had been augmented
both by James I. and Charles I. and in the year 1663 Charles II.
by the privy-seal, farther augmented them to seventy pounds a
year; and granted to Capt. Cook and Ms successors in office, thirty
pounds a year, for the diet, lodging, washing, and teaching each of the
children of the Chapel Royal. A copy of this grant is entered in
the cheque-book, and said to have been obtained by the solicitation
of Mr. Cook.
The small stock of choral Music with which the chapel began,
becoming in a few years somewhat less delightful by frequent
repetition, the King perceiving a genius for composition in some
of the young people of the chapel, encouraged them to cultivate
and exercise it; and many of the first set of choristers, even while
they were children of the chapel, composed anthems and services
that are still used in our cathedrals. These, by the King's special
command, were accompanied by violins, cornets, and sacbuts, to
which instruments introductory symphonies and ritornels were
given, and the performers of them placed in the organ-loft.
Dr. Tudway, in the dedication to the second volume of his
manuscript Collection of English Church-rnusic to lord Harley,
assigns the following reasons for the change of style in the Music
of the Chapel Royal, by a mixture of what he terms theatrical
and secular.
" The standard of Church Music began by Mr. Tallis, Mr. Bird,
and others, was continued for some years after the Restauration,
and all composers conformed themselves to the pattern which was
set them.
" His majesty, who was a brisk and airy prince, coming to the
crown in the flower and vigour of his age, was soon, if I may so say,
tired with the grave and solemn way which had been established
by Tallis, Bird, and others, ordered the composers of his chapel to
add symphonies, &c. with instruments to their anthems; and
thereupon established a select number of his private Music to play
the symphony and ritornellos which he had appointed. — The old
masters of Music, Dr. Child, Dr. Gibbons, Mr. Low, &c. organists
to his majesty, hardly knew how to comport themselves with these
new-fangled ways, but proceeded in their compositions, according
to the old style, and therefore there are only some services and full
anthems of theirs to be found.
" In about 4 or 5 years time, some of the forwardest and
brightest children of the chapel, as Pelham Humphrey, John Blow,
&c. began to be masters of a faculty in composing; this his majesty
greatly encouraged, by indulging their youthful fancies, so that
every month, at least, they produced something new of this kind.
In a few years more, several others educated in the chapel, produced
34«
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
their compositions in this style; for otherwise it was in vain to
hope to please his majesty."
Captain Henry Cook [d. 1672], appointed master of the
children of the Chapel Royal at the Restoration, according to Ant.
Wood's MS. Memoirs in the Ashmol. Library, " was esteemed the
best musician of his time to sing to the lute, till Pelham Humphrey,
his scholar, came up, after which he died of grief."
We are told in the continuation of Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle,
that Matthew Lock set the Music for Charles the Second's public
entry, and Capt. Henry Cook for his coronation [1661]. A hymn
of his composition, in four parts, is likewise said to have been
performed instead of the litany in the chapel of St. George, at
Windsor, by order of the sovereign and knights of the Garter, on
the 17th of April, 1661. None of his Church Music was printed (x),
and, indeed, if we may judge of that by his few secular compositions
dispersed in the collections of the times, he was little fitted for the
high office to which he was appointed at the Restoration.*
In the second part of Playford's Musical Companion, 1667, there
are two or three of his songs, which are dry, ill-accented, and equally
destitute of melody and masterly harmony. However, he had the
merit, or at least good fortune, to be the master of three boys among
the children of the chapel, who gave very early testimonies of their
genius and progress in composition. These were Pelham
Humphrey, John Blow, and Michael Wise, who, even while they
were choristers in the chapel, produced verse- anthems far superior
in melody and design to any that our church could boast anterior to
Purcell.
Pelham Humphrey [1647-74] after continuing in the Chapel
Royal, as a singing-boy, from the Restoration till he lost his treble
voice, was admitted a gentleman of his majesty's chapel, Jan. 3d,
1666; and on the death of Cook, in 1672, was appointed master of
the children. He did not, however, long fill this honourable station,
as he died, very much regretted, at the early age of twenty-seven,
in 1674.
His choral compositions are numerous, for so short a life; as,
besides his seven full and verse anthems, printed by Dr. Boyce, there
are five preserved in score by Dr. Aldrich, in Christ-church,
Oxford; and six in Dr. Tudway's Collection, British Museum, that
have never been printed.**
As French Music was much better known in England during the
reign of King Charles II. than Italian, there are in the melody of
[x) In Christ-church College Library there is a MS. folio volume of Services and
Anthems by Blow, Gibbons, Lock, Goodson, sen. and Capt. Henry Cook. Dr. Tudway has
inserted none of Cook's compositions in his Harleian Collection of English Church Music.
* Cooke's compositions may not be very interesting (examples will be found in the B.M.
(Add. MSS. 14399, 31460, and 33234), and some small pieces were printed by Playford in his
Court Ayres, 1655), but his ability as a choir trainer must have been remarkable. In this
connection, Grove's, Vol. 1, p. 710, speaks of him as " the greatest choir trainer this country
has known."
_**Not much of Humfrey's music (he himself used this spelling of his name) was published
during his lifetime. Many works by him remain in MS, and the B.M. (Harl. 7338-9) has some
very fine Church music. There are also MSS. of his work at Christ Church, Oxford; the
Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, and the R.C.M., etc.
349
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
this composer and in that of Purcell, passages which frequently
remind us of Lulli, whom King Charles pointed out to his musicians
as a model. Indeed, it is said that Humphrey was sent to Paris by
the King [1664], in order to study under Lulli; and that, besides his
merit in composition, he was an excellent performer on the lute.
Indeed, he seems to have been the first of our ecclesiastical
composers who had the least idea of musical pathos in the expression
of words, implying supplication or complaint.
His anthem for three voices, Have mercy upon me 0 God, has
great merit on the side of expression, for the time in which it was
composed, as well as harmony, in which there are several
combinations that seem new and boldly hazarded for the first time,
at least in choral Music (y).
In his verse anthems, many new effects are produced by
modulation and notes of taste and expression (z).
The favourite interval in the melody of this composer is the false
5th, and, if it be true, as related by Dr. Boyce, that Humphrey
studied under Lulli at Paris, he probably acquired his partiality for
this interval there, as it has long been in great favour in the serious
French opera.
It is somewhat remarkable, that all the seven-verse anthems
which Dr. Boyce has inserted in his collection, by this plaintive
composer, should be in flat keys; most of them in C and F minor,
which are much out of tune on the organ by the usual temperament
of that instrument; however, if well sung, these crude chords may
add to the melancholy cast of the compositions.
John Blow [c. 1648/9-1708], born at North Collingham, in
Nottinghamshire, was likewise one of the first set of children of the
Chapel Royal after the Restoration, that was brought up under
Capt. Cook. He likewise received instructions from Hingeston,
domestic organist to Oliver Cromwel, and Dr. Christ. Gibbons. In
1673 [-74] , he was sworn one of the gentlemen of the chapel; and in
1674, upon the decease of Humphrey, appointed master of the
children. In 1685, he was nominated one of the private Music to
King James II. and in 1687, he was likewise appointed almoner and
master of the choristers in the cathedral church of St. Paul; but,
in 1693, he resigned this last place in favour of his scholar Jeremiah
Clark.
Blow had his degree of doctor in Music conferred on him by
the special grace of archbishop Sancroft, without performing an
exercise for it in either of the Universities [1677] . On the decease
(y) Such as, in the first movement, a sharp .5th to B\> (Boyce, Vol. II. p. 235), used as
an appoggiatura or note of taste; and the It) to Ab used repeatedly in an unusual manner,
with very good effect. P. 238, 1. i. bar 4, the extreme sharp 6th to Ab, though now so
common, had not made its way into our church, to my knowledge, before.
L. iii. bar 3, the E natural against B flat a pedale in the base, is a note of taste and
feeling that required considerable courage to venture, in those days of rigid rule and
simplicity.
(z) See Boyce, Vol. III. p. 175, where the flat 3d and sharp 4th was then a new
combination, in the church at least. But the natural 3d and flat 6th to Eb>, in the same page,
was not new, for it appears in the works of all the composers of the last century; and yet
I never can let it pass uncensured. The three 5ths at the end of the movement, I can much
more readily pardon, as two of them are false.
350
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
of Purcell, in 1695, he was elected organist of St. Margaret's,
Westminster [the Abbey]. And, in 1699, appointed composer to
the chapel of their majesties, King William and Queen Mary, at a
salary of £.40 a year, which afterwards was augmented to £.73. A
second composer, with the like appointment, was added in 1715,
when John Weldon was sworn into that office; at which time it was
required that each should produce a new anthem on the first Sunday
of his month of waiting.
That Blow was a composer of anthems, while a singing-boy in
the Chapel Royal, appears from Clifford's Collection of the Words
of the Services and Anthems used in our collegiate and cathedral
Churches, 1664 (a); for among the ecclesiastical composers
mentioned in this book, amounting to upwards of sixty, are included
the names of Pelham Humphrey, John Blow, and Robert Smith,
children of his majesty's chapel. Humphrey was born in 1647,
and Blow in 1648; so that at the Restoration, the first being only
thirteen, and the second but twelve, their composing anthems fit
for the Chapel Royal, before they had attained the age of sixteen or
seventeen, would now be regarded as more wonderful proofs of
precocity, if Purcell, soon after, at a more early period of his life,
had not produced compositions that were still superior to these.
Dr. Blow died in 1708, at sixty years of age; and though he did
not arrive at great longevity, yet, by beginning his course, and
mounting to the summit of his profession so early, he enjoyed a
prosperous and eventful life. His compositions for the church, and
his scholars who arrived at eminence, have rendered his name
venerable among the musicians of our country (b).
Though his Church Music was never collected in a body, yet,
besides the three services and ten full and verse anthems printed by
Boyce, in Dr. Tudway's MS. Collection nineteen of his choral
productions have been preserved; and in Dr. Aldrich's Collection
in Christ-church there are five more. The aggregate of which,
amounting to upwards of forty different compositions of this
elaborate kind, is but a small part of what might be found in the
chapel and choir-books of our cathedrals.
Some of his choral productions are doubtless in a very bold
and grand style; however, he is unequal, and frequently unhappy,
in his attempts at new harmony and modulation; but, as a composer
who ranked so high among our most classical masters should not be
praised or censured indiscriminately, I shall point out a few
instances of his great, and, to my conceptions, unwarrantable
licentiousness, as a contrapuntist.
I am as sorry to see, as to say, how confused and inaccurate a
harmonist he was; but as it is necessary to speak of an artist so
celebrated and honoured by his cotemporaries, to dissemble his
(a) The Rev. James Clifford, the compiler of this useful little book, according to Ant.
Wood, was a minor canon of St. Paul's cathedral, and chaplain to the honourable society of
Serjeant's Inn, Fleet-street. He died about the year 1700.*
(6) On his tomb in Westminster Abbey is preserved a canon of a more pacific and harmless
kind than any of those that adorn the monuments of neighbouring heroes, his present associates.
* Clifford died in 1698. The 1st edition of his collection appeared in 1663. A second and
enlarged edition was published in 1664.
351
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
faults would surpass candour, and incur the censure of ignorance
and partiality; for it is as much the duty of an historian to blame
as to praise, when justice and integrity require it. Indeed, upon
whatever subject a man writes, he should aspire at nothing so much
as speaking truth, if he wishes for the approbation of his conscience,
which is not only the most comfortable of all praise, but luckily
the most within his own power. The abilities of the dead, I can
have no interest in depreciating; and if my opinion should be unjust,
the mischief will recoil on myself; for the dead have more friends
than the living, who are ever ready to vindicate such wrongs.
Though there are strokes of pathetic and subjects of fugue in
Blow's works that are admirable; yet I have examined no one of
them that appears to be wholly unexceptionable, and free from
confusion and crudities in the counterpoint. Of the two-part
anthem with choruses, " Lord how are they increased," the first
movement is very plaintive and expressive; but there are licences
in the harmony which look and sound quite barbarous. Indeed,
these crudities are so numerous as to throw a doubt on his learning,
as well as genius. Whether they are notes of passion, effusions of
an unruly spirit, or of ignorance and affectation, I will not venture
to determine; but, to my ears, they have the full effect of jargon
and want of principles.
It does not appear that Purcell, whom he did himself the
honour to call his scholar, or Crofts, or Clark, his pupils, ever threw
notes about at random, in his manner, or insulted the ear with
lawless discords, which no concords can render tolerable.
In an anthem, " Turn thee unto me, O Lord," printed by
Henry Playford in the second collection of Divine Harmony [1700]
there are so many wanton violations of rule, particularly in the last
chorus, that it would be endless to point them out; but they seem
such as no rule, authority, or effect, can justify: 7ths resolved on
the 8th, ascending and descending; 2ds treated with as little
ceremony as 3ds. Indeed, I never saw so slovenly a score in print;
and it may, in general, be said of his faults in counterpoint, that
there are unaccounted millions of them to be found in his works.
He has been celebrated by Dr. Boyce, for " his success in
cultivating an uncommon talent for modulation "; but how so
excellent a judge of correct and pure harmony could tolerate his
licences, or reconcile them to his monumental character, and the
additional praise he has himself bestowed upon him, is as
unaccountable as any thing in Blow's compositions, considering
the knowledge and known probity of the late worthy editor of our
Church Music (c).
(c) In justification of so much seemingly severe censure of Dr. Blow's counterpoint,
instead of verbal criticism, the reader shall be served with a plate full of his deformities,
collected chiefly from his Church Music, the best of his productions. Many of his ballads,
though only in two parts, are full of crude discords unprepared and unresolved; the cause of
which, in some measure, may be ascribed to the ground-bases, on which it was now the
fashion to write : for melody being scarce, both that and the harmony were frequently injured
by this Gothic restraint. But the passing-notes, and notes of embellishment of the composers,
in general, of this period, were uncouth in melody and licentious in harmony. Perhaps those
of the present times, in less than a century, will be equally unpleasing to the ears of posterity;
and yet we fancy that both melody and harmony have received their last polish.
352
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Specimens of Dr. Blow's Crudities.
Solo Anthem Printed by Walsh, in the 2d Collection of Divine
Harmony. " Turn thee unto me 0 Lord."
i^rTrr^3lg
£
&£
-««m • -m
vwygr i
ii '^-* tf« vf»» i
P W> I
3£
u) «*»
w nu-—sa-
as
*
9*-
§i
^
^
^^
jjj.'r>'
ffjR^f
jaw
ap/.d
'*vJp g
i 1 fc n bffi hj n
h
wy
/»/ /«»»r /s ^r-«./c---«o
a
g ? fe
«> *»
vot-siry am mi—se
3E
30E
m
^^
•• »t*
j i .'-j a
= *a JJ
**
f^F^
33
±=^
■*/ £TJ. gj
s
ftO I fl/VJ) |ftw -tf/lK /)rfi tfiA. /»•/
jy*ir /r*6w
r ?! 7 r f_ U^
^
77 «F
ft "H -' J^ JH
i — ' — i
1 ni- Jj.i
^-i—
t« — «; — l — •; * m —
T — e L, j> — *
— -*
WJrrp
£jr.
^-^» — - i b=bJ
rn
(1) There are several violations of Rule in this Anthem for which
it is difficult to account by the effects. (2) There is feeling and
courage in this extreme sharp 2d, (3) and in this sharp 4th; (4) but
here we are lost, (5) and here. (6) Nor do I understand this Page 3,
unless a sharp has been omitted. These from a few of his Anthems;
but still worse may be found in his other works.
Modulation In Amphion Anglicus.
s£
m
TiHT
3=M
±3:
YY^r
*¥&
Pgpp
tveieo/» * <-o To -~ the
■Sm
w
Vol,, ii. 23.
353
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
?nae TO.
.... ses
ff€
'*rrTr N MIL" riff rWrtir1'
TVttC 13.
vace. f6-
IBID.
b r»-f mm ••■.. | ■■ Th
W
Lffl u cm
err.
/■7E
3
g
/B/p /7
ft, cTL,q^
^+p-
■7 t-i * i i
lTfrJj.*J:jfl=^
41 — — —
f-*-
© 5
_E-£ 2^ =__+ L
^ b ' o°
sr-
-9 P
-*-o ,-j ,
-pace &3
Blow's Crudities.
Anthem in the 2d Volume of Dr. Tudway's Collection of English
Cathedral Music. Brit. Museum. Page 420, " I said in the
cutting off of my days."
(a) If no other similar Crudity occurred in the works of Blow, we should rather think
this a mistake of the Printer, and that instead of A, Bb, he intended F and G.
354
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
SOJCS, Vol.1T* $£.%. Jgis. p. 1Q&
Pastoral Ballad, by Dr. Blow. From the 4th Book of the Theatre
of Musick.
iA-^JIJ , J >^^
£?^
im
^
-\— «-
s
S
te
*»SfWa&£coa&u4th
Vi.MTS%Fu>i}as
Kiflo-ty birth; e/r.
r — g=
■iflUTH/NiS
m
fe
«bc
s
■ 1 •' ? ii ^ft
^s
^
s?
«5 Cb — '
Of ?ay£-T)> & /7>/J?77/ £«/»!
Gfcarz&iefli, of
Qm-£T</b WW.
m
Time,
- 8in&.
E r??m JTT5
=tz
^c
aS
^s
» I, g a £
Fragment of a Ballad, in the Scots Style, from the Amphior.
Angelicus, Page 44.
•fr.-i ^
«7t a, ■
izzac^:
^^
^
Bum tun d
ssi
Thousand, THou-stmk thou sumo
^
MAMtfeCfft* -Tivftre l»?
Men/fT,
±±±
las. Tnee^S
fe
■» »
^jvi^u'trp
i-Tr^-
w ! U*
Tm-
LP.MDSR, BO M>rf SO/HOT,
SoNo'Thinh op flpms; VHI
t-fit/Df!? So .vol
pg^ES
Son/at
DoioT Think op flftm;
I§=
**:
33C
-*■«■«■
S
i
•g-l -s
-%• ■«
"3"
^U
s
^^
a ■ ■
S
P
t=±:
^s
"^ 1,
-pueasiNe, To THE.
httin is Fan THS
BOU>% STSg/Ve, CHn
tHMSft, Toil. £}
m j&i
=£5:
T "*■
=•=•=
?=f=r
I
s
s
1 I J
s
g=6
■fl^T 6 #<">"« W/
m
WO
o- 7?e
THed$ 8RI6HV BfeSDOflU.
noarftt-s sun-
^3
as
m
e: * i » **£
ift ■ js pg
1 ^S p^-i
- PffW 0- RS-
— ^» — o ^~
The/fs srioht
eiesjso au
mourns.* svfi-
pmzs.
~*
355
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The ballads of Dr. Blow are in general more smooth and
natural than his other productions, and, indeed, than any other
ballads of his time; there is more melody than in those of Henry
Lawes, or any composers of the preceding reign; yet it is not of that
graceful kind in which the Italians were now advancing towards
perfection, with great rapidity. It is either of a Scots cast, or of
a languid kind, that excites no other sensation than fatigue and
drowsiness.
His pastoral, on the preceding plates, " Since the Spring comes
on," is, however, as chantant as any mongrel mixture of Scots,
Irish, French, and English, that has been since compiled. The
first movement, particularly, seems to have been the model of most
of the Vauxhall songs of the last forty years.
" Fill me a bowl," p. 52, has the same kind of merit (d).
The collecting his secular compositions into a folio volume in
1700, under the title of Amphion Anglicus [H. Playfor.d, 1700],
was doubtless occasioned by the great success of the Orpheus
Britannicus [H. Playford, 1698] , a similar collection of Purcell's
Dramatic and Miscellaneous Songs, published by his widow, in
1698. But whether Dr. Blow was stimulated to this publication
by emulation, envy, or the solicitation of his scholars and friends,
by whom there are no less than fifteen encomiastic copies of verses
prefixed to the work, the ungrateful public seems to have remained
always insensible to these strains of the modern Amphion, which
were not only incapable of building cities, but even of supporting
his own tottering fame.
Some of his innumerable deformities from the Amphion Anglicus
are added to those of his Church Music. " Go perjured man," is
the best of all his secular productions; but that, which was an
imitation of a duet by Carissimi, Dite, 0 deli, is overloaded, in his
Amphion Anglicus, with a laboured and unmeaning accompaniment.
P. 44 and 46 of this collection, contain two of his best ballads,
" Sabina has a thousand charms," and " Philander do not think
of arms." In these ballads the union of Scots melody with the
English, is first conspicuous. The subject of a song, p. 168,
" Orithea's bright eyes," is likewise broad Scots, (e)*
Michael Wise [c. 1648-87], another of the three eminent
composers for the Church, that were fostered in the Chapel Royal
immediately after the Restoration, was likewise a scholar of Capt.
Henry Cook at the same time as Humphrey and Blow; and they
all three not only surpassed their master in genius and abilities, but
(d) The same song was set by the late Mr. Corfe, about forty years since, and remained
long in Bacchanalian favour.
(e) See the preceding plates.
* Little of Blow's music has been printed. In contemporary publications, other than those
mentioned by Burney, he is represented in The Theater of Music 1685 and 87; in Harmonia
Sacra, 1688; and in Musick's Hand Maid, Part II, 1689.
A mask Venus and Adonis was printed by Arkwright in the O.E.E.; Arkwright also
reprinted six songs from the Amphion Anglicus. Novello's have published a number of his
Anthems.
Examples of his Harpsichord music are in The Contemporaries of Purcell, published by
J. and W. Chester, Ltd.
A list of Blow's Anthems and Services will be found in Grove's Vol. I, pp. 396-8. 14
Anthems have recently been published by the Oxford Press.
356
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
all our Church composers of the last century, except Purcell.
However, they prepared the way for his bold and original genius to
expand; as several new melodies, modulations, and happy licences,
which I used to think entirely of his invention, upon an attentive
examination of their works, appear to have been first suggested by
these three fellow-students. Yet, what they had slightly and timidly
touched, Purcell treated with the force and courage of a Michael
Angelo, whose abilities rendered the difficult easy, and gave to
what, in less powerful hands, would have been distortion, facility
and grace.
Dr. Boyce has printed six of his verse and full anthems, which
are admirable : and in Dr. Tudway's Collection, Brit. Mus. there
are seven, and a whole service in D minor.
He was author of the celebrated two-part song, '.' Old Chiron
thus preach' d to his pupil Achilles/' which is still too well known
to need praise or insertion here. Mich. Wise was killed in a street-
fray at Salisbury, by the watchman, in 1687.
The first movement of his verse anthem for two voices, " The
ways of Zion do mourn," is so beautiful and expressive, that I
shall give it here as a specimen of grave and pathetic composition
for the church, which no Music of other countries that I have
hitherto discovered, of the same kind, and period of time, surpasses.
The use the author has made of chromatic intervals at the word
mourn, is not only happy and masterly, but new, even now, at
more than a hundred years distance from the time when the anthem
was produced! The whole composition seems to me admirable;
and besides the intelligence and merit of the design, the melody is
truly plaintive, and capable of the most touching and elegant
expression of the greatest singers of modern times; the harmony too
and modulation are such as correspond with the sense of the words,
and enforce their expression.
Anthem by Michael Wise. From the 1st Chap, of Jeremiah's
Lamentations, verse 4th.
t
B
£=*
We
r^^=^
tf/tys of
Motiiffi) 2>o
^^
*PS
BiS
Tub
ways ar
Zl -r-OlV DO
/neu/»n J)o
mocrfirt J>o
9g
^ffd BB 1 o
3=4=
=S
.J, -9- 4r
Bg
S
3=3=
£==*
3=t
mov/iNso
mwm}Thl wys
Bee 9 oss tm»$
Come Torus So — ABmn
3S=
=£
m
■ iJ
T==3=
3^B
s
, -a-
wfiys
Po
3s-
dure rvtuvi : Come 72 r^t
pipi m ill rh'>j|^
rfrrB
I I i 1
357
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
^^^
g
XT
3^
F^
tv^3=
^ffiS
B
1=1=
^=*$
F£AiTS,Tire Mfc or
mouM Tiie
Wf)p OP
Se-
-Wf-?
s
1
^^
o o
t — r
j — j-
&>-LgtHt
Fg/isTi t» ■ h#ys
tMfi OF
Z/-OM Cf XI- Ol* bo
as
gg^
i^
+cc
*
^
£
£E£
&
±i
^=a
^jsL
#>4W A,9*e &,m£
*v*ys
v/t/s
p=^
^=5+
p&£
q=x
o o
5=3=
-9—e-
Jf - r *<*&- ~
7V51
VWftf
mtff^s
si
^E
tit
fc-sh#
358
f£=^
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
m
f»S
^£=a
f
S3
?p« 7 W«fc7 7V//*«si
wflv?i» -T
»&7=» &&**! mt/uriruDS.
SB
^
»#
■• o Q '
3=p
TTT 1
^ —
HBR
•QR£SS*>f&
TVS
Leas Thg
str-
I tn'sp G>tT»,> flitftTiruoe
O- j.
i I I
/'»J 1 I
I S ) I
^r
i^Ctt ^
a
15
^^
i 5 J
&
a i
s
0/» HXTrtylSg/tfSitt)** Tk&
AOA& TM£
mc-T*o-
^S
^H — i—
g 0
d J J
t=F
^ 0*-*£,<?
«/<• - - r«>
g£
£=q=
There is an elegance of phrase in a passage of the second
movement of the preceding anthem, at the word down, which has
been lately revived, and in great favour, with a very minute
difference, among the first singers of Italy (e).
Wise was a native of Salisbury, in which cathedral he was
appointed organist and master of the choristers, in 1668; and in
1675 [/76], a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. In 1686 [/87]
he was preferred to the place of almoner and master of the boys
at St. Paul's. He is said to have been in great favour with Charles
II. and being appointed to attend him in a progress, claimed, as
king's organist for the time, the privilege of playing to his majesty
on the organ, at whatever church he went.
The reign of Charles II. being more favourable to the progress
of our native Church Music than any other, except that of Queen
Elizabeth, the subject seems to merit more enquiry and discussion.
The first set of chapel-boys having matured into men so eminent
as Humphrey, Wise, and Blow, excites a curiosity concerning the
talents of their immediate successors; and this second class not
only produced Dr. Tudway and Dr. Turner, men who afterwards
arrived at elevated stations, but Henry Purcell! who, during a
short life, and in an age almost barbarous for every species of
Music but that of the church, manifested more original genius than
any musician under similar circumstances, that my enquiries into
the history of the art have yet discovered, in any part of Europe.
Though Tudway and Turner advanced far into the present
(e) The difference consists only in pointing the first note, and making the second and
third notes semiquavers.
Though I admire the facility and expression of many compositions by Mich. Wise, I must
here make a few remarks on his verse anthem, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." In bar 4th
of the first movement (see Boyce, Vol, II. p. 258) the second note seems an error of the
press; there can be no doubt but that instead of E it should be F. And at the 2d bar of the
last line (p. 259), if F in the first treble is not made sharp, the effect must be very offensive;
though the passage, when echoed by the first treble, necessarily requires an F natural. The
sharp 3d and flat 6th so frequently occur in all the composers of this school, that it is endless
to stigmatize this hateful combination any more.
359
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
century, they added but little to the progress of the art by their
own productions or performance, and therefore we had better
allow them a niche in this place, than encroach on room that
belongs to their superiors, at a later period.
Thomas Tudway [d. 1726], educated under Dr. Blow* at the
same time as Turner and Purcell, was one of the second set of
children of the Chapel Royal after the Restoration (/). Soon
after quitting the Chapel Royal, he was received into the choir at
Windsor as a tenor singer. Tudway, like his fellow-disciples,
endeavoured to .distinguish himself early as a composer, and has
inserted into the Collection of Church Music which he transcribed
for lord Harley, an anthem of his own composition, in 1675, when
he was only nineteen, with six more of his early productions for
the church, of which the counterpoint is but ordinary and clumsy
(g)-
In 1681, at twenty-five years of age, he was admitted to the
degree of bachelor of Music at Cambridge (h). And in 1705, upon
her majesty Queen Anne visiting that University, he composed an
anthem, " Thou, O God, hast heard my vows " [Harl. 7341],
which he performed as an exercise for a doctor's degree; and, after
receiving that academical honour, he was appointed public
professor of Music in that University (i).
He composed an anthem, " Is it true that God will dwell with
men upon the earth? " on occasion of Queen Anne going to St.
(J) As he lived till the year 1726, and was seventy at the time of his decease, he must
have been born in 1656; a datum which will render the chronology of the principal events of
his life easy to settle. In all probability he was received into the chapel at eleven or twelve;
but in 1664, being but eight years old, he could hardly be admitted into the choir of Windsor,
as a tenor singer, as has been lately said; nor in 1671, at fifteen, is it likely that he should be
invited to accept of the place of organist of King's Coll. Chapel, in the University of
Cambridge.
(g) The words are likewise often inaccurately accented: he throws the accent of the
word triumph upon the second syllable, like Handel; which, though but slight, is, indeed, the
only resemblance between them.
(h) I have examined in the Brit. Mus. the score of the anthem which he performed as an
exercise upon this occasion. In the 1st bar of the tenor-part, there are two 5ths with the
second violin; and the tenor being lower than the base, inverts the harmony unwarrantably.
Bar 5th of the first verse, there is a 7th in the violin part, unprepared and unresolved. Indeed
the whole is an incorrect and fanciless composition; and being transcribed by the doctor
himself late in life (1715), this production does not say much for the improvement of his
knowledge afterwards : indeed, it is so full of errors and confusion, that it will neither bear the
test of the eye nor ear. It has been imagined, as a reason for Dr. Tudway's Music never
having been much used in our cathedrals, that he was an enemy to fugue and imitation; but
in all his compositions inserted in the Harl. Collect, there are as frequent attempts at fugue,
as in the Church Music of any of his cotemporaries : indeed, he is not dexterous at these
contrivances; however, that does not preclude confusion in the utterance of the words, which
are so distributed among the several parts, that no two of them, except at a close, are singing
the same. All the old masters, whom the doctor recommends as models, were so fond of
fuguing that they never saw a series of sounds without trying to form them into a canon or
a fugue; as the doctor never heard a sentence without endeavouring to extract from it a pun.
It was the light theatric style, with symphonies, ritornels, and divisions, in which Humphrey,
Blow, and Purcell so well succeeded, and which Crofts afterwards pushed to greater lengths,
that Tudway means to depreciate; for not being able to keep pace with them in such airy
flights, he tried to check and disgrace them by censure. See his dedication to lord Harley,
Brit. Mus. Collect.
(«) The Music-professorship at Cambridge is merely honorary; Dr. Staggins was the first
that was appointed in 1684, and Dr. Tudway the second.
* Tudway was probably born about 1646. If this date is correct, then he could hardly
have been educated under Dr. Blow, as the latter was born about 1648-9. Burney made a
thematic catalogue (B.M. Add. MSS. 11587-9) of Tudway's collection of English Church Music,
and a full list of the contents of the collection is in Grove's, Vol. V, pp. 402-3.
The portrait mentioned later in the text is now in the Bodleian.
360
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
George's chapel, at Windsor, for the first time; and for this, and
other occasional compositions, was permitted to style himself
organist and composer extraordinary to that princess.
In the latter part of his life Dr. Tudway resided much in
London, and was patronized by the Oxford family. The valuable
scores of English Church Music, in six thick volumes quarto, which
are now in the British Museum, N° 7337 [to 7342] , were transcribed
by himself at this time.
It is said that he used to meet Prior, Sir James Thornhill,
Christian the engraver, Bridgman the gardener, and other eminent
artists, at lord Oxford's, once a week; and that Sir James drew
all their portraits with a pencil, among which is Tudway playing
upon the harpsichord. Prior wrote sportive verses under these
drawings, which were in the possession of Mr. West, the late
president of the Royal Society.
Dr. Tudway's picture is in the music-school at Oxford; at
Cambridge he was longer remembered as an inveterate punster,
than a great musician (k).
William Turner [1651-1740], another of the second set of
chapel-children, and disciple of Dr. Blow, was sworn in gentleman
of the Royal Chapel 1669, as a counter-tenor singer, his voice
settling to that pitch; a circumstance which so seldom happens,
naturally, that if it be cultivated, the possessor is sure of employ-
ment: and, in consequence of its utility, soon after his reception
into the Chapel Royal, he was appointed vicar-choral in the
cathedral of St. Paul, and a lay- vicar of the collegiate church of
St. Peter, Westminster. In 1696, he was admitted to the degree
of doctor in Music at Cambridge.
Dr. Turner arrived at the great age of eighty-eight, and .dying
in 1740, was buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, in the
same grave with his wife; who, being nearly of the same age, died
but four days before him, after living together with great harmony
of disposition, and felicity, near seventy years.
In many of our cathedral books there is an anthem, ' I will
alway give thanks," which is called the club-anthem, on account
of its having been composed by three masters in conjunction; but
not, as has been said, by Dr. Boyce and others, "as a memorial
of the strict friendship that subsisted between them: " for,
according to Dr. Tudway, who remembered the transaction, and
records it with the anthem in the Mus. Collect. Vol. III. " the
anthem was composed by order of Charles II. at a very short
notice, on account of a victory at sea over the Dutch,* the news
(k) In the time of the duke of Somerset's chancellorship at_ Cambridge, during the
discontents of several members of that University at the rigour of his government and paucity
of his patronage, Tudway, himself a malcontent, and joining in the clamour, said, "the
chancellor rides us all, without a bit in our mouths." Nor did the wicked sin of punning quit
him even in sickness; for having been dangerously ill of a quinsy and unable, for some time, to
swallow either food or medicines; the physician who attended him, after long debates and
difficulties, at length turning to Mrs. Tudway says, "Courage, madam! the doctor will get up
May-hill yet, he has been able to swallow some nourishment"; the doctor cries out "Don't
mind him, my dear, one swallow makes no summer."
* Turner appears to have left the Chapel Royal between Sept., 1666 and April, 1667. The
story as to the origin of the Club Anthem can hardly be correct as the Naval war with the
Dutch did not commence until 1665 and Humfrey was not in England then.
361
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of which arrived on Saturday, and the King wishing to have the
anthem performed the next day, and none of the masters choosing
to undertake it, three of the children of the chapel, Humphrey,
Blow, and Turner, performed the task (I)."
There are two whole services (m), and several anthems of Dr.
Turner's composition in Tudway's collection, with an ode for the
solemnity of St. Cecilia's day, 1697, accompanied with violins and
trumpets. To this there is a long symphony or overture, consisting
of two movements, the second of which is in triple time, upon a
ground, seemingly in imitation of Purcell, as the first movement
is of Lulli. After this production, is inserted his anthem, " The
ldng shall re Joyce," which is more in the style of a secular ode,
than a composition for the church. The divisions, light and
common in the last century, are now become extremely
old-fashioned.
Among the church composers of Charles the Second's reign,
who arrived at honours and distinction, besides those already
mentioned, was Dr. Christopher Gibbons [1615-76], son of
Orlando Gibbons, and scholar of his uncle Ellis Gibbons, organist
of Bristol.* He had been honoured with the notice of Charles I.
and was of his chapel. At the Restoration, besides being appointed
principal organist of the Chapel Royal, private organist to his
majesty, and organist of Westminster Abbey [1660] , he obtained his
doctor's degree in Music at Oxford, in consequence of a letter
written by his majesty Charles II. himself, in his behalf, which is
inserted by Ant. Wood in the Fasti Oxon. Vol. II. Col. 158; who
says, that he completed his degree in an act celebrated in St. Mary's
church, July 11th, 1664.
The compositions of this master, which were not numerous,
seem never to have enjoyed a great degree of favour; and though
some of them are preserved in the Museum Collection, they have
long ceased to be performed in our cathedrals. His abilities on the
organ, however, must have been considerable, to entitle him to the
stations he filled, at a time when the style of playing that instru-
ment was so much more complicated and elaborate than at present.
Dr. Blow, who, in singing and composition was educated by Capt.
Cook, is said to have been a scholar on the organ of Dr. Christopher
Gibbons, who died 1676.
The only church-composer of this reign, whose works are still
retained in our choral service, of whom a particular account has
not already been given, is Benjamin Rogers [1614-98], for whose
fame Ant. Wood has manifested great zeal. This musician was
{l) The first victory obtained over the Dutch fleet, in the reign of Charles II. was in
1664 [1665], the second 1666; and as we had no other sea-engagement with that republic till 1672,
when these composers ceased to be called children, it must have been for the second victory
obtained during the first Dutch war, that the club anthem was set; Turner being one of the
second set of chapel boys.
(m) One in E and one in A, both with sharp 3ds.
* Ellis Gibbons died in 1603, that is 12 years before Christopher's birth. After the death
of his father in 1625, Christopher is supposed to have been adopted by his uncle, Edward
Gibbons, of Exeter
362
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
born at Windsor, and brought up in that college under Dr. Nath.
Giles; being employed there, first as a singing boy, and afterwards
in the capacity of lay clerk or singing-man. Thence he went to
Ireland, and was appointed organist of Christ-church in Dublin
[1639], where he continued till the breaking out of the Rebellion,
1641; at which time being forced to quit his station, he returned to
Windsor, where he was again reinstated as choirman; but being
soon after silenced in consequence of the civil wars [1644], he
procured a subsistence by teaching in the neighbourhood. And
during this time, according to his friend Ant. Wood, having addicted
himself much to study, he acquired great credit as a composer, and
produced several sets of airs, in four parts, for violins and an organ,
which being then imagined the best that could be composed of that
kind, were sent as great rarities to the archduke Leopold, after-
wards emperor, and himself a great musician; and, upon their being
performed by his band, they were very much admired (n).
In 1658, by the favour of his friend Dr. Ingelo he obtained the
degree of bachelor in Music at Cambridge, and acquired great
reputation in that University by his exercise. Soon after, on Dr.
Ingelo going chaplain to Bulstrode lord Whitelock, into Sweden,
he carried with him some of Ben Rogers's best compositions, which,
upon being repeatedly performed in the presence of Christina,
Queen of Sweden, were very much applauded.
At the Restoration he was appointed to compose the Music that
was to be performed at Guildhall, on the day his majesty and his
brothers the dukes of York and Gloucester dined there with the
lord mayor, by which he greatly increased his reputation.
About this time he was chosen organist of Eton college [c. 1661] ,
which he resigned soon after, on being invited to Oxford, where he
was appointed to the same office in Magdalen college [1664]. And
in 1669, upon opening the new theatre in that city, he was created
doctor in Music. He continued, says Ant. Wood, in the University,
where he was much esteemed, till the year 1685, when he was
ejected, in company with the fellows of his college, by King James
II.* after which he long resided in the skirts of the town, wholly
disregarded (o).
" His compositions for instruments," says Ant. Wood, "whether
in 2, 3, or 4 parts, have been highly valued, and were, 30 years
(») It does not appear that these pieces, which were composed for two violins, a tenor,
and a base, were ever printed.
(o) Ant. Wood, in his Fasti Oxon. gives the following list of his miscellaneous works,
which at present will excite no great curiosity in the lovers of Music, or desire to be possessed
of them. "Compositions in two parts, treble and base, in a book entitled, Court Ayres,
Pavins, Allemagnes, Courants. and Sarabands, London, 1665 [1655 and 1662]. Also certain
compositions in a book entitled, Cantica sacra, containing Hymns and Anthems, for two Voices,
to the organ, both Latin and English, 1674. As also in the Latin Hymns and Psalms of four
parts published by Playford."
Wood seems to have obtained this list from Rogers himself, as well as the account of
their favourable reception on the continent.
* The quarrel between James II. and Magdalen College commenced in 1687, and was
occasioned by the refusal of the College authorities to grant the degree of M.A. to a Benedictine
monk named Alban Francis. Rogers was dismissed for irregularities, but was granted a life
pension of ^30 per annum. Some of his anthems, and a Service in D are still sung.
363
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ago, always first called for, taken out and played as well in the
public Music schools, as in private chambers: and Dr. Wilson,
the professor, the greatest and most curious judge of Music that ever
was, usually wept when he heard them well performed, as being
wrapt up in an ecstacy; or, if you will, melted down: while others
smiled, or had their hands and eyes lifted up, at the excellence
of them."
It is to be feared that instead of weeping, the wicked lovers of
modern Music would now laugh, if they were to hear the quaint
and starched strains, and see on paper the ruffs and roll-ups of
honest Ben Rogers at the opera-house, or professional concert,
Hanover-square. But, alas! what is the secular Music that thirty
years have not wrinkled, withered, and rendered superannuated !
Rogers and Child were too near each other to differ much in
the style of their Church Music; and, indeed, they trod on the
heels of our own times too much, for their modulation to have that
solemn, and seemingly new, effect, on our ears, which the produc-
tions of the sixteenth century now afford. Dr. Aldrich would
never have let Rogers's Music be laid by as old and useless lumber,
if he had thought it original and good (p) .
For an account of the revival of psalmody in parts, in the
manner allowed soon after the Reformation, I must refer my reader
to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, where the subject is amply treated.
It was honest John Playford who new strung the harp of David,
and published, in 1671, the first edition of his " Psalms and Hymns
in solemn musick of foure parts on the Common Tunes to the
Psalms in Metre : used in Parish Churches. Also six Hymns for
one voyce to the Organ," folio. The several editions of this work
published in various forms, at a small price, rendered its sale very
general, and psalm-singing in parts, a favourite amusement in
almost every village in the kingdom.
The charter granted to the musicians of the city of Westminster
by Charles I. had lain dormant from that time till the Restoration;
but immediately after that event, the persons named in it, who
were still living, determined to rescue Music from the disgrace into
which it had fallen, and exert their authority for the improvement
of the science, and interest of its professors. Fifty- two musicians,
consisting of the King's band, and other professors, natives and
foreigners, the most eminent of the time, were enrolled in this
charter as the King's musicians; " and all such as are, and shall be
the musicians of his majesty, his heirs and successors, shall from
(j>) There is certainly the same kind of merit in the Church Music of Dr. Rogers, as in
that of Dr. Child; rich harmony, and natural modulation; and yet it may be asked, in his
service in D minor, which begins so like Bevin's in D major (see Boyce, Vol. I.) why, for
two notes only, line ii. bar 5, he quitted the key of B, in order to give the chord of D? He
has the same false accents as Tallis and Bird, on the words holy, holy, holy ; and page 174,
Servants — we magnify ; trust is In ; and in the Nicene creed, begotten ; Pilate ; and p. 184, 1. i.
bar 1. I look for ; with the major third and minor sixth to E, in the usual offensive style of
the times. In the Magnificat, a-way. Of the whole service, it must be confessed, that the
harmony is in general correct and pure; though somewhat dry and monotonous. But the keys
during the last century were not sufficiently ascertained, as appears in the best of our
ecclesiastical composers. Purcell's Funeral Anthem for Queen Mary, which was likewise his
own, begins in Eb, and ends in G with a major third; though it only consists of one short
movement. The modulation quits the original key, at the 3d bar, and is more in G minor, than
any other key.
3§4
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
henceforth forever, by force and virtue of the said graunt, be a
body corporate and politique, in deed, fact, and name, &c."
The other powers granted by this charter, allowed the corporation
to meet from time to time, in order to make bye laws and impose
fines on such as transgressed them, " which fines they shall have
to their own use, &c."
In pursuance of these powers, the corporation hired a room in
Durham Yard, in the Strand, within the city and liberty of
Westminster. Their first meeting was on the 22nd day of October,
1661, Nicholas Laniere then being marshal; from which day they
proceeded to make orders, summoning, fining, and prosecuting the
first professors who dared " to make any benefit or advantage of
Musique in England or Wales," without first taking out a license
from their fraternity. Among the instances of the exercise of their
power, Jan. 13th, 1663, it was " ordered that Matthew Lock,
Christopher Gibbons, Dr. Charles Colman, and William Gregory,
do come to the chamber at Durham Yard, on Tuesday next, at
two of the clock in the afternoon, and bring each of them ten
pounds, or shew cause to the contrary."
This seems to have been one of the most oppressive and
unmeaning monopolies with which the Stuarts had long vexed the
nation. Such a tyranny as this over the professors of a liberal art,
there is reason to fear, would be abused in whatever hands it was
lodged. The college of physicians, which superintends the
dispensations of life and death, may have its use by preventing or
detecting Charlatanerie; but that the ministers of our innocent
amusements should be subject to any other controul than that which
the common law of the realm is empowered to exercise over men of
all ranks and degrees in the state, seems at best but a wanton and
useless, if not a noxious, delegation of power, which was less likely
to benefit the public, or accelerate the progress of the art, than to
enable artists to torment and harrass each other.
It appears by the transactions of this corporation, the minutes of
which are extant in the British Museum among the Harleian MSS.
N° 1911, that the meetings of its members continued no longer than
1679; when rinding themselves involved in law-suits and incapable
of enforcing the power they assumed, and penalties they threatened,
it was thought most adviseable to leave the art and artists to the
neglect or patronage of the public.
To this unsuccessful piece of tyranny, the following may serve as
a farce.
Every trade and occupation in France had formerly a superior or
Coryphaeus, who was dignified with the title of Roi or King. The
mercers, joiners, barbers, shoe-makers, and even sweep-chimneys
had their particular monarch; but exactions and tyranny by degrees
occasioned the annihilation of this mock royalty.
The minstrels more tenacious and exact observers of ancient
usages, have been last to preserve this precious image of antiquity.
The King at arms, and the King of the minstrels, are all that remain
365
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of this high rank; but the first has few tributaries, and his function
is only occasional and transient; whereas the power of the other is
always in force and his empire exercised to the utmost limits of
the kingdom.
The history of the first sovereign of the minstrels is unknown;
but it is recorded that after the death of Constantine, a famous
tidier of the seventeenth century, the crown passed, in 1630 [1658],
to Dumanoir I. afterwards to Dumanoir II. [1668] who, by a
voluntary abdication, occasioned an interregnum, in 1685 [1693].
Lewis XIV. saw with indifference this extinction of royalty, and
even declared that it should not be revived.*
This monarchy had been long agitated and torn by civil and
foreign broils. The dancing-masters, assisted by their chief, had
been pleading for fifty years against the vile artizans who
dishonoured their profession, by lavishing their talents unworthily
at ale-houses; and insisted on having a string of their lyre or fidicula
cut off, like that of Terpander and Timotheus, in order to reduce it
to its ancient form of a Rebec, with three strings.
They, however, prosecuted the city dancing-masters, at Paris,
and had them fined by a solemn decision, Jan. 14th, 1667.
No community was ever more disunited by discords and tumults :
every court of justice rang with the noise of their divisions, and
their quarrels enriched the law, whilst they empoverished
themselves, and fretted to fiddle-strings, those bowels which had
neither food nor feeling.
The interregnum lasted from 1685 [1693] to 1741, when
Guignon, remarkable for the velocity of his fingers and bow on the
violin, aspiring at royalty, the King graciously condescended to
honour him with the minstrel crown, and his claims and titles were
acceded to the 15th of June, the same year.
But this election stimulating him to the assumption of those
prerogatives which formerly appertained to his high station, he had
his rights to defend against an army of lawyers employed by
musicians, particularly organists, who obtained over him a complete
victory, and Guignon, in order to give an incontestible proof of his
disinterestedness and moderation, as well as love for the arts,
voluntarily and magnanimously resigned the crown and dignity of
supreme lord and king of the minstrels. And by an edict of Mar.
1773, registered in parliament the 31st of the same month, his most
Christian majesty totally and finally suppressed this office (q).
" King Charles II." says the Hon. Mr. North (r), " though a
professed lover of Musick, had an utter aversion to Fancies, which
was increased and confirmed by a successless entertainment given
him by secretary Williams. After which the secretary had no
(q) See Essai sur la Mus. & Mercure de Fr. for April, 1773.
(r) Mem. of Musick, MS.
* The date of Dumanoir lid's resignation is given differently by various authorities. In
Grove's article Dumanoir, 1685 is given, but in the article Roi des Violons, 1693 is stated as the
year in which Dumanoir relinquished office. Romain Rolland (Some Musicians of Former Days.
English Ed. 1915, p. 143 N. 3), gives 1673.
366
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
peace, for the King, as was his custom, could not forbear whetting
his wit upon Fancy Musick, and its patron the secretary; nor would
he allow the matter to be disputed upon the point of superiority,
but ran it all down, by saying, have not I ears? He could bear no
Musick to which he could not beat time, which he constantly tried to
do to all that was performed in his presence, which he generally
heard standing. Of songs he only approved the soft vein, in triple
time (s) ; which rendered that kind of movement fashionable among
the masters and composers for the stage, as may be seen in the
printed songs of the time.
" His majesty had once a wish, in order to compare styles, to
hear the singers of several nations: German, Spanish, Italian,
French, and English, perform together on the court stage, at
Whitehall. The Italians performed the celebrated trio of Carissimi,
Che dite, che fate, and the English brought up the rear under great
disadvantage, with / pass all my hours in a shady old grove; for
though the King chose that song as the best, others were not of his
majesty's opinion.
" The old way of consorts was laid aside by this prince
immediately after his restoration, when he established his band of
24 violins, after the French model, and the style of Musick was
changed accordingly. So that French Musick became in general
use at court, and in the theatres; indeed, performers on the violin
had a lift into credit before this period, when Baltzar, a Swede,
came over, and did wonders upon it by swiftness and double stops
(t). But his hand was accounted hard and rough, though he made
amends for that by often tuning in the lyra way, and playing lessons
conformable to it, which were very harmonious, as is manifest by
many of his pieces still extant.
' ' During the first years of King Charles's reign, all the Musick
in favour with the beau-monde, was in the French style; which, at
this time, was rendered famous throughout Europe, by the works
of Baptist Lulli, a Frenchified Italian, and master of the Court
Musick at Paris, who enriched the French Musick by Italian
harmony, which greatly improved their melody. His style was
theatrical, and the pieces called branles, or ouvertures, consisting
of an entree and a courante, will ever be admired as the most stately
and complete movements in Musick. All the composers in London
strained hard to imitate Lulli' s vein. However, the whole tendency
of the ayre, affected the foot more than the ear; and no one could
listen to an entree, with its starts and leaps, without expecting a
dance to follow.
" The French instrumental Musick, however, did not make its
way so fast as to bring about a revolution all at once; for, during a
(s) The young chapel composers, Humphrey, Blow, and Wise, by the introduction of
several of these movements are accused by Dr. Tudway, and others, of indulging the King's
French taste so far as to introduce theatrical corants and dancing movements into their
anthems. At present they have no such effect on our ears: they seem, indeed, less heavy
than the anthems of the sixteenth century, which were almost all in common time; but are
more like slow minuets, though more broken into divisions, than dancing minuets, or corants.
(<) See above, p. 337.
367
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
great part of this King's reign, the old Musick was still used in the
country, and in many private meetings in London; but the treble
viol was discarded, and the violin took its place."
The taste of Charles II. seems to have been French in all things,
but particularly in Music; for he had French operas; a band of
twenty-four violins, in imitation of the French band at Paris;*
French masters of his band, Cambert, and, afterwards, Grabu; he
sent Pelham Humphrey to study under Lulli, and young Banister to
learn the violin at Paris. Indeed, though we have since had better
models for our musical studies of all kinds, from Italy and
Germany, Music, as well as every other liberal art, was at this time
in a higher state of cultivation in France than in England. But
though Lulli carried Italian dramatic Music into France, it was
such as had been produced during the infant state of the art in
Italy; yet, notwithstanding the subsequent improvements it received
in its native country, from innumerable masters, particularly since
they were furnished with lyric poetry by Metastasio, near a century
elapsed before our neighbours the French perceived it possible to
compose better Music than that of Lulli.
Upon the decease of Baltzar** [c. 1630-63], the Lubecker, who
was the first leader of King Charles's new band of twenty-four
violins, &c. Banister, the first Englishman who seems to have
distinguished himself on the violin, which was now growing into
favour, succeeded him. This is the same Banister [1630-79] who
set Dr. D'Avenant's opera of Circe, and several ayres and dialogues
of the times, in which no specific mark of genius seems discover-
able. This musician was one of the first who established lucrative
concerts in London.
These concerts were advertised in the London Gazette of the
times; and in No. 742, for Dec. 30th, 1672, there is the following
advertisement : "These are to give notice, that at Mr. John Banister's
house, now called the Music-school, over against the George
taverne, in White Fryers, this present Monday, will be Musick
performed by excellent masters, beginning precisely at four of the
clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon for the future, precisely
at the same hour."
* On occasions (Drobably when the king was present) the King's Band played during service
at the Chapel Royal. Evelyn (Diary, Dec. 21, 1662) writes: "One of his Majesty's chaplains
preached; after which instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music 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 playhouse, than a church. This was the first
time of change, and now we no more heard the cornet which gave life to the organ; that
instrument quite left off in which the English were so skilful. I dined at Mr. Povey's, where
I talked with Cromer, a great musician."
The King's Band found little favour with Pepys, for on Oct. 1, 1667, he writes in his
Diary — "To White Hall; and there in the Boarded Gallery did hear the musick with which the
King is presented this night by Monsieur Grebus, the Master of his Musick : both instrumental
(I think twenty-four violins) and vocall : an English song upon Peace. But, God forgive me !
I never was so little pleased with a concert of music in my life."
** In the records he is entered as Mr. Thomas Balsart. There are accounts of his playing in
Evelyn's Diary for the 4th March, 1656-7, and in Anthony a Wood, quoted by Burney on p.
337- There is no record of him in connection with the King's new band. The first leaders of
this were David Mell and George Hudson. Baltzar's name occurs in the records in 1660 as a
member of the Private music for lutes, violls and voices ("a new place"). In 1661 he receives
payment of ^34 3s. 4d. for two violins bought by him for the King's service. He is admitted
musician in ordinary to the King, as violin player in the private music and his salary is
recorded as £110 per annum.
368
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
There are other advertisements from Banister of the same kind,
in 1674, 1676, and 1678. In that for Dec. 11th, 1676, his musical
performance is said to be "At the academy in little Lincoln's Inn
Fields," where it was to begin " with the parley of instruments,
composed by Mr. Banister, and performed by eminent masters."
In Mr. North's manuscript Memoirs of Music, we have a more
minute account of these performances. " Banister having procured
a large room in White Fryars, near the Temple back-gate, and
erected an elevated box or gallery for the musicians, whose
modesty required curtains, the rest of the room was filled with
seats and small tables, ale-house fashion. One shilling, which
was the price of admission, entitled the audience to call for what
they pleased. There was very good Musick, for Banister found
means to procure the best hands in London, and some voices to
assist him. And there wanted no variety, for Banister, besides
playing on the violin, did wonders on the flageolet to a thro' base,
and several other masters likewise played solos."
Banister, who died in 1679, had his first lessons in Music from
his father, who was one of the waits in the parish of St. Giles in
the Fields. He left behind him a son, John Banister [d. 1735],
who became an eminent performer on the violin; he was one of
King William's band, and played the first violin at Drury Lane when
operas were first performed there. Mr. North says, '•' It would be
endless to mention all the elegant graces, vocal and instrumental,
which are taught by the Italian masters, and perhaps outdone by
the English Banister."
In 1678, a year before the decease of the elder Banister, the club
or private concert established by Thomas Britton [1643/4-1714],
the celebrated small-coal man, in Clerkenwell, had its beginning,
and continued till 1714. About the year 1680, the principal masters
in London perceiving an eagerness in the public for musical
performances, had a room built and purposely fitted up for concerts,
in York-Buildings, where the best compositions and performers of
the time were heard by the first people in London. This was called
the Music Meeting. And this room was long the place where the
lovers of Music assembled at the benefit concerts of the most eminent
professors of the art.
Having commemorated the chief musical events of this long and
chearful reign, I shall now present the reader with a list of the
publications which it produced relative to the theory and practice
of the art.
The first theoretical or didactic book that appeared on the suDject
of Music, after the Restoration, was a tract, printed in a small
size, entitled, " Short Directions for the Performance of Cathedral
Service, by Edward Low, Oxon. 1661." This little useful book
was reprinted, by the title of "A Review of some short Directions
formerly printed, for the Performance of Cathedral Service, with
many useful Additions according to the Common Prayer-book, as
it is now established. Published for the Information of such as
Voi,. ii. 24. 369
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
are ignorant in the Performance of that Service, and shall be
called to officiate in cathedral or collegiate Churches; or any other
that religiously desire to beare a Part in that Service, by E. L.
Oxon. 1664."
Besides the order of the cathedral service and notation of the
preces, versicles and responses, it contains chants for the psalms and
Te Deum, some of them in four parts, with Tallis's Litany in
counterpoint; the burial service by Robert Parsons, and the Veni
Creator, all in four parts.
' ' Collection of divine Services and Anthems usually sung in his
Majesties Chapell, and in all the cathedral and collegiate Choirs,
of England and Ireland, 1664 [1st ed. 1663], by James Clifford,"
12mo («). This work is here classed among instructive books; as
besides two prefaces, one of which contains chants for the Venite,
Te Deum, Benedicite, Jubilate, Magnificat, Cantate Domino, Nunc
Dimittis, Deus misereatur, the psalms, and Quicunque vult, there
are " brief directions for the understanding of that part of the
divine service performed with the organ in St. Paul's cathedral on
Sundayes, &c." At the end of the book the author informs the
musical reader, that the best of our masters of later times had found
it expedient to reduce the six syllables of solmisation to four,
changing ut, re, to sol, la; so that at this time it appears, that the
sounds of the scale and mutations were generally expressed in
England by mi, fa, sol, la, only. This book contains the words
of the services and anthems of near seventy of our church-
composers, whose works were in use in cathedrals soon after the
Restoration, the most eminent of whom have been already mentioned
in the course of this history.
" Templum Musicum, or the musical Synopsis of the learned
and famous Johannes Henricus Alstedius; being a Compendium
of the Rudiments both of the mathematical and practical Part of
Musick; of which Subject not any Book is extant in the English
Tongue. Faithfully translated out of the Latin, by John Birchensha.
London, 1664."
This book consists of little more than dry definitions, which will
be found wholly unintelligible to all, but such as are in no want of
them. The author of the original, Alstedius, was a German
divine, and a Lutheran; his writings are very voluminous, of which
the chief are his Thesaurus Chronologicus, and Encyclopaedia; of
which the last had the merit of being written upon a new plan, that
has been since often adopted (x).
The translator, John Birchensha,* seems to have been a kind
of musical adventurer with sufficient literature and science to have
(m) See above, p. 291.
(x) This author died in 1638. When his book was first published, I know not, but his
mention of the syllable si, as a name for the seventh of a key, and to obviate the difficulty of
the mutations seems to precede its use in France.
* Is known to us as the music master of Pepys, who spells the name Berkenshaw. He is
also known as the writer of a preface to Thos. Salmon's Essay to the Advancement of Music,
1672, mentioned later by Bumey. Birchensha's translation consisted of part of the Elementale
mathematicum, published by Alstedius (or Alstedt) in 1611.
370
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
imposed on the fellows of the Royal Society, by a long and splendid
advertisement, to which admission was given in the Philosophical
Transactions, for the year 1672, page 5153. In this advertisement
is given the plan of a treatise on Music, which seems never to have
been published. It is drawn up with a scientific air, but promises
too much; not only what this author never performed, but what
never has nor ever will be performed by any other. As an apology
for so peremptory an essertion, the musical reader is desired to pause
and consider the following proposition, which constitutes the fifth
article of his advertisement.
' ' An easy way is by this author invented for making airy tunes
of all sorts by a certain rule, which most men think impossible to
be done; and the composing of two, three, four, five, six, and
seven parts, which by the learner may be done in a few months,
viz. in two months he may exquisitely, and with all the elegancies
of Musick, compose two parts; in three months, three parts; and
so forward, as he affirms many persons of honour and worth
have often experienced, which otherwise cannot be done in many
years."
" A Compendium, or Introduction to practical Musick, by
Christopher Simpson, 1667." Of this tract an account has already
been given, above. As far as it goes, this work has considerable
merit for its clearness and simplicity. It was long in favour as an
elementary book; and, from the time of its first publication to 1722,
it went through six editions.*
" An Essay to the Advancement of Musick, by casting away the
Perplexity of different Cliffs; and uniting -all Sorts of Musick,
Lute, Viols, Violins, Organ, Harpsichord, Voice, &c. in one
universal Character, by Thomas Salmon [1648-1706], A. M. of
Trinity College, Oxford." London, 1672. This book is well
written, and, though very illiberally treated by Lock, Play ford,
and some other professors, contains nothing that is either absurd or
impracticable; nor could I discover any other solid objection to its
doctrines being adopted, than the effect it would have upon old
Music, by soon rendering it unintelligible. At present the tenor
cliff alone is thought an unsuperable difficulty in our country, by
Dilettanti performers on the harpsichord; but if Salmon's simple and
easy musical alphabet were chiefly in use, the base cliff would
likewise be soon rendered as obsolete and difficult as the tenor;
so that two parts or cliffs out of three, in present use, would become
unintelligible. The author's plan was simply this: instead of the
eight or nine cliffs that were then in use, as,
3E
f^f
* The 1667 edition is the 2nd (and much enlarged) edition. The ist ed. was published in
1665 as The Principals of Practical Musick, etc., with a dedication to Sir John St. Barbe.
371
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
to express the whole scale of sounds on the five lines and spaces
in this simple manner:
H
EJ
SE
?
JZ
H
sz
szs
s
■g
I
S3
c:
¥
te
■€:
jO
g^:
n
*
jE
^
SI
G in every part of the scale being on the first line, a on the first
space, b on the second line, &c. the letters preceding each septenary
implying base, mean, treble, supreme.
This innocent and ingenious proposal was treated by Lock, in a
pamphlet entitled, " Observations on a late Book called an Essay,
&c." [1672], not only with contempt, but obloquy and unbridled
abuse. There is a portrait of Lock in the Music-school at Oxford,
by the countenance of which, without Lavater's assistance, or
advertising to his treatment of Salmon, and the asperity of his other
writings, we are impressed with more than a suspicion of his
ungentleness and want of urbanity.
Lock [c. 1630-77] is supposed to have been the first who
published [in England] rules for thorough base, or accompaniment
on keyed-instruments, in a book entitled, Melothesia, London, long
quarto, 1673. It was dedicated to Roger L' Estrange, Esq. after-
wards Sir Roger L'Estrange, himself a good judge, and of an
ancient Norfolk family that always cultivated and encouraged
Music in an eminent degree. This publication, besides the rules
for accompaniment, contains lessons for the harpsichord and organ,
by himself and other masters.
Philosophy and science, during this century, seem to have
interested themselves, and lent their aid in the refinement and
melioration of musical sound, more than at any other period. Sir
Francis Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, Mersennus, Des Cartes, Kircher,
and, after the establishment of the Royal Society in London, lord
Keeper North, lord Brouncker, Narcissus bishop of Ferns, Dr.
Wallis, Dr. Holder, and Sir Isaac Newton, have all thought harmony
and the philosophy of sound objects worthy of their most profound
meditations and researches. Though this is not the place to specify
the particular subjects in harmonics to which these illustrious
mathematicians pointed their enquiries, or to describe their success
and effects; yet it seems necessary, among the publications expressly
on the subject of Music during this reign, to mention an ingenious
tract in quarto, 1677, written by the lord Keeper North [1637-85],
entitled, "A Philosophical Essay of Musick, directed to a Friend."
Though some of the philosophy of this essay has been since found
372
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
to be false, and the rest has been more clearly illustrated and
explained, yet considering the small progress which had been made
in so obscure and subtil a subject as the propagation of sound when
this book was written, the experiments and conjectures must be
allowed to have considerable merit. The scheme, or table of pulses,
at the beginning, shewing the coincidence of vibrations in musical
concords, is new, and conveys a clear idea to the eye, of what the
ratio of sounds, in numbers, only communicates to the intellect.
These coincidences, upon which the degrees of perfection in
concords depend, being too rapid for the sense of hearing to enable
us to count, are here delineated in such a manner, as explains the
doctrine of vibrations even to a person that is deaf. This pamphlet,
containing only 35 pages, was published without the name of the
author; but afterwards acknowledged to have been the work of lord
Keeper North, in the life of that nobleman, written by his brother,
the Hon. Roger North [1653-1734], to whose musical memoirs we
have such frequent occasions to recur.*
" Select Ayres and Dialogues to sing to the Theorbo, Lute, or
Basse-viol. Composed by Mr. Henry Lawes, late Servant to his
Majesty in his public and private Music; and other excellent Masters.
The second Book. London, printed for John Playford, 1669."
The first part of these ayres and dialogues are chiefly reprinted from
Henry Lawes's two first publications. The second part is by Dr.
Wilson, Dr. Colman, Nicholas Laniere, Simon Ives, Alphonso
Marsh, William Gregory, Roger Hill, John Moss, John Goodgroome,
Edward Colman the son of Dr. Colman, Thomas Blagrave, and the
editor John Playford, with several additional songs by Henry Lawes.
In the third part we have what are called " Select Italian Ayres,
for one or two Voyces to the Theobo-lute." If these airs are genuine
they would prove Italians to be as deficient in melody as the
English. One of these ayres, and not the worst of the collection, has
Henry Lawes's name to it. After these, the book presents us with
Dialogues by Henry Lawes, John Jenkins, William Lawes, and one
by Simon Ives on the death of commissioner Whitlock's first wife,
of which he has given an account in his manuscript Family Memoirs,
mentioned above. This second book and Lawes's third book of
Ayres and Dialogues are recommended by the editor to be bound
together, as containing ' ' the choicest songs that have been composed
for forty years past."
" Choice Songs and Ayres for one Voice, to sing to the
Theorbo-lute, or Basse-viol. Being most of the newest Songs sung
at Court, and at the public Theatres, composed by several
Gentlemen of his Majesties Musick." The first book, printed for
Playford, 1673. The composers of this collection are Pelham
Humphrey, Robert Smith, Alphonso Marsh sen. and jun. John
Banister, Mr. Stafford, Nicholas Staggins, Thomas Farmer, and
Charles Forsall. Among these songs, to the number of near fifty,
* Rimbault published an edition of the Memories of Musick in 1846, but did not include
The Musical Grammarian, which was not published until 1925, edited by Hilda Andrews.
373
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
there is not one air that is either ingenious, graceful, chearful, or
solemn. An insipid languor, or vulgar pertness, pervades the
whole. From Pelham Humphrey, whose Church Music is so
excellent, I own I expected to find originality, or merit of some kind
or other; but his songs are quite on the level with the rest.
" The English Opera; or the vocal Musick in Psyche, with the
instrumental therein intermix'd. To which is adjoyned the
instrumental Musick in the Tempest, by Matthew Lock." Though
these English operas, of which a farther account will be given, were
performed in 1673, yet they were not printed and published till 1675.
Cantica sacra, ad duas et tres Voces composita, cum Basso
continuo ad Organum. Authore Ricardo Deringo Regies Majestatis
quondam Organistce. Londini, 1662. These sacred songs are
dedicated by John Playford, the editor, to the Queen Dowager,
Henrietta, relict of King Charles I.
Honest master Mace, in his Mustek's Monument, already
mentioned, speaking of the pieces that were in the highest favour at
the Cambridge concerts before the scoulding violins were allowed to
perform in them, says, " we had moreover a custom at our meetings
after the instrumental Musick was over, to conclude all with some
vocal piece to the organ, or, for want of that, to the theorboe.
And the best we did ever esteem, were those things which were most
solemn and divine; some of which, for their eminency, I will name,
viz. Mr. Deering's Gloria Patri, and other of his Latin songs, now
lately collected and printed by Mr. Playford, a very laudable, and
thank-worthy work, besides many of the like nature, wonderfully
rare, sublime, and divine, beyond expression."
It is sometimes fortunate for hyperbolical panegyrists of the
Music of ancient times, when the particular pieces they celebrate
cannot be found. If the productions and performance of Orpheus,
Linus, Amphion, Terpander, or Timotheus, could now be realized
and compared with those of Handel, Corelli, Leo, Pergolesi, or of
many other musicians now living, would they be able to keep their
ground, and fulfil our ideas of their excellence, founded on poetical
exaggeration? Having found the Gloria Patri of Deering, with
which Master Mace was so enrapt, the reader will see it on the
next plate, p. 375.
" Catch that Catch can; or the musical Companion." This
collection contains chiefly the same Rounds and Catches as Hilton
published, in 1652, under the same title, with the addition of about
seventy of these humorous and convivial productions, that appeared
now for the first time; but the second part of this book, containing
" Dialogues, Glees, Ayres, and Ballads, of two, three, and four
Voyces," is wholly different from Hilton's second part, which
consists of about forty Hymns and Canons. John Playford was the
editor of this excellent collection. London, 1667.
In the second book, there are several short three-part songs by
Capt. Henry Cook, master of the children of the chapel at the
restoration of Charles II. which discover no great powers of learning
or invention; we have others, however, of a superior kind; as " Turn
374
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Amarillis to thy Swain," a three-part glee, that was long in favour,
by Thomas Brewer, a violist and composer of fancies in Charles the
First's time; and several compositions by Matthew Lock, that are
worth preserving, particularly the three-part glee (x), on the plate,
p. 376.
A 3 Voc. Canticum sacrum.
RlCARDO DERINGO.
fc
* gL.__ft_l£g
¥
ijpg^
=t+
s±
~£T W
Quo- 7?/-
•U- - O BT
SPt.-IH-TU.
SANC- - Tb, ET
-y — f-
i^d g P <L^^m
^^
&LO--HI-
Vo-tri £r p-u- o er
SPI-KI—TVl Sflfl/C
■ro
m
S— g :a
=F£
J I
g-g^ir
^
g-T
5 £ie- »/- /)f*> TUl T-
fr.p.j'P'-'ic^
or-iro
r ~~i
t=F3
m-ru-i
SPh
Si cur brut ir> 'Pfif-
Ci-n-a, & Nvnuis S&m .
M
go I
Iff
r ii «* ~ <»
rr » r ¥
+r
4— w
^=P
5r .j-/*- 7?/ - - - TV-/
SfinC To
Sicur %c
m
qcs
=^F
±3!
tton
4— V-
x=±
doc
+tH-
*
mr°
7? a
i w k i
%/?& IN$e-CU-LA
Se -— cu-
LOQ.um fl
m sr/fv secu-L/i
^
JtaS.
1 kM !
I 1 I
tc
tt±=ta
££• - ft/ -
k/t secv-LP—.-
LOHum
Run
er/i*'
m
±fe±
i irrrJi^^-?
=FP=t+
(x) This being the first time the word Glee occurs, as a musical term, it may be necessary
to attempt its definition.* A Glee implies nothing more in its original sense, in our printed
music-books, than "a song of three or more parts, upon a gay or merry subject, in which all
the voices begin and end together, singing the same words." When subjects of fugue or
imitation occur, and the composition is more artificial than simple counterpoint, it less
resembles a Glee than a madrigal, which it might with more propriety be called, if the words
are serious : for a serious Glee seems a solecism, and a direct contradiction in terms. The
word Glee, in Saxon, German, and English Dictionaries, ancient and modern, implying mirth,
merriment, and in old authors. Music itself.
* The word Glee had been used for the first time in this connection in Playford's third
collection of Ayres and Dialogues published in 1659. It is found on Brewer's Turn Amaryllis.
375
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Glee, by Matthew Locke. Printed in Playford's Musical Com-
panion, 1667.
^^B
s
}=F
tt
t±!=at
/y£-ff/?
TAOVBlSTH) SSLF/10M
B^
r Times o ft TMHirii s,„
'ft i :Puerm/ts
lifli
ClH'Cv-LAR
Art/) HHCSl /f.
s
fe
s
s
I I \t
ia=t*=
A'f-iW
TVOuBtS %c
m
^£
St
trt
E3 w I [T
trt
) I W
fr*l .It
£- •— ' 1~
\? rir 7
* s 1
5=T
3=t
^
rna
vfyHiTH T»t mvn-muH-iriti & thy He/vtr
BouT} fl-
T3u8n-n*C »ith me rmct orrna
al»P8 yve u.
m
SJE
^
-ti— *
at J
^g
. 5 %
5fe?
B
F±
=*=F
=P=i
^^
t=^5
jMM-1-
/fefe?
<?«#/V am *»-
7W- 5i)/f 77W
^
SOR.K<&?*'''f*ILSI»Te
=F=F
) jj if
:&=£
m^^
j-+^F
3^F*
I I H»
I?
S
■•-f^
fczfc
g
fe
I H ^
l=t
2>^y r<? toympy Be-
^m
^
be^
moRfort.
kHtrrAii-s he
3
T=E
S
i— K
1=«
1 I K
1 I I
" Mustek's Monument; or, a Remembrance of the best practical
Musick, both divine and civil, that has ever been known [to have
been] in the World," 1676, folio, by Thomas Mace [c. 1619—
c. 1709], one of the clerks of^Trinity college, Cambridge, of quaint
and singular memory; a work that must not be forgotten among the
curiosities of this reign. It is impossible to describe the style of
this original book by any choice or arrangement of words, but the
author's own. The work is divided into three parts; the first treats
of psalm-singing, and cathedral Music; the second, of the noble lute,
" now made easie; and all its occult, lock'd-up-secrets plainly laid
open; shewing a general way of procuring invention and playing
voluntarily upon the lute, viol, or any other instrument with two
pretty devices, &c. In the third part the generous viol, in its
rightest use, is treated upon; with some curious observations, never
before handled, concerning it, and Musick in general."
In psalm-singing the author recommends short-square-even and
uniform ay res, and is " bold to say that many of our old psalm
376
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
tunes are so excellently good that art cannot mend them or make
them better." In speaking of the difficulty of singing in tune, even
with a good voice, he observes, that " with an unskilfull-
inharmonious-course-grain d-harsh-voice, it is impossible. 'Tis
sad to hear what whining, toling, yelling, or screeking there is in
our country congregations, where if there be no organ to compel
them to harmonical unity, the people seem affrighted or distracted."
The liberal use of compounds by the ingenious Master Mace
gives his language a very Grecian appearance. He doubts not but
that there are " many rational-ingenious-well-composed-willing-
good-Christians, who would gladly serve God aright, if possibly they
knew but how ' ' ; and therefore he advises the purchase of an organ
of thirty, forty, fifty, or sixty pounds; and then, " the dark to
learn to pulse or strike the psalm-tunes, which he offers himself to
teach for thirty or forty shillings; and the dark afterwards may
instruct all the boys in the parish for a shilling or two a piece to
perform the business as well as himself. And thus by little and
little, the parish will swarm or abound with organists."
The lute and viol are Master Mace's favourite instruments,
concerning the effects of which, and, indeed, of Music in general,
he is a great rapturist. On the lute, though " he had occasion to
break both his arms, by reason of which he could not make the
nerve-shake well, nor strong; yet, by a certain motion of his arm
he had gained such a contentive-shake, that his scholars asked him
frequently how they should do to get the like? "
I shall not attempt to recreate my readers with more extracts
from this matchless, though not scarce, book; but recommend its
perusal to all who have taste for excessive simplicity, and
quaintness, and can extract pleasure from the sincere and undis-
sembled happiness of an author, who, with exalted notions of his
subject and abilities, discloses to his reader every inward working
of self-approbation in as undisguised a manner, as if he were
communing with himself in all the plenitude of mental comfort and
privacy. I shall, however, present such readers with an advertise-
ment from Master Mace, that was written on his arrival in London,
1690, fourteen years after the publication of his book. I found it
in the British Museum N° 5936 [Harl. MSS.], in a collection of
title-pages, devices, and advertisements.
An Advertisement.
" To all Lovers of the best Sort of Musick.
" Men say the times are strange — 'tis true :
'Cause many strange things hap to be.
Let it not then seem strange to you
That here one strange thing more you see."
" That is, in Devereux-court, next the Grecian coffee-house, at
the Temple back- gate, there is a deaf person teacheth Musick to
perfection; who, by reason of his great age, v. 77. is come to town,
with his whole stock of rich musical furniture, v. instruments and
books to put off, to whomsoever delights in such choice things; for
377
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
he hath nothing light or vain, but all substantial, and solid MUSIC.
Some particulars do here follow :
"1. There is a late invented ORGAN, which (for private use)
excels all other fashioned organs whatever; and for which,
substantial-artificial reasons will be given; and (for its beauty) it
may become a nobleman's dining-room.
2. There belongs to it a pair of fair, large-siz'd, consort-viols,
chiefly fitted and suited for That, or consort use; and 'tis great pity
they should be parted.
" 3. There is a Pedal Harpsicon, (the absolute best sort of
consort harpsicons that has been invented); there being in it more
than 20 varieties, most of them to come in with the foot of the
player, without the least hindrance of play (exceedingly pleasant).
And
" 4. Is a single Harpsicon.
" 5. A new invented instrument, called a Dy phone, v. a double
lute; it is both theorbo and French-lute compleat; and as easy to
play upon, as any other lute.
" 6. Several other Theorbos, Lutes, and Viols, very good.
"7. Great store of choice collections of the works of the most
famous composers, that have, lived in these last 100 years, as Latin,
English, Italian, and some French.
"8. There is the publisher's own Mvsick's Monument; some few
copies thereof he has still by him to put off; it being a subscribed
book, and not exposed to common sale. All these will be sold at
very easy rates, for the reasons aforesaid; and because (indeed) he
cannot stay in town longer than 4 months (exactly.)"
He farther adds, " if any be .desirous to partake of his experi-
mental skill in this high-noble- art, during his stay in town, he is
ready to assist them; and (haply) they may obtain that from him,
which they may not meet withal elsewhere. He teacheth these
5 things, v. the theorbo, the French-lute, and the viol, in all their
excellent ways and uses; as also composition, together with the
knack of procuring invention to young composers, (the general and
greatest difficulty they meet withal) this last thing not being
attempted by any author (as he knows of), yet may be done; though
some has been so wise (or otherwise) to contradict it :
Sed experientia docuit.
"Any of these 5 things may be learned so understandingly, in
this little time he stays (by such general rules as he gives, together
with Musick's Monument, written principally to such purposes) as
that any aptly inclined, may (for the future) teach themselves
without any other help."
378
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Henry Purcell [c. 1658-1695]
The fine arts depend so much on the protection and encourage-
ment of the great, that they have never flourished in any country
where its most illustrious inhabitants were indifferent to their
charms. And the periods of our own history, in which Music has
been the most favoured by royalty, are those alone that entitle us
to any kind of share in the honour of its cultivation. Queen
Elizabeth was herself a performer, and prevented Music from being
wholly driven from our cathedrals by her injunctions. Charles I.
felt and honoured the little good Music that subsisted during his
turbulent and unhappy reign. And Charles II. by the influence of
his smiles and attention, stimulated the natives of our island to
make a considerable progress in the art, without the help of Italy
or Germany. Indeed, the passion of this prince for French Music
changed the national taste: happy for the art, when a sovereign's
favour is founded on so firm a basis as the works of Handel!
Indeed, our country would certainly now be less sensible
of their worth, were it not for the royal countenance and patronage
with which they have been long and steadily honoured.
King James II. was too gloomy and bigoted a prince to have
leisure or inclination for cultivating or encouraging the liberal arts;
nor, indeed, does he seem to have revolved any other idea in his
mind, than the romantic or impracticable plan of converting his
three kingdoms to the Catholic faith. And his subjects seem to
have been in such a ferment .during his short reign, that nothing,
which deserves to be recorded, was atchieved by any of them,
except the wresting from him that power he abused. This remark
is not made without recollecting that Newton published his
Principia, and Locke finished his Essay on Human Understanding,
while this prince sat on the thronejj but it can never be imagined
that during so short and turbulent a reign, two works which exalt
human nature more perhaps than any which the longest reigns
upon record ever produced, could have been brought to maturity.
Indeed Purcell, who had so much distinguished himself in the
former reign, does not appear by the date or occasion of his
exertions, to have produced any particular anthem, ode, or drama,
for the church, court, or stage, from the death of Charles II. his
first royal master, till after the Revolution, except the anthem,
" Blessed are they that fear the Lord," which he composed by
order of the court, in 1687, as a thanksgiving for the Queen's
pregnancy.
During the reign of King William and Queen Mary, the
different parties in politics were too much on the qui vive? too
jealous and apprehensive of the machinations of each other, to
bestow much meditation on the arts of peace. And both these
sovereigns were personally too indifferent about Music to contribute
to its refinement or corruption. Indeed, their reign was embellished
by many of the most valuable of Purcell's productions, without
his owing either his education or success to their immediate
379
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
patronage. As the musical transactions, during the two reigns
which closed the last century, can furnish the present history with
few circumstances relative to the art, or its progress in this country,
but what are derived from his talents, it seems necessary, for a
while, to quit the wide range of general history, and assume the
more minute narrative of a biographer.
In tracing the progress of English Music through the reigns of
James and Charles I. the Protectorship, and chief part of Charles II.
but few secular compositions occurred which could be heartily
praised. Indeed, with respect to the objects of my particular
enquiries, they seem so much the periods of dulness and insipidity,
that the power of charming, by the arrangement and combination
of musical sounds, may be said to have slept, and artists to have
played and sung with as little meaning and animation, as if
the art had been carried on by Somnambuli. I therefore feel a
particular pleasure in being arrived at that period of my labours
which allows me to speak of Henry Purcell, who is as much the
pride of an Englishman in Music, as Shakspeare in productions for
the stage, Milton in epic poetry, Lock in metaphysics, or Sir Isaac
Newton in philosophy and mathematics.
Unluckily for Purcell! he built his fame with such perishable
materials, that his worth and works are daily diminishing, while
the reputation of our poets and philosophers is increasing by the
constant study and use of their productions. And so much is our
great musician's celebrity already consigned to tradition, that it will
soon be as difficult to find his songs, or, at least to hear them, as
those of his predecessors Orpheus and Amphion, with which
Cerberus was lulled to sleep, or the city of Thebes constructed.
So changeable is taste in Music, and so transient the favour of
any particular style, that its history is like that of a ploughed field :
such a year it produced wheat, such a year barley, peas, or clover;
and such a year lay fallow. But none of its productions remain,
except, perhaps a small part of last year's crop, and the corn or
weeds that now cover its surface. Purcell, however, was such an
excellent cultivator of his farm in Parnassus, that its crops will be
long remembered, even after time has devoured them.
Henry Purcell was born in 1658. His father, Henry, and
uncle, Thomas Purcell, were both musicians, and gentlemen of the
Chapel Royal, at the restoration of King Charles II (z). There is
a three-part song in Playford's Musical Companion, by Henry
Pursell, which, being printed in 1667, when our great musician was
but nine years old, must have been the production of his father.
There is likewise a chant in the first volume of Boyce's Collection,
p. 289, N° II. called the burial chant, by Thomas Purcell, his uncle,
who continued in the service of the chapel till the time of his death,
in 1682. Though these compositions promise no great hereditary
genius, they shall be here inserted; as mankind is naturally curious
concerning every thing that is connected with eminent persons.
(z) Ant. Wood, in his Ashmol. MS. and cheque-book of the Chapel Royal.
3^0
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Threepart Song by the Father of Henry Purcell. From Playford's
Musical Companion, p. 153.
Mr. Hen. Purseix.
lUrlT
^W^
*:
SVSiTri-Mpl-NESS I NOW Sff-
J J t»sgr-ry.fit
Sim my hshvt /p*?
Evb/J mors 'ris
Twine; THOisntfiiie
^S.
^
r j. j
s£
f»Sgr-ry.]tA i-mbss I man &e
s Sneer He
m
i substi
+=*=*
J. g J 1 B»
4=5=
§S
/w£ myseiF t0
3 » • <£
.?,£/?- Iff- 7?/
fe^£
toff /Sep/ c/>*6?THy
BEflttr</ nLMas
Rfr-^
*=±
» * r -r i
3
3
5
s
SOS
=£=£*=
^
S
i I r e
FLOtH-BiSmiUNC.
c«/v-- -i.-et/e/i KiiSiS.
s
jjp^
pp
££
s
s
te w
1 E g
Chant, by Thomas Purcell.
^Si
^i
wr-
s
rr
Jsfc
+=T
*~$
6r-6 #
From whom Henry received his first instructions in Music, cannot
be very clearly ascertained. But his father dying in 1664, when he
was no more than six years old, it is probable he was qualified for a
chorister by Capt. Cook, who was master of the children from the
Restoration till the time of his death, in 1672. For, as Purcell was
appointed organist* of Westminster Abbey at eighteen years of age,
he must have learned the elements of his art before his fourteenth
year, at which time Pelham Humphrey, brought up in the Royal
Chapel under Capt. Cook, was appointed his successor, as master
* He was not appointed organist until 1680 in place of Dr. Blow. The 1676 appointment
was as Copyist.
38l
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of the boys [1672] . Purcell certainly continued to sing in the King's
Chapel, and to receive lessons from Humphrey till his voice broke,
an accident which usually happens to youth at sixteen or seventeen
years of age : after this, perhaps, he had a few lessons in composition
from Dr. Blow, which were sufficient to cancel all the instructions
he had received from other masters, and to occasion the boast
inscribed on the tomb-stone of Blow, that he had been
" Master to the famous Mr. Henry Purcell."
But there is nothing more common than this petit-larceny among
musicians : if the first master has drudged eight or ten years with a
pupil of genius, and it is thought necessary, in compliance with
fashion or caprice, that he should receive a few lessons from a
second, he instantly arrogates to himself the whole honour both of
the talents and cultivation of his new scholar, and the first and chief
instructor is left to sing, sic vos non vobis.
Purcell is said to have profited so much from his first lessons and
close application, as to have composed, during the time of his being
a singing boy in the chapel, many of his anthems which have been
constantly sung in our cathedrals ever since. Eighteen was a very
early age for his being appointed organist; that is maestro di
capella of Westminster Abbey, one of the first cathedrals in the
kingdom, for choral compositions and performance. It was not
likely he would stop here : the world is, perhaps, more partial to
promising youth, than accomplished age; and at twenty-four, in
1 682, he was advanced to one of the three places of organist of the
Chapel Royal, on the death of Edward Low, the successor of Dr.
Christopher Gibbons, in the same station.
After this, he produced so many admirable compositions for the
church and chapel of which he was organist, and where he was
sure of having them better performed than elsewhere, that his fame
was soon extended to the remotest parts of the kingdom.
From this time, his anthems were eagerly procured, and heard
with pious rapture wherever they could be performed; nor was he
suffered long to devote himself totally to the service of the church.
He was, very early in his life, solicited to compose for the stage,
and chamber, in both which undertakings, he was so superior to
all his predecessors, that his compositions seemed to speak a new
language; yet, however different from that to which the public had
been long accustomed, it was universally understood (a). His songs
(a) He produced the overture and act-tunes for Abdelazar, a tragedy written by Mrs. Behn,
and acted at the Duke's Theatre, in 1677, when he was only nineteen; to Timon of Athens,
altered from Shakspeare by Shadwell, in 167S; and to Theodosius, or the Force of Love, by
Nat. Lee, in 1680; the songs and processional Music of which are still performed.*
* The chronology of Purcell's music for the stage has not yet been finally settled. According
to Downes (Roscius Anglicanus, p. 49) Theodosius, or the Force of Love, written by Nath. Lee
and produced at the Duke's Theatre in 1680, was Purcell's first attempt at dramatic music.
Downe's states that "All the parts in it being perfectly performed with several entertainments
of singing composed by the famous master, Mr. Henry Purcell (being the first he ever composed
for the stage) made it a living and gainful play to the company." For particulars as the dates
of Purcell's dramatic music see Mr. Barclay Squire's article in the Sammelbande der
Internationalen Musikgesellschaft, v. 489.
3^2
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
seem to contain whatever the ear could then wish, or heart could
feel. My father, who was nineteen years of age when Purcell died,
remembered his person very well, and the effect his anthems had on
himself and the public at the time that many of them were first
heard; and used to say, that " no other vocal Music was listened to
with pleasure, for near thirty years after Purcell' s death; when they
gave way only to the favourite opera songs of Handel."
The unlimited powers of this musician's genius embraced every
species of composition that was then known, with equal felicity. In
writing for the church, whether he adhered to the elaborate and
learned style of his great predecessors Tallis, Bird, and Gibbons, in
which no instrument is employed but the organ, and the several
parts are constantly moving in fugue, imitation, or plain counter-
point; or, giving way to feeling and imagination, adopted the new
and more expressive style of which he was himself one of the
principal inventors, accompanying the voice-parts with instruments,
to enrich the harmony and enforce the melody and meaning of the
words, he manifested equal abilities and resources. In compositions
for the theatre, though the colouring and effects of an orchestra were
then but little known, yet as he employed them more than his
predecessors, and gave to the voice a melody more interesting and
impassioned than, during the last century, had been heard in this
country, or perhaps in Italy itself, he soon became the delight and
darling of the nation. And in the several species of chamber Music
which he attempted, whether sonatas for instruments, or odes,
cantatas, songs, ballads, and catches, for the voice, he so far
surpassed whatever our country had produced, or imported before,
that all other musical productions seem to have been instantly
consigned to contempt or oblivion.
As many of his numerous compositions for the church, particu-
larly those printed in the second and third volumes of Dr. Boyce's
Collection, are still retained in the King's Chapel and in our
cathedrals, I shall here acquaint the musical reader in what manner
I have been affected by some of these productions, in a late
attentive perusal of them (6).
His four-part anthem, " O God, thou art my God (c)," must
certainly have been one of his juvenile productions, before he had
sufficiently refined his ear, or exercised his judgment; as there are
(6) It appears by Dr. Bayley's Collection of Anthems used in his Majesty's Chapel Royal,
that ten of Purcell's are still performed there; and in the Rev. Mr. Mason's Copious Collection
of the Words of suck Anthems as are used in the Cathedral of York, that near twenty of his
choral compositions are still sung in that choir. I cannot help here recommending to the
curious, as well as students in Church Music, the perusal of the Critical and Historical Essay
on Church Music prefixed to Mr. Mason's useful publication; in which will be found many
excellent reflexions on the subject, which that admirable poet has well considered; and
though he seems inclined to reform our cathedral Music with less tenderness for many of our
venerable old masters than myself, yet our opinions entirely coincide with respect to false
accent, long divisions, and other inaccuracies and abuses in our choral Music, which require
correction.
(c) Boyce's Collection, Vol. II. p. 148.
383
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
many crude harmonies, and false accents in it, which in riper years
he would not have tolerated (d).
Of his six-part anthem, " O God thou hast cast us out," the
first movement, in which there are many bold harmonies, is
extremely elaborate, yet spirited and pleasing. The verse, " O be
thou our help," is not only full of new and fine effects, but touching
(e). By those who object not to the confusion in the words which
arises from fugue and imitation, while the several parts are singing
different portions of the same sentence, at the same time, the words
will appear perfectly well accented and expressed.
The first movement of his full anthem in eight parts, " O Lord
God of hosts," is a noble composition, alia Palestrina, in which
all the laws of fugue upon two, and sometimes more, subjects, are
preserved inviolable; the harmony, though bold, is, in general,
chaste, and the effect of the whole spirited and majestic. The
second movement is extremely pathetic and expressive; but, both in
that and the last movement, he seems trying experiments in
harmony; and, in hazarding new combinations, he seems now and
then to give the ear more pain than pleasure (/).
The two-part anthem, " Thy way, 0 God, is holy," continues
to be excellent Music \still, in the slow movements; the quick,
however, are somewhat passes, and the melody to these words,
" the air thundered," &c. seems too light and dramatic for the
Church at any period.
The three-part anthem, " Be merciful unto me, O God," is
throughout admirable. Indeed, to my conceptions, there seems no
better Music existing, of the kind, than the opening of this anthem,
in which the verse, " I will praise God," and the last movement,
in C natural, are in melody, harmony, and modulation, truly
divine Music .
(d) In the first chorus, the word e&rly begins on an unaccented part of the bar. Line iii.
bar 3, the Eb in the tenor part with F and G, immediately preceding a close in F, has a very
disagreeable effect. C would be better harmony; but then the point of imitation would not
be so complete. The 6th with the 7th, in the next bar, is hardly defensible. P. 149, 1. 3d,
the 7th resolved by ascending, while the base descends a 3d, is a license worthy of imitation;
as the effect is not unpleasant to the ear. In the next page he has the 6th with the 7th, and
Hat 3d, 4th, and 5th, again; which last combination, though he had authority from old
masters, no composers, since his time, seem to have admitted into their works. P. 150, the
sharp 5th to Eb must have been thought very licentious, during the last century; yet, as a
note of taste, it has a good effect, and as such, is now frequently used. The harmony
throughout the last movement, in triple time, is piquant, and the modulation agreeable, though
the close in A is very extraneous. The halleluja, is in all .respects, the use of the sharp 3d
with the flat 6th excepted, extremely agreeable.
(e) The unprepared 7th in the second and sixth bar was here, I believe, happily used for
the first time. With the last movement I should be much more pleased if the sharp 3d and
flat 6th did not so frequently occur.
(/) Purcell is so classical a composer for the Church, that his harmonical licences become
authority, and may lead young students into error. It is right, therefore, to specify the places
in these two last movements which are most likely to offend cultivated ears at present. In
the last bar but one of p. 167, the Bb in the second soprano; p. 168, 1. i. bar 3, the C sharp
in the first counter-tenor; ib. 1. iii. bar 2, the 6th with the 7th to D sharp; and bar 6th the
same line, the natural 3d, sharp 7th, and 9th, to D natural; and the sharp 3d with the
natural 6th in the next bar; p. 170, the same combination occurs three several times, and to
my ear seems jargon at all times and in all places : and, indeed, the 6th with the 7th, which
we find twice more in the last movement, affect me always with the idea of wrong notes in
the performance. These small blemishes excepted, this anthem is one of the finest
compositions of the kind which our church, or perhaps any church, can boast.
384
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
The complete service of Purcell, in B flat, printed by Boyce (g),
is a most agreeable and excellent piece of counterpoint, of which
the modulation frequently stimulates attention by unexpected
transitions, yet of so sober a kind as never to give the ear the least
uneasiness, till we come to the bottom of p. 110, and then the same
crudities of the sharp 3d with the flat 6th, and flat 3d, 4th, and 5th,
as have Been elsewhere censured, occur; which, I hope, in spite of
my reverence for Purcell, the organists of our cathedrals scruple
not to change for better harmony. These two or three
combinations, like some words which his likeness Shakspeare tried
unsuccessfully to render current, have been rejected by posterity;
and it is in vain to attempt at forcing them upon the public by the
mere weight of authority. The ear will patiently bear very rough
usage from an artist who in general makes it such ample amends;
however, there are limits, beyond which it is unsafe to exercise
cruelty of all kinds; and the auricular sense will be deadened,
disgusted, or rendered indifferent to Music's powers, by too harsh
treatment.
The Benedicius, as well as Te Deum, and all the rest of the
service, must be extremely pleasing, in all other respects, to every
ear sensible to harmony. The words are, in general, accented with
great accuracy (h), and the few points of imitation are fragments
of agreeable melody. P. 121, the A|? andAfcj, at the word beseech,
in the Kyrie, are peculiarly beautiful, as are the 7th with the 9th
at " before all worlds," in the creed, and the close at "by whom
all things were made." The point at '•' throughout all generations,"
in the Magnificat, is what the Italians call ben tirato, well- worked.
In the last line however, of page 132, so many exceptionable
combinations occur, that I cannot pass it over without a stigma.
Yet, upon the whole, the abilities of Purcell, as a profound
contrapuntist, appear perhaps more in the course of this service than
elsewhere; as he has manifested deep study and meditation in a
species of writing to which it was not likely that his creative and
impetuous genius would submit, having had the patience, as well as
abilities, to enrich it with no less than four different canons of the
most difficult construction, as of 2, 3, and 4 in one, by inversion.
The superior genius of Purcell can be fairly estimated only by
those who make themselves acquainted with the state of Music
previous to the time in which he flourished; compared with which,
his productions for the Church, if not more learned, will be found
infinitely more varied and expressive; and his secular compositions
appear to have descended from another more happy region, with
which neither his predecessors nor cotemporaries had any
communication .
Besides the whole service, with three full, and six verse anthems,
in Dr. Boyce's Collection, there are nine verse and full anthems,
(g) Vol. III. p. 104.
(h) Yet why the word highest is contracted into a monosyllable, to which only one note
is allowed, is difficult to imagine.
Vol. ii. 25. 385
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
wholly different, still sung in the cathedral at York (i). And in Dr.
Tudway's Collection, British Museum, there are, besides a whole
service in B flat, different from that in Boyce, eight full and verse
anthems, different from all the rest, four of which were composed
for the Chapel Royal of Charles II. and are accompanied with
instruments. And still, exclusive of these and the hymns printed in
the two books of Harmonia Sacra (k), in a manuscript bequeathed
to Christ-church College, Oxon. by Dr. Aldrich, there are two
motets and a Gloria Patri for four and five voices, in Latin, with
seven psalms and hymns for three and four voices, by our fertile and
diligent composer, that have all their peculiar merit, but of which
some may, without hyperbole, be said to reach the true sublime of
sacred Music.
To enter on a minute examination of these would extend this
article to too great a length; I shall, therefore, finish my account
of his choral productions by a few remarks on his Te Deum and
Jubilate.
Various have been the opinions concerning the occasion of this
grand enterprize. Some have thought it was originally composed
for the feast of the sons of the clergy; and Dr. Tudway, his
cotemporary and fellow-student, in the dedication to the sixth
volume of his Collection of Church Music to lord Harley, 1720,
tells us positively, that " the Te Deum and Jubilate of Mr. Henry
Purcell, the first of that kind (meaning with instrumental
accompaniments) that ever was made in England, was intended for
the opening of the new church of St. Paul; and though he did not
live to see it finished, it was afterwards performed three several
times when Queen Anne went thither herself, in ceremony." But
both these accounts are certainly erroneous, as is evident by the
following title to a printed copy, which I have examined, in the
library of Christ-church, Oxon. " Te Deum and Jubilate, for
voices and instruments, made for St. Cecilia's day, 1694, by Henry
Purcell."*
The custom, since the death of Purcell, of opening this
magnificent hymn with an overture or symphony, which Handel and
Graun have done so powerfully, renders the beginning of our
countryman's composition somewhat abrupt, meagre, and inferior
in dignity to the subject; there is, however, a stroke of genius,
boldness, and effect, in the four last bars of the first line, where the
discords are struck by the trumpets, and resolved by the violins,
which marks the great musician.
There is likewise a grandeur in the movement, and richness in
the harmony of the chorus All, all the earth doth worship thee, and
(i) See Mason's Collection of those Portions of Scripture and the Liturgy that are sung
as Anthems in the cathedral Churches of England, and published for the Use of the Church
of York, 1782.
(k) In the first book, published 1688, there are twelve; and in the second book, printed
1693, five of his hymns.
* The Te Deum and Jubilate were written for the St. Cecilia's Day celebrations of 1694.
They were published by Purcell's widow in 1697, and were then sung annually at the Festival of
the Sons of the Clergy. Sir F. Bridge has edited these works for Novello and Co.
386
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
the distribution of the parts, in ascending after each other by the
harmonic intervals of the perfect chord, has a beautiful effect. But
it seems to me as if all the composers of this hymn had mistaken
the cry of joy for that of sorrow, in setting To thee all angels cry
aloud. Here Purcell, as well as Handel, has changed his key from
major to minor, and in admirable modulation in itself, has given
the movement a pathetic expression, which in reading and
considering the idea of that eternal laud and praise which the
hierarchies and heavenly hosts offer up to the throne of God, it seems
not to require.
The Cherubin and Seraphin singing in duo, and the universal
acclaim of holy, are certainly most happily designed, and expressed
with the energy of inspiration. The transient state of melody has,
however, rendered this verse ' ' The glorious company of the apostles
praise thee," and, indeed, most of the solo parts, somewhat rude
and inelegant. And it is chiefly in the choruses and disposition of
the whole work, that Purcell is still admirable, and will continue
so among Englishmen, as long as the present language of this hymn
shall remain intelligible.
" Also the Holy Ghost the comforter," is a delightful fragment
of harmony and melody, which time can never injure: and " Thou
art the King of glory," in double fugue, is grand and masterly.
' ' When thou tookest upon thee, ' ' and ' ' When thou hadst overcome
the sharpness of death," have permanent beauties of melody,
contrivance, and expression, that are wholly out of the reach of
fashion. This praise, however, does not include the division upon
the word all. Through the numberless mistakes of a bad copy (/),
very great beauties are manifest, in looking over the score from
:' Thou sittest at the right hand of God " to " ever world without
end." I shall only instance the division on the word glory; indeed,
the whole movement of " O Lord save thy people," in which the
sound is truly an echo to the sense; and, in the expression of the
words, " Lift them up for ever," is admirable.
The whole verse, " Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day
without sin," to " as our trust is in thee," is so incorrectly printed,
that it is hardly possible to know the author's design, with respect
to harmony; however, much expression is discoverable in the voice
part, and the supplication at the words " have mercy upon us," is
truly pathetic. The short fugue " let me never be confounded,"
though regular, might have been written by a man of less genius
than Purcell.
{I) No composition of merit was ever worse engraved than this Te Deum : wrong notes,
wrong clefs, confusion and blunders of all kinds, disgrace every plate from the beginning to
the end, which, without skill in composition, a reader would often ascribe to the author of
the work. The errors are so numerous, that to point them out would take up too much
room here : I think, I have heard that the late Dr. William Hayes, of Oxford, has revised
and made some additions to the accompaniments of this composition, which, for the honour
of our country, it were to be wished might be soon engraved in the same handsome and
correct manner, in which part of our author's works have already been published by Mr.
Goodison. Whether it was to display the abilities of Elford, the celebrated counter-tenor, that
Purcell has composed the chief solo verses for that species of voice, I know not; but it is a
misfortune to this admirable production, that good counter-tenor voices are very scarce, and
good singers, in that part of the scale, infinitely more so.
387
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The beginning of the Jubilate is well calculated to display a fine
performer, and, therefore, the military cast which is given to the
whole air, by the pointed notes, may be proper; but I must own, that
I never was partial to that style of movement; yet Purcell and all his
cotemporaries in England were so much of a different opinion, that
it prevails too much in all their works.
" Be ye sure that the Lord," &c. if sung with taste and feeling,
will always be good Music, and so will the next movement, as long
as the art of Music shall be had in reverence.
In the verse, " for the Lord is gracious," Purcell has displayed
his uncommon powers of expression, particularly at " his mercy is
everlasting," which seems to me exquisite composition. The Gloria
Patri, alia Palestrina, but more animated, perhaps, than any
movement that Palestrina was ever allowed to compose, is full of
such science and contrivance, as musicians can alone properly
estimate; but the general effect of the whole is so glorious and
sublime, as must charm into rapture the most ignorant, as well as the
most learned hearer (m).
This admirable composition was constantly performed at St.
Paul's Church on the feast of the sons of the clergy, from the
decease of the author, 1695, till the year 1713, when Handel's Te
Deum for the peace of Utrecht, was produced by order of Queen
Anne. From this period till 1743, when his second Te Deum, for
the battle of Dettingen, was composed, they seem to have been
alternately performed. But since that time, Purcell' s composition
has been but seldom executed, even at the triennial meetings of the
three choirs of Hereford, Worcester, and Gloucester. Handel's
superior knowledge and use of instruments, and more polished
melody, and, indeed, the novelty of his productions, which, cceteris
paribus, will always turn the public scale, took such full possession
of the nation's favour, that Purcell's Te Deum is only now performed
occasionally, as an antique curiosity, even in the country.
Our author's theatrical compositions, if we recollect the number
and excellence of his productions for the Church, and the shortness
of his life, will surprise by their multiplicity. Of those dramas
which are called operas, and of which Music was the principal
allurement held out to the public, a more detailed account will be
given in speaking of the origin and progress of the musical drama in
England, previous to the use of the Italian language, Music, and
performers, on our lyric stage. And of his detached and incidental
songs, dialogues, and scenes, that were performed at our national
theatre or playhouse, the principal will be mentioned in speaking
of his Orpheus Britannicus, or Posthumous Collection of his
miscellaneous Compositions. But before we enter on an examination
of this work, it seems necessary to acquaint the reader, that the
(m) The review of this work has not been undertaken with the least spirit of comparison,
in order to exalt our gTeat countryman at the expence of our great foreigner. Some years
have passed since these remarks were made, and I purposely avoided looking critically at
Handel's Te Deum, till the time came, not only for a careful and candid examination of that
production, but of such of the other works of that truly great musician, as were performed
at his Commemoration, in 1784.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
chief part of his instrumental Music for the playhouse is included
in a publication that appeared two years after his decease, under
the title of " A Collection of Ayres composed for the Theatre and
on other Occasions, by the late Mr. Henry Purcell. London,
printed for Frances Purcell, Executrix of the Author, 1697 (»)."
Purcell seems to have composed introductory and entracte Music
to most of the plays that were brought on the stage during his time.
This publication contains his Music to the following dramas :
Abelazor, 1677. The Music of this consists of an overture and
eight airs or tunes [1695].
The Virtuous Wife, 1680 [1691?]. Overture and seven airs.
Indian Queen [1695]. The first movement of this overture is
equal to any of Handel's. There are likewise two or three trumpet
tunes, well calculated for the instrument, and a rondeau at the end,
which would now seem new, if played in a concert by a good band.
Dioclesian, or the Prophetess, 1690. The instrumental Music of
this English opera given here, consists of an overture of two move-
ments, the first excellent in the style of Lulli, and afterwards of
Handel with better fugues; preludio, accompaniment to a song,
trumpet-tune, ayre, hornpipe, country-dance, and canaries (o).
King Arthur, 1691. Overture and twelve tunes.
Amphitrion, 1691 [1690]. Overture and eight tunes.
Gordian Knot united, 1691. Overture and seven tunes.
Distressed Innocence, or the Princess of Persia, 1691. Overture
and seven tunes, all proofs of the author's original genius.
The Fairy Queen, 1692. Two overtures and sixteen tunes of
different kinds. No. 12, an air, 4 in 2, is a very curious canon on
two subjects: the first treble and base performing one, and the
second and tenor the other. There is as much accent and spirit in
this composition, as if it were in free counterpoint.
The Old Bachelor, 1693. Overture and eight tunes.
The married Beau, 1694. Overture and eight tunes, among
which is a very agreeable air for the trumpet, a march, and a horn-
pipe, that are characteristic. This last is very much in the style
of a Spanish Fandango.
The Double Dealer, 1694 [1693]. Overture and ten tunes. No. 6
and 9 pretty and curious.
Bonduca, 1695. Overture and eight tunes, including Britons
strike home, and To arms, in four parts.
These are the contents of this posthumous publication; but
besides the Music for these dramas, he composed overtures, act-
(») These airs are in four parts, for two violins, tenor, and base, and were played as
overtures and act-tunes in my own memory, till they were superceded by Handel's hautbois
concertos, and those, by his overtures, while Boyce's sonatas, and Arne's compositions, served
as act-tunes. In process of time these were supplanted by Martini's concertos and sonatas,
which were thrown aside for the symphonies of Van Maldere, and sonatas of the elder
Stamitz. About this time, the trios of Campioni, Zanetti, and Abel, came into play, and
then the symphonies of Stamitz, Canabich, Holtzbauer, and other Germans, with those of
Bach, Abel, and Giardini; which, having done their duty many years very pleasantly "slept
with their fathers"; and at present give way to Vanhall, Boccherini, Haydn and Pleyel. Sie
transit gloria Musicorum !
(o) A French term for a rapid dance, in jig time.
3S9
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
tunes, and songs, for Timon of Athens, 1678 [1694] ; for Theodosius,
or the Force of Love, 1680; for Dryden's Tempest, 1690 [1695];
and for Don Quixote, 1694* [parts 1 & 2. Part 3, 1695].
But few of Purcell's single songs seem to have been printed
during his life. He published the Music to a masque sung in the
traged}' of Oedipus, when it was revived in 1692. And "a musical
Entertainment, performed Nov. 22d, 1683, on St. Cecilia's day,
printed in score by John Play ford, with a dedication to the gentle-
men of the musical society, and particularly the stewards, written
by Henry Purcell, composer of the Music."
There are several of his songs in Playford's Collection called
" the Theatre of Music, 1687, fourth and last Book;" and though
these are not in his best manner, they are more original and
interesting than the rest. Among these, p. 50, A new song to a
Scotch tune, by our author, seems to me more pleasing and less
stolen, than any spurious Scotch tune, or imitation of the national
melody of the northern inhabitants of this island, that has been
since produced.
Page 62 of the same collection, there is an admirable piece of
recitative, in a truly grand style: "Amidst the shades," &c. But
the collection of his secular vocal Music, which did him the greatest
honour, and long rendered his name dear to the British nation, was
published by his widow two years after his decease, by the title of
Orpheus Britannicus [1698 and 1702]. Here were treasured up
the songs from which the natives of this island received their first
great delight and impression from the vocal Music of a single voice.
Before that period we had cultivated madrigals and songs in parts,
with diligence and success; but in all single songs, till those of
Purcell appeared, the chief effects were produced from the words,
not the melody. For the airs, till that time, were as unformed and
misshapen, as if they had been made of notes scattered about by
chance, instead of being cast in an elegant mould. Exclusive
admirers of modern symmetry and elegance may call Purcell's
taste barbarous; yet in spite of superior cultivation and refinement,
in spite of all the vicissitudes of fashion, through all his rudeness
and barbarism, original genius, feeling, and passion, are, and ever
will be, discoverable in his works, by candid and competent judges
of the art.
To this admirable collection are prefixed seven copies of verses
to his memory, at the head of which is an ode, written on his death,
by Dryden, which was set by Dr. Blow, and performed at the
concert in York Buildings. The Music of this ode was printed 1696,
the year after our favourite musician's decease. It is composed
in fugue and imitation, and is learned and masterly, but appears
laboured, and is wholly without invention or pathos. There is,
however, so much of both in the poetry, that it borders on
bombast.
* In collaboration with John Eccles. It is doubtful if the text of the 1695 production of
The Tempest can be attributed to Dryden.
390
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell.
Written by Mr. Dry den.
Mark how the lark and linnet sing,
With rival notes
They strain their warbling throats,
To welcome in the spring.
But in the close of night
When Philomel begins her heav'nly lay,
They cease their mutual spight,
Drink in her Music with delight,
And list'ning and silent, and silent and list'ning,
And list'ning and silent obey.
So ceas'd the rival crew when Purcell came,
They sung no more, or only sung his fame.
Struck dumb they all admir'd the godlike man :
The godlike man
Alas ! too soon retir'd
As he too late began.
We beg not hell our Orpheus to restore:
Had he been there,
Their sovereign's fear
Had sent him back betore.
The pow'r of harmony too well they knew
Would long ere this have tun'd their jarring sphere.
And left no hell below.
The heav'nly choir, who heard his notes from high,
Let down the scale of Music from the sky :
They handed him along,
And all the way he taught, and all the way they sung.
Ye brethren of the lyre, and tuneful voice,
Lament his lot, but at your own rejoice.
Now live secure and linger out your days,
The gods are pleas'd alone with Purcell's lays,
Nor know to mend their choice.
The great poet had a very particular attachment to our admirable
musician, which was not wholly generated by genius and success in
setting so many of his poems, but, in part, from having been
the master of his lady, the Right Hon. lady Elizabeth Howard,
daughter of the earl of Berkshire, to whom Mrs. Purcell dedicated
this posthumous publication. In this dedication it is said by his
widow, that her ladyship had generously prevented her intended
performance of the duty she owed his ashes, by erecting a fair
monument over him, and gracing it with an inscription which may
perpetuate both the marble and his memory (p).
(/>) The following is the inscription, which, from the passage just cited from the dedication,
has. not improbably, been supposed the composition of Dryden :
Here lies
Henry Purcell, Esq.
Who left this life,
And is gone to that blessed place.
Where only his harmony
can be exceeded.
Obiit 2imo. die Novembris,
Anno aetatis sua 37mo
Annoq; Domini 1695.
On the stone over his grave with the following epitaph, which is now wholly effaced :
Plaudite, felices superi, tanto hospite : nostris Tarn cito decississe, modos cui singula debet
Prcsjuerat, vestris additur tile choris; Musa, prophana suos religiosa suos.
Invida nee vobis Purcellum terra reposcat, Vivit Io et vivat, dum vicina organa spirant,
Questa decus see'li, deliciasque breves. Dumqtte colet numeris turba canora Deum.
Anonymous translation.
Applaud so great a guest, celestial pow'rs, Complaining that so prematurely died
Who now resides with you. but once was ours; Good nature's pleasure and devotion's pride.
Yet let invidious earth no more reclaim Died ! no he lives while yonder organs sound,
Her short liv'd fav'rite and her chiefest fame; And sacred echos to the choir rebound.
391
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
There are few songs in the Orpheus Britannicus but what
contain some characteristic mark of the author's great and original
genius. The melody, however, will at first seem to many at present
uncouth and antiquated; but by a little allowance and examination,
any one possessed of a great love for Music, and a knowledge of our
language, will feel, at certain places of almost every song, his
superior felicity and passion in expressing the poet's sentiments
which he had to translate into melody.
The favourite songs with Purcell's admirers, during my youth,
were the following; and upon a late attentive perusal of the book,
they seem to have merited particular distinction. " Celia has a
thousand charms; " the first movement of this, like many of
Purcell's songs, seems only recitative graced, or embellished with
the fashionable volaic, or flourishes of the times, which are now as
antiquated as the curls of his own peruque, or the furbelows and
flounces of Queen Elizabeth. The second movement, however, of
this song, is plaintive and graceful; and at " I should my wretched,
wretched, fate deplore," is still new and pathetic.
' ' You twice ten hundred deities, ' ' opens with what seems to me
the best piece of recitative in our language. The words are
admirably expressed throughout this song, by modulation as well as
melody. And there is a propriety in the changes of movement,
which does honour to Purcell's judgment, as much as the whole
composition to his genius. The change of style and sluggish motion
given to the notes at these words: " from thy sleeping mansion
rise," is a model of musical imitation and expression. The
modulation is still so excellent, that the best modern masters are
obliged to adopt it on almost all great occasions (q).
Of the Music in King Arthur I shall say but little, as it has been
lately revived, well performed, and printed. If ever it could with
truth be said of a composer, that he had devance son siecle, Purcell
is entitled to that praise; as there are movements in many of his
works which a century has not injured, particularly the duet in
King Arthur, ' ' Two daughters of this aged stream, ' ' and ' ' Fairest
isles all isles excelling (r)," which contain not a single passage that
the best composers of the present times, if it presented itself to their
imagination, would reject. The dialogue in the Prophetess, " Tell
me why, my charming fair," is the most pleasing and ingenious
of all the compositions of the kind which the rage of fashion
produced during fifty years. The first part of " O lead me to
some peaceful gloom," is truly elegant and pathetic.
" From rosie bow'rs," is said to have been " set in his last
sickness, ' ' at which time he seems to have realized the poetical fable
of the swan, and to have sung more sweetly as he approached nearer
his dissolution; for it seems to me as if no one of his productions
was so elevated, so pleasing, so expressive, and throughout so
{q) There are three capital mistakes in the old printed copy of this excellent composition,
which I shall beg leave to correct: ist p. 26, line last, bar 1, the second note should be
C instead of D. 2d P. 27, 1. iii. A in the base should be flat, in the 3d bar. 3d. Line iii. of
the same page, bar 3d, the F in the voice part should be sharp.
(r) This is one of the few airs that time has not the power to injure. It is of all ages
and countries.
392
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
perfect, as this. The variety of movement, the artful, yet touching
modulation, and, above all, the exquisite expression of the words,
render it one of the most affecting compositions extant to every
Englishman who regards Music not merely as an agreeable
arrangement and combination of sounds, but as the vehicle of
sentiment, and voice and passion.
There is more elegant melody, more elaborate harmony, more
ingenious contrivance, in the motion and contexture of the several
parts in the works of many great composers; but to the natives of
England, who know the full power of our language, and feel the
force, spirit, and shades of meaning, which every word bears
according to its place in a sentence, and the situation of the speaker,
or singer, I must again repeat it, this composition will have charms
and effects, which, perhaps, Purcell's Music only can produce.
" When Mira sings," is a duet that will ever be captivating, as
long as the words remain intelligible; of which he has augmented
the force, particularly at the end, by notes the most select and
expressive that the musical scale can furnish.
" Lost is my quiet," another duet, which still lives. And
" Celebrate this festival," a birth-day song for Queen Mary, which
is graceful and pleasing through all its old-fashioned thoughts and
embellishments. " I'll sail upon the dog-star," has all the fire of
Handel's prime.
Mad Bess, is a song so celebrated, that it needs no panegyric, or
renewal of public attention, as every captivating English singer, in
my memory, has revived its favour (s) .
'Tis nature's voice," is an enigmatical song, seemingly on
Music; in which Purcell has crowded all the fashionable passages of
taste and vocal difficulty of the times. Indeed, he seems to have
anticipated many fantastical feats of execution and articulation in
which great performers have since rioted; and this is the more
wonderful, as the Italian opera was not established, or even
attempted here, during the life of Purcell; whose decease preceded
the arrival of Valentini and Nicolini, the first great singers imported
from Italy, at least ten years.
" Blow, Boreas, blow," was in great favour, during my youth,
among the early admirers of Purcell; but this seems now more
superannuated than any of his popular songs.
" Let Caesar and Urania live," was a duet in a birth-day ode,
during the reign of King William and Queen Mary, which continued
so long in favour, not only while those sovereigns jointly wielded
the sceptre, but even when George II. had lost his royal consort, and
there ceased to be a Queen, or Urania, for whom to offer up prayers,
that Dr. Green, and afterwards Dr. Boyce, used frequently to
introduce it into their own and the laureate's new odes. This duet,
like many other productions of Purcell, was built on a ground-base
of only two bars, which are invariably repeated to different passages
(s) Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Bates never give more exquisite delight by their admirable
performance, than when they regale their friends with this song. Mr. Beard, thirty years ago,
used to gain great applause by singing Rosy Bow'rs, and Frasi, by her performance of Mad
Bess, in the concerts at Hickford's Room, the Castle, and King's Arms; where Mr. Stanley was
justly admired for his ingenious and masterly manner of accompanying them.
393
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of the voice-parts that are in harmony with it, throughout the
movement. The latter part of this duet is extremely beautiful, and
does not seem at all to have suffered from the voluntary restraint
under which the composer laboured.
The composing songs on a ground-base, was an exercise of
ingenuity, in which Purcell seems to have much delighted; but
though it was as much a fashion in his time, as the composing masses
on the subjects of old tunes in the days of Jusquin, and variations
upon those tunes in the days of Bird and Dr. Bull, in which they all
manifested superior abilities, yet the practice was Gothic, and an
unworthy employment for men possessed of such genius and original
resources (t).
Judges of musical design, modulation, and expression, will meet
with many places to admire in songs that have never been popular,
yet have local beauties, and mark the superior powers of the
composer; particularly in the "Sighs for the death of King Charles
II." In the " Dialogue in Tyrannic Love," p. 158, there is a
passage upon which the late Mr. Bach has constructed a favourite
movement in one of his Quartetti concertanii.
" I attempt from love's sickness," is an elegant little ballad
which, though it has been many years dead, would soon be recalled
into existence and fashion, by the voice of some favourite singer,
who should think it worth animation.
' ' Let the dreadful engines : ' ' this is the last song in the first
volume of the Orpheus Britannicus, of which though both the
words and Music of the first movement are wild and bombast,
yet the second and last discover a genius for the graceful comic,
as well as the tender and sublime style of composition; and there
are several passages in this cantata sufficiently gay and new, for
a modern Burletta.
In 1702*, a second, and more correct, edition, of the first
volume of this work was published, with more than thirty songs
that were not in the first impression; but, in order to make room
for which, some of the former were omitted (u). The same year
(l) The Italians started this, as well as most other musical fashions; for it appears by the
works of Tranquinio Merula, published 1635, that writing upon a ground-base was a favourite
occupation with that capricious composer, as well as our ingenious countryman.
(m) The additional songs have been said to be "communicated by the Rev. George
Luellyn, who had been a page of the back-stairs, in the reign of Charles II. and at court
became acquainted with Purcell. He afterwards entered into holy orders, and had a living
near Shrewsbury." To this information I am able to add, from my own knowledge, that the
name of this gentleman's vicarage, to which he retired after living much in the great and gay
world, was Condover, a village within four miles of Shrewsbury, where I was nursed and
spent the first twelve or thirteen years of my life; during which time Mr. Luellyn constantly
resided there. This gentleman, who was a lively Welshman, and a man of wit and taste in
the arts, was so much attached to the Stuart family, so fond of Music, and so active in all
his pursuits, that he was often called by the Whigs, " a Jacobitical, musical, mad, Welsh
parson." In the year 1715, his parsonage house was known to have been an asylum to his
attainted friends. He was in long and close intimacy with the sometimes Shropshire member,
Corbet Kynaston, Esq., then at the head of the Tory faction. His house was fitted up with
great taste, and had many good pictures in it. But he seems to have spent more of his time
in horticulture than in any other amusement; yet in this, notwithstanding his antipathy to
King William, his taste was so peculiarly Dutch, that he cherished "the mournful family of
Yews" to a risible degree : having at each angle of his parterre, trees of that species cut into
the shape of almost every bird and beast that had been preserved in Noah's ark; with Satan,
the prince of the devils, in the centre, for which it was said by the country people he had
been offered a £.1000; and in a flower-bed, just under his parlour window, King David playing
on the harp, was cut in box.
* Orpheus Britannicus was published in 2 vols.; volume 1 in 1698 and Vol. 2 in 1702. The
2nd edition was published : Vol. 1 in 1706, and Vol. 2 in 1711. A 3rd edition was issued in 1721.
394
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
was likewise published a second volume of Orpheus Britannicus,
by Henry Play ford, which he has dedicated to the earl of
Hallifax.
To this volume among encomiastic verses, addressed to the
editor, there is an animated poem of a considerable length, signed
R. G. " On the death of the late famous Mr. Henry Purcell," from
which we are enabled to gather something of this sweet composer's
character, as a man, as well as musician.
On the Death of the late Mr. Henry Purcell, Author of the
first and second Books of Orpheus Britannicus.
Make room ye happy natives of the sky,
Room for a soul, all love and harmony;
A soul that rose to such perfection here,
It scarce will be advanc'd by being there.
Whether, to us by transmigration given,
He once was an inhabitant of heaven,
And form'd for Music with diviner fire
Endu'd, composed for the celestial choir;
Not for the vulgar race of light to hear,
But on high-days to glad th' immortal ear.
So in some leisure hour was sent away,
(Their hour is here a life, a thousand years their day.)
Sent what the etherial Music was to show
And teach the wonders of that art below.
■ — Languid and low, as modern rhyme appears
When Virgil's matchless strain has tun'd our cars;
So seem to him the masters of our isle.
His inspiration, theirs but mortal toil.
They to the ear, he to the soul can dive,
From anger save, and from despair revive.-
-Whene'er his harmony arrests the ear,
We lose all thought of what, or how, or where !
Like love it warms, like beauty can controul,
And while we hear, the body turns to soul!-
From what blest spring did he derive his ait
To soothe our cares, and thus command the heart!
How did the seeds lie quick'ning in his brain,
How were they born without a parent's pain?
He did but think, and Music would arise.
Dilating joy, as light o'erspreads the skies;
From an immortal source, like that it came;
But light we know — this wonder wants a name !
What art thou? from what causes dost thou spring,
O Music ! thou divine mysterious thing?
Art thou the warmth in spring which zephire breathes,
Painting the meads, and whistling through the leaves?
The happy season, that each care beguiles,
When God is pleas'd, and all creation smiles?
Or art thou love, that mind to mind imparts
The endless concord of agreeing hearts?
Or art thou friendship, yet a nobler flame,
That can a purer way make souls the same?
The author, after some more fantastical and lofty verses in
praise of Purcell, as an artist, has the following spirited and feeling
lines on his private virtues.
Ah most unworthy ! should we leave unsung
Such wond'rous goodness in a life so young:
In spite of practice, he this truth has shown,
That harmony and virtue should be one.
So true to nature and so just to wit.
His Music was the sense each poet writ.
Nor were his beauties to his art confin'd.
395
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
His form appear'd the product of his mind.
A conqu'ring sweetness in his visage dwelt,
His eyes would warm, his wit like light'ning melt.
Pride was the sole aversion of his eye,
Himself as humble as his art was high.
Ah ! let him heav'n, in life so much ador'd,
Be now as universally deplor'd.
Calm rest thy ashes— but thy nobler name
Shall soar aloft, and last as long as fame.
The sacred art could here arrive no higher.
And heav'n itself no further will inspire.
The song of this second volume, p. 4, beginning, " Ah! cruel
nymph," has great ingenuity in the first movement, and grace in
the second. And the next air, "Crown the altar," seems the most
pleasing of any that he has composed on a ground-base. " May
the god of wit inspire," for three voices, is natural and pleasing,
and the echoes in the second part, are very ingeniously contrived.
" Thus the gloomy world," accompanied with a trumpet, and
violin alternately, is masterly, and well designed to display the
truest and most brilliant tones of the trumpet, though but little
is given to the violin, which so much better deserves employment,
than an instrument of such false intonation as the trumpet.
Those that can relish good Music of every age and country, and
have no exclusive partiality to individuals of either, will find
amusement in the performance or perusal of PureeH's Four Seasons,
in the Fairy Queen, which comprehend merit of various kinds.
" To arms, to arms," is an admirable military song, accom-
panied by a trumpet, which is so confined an instrument, that
nearly the same passages must be used in all ages, so that time
has robbed this song of but little of its novelty. Indeed, the
divisions of this air have been revived of late years, and are now
as fashionable, in frivolous and unmeaning melody, as ever.
There are many songs in this volume, which manifest great
musical abilities in writing upon a ground-base, as well as in the
happy invention of such bases for this purpose as are not only
agreeable to hear often repeated, but fertile in furnishing a variety
of pleasing passages; however, these and their peculiar beauties I
must pass over, or my commentary will encroach too much on the
limits of my work, as well as on the patience of those readers to
whom the name and productions of our British Orpheus, or rather
our musical Shakspeare, are alike indifferent. I must, however,
observe that there is a composition in Purcell's Bonduca, in which
he has anticipated a species of dramatic Music, which has been
thought of late invention; the words are " Hear ye gods of
Britain! " which he has set in an accompanied recitative, a tempo,
or aria parlante. The beginning, however, with the base a pedale,
has the true characteristic of recitative. Afterwards, when the base
is put in motion, the whole has the properties of an air, ingeniously
and spiritedly accompanied by two violins and a base. Besides
the true dramatic cast of this composition, there are new harmonies
hazarded, which I do not recollect having seen in anterior contra-
puntists, at least of our own country. Bar the 5th, we have a 2d,
396
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
4th, flat 6th, and sharp 7th, which, prepared by a 4th with a
6th and melted into a common chord, have a very fine effect.
Indeed, there are so many beauties of various kinds in this short
scene, that I should not resist the desire of exhibiting it here, that
it might speak its own worth to my musical readers, had not the
public been promised a complete edition of Purcell's works.
Another ingenious, but comic idea, that seems to mark Purcell's
resources, in whatever he wished to express by picturesque Music,
is the military cast he has given to the base of the song, beginning,
" The pale and the purple rose," which, though the air itself is no
more than a common languid minuet, reminds us perpetually of
the drums, skirmishes, and battles of the contending houses of York
and Lancaster.
The song on St. Cecilia's day, 1692 [" Hail bright Cecilia "],
has several passages of which Handel frequently made use, many
years after, in his Allegro and Penseroso, and elsewhere.
" Genius of England," was long the favourite song of our
theatres, though its passages are more common and vulgar now,
than those of any other of Purcell's capital songs. It, however,
furnishes us with examples of execution and national taste at the
time when it was first sung in Durfey's Don Quixote, 1694, by
Freeman, and the wife of Colley Cibber, accompanied by John
Shore, her brother, a famous performer on the trumpet (x).
It is said that Queen Mary having expressed herself warmly in
favour of the old Scots tune of " Cold and raw the wind doth
blow," Purcell made it a perpetual base to an air in the next
birthday ode, 1692; beginning " May her blest example chase:"
(see p. 151) a piece of pleasantry which is likewise said to have been
occasioned by her majesty's asking for this tune after Mr. Gostling,
one of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, and the celebrated
Mrs. Arabella Hunt, with Purcell to accompany them on the
harpsichord, had exerted all their talents and abilities to amuse so
great a personage with compositions which they mistakenly thought
of a superior class.
I cannot quit the second volume of the Orpheus_Britannicus,
before I have recommended to the notice of Purcell's admirers,
and, indeed, the admirers of English Music in general, his duet, " I
spy Celia," p. 166; of which the pleasing melody and harmony, the
ingenious design, and variety of movement, will afford them
considerable entertainment.
(x) Matthias Shore, the father of John, and of this Mrs. Cibber, was serjeant-trumpet, in
which office he was succeeded [1700], first by his brother [son] William Shore, and, afterwards,
by his son John. His daughter, Mrs. Cibber, had been a scholar of Purcell in singing and
playing on the harpsichord; in the exercise of which talents at home, her conquest over the
heart of Colley Cibber first began. Purcell, from his connexion with the family, and his
admiration of John's performance on the trumpet, took every opportunity in his power to
employ him in the accompaniment of his songs and other theatric compositions; and this
accounts for the frequent use he made of that martial and field instrument, even when the
subject of the poetry was pacific. John Shore lived till the year 1752, when he was
succeeded, as serjeant-trumpet, by that admirable performer the late Mr. Valentine Snow
[d. 1770], whose exquisite tone and fine shake must still be remembered by many persons
living, who have heard him at Vauxhall, and in Mr. Handel's oratorios.
397
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Bonduca, of which he set the songs the last year of his life, 1695,
and " the Prophetess, or the History of Dioclesian," which he set
entirely, after it was formed into an opera by Dryden, were both
originally written by Beaumont and Fletcher.* Purcell's Music to
this last was performed at the Queen's theatre, 1690, and published
by himself in score, folio, 1691.
Being in possession of a complete copy of this work, which now
lies before me, I cannot refrain from adding a few words on the
subject, though some of the Music is printed in the Orpheus
Britannicus, and has been already mentioned in the account of that
posthumous publication.
The first song in the second act of this opera, which is for a base
voice, and terminated by a chorus, has great merit in the richness
of the harmony, and ingenuity of the accompaniment.
Page 66, the ballad air, to " What shall I do to show how much
I love her? " after it had done its duty to these words upwards
of thirty years, became the favourite tune in the Beggar's Opera,
from its first performance, in 1727, to the present time, where it
is sung to " Virgins are like the fair flower," Gay's imitation of.
" Sound fame thy brazen trumpet," was an excellent air, when
composed, for the display of a fine counter-tenor voice, and his
friend Shore's trumpet.
The dialogue " Tell me why, my charming fair," already
mentioned, was justly admired as pleasing and fashionable Music so
late as the year 1740; when it was performed at a public concert, at
Chester, by the author of this history, a school-boy not fourteen,
and a very indifferent tenor; neither of whom was able to render
the audience partial to the composition by their abilities in singing
it.
The trio " Triumph victorious love," on a ground-base,
preceding the last chorus, is free and masterly; yet there is a
monotonous effect from the constant repetition qf the same notes in
the under part, which no variation of the harmony, even with
Purcell's resources, can prevent (y).
The printed score of Dioclesian is dedicated, by the author, to
Charles duke of Somerset; and in the dedication he says, that
(y) The same ground-base was the foundation of three several compositions : two duets
and a solo air, by a whimsical composer of Bergamo, II Cavalier Tarquinio Merula, the tenth
volume of whose works was printed at Venice, 1635. He calls his first composition to this
base, Duo, sopra la Ciecona. Though Purcell has chosen the same text, it does not appear
that he has used a single bar or passage of Merula's melody. Etymologists are doubtful
whence the word Chaconne, or Ciacona, was derived; it has been imagined, in Italy, that it
was some Cieco, or blind fidler, who invented the first tune so called; and, perhaps, this base
was known in Italy by that name. It differs but little from that in Corelli's twelfth sonata,
op. 2da.; but not at all from Purcell's, except by his division of minims into crotchets.
MERULA PURCELL.
m^ gg^rr
H— f
* The music to Dioclesian was for Betterton's adaptation of Beaumont and Fletcher's
play The Prophetess. The well-known song, "What shall I do to show how much I love her"
is from this work, which also contains as a prelude to the 3rd Act, a very fine Chaconne (1690).
398
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
" poetry and painting have arrived at perfection in our own
country (z)." And adds, with more national modesty, that
" Musick is yet but in its nonage, a forward child, which gives
hope of what it may be hereafter in England, when the masters of
it shall find more encouragement. 'Tis now learning Italian, which
is its best master — we must shake off our barbarity by degrees."
In the preface to the first set of his sonatas, 1683, eight years
before Dioclesian was published, he tells us, with great personal
humility, that " he has faithfully endeavoured at a just imitation
of "the most famed Italian masters — and he thinks (though unskilled
in the language of that country) he may warrantably affirm that
he is not mistaken in the power of the Italian notes, or elegancy
of their compositions."
It does not appear that at this time any of the works of Corelli
had been published even in Italy (a). And though, a few years
before Purcell's death, they may have been brought hither and
circulated in manuscript, yet they were not published at any of our
Music-shops, in print, till 1710.* So that Purcell had no better
Italian Music for violins to imitate than that of Bassani, Torelli,
or others inferior to them; and though his sonatas discover no great
knowledge of the bow, or genius of the instrument, they are
infinitely superior in fancy, modulation, design, and contrivance, to
all the Music of that kind, anterior to the works of Corelli.
As to his models for vocal Music, I think I can perceive
obligations which he had to Carissimi in the best of his recitatives,
and to Lulli in the worst; and it manifestly appears, that he was
fond of Stradella's manner of writing, though he never seems to
have pillaged his passages.
We must not quit his vocal Music without an honourable and
grateful memorial of his Catches, Rounds, and Glees, of which
(z) This matter, I fear, will be disputed by the connoisseurs and critics in painting; who
will probably say, that the natives of England could boast of no school, and were entitled to
but little individual honour from their own production, till the present age; when, by the
establishment of the Roy at Academy and the admirable works of its members, particularly of
its excellent president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, a school is at length formed in this country;
which, if not equal to the best ancient schools of Italy, is at least superior to any one that the
rest of Europe can boast at present. Till our own times, it will be added, the honour of
the most valuable works in painting that have been produced upon this island, was wholly
due to Holbens, Vandyke, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and other foreign artists. It is
humiliating to confess, that this has ever been the case with our secular Music, except, perhaps,
in the single instance of Purcell. And, indeed, since his time, nothing can secure success to
an English composer, but dexterity at imitation. Handel, Geminiani, and the Italians in
general, were long imitated; nor, of late years, would the strains of our countrymen have been
borne, much less listened to with pleasure, but for the Italian taste and tincture in their
, composition. Alberti long moved our left hand in harpsichord lessons; Giardini the bow in
violin solos; and now both fingers and bows, upon almost every species of instrument, will be
guided by Haydn, Kozeluch and Pleyel; nor will their owners for a long while see any other
model.
(a) Paolo Colonna and Corelli had a controversy in 16S5, soon after Corelli's sonatas
appeared, which were the first compositions he published. His name, at least, seems to have
been well known in England in 1693, as T. Brown, in a copy of verses addressed to Purcell,
and prefixed to the second book of Harmonia Sacra, has the following couplet :
"In thy productions we with wonder find
Bassani's genius to Corelli's join'd."
* Corelli's 1st set of Sonatas were also published at Rome in 16S3. They were, however,
advertised in the London Gazette, No. inb, 23rd Sept., 1695, as "to be had fairly prick'd from
the true original at Mr. Ralph Agutter's, Musical Instrument Maker, over against York
Buildings in the Strand, London." ■•
399
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the humour, ingenuity, and melody, were so congenial with the
national taste, as to render them almost the sole productions of
the facetious kind that were in general use for near fourscore years.
And though the countenance and premiums bestowed of late years
upon this species of composition, as well as modern refinements in
melody and performance, have given birth to many Glees of a
more elegant, graceful, and exalted kind, than any which Purcell
produced; yet he seems hardly ever to have been equalled in the
wit, pleasantry, and contrivance of his Catches.
Index to a folio volume of Purcell' s Compositions, in a collec-
tion of original manuscripts, in his own hand writing; now in the
possession of his Majesty *
Anthems, with Symphonies and Instrumental Parts
" It is a good thing," &c. in four vocal parts, with a symphony,
or prelude, for two violins and base. " 0 praise God in his
holiness," with an overture or symphony, one violin and base
accompaniment to the first movement, and two violins and base
to the second, which is for eight voices. " Awake, put on thy
strength," symphony, ritornels, solo verse, and chorus. " In thee,
O Lord," with ditto. " The Lord is my light," &c. "I was
glad." " My heart is fixed on God," ritornels. " Praise the Lord,
O my soul," symphony, and for six voices, a due cori. " Rejoice
in the Lord alway," for three voices, with symphonies. " Why
do the Heathen so furiously rage," ditto. " Unto thee will I
cry," ditto, two violins. " I will give thanks," ditto, five voices.
One of the anthems performed at the coronation of King James II.
two violins, base, and eight voices: treble, soprano, mezzo soprano,
contralto, tenor, baritono, and two bases: an elaborate and fine
composition. " O sing unto the Lord," symphony and chorus, for
four and five voices, with two violins and base accompaniment:
a long and elaborate work. " Praise the Lord, O my soul,"
symphony for two violins and base; solo verses and duets.
Odes and Miscellaneous Songs
A welcome song, in the year 1681, for the King; symphony in
four parts, solo verses, and chorus: " Swifter Isis, swifter flow. '
A welcome song for his Royal Highness, at his return from Scotland,
in the year 1680; symphony in four parts, solo verses, trios, and
chorus, a 4: " What, what shall be done in behalf of the man,"
&c. A welcome song for his Majesty at his return from New-
Market, Oct. 21, 1682: "The summer's absence unconcern'd
we bear," upon the same model as the preceding compositions.
" How pleasant in this flow'ry plain," &c. a pastoral song, with a
* This MS. is now in the B.M. (R.M. 20. h. 8). It also includes an incomplete anthem,
"They that goe down to the sea," and "Praise ye Lord O Jerusalem." An anthem by Dr. Blow,
"0 pray for the Peace," is in the MS. The Latin hymn "Crucior in hac flamma" is the
work of Cari9simi.
400
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
symphony for two flutes and a base, one and two voices, with a
chorus, the last movement of which is left unfinished. " Hark!
how the wild musicians sing," another pastoral for three voices,
with two violins and base accompaniment, and chorus. " Hark!
Damon, what Musick's this? " of the same kind — pastoral.
" Above the tumults of a busy state," another pastoral duet.
Ninth ode of Horace imitated in a dialogue between the poet and
Lydia: " While you for me alone had charms," &c. Dialogue
between Charon and Orpheus, a cantata for one and two voices.
The Epicure: " Underneath this myrtle shade," a 2. The
concealment: " No, to what purpose should I speak? " a cantata,
with chorus. Job's curse: " Let the night perish," &c. " Amidst
the shades and cool refreshing streams," a song. Duet, or two-part
song: " See where she sits and in what comely wise," with two
violins and base — excellent. A song that was performed to prince
George upon his marriage with the lady Ann [1683]: " From
hardy climes and dangerous toils of war; " a long and capital
production. Mr. Cowley's complaint: "In a deep vision's
intellectual scene;" recitatives, airs, and chorus. Song out of Mr.
Herbert: " With sick and famished eyes; " a lamentation. The
welcome song performed to his Majesty in the year 1683;
symphonies and five verses: " Fly bold rebellion; " solo verses
and finale for seven voices. A Latin song made upon St. Cecilia,
whose day is commemorated yearly by all musicians, for three
voices: " Laudate Cecilliam." "Oh, oh, what a scene does
entertain my sight; " a two-part song. " Though my mistress
be fair," ditto. A serenading song: " Sylvia, thou brighter eye
of night;" a two-part song. " Go tell Aminta, gentle swain; " for
two voices. The welcome song performed to his Majesty, in the
year 1684: "From those serene and rapt'rous joys;" a long
composition, consisting of many different airs and choruses. Song,
on a ground: " Cease anxious world your fruitless pain." The
rich rival, out of Mr. Cowley: " They say you're angry; " a kind
of cantata for one voice. " When Teucer from his father fled; "
a two-part song, in Orpheus Britannicus. Sighs for our late
sovereign King Charles II. " If pray'rs and tears," &c. printed.
" In some kind dream upon her slumbers steal; " a two-part song.
The thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, paraphrased by Mr. Cowley :
" Awake, awake, and with attention hear; " for one voice.
Welcome song, 1685; being the first song performed to King James
II. " Why are all the muses mute? " consisting of many airs and
choruses. Two-part song, the words by Mr. Cowley: " Here,
here's to thee, Dick." Welcome song, 1688 [1686], consisting
of a symphony, and many airs and choruses; the longest work in
the volume : " Ye tuneful muses raise your heads." " If ever I more
riches did desire; " a long ode, with airs, duets, and choruses.
Anacreon's defeat, (single song): "This poet sings the Trojan
wars." Welcome song, 1687: " Sound the trumpet, beat the
drum; " a very long composition. A Latin hymn for two voices:
" Crucia in hac flamma." A song that was performed at
Voi,. ii. 26. 401
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Mr. Maidwell's, a school-master, on the 5th of Aug. 1689; the words
by one of his scholars :
" Celestial Music did the gods inspire,
When at their feast Apollo touoh'd his lyre."
An overture and several airs and choruses. Birth-day ode for King
William; a long symphony, airs and choruses:
" Now does the glorious day appear,
The mightiest day in all the year "
[for Queen Mary's birthday, 1689]. Another: " Of old when
heroes thought it base " [Yorkshire Feast Song, 1690]. Another:
" The bashful Thames for beauty so renown' d." " The pale and
the purple rose," &c. And " In each truck," &c. two-part song,
printed. " Sound trumpet, beat the drums;" another ode to King
William, to which he sets his name and date: " Mr. H. Purcell,
1690." The beginning of an ode for Queen Mary in the absence
of King William; long symphony, " Arise my muse and to the
tuneful lyre" [Queen's birthday ode, 1690]; left unfinished.
List of FurcelVs Church Music
In Boyce's Collection. Complete Service in Bb. Full anthems:
" O God thou art my God. O God thou hast cast. O Lord
God of hosts. Verse anthems: Thy way, O God. Be merciful.
Behold I bring you glad. They that go down to. Thy word is a
lanthorn. O give thanks."
In use at York Cathedral: " Peace be within thy walls. Be
merciful. Lord how long. Blessed are they. I was glad when.
The way of God. O be joyful. Blessed is he. Blessed is the
man."
In Dr. Tudway's Collection, British Museum : Whole service in
Bb, different from Boyce's, with symphonies and ritornels. " My
beloved spake. My song shall be alway. Rejoice in the Lord
alway (bell anthem.) Praise the Lord, O my soul." Full anthems:
" Save me, O God. Thou knowest Lord," for Queen Mary's
funeral. Verse anthems: " We give thanks. Behold I bring
you."*
In Dr. Aldrich's MS. Christ-church College, Oxon: A Latin
Gloria Patri, in five parts. Two Latin psalms, Jehovah quam
multi sunt beati omnes qui timent Dominum; and seven hymns and
psalms, for three and four voices. Ten different compositions.
Te Deum. Two whole services. Thirty- six psalms, hymns, and
anthems, besides what are in the Harmonia Sacra.
And now, having heartily praised Purcell' s extensive genius and
talents, I shall not dissemble his defects. Melody, during his short
* The works in Tudway's collection which are to be found in Boyce, or in use at York
are not mentioned again.
Full lists of the Tudway and Boyce collections are to be seen in Grove's under these
names.
402
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
existence, was not sufficiently polished by great singers; and
though there are grand designs in his works, and masterly strokes
of composition and expression, yet his melody wants symmetry
and grace. And by writing on a given base, which forced him to
submit to a crude, and sometimes a licentious and unwarrantable
use of passing-notes, his harmony is not always so pure as it ought
to be. However, in all his Music that has been printed, except
the compositions for the church, of which Dr. Boyce superintended
the impression, errors of the press are innumerable, which must
not be charged to his account.
An absurd custom prevailed in Purcell's time, which he carried
to greater excess, perhaps, than any other composer, of repeating a
word of one or two syllables an unlimitted number of times, for
the sake of the melody, and sometimes before the whole sentence
has been heard. Such as no, no, no — all, all, all — pretty, pretty,
pretty, &c. ad infinitum (b).
He was so little acquainted with the unlimited powers of the
violin, that I have scarcely ever seen a becoming passage for that
instrument in any one of his works; the symphonies and ritornels to
his anthems and songs being equally deficient in force, invention,
and effect. And though his sonatas contain many ingenious, and,
at the time they were composed, new traits of melody and
modulation, if they are compared with the productions of his
cotemporary, Corelli, they will be called barbarous. But Corelli
w rote for an instrument of which he was a great master : and who
e\er entirely succeeded in composing for one of which he was
ignorant? When a great performer on keyed-instruments
condescends to compose for the violin, upon which he has never been
a good player, or the voice, without knowing in what good singing
consists, the passages all come from the head and none from the
hand, except the hand of a harpsichord player, which is ever unfit to
suggest ideas either for a voice or for any other instrument than his
own. Such a composer for the violin must inevitably embarrass the
player with perpetual aukwardnesses and difficulties without effect,
which discover an utter ignorance of the finger-board.
If Purcell, by travelling, or by living longer at home, had heard
the great instrumental performers, as well as great singers, that
arrived in this country soon after his decease, and had had such to
compose for, his productions would have been more regular, elegant,
and graceful; and he would certainly have set English words better
than it was possible for any foreigner to do, for our feelings, however
great his genius, or excellent, in other respects, his productions.
But Purcell, like his successor, Arne, and others who have composed
for the playhouse, had always an inferior band to the Italian opera
composers, as well as inferior singers, and an inferior audience,
to write for.
(6) There is often equal redundance and absurdity in the use the Italians make, at
present, of si, si, si, and no, no, no, in their songs.
4°3
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The diligent and candid Walther, by not having assigned to
Purcell a niche in his Musical Dictionary, seems never to have heard
of his existence; but Purcell was so truly a national composer, that
his name was not likely to be wafted to the continent ; and the
narrow limits of his fame may be fairly ascribed, not only to the
paucity and poverty of his compositions for instruments, for which
the musical productions are an intelligible language to every country,
but to his vocal compositions being solely adapted to English words,
which rendered it unlikely for their influence to extend beyond
the soil that produced them.
We should, however, have known as little of Lulli, as the French
or Italians of Purcell, but for the partiality which Charles II.
acquired by his long residence on the continent for the arts and
amusements of France. The first attempts at operas here, after
the Restoration, were either in French, or on the model of those that
were then in high favour at Versailles. And whoever is equally
acquainted with the recitative, I had almost said the general melody
of Lulli and Purcell, must perceive a strong resemblance. Purcell,
however, having infinitely more fancy, and indeed, harmonical
resources, than the Frenchified Tuscan, his productions now afford
far greater pleasure and amusement to a liberal lover of Music, than
can be found, not only in the productions of Cambert and Grabu,
whom Charles II. and to flatter his majesty, Dryden, patronised in
preference to Purcell, but in all the noisy monotony of the rhapsodist
of Quinaut.
Let those who shall think Purcell has sacrificed the national
honour by confessing his reverence for the productions of Italy,
compare the secular productions of English musicians, from the
death of Queen Elizabeth to the year 1683, with those of Carissimi,
Cesti, Stradella, and innumerable others of great abilities, and if
they do not equally hate Music and truth, they will admire Purcell's
probity, as well as his genius.
Indeed, Music was manifestly on the decline, in England, during
the seventeenth century, till it was revived and invigorated by
Purcell, whose genius, though less cultivated and polished, was equal
to that of the greatest masters on the continent. And though his
dramatic style and recitative were formed in a great measure on
French models, there is a latent power and force in his expression
of English words, whatever be the subject, that will make an
unprejudiced native of this island feel, more than all the elegance,
grace, and refinement of modern Music less happily applied, can do.
And this pleasure is communicated to us, not by the symmetry or
rhythm of modern melody, but by his having fortified, lengthened,
and tuned, the true accents of our mother-tongue; those notes of
passion, which an inhabitant of this island would breathe, in such
situations as the words he has to set, describe. And these
indigenous expressions of passion Purcell had the power to enforce
by the energy of modulation, which, on some occasions, was bold,
affecting, and sublime.
404
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
These remarks are addressed to none but Englishmen : for the
expression of words can be felt only by the natives of any country,
who seldom extend their admiration of foreign vocal Music, farther
than to the general effect of its melody and harmony on the ear; nor
has it any other advantage over instrumental, than that of being
executed by the human voice, like Solfeggi. And if the Italians
themselves did not come hither to give us the true expression of
their songs, we should never discover it by study and practice.
It has been extremely unfortunate for our national taste and our
national honour, that Orlando Gibbons, Pelham Humphrey, and
Henry Purcell, our three best composers during the last century,
were not blessed with sufficient longevity for their genius to expand
in all its branches, or to form a school, which would have enabled
us to proceed in the cultivation of Music without foreign assistance.
Orlando Gibbons died 1625, at forty-four.
Pelham Humphrey died 1674, at twenty-seven.
And Henry Purcell died 1695, at thirty-seven!
If these admirable composers had been blest with long life, we
might have had a Music of our own, at least as good as that of
France or Germany; which, without the assistance of the Italians,
has long been admired and preferred to all other by the natives at
large, though their princes have usually foreigners in their service.
As it is, we have no school for composition, no well-digested method
of study, nor, indeed, models of our own. Instrumental Music,
therefore, has never gained much by our own abilities; for though
some natives of England have had hands sufficient to execute the
productions of the greatest masters on the continent, they have
produced but little of their own that has been much esteemed.
Handel's compositions for the organ and harpsichord, with those
of Scarlatti and Alberti, were our chief practice and delight, for
more than fifty years; while those of Corelli, Geminiani, Albinoni,
Vivaldi, Tessarini, Veracini and Tartini, till the arrival of Giardini,
supplied all our wants on the violin, during a still longer period.
And as for the hautbois, Martini and Fisher, with their scholars
and imitators, are all that we have listened to with pleasure.
If a parallel were to be drawn between Purcell and any popular
composer of a different country, reasons might be assigned for
supposing him superior to every great and favourite cotemporary
musician in Europe.
Carissimi and Stradella, if more polished in their style, were
certainly less varied, and knew still less of instruments, than our
countryman. They had both, perhaps, more grace and regularity,
but infinitely less passion and fire.
The elder Scarlatti was more recherche and learned, but never
so natural and affecting.
In Germany, if Keiser, during an active and much longer life,
surpassed him in the number and excellence of his dramatic
compositions, his productions for the church, could they be found,
would, I believe, bear no comparison.
405
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Lulli, blest likewise with superior longevity, composed also more
operas than Purcell, and was the idol of the nation for which he
laboured; but though his overtures long served as models, even to
Purcell, as well as to the composers of all the rest of Europe, and
his Music was performed by better singers and a more numerous
band, supported by the patronage of a court, and all the splendor
of ingenious and costly exhibition; it is easy to see that even his
theatrical works are more manierees, monotonous, and uninterest-
ing in themselves, than those of Purcell; but in relinquishing the
stage, and stepping on holy ground, we should have found, even
in France, during all his glory, and the enthusiasm he raised, none
of his votaries who would attempt to put his sacred Music in
comparison with that of our countryman.
Rameau, the successor of Lulli in court and popular favour, and
who had more learning and theoretical knowledge in the art, than
perhaps any practical musician of modern times; yet, in pathos
and expression of words and the passions, he was Purcell' s inferior,
even upon the stage; and in the church, he had no claim to
celebrity.
Handel, who flourished in a less barbarous age for his art, has
been acknowledged his superior in many particulars (c); but in
none more than the art and grandeur of his choruses, the harmony
and texture of his organ fugues, as well as his great style of playing
that instrument; the majesty of his hautbois and grand concertos,
the ingenuity of the accompaniments to his songs and choruses,
and even in the general melody of the airs themselves; yet in the
accent, passion, and expression of English words, the vocal Music
of Purcell is, sometimes to my feelings, as superior to Handel's
as an original poem to a translation.*
Progress of the Violin in England,
to the end of the last century
The restoration of monarchy and episcopacy seems to have been
not only favourable to sacred Music, but secular; for it may be
ascribed to the particular pleasure which King Charles II. received
from the gay and sprightly sound of the Violin, that this
instrument was introduced at court, and the houses of the nobility
and gentry for any other purpose than country-dances, and festive
mirth. Hitherto there seems to have been no public concerts; and
in the Music of the chamber, in the performance of Fancies on
instruments, which had taken place of vocal madrigals and motets,
the violin had no admission, the whole business having been done
by viols.
(c) See account of his Commemoration, p. 39.
* A complete edition of the works of Purcell is in course of publication. A cheap reprint
would be of great value to music lovers.
406
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
The use of the violin and its kindred instruments, the tenor and
violoncello, in court, was doubtless brought from Italy to France
(d), and from France to England; for Charles II. who, during the
Usurpation, had spent a considerable time on the continent, where
he heard nothing but French Music, upon his return to England,
in imitation of Lewis XIV. established a band of violins, tenors,
and basses, instead of the viols, lutes, and cornets, of which the
court band used to consist.
The master of Charles the First's band we have already seen,
was Nicholas Laniere, an Italian, who survived the Restoration
some years; and at his decease, Matthew Lock was appointed to that
office, with the same salary of £.200 a year;* but about 1673,
Cambert, a French musician, who had preceded Lulli in composing
for and superintending the opera at Paris, when the patent was
transferred to Lulli, came to England, and had, at least, the title
of master to King Charles the Second's band.
From this time the violin family began to rise in reputation,
and had an honourable place assigned it in the Music of the court,
the theatres, and the chamber; and the succession of performers and
compositions with which the nation was afterwards supplied from
Italy and elsewhere, stimulated the practice and established the
character of that class of instruments, which have ever since been
universally acknowledged to be the pillars of a well-ordered
orchestra, and more capable of perfect intonation, expression,
brilliancy, and effects, than any other that has ever been invented.
A general passion for this instrument, and for pieces expressly
composed for it, as well as a taste for Italian Music, seem to have
been excited in this country about the latter end of Charles the
Second's reign, when French Music and French politics became
equally odious to a great part of the nation. The Hon. Mr. North,
whose manuscript Memoirs have so frequently been mentioned, and
who listened attentively to every species of performance, says, that
" the decay of French Music, and favour of the Italian, came on
by degrees. Its beginning was accidental, and occasioned by the
arrival of Nicola Matteis. He was an excellent musician,
performed wonderfully on the violin. His manner was singular;
but he excelled, in one respect, all that had been heard in England
before : his areata, or manner of bowing, his shakes, divisions, and,
indeed, his whole style of performance, was surprising, and every
stroke of his bow was a mouthful.
" All that he played was of his own composition, which
manifested him to be a very exquisite harmonist, and of a boundless
(d) See above, p. 223. A chapter on the progress of the violin in Italy will be given
hereafter.
_* Lanier was Master of the King's Musick and also Marshall of the Corporation of
Musick, before and_ after the Protectorate. He died in 1665-6 and Grabu was made Master of
the King's Musick in the same year. Locke was appointed "Composer in the private musick"
in 1660 at the salary of £40 per annum in the place of John Coperario. He was still a member
of the Private Musick in 1674. There is no record of Cambert having been a member of the
King's Band, or the master of Musick. He came to England in 1672 and became a regimental
band master. He died, probably murdered, in 1677.
407
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
fancy and invention. And by all that I have been able to observe
of his abilities, or to hear concerning those of other performers on
the violin, none but Corelli seems to have surpassed him.
' ' When he first came hither he was very poor, but not so poor
as proud; which prevented his being heard, or making useful
acquaintance for a long time, except among a few merchants in
the city, who patronised him. And setting a high value on his
condescension, he made them indemnify him for the want of more
general favour.
" By degrees, however, he was more noticed, and was
introduced to perform at court. But his demeanor did not please,
and he was thought capricious and troublesome; as he took offence
if any one whispered while he played, which was a kind of attention
that had not been much in fashion at our court. It was said that
the duke of Richmond would have settled a pension upon him,
though he wished him to change his manner of playing, and
would needs have one of his pages shew him a better. Matteis,
for the sake of the jest, condescended to take lessons of the page,
but learned so fast, that he soon out-ran him in his own way. But
he continued so outrageous in his demands, particularly for his
solos, that few would comply with them, and he remained in
narrow circumstances and obscurity a long while.
" Nor would his superior talents ever have contributed to better
his fortune had it not been for the zeal and friendly offices of
two or three Dilettanti, his admirers. These were Dr. Walgrave,
a prodigy on the arch-lute; Sir Roger L'Estrange, an expert violist;
and Mr. Bridgman, the under-secretary, who accompanied well
on the harpsichord. These becoming acquainted with him, and
courting him in his own way, had an opportunity of describing to
him the temper of the English, who, if humoured, would be
liberal; but if uncivilly treated, would be sulky and despise him
and his talents. Assuring him that by a little complaisance he
would neither want employment nor money.
' • By advice so reasonable, they at length brought him into such
good temper, that he became generally esteemed and sought after;
and having many scholars, though on moderate terms, his purse
filled apace, which confirmed his conversion.
"After this, he discovered a way of acquiring money, which
was then perfectly new in this country. For observing how much
his scholars admired the lessons he composed for them, which
were all duos, and that most musical gentlemen who heard them,
wished to have copies of them, he was at the expence of having
them neatly engraved on copper-plates, in oblong octavo, which
was the beginning of engraving Music in England,* and these he
presented, well bound, to lovers of the art and admirers of his
talents, for which he often received three, four, and five guineas.
And so great were his encouragement and profits in this species of
* North should have written the revival of engraving. See Grove's art. Engraving, vol. II.
p. 168 for a list of musical works engraved before the time of Matteis.
408
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVII CENTURY
traffic, that he printed four several books of Ayres for the Violin,
in the same form and size" [B.M. c. 66].
He printed lessons likewise for the guitar, of which instrument
he was a consummate master, and had so much force upon it, as
to be able to contend with the harpsichord, in concert.
Another book of his writing was designed to teach composition,
ayre, and thorough base. Of this work, though it was printed,
but few copies are subsisting. His full pieces, concertos, and solos,
were never published, and are very scarce, if at all to be found.
The two first of the four books mentioned above, of which many
copies were dispersed, consist of preludes, allemands, sarabands,
courants, gigues, divisions on grounds, and double compositions
fitted to all hands and capacities [1687]. The third book has for
title, Ayres for the Violin, to wit : Preludes, Fugues, Allemands,
Sarabands, Courants, Gigues, Fancies, Divisions, and likewise other
Passages, Introductions, and Fugues, for single and double Stops;
with Divisions somewhat more artificial for the Improvement of the
Hand, upon the Base-viol or Harpsichord. The fourth book is
entitled, Other Ayres and Pieces, for the Violin, Base-viol, and
Harpsichord, somewhat more difficult and artificial than the former;
composed for the Practice and Service of greater Masters upon those
Instruments (e) [1685].
Mr. North observes, that while the lovers of Music were
acquainted with his manner of playing from his own books, which
often happened in large assemblies, no one pretended to do the like;
for none could command that fulness, grace, and truth, of which
he was master. So that, in his own time, his compositions were
thought impracticable from their difficulty; and since, as they were
never thrown into the shops, they have been but little known. So
that at present, now the instrument is so much advanced, no one
can have the least idea of these pieces having ever been difficult, who
was not a witness of his own manner of playing them. Indeed, his
books, well studied, are a sufficient rudiment of artful composition.
Another observation of this speculative Dilettante is, that in " a
numerous assembly, when Matteis alone was to entertain the
company, having his friends Walgrave, L' Estrange, and Bridgman
about him, and flaming with good humour and enthusiasm, he has
seized on the attention of the whole audience with such force and
variety, as to prevent even a whisper for more than an hour
together, however crowded the room."
After this, it is easy to imagine that his reputation and abilities
would enable him to accumulate wealth, or to live in splendor:
he chose the latter, took a great house, and indulging appetite, lived
so luxuriously, that he brought on diseases which soon put an end
to his existence.*
(e) It is remarkable, that among such a variety of movements, not one minuet occurs;
indeed, the term never appears in Corelli till he published his concertos in I7i2,_ when this
graceful dance began to have admission in almost every species of composition for instruments.
* Matteis settled in England about 1672. Evelyn heard him play on the 19th Nov., 1674
(see the Diary for that date) and speaks of him as "that stupendous violin."
409
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
He left a son, Nicola Matteis, whom he taught on the violin from
his cradle. " I have seen the boy in coats," says Mr. North, " play
to his father's guitar. When he grew up he became a celebrated
master on the violin, in London, for several years. Being invited
into Germany, he went to Vienna, and has continued there ever
since, in full payment for all the masters we have received from
these countries (/)."
Though the compositions of the elder Matteis would not now
appear very original or elaborate, yet they still retain such a degree
of facility and elegance, and so many traits of the beautiful melody
that was floating about Italy during the youth of Corelli, as render
them far from contemptible.
(/) The younger Matteis must have returned to England soon after Mr. North's Memoirs of
Music were written; as I remember to have seen him at Shrewsbury, where he was settled as
a language master as well as performer on the violin, in 1737. I afterwards learned French,
and the violin of this master, who continued at Shrewsbury till his decease, about the year
1749. He played Corelli's solos with more simplicity and elegance than any performer I ever
heard.
410
Chapter VIII
Of the Music of Italy in the Church and Chamber,
during the Seventeenth Century
FROM the year 1600 to the present time, dramatic Music, which,
occasionally, includes almost every species of composition,
vocal and instrumental, will occupy so large a portion of
the sequel of this work, that it will be necessary to treat the other
branches of the art in a more summary way than heretofore, while
there was little other Music to describe, than masses and madrigals.
Though the learned and elaborate style in which both the Music
of the Church and Chamber, of which so ample an account has
already been given, continued to be cultivated in Italy with great
diligence, till near the middle of the century; yet a revolution in
favour of melody and expression was preparing, even in sacred
Music, by the success of dramatic composition, consisting of
recitation and melodies for a single voice, which now began to be
preferred to Music of many parts, in which canons, fugues, and full
harmony, were the productions which chiefly employed the master's
study and hearer's attention.
One of the most distinguished ecclesiastical composers of this
period was Lodovico Viadana [c. 1564-1645], who has the
reputation of having invented the indication of chords by figures, in
what the Italians call the basso continuo, and the English
thorough-base, or accompaniment on keyed-instruments, lutes,
harps, and, in recitatives, even violoncellos; but I have found
several instances of the minute beginnings of this expedient before
the time of Viadana;* though he was doubtless the first who drew
up general rules for expressing harmony by figures over the base in
1615. Draudius (g), in an ample list of his ecclesiastical
compositions, which were very numerous, tells us of one that
authenticates his claim to this invention, which was a collection of
all his choral pieces, of one, two, three, and four parts; " with a
continued and general base, adapted to the organ according to a new
invention, and useful for every singer as well as organist; to which
(g) Bibl. Class.
* The work in which Viadana first used figured bass was Centi concerti ecclesiastici
published in 5 vols, at Venice in 1602. He tells us that some of these works had been
performed at Rome, 5 or 6 years before publication. Only 59 pieces were included in this
1st edition; the remainder followed as op. 17 in 1607 and op. 24 in 1609.
There had previously been published at Rome in 1553 a Treatise on the ornamentation o]
cadences and other kinds of notes in the music for the Bass Viol, by Diego Ortiz, a Spaniard.
Both these works are fully described by F. T. Arnold in The Art of Accompaniment from a
Thorough-Bass (Ox. Un. Press, 1931), Chapter J.
411
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
are added short rules and explanations for accompanying a general
base, according to the new method." Viadana was therefore the
first who composed an organ base different from the voice-part (h),
in the execution of which the new invented figures enabled the
performer to give the singers the whole harmony of the several
parts of a full composition, without seeing the score.
As the construction of perpetual fugue, or Canon, required more
meditation and science than any other species of composition, there
were several musicians during the seventeenth century, who, from
an ambition to excel in such difficult undertakings, seem to have
devoted as great a portion of their lives to these labours as holy men
ever did to severe acts of piety and devotion, in order to be
canonised.
John Paul Cima, an eminent organist and composer at Milan,
from 1591 to 1610, acquired great reputation among learned
musicians, not only for his motetti, canzoni, consequenze,
contrappunti doppii, and concerti ecclesiastici a 1, 2, 3, & 4 voci,
but as a virtuosissimo compositore di Canoni, ricercate et altre
vivezze, attenenti a i proffessori (i).
But the master general of this musical artillery was now
Francesco Soriano [1549 — c. 1620] maestro di capello of St.
Peter's church at Rome, who, in 1610, published one hundred and
ten canons upon the chant to the hymn Ave Maris Stella, for three,
four, five, six, seven, and eight voices. Resolutions of these canons
in score, with remarks, by Zacconi, 1625, in manuscript, were in
the possession of the late respectable theorist and historian,
P. Martini, who among his other musical curiosities, communicated
to me this manuscript, which impressed me with a much higher
opinion of the patience than the genius of Soriano. Few masters,
except himself, could perhaps have composed these canons, but
many must have thought that the loss to Music would not have been
very great, if they had never been composed. Baptist Doni, an
enemy to learned Music, and a great advocate for the recitative and
melodies for a single voice, which were now advancing into favour,
says that though Soriano was generally allowed by musicians to be
a learned contrapuntist, he never had genius sufficient to invent a
single air that was beautiful or pleasing; on which account, he
applied himself to the composition of elaborate fugues and canons :
as in poetry, those who have no original ideas or invention can write
acrostics and anagrams, by which they become only rhymers,
not poets; so canonists should be called contrapuntists, not
musicians (k).
Micheli Romano [c. 1575 — c. 1660], a scholar of Soriano,
published in folio, 1615, at Venice, a curious canonical work,
entitled Musica Vaga et Artificiosa (/), containing motetti con
(h) See Paolucci's Arte Pratt, di Contrap. Tom. I. p. 80.
(t) Picinelli Ateneo, p. 315. %
(k) Tratt. delta Mus. Scenica, Op. omn. Tom. II. p. 129.
(/) For the full title of this book, in Italian, see above, page 264.
412
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
oblighi, e canoni diver si, as well for those who receive delight from
the performance of curious Music, as for others who make it their
study. There is a long preface to this book, addressed to masters
and curious readers, in which the author gives a kind of history
of his musical life, and the occasion of this work. It appears that
he had been acquainted, and conversed on the subject of Music,
with the most eminent professors, particularly canonists, of his
time; at Venice with Gio. Gabrielli, Gio. Croce Chizzotto, and
other celebrated musicians. In Naples, where he was with the
prince of Venosa, with Scipione Stella, Gio. Bart. Paulo, Muzio
Effrem, and Pomponio Nenna, at the time that Bartolomeo Roi
was maestro di capella, and Gio. Macque organist to the vice-roy,
and in the time of Rocco Rodio, Scipione Cerreto, Giustiniano
Corcella, and Domenico Montella, learned musicians. In Ferrara
with Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Fiorone Fioroni, Gio. Mazzoni maestro
di capella of the Duomo at Lodi, Pietro Marsolo, and other most
learned musicians. In Milan, where he resided a year, he found
D. Fulgentio Valesi Parmegiano, in the composition of canons molto
osservante, with Guglielmo Arnone and Cesare Borgo, organists in
that metropolis. At Rome, he was acquainted with that most
intelligent Spanish musician, Sebastian Raval, who, on his arrival
in that city, thinking himself the first professor in the world, not
having yet found his equal in any other part of Italy, he challenged
to a trial of skill Francesco Soriano, and Gio. Maria Nanino, resto
chiarilo (vanquished) at the first trial, nondimeno volsero sentire
tutto il suo sapere; so that Raval ever after called Soriano and
Nanino by no other title than Signori Maestri* Micheli was
likewise acquainted with Annibale Stabile and Palestrina (m).
(m) Micheli's work is so curious and scarce, that I shall give the studious reader a table
of its contents :
Canon by D. Romano Micheli, on a subject Canon a 4.
given by Gio. Rosa of Florence. Canon a 4, ascending a tone.
Canon a due del Metallo. Canon with the words.
— di Micheli. The same in score.
Resolution of the same canon. Canon a 4, by Metallo.
The same in score. by Micheli in imitation of the above.
Another canon a due, by the same. Motetto a due in canon, with the resolution.
Two additional parts to ditto. and a continued base for an instrument.
Resolution of the same canon. Canon a due, with a third part.
The same in score. Resolution of the same, with a fourth part.
Another canon a due, by the same. Canon by Metallo : Querite et invenientis, a
Two additional parts to ditto. I, 2, 3, & 4.
Resolution of the same. Two canons a 4, ditto.
Canon in imitation of the above. Motetto a 4.
Four canons by Metallo, in unis. a 5.
Canon a 3, with a fourth part. 0 "quant pulchra es\
Canon a 6, in score. Canon a 4, composed extempore.
Canon two in one, by Metallo. Two other canons, a 4.
Resolution by Micheli. Canon a 4, upon a subject by Luca Marenzio.
Canon in imitation of the above. Two canons a 4.
Resolution of the same. Two others ditto.
Two canons in one. Eight more, on different subjects given by
Resolution. masters of the author's acquaintance.
Canon by Metallo, with a third part. Canon a 6.
Resolution by Micheli. Canon a 8.
Ruota e cantilena del Metallo. Canon a 10.
Aggionta fatta alia detta cantilena. Canon a 12.
Score of the same for ten voices. Canon in twelve parts, to the words of the
Eight canons in enigma, by Bianchieri. Antiphon: Regina cceli.
Canon a 4, descending a tone.
„. * Another musical squabble with regard to German and Italian composers in which
Micheli was involved is related in Groves, article Micheli, Vol. 3, f>. 455.
413
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Those who still regard these contrivances with veneration, will
find much entertainment in this book; but others, who seek for
melody, grace, and modulation, will find in it nothing but toil
and pedantry. And it must be owned, with due reverence for
this species of musical science, that imagination is so manacled
during the composition of these perpetual fugues, that elegant
melody is always precluded, and, in general, harmony is rendered
so meagre and imperfect, that in a canon of three or four parts,
it is often reduced to a unison, octave, or insipid fourth.
The next eminent harmonist, who acquired reputation by the
composition of canons, was Francesco Turini [c. 1595-1656],
organist of the Duomo at Brescia 1656, who published many
learned compositions for the church and chamber, but particularly
a mass for four voices, in 1643, in canon.
In this work there is a canon, upon the subject of which
Handel has composed one of his finest instrumental fugues;* but,
according to his usual practice, whenever he adopted another's
thought, he has enlivened and embellished this theme, like a man
of true genius, with a counter subject, and shewn that he saw
farther into its latent fertility than the original inventor (n) .
Canon.
*
%.
R e.uoicTc e... __.---._- ..lp.. I. -Saul p.
I
CHASTE £
-f-rr
B \?~f
3SE
ge
B
/.£/— Sort
e -
'£■- LB-- I- -SOU 'S- LM--Z-
o o
fl>
v rj i
•Son £•
LK--t--.SOli
Among the most eminent and learned musicians and canonists
of this period, must be ranked Agostini Paolo, the scholar of
Bernardo Nanini, and successor in the Pontifical Chapel to Soriano.
Antimo Liberati speaks of him as one of the most scientific and
ingenious composers of his time, in every species of Music then
cultivated. And tells us, that while he was maestro di capella of
St. Peter's Church at Rome, he astonished the musical world with
his productions for four, six, and eight choirs or choruses; some
of which might be sung in four or six parts only, without diminish-
ing or enervating the harmony. Padre Martini, who bears testimon}'
(») The tenor leads off the subject, and is answered at the second bar by the soprano in
the octave; at the third bar the base begins a fifth below the tenor, and is answered at the
fourth bar by the counter-tenor an octave above the base.
* This theme of Turini is used by Handel in the Organ Fugue in Bb and the 2nd Oboe
Concerto in Bb. It was also used by Morley in "Cruel, you pull away too soon your dainty
lips." Palestrina employs it in Tu es Petrus, and Dr. Crotch in the Psalm tune St. Anne, and
by Bach in a Pedal Fugue in Eb.
414
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
to the truth of this eulogium, has inserted an Agnus Dei,
in eight parts, of this composer, which is truly a curious
production: three different canons being carried on at the same
time, in so clear and natural a manner, both as to melody and
harmony, that this learned father, who had been long exercised in
such arduous enterprizes, speaks of it as one of the greatest efforts
of genius and learning in this most difficult kind of composition.
Every species of Music that has been well received by the public,
or admired by connoisseurs, has been so frequently and aukwardly
imitated by men without genius, or pushed to excess by men
without judgment, that it is soon thrown aside as vulgar and
old-fashioned. Good canons and fugues can be produced but by
few, yet as many have disgraced the invention by ignorance and
dulness, the study of them is now almost wholly laid aside as r;
Gothic invention. P. Martini says, though the study of these
elaborate contrivances is regarded by modern composers as useless
toil, and more likely to corrupt good taste than contribute to the
pleasure of the ear; yet, with moderation, such exercise is as
useful to young students in counterpoint, as drawing difficult
attitudes is to young painters (o). The greatest masters, during
almost three centuries, have cultivated this ingenious harmonical
contrivance, in order to sharpen intellect, and have been always
respected in proportion to their success (p).
Pietro Francesco Valentini [,d. 1654], of Rome, who
flourished about the year 1645, seems to have made every subse-
quent canonist despair of emulating his subtilties and dexterity in
the art. Indeed, he seems to have surpassed all that the most
determined canonists had ever done, by the several works he
published on the subject, in the following order: " Canon to the
words Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte, with the
Resolution in more than two thousand ways, for two, three, four,
and five voices, Rome, 1629." " Canon, called the Knot of
Solomon, for ninety-six voices, Rome, 1631." " Canon on four
subjects for twenty voices, Rome, 1645." The first and most
curious of these works seems to have been reprinted in 1655, as
M. Marpurg of Berlin, and several other musical writers, in speak-
ing of it refer to an edition of that date. But P. Martini,
who is in general very accurate in dates and citations, mentions
Valentini's first canonical work under the year 1629. Kircher
gives the subject, and an account of this canon in his Musurgia
[Vol. 1, p. 402]. M. Marpurg, in a periodical work called "Kritische
Briefe," or "Critical Letters on the Art of Music," Vol. II. 1763,
quarto, has bestowed upwards of fifty pages on this canon, and not
only given it a hundred different ways in notes, but explained more
than two hundred of the several contrivances used by Valentini in
the construction of canons on the subject given, which only consists
to) Sagg. de Contrap. Par. I. p. 46.
(p) Ibid, p. 190.
4*5
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of the following few simple notes contained in five bars of alia
breve time, and a semibreve rest : —
These notes are inverted, sung in moto contrario, in greater and
less prolation, in major and minor keys, and in every possible way,
without changing the intervals, yet still the canon is preserved
inviolable.
No entire book has been written on the subject since. M.
Marpurg, indeed, published in 1762,* L' Art de la Fugue, in which
Canon, the most rigid and exact of all fugues, is included; and P.
Martini has given curious canons, perhaps the most unexception-
able and the best that have ever been composed, as head and tail-
pieces to every chapter of his History of Music, besides publishing
vocal duets in canon, and treating largely of the art of composing
canons of every kind, in his Saggio di Contrappunto; but I know
of no work that has been published since Valentini's, in which
nothing but canons, and rules for constructing them, are contained.
Having discharged my duty, as an historian, to these profound
canonists, I shall proceed to point out the names and merit of
other eminent composers, who, in the learned style of the sixteenth
century, continued to write fugues in their masses and motets, that
have been justly admired for their correctness of harmony and
design.
The two Mazzochi, Domenico and Virgilio [d. 1646], brothers
and Romans, were musicians of great eminence in the early part of
the last century, who composed much Music for the church, and
were much praised by the musical writers of those times. Of
Domenico, I shall soon have further occasion to speak, as one of the
last successful madrigalists, when that species of composition began
to decline in favour. Virgilio was principal maestro di capella to
the pope, and the master of Bontempi, the musical historian.
Michele and Valentini, though they wrote much for the church,
acquired their chief reputation by canons, and learned treatises on
the art of constructing them.
Frescobaldi, likewise, the celebrated organist and composer of
fugues for his instrument, in a more clear and pleasing style than
any of his predecessors, and who flourished from 1608 to 1635,
produced many motets and masses for the church.
Francesco Foggia [1604-88], of Rome, a disciple of Paolo
Agostini, flourished from 1645 to 1681. In his youth he was several
years in the service of the Court of Bavaria, and the Arch-duke
Leopold, afterwards emperor; but returning to Rome, he was
* The Abhandlung von der Fugue was published at Berlin in 1753-4 (2nd ed. 1806). A
French translation was also published at Berlin in 1756. Marpurg intended to follow this with
a large collection of fugues illustrating the Abhandlung, but only the first part was published
(Berlin, 1758).
416
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
appointed maestro di capella to the church of St. John Lateran
[1631-61], to Santa Maria Maggiore [1677], to San Lorenzo in
Damaso, and other great churches in that city. Antimo Liberati
calls him the prop and father of Music and true ecclesiastical
harmony; and says, that in his printed and manuscript productions
he had manifested such a variety in his manner of writing as was
seldom found in the works of one man: being equally excellent
in the grand, the learned, the noble, the refined, the simple, and
the pleasing style. And in examining his works, this panegyric
does not seem overcharged, as far as Music then went, which was
not arrived at melody, grace, or expression. He lived to upwards
of eighty, is celebrated by Kircher in his Musurgia; and P. Martini
has illustrated his doctrine in the Saggio di Contrappunto (q), with
two admirable motets from his eighth opera, in which there is much
ingenuity, and a greater variety of measure, than usual in church
Music of the last century, where a movement in triple time had
seldom admission.
But the two most learned and ecclesiastical composers of this
period, were Gregorio Allegri [c. 1582-1652], and Orazio
Benevoli [1602-72]. Of these excellent harmonists some account
has been given elsewhere, particularly of Allegri, the author of the
celebrated Miserere, which is still sung in the Papal Chapel during
Passion-week (r). Benevoli 's skill and dexterity in polyphonic
harmony, have likewise been mentioned in the course of this work
(s). Allegri, who was a disciple of Maria Nanini, and admitted in
the Pope's Chapel 1629, died in 1652; and Benevoli, who was
appointed maestro di capella of St. Peter's church at Rome 1650,
survived him about ten years. Antimo Liberati, the scholar of
Benevoli,* has celebrated his uncommon abilities in the highest
strain of panegyric; telling us that he not only surpassed his master
Bernard Nanino, but all the contrapuntists that had ever existed, in
harmonizing four and even six choirs of four parts each, with as
much facility of fugue and imitation, as if he had been only writing for
one. Violent praise, as well as abuse, is always suspicious; but
being in possession of several curious productions of this kind,
by Benevoli, I can venture to affirm, that his powers of managing
an unwieldy score are truly wonderful; particularly in a mass a sei
cori, or for twenty-four voices, in which the learning and ingenuity
surpass any thing of the kind that has come to my knowledge.
I have another mass of his composition, for twelve soprani, or
treble voices, in constructing which, the nearness of the parts must
have augmented the difficulty of avoiding confusion. His com-
(g) Tom. I. p. 47, and 54.
(r) See Italian Tour, and preface to the Music performed at Rome nella settimana santa,
printed by Bremner.
(s) See Book II. p. 416 and 728.
* Liberati, in his Lettera ad Ottav. Persapegi, says that Benevoli was a pupil of Vincenzio
Ugolini.
Voi,. ii. 27. 417
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
positions of this kind have been recommended to musical students
as models of perfection, by P. Martini, and P. Poalucci (t).
Steffano Bernardi was a learned theorist, as well as composer
of masses and madrigals of a most elaborate and correct kind.
He flourished from 1611 to about 1634, and in 1623 was maestro
di capella of the Duomo, at Verona. He published a didactic
work, called Porta Musicale, the first part of which appeared at
Verona 1615, in quarto; and, as an elementary tract, it has the
merit of clearness and brevity.
Ercole Bernabei [c. 1620-1688], the scholar and successor of
Benevoli at St. Peter's, and instructor of the Abate Steffani, may
be ranked among the greatest masters of harmony, in the ancient
ecclesiastical style of the last century. This composer being invited
by the Elector of Bavaria to Munich, about the year 1650 [c. 1674],
entered into the service of that court, where he continued the rest
of his life. His son, Giuseppe Ant. Bernabei [c. 1649-1732], after
following his father's steps in the study of ecclesiastical harmony,
surpassed him considerably in melody and modulation, as he lived
long enough to see a great relaxation in the rigour of ancient rules.
There is a canon by this composer in the first volume of Paolucci,
page 158, and an excellent Agnus Dei, in P. Martini's Sagg. di
Contrap. II. 129. extracted from his mass, for four voices, entitled
Laudate cum Icetitia, qui fuistis in tristitia. After succeeding his
father as maestro di capella to the Elector of Bavaria [1688], by
whom he was honoured with the title of Conseiller Aulique, and
publishing several compositions for the church, replete with musical
science of the first class, he lived till the year 1732, extending his
existence to the great age of eighty-nine [ ? ] .
These masters, with many other good harmonists, in the style of
the preceding century, supplied the churches of Italy with innumer-
able compositions, in which the chief merit consisted in pure
harmony, and the contrivance of canon, fugue, and imitation on
simple and often insipid subjects; but to these excellencies the
best moderns have added melody, a more varied modulation, and
not only an attention to long and short syllables, but to the
expression of words. In the fifteenth century almost every mass
was composed upon the subject of some well known song or ballad;
but these airs being psalmodic, and little more lively or varied
than canto fermo, admitted of no greater variety of modulation than
the ancient chants of the church, upon fragments of which, during
the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth centuries, it was thought
necessary to construct the chief part of choral Music (u).
[t] Sagg. di Contrap. and Arte Praciica di Contrap. works which contain admirable
precepts and examples for ecclesiastical compositions of every kind.
(«) Though the present students in counterpoint at Naples, and in other parts of Italy,
still exercise themselves in putting parts to canto fermo, the writing masses or motets on the
subjects of these chants is seldom done, but in pure pedantry, and to give an air of antiquity
to dry and fanciless compositions. Among Italian professors, the various styles of Music are
very intelligibly expressed by the terms a capella, stilo ecclesiastico spirituale, pieno, fugalo,
concertato, for the church; and secolare, profano, dramatico, serio, buffo, da camera, for the
stage and chamber.
418
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
The church style of composition was, however, much altered
during the last century, not only by the imitation of dramatic
Music, and the introduction of instruments, but by writing in
transposed keys, and supplying the deficiencies in the scales, which
too strict an adherence to the species of octave, and modes of the
church, had occasioned. Indeed, before this time, there was no
decision of keys, either in sacred or secular Music, according to our
present rules of beginning and ending upon the chord, major or
minor, of some determinate note of the scale. The prohibitions
were so numerous in the writings of the old theorists, that if the
most regular modern compositions were tried by such rules as
subsisted at the beginning of the last century, they would appear
extremely licentious. No part was to be extended above or below
the staff, or five regular lines, on which it was written; the
combination of chords was never to be broken by moving to an
unrelative harmony; and the intervals of the sharp seventh, the
tritonus or sharp fourth, false fifth, sharp second, and even the
major sixth, were prohibited. Indeed, an excellent composition
might now be produced, merely from ancient disallowances.
Though much Music was produced during these times, which
might flatter the ear with the sweetness of the harmony, yet I have
met with none that was likely to touch the heart, before the
productions of Carissimi and Stradella appeared, in which graceful,
pathetic, and pleasing melody was united with pure harmony and
ingenious contrivance. Of the works of these excellent musicians,
who had the undefinable power of rendering every musical phrase
interesting, either by melody, harmony, or modulation, a particular
account will be given, in the chapters which treat of Oratorios and
Cantatas, sacred and secular.
Cesti, Luigi, Graziani, Bassani, and Colonna, all composed for
the church; yet as they were more advantageously known by their
secular productions, a further account of them will be given
elsewhere.
Motetti Passeggiati, a Voce sola, were published by Kapsberger
[d. c. 1633] at Rome, in 1612, which seem the first solo anthems in
which divisions had place. But divisions, in motets for a single
voice, began at this time to be long and numerous; for, in a work
published at Venice 1615, called Serena Celeste, or " the Celestial
Siren," consisting of motetti a una, due, e tre voci, by Bonini, a
monk of Valembrosa, there are divisions to the alleluja, and to single
syllables of the hymns of the church, as long as in the opera bravura
airs of modern times : and in the Seste Musiche of Claudio Seracini
of Siena, published 1624, I find the following division to one syllable
and one base :
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
It is a very curious circumstance, that at the closes, where a shake
upon the second of the key is now expected, it is here written at
full length in semiquavers, upon one note* This I should have
supposed to have been the caprice of an individual, if I had not
found it elsewhere; but the same monotonous trill occurs not only
in songs of this period, but in another set of Motetti a Voce sola, et
a doi, by Ortensio Polidoro, maestro di capella of the Duomo at
Pesaro, 1636, twenty-one years after (x). In the burlesque cantata
of Tarquinio Merula, for a base voice, published 1638, the poet,
after advising Curtius against so rash a step, tells him, that though
he may easily find his way to the bottom of the gulph into which
he was about to plunge, yet, he adds, quanto al ritornare, sara
un difficile passo; to which last word a division of six bars, of
sixteen semiquavers in each, is given, in the course of which, the
singer is carried from D on the sixth space in the base, down to
the abyss of double C. There is another division of seven bars at
the last close, in which the passages are echoed, piano, and the
trill of the times in iterations of the same note, in semiquavers, is
written twice at full length. Afterwards, Graziani, Cesti, Luigi,
Bassani, and innumerable others, multiplied notes without end, in
their motetti and cantate sacri, in what seem now vulgar and insipid
passages. Besides these, the salmi, stabat maters, misereres, and
salve reginas, with solo airs, were introduced into the church in
the dramatic style, sometimes with little judgment, taste, or
propriety.
Madrigals, though their favour diminished in proportion as the
musical drama, which was more generally intelligible to
uncultivated ears, advanced towards perfection, yet there were
many candidates for fame in that species of composition, during the
early part of the last century. The chief of these were Tomaso
Pecci, Ales. Grandi, Sigismondo d' India, Pomponio Nenna, II
Cavalier Tarquinio Merula, Pallavicini, and Domenico
Mazzocchi. I have scored many of the madrigals of these masters,
but found no new ideas, or new harmonies, in any of them, except
those of Mazzocchi; and as he seems to have penetrated further into
latent effects and refinements than the rest, I shall give some account
of a set of madrigals which he published at Rome in 1638, in score,
and dedicated to Cardinal Barberini. In his dedication, he
pronounces madrigals to be the most ingenious species of
composition that Music could boast. And yet, he says, few were
composed, and still fewer sung, at the time he published this work,
when they were nearly banished from all concerts (y).
(x) Indeed, this monotonous trill is described in notes, and recommended to the practice
of students in singing, by the celebrated Caccini, in his Nuove Musiche, Ven. 1615.
(y) Ball' Accademie. The word is still used in Italy for musical performances and
assemblies, out of the theatre.
* Caccini in the preface to his Nuovo Musiche (1602) gives an example of this re-iteration
and calls it the Trillo. A modern example of this trill is to be found in Wagner's Meistersineer
Act III.
Caccini calls the modern shake the Gruppo.
420
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
As secular melody was improved by the cultivation of dramatic
Music, so choral harmony was meliorated by the new combinations
that were hazarded in madrigals. And the two Mazzocchi, during
this period, contributed greatly, by their numerous works for the
church, to improve the more solemn and grave manner of writing
for sacred purposes, by extending the bounds of harmony, without
which ecclesiastical Music could not sustain its dignity, or be suitable
to the purposes of its destination. A clear, picturesque, and
graceful melody seems infinitely more necessary for the stage than
the church; as it is there the voice of passion, and medium through
which lyric and narrative poetry can alone be rendered intelligible.
In the church, where new poetry, prayers, or sentiments of piety
seldom have admission, and where nothing is sung that has not
often been previously read and heard by every member of the
congregation, the clothing such portions of scripture, or of the
liturgy, as are appointed to be sung, in rich and complicated
harmony, adds greatly to their solemnity, by precluding all such
frivolous and fantastical strains as remind the hearer of secular
amusements.
Domenico Mazzocchi, besides several new combinations, and a
more bold and masterly use of discords in ligature than can be
found in the works of his predecessors if we except Monteverde (z),
first proposed several refinements in the execution of his madrigals,
and invented characters of crescendo, diminuendo, piano, forte, and
the enharmonic sharp. In his eighth madrigal he has made the
most frequent use of these new indications. Page 73, there are,
indeed, misapplications of the enharmonic diesis to E and B sharp,
which is at present rightly appropriated by the most accurate
contrapuntists, to notes that have been already sharp, as a sign of
their being still raised a semitone minor. Enharmonic, similar to
that of the ancients, we have none, nor is it practicable in modern
counterpoint, where, having no fundamental base for quarter tones,
their use in harmony would produce no other effect to the hearer
than that of singing or playing out of tune (a).
The only madrigalists after Mazzocchi, who much distinguished
themselves, were Stradella, Alessandro Scarlatti (6), Bononcini,
Lotti, Perti, and Caldara, of whom we shall have occasion to speak
among the most eminent composers of operas and cantatas.
[z) See above, p. 190.
(a) Mr. Keeble {Theory of Harmonics) pretends to have discovered the fundamental base
to all the ancient scales, and, among the rest, to the enharmonic ! but produces no classical
authority in support of his opinion; nor has he had the courage to exhibit any Music of his own
composition, in which he has ventured at enharmonic combinations. Indeed, if the Greek
preposition iv were ever used as a privative, and ap^ovia. with the ancients had the same
meaning as harmony with the moderns, I should imagine that enharmonic originally implied
inharmonious, incapable of harmony?
(b) It seems an- indispensable duty to inform the curious reader, that there is a madrigal
(Cor mio) by this composer, for four sopranos and a contralto voice, inserted in the second
part of P. Martini's Sagg. di Contrap. which surpasses in art and ingenuity all the compositions
of that kind which I have seen. The expression of the words, and passages of imitation, are
still elegant and new. The learned editor has pointed out all its beauties in an excellent
commentary.
421
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The Cavalier Tarquinio Merula, who flourished from 1628 to
1640, has been mentioned among grave composers for the church,
and madrigalists; but his secular compositions are almost all so
tinctured with caprice and buffoonery, as to render them more
singular and original, than those of any of his cotemporaries. He
was fond of writing upon a ground base, and in his Libro secondo
delle Musiche Concertate, published 1635 [1637], he has composed
a three-part song, with ritornels for two violins and a base, sopra
la ciecona. In 1638, he published a burlesque cantata called
Curtio Precipitato; and among other whimsical things in this book,
there is a Canzonetta Spirituale sopra la Nanna, or lullaby,
consisting of only these two notes in the base:
-feo-
P^£
He has composed a learned fugue in four parts, on the declension
of Hie, hcec, hoc, and another upon Quis vel qui: nominativo qui,
quce, quod, &c. This last consists of several movements which are
supported with vivacity, and imitations of the cant and stammering
of school-boys in repeating their grammatical lesson. The single
vocal airs of this period by Merula, and innumerable others, that
I have examined, in order to trace the progress of Italian melody,
ab ovo, are dull, monotonous^ and inelegant. Imagination, as,
yet, was too much, fettered by canon, fugue, and ecclesiastical
modes, to attempt the use of her wings. In the perusal of the
Music of the times, I collected fragments of the infant lisp in the
vocal language, which has been since so highly polished; but neither
found in the subjects of fugue, or vocal divisions, any thing like
invention or grace, till after the time of Carissimi and Stradella,
who seem to have been the first gifted musicians of Italy.
Little Music, purely instrumental, seems to have been composed
till the latter end of the seventeenth century. Lutes and guitars,
of different sizes, were more used in accompanying the voice, than
in lessons, solos, sonatas, or concertos. Viols and violins had a
similar employment in the churches, on great festivals, in augment-
ing the force of choral compositions, by doubling the voice-parts,
and playing short ritornels. The Italians have not cultivated
wind-instruments so much as the Germans; and yet, during the
present century, Martinelli Bitti, Giuseppe San Martini, and the
two Bezozzis, brought the oboe and bassoon to very great
perfection.* The most important improvements of instrumental
Music will be included in the progress of the violin, except those
of the organ, to which noble instrument Frescobaldi added new
dignity and attractions by his pleasing and masterly fugues, which
were soon imitated all over Europe, wherever there was an organ,
* For an interesting account of the two brothers see Burney's "Tour in France and Italy,"
p. 69.
422
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
and an organist possessed of hand and head capable of emulating a
style so suitable to the genius of that most comprehensive of all
instruments.
Girolamo Frescobaldi [1583-1643], was a native of Ferrara,
but went, early in his life, to Rome, with his master Milleville,*
where he was elected organist of St. Peter's church [1608]. All
the musical writers of Italy have celebrated his talents; and his
works, which still remain, are indisputable vouchers of the truth
of their encomiums. Quadrio says, that early in his youth, as a
singer, he delighted every ear, and was praised by every tongue
in the principal cities of Italy. But his chief excellence consisted
in composing and playing on the organ and harpsichord, for which
he became so renowned, that his works, both printed and
manuscript, were in the hands of all professors and collectors of
musical compositions. The emperor Ferdinand III. sent Froberger,
a young German of promising genius, to Rome, on purpose to
receive instructions from Frescobaldi; by which he profited so well,
that he was appointed imperial organist on his return. According
to Delia Valle, Frescobaldi was living in 1641. His first work,
entitled Recercari et Canzoni Francese, fatta sopra diver si oblighi
in Partitura [1615], are the first compositions that I have seen
printed in score, and with bars.** They are likewise the first
regular fugues that I have found upon one subject, or of two
subjects carried on at the same time, from the beginning of a
movement to the end. Recercari and fantasie preceded sonatas
and concertos, and were the first compositions expressly made for
instruments, after the invention of counterpoint. The fugues of
Frescobaldi have great merit, if we consider the state of instrumental
Music at the time they were produced; the subjects are marked and
pleasing, the harmony pure, and the style chaste and clear. It
is not said in the title-page for what instruments the several parts
were designed; but as the author was a great organ-player, I make
no doubt that they were first produced by and for that instrument,
as all the four parts are so compact and closely connected, that
they are still within the grasp of the two hands. Nothwithstand-
ing many of these fugues are upon two, three, and even four
subjects, and every learned artifice of inversion, augmentation,
diminution, and moto contrario, is used, he has had the dexterity
to avoid confusion. The Toccate per Cembalo, by this author,
* Fresobaldi was a pupil of Luzzaschi, organist at the Cathedral of Ferrara.
** Bar lines were first used early in the 16th cent. Virdurg used them in his Musica
getutsckt in 1511, and Agricola in his Musica Instrumental in 1529. They are also to be
found in Caccini's Eurydice, 1600.
Frescobaldi's first work was a book of madrigals for 5-voices, published by Phalesio at
Antwerp in 1608, and in the same year he published at Milan Fantasie 04.
There have been many reprints of his clavier works.
Torchi in the A.M.I, has 23 pieces;
Borghen has edited a large number;
B. & H. have published 68 compositions for the organ, in 2 vols.
Froberger was appointed court organist to Ferdinand III. in 1637, before his visit to
Rome, where he stayed for the period 1637-41.
Earlier printed scores than Frescobaldi's works are the madrigals of Cyprian de Rore
(i577) and the Ballet comique de la Royne (1582) mentioned on p. 226.
423
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
published at Rome in 1637, upon six lines for the right hand, and
eight for the left, are very full and of difficult execution. These
pieces being embellished with the fashionable divisions and graces
of the times, have suffered more by age than the ricercari, which
have all the simplicity of vocal fugues in the church style. But
even in his toccate and variations on old airs, we find more taste
and passages which have stood their ground, than in any other
harpsichord Music of the same period.
The following is the order of succession of famous organists, in
Italy, during the last century : Milleville, of Ferrara, the master of
Frescobaldi, flourished about 1600. Frescobaldi published his first
work at Rome 1615.* Ercole Pasquino, of the same city, began to
flourish about 1620, and his son Bernard Pasquino, the master of
Gasparini, about 1672; he was cotemporary with Corelli, and
frequently played in the same orchestra with him at the opera at
Rome (c). Zipoli of Rome, Domenico Scarlatti of Naples, Alberti
of Venice, and Paradies and Clementi, have distinguished them-
selves by their performance and compositions for keyed-instruments,
during the present century, more than any of their countrymen.
Near the latter end of the last century a species of learned and
elaborate Chamber Duets for voices began to be in favour. The
first that I have found, of this kind, were composed by John
Bononcini, and published at Bologna in 1691. Soon after, those
of the admirable Abate Steffani were dispersed in manuscript
throughout Europe. These were followed by the duets of Clari,
Handel, Marcello, Gasparini, Lorn, Hasse, and Durante.
Notwithstanding the purity of harmony, ingenuity of design
and imitation, and masterly style of these compositions, there seems
a radical imperfection in the plan, with respect to the expression
of the words, and propriety of two persons repeating and joining
in the same complaint or sentiment, whatever it may be, instead
of preserving two distinct characters, as in modern dramatic duets.
But these chamber duets were perhaps meant originally as studij
for singers, in which the passages being echoed in fugue excited
emulation in the performance, and furnished an opportunity of
comparing the rapidity and neatness of the execution, as the
comparative speed of two coursers is best known by their running
a trial.
Agostino Steffani [1654-1728] , a scholar of the elder Bernabei,
was born in 1655. Though Walther and most of the Germans, who
wish to rank him among their countrymen, say that Lepsing was
the place of his birth, yet Handel and the Italians make him a
native of Castello Franco, in the Venetian state [Grove's Diet, also! .
He was a chorister at St. Mark's during his youth, where hiis
voice was so much admired by a German nobleman, that, obtaining
(el See Parol, des Fran, ct des Hal. p. no.
* Frescobaldi was at Antwerp in 1608, where Phalesio published his first book of Madrigals.
On his return to Italy in that year he published a book of Fantasie a 4 at Milan.
J24
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
his dismission, he took him to Munich in Bavaria [1667], and had
him educated, not only in Music under the celebrated Ercole
Bernabei, but in literature and theology sufficient for priest's orders;
in consequence of which, after ordination [1680], he was
distinguished by the title of Abate, or Abbot, which he retained
till late in life, when he was elected bishop of Spiga [1706].
In 1674, at the age of nineteen [twenty], he published his
Psalms, in eight parts. He likewise published Sonate a 4 Stromenti;
[1683] ; but his chamber duets are the most celebrated of his works,
and, indeed, of that species of writing. In his little tract, Delia
certezza Dei principij delta Musica, he has treated the subject of
musical imitation and expression, according to P. Martini, like a
philosopher, and agreeable to mathematical principles. This work,
which I have never seen, was so admired in Germany that it was
translated into the language of that country, and reprinted eight
several times. Walther and Marpurg have given the following list
of Italian musical dramas or operas, which the admirable Steffani
set between the year 1695 and 1699 for the court of Hanover, where
he resided many years as maestro di capella: Alessando [1690],
Orlando [1691], Enrico [1689], Alcide [1689], Alcibiade, Atalanta,
and II Trionfo del Fato [1695]; which were afterwards translated
into German, and performed to his Music at Hamburg. About
the year 1724, after he had quitted the court of Hanover, where he
is said to have resigned his office as maestro di capella, in favour
of Handel, he was elected president of the Academy of Ancient
Music in London. In 1729 [1727], he went into Italy* to see his
native country and relations, but returned the next year to Hanover.
However, soon after, having some business to transact at Franck-
fort, he was there seized with an indisposition, of which in a few
days he died, at near fourscore. There are perhaps no compositions
more correct, or fugues in which the subjects are more pleasing,
or answers and imitations more artful, than are to be found in
the duets of Steffani, which, in a collection made for Queen
Caroline, and now in the possession of his Majesty, amount to
near one hundred. The greatest singers of Italy during the last
age used to exercise themselves in these duets, as Solfeggi. Mrs.
Arne, the widow of the late Dr. Arne, has frequently assured me,
that she had heard Senesino and Strada often sing them during
their morning studies.
Carlo Maria Clari [c. 1669 — c. 1745], of Pisa, a scholar of
Colonna, and maestro di capella of the cathedral of Pistoja, did
not publish his excellent chamber duets and trios till 1720 [1740].
They had, however, been dispersed in manuscript long before this
period; and though the duets of Steffani were more early known,
it does not appear that they had been his model; for he was a
* The musical tract mentioned by Burney is Quanta certezza habbia da suoi Principii la
Musica, etc., Amsterdam, 1695.
Steffani re-visited Italy in 1708-9, and during that time he met Handel and tried to persuade
him to visit Hanover. He died at Frankfort in Feb., 1728.
The large collection of vocal duets is now in the B.M.
425
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
composer of great eminence so early as the year 1695, when he
set an opera for the theatre of Bologna, entitled II Savio Delirante,
which was extremely admired. His style of duetti and terzetti
certainly resembles that of Steffani, but we find no similarity of
passage, and sometimes he is superior to the Abate in grandeur
of subject, and elegance of phrase in his melodies. Handel is
supposed to have availed himself of Clari's subjects, and sometimes
more, in the choruses of Theodora.
Francesco Durante [1684-1755], whose duets have superseded
all others in the favour of great singers and professors, was long
master of the conservatorio of Sant' Onofrio, at Naples, and
regarded as the greatest harmonist, as well as the best instructor,
of his time. Among his disciples he had the honour to number
Pergolesi, Terradellas, Piccini, Sacchini, Traetta, Guglielmi, and
Paesiello. His masses and motets are still in use, and models of
correct writing, with the students of the several conservatorios of
Naples. His duets were formed from the airs of his own master
Alessandro Scarlatti's cantatas. They are more in dialogue than
fugue, or duo; but composed of the most select, beautiful, and
impassioned traits of melody that the creative genius of the elder
Scarlatti had ever invented, and are put together with such science,
that it seems as if art and refinement in this species of composition
could go no further (d).
Most of the books published in Italy on the theory and practice
of Music, during the last century, have, occasionally, been
mentioned and characterised, in the course of this work : however,
to save inquisitive readers the trouble of turning over different
volumes in search of them, I shall here give a chronological list
of the principal treatises that appeared from the year 1600 to the
beginning of the present century.
The first, and indeed the most ample musical treatise that was
published during this period, was El Melopeo y Maestro, written
in Spanish by Domenico Pedro Cerone, Naples, 1613. This is
a scarce and curious book consisting of near twelve hundred folio
pages, among which though many are bestowed upon obsolete
science, yet there is a complete body of all the speculative and
practical musical knowledge of the times (e).
In 1615 was published at Venice in folio, a book entitled II
Transilvano * a dialogue between the author and his scholar, a
prince of Transilvania, by Girolamo Diruta, organist of the
cathedral at Chioggia. It contains instructions for playing the
(d) Sacchini. who used to teach these duets to his favourite scholars, seldom finished his
lesson without kissing the book. And, indeed, to hear them in a select company, which has
often fortunately happened to myself when Pacchierotti, Rubinelli, Marchesi, Rauzzini, or
Mortellari have performed a part, affords to lovers of such refined and artificial composition,
a pleasure the most exquisite which vocal Music can bestow.
(e) See Book II. p. 475.
* II Transilvano was published in two parts; the 1st part in 1597 and the 2nd in 1609.
Only two copies of the 1st part are known, of which one is at Bologna and the other in the
B.M. [K. 8. h. 22]. An account of that section of the work devoted to the subject of
ornamentation is given by Dannreuther in Musical Ornamentation, Vol. I (Novello).
426
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
organ and other keyed-instrument, with preludes by most of the
celebrated organists of Italy at the time; but in these no keys are
used but those of the church, and all the passages consist of
running up and down the scale with both hands, alternately, without
other intention than to exercise the fingers in the most obvious and
vulgar divisions then in use.
In 1618, Fabio Colonna, a Roman nobleman and celebrated
mathematician, published a tract, entitled Delia Sambuca Lincea,
ovvera dell' Instrumento Musico perfetto; a speculative work, now
become very scarce, on the division of the diapason, which at no
time could be of much use to practical musicians, but at present,
when so many better treatises on harmonics are extant, it would
not be read, if it could be found.
The obligations which astronomy, mathematics, and the general
knowledge of nature, have had to Galileo Galilei, are well known;
but his enquiries into the propagation, properties, and ratios of
sound; discovering the harmonic proportions into which a single
string divides itself when sounding; the sympathy of perfect
consonance, in one string causing another to sound that is tuned
in unison, octave, or fifth, have been so much the means of
extending the knowledge of harmonics, by subsequent writers, that
this great philosopher as well merits an honourable niche among
benefactors to the science, as his father Vincenzo Galilei, among
those who have advanced the art of Music by their labours.
Galileo, who died 1642, at seventy-eight years of age, in his Discorsi
e Demonstration! Matematiche, treats of the vibrations of strings;
harmonies of kindred sounds; propagation of sound, and of musical
proportions. The dedication of these discourses to the Conte de
Noailles, is dated 1638, four years before the author's death (/).
Of the writings of Batista Doni such frequent mention has
been made in the course of this work, and their merits so amply
discussed in the first volume, page 107, that further notice of them
here seems unnecessary.
In 1644 was published, by Galeazzo Sabbatini, Regola facile
e breve per Sonar sopra il basso continuo nell' Organo. This seems
to have been the second tract, after Viadana's, that appeared on
the subject of thorough-base. The author is much praised for his
science by Kircher in his Musurgia, and by Walther in his Musical
Dictionary. But the book is very inadequate to the present wants
of musical students, treating of nothing but common chords, which
are invariably given to every note of the scale.*
(/) Opere del Galileo. In Bologna 1655. Vol. II. Dial. imo. p. 74, et seq. It has long
been a received opinion, that Galileo was the natural son of Vincenzo Galilei, a Florentine
nobleman (see above page 144 and 198); but this opinion has lately been confuted by several
Italian writers, particularly Signor Carlo Giuliani, who sent the late M. Diderot, one of the
editors of the Encyclopedie where the illegitimacy of Galileo is asserted, the necessary
documents to prove, that this great philosopher born at Pisa, February 19th, 1564, was the
legitimate offspring of Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia di Corimo Ammanati di Pescia, his true
and lawful wife. See Elogj Italiani, Tomo V.
* The 1st edition of the Regola facile was published at Venice in 1628, and the 2nd ed. in
1644. A copy of the 2nd ed. is in the B.M. [1042. h. 32].
*27
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
A small elementary tract by Horatio Scaletta [d. c. 1630],
maestro di capella at Bergamo, was published in 1647, called Scali
di Musica per Principianti. Few of the thorns and brambles which
musical incipients meet with in the course of their studies, have
been removed by this writer.
Regole di Musica, in five treatises, in which are promised " true
and easy instructions for canto fermo, canto figurato, counter-
point, singing, and many other new and curious things," by
Giovanni d'Avella, a friar, Roma, 1657. The splendid promises on
the title-page are, however, as usual, very incompletely fulfilled. The
book is full of prejudices in favour of old rules, with many that
are peculiar to the author; which render what was before dark
and difficult, still more unintelligible. From his ignorance of
history, and the Music of the ancients, he advances innumerable
absurdities, giving the Guidonian hand, not only to Boethius, but
to Plato and Aristotle.
Sistema Musico, or " Speculative Music, explaining the most
celebrated Systems in all the Genera," by Lemme Rossi, of
Perugia, quarto, 1666. This is one of the clearest and best digested
treatises of harmonics that was produced in Italy, during the last
century.
Another theoretical, but more desultory and fanciful work, was
published at Bologna, 1670, called Speculationi di Musica, by
Pietro Mengoli, a celebrated mathematician. An account of
this treatise was given in the Phil. Trans. Vol. VIII. N° c. page
6194, seemingly by Birchensha, who, at the close of the article,
has not forgotten himself, or his own interest (g). The speculations
contained in Mengoli's work are some of them specious and
ingenious; but the philosophy of sound has been so much more
scientically and clearly treated since its publication, that the
difficulty of finding the book is no great impediment to the
advancement of Music.
Li Primi Albori Musicali, per li Principianti delta Musica figurata,
by Lorenzo Penna [1613-93] , of Bologna, is one of the best treatises
on practical Music that was published in Italy during the last
century. The first sketch of the work was published in 1656. A
second edition, enlarged, of the first book, appeared at Bologna,
1674. The second book at Venice, 1678; and the whole completed,
in three books, 1684. In 1696, the work had gone through five
editions. The author's rules for counterpoint, and extemporary
playing on keyed-instruments, are concise and clear, as far as they
go; which is, however, very short of what is now wanted, since
the bounds of modulation and use of discords have been so much
extended.
Gio. Maria Bononcini [c. 1640-78], Modanese, Accademico
Filarmonico di Bologna, and father of the celebrated John and
Antonio Bononcini, published in 1673, a work entitled II Musico
Prattico, or the Practical Musician, dedicated to the Emperor
(g) For an account of this musical empyric, see above, p. 370.
428
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Leopold, in thin quarto. This treatise contains many useful
precepts, and examples of composition; but is neither so accurate
as to be implicitly followed, nor so ample as to supply all the wants
of a musical student of the present times. Page 18, he speaks of a
canon, in his opera terza, for fifteen hundred and ninety-two
voices, or six hundred and forty-eight choirs; which, on account of
the difficulty of finding such a number of singers assembled together,
he has reduced to twenty-two. In the historical part of this tract,
his knowledge is not very profound, or reading extensive; and the
authors he cites, in support of his information, give it no additional
weight. The examples he has given of the use of the second, page
64, are, in many instances, erroneous, and such as can be found
in the works of no good contrapuntist of the present century. The
second is not only confounded with the ninth by this author, page
64, but improperly prepared and resolved.
m
-&r3=Qz
^S^
^
3 Z I % 3
23
hF^P
:P=@:
This discord seems to require one of the parts to remain stationary
till the suspended harmony is completed; but Bononcini often
puts both parts in motion. In his example of counterpoint upon
a plain song, page 76, there are other disallowances :
+=t
A.
±*3
^=
EQ
Much explanation and instruction are given for the ecclesiastical
modes, but none of the keys used in secular Music, are defined
or ascertained.
Del Suono de' Tremori Armonici e dell' Udito, by Daniel
Bartoli, in Bologna, 1680 [Rome 1679]. In this truly scientific
and ingenious work are to be found several discoveries in harmonics,
that were pursued by posterior writers on the subject. It contains
four dissertations: the first treats of the similarity between the
circular undulations occasioned in still-water when a stone is thrown
into it, and the propagation and motion of sound. The second, of
the motion of sound compared with that of light; of echoes, or
reflexion of sound, and of its augmentation in a whispering room
or gallery. Third, of harmonic vibrations, and ratios of sound; of
sympathetic sounds; of the breaking a glass with the voice. Fourth,
of the mixture of sounds; of consonance; harmonics; and the
immense increase of sounds in a vessel, or inclosed place, by
repercussion. With many other curious enquiries; and ends with
the anatomy of the ear.
429
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Letter a scritta, &c. or a Letter written by Antimo Liberati,
in answer to one by Ovidio Persapegii, printed at Rome, 1685. The
author of this letter was a scholar of Orazio Benevoli, a soprano
in the Pope's chapel, maestro di capella of several churches in
Rome, and, consequently, himself a composer. His letter contains
characters of the great Roman masters, and descriptions of styles,
more resembling sound criticism than any musical work of the last
century; but it is, unluckily, written in such a vein of general
panegyric, as is more likely to generate scepticism in the minds of
modern readers, than conviction.*
The poet Redi, in the notes to his Bacco in Toscano, a
dithyrambic poem, published 1685, has given many curious
etymologies and explanations of the musical terms used in Italy in
early times.
Angelo Berardi published at Bologna a considerable number
of musical tracts, between the year 1681 and 1693, which, with
a large portion of pedantry and common-place information,
contain much curious and useful knowledge. Their titles are:
Ragionamenti Musicali, Musical Dissertations; Documenti Armonici,
Harmonical Documents; Miscellanea Musicale, the Musical
Miscellany. Arcani Musicali, Dialogo, Musical Arcana, a Dialogue:
and the Perche Musicale, Musical Definitions. If the whole had
been compressed, methodised, and digested into a single treatise,
and all the musical information dispersed through these several
tracts arranged in a regular and gradual order, a more useful and
practical didactic work might have been produced, than Italy seems
to have furnished during the last century.
Historia Musica di Gio. Andr. Angelini Bontempi. Of this
work, an account sufficiently ample has been given in the first
Book, page 118, except stigmatising the pedantry with which
the author has pompously endeavoured to give a scientific air to
the fabulous stories of the Music of the ancients, and to the scanty
information he has furnished concerning the Music of the moderns.
Indeed, by the frequent use he makes of scientific terms, his book,
when casually opened, has more the appearance of a dry
mathematical treatise, than the history of an elegant art.
Of the general state of Melody in Italy, during the early part
of the last century, before it was purified and polished in the theatre,
or enriched and embellished by the genius of Carissimi and
Stradella, the musical reader will perhaps be best enabled to form
an opinion by the following fragments, or musical phrases, taken
from the works of the best secular composers of the time. As every
age has its favourite jokes, proverbs, and cant in language; so in
Music, every period has its favourite passages and closes, which
being perhaps originally produced by some great and popular*
master, are immediately adopted by all cotemporary musicians.
* Liberati was responsible for the Goudimel-Palestrina legend.
430
MUSIC IN ITALY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Thus a beautiful new passage soon becomes common property, and
is incorporated in the general language of Music.
In many of the dialogues of these times, composed in recitative
and short fragments of air, such as Lulli afterwards established in
the French opera, the base to the recitative has passages and
leading notes, exactly similar to those which continued in the serious
operas of France, till very lately, with perpetual cadences in the
voice-part.
Fragments of Italian Melody in the early part of the Seventeenth
Century.
Benedetto Pallavicni, 1609.
^^
^^
Si
t P * \ 1
3=*
'§MM&
+- f> o
,tS=F
-* » ■&
rrrTTrl^H^
^t^^
»> ^*%^:^algJv
H
Bdh° 1 -wjiu^og
^5
y P* ■
■5=
f=r«
^'Jjl 1 up^^
S5
D»
TTTi s gg
SUBTSCTS OF FueUE AND imiTHTlON
yjmm | TTjajJrffi^rrrii'miLU^ frU^
<&F/?fl I&I5.
T?0V£7TA I6Z9.
fr*tfrrMTHiWir rTur^^V-^-i?
431
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
*^^?fft^tr^^M44^4feiffa#
^..sl^jl.iJ^-fefa^fi'l'nPp^P'rPh-Ji1
Jn MEWL!* 1635.
IS
CADE HZ A.
ft r r i -Lfrl Iff r >l|TTTmTriAH^flJUBJJ -C j I * ? ^g
^^-^fr^^^T-n^^^g^
jrirfi^ifcrjcr&irerfi^efr^t
^IJ <i» at ^ *■ ft P *S ?T r la tF «i» f 7 I ifc 1 -J | f 1 » * g J~~^f5 *
432
Chapter IX
Progress of the Violin in Italy,
from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Time
ALTAZARINI, an Italian, called in France De Beaujoyeux,
who, with a Band of Violins, was sent from Piedmont by
Marechal Brissac to Queen Catherine de Medicis in 1577
[c. 1555], and appointed her premier valet de chambre, and master
of her band, is the first famous violinist on record.
Gioseffo Guami, organist of Lucca cathedral, and a voluminous
composer of sacred cantiones, or motets, published about 1586, is
celebrated by Draudius (h), as an excellent performer on the violin.
Indeed, Montagne (i) says, that in 1580, when he was in Italy, the
mass in the great church at Verona was accompanied by organs
and violins.
Agos. Agazzari [1578-1640], born of a noble family at Siena,
a scholar of Viadana, and maestro di capella Apollinare at Rome,
according to Quadrio (k) , was the first who introduced instrumental
concertos into the church, about the beginning of the last century;
but by the word concerti, used in the title-page of this work, is only
meant salmi concertati, or psalms accompanied with violins.
The word concerto first occurs in 1587, in the Trattenimenti, or
Divertimenti, of Scipion Bargagli. And Andrea Gabrieli
[c. 1510-86], organist of St. Mark's church at Venice, published
Ricercari a Quattro, the Fantasias of Italy, in 1589.
Simone Mollinari,* maestro di capella del Duomo, at Genoa,
published, in 1605, Concerti Ecclesiastici, as they are called; but
these, which are in Dr. Aldrich's Collection of Music in
Christ-church, Oxon, were only masses and motets, accompanied
by instruments, which, about this time, became very common in
Italy. Indeed, I was at the trouble of transcribing, in score, one
of the madrigali concertati of Giovanni Rovetta [d. 1668], vice
maestro di capella of the republic of Venice, and one of the first
composers of operas for that city, in order to see how a chorus of
{h) Bibl. Class, p. 1612 and 1638.
(«") Journal du Voyage de Mich, de Montagne en Italie, Tom. II. p. 555. Rome 1774.
(k) Tom. II. parte 2da p. 326.
* In 1613 he edited the 6 books of Chromatic Madrigals written by Gesualdo.
Some charming pieces for the lute by Mollinari are given by Chilesotti in the Lautenspieler
des xvi Jahrhunderts published by B. & H. in 1891.
Voi,. ii. 28. 433
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
six voices, fugato, was accompanied; and found the instruments were
two violins and a base, wholly different from the voice-parts; but,
except an introduction or symphony to each movement, and short
ritornels, they had little to do. These madrigals were first published
in 1625.*
Concertos, merely instrumental, either for the church or
chamber, seem to have had no existence, till about the time of
Corelli. The honour of the invention has been assigned to Torelli,
his cotemporary, but from no good authority (/).
It has already been observed, in speaking of English Fantasias
(page 283), that instruments were first admitted into good company
for the purpose of enforcing the voice-parts in the performance of
madrigals; and soon after, whenever voices were wanting in private
music-meetings, instruments supplied their place, and the madrigals
were played, instead of being sung. The next mark of favour
conferred upon them, was the composing instrumental parts,
different from the vocal, expressly for instruments, as
accompaniments to masses and madrigals, which were then said to
be concertati. Quagliati [b. c. 1560], Valle's music-master, is said
to have first introduced la musica concertata into the churches of
Rome, in 1606; though, according to Montagne, the voices were
accompanied by violins in the church, at Verona, long before that
period.
As to sonatas, or trios, for two violins and a base,** the first
that my musical enquiries have discovered, were published by
Francesco Turini, organist of the Duomo, at Brescia, under the
following title : Madrigali a una, due, tre Voci, con alcune Sonate
a due & a tre, Ven. 1624 [also 1621]. I was instigated by this
early date to score one of these sonatas, which consisted of only a
single movement, in fugue and imitation throughout; in which so
little use was made of the power of the bow in varying the expression
of the same notes, that each part might have been as well played on
one instrument as another.
The violin does not appear to have been Turini's instrument,
who, besides being an organist, was a deep and learned
contrapuntist, and canonist (m).
Carlo Farina, of Mantua, who published Pavans and Sonatas
for the Violin, in 1628, was, however, a celebrated performer on that
(/) Six Concertos for the church, by Ales. Scarlatti, were printed in England by Benjamin
Cook in New-street, Covent-garden, early in this century; but when they were composed is
not easy to discover. They were too grave perhaps for any other place than the church; but
the fugues, harmony, and modulation, are very fine.***
(m) See account of him in the preceding chapter.
* Ludovico Viadana uses the word Concerto in some motets for voices and organs which
were published in 1602-3. These he called Concerti ecclesiastici.
** The earliest sonate of this kind is by Giov. Gabrieli (Royal Lib., Berlin), and is for 3
violins with ad lib. bass (1615). It is given in full in E. van der Straeton's The Romance of
the Fiddle. Probably the earliest known solo for violin and bass is a Romanesca by Biagio
Marini, op. 3 (Venice, 1620), which is also reprinted the book cited. Quagliati published a
Toccata for Violin and Theorbo at Rome in 1623.
*** Some Concerti sacri by A. Scarlatti were published by Roger of Amsterdam, circa 1710.
434
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
instrument, according to Walther (n), in the service of the Elector
of Saxony.*
Michel Angelo Rossi, who performed so well on the violin
in the part of Apollo in a musical drama at Rome, 1632, has been
already mentioned; as well as Pietro Eredia, a dilettante,
celebrated by Valle for his excellent performance on the violin in
the church, for his amusement (o). Another performer on that
instrument was introduced on the stage at Rome, in an opera called
Amor per Vendetta, 1673 (P).
A Quartetto, composed by Gregorio Allegri, for two violins,
tenor, and base, which Kircher has inserted in his Musurgia,
published 1652, the year when this author of the celebrated Miserere,
which is constantly performed in the Papal chapel during
Passion-week, died, does not manifest any great progress which the
violin tribe had made towards perfection, about the middle of the
last century. The celebrity and importance which this family has
acquired, since it may be said to have got up in the world, and made
so much noise every where, may excite curiosity in its admirers
about its manner of going on, and passing its time, one hundred
and thirty years ago, before its offspring had contrived to be invited
as pleasant and necessary companions in all places of ceremony,
festivity and amusement. The disposition of the several orders and
ranks of this fraternity, as noted down by the learned Kircher, in
the infancy of their state, was the following : Violino primo, Violino
secondo, Alto, and Basso di Viola; an order that is still continued
in their private, as well as public meetings, which may afford some
satisfaction to curious enquirers into family-compacts. And it
must appear somewhat singular, that though many of this race are
of a gigantic size, yet the great usually submit to be led and governed
by the small, in every congress or muster, be their numbers ever so
considerable.**
Though there was only one violin employed in the first operas
by Jacopo Peri and Monteverde,*** yet, as the musical drama
improved and the orchestra was augmented, the superiority of that
instrument was soon discovered by its effects, not only in the theatre,
but in private performances; and the most eminent masters, without
knowing much of its peculiar genius or powers, thought it no
degradation to compose pieces expressly for the use of its votaries.
Among the most early of these productions may be ranked the
Suonate per Chiesa, of Legrenzi [c. 1625-90], published at Venice,
1655; Suonate da Chiesa e camera, 1656; Una muta di Suonate,
(n) Musical Lexicon.
(o) In the original it is said per sua divozione.
(P) Aggiunte all' atto primo.
* In 1627 Farina published a work entitled Capriccio Stravagante, in which attempts are
made to imitate the cackling of hens, the barking of dogs, the noise of cats, the sound of
drums and fifes, etc. In an appendix he explains how to produce these effects.
** Kircher's Musurgia was published in 1650.
*** The instruments used in Peri's Euridice were, a harpsichord, a chitarrone, a lira grande,
and a large lute. Monteverdi uses two violins in his Orfeo.
435
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
1664; and Suonate a due Violini e Violone, 1677.* Of this last
work I am in possession; and, upon scoring it, find, that though
Legrenzi has introduced into these pieces some of the best melody
of the time, and there is considerable merit in the texture and
contrivance of the parts, yet, for want of the knowledge of the bow,
or the particular energies and expressions of the violin, these
compositions have been long since justly superseded and effaced, by
superior productions of the same kind.
Stradella's instrument is said by the Italians to have been the
violin; but as none of his pieces expressly composed for that
instrument are come to my knowledge, his fame must rest upon his
vocal productions, of which an account, character, and specimens,
will be given in the chapter concerning the Sacred Drama or
Oratorio. The next composer, therefore, for the violin, and, indeed,
the first who seems to have written for it with the spirit and
intelligence of a real master of the instrument, seems to be
Giambatista Bassani [c. 1657-1716], of Bologna, the violin-master
of Corelli (q). Bassani was a man of extensive knowledge and
abilities in his art; having been not only a successful composer for
the church, the theatre, and the chamber, but an excellent performer
on the violin, as I was assured by Padre Martini his townsman,
who was old enough to have formed his opinion from those who
had often heard him perform. And, indeed, his sonatas for the
violin, and accompaniments for that instrument to his masses,
motets, psalms, and cantatas, manifest a knowledge of the
finger-board and bow, which appears in the works of no other
composer, anterior to Corelli, which I have been able to find; and
the lovers of the pure harmony and simple melody of that admirable
master would still receive great pleasure from the performance of
Bassani's sonatas for two violins and a base; in which they would
hear, not only the general musical language of the time, but the mild
accents and particular tones of Corelli' s own mellifluous voice.**
Though Giuseppe Torelli [d. c. 1708], of Verona, was an
eminent performer on the violin, and a voluminous composer for
that instrument, during the latter end of the last century, his
productions for that instrument are now so superannuated, as almost
to cease to be Music; for having little original melody, and no
uncommon stock of harmony or modulation, there is nothing left to
make amends for the want of novelty and elegance. This author,
who was a member of the Philarmonic Academy at Bologna, and
first violin of the church of San Petronio in the same city, published
seven different works for violins, and left behind him an eighth
opera, which was published in 1709 by his brother, Felice Torelli,
after the author's decease, under the title of Concerti grossi con
(q) The tradition at Rome is, that Corelli had lessons of old Laurenti of Bologna; and
being born in the neighbourhood of that city, where both these masters resided, it is possible
he may have received instructions from both.
* The dates of Legxenzi's Church Sonatas are 1654, 1655, 1663, and 1677.
** Bassani published Balletti, Correnti, Gighe e Sarabande for violin and violone, or
Spinet in 1677.
436
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
una pastorale per il santissimo natale, consisting of twelve concertos
in eight parts, which has been thought the best of his works, and
the model of grand concertos for a numerous band (r) .
About the same time, Giuseppe Valentini [b. c. 1680], among
other composers, a dozzina, published, in Holland, nine different
works for violins; the seventh and last of which were, Concerti
Grossi for four violins, tenor, and two bases; but they have been
long since consigned to oblivion, without any loss to the public,
or injustice to the author.*
Antonio Veracini [fl. c. 1650-1700], uncle and master to
Francesco Maria Veracini, the celebrated performer on the violin,
published, at Florence in 1692, Ten Sonatas, the usual number, till
Corelli's time; and, afterwards, Sonate da Chiesa, two sets; but this
author not being possessed of the knowledge, hand, or caprice of
his nephew, his works are now not sufficiently interesting to merit
any further notice here.
We are now arrived at a memorable aera for the violin, tenor,
and violoncello', when the works and performance of the admirable
Arcangelo Corelli [1653-1713], rendered them respectable, and
fixed their use and reputation, in all probability, as long as the
present system of Music shall continue to delight the ears of mankind.
Indeed, this most excellent master had the happiness of enjoying
part of his fame during mortality; for scarce a cotemporary musical
writer, historian, or poet, neglected to celebrate his genius and
talents; and his productions have contributed longer to charm the
lovers of Music by the mere powers of the bow, without the
assistance of the human voice, than those of any composer that has
yet existed. Haydn, indeed, with more varied abilities, and a
much more creative genius, when instruments of all kinds are better
understood, has captivated the musical world in, perhaps, a still
higher degree; but whether the duration of his favour will be equal
to that of Corelli, who reigned supreme in all concerts, and excited
undiminished rapture full half a century, must be left to the deter-
mination of time, and the encreased rage of depraved appetites for
novelty.
Corelli was born at Fusignano, near Imola, in the territory of
Bologna, in February 1653. He is said, by Adami (s), to have
received his first instructions in counterpoint from Matteo Simonelli
of the Papal chapel; and the general opinion is, that his master on
the violin was Giambatista Bassani, of Bologna. It has been said
(t), without authority, that Corelli went to Paris in the year 1672,
but was soon driven thence by the jealousy and violence of Lulli.
That he visited Germany, after he had finished his studies, we are
(r) Quantz : Arte de la Flute, ch. xviii. § 30 & 58.
(s) Ubi supra, p. 209.
(t) Life of Handel, 1760, p. 46.
* Only 8 works, printed at Rome, Amsterdam, Bologna, and London, are listed by
Grove's. A sonate from a set of Sonates a 5 e 4, for strings, which Riemann includes in his
Alte Kammermusik and ascribes to Giovanni Valentini, is probably the work of Guiseppe.
437
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
assured by Gaspar Printz (u), who informs us, that he was in the
service of the Duke of Bavaria, in 1680. Soon after this period,
he seems to have returned to Italy, and settled at Rome, where,
about 1683, he published his first Twelve Sonatas. In 1685, the
second set appeared, under the title of Balletti da Camera, which,
the same year, gave rise to a controversy between the author and
Paolo Colonna, concerning the diatonic succession of fifths, between
the first treble and the base of the allemand in the second sonata,
as has been mentioned elsewhere. In 1690 [1689], Corelli
published the third opera of his sonatas; and in 1694, the fourth,
which consisting of movements fit for dancing, like the second, he
called Balletti da Camera.
In the works of the poet Guidi, published at Verona, 1726, it
is recorded that, in 1686, when our King James II. piously sent
an ambassador to Pope Innocent XI. to make a tender of his duty
as a faithful son of the Romish church, at a grand academia which
Christina Queen of Sweden, then a proselyte, and resident in the
Alma Citta di Roma, gave on the occasion, the Music was composed
by Bernardo Pasquini, and the band, amounting to one hundred
and fifty performers on bowed-instruments, instrumenti d' arco, led
by Arcangelo Corelli.
About this time, when the opera was in a very flourishing state
at Rome, Corelli led the band, as principal violin (x).
But his solos, the work by which he acquired the greatest
reputation during his life time, did not appear till the year 1700,
when they were published at Rome, under the following title :
Sonate a Violino, e Violone, o Cembalo, Opera quinta, Parte prima,
Parte seconda, Preludii, Allemande, Corrente, Gighe, Sarabande,
Gavotte, e Follia. This work was dedicated to Sophia Charlotta,
Electress of Brandenburg. His great patron at Rome was Cardinal
Ottoboni, the general encourager of polite arts and learning, to
whom, in 1694, he dedicates his Opera Quinta [Op. 4], and in
whose palace he constantly resided, col spetiosa carattere d' attuale
servitore of his eminence, as he expresses himself in the dedication.
Crescimbeni (y), speaking of the splendid and majestic academia,
or concert, held at Cardinal Ottoboni' s every Monday evening,
says, that this performance was regulated by Arcangelo Corelli,
that most eminent professor of the violin : famosissimo professore
di violino.
In 1708, we have an honourable testimony of his high rank in
the profession, given at Venice in the first edition of the Armonico
prattico al Cembalo, by Francesco Gasparini, who calls him,
virtuosissimo di violino, e vero Orfeo di nostro tempo (z). And
Adami, in speaking of Simonelli, Corelli's first master in COUnter-
fa) Satyr. Tomponist, 3ten. Theil. p. 227.
(x) See above.
(y) Comment, dela Volg. Poesia, Vol. I. chap, xi Rorna 1702.
{z) Cap. VII.
43«
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
point, says, that he made many scholars, "among whom, the most
celebrated was the famous Corelli, the chief glory of the age, with
the fame of whose five works, already published, the world is filled;
and the sixth, consisting of concertos, which he is now (1711)
polishing for the press, will complete his immortality (a)."
A very particular and intelligent friend, upon whose judgment
and probity I have a most perfect reliance, having had a conver-
sation with Geminiani about five or six years before his death,
and a friend of his at that time having had in meditation the
writing a history of Music, he committed to paper, when he got
home, the chief particulars of this conversation, supposing they
might be of some use to his friend; but as the plan he had in view
has been long laid aside, I have been favoured with the anecdotes
and particulars that were obtained from Geminiani, which, as they
chiefly concern Corelli, and were communicated by one of his most
illustrious scholars, who heard and saw what he relates, I shall
insert them here.
"At the time that Corelli enjoyed the highest reputation, his
fame having reached the court of Naples, and excited a desire in
the King to hear him perform; he was invited, by order of his
Majesty, to that capital. Corelli, with some reluctance, was at
length prevailed on to accept the invitation; but, lest he should
not be well accompanied, he took with him his own second violin
and violoncello. At Naples he found Alessandro Scarlatti, and
several other masters (6), who entreated him to play some of his
concertos before the King; this he for some time declined, on
account of his whole band not being with him, and there was no
time, he said, for a rehearsal. At length, however, he consented;
and in great fear performed the first of his concertos. His astonish-
ment was very great to find that the Neapolitan band executed
his concertos almost as accurately at sight, as his own band, after
repeated rehearsals, when they had almost got them by heart.
Si suona, (says he to Matteo, his second violin) a Napoli!
" After this, being again admitted into his Majesty's presence,
and desired to perform one of his sonatas, the King found one of
the adagios so long and dry, that being tired, he quitted the room,
to the great mortification of Corelli. Afterwards, he was desired
to lead in the performance of a masque composed by Scarlatti,
which was to be executed before the King; this he undertook, but
from Scarlatti's little knowledge of the violin, the part was some-
what aukward and difficult: in one place it went up to F; and
when they came to that passage, Corelli failed, and was unable to
execute it; but he was astonished beyond measure to hear Petrillo,
the Neapolitan leader, and the other violins, perform that which
(a) Di cui parla, e parlera sempre la jama in cinque opere dale da esso alia stampe, che
son la maraviglia del mondo tutto, e presentemente sta perfezionando I 'opera sesta de i concerti,
che in breve dara alia luce, e con essa si rendera sempre piii immortale il suo nome, p. 209.
(6) This must have happened about the year 1708; as it appears, that Scarlatti was
settled at Rome from 1709 to the time of his decease. Corelli's concertos appear to have been
composed many years before they were published.
439
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
had baffled his skill. A song succeeded this, in C minor, which
Corelli led off in C major; ricomminciamo , said Scarlatti, good-
naturedly. Still Corelli persisted in the major key, till Scarlatti
was obliged to call out to him, and set him right. So mortified
was poor Corelli with this disgrace, and the general bad figure he
imagined he had made at Naples, that he stole back to Rome in
silence.
" It was soon after this, that a hautbois player, whose name
Geminiani could not recollect, acquired such applause at Rome,
that Corelli, disgusted, would never play again in public. All these
mortifications, joined to the success of Valentini, whose concertos
and performance, though infinitely inferior to those of Corelli, were
become fashionable, threw him into such a state of melancholy
and chagrin, as was thought, said Geminiani, to have hastened his
death."
This account of Corelli' s journey to Naples is not a mere personal
anecdote, as it throws a light upon the comparative state of Music
at Naples and at Rome in Corelli 's time, and exhibits a curious
contrast between the fiery genius of the Neapolitans, and the meek,
timid, and gentle character of Corelli, so analogous to the style
of his Music.
In 1712, his concertos [Op. 6] were published in a beautiful
edition, engraved at Amsterdam* by Estienne Roger and Michael
Charles le Cene, and dedicated to John William, prince palatine of
the Rhine; but, alas! the author survived the publication of this
admirable work but six weeks; the dedication bearing date at Rome
the 3d day of December 1712, and he died on the 18th of January
1713! [10th Jan.]
He was buried in the church of the Rotunda or Pantheon, in the
first chapel on the left hand of the entrance of that beautiful temple,
where a monument, with a marble bust on it, was erected to his
memory, near that of the great painter Raphael, by Philip William,
count palatine of the Rhine, under the care of Cardinal Ottoboni;
on which is the following inscription :
d. o. M.
ARCHANGELLIO CORELLIO A FUSIGNANO
PHILIPPI WILLELMI COMITIS PALATINI RHENI
S. R. I. PRINCIPIS AC ELECTORIS
BENEFICENTIA
MARCHIONI DE LADENSBURG
QUOD EXIMIIS ANIMI DOTIBUS
ET INCOMPARABILI IN MUSICIS MODULIS PERITIA
SUMMIS PONTIFICIBUS APPRIME CARUS
ITALLE ATQUE EXTERIS NATIONIBUS ADMIRATIONI FUERIT
INDULGENTE CLEMENTE XI P. O. M.
PETRUS CARDINALIS OTTOBONUS S. R. E. VIC. CAM.
ET GALLIARUM PROTECTOR
LYRISTI CELEBERRIMO
INTER FAMILIARES SUOS JAM DIU ADSCITO
EJUS NOMEN IMMORTALITATI COMMENDATURUS.
M. P. C.
VIXIT ANNOS LIX. MENS X. DIES XX.
OBIIT IV. ID. JANUARII ANNO SAL. MDCCXIII
* The Concerti grossi were also published at Rome in 1712. Joachim and Chrysander
edited the works of Corelli for the D.M.T., and Augeners have published 2 vols, of Sonates.
440
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
During many years after his decease, there was a kind of com-
memoration of this admirable musician in the Pantheon, by a
solemn service, consisting of pieces selected from his own works,
and performed by a numerous band, on the anniversary of his
funeral. A solemnity which continued as long as his immediate
scholars survived, to conduct and perform in it. The late Mr.
Wiseman, who arrived at Rome before the discontinuance of this
laudable custom, assured me that his works used to be performed,
on this occasion, in a slow, firm, and distinct manner, just as they
were written, without changing the passages in the way of embellish-
ment. And this, it is probable, was the way in which Corelli
himself used to play them.
Of the private life and moral character of this composer, little
new information can now be acquired or expected; but if we may
judge of his equanimity and natural disposition by the mildness,
sweetness, and even tenor of his musical ideas, his temper must
have endeared him to all his acquaintance, as much as his talents.
Indeed, the account that is given, of his dying worth £.6000,*
besides a valuable collection of pictures, and bequeathing them all
to his patron Cardinal Ottoboni, does more honour to his parsimony
and gratitude, than judgment; a musician leaving money to a
cardinal, while he had a relation or necessitous friend in the world,
seems to savour more of vanity than true generosity. And the
cardinal, himself, manifested his opinion of this bequest, by keeping
only the pictures, and distributing the rest of Corelli 's effects among
his poor relations, to whom they naturally appertained.
To attempt to give a character here of Corelli's compositions,
which have been so long heard and universally admired, may to
many of my readers appear wholly useless; yet as they are thrown
aside as antiquated lumber by some, and regarded as models of
perfection by others, my wish to rank each musician in his true
place, with equity and fairness, inclines me to make a few reflexions
on the genius and works of this master, before I quit the subject.
As Corelli orginally stiled the second and fourth opera of his
sonatas, Balletti da Camera, from the dancing and familiar move-
ments contained in them; the first and third set, from their gravity
of style and movement, may be called Sonate da Chiesa. The same
distinction may be made with propriety in his concertos, and even
solos; the first eight of the former, and six of the latter, being much
more solemn and ecclesiastical than the rest.
With regard to the intrinsic worth of his four books of sonatas
at present, notwithstanding the exquisite pleasure they may have
afforded myself and others of my age, during youth, it is very much
diminished by the general improvement of melody, knowledge of
the bow, and boldness of modulation, which have freed invention
from former shackles, and generated new ideas and effects. Indeed,
during the time of Corelli, and long after, every one who knew the
mechanical laws of harmony, however ignorant of the violin, set
* Grove's says ^60,000.
441
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
about composing sonatas, solos, and concertos, for it; but the
great masters of that instrument, whose genius and invention have
kept pace with their hand, have now nearly crushed all such insipid
and impotent attempts.
Corelli's Solos, as a classical book for forming the hand of a
young practitioner on the violin, has ever been regarded as a most
useful and valuable work, by the greatest masters of that
instrument. I was told by Mr. Wiseman at Rome, that when he
first arrived in that city, about twenty years after Corelli's decease,
he was informed by several persons who had been acquainted with
him, that his opera quinta, on which all good schools for the violin
have been since founded, cost him three years to revise and correct.
Tartini formed all his scholars on these solos; and Signor Giardini
has told me, that of any two pupils of equal age and disposition,
if the one was to begin his studies by Corelli, and the other by
Geminiani, or any other eminent master whatever, he is sure that
the first would become the best performer.
The Concertos of Corelli seem to have withstood all the attacks
of time and fashion with more firmness than any of his other works.
The harmony is so pure, so rich, and so grateful; the parts are so
clearly, judiciously, and ingeniously disposed; and the effect of the
whole, from a large band, so majestic, solemn, and sublime, that
they preclude all criticism, and make us forget that there is any
other Music of the same kind existing.
Geminiani, according to my friend's memorandums, whence an
extract has already been given, asserted that " Corelli availed
himself much of the compositions of other masters, particularly
of the masses in which he played at Rome (c); that he acquired
much from Lulli, particularly the method of modulating in the
legatura (d), and from Bononcini's famous Camilla."
Geminiani's character of Corelli, upon the whole, seems very
just: he said, that " his merit was not depth of learning, like that
of Alessandro Scarlatti; nor great fancy, or rich invention in melody
or harmony; but a nice ear and most delicate taste, which led him
to select the most pleasing harmonies and melodies, and to
construct the parts so as to produce the most delightful effect upon
the ear." At the time of Corelli's greatest reputation, Geminiani
asked Scarlatti what he thought of him; who answered, that " he
found nothing greatly to admire in his composition, but was
(c) With these masses I am unacquainted; but I find frequent imitations of the more
natural passages of Scarlatti, particularly in the beautiful adagio of his eighth concerto, in
which there is a great resemblance to a movement in a cantata which was set by Scarlatti in
1704, eight years prior to the publication of Corelli's concertos.
• a 1 1 _L
(d) This was not very intelligible. Nor does the charge appear well founded; as Lulli has
made but little use of the legatura.
442
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
extremely struck with the manner in which he played his concertos,
and his nice management of his band, the uncommon accuracy of
whose performance, gave the concertos an amazing effect; and that,
even to the eye as well as the ear: " for, continued Geminiani,
" Corelli regarded it as essential to the ensemble of a band, that
their bows should all move exactly together, all up, or all down; so
that at his rehearsals, which constantly preceded every public
performance of his concertos, he would immediately stop the band
if he discovered one irregular bow."
There seems some justice in Geminiani's opinion, that Corelli's
continual recourse to certain favourite passages betrays a want of
resource. They were so many bar rests for his invention. All the
varieties of Corelli's harmony, modulation, and melody, might
perhaps be comprised in a narrow compass. The musical index to
his works would not be long.
Indeed, Corelli was not the inventor of his own favourite style,
though it was greatly polished and perfected by him. Torelli's
concertos, though posthumous, were published three years before
those of Corelli; and we know not how long they had been
composed, or how often performed, previous to publication.
For a model of his graver sonatas in the first and third set, he
certainly had those of Bassani in his mind; and for the lighter sort,
he had many models. His solos seem drawn from his own source
more entirely than any of his other productions.
There was little or no melody in instrumental Music before
Corelli's time. And though he has much more grace and elegance
in his cantilena than his predecessors, and numerous slow and
solemn movements; yet true pathetic and impassioned melody and
modulation, seem wanting in all his works. He seems to have
been gifted with no uncommon powers of execution; yet, with all
his purity and simplicity, he condescended to aim at difficulty, and
manifestly did all he could in rapidity of finger and bow, in the
long unmeaning allegros of his first, third, and sixth solos; where,
for two whole pages together, common chords are broken into
common .divisions, all of one kind and colour, which nothing but
the playing with great velocity and neatness could ever render
tolerable. But like some characters and indecorous scenes in our
best old plays, these have been long omitted in performance.
Indeed, his knowledge of the powers of the bow, in varying the
expression of the same notes, was very much limited. Veracini
and Tartini greatly extended these powers; and I well remember
my pleasure and astonishment in hearing Giardini, in a solo that
he performed at the oratorio, 1769, play an air at the end of it
with variations, in which, by repeating each strain with different
bowing, without changing a single note in the melody, he gave it
all the effect and novelty of a new variation of the passages.
However, if we recollect that some of Corelli's works are now
more than a hundred years old, we shall wonder at their grace and
elegance; which can only be accounted for on the principle of ease
and simplicity. Purcell, who composed for ignorant and clumsy
443
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
performers, was obliged to write down all the fashionable graces
and embellishments of the times, on which account, his Music soon
became obsolete and old fashioned; whereas the plainness and
simplicity of Corelli have given longevity to his works, which can
always be modernised by a judicious performer, with very few
changes or embellishments. And, indeed, Corelli's productions
continued longer in unfading favour in England than in his own
country, or in any other part of Europe; and have since only given
wa}7 to the more fanciful compositions of the two Martini's, Zanetti,
Campioni, Giardini, Abel, Schwindl, Boccherini, Stamitz, Haydn,
and Pleyel.
After the publication of Corelli's works, the violin seems to have
increased in favour all over Europe. There was hardly a town in
Italy, about the beginning of the present century, where some
distinguished performer on that instrument did not reside: as
Costantino Clari at Pisa; Francesco Veracini, already men-
tioned, at Florence; Girolamo Laurenti, at Bologna; Antonio
Vitali, at Modena; Cosmo Perelli, and Francesco Ciampi, at
Massa Carrara; Lombardi, at Lucca; Visconti, at Cremona;
Martino Bitti, at Florence; Giacopino di Pistoia, at Pistoia; and
Michele Mascitti, at Naples. These all published Music, of some
kind or other, for the violin, as may be seen in the Dutch
catalogues, and in Walther's Musical Dictionary.
To these may be added Nicola Cosimo, Romano, of whom
there is a mezzotinto print, by J. Smith, from Sir Godfrey Kneller.
This musician was in England 1702, when he published Twelve
Solos, in long quarto, which he dedicated to the Duke of Bedford,
by whom he had been patronised at Rome. The solos have
considerable merit, for the time. It appears, however, that he
was of Corelli's school, and had seen his opera quinta published
in 1700. The print is .dated 1706, and dedicated to Lord Baltimore,
with Latin encomiastic verses on Cosimo, who appears a young
man, in spite of the immense peruque through which he is peeping.
The solos are finely engraved on copper in the Dutch manner, and
were probably printed in Holland.
Francescantonio Buonporti, a nobleman of the city of Trent,
published between the year 1702 and 1714, ten different works,
chiefly for violins.
But besides these, of whom little is known in England, Giuseppe
Matteo Alberti, first violin of the church of St. Petronio, of
Bologna, where Torelli, Laurenti, and Bassani had been before,
published, in 1713, Ten Concertos, in six Parts, for Violins; and
a few years after, Twelve Sinfonie a 4. These being slight and
easy, were much played in England, about fifty years ago, particu-
larly in provincial concerts. As were the concertos of Albinoni
and Tessarini, for the same reason.
Tommaso Albinoni [c. 1674 — c. 1745], of Venice, the composer
of thirty-three operas for that city between the year 1694 and
444
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
1730,* being an excellent performer on the violin, published in the
beginning of the present century, besides several vocal productions,
nine different works for instruments, chiefly concertos and sonatas
for violins, with which in speaking of concertos the tenor
is understood, and in both concertos and sonatas, the violon-
cello. Caldara [c. 1670-1736] published about the year 1722, two
sets of sonatas for two violins and base, in the first set of which the
violoncello was obligato; whence it has been imagined by Walther,
who never saw them any more than myself, that the violoncello
was Caldara' s particular instrument.
Carlo Tessarini [1690 — d. a. 1762], a violinist of Rimini,
published in Holland twelve concertos for a violino principale, with
two ripienos, violetta, violoncello, and basso continuo.
But the most popular composer for the violin, as well as player
on that instrument, during these times, was Don Antonio Vivaldi
[d. 1743], maestro di capella of the Conservatorio della Pieta, at
Venice [1713]; who, besides sixteen operas which he set for the
Venetian theatres, and several others for different parts of Italy,
between the year 1714 and 1737, published eleven different works
for instruments, of which a list is given in Walther, without
including his pieces called Stravaganze, which among flashy
players, whose chief merit was rapid execution, occupied the highest
place of favour. His Cuckoo Concerto, during my youth, was the
wonder and delight of all frequenters of country concerts; and
Woodcock, one of the Hereford waits, was sent for far and near
to perform it. If acute and rapid tones are evils, Vivaldi has much
of the sin to answer for (e). His title of Don was derived from
his clerical character. " It is very usual," says Mr. Wright in his
Travels through Italy, from 1720 to 1722, " to see priests play in
the orchestra. The famous Vivaldi, whom they call the Prete
Rosso, very well known among us for his concertos, was a topping
man among them at Venice."
Albinoni, Alberti, Tessarini, and Vivaldi are, however, classed
among the light and irregular troops; the Roman school, formed
by Corelli, having produced the greatest performers and composers
for the violin which Italy could boast during the first fifty years of
the present century.
Geminiani, one of the most distinguished of his scholars, having
arrived here in 1714, the year after Corelli's decease, and spent the
chief part of his subsequent life in this kingdom, will have an
honourable niche assigned him in that part of my work where the
musical transactions of our own country, in which he had any
concern, are recorded.
(e) Geminiani used to claim the invention of the half-shift on the violin, and he probably
first brought it to England; but the Italians ascribed it to Vivaldi; and others to the elder
Mateis, who came hither in King William's time.
* Albinoni wrote 42 operas. Spitta (Vol. I, p. 425) says that Bach must have admired his
work, as he often used basses by Albinoni for practise in thorough-bass. Bach also wrote two
fugues for harpsichord on themes derived from Albinoni. These are in Vol, 36, PP- 173 and 178
of the Bach-Ges. edition.
445
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Lorenzo Somis, maestro di capella to the King of Sardinia,
was regarded in Italy as of Corelli's school, a little modernised,
after the model of Vivaldi. He printed at Rome, in 1722, his
Opera prima di Sonate a Violino, e Violoncello, o Cembalo, which
are very much in the style of Corelli; some of them with double
stopt fugues, like those of his model, and some without. He was
regarded as one of the greatest masters of his instrument of his
time; but his chief professional honour is the having formed among
his scholars such a performer as Giardini. Chabran was likewise
another of his pupils.*
We are now arrived at the admirable Giuseppe Tartini [1692-
1770], who was so ambitious of being thought a follower of
Corelli's precepts and principles, that after his own reputation was
at its zenith, he refused to teach any other Music to his disciples,
till they had studied the Opera quinta, or Solo's, of Corelli.
Pasqualino Bini, one of his favourite scholars, by that means
became nearly as good a player as himself. The late Mr. Wiseman,
of Rome, acquainted me, that, by the recommendation of Tartini,
he took lessons of Bini, himself, in the year 1738. He had often
heard Tartini, and assured me, that of all the players he ever
remembered, his adagio was the most cantabile and divine : ' ' happy
was the scholar," cried he, " who could catch any particle of his
manner ! which seemed a supernatural gift. He formed the greatest
school that the musical world had ever known." Among the
principal of his disciples, he named Pasquale Bini, of Pesaro;
Paolo Alberghi, of Faenza; and Pietro Nardini, of Florence. M.
Pagin of Paris, and Cherminati of Lyons, were likewise his scholars,
as were several eminent performers in Germany. These likewise
formed scholars of great abilities, which contributed to spread his
reputation and manner of playing all over Europe. Nazzari, of
Venice, was the pupil of Cherminate; Catena di Urbino, of
Albergati; and Manfredi, of Nardini. Ferrari, of Cremona, was
the immediate scholar of Tartini; but afterwards formed a style of
his own, with the addition of the sons harmoniques and long
passages, all' ottava.
Tartini 's first master was an obscure musician of the name of
Giulio di Terni, who afterwards changed places wtih Tartini, and
became his scholar. This circumstance Mr. Wiseman had from
Tartini himself, who used to say that he studied very little till after
he was thirty years of age. He changed his style in 1744, from
extreme difficult, to graceful and expressive.
His favourite scholars were Pasqualino Bini and Nardini. Bini
was recommended to him at the age of fifteen, by Cardinal
Olivieri; and finding him not only a youth of a happy disposition for
Music, but of excellent morals, he had a very great affection for
him. This young musician practised with such assiduity, that in
* Burney is confusing Lorenzo Somis with his elder brother, Giovanni Battista, who was
born in 1676 and died in 1763.
Lorenzo also published 2 books of Chamber sonates, and Mr. Newman Flower has the
MSS. of two violin concertos by him.
446
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
three or four years time, he vanquished the most difficult of
Tartini's compositions, and played them with greater force than
the author himself. When he had finished his studies, his patron,
Cardinal Olivieri, took him to Rome, where he astonished all the
professors by his performance, particularly Montanari, at that
time the principal performer on the violin at Rome; and it was
generally believed, that Montanari was so mortified by the
superiority of his talents, that he died of grief.
Pasqualino having been informed that Tartini had changed his
style and taste in playing, returned to Padua, where he placed
himself for another year under that excellent and worthy master;
at the end of which period, so intense had been his application, that
he played with a certainty and expression which were wonderful.
It was after his return to Rome that Tartini recommended Mr.
Wiseman to him as a scholar, in the precise following words,
which will serve as a specimen of this great master's modest and
ingenuous disposition : Io lo mando a un mio scolare che suona piu
di me, e me ne glorio per essere un angelo di costume e religioso.
" I recommend him (Mr. Wiseman) to a scholar who plays better
than myself, and I am proud of it, as he is an angel in religion and
morals." A character which, Mr. Wiseman assured me, was
exactly conformable to truth.
Of Tartini's life and works, many particulars, which I collected
at Padua immediately after his decease, are given in my Italian
Tour, or account of The present State of Music in France and Italy;
and I should with pleasure add many more, if I was not fearful of
tiring readers less interested about him than myself; some,
however, I cannot resist relating, as due to his merit and character.
Giuseppe Tartini was born at Pirano, in the province of Istria,
in April 1692. His father having been a great benefactor to the
cathedral church at Parenzo, had been ennobled in reward for his
piety. Giuseppe was intended for the law, but mixing Music with
his other studies during the course of his education, it soon grew
too powerful for the rest, and tyrannised over the whole circle of
sister sciences. This is not so surprising as another strong
propensity, which during his youth occupied his attention very
much, which was fencing, an art that was not likely to become
necessary to the safety or honour of a man of so pious and pacific a
disposition, in a civil employment; and yet he is said to have
equalled in this art even the master from whom he received
instructions. In 1710 [1709], he was sent to the university of Padua
to pursue his studies as a civilian; but before he was twenty [1713],
having married without the consent of his parents, they wholly
abandoned him, and obliged him to wander about in search of an
asylum; which, after many hardships, he found in a convent at
Assisi, where he was received by a monk his relation, who,
commiserating his misfortunes, let him remain there till something
better could be done for him. Here he practised the violin to keep
off melancholy reflections; but being discovered on a great festival
447
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
in the orchestra of the church of the convent by the accident of a
remarkable high wind, which forcing open the doors of the church
blew aside the curtain of the orchestra and exposed all the performers
to the sight of the congregation; when being recognised by a Paduan
acquaintance, differences were accommodated, and he settled with
his wife at Venice for some time. This lady, indeed, was of the
Xantippe kind, and being himself very Socratic in wisdom, virtue,
and patience, her reign was unmolested by any domestic war, or
opposition to her supremacy.
While he was at Venice, the celebrated Veracini arrived in that
city [1716], whose performance awakened an extraordinary
emulation in Tartini, who, though he had been thought to have a
powerful hand, had never heard a great player before, or conceived
it possible for the bow to have such varied powers of energy and
expression. He therefore quitted Venice the next day, and went
to Ancona, in order to study the use of the bow in more tranquility,
and with more convenience than at Venice, as he had a place
assigned him in the opera orchestra of that city.
This happened in the year 1714 [1716], the year in which he
discovered the phenomenon of the third sound. It was here, too,
and in the carnival of the same year, that he heard and perceived
the extraordinary effects of a piece of simple recitative, which he
mentions in his Trattato di Musica [1754]. It was during his
residence at Ancona, that, by diligent study and practice, he
acquired sufficient abilities and reputation to be invited, in 1721,
to the place of first violin, and master of the band in the celebrated
church of St. Anthony of Padua.
By this time, his fame was so extended that he had repeated
invitations from Paris and London to visit those capitals; but by
a singular devotion and attachment to his patron saint, to whom he
consecrated himself and his instrument, he declined entering into
any other service.*
By the year 1728, he had made many excellent scholars, and
formed a school, or method of practice, for the students on the
violin, that was celebrated all over Europe, and which increased
in fame to the end of his life.
The author of the compendium of his life (/) informs us that
his first book of solos was engraved at Amsterdam 1734; the second
at Rome 1745, and that he produced above two hundred of these
compositions, which were handed about in manuscript by the
curious; but does not seem to know that nine or ten books of
Tartini 's solos were printed at Paris, of which I am in possession
of opera third, sixth, seventh, and ninth, besides the two books
printed in England, amounting to upwards of fifty solos, exclusive
of manuscripts.
(/) Compendio della Vita di Giul. Tartini, 1770.
* He visited Prague in 1723 and did not leave that city until 1726. During that period he
was, for two years, conductor of Count Kinsky's band.
448
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
Of his concertos, which likewise amount to two hundred, this
author gives a very unsatisfactory account; he says that a
surreptitious copy of two sets having first appeared in Holland,
he would never own them. The first six seem to have been
composed in his first manner before he changed his style; and I
find them mentioned in Dutch catalogues before the year 1740.
The second six are more modern, and were manifestly composed
in his second and best manner, after the year 1744, when he is said
to have changed his style. They were collected, as Le Cene
confesses, from different people who had obtained copies from the
author, and there seems not the least doubt of their being genuine.
Though Tartini's compositions always afforded me great
pleasure, and were never obliterated from my memory, yet as they
are now as much laid aside as those of Bassani or Locatelli, I
thought it right to give them a revision before I ventured my
sentiments concerning their merit.
Tartini, on a recent examination of his works, seems, to my
feelings and conceptions, to have had a larger portion of merit as
a mere instrumental composer than any other author who flourished
during the first fifty or sixty years of the present century. Though
he made Corelli his model in the purity of his harmony, and
simplicity of his modulation, he greatly surpassed that composer
in the fertility and originality of his invention; not only in the
subjects of his melodies, but in the truly cantabile manner of
treating them. Many of his adagios want nothing but words to
be excellent pathetic opera songs. His allegros are sometimes
difficult; but the passages fairly belong to the instrument for which
they were composed, and were suggested by his consummate
knowledge of the finger-board, and powers of the bow. He certainly
repeats his passages, and adheres to his original motivo, or theme,
too much, for the favourite desultory style of the present times;
but it must be allowed that by his delicate selection and arrange-
ment of notes, his passages are always good; play them quick or
play them slow, they never seem unmeaning or fortuitous.
Indeed, as a harmonist, he was perhaps more truly scientific
than any other composer of his time, in the clearness, character,
and precision of his bases; which were never casual, or the effect
of habit or auricular prejudice and expectation, but learned,
judicious, and certain. And yet, with all my partiality for his
style, talents, and abilities, as well as veneration for his principles
and character, I must, in justice to others, own, that though the
adagio and solo-playing, in general, of his scholars are exquisitely
polished and expressive, yet it seems as if that energy, fire, and
freedom of bow, which modern symphonies and orchestra-playing
require, were wanting. It is now (1788) eighteen years since I
visited Italy, and gave my opinions of what then subsisted, with
all the _ fairness and freedom possible; but since that time, the
productions of Boccherini, Haydn, Pleyel, Vanhal, and others,
have occasioned such a revolution in violin-music, and playing,
Voi u. 29. 449
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
by the fertility and boldness of their invention, that compositions
which were then generally thought full of spirit and fire, appear
now totally tame and insipid.
This admirable musician and worthy man died the 26th of
February 1770, to the great regret of the inhabitants of the city
of Padua, where he had resided near fifty years, and where he was
not only regarded as its chief and most attractive ornament, but
philosopher, saint, and sage.
As Tartini, besides his practical excellence, deservedly merits a
place among the ingenious theorists of the present age, we shall
reserve the consideration of his writings on the art for another part
of this work.
Francesco Maria Veracini [c. 1685-1751], and Tartini, his
cotemporary, were regarded as the greatest masters of their
instrument that had ever appeared; and their abilities were not
merely confined to the excellence of their performance, but extended
to composition, in which they both manifested great genius and
science. But whatever resemblance there may have been in the
professional skill of these two masters, it was impossible for any
two men to be more dissimilar in disposition: Tartini was so
humble and timid, that he was never happy but in obscurity; while
Veracini was so foolishly vain-glorious as frequently to boast that
there was but one God, and one Veracini.
Being at Lucca at the time of la Festa delta Croce, which is
celebrated every year on the 14th of September, when it is
customary for the principal professors of Italy, vocal and
instrumental, to meet, Veracini entered his name for a solo
concerto; but when he went into the choir, in order to take
possession of the principal place, he found it already occupied by
Padre Girolamo Laurenti, of Bologna; who not knowing him, as
he had been some years in Poland, asked him where he was going?
Veracini answered, to the place of first violin. Laurenti then told
him, that he had been always engaged to fill that post himself; but
that if he wished to play a concerto, either at vespers, or during
high mass, he should have a place assigned him. Veracini, with
great contempt and indignation, turned his back on him, and went
to the lowest place in the orchestra. In the act or part of the
service in which Laurenti performed his concerto, Veracini did
not play a note, but listened with great attention. And being
called upon, would not play a concerto, but desired the hoary old
father would let him play a solo at the bottom of the choir, desiring
Lanzetti, the violoncellist of Turin, to accompany him; when he
played in such a manner as to extort an e viva! in the public
church. And whenever he was about to make a close, he turned
to Laurenti, and called out: Cosi si suona per fare il primo violino;
" this is the way to play the first fiddle." Many silly stories of
this kind are handed about Italy concerning the caprice and
arrogance of this performer, who was usually qualified with the
title of Capo pazzo.
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
Veracini would give lessons to no one except a nephew, who
died young. The only master he had himself in his youth, was
his uncle Antonio Veracini, of Florence; but by travelling all over
Europe he formed a style of playing peculiar to himself. Besides
being in the service of the King of Poland, he was a considerable
time at different courts of Germany, and twice in England, where,
during the time of Farinelli, he composed several operas (g). I
saw and heard him perform in the year 1745, at Hickford's room,
where, though in years, he led the band at a benefit concert for
Jozzi, the second singer at the opera, in such a bold and masterly
manner as I had never heard before. Jozzi, besides being an
opera singer, was likewise a celebrated performer on the harp-
sichord; and executed at his benefit several of Alberti's lessons,
which he passed for his own, with a neatness and precision that
were quite new in England at that time. Soon after this, Veracini
was shipwrecked, and lost his two famous Steiner violins, thought
to have been the best in the world, and all his effects. He used
to call one of his violins St. Peter, and the other St. Paul.
As a composer he had certainly a great share of whim and
caprice, but he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an
excellent contrapuntist. The peculiarities in his performance were
his bow-hand, his shake, his learned arpeggios, and a tone so loud
and clear, that it could be distinctly heard through the most
numerous band of a church or theatre.
Veracini and Vivaldi had the honour of being thought mad for
attempting in their works and performance what many a sober
gentleman has since done uncensured; but both these musicians
happening to be gifted with more fancy and more hand than their
neighbours, were thought insane; as friar Bacon, for superior
science, was thought a magician, and Galileo a heretic.
Among the violin players of the old school, it would be unjust
not to bestow a few words on my late friend Emanuele Barbella,
of Naples. Of this agreeable artist's musical abilities and
singularities of character, an account has been given in my Italian
Tour, where I have confessed my obligations to him for much
useful information concerning the musical establishments at Naples,
particularly the conservatorios, and for lists of the principal masters
and scholars of those eminent musical seminaries. Besides the
intelligence with which he favoured me in that city relative to my
musical enquiries, in conversation, and in dictating answers to m>
questions while I wrote them down, he corresponded with me in
London, and continued, till the time of his death, communicating
to me, by letter, several other particulars of the Neapolitan school,
a considerable time after my return to England; and among other
things complied with my request of giving me an account of his
own musical education, of which, as it is short and characteristic,
I shall here insert a translation.
(g) Adriar.o, in the winter of 1735 and 1736, had a run of twelve nights. L'Errore di
Solomone, 1744, in which Monticelli performed.
451
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" Emanuele Barbella had the violin placed in his hand
when he was only six years and a half old, by his father, Francesco
Barbella. After his father's decease he took lessons of Angelo
Zaga, till the arrival of Pasqualino Bini, a scholar of Tartini, in
Naples, under whom he studied for a considerable time, and then
worked by himself. His first instructor in counterpoint was
Michele Gabbalone; but this master dying, he studied composition
under the instructions of Leo, till the time of his death; and
pleasantly adds : Non per questo, Barballa, e un vero asino che non
sa niente: " Yet, notwithstanding these advantages, Barbella is a
mere ass, who knows nothing."
This modest ingenious musician, and true follower of Tartini's
principles, died at Naples 1773. And as a small memento, I shall,
on the following plates, insert a Tinna nonna, or Lullaby, of his
composition, which he was famous for playing among his particulai
friends; for though he seemed never to have had sufficient force
to lead an orchestra, his tone and manner were marvellously sweet
and pleasing in a room, even without any other accompaniment
than the drone-base of an open string. His worthy disciple,
Signor Raimondi, with more force in public, has the same sweetness
of tone and temper, in private.
At the end of Barbella's Tinna Nonna, the musical reader will
find Tartini's notation of the Aria du Tasso, as sung by the
Gondolieri at Venice; with an Aria Lecese, by Leo.
Tinna nonna, per prender sonno.
S'em/'/te t-fGrtro s satre Voce,
feUz
ishhd
±3E
Ur
£=F
im
-u
^
^s-
^ ft S^3»
%^H^^ffigb:^
^fSSl
■ffif*
■p
-r— s-
^=^
^^
t '
=5
5fc^
iea
d=±
m^
£±
llppS
*♦* — a^
*£*■
^^
Tji - l5
Sff
fT
i=f
yrrr
3=§l
452
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
Aria del Tasso.
453
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
± iT^'St^H
fciqc
IflXCO ~ H§ C.HELPI VENft
3
±^
Aria, alia Lecese.
di Leo.
B
E^N
S
/»!« «/ tfi// 2fl /? fljjijf. . ;s
-»— »
q V^1
-«' f »
^=^=F=
/?w fie.
it
S^
E=f=^
=»ZE1
BE
m
#^
T^f
^
isfe
^^
bE
j-gg
s
£ESEU
==F
P/er/7 /^</ Titcuvf) a mist fis--w Tanntsu
3
+=$
b ' l- Tj-J ' ''-
^^
J w I
D=
■W a a — v w r w a il
iss
-g-ty
as
£?/?&> il. mesrsoi- nm/H. /?</--•>?'
Oh bio Cm fipnv- ae-
*e
3^
—t m* <g «> <g—
a
^^E
a?
=5£
^ ^ U!'T V*
=«=F
s
^
C« V/0 CHI Fr7f)-G€
--W t£ /»/£
W n>;?
/9/y/ £*£• z>» t>bma
^
te
3=?
it
^
m
*^»\»kr i.jj
^rtT^a^r>
jar
-a*w
ii
3£
4^£?=
/H//» Ml 6W 7>*fl fox
Am cue. lr ?>&-**
Gui DA /? max-
v \ e
^Ei
v^m
§^
_jk'4j
^
The celebrated Pietro Locatelli [1693-1764], of Bergamo,
.who was long resident in Holland, had more hand, caprice, and
fancy, than any violinist of his time. He was a voluminous
composer of Music that excites more surprise than pleasure.
Ferrari [d. 1780J, who died young in his way to England, is
one of the few great performers on the violin, of my own time,
whom I have not heard. Fame was loud in his praise, and by the
solos he composed, of which two books were printed in London, he
seems to have been possessed of a powerful hand, and to have
been by no means deficient in genius for composition.
Battista San Martini [or Sammartini, 1701-75], of Milan,
though the violin does not seem to have been his instrument,
produced for it an incredible number of spirited and agreeable
compositions, between the year 1740 and 1770, when I saw him at
Milan; at which time he was maestro di capella to more than half
the churches in that city, for which he furnished masses upon all
the great festivals. He was brother to the celebrated player on the
hautbois, whose performance and compositions were so long and
so justly admired in London.
454
THE VIOLIN IN ITALY FROM THE XVI CENTURY
Boccherini [1743-1805], who is still living at Madrid, and
whose instrument is the violoncello, though he writes but little at
present, has perhaps supplied the performers on bowed-instruments
and lovers of Music with more excellent compositions than any
master of the present age, except Haydn. His style is at once
bold, masterly, and elegant. There are movements in his works,
of every style, and in the true genius of the instruments for which
he writes, that place him high in rank among the greatest masters
who have ever written for the violin or violoncello. There is
perhaps no instrumental Music more ingenious, elegant, and
pleasing, than his quintets : in which, invention, grace, modulation,
and good taste, conspire to render them, when well executed, a
treat for the most refined hearers and critical judges of musical
composition.
Giardini having resided upwards of thirty years in England,
a tribute to his great abilities will be given elsewhere, in relating
the musical transactions of our own country.
455
Chapter X
Of the Progress of Music in Qermany
during the Seventeenth Century
THE number of musicians who distinguished themselves in
this extensive empire, during the last century, is so great,
that a dry indiscriminate list of their names, only, would fill
several pages. But as the works of many of them are irrecoverably
lost, and their talents forgotten, even by their countrymen, I shall
bestow a niche in my work only to such as extended their reputation
beyond their native soil, and whose works and fame are not yet
consigned to oblivion.
The Lutheran religion, as well as the Roman Catholic, being
favourable to ecclesiastical Music, and the princes of Germany
great patrons of secular productions of the art, of all kinds, will
account for the zeal and success with which it has been cultivated
and encouraged throughout the empire; in which, as Music in
almost all the common schools of every city, town, and village,
is a part of general education, every inhabitant of Germany, gifted
with genius, has an opportunity afforded him of discovering and
improving it in very early youth.
The number, size, and excellence of the organs erected in the
churches of Germany, have consequently been productive of great
diligence and emulation in the organists; and as the passion for
learned and polyphonic Music was not so early discountenanced
by a partiality for simple melody in the cultivation of the musical
drama in this country as in Italy, the reign of harmony and fugue
continued much longer uninterrupted.
One of the most celebrated organists of Germany, during the
early part of the last century, according to Mattheson (h) and
Walther (i), was John Klemme [b. b. 1600, d. a. 1651], in the
service of the Elector of Saxony, at whose expence he had had his
musical education. In 1631, he published [at Dresden] thirty-six
fugues for the organ, after the manner of voluntaries. He was
likewise author of spiritual madrigals, in German, for four, five,
and six voices, and is in the list of the greatest harmonists of his
time.
(h) Crit. Mus. Tom. I. p. 272. (»') Musical Lexicon, in Artie.
4.S&
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
John Jacob Froberger [d. 1667], organist to the Emperor
Ferdinand III. who in his youth had been sent to Rome to study
under the celebrated Frescobaldi [1637-41], was regarded aboul
the middle of the last century, as the greatest performer on the organ
in Germany. He is much celebrated for his abilities by Kircher,
who has inserted a fantasia of his composition in his Musurgia (k),
upon the hexachord ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, accommodated to the
organ. Few of his compositions were published in his life time; but,
according to Walther, his pieces for keyed-instruments were still
highly esteemed among organists in 1732, and heard with
admiration. Mr. Marpurg says, that his works will be always
models for regular good fugues (/). His compositions for the
harpsichord were published at Mayence, in 1696. And so late as
1714, the most important of his works appeared, for the first time,
at Frankfort on the Mayne (m).*
About the year 1660, Andreas Hammerschmidt [1612-75],
born in Bohemia, and organist of Zittau, in Upper Lusatia, by
his performance and compositions acquired great reputation,
particularly by his motets, which during the last century, according
to Scheiben, were sung by authority in every church and school
(»). There is a long list of his publications in Walther, which are
chiefly choral, and said to have improved church Music so much,
that on his tomb-stone he is called the glory of Germany. He died
1675, aged sixty-four.
Other celebrated organists and composers of the same period
were Schein, Scheit, Schutz, Kindermann, Scheidemann,
and Reincke [Reinken, 1623-1722] . This last arrived at the great
age of a hundred, within a few months. In his younger days
having been elected successor to the famous Scheidemann, organist
of St. Catharine's church, in Hamburg [1654], it is related that a
musician of Amsterdam having said, that he must be such a
presumptuous man who would venture to take his place, that he
should like to see him. Which speech having been repeated to
Reincke, he sent him one of his compositions, with the following
superscription : ' ' this is the portrait of the audacious man you so
much wish to see." The Dutchman found so much genius and
learning in this composition, that he went to Hamburg purposely
to hear him perform on the organ, which having done, he would
have kissed his feet in testimony of the veneration with which his
performance had impressed him.
{k) Tom. I. p. 465. {I) Art de la Fugue. Berlin, 1756.
(m) Diverse ingegnosissime, rarissime & non mai piu viste curiose partite, di toccate,
canzone, ricercate, allemande, correnti, sarabande, & gighe, di cimbali, organi, istromenti, dal
eccelentissimo, e famosissimo organista, Giov. Giacomo Froberger, per la prima volta col
diligentissimo studio stampate.
(») Critischer Musikus; Leipsig, 1745, p. 178.
* B. and H. and Artaria publish a large number of keyboard works by Froberger, and
Adler has edited some lor the D.T.O. (Vols. 4 and 6).
The work to which Burney assigns the date 1714 was first printed in 1693. The 1714 edition
was a reprint with a different title.
457
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
At the latter end of the last century, there were several famous
organists of the name Pachelbel; of these, John, of Nuremberg,
born 1651 [1653-1706], is said to have been the first who intro-
duced the overture style into Germany. He was successively
organist of the principal cities of the empire, and greatly improved
both vocal and instrumental church Music, by his numerous
compositions; all of which were still held in great esteem, according
to Walther, in 1732, when he published his Dictionary.
John Henry Buttstett, born 1666 [d. 1727], a scholar of
John Pachelbel, and organist of the principal church at Erfurt, the
capital of Thuringia, is numbered among the great organ-players
and composers, for that instrument, of this time.
Dieterich Buxtehude [1637-1707] , organist of the cathedral at
Lubec, is ranked by Mattheson, in his perfect maestro di capella
among the greatest organists in Germany. His compositions for
the harpsichord were numerous and masterly. Two of his works a
violino, viol da gamba, e cembalo, were published at Hamburg
1696.*
John Kuhnau [1660-1722], of Leipsic, besides being a great
organist and composer, was an eminent scholar and mathematician.
In 1689, he published the first and second part of his Praxis for the
harpsichord; and in 1700, Sacred Histories, represented in fourteen
sonatas, among which is the battle of David and Goliath.** His
works in various languages and faculties are innumerable (o).
George Muffatt [d. 1704] was an eminent organist, composer,
and fughist, and one of the great harmonists of Germany, at the
latter end of the last century. After being organist of the cathedral
of Strasburg, he went to Vienna, Rome, and Paris, where he
continued six years; during which time, he made himself in a
particular manner acquainted with Lulli's style of composition. In
1690, he published his Apparatus Musico-organisticus, dedicated to
the Emperor Leopold; a work consisting of twelve toccate, which
he performed at Augsburg on the day that the emperor's consort
was crowned empress, and his son Joseph King of the Romans.
Other great harmonists of Germany during the last century,
were Klingenstein, who flourished about 1605; Herbst, 1619;
Rosenmuller, 1648; Ebner, maestro di capella to the Emperor
Ferdinand III. 1655, who published an air composed by his
imperial Majesty, with thirty-six variations, and a treatise on
accompaniment; John Caspar Kerl, who had been sent from
(o) This composer was sometimes very grotesque and fantastical; for instance, he
pretended to express by musical sounds the ten plagues of Egypt.
* Spitta has edited the organ works of Buxtehude and vol. xi. of the D.D.T. contains
some of his instrumental music. Some of the Abend Musiken and Church Cantatas are in Vol.
xiv. of the D.D.T. Peters published 14 Choral-Bearbeitr.ngen edited by Dehn.
** The following is a list of Kuhnau's clavier works: 7 Partien in 1695; 7 Sonates in 1696;
and the 6 Biblical Sonates.
The D.D.T. Vol. iv. contains the clavier works edited by Pasler. Madame Farrenc included
7 Sonates in Part II. of Le Tresor des Pianistes, and some of the Biblical Sonates were edited
for Novello and Co. by J. S. Shedlock.
The David and Goliath sonate is included in Niemann's Alter Meisler published by Peters
4*8
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Vienna to Rome to study under Carissimi, 1669; Bernhard 1682:
Heinechen, 1683, who was so voluminous and excellent a theorist,
that he has been called of late years, the Rameau of Germany;
Keirleber, 1691, a great canonist, who published a canon for
five hundred and twelve voices and instruments; and, 1696,
Murschauser. All these published compositions and treatises,
which were well received and useful in their day.
Among Theorists and writers on the subject of Music in
Germany, during the seventeenth century, must be numbered,
Criiger, Baryphonus, Kepler, Kircher, and Printz, some of whom
have been incidentally mentioned already, but too slightly to repay
the reader for the trouble which a reference would give him; we
shall, therefore, assign to each a short article here.
The great mathematician and astronomer Kepler [d. 1630], in
his Harmonia Mundi, published at Lintz, in Austria, 1619, speaks
upon the subject of Music like a man who had not only thought of
it as a science subservient to the laws of calculation, but studied it
as an elegant art, and been truly sensible to its powers.
John Cruger [1598-1662], director of the Music in St. Nicolas'
church, Berlin, published, in 1624, a work entitled Synopsin
Musices, continentem rationem constituendi et componendi tnelos
Harmonicum, which went through several editions. A treatise on
singing, 4to. A hymn-book, with tunes, called Praxis Pietatis
Melica [1644]; a work which had passed through thirty editions
at Berlin, in the beginning of the present century. Prcecepta Musicce
Practices Figuralis, 1625; and Questiones Musicce practicce, 1650.
Henry Baryphonus [,d. 1655], a skilful theorist, flourished
about the year 1630, and was author of several treatises, particularly
one in Latin, entitled Plejades Musices [1615], which Walther
styles excellent.
Athanasius Kircher [1602-80] (p) has been severely censured
by Meibomius and others, for his barbarous Latin and unclassical
ideas of ancient Music, as well as for his credulity and want of taste
in selecting his facts and materials; his Musurgia [1650], however,
contains much curious and useful information for such as know
how to sift truth from error, and usefulness from futility.
Wolfegang Caspar Printz [1641-1717], in 1690, had the merit
of being the first, in modern times, to publish a History of Vocal
and Instrumental Music, 4to. The book is now become so scarce
that I have never been able by my own diligence, or that of my
friends, to procure a copy of it, and all I know of its contents has
been derived from M. Marpurg's extracts and account of it in his
Musicale Essays*; by which, however, it appears, that his plan and
arrangement were good, and the authors he had consulted, the best
on the subject. The work seems never to have been finished, as it
consisted but of two hundred and twenty- three pages, and M.
Marpurg's extracts advance no farther in the narrative than Tuisco
(p) See Book I. p. ioo. * /. Band.
459
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and Bardus, Kings of the ancient Germans and Gauls, who founded
the orders of Druids and Bards. Printz was not only an historian,
but a musical composer, theorist, and critic. His work entitled
Der Satyrische Componiste or Satyrical Composer, seems to have
been produced " in Rabelais' easy chair." The work, which
consists of four parts, is written with great wit and humour; the
jokes, though not of the most delicate and refined sort, are extremely
queer and risible.
German princes had musical dramas, or Operas, performed at
their courts, occasionally, both in their own language and in Italian,
very early in the last century. In 1627, the celebrated Martin
Opitz, whom the Germans call the father of their drama, translated
the opera of Daphne from the Italian, which was set to Music by
the chapel-master Schiitz, and performed theatrically at the court
of Dresden [at Torgau] , on occasion of the marriage of the Elector's
sister with the Landgrave of Hesse, George II. (q). In 1635,
Judith, an opera, by the same poet, was set and performed in the
same manner. And in 1653, an Italian opera written and set by
Benedetto Ferrari, called L' Inganno d' Amore, was performed at
Ratisbon.
The emperor Leopold, passionately fond of Italian poetry and
Music, is said, by Quadrio (r) not only to have been the constant
patron of both, but to have written and set to Music, himself, many
beautiful canzonets and madrigals. This prince, early in his reign,
retained in his service the Italian lyric poet Minato, and the
composer Antonio Draghi, to write and set operas for the imperial
court at Vienna. In 1665, Alcindo and Cloridia were performed
there. Of this last, Draghi was author both of the poetry and
Music. This composer continued in the imperial service near
forty years.
The first Italian opera performed at Munich seems to have been
Adelaide Regia Principessa di Siisa set by Giulio Riva, Medico
Veneziano (s). But the first opera that was exhibited on a public
stage, was Theiles' [1646-1724] Adam and Eve, in 1678, at
Hamburg, in the German language; and the second, Orontes, the
same year. The operas that were performed after this period at
Hamburg, are recorded in Marpurg's Historical and Critical Essays
on Musical subjects, and were very numerous. The principal
composers of which, during the latter end of the last century, were
Strunck, Franck, Fortsch, Conradi, and Cousser, who afterwards
came to England, where he obtained the place of composer and
master of the state band of Music in Ireland. In 1694, Keiser,
Brenner, and Krieger began to compose for the Hamburg theatre,
and in 1696 the operas of the celebrated Abate Steffani, which he
had set in Italian for the court of Hanover, began to be translated
(g) Historisch-Kritische Beytrage zur Aujr.ahme der Musik. von. F. W. Marpurg. III.
band, Erstes Stuck, Berlin, 1757.
(r) Delia Storia d' Ogni Poesia, Tom II. lib. 2do. p. 327.
(s) Drammaturgia.
460
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
and performed in the German language at Hamburg, except the
airs, which were usually sung in Italian. This custom prevailed
in several parts of Germany so late as the year 1733, when Graun
set his opera of Pharao, the Gianguir of Apostolo Zeno, for the
theatre at Brunswie, of which only the recitatives were translated
into German, while the airs were set and sung in their original
language (t).
In the beginning of the present century, according to Riccoboni
(«), the performers in the German operas at Hamburg " were
all tradesmen or handicrafts; when your shoe-maker was often
the first performer on the stage; and you might have bought fruit
and sweetmeats of the same girls whom the night before you saw
in the character of Armida or Semiramis." This may, perhaps,
have been literally true in the infancy of the musical drama in
that city; and even later, some of the under-characters may have
been filled in the manner mentioned by Riccoboni; but afterwards,
it is known that Mattheson was many years a performer in those
operas; and the celebrated composer Hasse, before he went to
Italy, was a tenor singer on the Hamburg stage, in the operas of
Keiser [x).
The Violin seems to have been in general use, and more
cultivated in Germany, during the last century, than in any other
part of Europe; as appears by the number of performers who,
according to Walther, have excelled, and the numerous composers
and pieces published for that instrument, which he has recorded
in his Dictionary; where we frequently find solos, sonatas, and
concertos, expressly composed for it, as well as accompaniments
to vocal Music.
John Schop [d. c. 1665], at Hamburg, so early as the year
1640 [1633] and 1644, published paduanas, galliards, allemands,
and thirty concertos for violins: that is, according to the accepta-
tion of the word in those times, vocal compositions accompanied
by violins and other instruments.
Nicolaus Hasse, organist of Rostock, was a voluminous
composer for the violin during the middle of the last century.
Baltsar, of Lubec, we have already seen (y), was the first great
violinist we had ever heard in England during the last century;
and Knerler, about the middle of this, surprised us nearly as
much.
Conrad Steneken, of Bremen, a dilettante, published, in 1662,
Quartets for two Violins, Tenor, and Base. And Dietrich Becker,
state violin at Hamburg, Sonatas for a Violin, Viol da Gamba,
and Basso continuo, in 1668. John Jacob Walther [b. 1650]
published, in 1676, at Mentz, Scherzo di Violino con Basso. Jacob
Schweiffelbut, in 1684, at Augsburg, Sonaten vor 2 Violinen
{t) Vie de Graun, prefixed in Italian, French, and German, to the collection of that
composer's Duels and Trios, published at Berlin, 1773.
(m) General History of the Stage, p. 212. (x) Life of Graun, ubi supra.
(y) Supra, p. 337-
461
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
und Bass. Henry John Francis Biber, vice Chapel-master to
the Bishop of Saltzburg, published, in 1681, Solos for a Violin
and Base, of which further mention will be made hereafter. And
Godfrey Finger, a Silesian, who was many years in England
[from 1685] during the latter end of the last century and beginning
of the present, was a voluminous composer for the violin, who
when he quitted England returned to Germany, and according to
Telemann (z), was chamber-musician to Sophia Charlotte Queen
of Prussia, in 1702, and in 1717 chapel-master to the court of
Gotha.
So few productions of the numerous German composers of the
last century are now to be found, that I have only been able to
procure specimens of the following masters. Many of the works
of Prsetorius have fallen into my hands, which having scored, I
found to be dry, and totally devoid of genius, though correct in
harmony. Some of Froberger's organ pieces I have seen, which
are full, and in the clear and masterly style of his model,
Frescobaldi. The violin sonatas of Becker were well known in
England during the latter end of the last century, and I have copies
of many of them; but they are of a coarse texture. Baltzer's
compositions discover genius and a strong hand. Finger is more
feeble, but more polished, and like Bassani and Torelli. But of all
the violin players of the last century, Biber [1644-1704] seems to
have been the best, and his solos are the most difficult and the most
fanciful of any Music I have seen of the same period. One of the
pieces is written on three staves, as if a score for two violins and
a base, but meant to be played in double stops. Others are played
in different tunings of fourths and fifths, as for a treble viol. A
second work by this musician, entitled Fidicinum sacro-prophanum
[no date], consists of twelve sonatas in four and five parts, to be
played on three instruments; and a third: Harmonia Artificioso-
ariosa, published at Nuremberg [no date], consisting of pieces
of seven parts, to be played on three instruments. In this last work
he is styled dapifer.
Of the admirable Reiser, who, though he began to distinguish
himself in the last century, lived till the year 1739, I am in
possession of many productions. This great musician, the first
master of Hasse, was born at Weissenfels 1673, and maestro di
capella to the court of Mecklenburg. He was educated at Leipsic,
where he was entered of that university. He began to study Music
in that city, but was chiefly his own master, forming himself upon
the Italian school, by studying the best productions of that country.
His first attempt at composition, that was performed in public,
was a pastoral called Ismena, for Wolf enb utile [1692]. Basilius,
his first opera for Hamburg, was performed in 1694, with very
great applause; Adonis was the next, which gave equal satisfac-
tion. But, according to Mattheson, whatever Music he set to words
on the subject of love, was peculiarly excellent. He kept possession
(z) In Matthewson's Ekrenpjorte.
462
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVII CENTURY
of the Hamburg theatre upwards of forty years, till his operas
amounted to more than a hundred. In the preface to one of them,
in my possession, he calls it the hundred and seventh. And to
these he afterwards added eleven more, Circe being the last, in
1734.* Besides his dramatic productions, he composed divertimenti,
serenate, and cantatas, innumerable. Indeed, this master was as
sure of fancy and originality whenever he put pen to paper, as
Haydn is at present. In a manuscript collection of near seventy
cantatas by the greatest composers of his time, both of Italy and
Germany, in which there are twelve by Keiser, in opening the
book by chance, in any part of it where his cantatas are inserted,
it is instantly known to be his Music, at the first glance; so new
are the passages, and so different the arrangement of the notes
from that of his companions in this collection, amounting to near
thirty of the first order. For grace and facility I do not recommend
him; indeed, they were little sought or known during his time;
but for modulation, ingenuity, and new ideas, he had scarcely his
equal. Much has been said in my German Tour of the abilities
of this musician; but it was said traditionally, as I was not then
acquainted with his works, but took my ideas chiefly from the
excellent authority of the elegant and judicious Hasse. I can
now, however, speak from demonstration, and my own knowledge
of his productions of various kinds, which manifest all the vigour
of a fertile invention, and correctness of study and experience.
Of many other German composers of the last century, whose
works I have not been able to find, I make no doubt but that as
far as harmony, contrivance, complication, and diligence could
carry them, they were superior to all other musicians of the time.
But during the present century, by a more frequent intercourse
with Italy and the best compositions and vocal performers of that
country, with the establishment of Italian operas in all the principal
courts of Germany, the inhabitants of that vast empire have
cultivated Music to a degree of refinement, particularly instrumental,
beyond any former period in the history of the art; and have not
only supplied their own country with innumerable great musicians,
but exchanged with Italy, and furnished every other part of Europe
with professors, whose talents and abilities have been the delight
and admiration of all true judges of composition and performance.
* Basileus was first produced for the Brunswick court in 1692. In 1695 a pastorale, Die
wiedergesundenen Verliebten was given there. This was revised and produced at Hamburg in
1699, as Ismene. For the Hamburg Theatre Keiser wrote 116 operas, most of them on a large
scale, and joined in the composition of many others.
His last operas were written in 1738.
Vols. 37 and 38 of the D.D.T. are devoted to works by Keiser, and the 1902 supplement of
the Handelgesellschaft edition contains music by him, as does Lindner's Erste stehende
dcutsche ofier. II. 3-15.
463
Chapter XI
Of the State of Music in France
during the Seventeenth Century
'HE list of great musicians which France produced during
the early part of this period is not very numerous, nor does
Music seem to have been much cultivated or favoured in this
kingdom, till the operas of Lulli were honoured with the patronage
of Louis XIV. and excited the attention of the public.
Indeed, France had not sufficiently recovered from the horrors
of a long and bloody civil and religious war, during the life of
Henry IV. to make much progress in the arts of peace. However,
the successor of this heroic and beneficent prince, Louis XIII. who
began his reign in 1610, at only six years old, is said to have been
not only a lover and encourager of the art, in riper years, but with
the assistance of Beauchamp his first violin, who made the base,
to have composed several airs (a). Pere Mersenne, Kircher, and
later musical writers, have given, as a specimen of his invention, an
air for a grand dance, in 1618, before he was fifteen years old. Les
vingt quatre violons du Rot, subsisted in Henry the Fourth's reign,
but these only seem to have been used in dancing. The lute was
more an instrument of parade in these times than any other; and
in 1609, Mary de Medicis, Henry the Fourth's second Queen, was
followed in a grand dance by twelve lutes, led by Ballard, the
principal lutenist of the court (b) : and all the numerous collections
of the court airs at this time were printed in the lute tablature, or
notation, to which they were set by the authors of the tunes
themselves.
The principal composer for the church during the reign of
Louis XIII. seems to have been Arthur aux Couteaux, who,
among various musical works in Latin and French, published psalms
which he dedicated to that prince (c). The favourite secular court
composer of this period was Jean-Batist Boesset [c. 1613-85], the
best lutenist, and the principal composer of songs of his time.
(a) Reccuil d'airs de cour. [b) Theatres de France, Tom. III.
(c) A mass in four parts by this venerable master has been inserted in the second
volume of Essai stir la Musique. 1780, which is in general clear and clean counterpoint, a
capella; however, several errors have escaped the notice of the learned editor, which seem
more likely to have been the mistakes of the engraver than composer, particularly the
frequent violation of the well known rule against the succession of fifths.
464
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Some of his Court Ayres, with their Ditties Englished, were
published in London by Filmer, 1629, of which it is now difficult
to find the measure or accent.*
But the most minute and satisfactory account of the state oi
Music in France, during the reign of Louis XIII. is to be found
in the writings of Pere Mersenne [1588-1648], particularly in his
Harmonie Universelle, published at Paris in 1636, in Folio (d);
a work in which, through all the partiality to his country, want of
taste, and method, there are so many curious researches and
ingenious and philosophical experiments, which have been of the
greatest use to subsequent writers, particularly Kircher, as render
the book extremely valuable. In his twenty-third proposition, liv.
i. this author explains and describes twelve different kinds of Music
and movement, used in France during his time : these were motets,
songs or airs, passacailles, pavans, allemandes, gaillards, voltes,
courantes, sarabandes, canaries, branles, and balets, of all which
he gives examples in notes. But though most of these movements
were the specific names of the dances then in vogue, the minuet,
which, during the present century, has been in such general favour
all over Europe, is never mentioned.
In the Pref. generate, Mersenne speaks of Galileo's discoveries
in harmonics, and in his Liv ii. des consonances, of sympathic
vibrations. In other parts of his work he explains clearly, the
twelve keys major of practical Music; and shews, for the first time,
perhaps, that there may be seventy-two keys, or six for each note,
flat, natural, and sharp, major and minor. There is nothing in this
good father's book which reflects more honour on his taste and
penetration than his partiality for the violin, to which, in Liv. 4. des
Instrumens, prop. i. he gives the preference over all other
instruments then in use, at a time when it was thought unworthy
of being admitted into the concerts of other countries.
It is amusing, however, to see how contented mankind has ever
been in the most rude and uncultivated ages of the world, with
their own talents and accomplishments. A singular instance of
this mental comfort appears in Mersenne, Chap, de V Embellis semens
des Chants, which he addresses " to posterity, that they may form
some idea, says he, of our manner of gracing and embellishing
airs; as such advances have at no time been made in polishing and
refining melody, as at present." In his treatise de la Voix, where
he explains the manner of running divisions and making shakes,
he says, that " of all nations who study singing, and who run
divisions in the throat, the French execute passages in the neatest
(d) This work, corrected and enlarged, was translated into Latin, and published by the
author in 1648, the year of his death, under the following title : De Sonorum Natura, Causis et
Effectibus.
* These Court Ayres were composed by Antoine Boesset (c. 1585 — 1643), the surintendant
of the King's Music, the Master of the Queen's Musick, and father of Jean-Batist, who
succeeded him in these posts in 1644.
Many airs by Antoine are included by Expert in the 2nd series of his Chants de France et
d'ltalie published by Senart at Paris.
Vol,, ii. 30. 465
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
manner; this even the Italians confess, who make a particular
profession of singing. It is impossible," adds he, " to describe the
beauty and sweetness of our vocal embellishments to such as have
not heard them; for the purling of a stream, the meandering of
a brook, or the warbling of a nightingale, is not half so mellifluous.
And I find nothing in nature," continues this pious father, " that
can give the least idea of these passages, which are far more
ravishing than shakes or trills, for they are the very quintessence
of Music (e)." He afterwards observes, that no traces are to be
found in the writers of Music among the ancient Greeks, that this
ingenious and voluptuous people ever had " des fredons & des
passages comme nous autres : trills and divisions in their Music, like
us."
One proposition in this book (xxxiv.) is to enquire whether the
French method of singing is the best of all possible methods} and
determines in the affirmative, not only with respect to this
proposition, but affirms that of all those he had heard sing in
neighbouring countries, as in Spain, Germany, Flanders, and Italy,
he had met with none who sung so agreeably as the French.
" There may," says he, " be now and then a miraculous performer
in other countries, but I speak here in general."
He mentions recitative as a thing little practised in France, for
want of courage. The Italians, he observes, had succeeded in this
species of singing, which Giacomo Peri had invented at Florence
the beginning of the century. Here he speaks of several musical
dramas in Italy, but does not call them operas (/) .
The si, to express the seventh of the key, does not seem to have
been in use at this time in France; as Mersennus in his solmisation
has never introduced it, repeating the mi, in the key of C, for E
and B.
The favourite singing-master and composer of songs, in France,
about the middle of the seventeenth century, was Michel Lambert,
who had so many scholars that he was obliged to teach a
considerable number at a time, and at his own house, where he
formed a kind of academy, and where he finished every lesson with
singing to his own accompaniment several songs to a brilliant and
enraptured audience. Marcel did the same, dancing with his best
scholars, at the end of the lessons he gave at home, on his public
days. The reputation of Lambert, like that of Abelard, was so
great, that his disciples followed him into the country as far as
Puteaux, where he had a villa (g). Lulli married the daughter of
this musician, who was born in 1610, and died 1696.
Though the French have long wished to have a dramatic Music
of their own, their most patriotic writers on the subject have been
obliged to confess, that they owe the establishment of operas in
(e) Liv. I. de la Voix, p. 40.
(/) Liv. vi. V Art de Bien Chanter. A book with the same title was published at Paris,
by Bacilly, 1668.
(g) Essai sur la Mus. Tom. III. p. 44°-
4&6
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVII CENTURY
France to the Italians. The continuator of M. Bonnet's Hist, de
la Musique, M. Freneuse, a furious champion for Lulli and French
Music of all kinds, allows that Rinuccini, who followed Queen
Mary of Medicis into France [1600], had furnished the first idea of
dramatic Music at Paris; and that Cardinal Mazarin, during the
minority of Louis XIV. had two operas, in Italian verse and to
Italian Music, performed by a company of Italian singers, sent for
expressly to impress the court of France with a favourable idea of
the fashionable Music of his country.
The first of these operas, performed at the Bourbon palace in
1645, seems to have been a burletta. Its title was La Festa Teatrale
delta Finta Pazza, written by Giulio Strozzi, but by whom set,
does not appear.* The second was Orfeo & Euridice, 1647. Besides
these, at the nuptials of Louis XIV. 1660, Ercole Amanie, a serious
Italian opera, was performed in the same manner, and well received
at court by the flatterers of the cardinal, says the continuator of
Bonnet's History of Music. M. de Blainville, however, in his
short History of Music, says (h) that he had seen the score of this
opera, " and found, in examining it, all the recitatives, airs,
choruses, symphonies, and dances, both in melody and harmony, of
the same kind as those of Lulli." And adds, that there was in this
opera, " among other things an invocation to sleep, a sommeil,
with ritornels and choruses, of great beauty." All these were
performed before Italy had sent Lulli into France to render French
operas perfect (i). And even before, Perrin, master of the
ceremonies to Gaston Duke of Orleans, had attempted to elevate
the French language to the honour of being set to Music. He
began by short airs and recitatives for a single voice; then composed
dialogues which Lambert, and Cambert [1628-77], a musician
in the service of the Queen Mother, set to Music. At length, in
1659, Perrin ventured to write a kind of pastoral drama, which was
set [by Cambert] and performed at Issy, in the house of M. de la
Haye, and succeeded admirably.
The King being desirous of hearing this pastoral, it was
performed before his Majesty and the cardinal, at Vincennes, and
was much applauded. Encouraged by this success, Perrin and
Cambert associated; and having prevailed on the Marquis de
Sourdeac to join them, he not only assisted with his knowledge in
mechanics and genius for inventing machinery and decorations, but
with money to support the expence of the undertaking. This
(h) Page 87. J'y ai trouve entre autres un sommeil coupe de symphonic, de chant, et de
choeurs, d'une grande beaute. In Marpurg's Musical Essays, Vol. I. p. 183, we have not
only the names of the poet and composer of this opera, but of all the singers and dancers. In
which account, however, there is a mistake : this drama was written for Venice, by Bisaccioni,
1645; and the Music composed by Rovetta. Not written by Camilli, and set by Bisaccioni, as
M. Marpurg tells us.
(i) Hist, de la Mus. ubi supra.
* The music for the play La Finta Pazza was by Sacrati. The first real opera was Luigi
Rossi's Orfeo. The opera produced at the wedding celebrations in 1660 was not Ercole Amante
by Cavalli, but the same composer's Xerse, which had been produced at Venice in 1654.
Ercole Amante was not produced at Paris until 1662. For the production of Xerse, Lully
wrote some additional ballet music.
467
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
triumvirate produced three or four operas, each being confined to a
particular department: to Perrin was assigned the poetry, to
Cambert the composition of the Music, and to the Marquis the
machinery and decorations. Ariane [1661], on the point of being
performed, was stopped by the death of Cardinal Mazarin, as was
every further attempt of the same kind, till 1669, when the King
granted an exclusive privilege to Perrin for establishing operas, not
only at Paris, but throughout the kingdom of France. The opera
of Pomona, set by Cambert, was long performed in the great hall of
the Hotel de Nevers; and, in 1671, at the Tennis Court, called the
Hotel de Guenegaud, where it had a run of eight months.* It was
for Pomona that the two singers Clediere and Beaumavielle, who
afterwards did such justice to the parts allotted them, came from
Languedoc. But upon a difference between the Marquis de
Sourdiac and Perrin, in 1672, the King withdrew the patent granted
to Perrin, and conferred the privilege des academies de Musique
upon John Baptist Lulli; who begun his regency and the
exhibition of his opera called Les Fetes de V Amour et de Bacchus
[Nov. 15, 1672], at the Tennis Court de Belair, which was
honoured, in a singular manner, with the performance of the Duke
of Monmouth, the Duke de Villeroi, the Marquis de Rassen, and
M. le Grand, in a ballet with four stage dancers, before the King
Lulli had already been so fortunate as to find, and connect him-
self with, the lyric poet Quinault, whose dramas for Music were
so superior to all the productions of that kind, which had then
appeared in any part of Europe.
This fortunate musician, the son of a peasant in the
neighbourhood of Florence, was born 1633 [1639]. He had a few
instructions in Music from a Cordelier. His first instrument was the
guitar, to which he was always fond of singing (k). The Chevalier
de Guise brought him into France, in 1646, as a present to his sister.
Mademoiselle de Guise, who placed him among the assistants of
her kitchen, where he was assigned the honourable office of
sousmarmiton (l).
In his leisure hours, being naturally fond of Music, he used to
be scraping on a miserable violin, to the great annoyance of his
fellow-servants. However, his disposition for Music being
discovered, his patroness had him taught the violin by a regular
master, under whom he made so rapid a progress, that he was
admitted among the violins of the King's band ; where he
distinguished himself so much, that he was employed to compose
the Music for the court ballets, in which Louis XIV. at this time
very young, used to dance. But though Lulli approached the royal
presence early in life, it was by slow degrees that he arrived at solid
preferment. In 1652, he was appointed superintendant, or master,
of the King's new band of violins [Les Petits Violons] , which, if we
(k) Ballard's prelace to his edition of Lulli's Operas. (I) Under-scullion.
* Pomone was produced at the Hotel de Nevers, and in 1677 in the Tennis Court of the
H&tel de Guenegaud. (Grove's. Article, Opera, Vol. 3, f>. pfl).
468
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVII CENTURY
may judge by the business assigned them afterwards by Lulli in his
operas, was composed of musicians not likely by their abilities to
continue the miraculous powers ascribed to Orpheus and
Amphion (m).
In this station Lulli was twenty years working his way to the
opera regency and favour of the public, before he composed operas
and had them performed under his own direction. After Les
Fetes de V Amour et de Bacchus, Lulli composed, in 1673, Cadmus;
1674, Alceste; 1675, Thesee et le Carnaval; 1676, Atys; 1677, Isis;
1678, Psyche; 1679, Bellerophon; 1680, Proserpine; 1681, Le
Triomphe de V Amour [Ballet]; 1682, Persee; 1683, Phaeton) 1684,
Amadis; 1685, Roland; V I dyle de la Paix [Divertissement]; andLe
Temple de la Paix [Ballet]"; 1686, Armide; 1687 [1686], Acis et
Galathee : all these were written by Quinault, except Psyche and
Bellerophon, both b}' Comeille, and Acis et Galathee by Campistron
(n).
Lulli, though coarse in his manners, and a bad courtier, was in
such favour with Louis XIV. that he could listen to the Music of
no other composer. This splendid prince not only granted him
lettres de noblesse [1681], but conferred on him the charge of
secretaire du roi, and bestowed many other honours and favours on
his family. And that his compositions were profitable, is evident
from the treasures found in his coffers after his decease, amounting
to 130,000 livres in gold, an extraordinary sum in those days.*
Though externally so rough, and unpolished in his manners, he was
a man of integrity and free from all malevolence. His greatest
defects were the love of wine and money. He had the address to
make himself beloved as well as feared by his performers, an art
absolutely necessary for the manager of an opera, but which can
only subsist by the exercise of authority. Indeed, the superiority
of Lulli's talents gave him an ascendant over his dependants which
greatly confirmed his dominion. And, however difficult it may be
to govern capricious and enthusiastic subjects, real merit, exact
justice, and good treatment, will never fail to preserve order and
obedience.
Lulli married the daughter of Lambert, the celebrated musician
and singing-master of his time, who lived till the year 1720,
Having composed a Te Deum for the King's recovery after a
dangerous illness in 1687, during the performance at the church of
the Feuillants, in the animation of beating time and difficulty of
keeping the band together, by striking his foot instead of the floor
with his cane, he occasioned a contusion that, from a bad habit
of body, brought on a mortification, which was soon pronounced
(»») Ces nouveaux musiciens formes par Lulli, selon M. Laborde, devinerent bientSt les
plus habiles de V Europe, et ce ri est pas beaucoup dire; I' ignorance des musiciens de ce terns
etant portee a un tel point, </«' Us ne pouvaient executer que ce qu' Us avaient appris par
coeur. Essai sur la Mus. Tom. III. p. 444.
(n) Armide, says Bonnet, Tom. III. p. 104, was the favourite opera of the ladies; Atys,
of Louis XIV.; Phaeton, of the public; and Isis, of professors.
* His estate at bis death was valued at 342,000 livres, or about £14,000.
469
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
to be incurable. Every expedient that was tried in order to stop
the progress of the malady being ineffectual, he was informed of
his situation. His confessor refusing to give him absolution unless
he would burn the opera of AchiUe & Polixene, which he was
composing for the stage, he consented, and this new Music was
committed to the flames. A few days after, being a little better,
one of the young princes of Vendome went to see him : ' ' Why
Baptiste," says he, " have you been such a fool as to burn your
new opera, to humour a gloomy priest? " " Hush, hush! " says
Lulli, " I have another copy of it." However, a few days after,
he was not only obliged to submit to the will of his confessor,* but
of death himself, who terminated his existence, March the 22d, 1687,
at fifty-four years of age.
On a recent examination of the operas of Lulli, I am much less
surprised at the high favour they obtained in France, than I used
to be; for though the recitative is disagreeable to all but the natives
of that kingdom, yet the airs, choruses, and dances, are so easy and
natural, that it is hardly possible for a lover of Music, gifted with
a voice and disposition for singing, to hear them frequently
performed, without remembering them. And this accounts for
what I have often heard asserted in my youth, that the audience in
the parterre of a French opera-house, used to join with the
performers in singing the choruses.
Of the first singers in Lulli's operas, of whom an account of
the principal has been given by M. Laborde, in piquant articles of
his Essai sur la Musique, if we may judge of them by the songs
they had to execute, their abilities were not very stupendous; good
voices and good action seem to have been their principal merit.
Many of them were brought from remote provinces of the kingdom,
before they had any knowledge of Music, and were taught their
parts by Lulli himself and his father-in-law, Lambert, merely by
ear. But Lulli not only taught his vocal performers to sing, but
to act, and sometimes gave instructions even to the dancers (o).
The celebrated La Rochois had no other master in singing or acting
than Lulli. Dumeni, whose voice was a counter-tenor, and who
performed the principal men's parts, had been cook to M. de
Foucault, and was utterly ignorant of Music, when he first mounted
the stage. Clediere, Rossignol, Beaumavielle, Thevenard, and the
rest, must have been equally ignorant, as no preparation was
likely to be made for a profession which did not exist at a time when
they should have begun their studies. La Maupin [c. 1673 —
c. 1707], the successor of La Rochois, seems to have been the most
extraordinary personage of all this siren troupe. She was equally
fond of both sexes, fought and loved like a man, and resisted and
fell like a woman. Her adventures are of a very romantic kind.
Married to a young husband, who was soon obliged to absent himself
(oj Hist, de la Mus. Tom. III. p. 207. 209.
* The music for one act survives, and the opera was completed by Colasse, who produced
Lully's posthumous works.
470
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVII CENTURY
from her, to enter on an office he had obtained in Provence, she ran
away with a fencing-master, of whom she learned the small-sword,
and became an excellent fencer, which was afterwards a useful
qualification to her on several occasions. The lovers first retreated
fiom persecution to Marseilles; but necessity soon obliged them to
solicit employment there, at the opera; and, as both had by nature
good voices, they were received without difficulty. But soon after
this she was seized with a passion for a young person of her own sex,
whom she seduced, but the object of her whimsical affection being
pursued by her friends and taken, was thrown into a convent at
Avignon, where the Maupin soon followed her; and having
presented herself as a novice, obtained admission. Some time
after, she set fire to the convent, and, availing herself of the
confusion she had occasioned, carried off her favourite. But being
pursued and taken, she was condemned to the flames for contumacy;
a sentence, however, which was not executed, as the young
Marseillaise was found, and restored to her friends.
She then went to Paris, and made her first appearance on the
opera stage in 1695, when she performed the part of Pallas, in
Cadmus, with the greatest success. The applause was so violent,
that she was obliged, in her car, to take off her casque to salute and
thank the public, which redoubled their marks of approbation.
From that time her success was uninterrupted. Dumeni, the singer,
having affronted her, she put on men's cloaths, watched for him
in the Place des Victoires, and insisted on his drawing his sword
and fighting her, which he refusing, she caned him and took from
him his watch and snuff-box. Next day Dumeni having boasted
at the opera-house, that he had defended himself against three men
who attempted to rob him, she related the whole story, and produced
his watch and snuff-box in proof of her having caned him for
his cowardice. Thevenard was nearly treated in the same manner,
and had no other way of escaping her chastisement, than by publicly
asking her pardon, after hiding himself at the Palais Royal during
three weeks. At a ball given by Monsieur, the brother of Louis
XIV. she again put on men's cloaths, and having behaved
impertinently to a lady, three of her friends, supposing the Maupin
to be a man, called her out. She might easily have avoided the
combat by discovering her sex, but she instantly drew, and killed
them all three. Afterwards, returning very cooly to the ball, she
told the story to Monsieur, who obtained her pardon. After other
adventures, she went to Brussels, and there became the mistress
of the Elector of Bavaria. This prince quitting her for the Countess
of Arcos, sent her by the count, husband of that lady, a purse of
40,000 livres, with an order to quit Brussels. This extraordinary
heroine threw the purse at the count's head, telling him, it was a
recompence worthy of such a scoundrel and as himself. After
this, she returned to the opera stage, which she quitted in 1705.
Being at length seized with a fit of devotion, she recalled her
husband, who had remained in Provence, and passed with him the
47i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
last years of her life in a very pious manner, dying in 1707, at the
age of thirty-four (p).
Concerning the Music of Lulli and his imitators, with which
the French nation was so long delighted, I shall enter on no further
discussion. It has now, indeed, but few adherents; however,
among these may be numbered the author of Essai sur la Musique,
who, in speaking of Lulli, says " he was the creator of a style of
Music, which, since his time, instead of advancing towards
perfection, as is imagined, has perhaps lost more than it has gained."
A supposition which is not very consonant with the seemingly
warm encomiums bestowed by this intelligent writer upon Piccini,
Sacchini, and Paesiello, or, indeed on his favourite, Rameau.
Voltaire, who had lived long out of France, and had had an
opportunity of hearing the opinions of the rest of Europe about
the Music of his country, is more fair and reasonable in speaking
of it, than most writers on the subject.
" French Music," says he (g), " at least the vocal, is not pleasing
to any other nation, on account of the peculiarity of our prosody.
We always lay a stress on the last syllable, while other nations lean
on the penultima, or ante penultima, like the Italians. Ours is ihe
only language which has words terminated by e mute; and this
e, which is not pronounced in common speech, has a note assigned
it in musical declamation, as gloi-reu, victoir-reu, barbari-eu,
furi-eu. And this it is that renders most of our airs and recitatives
insupportable to all that are not accustomed to them. Besides this,
the slowness of our melody, which is a strange contrast to our
national vivacity, will always make the Music of France only fit for
its own inhabitants.
" Our instrumental Music, though less offensive to strangers, is
somewhat affected by the monotony and langour of the vocal; but
many of our movements for instruments, especially our airs for
dancing, have been much used and admired in other countries.
" It is worth remarking, that when Lulli, the father of true
French Music, came into France, the dramatic Music of Italy was
of the same grave, noble, and simple kind, as that which we still
admire in the recitatives of Lulli. And nothing can more resemble
these recitatives than Luigi's famous motet, composed and
universally admired in Italy about the same time: Sunt breves
mundi rosce.
" However, the poetry of Quinault animated the Music, more
than the Music of Lulli animated the words. The genius of two
such men, and great acting, were necessary to form such an
exhibition in some parts of Atys, Armide, and Roland, as neither
antiquity nor any cotemporary people ever knew.
" The airs are not equal to the recitatives of these great scenes.
They are short simple tunes, more in the style of our Noels, or
Christmas carols, and Venetian ballads, than opera songs. But
{p) Essai sur la Mus.
(q) Collect, complette de ses Oeuvres, Tom. XVIII.
472
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVII CENTURY
such was the taste of the times. And the more artless the Music,
the easier it was retained.
"After Lulli, Colasse [1649-1709], Campra [1660-1744],
Destouches [1672/3-1749], and other musicians, have only been
his imitators, till the time of Rameau [1683-1764], a man who
surpassed them all in science, and whose theoretical writings have
made Music a new art.
" With respect to our ecclesiastical composers, though many
of them have been celebrated in France, their works have not yet
penetrated into other countries."
The opinions of this eminent writer concerning the Music of
France will have the more weight, as he was seldom unmindful
of the honour of his country.
There were several organists in France during the last century,
who are still spoken of with reverence by their countrymen. The
chief of these were the three Bournonvilles; the three brothers
of the name of Couperin, whose family and fame still subsist in
the present Armand-Louis Couperin [1727-89], a great organ
player, whom I heard at Paris, in 1770; Chambonieres, who died
1670 [c. 1672], the son of one organist of the name of Champion,
and grandson of another; Dumont [c. 1610-84], not only a good
organist but a good church composer, and the first in France who,
by command of Louis XIV. introduced violin accompaniments to
the voices in the Music of the church; L'Abbe de la Barre, a
favourite organist and composer to Louis XIV. who died 1678; at
which time, that monarch appointed four organists to supply his
place, who did duty quarterly: Tomelin, Le Begue, Buterne, and
Nivers, all men of abilities, who played for the place, and obtained
it by a decided superiority over many candidates; and La Lande
[1657-1726], the most celebrated organist and church composer of
France during the latter end of the last century and beginning of
the present, who began to flourish in 1684. M. Laborde (r) not
only places him at the head of ecclesiastical composers in France,
but in all Europe: " he was the creator of church Music," says
this author, and adds, " that even foreigners, since his time, give
the French the preference in this kind of Music to every other
country." This is a bold assertion, more easily made than proved.
I have not the least doubt but that La Lande was an excellent
fughist and great master of harmony, though, according to M.
Suard's rule, his not having been heard of out of France, is a proof
to the contrary. I own, that in my researches after new and old
Music of every country and kind, I have as yet found none of La
Lande's;* nor has his name yet penetrated into England, though
both the name and works of Lulli, Rameau, Le Claire, and
Mondonville, are well known among us.
(r) Essai sur la Musique, Tom. III. p. 43.
* A copy, probably unique, of a set of 42 motets by him, for chorus and orchestra (21
books bound in 7 vols.) is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
473
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Besides the composers for the church and theatre, during the
last century, there were several secular composers, ohiefly lutenists,
whose names are preserved in the musical annals of France. Le
Fevre, who flourished about 1613; Guedron [b. 1565]; and the
elder Boesset (Anthoine) [c. 1585-1643], whose songs were in great
favour during the reign of Louis XIII. not only in France but
England (s). L'Enclos, the father of the celebrated Ninon, was a
lutenist of considerable eminence, who dying in 1630, left his
daughter an orphan of fifteen years old; a lady, who besides her
wit and personal charms, was a good performer on the lute and
harpsichord, and gave concerts at her house to the first people in
France. Camus is frequently mentioned by French musical writers
as one of their best composers of songs of the last century; he was
of the King's band, and died 1677. The younger Boesset (Jean-
Baptiste), who died in 1686 [1685], was the author of many
melodies that are still sung in parodies and ballad farces, and in
the provinces of France. Le Maire, a musician of the last century,
is certainly entitled to the honour of inventing, or at least of
bringing into general use in France, the syllable si, to express the
seventh of a major key, instead of repeating the mi in solmisation,
by which students in singing escape the perplexing difficulty of the
mutations. The title to the invention, small as it seems, has been
often disputed; but having taken great pains to trace the first use
of this syllable in singing, I have never been able to discover any
musician to whom it is so justly due, as Le Maire.
M. Laborde has inserted in his second volume a great number
of French airs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to which
such names of ancient poets and musicians are prefixed as excite
great curiosity; but when we see how they are tricked up by the
editor, with all the chromatic learning of modern times in the
accompaniment, and taste in the appoggiaturas and embellishments,
it destroys all the reverence and respect which, in their native simple
garb, they would have inspired. This want of fidelity in copying,
throws a .doubt upon all the transcripts and representations of
ancient things that come from France. In the history of an art,
nothing can ascertain its state and progress at different periods of
its cultivation, or satisfy a careful enquirer, but the most genuine
and exact fac-similes. In the drawings given by M. Laborde from
illuminations in ancient manuscripts, and Asiatic and African
instruments, there is such a mixture of modern and European
ornaments, that all ideas of distance in time and place are totally
destroyed.
(s) See above, p. 317.
474
Chapter XII
Progress of Church Music in England
after the death of Purcell
THE chief composers for the church, after the decease of
Purcell, who have not been already mentioned, were Clarke,
the Rev. Dilettanti, Dr. Holder, Dr. Creyghton, William
Tucker, and Dr. Aldrich, with Goldwin, Dr. Crofts, Weldon,
Doctors Green, Boyce, and Nares.
Jeremiah Clarke [c. 1659-1707] had his education in the
Chapel Royal, under Dr. Blow, who seems to have had a paternal
affection for him. In 1693 he resigned, in his favour, the place of
master of the children and almoner of St. Paul's, of which cathedral
Clarke was soon after likewise appointed organist [1695]. In
1700, Dr. Blow and his pupil were appointed gentlemen extra-
ordinary in the King's chapel; of which, in 1704, on the death
of Mr. Francis Piggot, they were jointly admitted to a place of
organist.*
The compositions of Clarke are not numerous, as an untimely
and melancholy end was put to his existence, before his genius had
been allowed time to expand.
Early in life, he was so unfortunate as to conceive a violent and
hopeless passion for a very beautiful lady of a rank far superior to
his own; and his sufferings, under these circumstances, became at
length so intolerable, that he resolved to terminate them by suicide.
The late Mr. Samuel Wiely, one of the lay-vicars of St. Paul's,
who was very intimate with him, related the following extraordinary
story, which he had from his unfortunate friend himself. " Being
at the house of a friend in the country, he found himself so
miserable, that he suddenly .determined to return to London; his
friend observing in his behaviour great marks of dejection, furnished
him with a horse, and a servant to attend him. In his way to
town, a fit of melancholy and despair having seized him, he
alighted, and giving his horse to the servant, went into a field in
the corner of which there was a pond surrounded with trees, which
pointed out to his choice two ways of getting rid of life; but not
being more inclined to the one than the other, he left it to the
* The coupling of Dr. Blow's name in these appointments is an error. William Croft was
the musician who was appointed with Clarke.
475
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
determination of chance; and taking a piece of money out of his
pocket, and tossing it in the air, determined to abide by its decision;
but the money falling on its edge in the clay, seemed to prohibit
both these means of destruction. His mind was too much disordered
to receive comfort or take advantage of this delay; he therefore
mounted his horse and rode to London, determined to find some
other means of getting rid of life. And in July 1707, not many
weeks after his return, he shot himself in his own house in St. Paul's
church-yard; the late Mr. John Reading, organist of St. Dunstan's
church, a scholar of Dr. Blow, and master of Mr. Stanley, intimately
acquainted with Clarke, happening to go by the door at the instant
the pistol went off, upon entering the house, found his friend and
fellow-student in the agonies of death."
The anthems of this pathetic composer, which Dr. Boyce has
printed, are not only more natural and pleasing than those of his
master Dr. Blow, but wholly free from licentious harmony and
breach of rule. He is mild, placid, and seemingly incapable of
violence of any kind. In his first anthem (Vol. II.) which required
chearfulness and jubilation, he does not appear in his true character,
which is tender and plaintive. The subject of the next is
therefore better suited to the natural bias of his genius. There is
indeed nothing in this anthem which indicates a master of grand
and sublime conceptions; but there is a clearness and accuracy in
the score, and melancholy cast of melody and harmony suitable to
the words, which are likewise well accented, that cannot fail to
soothe and please every appetite for Music which is not depraved.
His full anthem : " Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem," is extremely
natural and agreeable, and as modern and graceful as the gravity
of the choral service, will with propriety, allow. And in his
verse anthem, the movements in triple time are as pathetic, and
even elegant, as any Music, of the same period; ecclesiastical 01
secular, that was produced, either at home or on the continent.
There is a very agreeable verse anthem of his composition in a
collection published by Walsh: " The Lord is my strength and
my song," with more spirit in it than I thought he could muster.
But the verse ' ' O Lord send us now prosperity, " on a ground-base
in Purcell's manner, is extremely pleasing and ingenious. Tender-
ness is, however, so much his characteristic, that he may well be
called the musical Otway of his time (u).
William Holder [1616-97/8], doctor of divinity [1660],
canon of Ely, residentiary of St. Paul's [1672], and sub-dean of
the Chapel Royal [1674], not only merits particular notice as an
able and learned writer on the theory of Music, but as an
ecclesiastical composer of anthems, of which three or four are
preserved in Dr. Tudway's collection, British Museum. From the
regularity, and unembarrassed arrangement of the several parts in
these specimens of his composition, it is easy to discover, that he
(«) I once asked Dr. Johnson, if he did not think Otway a good painter of tender scenes?
and he replied, "Sir! he is all tenderness." And the same may be said of Clarke.
476
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
had not studied and practised counterpoint in the superficial manner
of an idle dilettante, but with the application of a diligent professor.
Besides his eminence as a divine, and deep knowledge in Music,
he distinguished himself as a philosopher, a mathematician, and a
philologer. He was one of the first fellows of the Royal Society
[1663], and in treating several curious subjects, nice selection and
application of words manifest him to have been a consummate
master of our language. Indeed, the strength, precision, clearness,
and compression of his style has been hardly ever equalled by any
writer on philosophical subjects in our country; particularly in his
admirable treatise on the Elements of Speech, published 1669, and
drawn up with the benevolent design of giving relief to a person
that was deaf and dumb. In this essay he has analysed, dissected,
and classed the letters of our alphabet so minutely and clearly, that
it is well worthy the attentive perusal of every lover of philology,
but particularly of lyric poets and composers of vocal Music; to
whom it will point out such harsh and untunable combinations of
letters and syllables as from their difficult utterance impede and
corrupt the voice in its passage.
In 1694, Dr. Holder, published A Discourse concerning Time,
in which, among other things, the deficiency of the Julian Calendar
was explained, and the method of reforming it demonstrated, which
was afterwards adopted in the change of style. It is to be lamented
that in treating this subject with so much clearness and abilities,
so good a musician did not extend his reflections on the artificial
parts of time, to its divisions and proportions in musical measures;
a subject upon which the Abate Sacchi has written in Italian (x);
but which rhythmically, or metrically considered in common with
poetry, has not yet been sufficiently discussed in our own language.
The same year [1694] was published by Dr. Holder A Treatise
on the natural Grounds of Harmony, in which the propagation of
sound, the ratio of vibrations, their coincidence in forming
consonance, sympathetic resonance, or sons harmoniques, the
difference between arithmetical, geometrical, and harmonic
proportions, and the author's opinion concerning the Music of the
ancients, to whom he denies the use of harmony or Music in parts,
are all so ably treated, and clearly explained, that this book may
be read with profit and pleasure by most practical musicians, though
unacquainted v/ith goemetry, mathematics, and harmonics, or the
philosophy of sound (y).
Dr. Holder died in 1698, aged eighty-two, and was buried in the
subterraneous chapel of St. Paul's church, where a marble
(x) Del Tempo nella Musica.
(y) This book is said in the introduction to have been drawn up chiefly for the sake and
service of the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, of which he was sub-dean, and in which, as
well as other cathedrals to which his power extended, he is said to have been a severe
disciplinarian; for being so excellent a judge and composer himself, it is natural to suppose
that he would be the less likely to tolerate neglect and ignorance in the performance of the
choral service. Michael Wise, who perhaps has fallen under his lash, used to call him Mr.
Snub dean.
477
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
monument is erected to his memory, with an inscription reciting his
titles, talents, and extensive knowledge.
Robert Creyghton, D.D. [c. 1639-1734] , one of the gentlemen
of Charles the Second's chapel, and precentor of the cathedral at
Wells, has a just title to a place among reverend dilettanti; for
though he was not gifted with great original genius for musical
composition, which he only studied as an amusement, at his leisure
hours; yet he has left such pleasing and elegant proofs of his
progress in the art, as manifest judgment, taste, and knowledge.
This venerable divine living to the great age of ninety-seven, died in
1736 [1733/4]. There are two complete services by Dr. Creyghton
in Dr. Tudway's collection, one in E flat and one in C natural; and
two anthems in E flat, that are extremely pleasing.
The Rev. William Tucker [d. 1679], likewise one of the
gentlemen of King Charles the Second's chapel, and precentor of
Westminster Abbey, was a very judicious composer of choral Music.
Mr. Mason, in speaking of the full anthem : " O give thanks unto
the Lord" [B.M. Harl. MSS., 7339], by this ingenious dilettante,
very truly observes, that " every syllable in this composition has
its just length, and each part of a sentence its proper pause; it
admits no perplexing alterations or unmeaning repetitions, but.
proceeds in one full, yet distinct strain, harmonically, yet
intelligibly (z)."
So many circumstances must concur in forming a complete
musician among the Lovers of the art, who have no other view
in its cultivation, than pure amusement, that however ardent their
zeal and sublime their genius, if they have not been early initiated
in the mysteries of counterpoint, and pursued its labyrinths with
the perseverance of professional students, timidity, embarrassment,
ignorance, and confusion, will appear in their scores at the first
glance of a regular bred composer. In general, their practice,
reading of scores, experience, and application, are inferior to those
of the meanest organist, or ripieno performer : disdaining to perform
under-parts, or to study them in the works of great masters, as
soon as they know their gammut, their chief practice consists in
solos and amusing melodies; so that they remain to the end of
their lives unable to count rests, or keep time, with professional
firmness and accuracy; and either totally neglecting or running away
too soon from plain counterpoint to florid, a want of instruction
and regular study appear in the bases they put to the slightest and
most natural melodies.
The Rev. Dr. Henry Aldrich [1647-1710], appointed dean of
Christchurch, Oxon, in 1689, was a singular instance of an
unprofessional musician obviating all these deficiences, and at the
same time that he was greatly distinguishing himself as a polemical
writer, a polite scholar, a theologian, a profound critic, an architect,
(z) Collection of the Words of Anthems, p. 24, note f. I am acquainted with only three
anthems by this composer: "Lord how long; I will magnify thee;" both verse anthems; and
his full anthem: "0 give thanks unto the Lord."
478
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
and a man of sound judgment, and exquisite taste in arts, science,
and literature in general, he became so profound and skilled in the
theory and practice of harmony, that his compositions, particularly
for the church, equal in number and excellence those of the greatest
masters of his time (a).
Though not more than five or six of his choral productions
continue to be performed, except at Oxford, yet he composed near
forty services and anthems which are preserved in the third volume
of Dr. Tudway's collection, British Museum (b). Besides these Dr.
Aldrich enriched our protestant cathedrals with many admirable
compositions by adapting English words from the psalms, or
liturgy, to anthems and motets, of Tallis, Bird, Palestrina,
Carissimi, Graziani, and Bassani, that were originally set to Latin
words for the Roman Catholic service. Among his compositions
of a lighter kind, he amused himself with setting rounds and
catches, of which eight or ten are inserted in the two books of the
Catch-club, or merry Companion. The smoaking catch: " Good!
good, indeed! " and the round: " Hark the bonny Christ-church
bells," have been always admired; the first for humour and
contrivance, and the second for its pleasing melody and general
effect.
The admirable choral discipline he preserved in his college, at
Oxford, for upwards of twenty years, is still remembered. Indeed,
without neglecting more important concerns, he seems to have
interested himself in the cultivation and prosperity of the art with
as much zeal and diligence, as if his studies and pursuits had been
circumscribed to that alone. He not only had concerts and
rehearsals at his apartments weekly, but established a music-school
in his college, where he both tried and rewarded genius and
assiduity. Music perhaps never flourished so much at Oxford as
under his example, guidance, and patronage (c).
This worthy and most accomplished divine bequeathed to his
college, at his decease in 1710, an admirable collection of Music,
to which by the indulgence of the dean and canons, I have not
only been honoured with frequent access, but been liberally allowed
to transcribe and make extracts from some of the most curious
books, out of the college.
Having, in 1778 and 1779, made a catalogue of these musical
works, I can venture to say, that for masses, motets, madrigals,
and anthems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the collec-
tion is the most complete of any that I have had an opportunity
of consulting.
(a) His harmony and modulation are unexceptionable; but his melodies are sometimes
defective in rhythm, and in his celebrated service in G, the accentuation of the words is
inaccurate. But it was a common error in his time for the measure to be broken and
amputated.
(f>) His full anthem: "Out of the deep," inserted in Boyce's second volume, is excellent
composition, in the manner of our best old masters. In the full anthem : "O give thanks," in
the same volume, he is perhaps a little embarrassed by the unwieldiness of six parts.
(c) See Remarks on Avison's Essay on Musical Expression, printed 1753, page 100, where
a very particular account is given on Dr. Aldrich's choral government.
479
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
I examined in the college a port-folio of fragments and
memorandums, made by this active dignitary of our church, for a
profound and ample treatise on Music, by which it appears, that
his reading and mediation on the art, had been equal to his
application and practice (d).
John Goldwin [c. 1670-1719], or Golding, was a disciple of
Dr. Child, and his successor in the free chapel of St. George at
Windsor, 1697. In 1703, he was appointed master of the choristers
in the same chapel, and continued to occupy both those stations
till his decease in the year 1719. Nothing can be more just than
the short character given of the productions of this master, by the
late honest and candid judge, Dr. Boyce, who, in his short account
prefixed to the second volume of his collection, says that " there
is in them a singularity of modulation, which is uncommon and
agreeable." And when we consider the time of his death, it seems,
by the small number of his works that have come to my knowledge,
as if this composer had anticipated many combinations and passages
of a much later period.
William Croft, educated in the Chapel Royal under Dr. Blow,
was born in 1677 [1678-1727], at Nether Eatington, in Warwick-
shire. His first preferment, after quitting the chapel on the loss
of his treble voice, was to the place of organist of St. Anne's,
Westminster [1700] where an organ was newly erected. In 1700,
he was admitted a gentleman extraordinary of the Chapel Royal;
and in 1707, upon the decease of Jeremiah Clarke, he was appointed
joint organist with his master, Dr. Blow;* upon whose decease, in
1708, he not only obtained the whole place of organist, but was
appointed master of the children and composer of the Chapel Royal,
as well as to the place of organist of Westminster- Abbey.
All these appointments at so early a period of life, being now
but thirty-one years of age, occasioned no diminution of diligence
in the performance of his duty, or zeal in the study and cultivation
of his art. And, indeed, he seems to have gone through life in one
(4) Contents of Dr. Aldrich's papers prepared for a treatise on Music:
i. Theory of organ-building, in which are given the measures and proportions of its
several parts and pipes.
2. Principles of ancient Greek Music.
3. Memorandums made in reading ancient authors, relative to several parts of Music and
its effects.
4. Uses to which Music was applied by the ancients.
5. Epithalamium.
6. Excerpta from Pere Menestrier. Proportions of instruments. Exotic Music.
7. Argument of ancient and modern performance in Music.
8. Theory of modern musical instruments.
9. 10 and 11 ditto.
12. Miscellaneous papers concerning different points in the theory and practice of Music,
in great confusion.
13. Another bundle of papers on the construction of the organ.
14. Ditto, on different instruments. The above in the doctor's own hand-writing.
15. Fragment of a treatise on counterpoint, in a different hand. Theoria Musices.
Transcribed by an amanuensis.
* See editor's note, p. 475, with regard to this. After Clarke's death in 1707. Croft was
appointed sole organist.
480
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
even tenor of professional activity and propriety of conduct. We
hear of no illiberal traits of envy, malevolence, or insolence. He
neither headed nor abetted fiddling factions; but insensibly preserv-
ing the dignity of his station, without oppressing or mortifying his
inferiors by reminding them of it, the universal respect he obtained
from his talents and eminence in the profession seems to have been
blended with personal affection.
In the year 1711 [/12], he resigned his place of organist of
St. Anne's church, in favour of Mr. John Isham; and in the
following year published, anonymously, under the title of Divine
Harmony * a similar book to that of Clifford mentioned above (e),
containing the words only, of select anthems used in the Chapel
Royal, Westminster-Abbey, St. Paul's &c. with a preface containing
a short account of our Church Music, and an encomium on Tallis
and Bird.
In 1715 [1713], he was honoured with the degree of doctor of
Music, in the university of Oxford. His exercise for this degree,
which was performed in the theatre, July 13th, by the gentlemen
of the chapel, and other assistants from London, consisted of two
odes, one in English and one in Latin, written by Dr. Joseph Trapp.
The Music to both these odes was afterwards neatly engraved on
copper, and published in score.
During the successful war of Queen Anne, the frequent victories
obtained by the Duke of Marlborough occasioned Dr. Crofts, as
composer to her Majesty, to be frequently called upon to furnish
hymns or anthems of thanksgiving. Several of these and other
occasional compositions for the church, are printed in his works
and still performed in our cathedrals.
In 1724, Dr. Crofts published, by subscription, a splendid
edition of his choral Music in two volumes folio, under the title of
Musica Sacra, or "Select Anthems in score, for two, three, four,
five, six, seven, and eight Voices, to which is added the Burial
Service, as it is occasionally performed in Westminster- Abbey."
The neatness and accuracy with which this work was published,
being the first of the kind that was stamped on pewter plates, and
in score, rendered it more acceptable and useful to the purchasers;
as whatever choral compositions appeared anterior to this publica-
tion had been printed with types, in single parts, and extremely
incorrect.
In the preface to this work, the author gives a summary
account of our cathedral Music from the time of Tallis and Bird, to
his own. And here Dr. Crofts, like his colleague Weldon, celebrates
Mr. Elford, a counter-tenor, of the Chapel Royal, for whom most
of the solo anthems were expressly composed, " as a bright example
of excellence in this kind of singing, surpassing, as far as is known,
all that ever went before him, and fit to be imitated by all that
(e) Page 370.
* Davy, p. 343, states that the editor was John Church.
Vol,, ii. 31. 481
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
come after him; particularly for his manner of giving due energy
and emphasis to the words of his Music (/))."
To review the works of this respectable master, after his own
age and subsequent times have stamped them with the seal of
approbation, would perhaps be thought unnecessary and arrogant.
Mine is but an individual opinion, it is true; but having for many
years been examining and comparing old authors, without neglecting
the modem, in order to discover their intrinsic worth, and the rank
they held with cotemporary composers, as well as the respect that is
due to them from posterity, I should venture, if I had room,
with all the justice and candour in my power, to examine his works
regularly and critically, with respect to the learning, invention,
expression of words, and other constituent parts of good Music, to
be found in them; but they are too voluminous for minute
discussion; I shall therefore only point out such movements as, upon
a recent examination, have appeared to me the most excellent.
Nothing is more easy than to praise or condemn in the gross,
and by a single epithet pronounce a composition, or even the whole
works of an author, exquisite, or detestable; but as few productions,
by professors of eminence, are equally perfect, or totally devoid of
merit, it is my wish to discriminate, and my custom to assign specific
reasons for censure or panegyric. And with respect to Dr. Crofts,
I was long unable to speak of his works but by tradition, not having
seen or heard them since I played them on the organ in the course
of cathedral service at Chester, upwards of forty years ago. But
having lately examined the chief works of his predecessors, and
informed myself of the state in which he found our choral Music,
I was the better able, in perusing his productions immediately after,
to judge of the additions he had made to the common stock of
melody, harmony, and modulation, during near twenty years that
he presided over the first choir in the kingdom.
Volume I. The movement page first, must have been thought
somewhat elegant at the time it was composed; it still stands its
ground as an agreeable movement, except at the closes, which, like
the sleeves of a coat, change their fashion more frequently than
any other of its constituent parts. The subject, however, is better
treated as a chorus, page 2. The movement, page 3, is so much
in the st3>le of Corelli (see his first solo) that it is difficult not to
imagine the author had it in mind when he went to work. Page 4,
the composition in two or three places is not clear, or defencible by
good rules or example (g) . The rest of the anthem is pleasing, and
(/) Mr. Richard Elford was brought up in the choir at Lincoln, but his voice settling in a
counter-tenor, he was invited to Durham cathedral; where, however, he did not remain long
before he was encouraged to go up to London, in order to try his fortune on the stage. In
1706, his name appears in Downes the prompter's list of performers in Durfey's opera of "The
Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of Birds." But his person and action being aukward and
clumsy, he quitted the theatre, and was admitted [1702] a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, as
well as to the places of lay-vicar of St. Paul's and Westminster-Abbey. He had an addition
of a hundred pounds a year made to his salary in the chapel, on account of the uncommon
excellence of his voice.
(g) Line first, bar sixth, the seventh in the treble, not good in itself, is not to be found
in the accompaniment as figured by the author. Line fourth, bar second, the base, in two
parts, not good. Line fifth, bar first, the base falling a superfluous or redundant fifth is aukward
and unnecessary, as B would have led to A much better, without changing the harmony.
482
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
the last chorus admirable, particularly the pauses at the beginning,
which have a very solemn effect (h).
The opening of the second anthem: " Lord, what love have I
unto thy law," in two parts, is reverential, and free from common
vulgar passages. And the chorus and next movement would be
still better if they were not frequently poisoned and imbittered by
the combination of major third and minor sixth. The next
movement, in §, is tame and languid, but the last chorus is
sufficiently spirited and pleasing to make the hearers wish it longer.
In the first movement of the third anthem, page 18, the base
gives a spirit to an unmeaning treble, till we come to the new point
led off bjf the base, line 3, bar the third, which is pretty and still
modern; and as this was a Thanksgiving Anthem composed, in 1708,
by command, there is a degree of jubilation in the rest of the
movement, which is at least entitled to the merit of propriety (i).
The rest of this anthem has no peculiar marks of strength or
originality.
The fugue which opens the fourth anthem, page 31, is on a
marked and pleasing subject, and admirably treated. The second
movement has only the merit of contrast. The subject of the last
chorus is agreeable and well supported.
Of the fifth anthem : " Out of the deep," there is little to remark.
The two first strains breathe supplication and contrition, in broken
accents, without any marked or measured melody. Indeed, prose
but seldom admits of symmetric air or rhythm in the Music. Though
Dr. Crofts is in general very attentive to the accent of the words, yet,
in the opening of this anthem, laying the stress upon the particle of,
instead of the more important adverb out, seems inaccurate: " Out
of the deep," appears to be the true prosody of the sentence. The
words: " Therefore shalt thou be feared," page 42, seem set to an
air upon a moving base in the style of Corelli's sarabands; at least,
I do not recollect such a regular motion of the base to an air in %
in our English church Music previous to the publication of his works.
The movement: " I look for the Lord," upon a ground-base, is
masterly; but in the next fragment, and in the movement preceding
the chorus, we have little attempts at division in the voice-parts,
which have been condemned in this and other choral composers, as
bordering too much on theatrical levity.
The whole three-part anthem: " 0 Lord thou hast searched
me out," page 50, is so pleasing, elegant, and seemingly simple,
that a production of the early part of the present century, that
surpasses it in these particulars, will not be easily found. Indeed,
it is so superior in every respect to the preceding anthems in this
volume, that it seems of a different period and master. It is luckily
so long that it usually is divided into two distinct anthems. And
(/[) Page 9, line second, bar first, the F natural, in the counter-tenor, against the F
sharp, in the second treble, is a bad expedient for avoiding two fifths with the upper part.
(t) Page 18, line third, bar second, the fall from D sharp to G natural has never been
practised by good contrapuntists since Corelli's works have been known. Page 21 line the
last, two plump fifths have escaped the author, very unequivocally.
483
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
such is the sublimity of the words, and happiness with which the
composer has expressed them, that, notwithstanding its length,
every strain is so excellent, that if well performed, every lover of
divine poetry and Music must be sorry when it is concluded (k).
The fugue which opens the full anthem: " 0 Lord rebuke me
not," in six parts, in the true style, a capella, of Tallis, Bird, and
Palestrina, is one of the most masterly and grand compositions, of
the kind, which our church, or any other church, can boast. The
subjects of fugue are solemn, pleasing, and contrasted; the words
are well accented, the answers true, and, notwithstanding the
number of parts, the whole composition is clear, correct, and free
from confusion. The second subject, at the introduction of new
words, " neither chasten me," is remarkably beautiful and well
treated; after which the plain counterpoint has a good effect in
resting the ear and attention, after these labyrinths; and the third
subject: " O Lord, I am weak," though not new, is differently
conducted from any anterior use that has been made of it; and after
it has been allotted to each part, the return to plain counterpoint is
happy and striking. The last chorus, which is a double fugue upon
two fine subjects, is equally well supported and masterly; and after
it has been extended to a sufficient length, the application of this
subject to different words, is welcome to the ear; and lastly, in the
Amen, there is a spirit and design, which manifest both genius and
learning (Z).
The anthem for three voices: " We wait for thy loving
kindness," page eighty-seven, has a merit of a very different kind;
here the melody, particularly in the first movement, is not only
pathetic but frequently graceful and elegant in a way not unbecoming
the sacred text and place of performance. And the anthem for three
voices, from the eighty-eighth psalm, is truly pathetic and
expressive, from the beignning to the end; but, unluckily, the key in
which it is composed (F minor) is so much out of tune on the organ,
as it is usually tempered, that the effect must be doubly offensive to
those who, though possessed of good ears, are unable to account
for it (m) .
The thanksgiving anthem: " Rejoice in the Lord," Psalm 33,
page 143, is a very elaborate composition, accompanied with
instruments; and if it be remembered, that it was produced about
the middle of Queen Anne's reign, before the arrival of Handel,
our great model for Music richly accompanied, the symphony or
introduction, with a solo part for the hautbois, and two violins,
tenor, and base, must shew Crofts in the light of a man of genius,
(k) Page 62, line second, bar second, there is a mistake in the tenor part which totally
destroys the harmony.
(I) The two octaves in the last fine of the chorus, between the second treble and the
tenor, will be easily pardoned, in so many parts, by a good contrapuntist, for the sake of
the imitations.
(m) In the verse, page 139, "Dost thou shew wonders among the dead," the interval,
which the author calls a ninth resolved upwards into the tenth, being used as an appoggiatura,
should have been figured a J ?
484
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
who, without leaning, or preying upon the abilities of others,
dared to advance farther into the dark recesses of latent effects than
his predecessors. This anthem, on account of its wanting
instrumental accompaniments, is not performed in our cathedral
service, which is to be lamented, as the first and last movements are
extremely pleasing and masterly.
The burial service, which finishes the first volume, is composed
upon an idea suggested by Henry Purcell, who only lived to
accomplish one movement. " Thou knowest Lord the secrets of
our hearts," which was performed at the funeral of Queen Mary,
and his own. It is in simple counterpoint of note against note, so
that every one of the four parts utter the same word and syllable
at the same instant, according to the wish of Mr. Mason, and those
who dislike fugue and florid counterpoint, in which all the parts are
often singing different words. And it must be owned, that in this
solemn service, the effect of simplicity and syllabic coincidence is
admirable. The additions which Dr. Crofts has made to Purcell's
production are worthy of the model he adopted (n). The service is
chiefly in the key of G minor, with frequent pauses, which,
assisted by admirable modulation, have an effect at once grand and
sorrowful. Dr. Tudway, who attended the funeral of Queen Mary,
says that Purcell's anthem was accompanied by flat trumpets.
Though this movement by Purcell begins in E flat, it ends on the
chord of G with a natural third. The modulation quits the
original key at the third bar, and is afterwards more in G minor
than in any other key. On which account Dr. Crofts very
judiciously began and ended his additions in that key. In praising
the simplicity of this anthem, Dr. Tudway does not, as has been
imagined, oppose it to fugue, of which all the old masters he
recommends as models were so fond, but to the light style, with
symphonies, ritornels, and divisions, of which Purcell, and after
him, Crofts and Weldon were so frequently lavish. But the good
doctor not being able to keep pace with them in these flights, tried
to check and disgrace them by censure.
Vol. II. The opening of the first, anthem, in this volume:
" Hear my prayer, O Lord," and indeed every part of it, is
peculiarly pathetic; no vulgar passages, or divisions, occur, whose
sole merit is derived from execution. The words, the sentiments,
and the place of performance, have been equally respected.
The full anthem: " O Lord God of my salvation," is an
excellent composition throughout: the first movement is rich in
harmony and elegant in expression, and nothing of the kind can
be more pleasing than the last movement.
There are few compositions in our church perhaps more replete
with excellencies of various kinds than the anthem: " I cried
unto the Lord," page 86. The counterpoint is clear and correct,
(n) Page 177, line third, bar first, two octaves have escaped the author, between the
c b
treble part and the tenor: £c £e
485
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the contrivance in the fugues and imitations, ingenious and learned,
and the expression, particularly of the verse: " I poured out my
complaints," truly pathetic. There are many other excellent
compositions in this volume, which, to describe separately, would
run this article to too great a length.
The full anthem: " God is gone up," in Dr. Boyce's second
volume, has been always in favour; the modulation is natural and
simple, the harmony clear, and a decorous chearfulness runs through
every movement, suitable to the words, and to pious jubilation.
The next anthem, in the same volume: " Put me not to rebuke,"
breathes a different spirit: the subject, key, modulation, and
expression, are all plaintive; and though there is much art in the
conduct of the fugues and imitations, it is so well allied to a
seeming natural pathetic, as to require no great science to feel its
effects in performance.
The first of the two verse anthems by this author, in the same
volume is elegant and pleasing. This was probably composed
late in his life, when the operas and Italian singing began to have a
general effect on our melody, as the use he has made of
appoggiaturas seems new in our choral books. " Give the King
thy judgments," which immediately follows this, is another very
agreeable verse anthem, with rather more fire and spirit than usual
in this composer's productions. The divisions, however, in this
anthem, were originally too secular for the church, and at present
are too common for the stage.
His anthem published by Walsh, in A Collection of select
Anthems: " Blessed are thy people, O Lord," is clear and correct
composition, with considerable art, and some nerves; particularly
in the third movement: " For thou art the glory." He continues,
however, in all his works, the use of the sharp third and flat sixth,
like his predecessors, to the great sorrow of my ears; and this vile
combination does not seem to have been held in sufficient
abhorrence till the time of Dr. Green, in whose works I find no
traces of it.
There is another very agreeable anthem by Crofts in the same
collection: " Deliver us, O Lord our God," which has no fault
in the composition, except that mentioned above, for the last time,
and which he had in common with all the masters of the preceding
century. The last chorus of this anthem is so pleasing, that I
should insert it here, as a specimen of his clear and unaffected
style, if it was difficult to find.
I shall now conclude my remarks on this author, by observing,
that though he, perhaps, never reaches the sublime, yet he is
sometimes grand, and often pathetic. His allegros are always
more feeble than his slow movements. But more melody is
necessary, to support chearfulness with decorum and dignity, than
Crofts, or indeed the whole nation, could furnish, during the first
twenty years of this century.
486
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
This pleasing composer and amiable man died in August 1727,
in the fiftieth year of his age, of an illness occasioned by his
attendance on his duty at the coronation of his late Majesty, King
George II. He was buried in the north isle of Westminster- Abbey,
where a monument, with a long and honourable inscription, was
erected to his memory, at the expence of his countryman as well
as intimate friend and great admirer, Humphrey Wyrley Birch,
Esq. whose passion for church Music of the pathetic kind,
particularly the funeral service by Purcell and Crofts, was such,
that he would quit the most remote part of the kingdom, and ride
night and day, in order to hear it performed at Westminster-Abbey.
John Weldon [1676-1736], born at Chichester, learned the
rudiments of Music of Mr. John Porter [John Walton], organist
of Eton college, and afterwards received instructions from Henry
Purcell. He was for some time organist of New College, Oxon
[1694]. But in 1701, he was appointed a gentleman extraordinary
of the Chapel Royal; and in 1708, succeeded Dr. Blow, as one
of His Majesty's organists. In 1715, upon the establishment of a
second composer's place in the King's chapel, Weldon was the first
who filled that station, of which he seemed conscientiously
determined to fulfil all the duties; for before he had long been in
possession of this office, he gave proofs of his abilities and diligence
in the composition of the Communion service, as well as the several
anthems required by the conditions of his appointment.
He was likewise organist of St. Bride's church, in Fleet-street;
and of St. Martin's in the Fields (o) [1726].
Besides many favourite songs and solo anthems of the time,
Weldon composed two full anthems, which are inserted in Dr.
Boyce's second volume; the first is rather too familiar and common;
but the second: " Hear my crying, O God," in six parts, is a very
pleasing and masterly composition; particularly the first movement.
In the second movement, the words up upon, are unfortunately
expressed by notes that succeed each other too rapidly for their
easy utterance. The passages of the third and fourth movements
seem much worn by forty or fifty years use; however, the pauses,
at the end of the last strain, have a fine effect.
Six of his solo anthems were published about the year 1730;
I say about that period, as musical chronology is become a very
difficult study. The late Mr. Walsh, finding that old music-books
were like old almanacks, ceased very early in this century to
ascertain the time of their birth by dates, which have ever since
been as carefully concealed as the age of stale virgins.
(o) King George I., having been chosen church-warden of his own parish of St. Martin's
in the Fields, soon after his arrival in England ; in order to get rid of the trouble _ of so
inglorious an office, made the parish a present of the instrument which is now standing in
the church, built by Schwarbroock; and the parish, probably as a mark of duty and respect,
appointed Weldon, his Majesty's own organist, to play upon it; who, at his decease, was
succeeded by the late Mr. Kelway, and Mr. Kelway by Dr. Cooke.
487
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Weldon's powers of invention and of harmonical combination
seem very much limited. His anthems had the advantage of being
sung in the Chapel Royal by a celebrated singer, Mr. Richard
Elford; but now, let who will execute them, they must appear
feeble and old-fashioned, unless the embellishments of George the
First's time are changed for those in present use. The truth is, that
the fund of original conception or science, which alone can render
old Music valuable to the curious, long after the style in which it
was written is become antiquated and forgotten, was never very
considerable in Weldon's productions. His first anthem: "O
Lord rebuke me not," remained long in favour, when well sung
in our cathedrals, from its resemblance to the style of Purcell; and
the natural and easy slow minuet air to " Turn thee, 0 Lord, and
deliver my soul," which has so much of a secular song and rondeau
in it, that it is remembered with pleasure by the musical part of
a congregation, who are more likely to bear it in mind, than more
serious parts of the service.
The productions of Weldon appear flimsy after those of Crofts;
and Dr. Green's after Handel's; yet Green compared with Weldon
is a giant: that is, a Handel.
There is a vice of which composers of small resources are often
inadvertently guilty, for want of a sincere and judicious friend to
tell them of it; and that is, eternal repetition of the same passage,
a note higher or a note lower, which the Italians call Rosalia.
This certainly originates in the want of ideas, and yet it may be
avoided by attention, though the sheet would not fill so fast.
Weldon has indulged himself in these repetitions to a tiresome
degree, in several of his anthems; but in the ritornel to " Have
mercy upon me, O God," he has iterated the same poor passage,
a note lower, seven times, successively!
His song for two voices: "As I saw fair Clora walk alone,"
was in great favour during my youth; and his air in the Judgment
of Paris: " Let ambition fire thy mind," is a melody so natural
and pleasing, that, like an ever-green, in vegetation, it will always
be fresh and in season. And there is no air in greater favour than
this at present, in the English opera of Love in a Village, to the
words: " Hope, thou nurse of young desire " [adapted by Arne].
This composer died in 1736, and was succeeded in the King's
chapel by the late Dr. Boyce.
Having had a personal knowledge of Dr. Greene early in my
musical life, and well remembering the effect which many of his
compositions had on the public at the time of their first appearance,
I shall the less frequently be obliged to have recourse to tradition,
or to seek information concerning him, from others.
Maurice Greene [1695-1755], was the son of the Rev. Thomas
Greene, vicar of St. Olave Jewry, in London, and nephew of John
Greene, serjeant at law. He was brought up in the choir of
488
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
St. Paul, and when his voice broke was bound apprentice to Brind,
the organist of that cathedral [1710]. He was early noticed as an
elegant organ player and composer for the church, and obtained
the place of organist of St. Dunstan in the West, before he was
twenty years of age [1716]. In 1717, on the death of Daniel
Purcell, he was likewise elected organist of St. Andrew's, Holborn;
but the next year, his master Brind dying, Greene was appointed
his successor by the dean and chapter of St. Paul's; upon which
event, he quitted both the places he had previously obtained. In
1728 [1727], on the death of Dr. Crofts, he was appointed organist
and composer to the Chapel Rcyal [1728]; and on the death of
Eccles, 1735, master of his Majesty's band. In 1730, he obtained
the degree of doctor in Music at Cambridge, and was appointed
public Music professor in the same university, in the room of
Dr. Tudway. Greene was an intelligent man, a constant attendant
at the opera, and an acute observer of the improvements in
composition and performance, which Handel, and the Italian
singers employed in his dramas, had introduced into this country.
His melody is therefore more elegant, and harmony more pure,
than those of his predecessors, though less nervous and original.
Greene had the misfortune to live in the age and neighbourhood
of a musical giant, with whom he was utterly unable to contend,
but by cabal and alliance with his enemies. Handel was but too
prone to treat inferior artists with contempt; what provocation he
had received from Greene, after their first acquaintance, when our
countryman had a due sense of his great powers, I know not; but
for many years of his life, he never spoke of him without some
injurious epithet. Greene's figure was below the common size,
and he had the misfortune to be very much deformed; yet his
address and exterior manners were those of a man of the world,
mild, attentive, and well-bred. History has little to do with the
infirmities of artists; who being men, in spite of uncommon gifts
and inspirations, are subject to human frailties, which enthusiasm,
praise, and the love of fame, more frequently augment than
diminish.
The same want of room, which shortened my account of the
anthems of his predecessor, Dr. Crofts, will now oblige me to be
very concise in speaking of Greene's ecclesiastical compositions,
though in both there is much room for discrimination and fair
criticism. Among the faults to be ascribed to this composer, none
are so flagrant as the light divisions in which his solo anthems
abound, and the repetition of passages a note higher or a note
lower in what the Italians call rosalia, which are always dull,
tiresome., and indications of a sterile fancy. The opening of his
second solo anthem, Vol. I. page 26,* is very solemn and pathetic,
and the organ-part judicious and pleasing; but, page 45, Santa
Rosalia tells her beads six times, while one very short passage is
. ;j * Forty Select Anthems in Score, corn-posed for i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 voices, etc. 2 Vols.
printed for J. Walsh, London, 1743.
489
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
singing. " Lord how long wilt thou be angry," alia Palestrina,
for five voices, though none of the subjects are new, seems to me
to be the best full anthem by this author. The style is clear, the
answers are regular, and the modulation such as discovers a familiar
acquaintance with the best ancient writers for the church. Of the
full anthem: " O sing unto the Lord," for five voices, the fugue in
the first movement is well worked, and has a good effect in
performance; but the rest of the anthem is not equal in its subjects,
or their treatment. " Lord how are they increased that trouble
me," seems one of the most pleasing of Dr. Greene's solo anthems.
The last anthem in the first volume, for two voices, has many
pleasing passages, and rather more variety of subject than most of
the others.
The first movement in the second volume seems calculated to
display, in the performers, the power of making a shake upon short
notice. A shake, judiciously applied, is a brilliant embellishment
in a singer; but when lavished, improperly, is pert and unmeaning;
nor is it ever more so than upon the first note of a movement.
There are no fewer than seventeen or eighteen shakes distributed
among the performers in the course of one page, which are more
than a modern opera singer of judgment, taste, and expression,
would use in a month, were his shake ever so good; the rest of the
anthem is on common subjects, which are commonly treated.
The two-part anthem: "Thou, O God, art praised," has
repeatedly a passage on the word praised, which has to my ear the
disagreeable effect of two fifths; and there is a point at " unto
thee shall my vow be performed," for which he was manifestly
obliged to the second movement of Handel's fourth organ concerto.
The rest of the anthem consists of agreeable passages of the times,
but nothing like originality appears in any one idea.
" The King shall rejoice," for three voices, is agreeable
common-place. Perhaps that is hardly enough to say of the second
movement: " O Lord grant me a long life."
" Let my complaint," a full anthem, a 5, is very solemn and
solid composition.
The anthem for Christmas day has an air of chearfulness,
suitable to the occasion, which runs through the whole composition.
" Hear my prayer, O God," has more merit of gravity and
expression than most of the anthems in this volume. " O sing unto
God," is agreeable Music, but too secular in its melody, and return
to the subject. " Have mercy upon me," the two first movements
of this anthem, are sober and affecting; but the second and third
have too many vulgar and worn-out divisions; the last chorus,
however, is more ecclesiastical, and less common in melody and
modulation. The solo anthem: " Hear, O Lord," for a base
voice, is grave and pathetic, on the model of Handel's best oratorio
songs. The same may be said of the next, for two voices : " I will
seek unto God." " O God of my righteousness," is superior in
490
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
the duet movement, solo verse, and chorus, to any thing in the
preceding part of this volume; this anthem rises somewhat above
mediocrity. " O give thanks," is wholly built with Corelli's and
Handel's materials, though somewhat differently disposed;
particularly page 86, where the whole harmony moves together,
one note lower, three times, after a crotchet rest, to this base; E, B
#3d, E; D, A #3d, D; C, G, C. " The Lord is my shepherd,"
has too many light song-passages in it, notwithstanding the
white and square notes which give it a venerable look on paper.
" O how amiable are thy dwellings," is a very agreeable anthem,
though the passages were not new at the time it was composed.
The movement with an organ accompaniment, in the anthem:
"My soul truly waiteth," is well conducted, and not common; the
rest of the anthem has merit, particularly the chorus of the last move-
ment. ' ' The Lord, even the most mighty God, " for a base voice,
is set with great gravity and propriety; few anthems, indeed,
for that species of voice, are more agreeable; the points, however,
in the chorus, are very common. The anthem in eight parts, a
due cori: " How long wilt thou forget me," is very well written,
a capella, and good Music. Indeed, the first movement of this
anthem manifests greater abilities than any thing that I have seen
by this author, who is usually very correct in his harmony, but as
to invention and design, he seldom soars above mediocrity. " O
Lord give thine ear unto my prayer," for two voices, is very
pleasing Music, particularly the first movement. The last anthem
of this volume is made up of common play-house passages; the first
movement is heavy and monotonous; the andante tiresome, by the
repetitions of an old harpsichord-lesson passage in the base; the
chorus justifies Mr. Mason's censure of this author, by too long and
frequent divisions; these are too vulgar and riotous for the church,
and, indeed, would have no merit of novelty any where. The
vivace, page 151, upon which the last chorus is built, has more of
the dancing-minuet, or Vauxhall song, in it, than belong to that
species of gravity and dignity which befits devotion. I think I
could neither play nor hear this movement in a church, without
feeling ashamed of its impropriety.
There is considerable merit of various kinds in the Collection of
Catches, Canons, and two-part Songs, published by Dr. Greene;
the composition is clear, correct, and masterly; the melodies, for
the times when they were produced, are elegant, and designs
intelligent and ingenious. It was sarcastically said, during the life
of this composer, that his secular Music smelt of the church, and his
anthems of the theatre. The truth is, he produced but little secular
Music. His song of "Go rose," was long in general favour,
and some of his easy ballads, as " Busy, curious, thirsty fly;"
" Dear Chloe while thus beyond measure," &c. were the delight
of ballad-mongers fifty years ago. The collection of harpsichord
lessons, which he published late in his life, though they discovered
491
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
no great powers of invention, or hand, had its day of favour,
as a boarding-school book; for being neither so elaborate as those
of Handel, nor difficult as Scarlatti or Alberti's, they gave but little
trouble either to the master or scholar. Indeed, as all the passages
are so familiar and temporary, they seem to have been occasionally
produced for idle pupils at different times, with whom facility was
the first recommendation.*
Dr. Greene, during the last years of his life, began to collect
the services and anthems of our old church composers, from the
single parts used in the several cathedrals of the kingdom, in order
to correct and publish them in score; a plan which he did not live
to accomplish; but bequeathing his papers to Dr. Boyce, it was
afterwards executed in a very splendid and ample manner. Dr.
Greene died in 1755, and was succeeded, as composer to the
Chapel Royal** and master of his Majesty's band, by his worthy
pupil Dr. William Boyce.
John Travers [c. 1703-1758], brought up in St. George's
chapel at Windsor, and afterwards bound apprentice to Dr. Greene,
about the year 1730, was elected organist of St. Paul's, Covent-
garden [c. 1725]; and in 1737, on the death of Jonathan Martin,
was appointed one of the organists of the King's chapel. He
afterwards attached himself to Dr. Pepusch, and confined his studies
solely to the correct, dry, and fanciless style of that master. His
compositions, however pure the harmony, can only be ranked with
pieces of mechanism, which labour alone may produce, without the
assistance of genius.
Dr. William Boyce [1710-79] has been frequently mentioned
in the course of this work, as a professor to whom our choral service
is greatly indebted for the well selected, correct, and splendid
collection of our cathedral Music, which he published in three
volumes large folio, upon the plan, and at the recommendation, of
his master and predecessor Dr. Greene; and now, in gratitude for
the care he has taken of the productions and fame of others; it
becomes the duty of an historian of the musical art, to pay a just
tribute to his own memory, as an artist.
In 1734, he was a candidate for the place of organist of St.
Michael's church, Cornhill, with Froud, Young, James Worgan, and
Kelway.*** But though he was unsuccessful in this application,
* Two volumes of keyboard music by Dr. Greene have been published. Some of his
Anthems have been published by the Oxford Un. Press.
** Dr. Boyce was appointed Composer to the Chapel Royal in 1736 in place of John
Weldon, who died in that year.
*** There are mistakes of dates here. Kelway was appointed organist of this church about
1730, and resigned in 1736 when he was appointed organist at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields in place
of Weldon.
Boyce resigned the post at Oxford Chapel in 1736 and succeeded Kelway at St. Michael's.
Cornhill.
492
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
Kelway having been elected, yet he was appointed, the same year,
to the place of organist of Oxford chapel [Vere St.]; and in 1736,
upon the death of Weldon, when Kelway being elected organist of
St. Martin's in the Fields, resigned his place at St. Michael's
Cornhill, Boyce was not only elected organist of that church, but
organist and composer in the Chapel Royal.
The same year he set David's Lamentation over Saul and
Jonathan, which was performed at the Apollo Society [and in 1740
at Covent Garden]. About the year 1743, he produced his serenata
of Solomon, which was not only long and justly admired, as a
pleasing and elegant composition, but still affords great delight to
the friends of English Music, whenever it is performed. His next
publication was Twelve Sonatas or Trios for two Violins and a Base
[1747], which were longer and more generally purchased,
performed, and admired, than any productions of the kind in this
kingdom, except those of Corelli. They were not only in constant
use, as chamber Music, in private concerts, for which they were
originally designed, but in our theatres, as act-tunes, and public
gardens, as favourite pieces, during many years.
In 1749, he set the ode written by the Rev. Mr. Mason, for the
installation of the late Duke of Newcastle, as chancellor of the
University of Cambridge, at which time he was honoured with the
degree of doctor in Music, by that university. Soon after this
event, he set the Chaplet [1749], a musical drama, written by the
late Mr. Mendez, for Drury-lane theatre, which had a very
favourable reception, and long run, and continued many years in
use among the stock pieces for that theatre. Not long after the first
performance of this drama, his friend Mr. Beard brought on the
same stage [1750] the secular ode, written by Dryden, and originally
set by Dr. Boyce for Hickford's room, or the Castle concert, where
it was first performed, in still life. This piece, though less successful
than the Chaplet, by the animated performance and friendly zeal
of Mr. Beard, was many times exhibited before it was wholly laid
aside. These compositions, with occasional single songs for
Vauxhall and Ranelagh, disseminated the fame of Dr. Boyce
throughout the kingdom, as a dramatic and miscellaneous composer,
while his choral compositions for the King's chapel, for the feast
of the sons of the clergy at St. Paul's, and for the triennial
meetings at the three cathedrals of Worcester, Hereford, and
Gloucester, at the performances in all which places he constantly
presided till the time of his death, established his reputation as an
ecclesiastical composer and able master of harmony.*
Dr. Boyce, with all due reverence for the abilities of Handel,
was one of the few of our church composers who neither pillaged
nor servilely imitated him. There is an original and sterling merit
* The Oxford Un. Press have published 8 Symphonies by Boyce, edited and transcribed
by Constant Lambert for Strings and optional Wind instruments.
493
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
in his productions, founded as much on the study of our own old
masters, as on the best models of other countries, that gives to all
his works a peculiar stamp and character of his own, for strength,
clearness, and facility, without any mixture of styles, or extraneous
and heterogeneous ornaments.
Dr. Boyce dying in 1779, was succeeded, in the Chapel Royal,
by Mr. Dupuis, and, as master of his Majesty's band, by Mr.
Stanley.
John Stanley, B. M. was born 1713 [d. 1786]. At two years
old he totally lost his sight, by falling on a marble hearth with a
china bason in his hand. At the age of seven he first began to learn
Music, as an art that was likely to amuse him, but without his friends
supposing it possible for him, circumstanced as he was, to make it
his profession. His first master was, Reading, a scholar of Dr.
Blow, and organist of Hackney. But his father finding that he not
only received great pleasure from Music, but had made a rapid
progress, placed him with Dr. Greene, under whom he studied with
great diligence, and a success that was astonishing. At eleven years
of age he obtained the place of organist of All-hallows, Bread-
street, and in 1726, at the age of thirteen, was elected organist of
St. Andrew's, Holborn, in preference to a great number of
candidates. In 1734 the benchers of the honourable society of the
Inner Temple elected him one of their organists. These two places
he retained till the time of his death. Few professors have spent a
more active life in every branch of his art, than this extraordinary
musician; having been not only a most neat, pleasing, and accurate
performer, but a natural and agreeable composer, and an intelligent
instructor. He was the conductor and soul of the Swan and Castle
concerts in the city, as long as they subsisted. Upon the death of
Handel [1759] he and Mr. Smith undertook to superintend the
performance of oratorios, during Lent; and after Mr. Smith retired,
he carried them on, in conjunction with Mr. Linley, till within two
years of his death, in 1786. This ingenious and worthy professor,
whose blindness excited the pity, and performance the admiration,
of the public, for so many years, will be long lamented by his
surviving friends; for they have lost in him, exclusive of his musical
talents, a most intelligent and agreeable companion, who contributed
to the pleasures of society as much by his conversation in private,
as by his professional merit in public. He was succeeded [1786]
in his office, as master of the King's band, by Mr. Parsons
[afterwards Sir William],
Dr. Nares [1715-83], was a studious and sound musician, who
had distinguished himself as an organ-player and composer of
494
CHURCH MUSIC IN ENGLAND AFTER PURCELL
anthems at York, before his advancement to the Chapel Royal, in
1758, as successor to Travers. On the death of Bernard Gates,* he
was likewise appointed master of the children of the Chapel Royal;
and in both these capacities, his diligence in composing for the
chapel, and instructing the children, to which he devoted his.
whole time, acquired him great respect. Dr. Nares dying in 1783.
was succeeded in the Chapel Royal by Dr. Arnold, and as master
of the children, by Dr. Ayrton.
END OF THE THIRD BOOK.
* Gates did not die until 1773, but Nares succeeded him as Master of the Children in 1757.
His appointment as organist to the Chapel Royal was vice Dr. Greene in 1756.
Nares published in 1759 11 Principio, or, A regular introduction to playing on the
Harpsichord or Organ (B.M. e. 135. b), which was the first systematic instruction book on the
subject. Dr. Ayrton succeeded Nares as Master of the Children in 1780, which position Dr.
Nares had resigned in that year.
495
ESSAY ON THE EUPHONY
or Sweetness of Languages
and their Fitness for Music
^5")
AS we are now arrived at that period in the History of Music,
when the musical drama or opera had its origin, in the
progress of which lyric poetry and melody have received
their chief polish and refinements, it seems a necessary preliminary
to the following narrative, to bestow a few remarks and reflexions
on the formation of syllables, and emission of vocal sound.
There can be no doubt but that the dialect which has the
greatest number of open vowels, mixed with its consonants, is the
most favourable for vocal purposes. The tones of voice can only
be heard with purity and clearness by the assistance of vowels : as
the words, vowels, and voice are equally derived from vocalis,
which implies a sound, a musical tone, vocal melody, or modula-
tion. And it is not only from the general facility with which the
syllables of a language can be uttered with neatness and articulation
that it is rendered favourable to the singer, but from the number of
vocal terminations, or words ending with vowels, which allow the
voice to expand, and finish a musical phrase with ease and purity.
It is generally allowed that the French language is nasal, the
German guttural, and the English sibilating and loaded with
consonants, nasal syllables ending with ng, and other harsh and
mute terminations. We have, indeed, filed off the Saxon roughness
in words where gh occur : as cough, trough, laugh, plough, through,
eight, freight, enough, &c. which used to be pronounced in the
Teutonic manner, and which are still guttural words in Scotland,
and some parts of England.
But besides the obstructions which the voice meets with in its
passage, from clashing consonants in the middle of words, we have
Vor,. ii. 32. 497
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
a greater number of terms that end with absolute mute and abrupt
consonants, than either the French or Germans: such are those
which terminate in b, d, g, k, or hard c, p, and t. And it is not
easy to defend our language from the hissing of which it is accused
by foreigners, on account of the frequent use of the letter s at the
end of words, and the great number of words which terminate
with a double s. For though the plural number of French nouns
is distinguished in writing by an s, as well as the English, yet the
final s is never pronounced. The German plurals too are
terminated by the letter n : as haus, hausen ; strass, strassen; pferd,
Pferden; &c. in the same manner as house used to be housen in the
plural, hose, hosen; and as the substantive ox still has oxen in the
plural. And the letter n being a liquid, renders the words which
it terminates less difficult to utter, as well as less offensive to the
ear, than the letter s, with which we have more words begin and
end than with any other letter in the alphabet. Indeed, modern
refinements or corruptions in pronouncing our language have greatly
augmented the sibilation with which we are justly charged, by
changing the eth and ath of verbs into es and as; and saying gives
for giveth, has for hath, &c.
The learned Dr. Wallis, a profound musician, in his treatise De
Loquela, prefixed to his Grammar of the English Tongue, has
considered with great exactness the accurate formation of all sounds
in speaking, to which few have attended before; but with respect
to singing, the work is still to be done.
Dr. Holder, who was a very learned musician and a composer,
though he has admirably analysed the principles of pronunciation,
and described the organs of utterance, with respect to colloquial
language (a), has not pointed out the means by which the musical
voice in articulating words is assisted or impeded in its formation
and delivery, or the causes of its arriving at the ear with more or
less clearness and purity. It was a subject that did not immediately
concern the purport of this excellent essay, which was written with
the benevolent intention of assisting persons born deaf and dumb
to comprehend the speech of others by the eye, from its effect on
the external organs; and therefore the omission of such enquiries as
seem necessary in this place cannot be termed a defect.
Rousseau, in his ingenious and spirited Lettre sur la Musique
Francoise, has confined his remarks chiefly to the vices of the
French language; but to all, except the natives of France, a less
eloquent and forcible writer might easily have proved it unfavour-
able to every kind of vocal Music, superior to a Vaudeville, or
Chanson a table : for the words of these compositions being their
principal merit, the hearer is the less inclined to judge severely of
the Music, or the singer, provided he loses none of the wit or
ingenuity of the poem. And, indeed, it is at the serious French
opera, and by the performance of slow Music, and airs tendres,
(a) Elements of Speech; an Essay of Inquiry into the natural Production of Letters, 1669.
49»
ESSAY ON THE EUPHONY OF LANGUAGES
that those accustomed to good singing are most offended.
However, in the parallel which Rousseau has drawn between the
languages of France and Italy, after describing all the
inconveniences arising to a singer from the compound, mute, nasal,
and dead syllables, of the French language; he asserts, that the
paucity of sonorous vowels, and abundance of consonants and
articulations, force the lyric poet to exclude many words, and
allow the musical composer to give only elementary, or short and
single sounds, to the others (b). Hence the melody necessarily
becomes insipid and monotonous, and its movement slow and
tiresome; for if the time of such Music be at all accelerated, its
velocity resembles that of an angular body rumbling on a pavement.
He goes on with his strictures, and supposes, that "such a language
as he has been describing, has a bad prosody, unmarked, without
exactitude and precision; that the long and short syllables have
no sensible and determinate proportion between them in duration,
or numbers, by which the rhythm can be rendered agreeable,
exact, and regular; that it has both long and short syllables of an
uncertain duration, with others that are neither long nor short;
and that the difference between them is wholly incommensurable."
These vices and inconveniences," he adds, " have such an
effect upon the time or measure of Music, when applied to such
words, as to render it wholly unmarked, irregular, and disjointed."
After these, and innumerable invectives against such a language,
he concludes, that " the French neither have, nor, in reality, ever
can have any Music; or, if they should, it would be so much the
worse for them." -
His character of the Italian language, and description of its
beauties, and advantages over all others, for vocal purposes, are so
apposite to the present enquiries, that I shall faithfully translate
the whole passage.
" If it should be asked what language is the most grammatical,
I should answer, that of the people who reason the best; and if
it should be asked what people are likely to have the best Music,
I should say those that have the best language for it. Now if
there is in Europe one language more favourable to Music than
another, it is certainly the Italian; for this language is soft,
sonorous, melodious, and more accentuated than any other; four
qualities peculiarly important to vocal Music. It is soft from
its' articulations being uncompounded; from the infrequency of
clashing consonants; and from every word in the language being
terminated by a vowel. It is sonorous from most of its vowels
being open; its diphthongs uncompounded; from having no
nasal vowels; and from its articulations being few and easy, which
render the sound of each neat and full. It is melodious from its
(6) There is no language in which all the words of its vocabulary are equally fit for
Music, or lyric poetry; according to Salvini, out of forty thousand words in the Italian
language, only six or seven thousand can be adopted by the writers of serious musical dramas.
Indeed, some of these rejected words, by their want of dignity, as well as softness, may be
unfit for lyric compositions.
499
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
own native sweetness, which renders it vocal even in declamation
and common speech, without the assistance of musical notes (c).
But what renders the Italian language more peculiarly melifluous,
as well as more expressive of sentiment, than any other, is the
great compass and variety of its tones, and the choice it allows
in painting the passions. To prove this, let any one who imagines
it to be only the language of love and tenderness, take the trouble
of comparing the two following stanzas of Tasso.
Teneri sdegni e placide e tranquille Chiama gl' abitator dc I'ombre eterne
Repulse e cari vezzi e liete pace, II rauco suon de la tartarea tromba;
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolce stille Tretnan le spaziose atre caverne,
Di pianto e sospir, tronchi e molli bacci E Vaer cieco a quel romor rimbomba;
Fuse tai cose tutte, e poscia unille, Ne si stridendo mai de la superne
Et al foce tempro di lente faci; Regione del cielo il jolgor piomba,
E ne formo quel si tnirabil cinto Ne si scossa giammai trema la terra
Di ch' ella avena il bel jianco succinto. Quando i vapori in sen gravida serra.
Canto XVI. Stanza xxv. Canto IV. Stanza iii.
It will be found, perhaps, equally difficult to express in any other
language the sweetness of the one or the vigour of the other of these
stanzas. But the roughness of the last stanza does not consist in
hard and uncouth words; they are all sonorous, and, though rough
to the ear, easy of utterance.
These stanzas, however, which Rousseau, and, after him, almost
all musical writers have instanced as of remarkably easy utterance,
should have been confined to reading and declamation; for better
lyrical or vocal verses may be found in Metastasio, and, indeed, in
almost all Italian lyric poets, since it has been found that the
vowel a is the best for divisions, and all the other vowels have
been long in disuse for such purposes, by the best Italian composers
for the stage. In the stanza cited as a model of softness, in vocal
verses, there are but two words, to which, in a lively air, divisions
would be given: Gari, pace. But even these, in which the vowel
a occurs in the first syllable, would have no long divisions assigned
them, if there was a -final syllable terminated by that letter, as in the
third person singular of the future tense of verbs : vedra, uccidera,
jara, dark, parlera, cantara, fuggira; in the elision of the infinitive
mood : trionfar, riposar, scordar, lusingar, naufragar; and in the
substantives : fedelta, pieta, felicita, liberta, crudelta, and Mar.
In setting Metastasio's early operas, till about the middle of the
present century, we find the best composers giving divisions to
the vowels o and e : as in morird, dovrb, fugiro, re, te, fe, freme,
speme, vender, voler, e, merce, &c. but never to i or u.
Rousseau declined discussing the accents of the Italian tongue;
but if, as has been imagined, the Greek accents were used as a
notation of the tone or tune of voice in reading or speaking; the
acute accent raising the voice, the grave depressing it, and the
circumflex keeping it at a middle pitch or tone, the Italian would
(c) On conversing with the late exquisite lyric poet, Metastasio, at Vienna, on the euphony
of languages, and observing how much more favourable Italian was for Music, than any other
European tongue; he so far agreed with me as to cry out, e musica stessa, "it is itself Music. '
500
ESSAY ON THE EUPHONY OF LANGUAGES
afford a more varied and pleasing melody than any of the other
European dialects.
All tuneable sounds, says Dr. Holder, of which the human voice
is one, are produced by a regular and equal vibration of the
sonorous body and undulation of the air, proportioned to the
acuteness or gravity of the tone. And, according to Dr. Wallis, this
gravity, or acuteness of tones in speech, depends on the openness of
the aperture in the larynx, which is the seat of voice; and roughness
and smoothness of vocal tones, he refers to the state of this organ.
But as these learned philologers have only dissected our alphabet,
and analysed the articulation of our language, as far as concerns its
pronunciation in speech, I shall examine it with respect to lyric
poetry and singing, to which alone my remarks will be strictly
confined.
If it be considered that of the five vowels in European alphabets,
only two, a and o, are favourable to the clear emission of vocal
sound; that of the nineteen consonants eight are absolutely mute:
as b, hard c and g, h, k, q, p, t; seven semi-mute, that is, allowing
only a murmuring noise, but no musical sound : as f, m, n, s, v, x, z;
that the soft g and the consonant j are likewise of this kind; and that
r, though accounted a liquid, only admits of a snarling, canine kind
of a noise; I, indeed, is a true liquid, allowing a continuation of
sound after it is formed; and w and y may be accounted semi-vowels;
yet so numerous are the impediments to a neat, clean articulation,
as well as sweetness and purity of musical tones, that some care
should at least be used by the lyric poet in the selection of words, as
well as great precaution by the composer, who gives them a melody.
If our alphabet be critically examined, in order to discover the
effect which each letter has upon the voice, in singing; it will be
found, that peculiar letters, as well as combinations of letters, have
peculiar vices and tendencies to impede or corrupt musical sounds,
both in their formation and passage : that / admits only of a whisper;
for though regarded as a semi-vowel on account of its allowing us to
breathe after it has been pronounced, without altering the form of
the mouth; yet, as Dr. Holder has well observed, " it is one thing
to breathe, and another to vocalise that breath." M, n, and ng,
likewise allow us to breathe; but as it is only nasal breath, the
sound we are able to emit is snuffling and impure. S, and its
substitute, soft c, are hissing', v and z afford only a jarring buz, by
the vibration of the teeth and underlip, like that of a wasp or bee;
th, cannot be uttered without a lisp; and the Saxo-Norman syllables
ble, cle, fie, gle, hie, pie, tie, are all immusical, and of difficult
utterance.
The vowel a, according to our manner of sounding it in the
words all, ball, call, &c. affords the purest and most open passage
to the voice through the mouth; and long divisions and vocal
effusions should be appropriated as much as possible to this vowel,
which is still more convenient to the singer when combined with no
501
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
other letter, which alters the form of the organ. O, allows a free
passage to sound; yet, as it separates the lips and teeth less than the
letter a, it is in less favour with singers : however, the English words
blow, flow, glow, slow, woe, &c. are well calculated for musical
divisions. E, i, and u, partake of the nature of consonants, by
putting the organs of speech in motion when they are first sounded;
and in dwelling upon these vowels no voce di petto, no voice can
be produced from the chest, as they confine it to a small part of the
mouth, or render it nasal. Indeed, the u, by almost closing the
lips, allows but a very narrow and inconvenient passage to the
voice: the i and the e, are more favourable to a falset, a voce da
testa, or feigned voice, than to a true portamento .
Tosi (e), sixty years ago, recommended the exercising the voice
upon the three open vowels, which among the Italians are a, e, o,
equivalent to our aw, a, o. The Italian *, sounded like our double
e, and u as our double o, are never honoured with divisions or long
sounds by the best composers or singing masters of Italy.
As open vowels are the most desirable to singers; so distinct,
determinate, and uncompounded consonants, are the best crutches
for the voice to lean on; for a neat, clear, and articulate
pronunciation of consonants is as necessary to the intelligence of what
is singing, as open vowals are to its being well sung. The letters p,
t, k, for instance, are such clear and distinct articulations, that the
voice, after any one of them, is delivered with a gentle kind of
explosion, which considerably augments its force.
The i, in English, as it is sounded in the word smile, and which is
so peculiar to English mouths, seems a diphthong, compounded of e
feminine, and y, or the Greek diphthong si, or rather the German ei,
as sounded in eisenac, eichner, &c. and not a simple, or original
vowel. Indeed, most of the diphthongs in our language require
action in the organ, and spring in the muscles, as ay, oy, eu, ou, in
the words bay, boy, Europe, our.
As accent and emphasis have great influence in varying the sound
of oral language, they are not indifferent to vocal melody: the
Italian tongue, though it is easy to pronounce, and soft and
mellifluous to the ear, from the openness and frequency of its vowels;
yet the articulations of its consonants, are more firm, vigorous, and
poignant, than in any other language; and as every dialect has
peculiar inflexions of voice which form a kind of tune in its utterance,
the Italian seems to have a greater compass and variety of intervals
in this colloquial tune, or cantilena, than any other with which I
am acquainted.
Diomedes calls accent the soul of speech, anima vocis (/). And
every word of more than one syllable in prose, must have one
(e) Opinioni de' cantori antichi e moderni, o sieno osservazioni sopra il canto figurato,
In Bologna, 1723.
(/) See Essay on the Harmony of Language, p. 22.
502
ESSAY ON THE EUPHONY OF LANGUAGES
emphatic or accented syllable among the rest. However, in verse,
this rule cannot be observed without absurdity.
Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, &c.
Awake my Saint John, leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
In each of these two last verses, were they set in recitative, which
is the best musical criterion of accenting any language, there can
only be two emphatic, accented syllables : as in Handel's opening
of Alexander's Feast:
'Twas at the royal feast, for Persia won.
A syllable in English, as well as Latin, which has two
consonants after a vowel, is long, except one of these consonants
be mute, and the other a liquid, as in regret, replete. Indeed, the
accented syllable in our words which have double consonants, is
short : so that accent and long do not always imply the same thing.
In the case of double rhymes this rule should be observed: as
pleasure, measure, manner, banner; which should all have short
notes. Here accent and quantity certainly differ. By applying
Italian melody to English words, we seem to lose in sense what we
gain in sound. The universality of double rhymes in Italian poetry
must have an influence upon vocal melody, which our single
rhymes but aukwardly imitate.
Dacier, in a note to his translation of Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus,
says, that " the progress of Music, in all times, has ever been
proportioned to the genius and language of the people." The
ancient Romans, though great in arms, agriculture, and literature,
were not successful cultivators of the fine arts; and nothing was
atchieved in them, throughout their empire, but by Grecian artists.
For this we may, however, account, by the slaves only being
allowed to cultivate the polite arts, among the Romans; whereas
in Greece, on the contrary, they were wholly prohibited their use.
No visionary innovation, or fantastical change, is here intended,
in a language so excellent as our own for every purpose of reason
and philosophy; all I would recommend, is care to our lyric poets
in the selection and arrangement of syllables, as well as unity of
subject (g); and attentive observance to the composers who set
them to Music, not to dwell on harsh, mute, nasal, or guttural
words, which either preclude or vitiate all musical sound.
Song and sing, unfortunately, the two most common words in
our lyric poetry, begin by a hiss, and end with a sound entirely
nasal; and if we examine the syllables which terminate each line in
Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's day, the best of our lyric poems, and
perhaps the most noble production, to read, of modern languages,
we shall find that the dead letter d predominates; terminating in
the course of the poem no less than two or three and thirty lines;
(g) See Present State of Music in France and Italy, p. 48.
503
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
in more than half of which, this hard and dumb letter is preceded
by n, which though it does not wholly silence the voice, yet allows
it no passage, but through the nose. However, this junction is not
so injurious to vocalised sound, as ng in the words sung, young,
beginning, winning, destroying, enjoying] or s and z in ears, hears,
spheres, comes, drums, prize, skies, &c. which terminate each
musical phrase or period with a hiss. The impervious consonant t,
in sate, state, fate, &c. preceded by a vowel, is less difficult to
pronounce, and less offensive to hear, than the sibilation in breast,
opprest, &c.
Admirable and sublime as this Ode is in the perusal, some of the
lines are extremely difficult to sing, without injuring either the
poet or musician; the first, by a languid and inarticulate utterance,
or the latter by a pronunciation too rough and violent. The
recitatives may, with propriety, admit of strong accentuation, as
only such a portion of sound is wanting as will render the words
more audible, and nearer singing, than mere speech: but as
recitative is the medium between declamation and musical air, some
attention seems necessary in selecting the words, and polishing the
verses, even for this narrative melody; in shunning harsh allitera-
tions, such as in the lines, thrice he slew the slain — the sweet
enthusiast from her sacred store, &c. where there is a constant and
unavoidable hissing upon all the accents; and in placing such words
at the pause, or resting-place, in the middle, as well as at the end,
of each line, where the punctuation requires a repose, or long note,
as will neither wholly silence the voice, nor impede its expansion.
If such precautions should be thought necessary for words of quick
utterance in recitative, still more solicitous should the lyric poet be
in their choice and arrangement when he writes an air, where every
syllable is lengthened and vocalised, and where the vowel in each
is all that the composer can tune, or the singer sweeten and refine.
It has been said, with more wit, perhaps, than candour, that
singers in general are so ignorant and inattentive to all but the
sweetness of their own voices, that a syllable may be slipped from
any verse they are singing, without its being missed by them; but
though I mean not to enter the lists as a champion for the learning
and propriety of singers in general, it is but justice to say, that
many individuals have deserved to be exempted from the weight of
so a heavy a charge; though their private practice, and public
performances, employ so much of their time, as to leave a very
small portion for the study of literature.
Mr. Mason, in his Anthem-book for York Cathedral [1782],
has divided vocal compositions for our church into three series:
1. From the Reformation to the Restoration, in the year 1660;
including Tye, Tallis, Farrant, Bird, Bull, Orlando Gibbons,
William Lawes, and Palestrina, adapted to English words, by.
Dr. Aldrich. 2. To the year 1700; Battin, Child, Rogers,
Humphreys, Lock, Tucker, Wise, Hall, Purcell, Blow, Aldrich,
Tudway, Creyghton, Turner, and Carissimi and Stefani, adapted.
504
ESSAY ON THE EUPHONY OF LANGUAGES
3. To the present time: Clarke, King, Weldon, Goldwin, Croft,
Handel, Greene, Kent, Boyce, Nares, with Marcello adapted by
Garth.
Mr. Mason, p. 24. commends Tucker, who was gentleman of
Charles the Second's Chapel, for his very exact attention to accent,
and length of syllables; and p. 72. in summing up the excellencies
and defects of the second series of our church composers, speaks
with exact discrimination of " the pleasing melodies of Wise;
pathetic airs of Clarke; majestic movements of Blow; and sublime
strains of Purcell."
It is very natural for poets to wish that the language, in setting
it to Music, should be more respected than it generally is, in our
church compositions. Purcell, the pride of every Englishman
who loves Music, was, in general, not only accurate, but happy and
touching in the expression of words. Many of his melodies are,
however, now become wholly obsolete and uncouth, from the
temporary graces, with which he overloaded them, for the sake of
ignorant singers; and, indeed, he wrote for no other. But these
being the furbelows and flounces of a particular period, are very
short-lived, and soon disgrace that melody which they were intended
to embellish. If these were taken away, and the melodies of Purcell
simplified and reduced to elementary sounds, by the rules ot
harmony and good taste, they might, in every age, be rendered
elegant and pleasing.
Handel, as a foreigner, was very likely to make mistakes in the
accent of our language, from an erroneous pronunciation of it, in
speech; and he has not only often made long syllables short, and
short long, but assigned accents and long notes to syllables and
words, which in reading would be rapidly pronounced. Indeed,
it seems as if there could be no better guide for a composer of songs,
with respect to accentuation, than reading them first, and afterwards
giving only long notes and accents to such words and syllables as
require emphasis and energy in the utterance (h).
(h) If we try Handel's admirable and justly celebrated air, as Music, in the Messiah,
"He was despised and rejected of men," by this rule, it will be found very inaccurately
accented. In reading, the accents would certainly be these : He was despised and rejected of
men ; a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief ; or in musical notes :
iP iffll o
3=t
m
Q: 1 I
ftzflt
Now Handel's accents are: He^was despised and rejected, &c.
505
A GENERAL HISTORY
OF MUSIC
ws*>
BOOK IV
Chapter I
Of the Invention of Recitative, and Establishment
of the Musical Drama, or Opera, in Italy
THE annals of modern Music have hitherto furnished no
event so important to the progress of the art, as the
recovery or invention of Recitative, or dramatic melody.
Musicians till this period having been chiefly employed in gratifying
the ear with " the concord of sweet sounds," without respect to
poetry, or aspiring at energy, passion, intellectual pleasure, or much
variety of effect. Epic poetry could never derive great advantage
from Music, or Music from epic poetry: so long a poem as the
Iliad or ^Eneid, if we suppose either of them to have been originally
sung, could admit of few embellishments or refinements from
lengthened tones; it was the lyric poetry of the ancients as well as
the moderns, consisting of short effusions of passion or sentiment,
in various measures, that best exercised the powers of musical
expression. That narration which is sung, like the epic poems of
the ancients by the original bards, or their dependents the rhapso-
dists, as well as the historical ballads of later times, must have been
set to the most simple and artless melody, or it would have been
utterly unintelligible.
506
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Pulci, who is regarded as the Ennius of modern Italy, and the
first who attempted an epic poem in the language of that country,
is said by Crescimbeni (i) to have sung his Morgante Maggiore, at
the table of Lorenzo de' Medici, in the manner of ancient rhapso-
dists, about the year 1450, by which we may conjecture, that the
Music was very simple (k).
As the Orfeo of Politian* was certainly the first attempt at the
musical drama, which was afterwards perfected by Metastasio, I
shall here present the reader with an account of it, as lately
published in the seventeenth volume of the Parnaso Italiano, where
it is said to be a beautiful piece of poetry, written by the elegant
pen of Politian in the dawn of dramatic representation.
To this drama there is an argument in verse. The piece is in
five acts, and founded on the ancient fable. Aristaeus, a shepherd,
the son of Apollo, loved Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, in so
violent a manner, that he pursued her in the fields, and in her flight
from him she was stung by a serpent, of which she died. Orpheus
by singing so softened the internals, that they suffered her to
depart, on condition that he would not look behind him. But not
obeying this injunction, she was forced back to hell. Upon his
grief, and resolution never to love another female, the Thracian
women tore him to pieces.
Atto primo, Pastorale.
Part of the first scene seems to have been declaimed; though it
is in verse, in terza rime; but the rest is called Canto di Aristeo.
Udite, selve, mie dolce parole,
Poiche la bella ninfa udir non vuole.
These two lines are the burden of his song, which is beautifully
pastoral.
Atto secondo, Ninfale.
Aristaeus, a Dryad, and chorus of Dryads.
This is beautiful poetry, consisting of complaints for the death
of Eurydice.
Atto terzo, Eroico.
Orpheus comes in singing the following Latin verses, accom-
panying himself on his lyre.
Orpheus. Musa, triumphales titulos, et gesta canamus.
Herculis, et forte monstra subacta manu.
Et timidce matri pressos ostenderit angues
Intrepidusque fero riserit ore puer (I).
(») Vol. II. Parte 2da, p. 151. Content.
(k) This work, printed so early as 1488, was produced at the Tuscan court; and Politian,
Ficinus, and Lucrezia de' Medici, wife of Alphonsus of Ferrara, all concurred in singing and
reciting it, to entertain the illustrious personages with which that learned court was then
crouded. The Orlando Inamorato of Boiardo was written and sung in the same manner at the
court of Este, and first printed in 1496; and Pancirollus {De Rebus Inventis et de Perditis,
1. i. c. 3), tells us, that this author recited his poem at Ferrara; and as it was divided into
sonnets, or stanzas, which were rehearsed in a tune, they were denominated Cantos. Pancirollo
flourished in the sixteenth century.
(I) This is the subject of Sir Jos. Reynolds's Infant Hercules.
* The Orfeo of Politian with music by Germi was produced at Mantua about 1474. In i486
G. Pietro della Viola set the same text to music.
5°7
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Then the Dryad tells the sorrowful tale of Eurydice's death
This act seems all to have been sung. A Satyr follows the afflicted
Orpheus to see whether the mountains are moved by his song.
Atto quarto, Nigromantico.
Orpheus visits the infernal regions; himself, Pluto, Proserpine,
Eurydice, and Tesiphon, are the interlocutors.
E' vien per impetrar mercede o morte
Dunque m' aprite le ferrate porte.
The whole of this act is admirable, and all the interlocutors
speak in character.
Atto quinto, Baccanale,
Orpheus, one of the Menades (not Thracian women), and chorus
of Menades, who tear him to pieces.
The whole of this drama which, from its brevity, seems chiefly
to have been sung, is admirably calculated for impassioned Music
of every kind.
First act, one hundred and twelve lines; second, eighty-two;
third, forty-four; fourth, one hundred and seventeen; fifth, seventy-
eight; in all four hundred and thirty-four verses.
Politian (Angelo Poliziano), was born 1454, and died 1494.
He revived literature in his time, as Petrarca had done before.
1555 [1554]. II Sacrificio dell' Agostino Beccari Favola
Pastorale* To this piece there is a prologue, not in rhyme. After
this, two other prologues. The length of this drama is such, that
it could not have been entirely sung in the usual time of an evening's
representation. In the third scene of the third act, the Priest and
Chorus seem singers. This short scene, and a canzone, for finale,
is all that could have been sung in this drama, which is no more
than we had frequently sung in our masques of Queen Elizabeth's
and James the First's time (m).
At the latter end of the sixteenth century, during all the rage
for fugue, elaborate contrivance, and the laboured complication
of different parts, without rhythm, grace, melody, or unity of
design; the lovers of poetry were meditating the means of rescuing
her from musical pedants, who, with a true Gothic spirit, had
loaded her with cumbrous ornaments, in order, as was pretended,
to render her more fine, beautiful, and pleasing, after having
fettered, maimed, and mangled her.
(m) Beccari, the author, lived to upwards of eighty, and died in 1590. This was the first
pastoral intended for the stage. And, perhaps, says the editor of II Parnaso Italiano, he first
introduced Music on the stage, as appears by a note at the beginning of the piece, which says,
"Fece la Musica Alfonso della Viola: rappresentb il sacerdote colla Lira Messer Andrea suo
Fratello." But, besides the Orfeo, there are pieces among the Italian mysteries of much higher
antiquity than 1555, in which there are hymns, madrigals, and choruses that were sung.**
* II Sacrificio with music by Alfonso della Viola was produced at Ferrara on Feb. 4 and
again on March 4, 1554, before Duke Ercole II. The music has been preserved and published
by Signor Solerti in Precedenti del melodramma.
** For a short account of the early Italian Sacri Rappresentazioni see The Beginnings of
Opera in Romain Rollands' Some Musicians of Former Days (English edition. London 1915).
S°8
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
That no musical dramas, similar to those that were afterwards
known by the names of operas and oratorios, had existence in Italy
before the beginning of the seventeenth century, seems certain
by no mention being made of them in the ample list given by
Angelo Ingegneri, 1598, of all that were then known, in his discourse
on the representation of dramatic fables and poetry (n), where he
treats of tragedie, comedie, pastorali, piscatorie, boschereccie, &c.
all declaimed entirely, except the choruses, which seem to have
consisted of odes or madrigals, set to Music in parts : Music is the
first consideration in operas and oratorios; but this author says at
the end of his book (o), "I now come to Music, the third and last
part of dramatic representations, which, in comedies and pastorals,
without choruses, will be used at pleasure, in interludes, between
the acts, to relieve the spectators, whose minds may be fatigued
by the attention they have bestowed on the fable {p)."
We are often told, however, of musical dramas performed at
Rome and Venice, long before this period : and every writer on the
subject informs us, that Sulpitius, in his dedication of Vitruvius,
speaks of a tragedy that was recited and sung at Rome, under the
auspices of Cardinal Riario, 1480 (q); that Alfonso della Viola set
a drama to Music, in 1560 [1554], for the court of Ferrara (r);
and that at Venice there was an opera performed for the
entertainment of Henry III. of France, at his return from Poland,
on the death of his brother Charles IX. 1574, which was set by the
famous Zarlino (s).* These, and more, have been confounded by
father Menestrier (t) with the musical dramas of later times, after
the invention of recitative, which alone should distinguish the opera
and oratorio from every other species of theatrical exhibition; but
these early attempts at singing were no more dramatic than a mass,
service, full anthem or madrigal, would be if sung on a stage.
Indeed, some of the dramas which preceded the year 1600, had
choruses, and intermezzi in measured Music, and incidental songs,
like our masques in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and James I. in
which, however, the dialogue was all spoken.
Being in possession of the first dramas that were set to Music in
stilo rappresentativo , or recitative, I shall present my readers not
(n) Della Poesia Rappresentativa, e del tnodo di rappresentare le favole seeniche. In
Ferrara. 1598.
(0) Ibid. p. 78.
(p) Vengo alia Musica, terza, e ultima parte della rappresentatione, la quale nelle comedie
e nelle pastorali eke non bavranno chori sara al arbitrio altrui, per servir per iniermedj — e_ fra
I'un atto e V altra, per porger alquanto di riposo a gl' intelletti, affatticati nell' attentione
prestata alia javola, &c.
(q) Quam — et agere, et cantare primi hoc cevo docuimus.
(r) Nel Sacrificio del Beccari— Fece la Musica Alfonso della Viola. Crescimbeni. Tom. I.
{s) La Glorie della Poesia, e della Musica, ne Teatri della Citta di Venezia. 1730.
(/) Des Representations en Musique, anc. et mod.
* Alfonso della Viola's first drama with music was the tragedy Orbeccke, produced in 1541.
Another work II sacrificio was performed in 1554, and the pastorals Lo sfortunato, and Arethusa
in 1557 and 1563 respectively. With the exception of II Sacrificio the music for these
productions has been lost, but the choruses appear to have been in the style of madrigals.
Zarlino's attempt at dramatic music was Orfeo, which was produced in the Sala del Gran
Consiglio, at Venice.
509
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
only with specimens of this Musica parlante, or speaking Music,
but extracts from the prefaces both of the poet and musicians by
whom it was invented, as well as from cotemporary writers on the
subject, who thought its origin sufficiently important to be recorded.
It appears from all these, that persons of taste and letters in
Tuscany, being discontented with every former attempt at perfecting
dramatic poetry and exhibitions, determined to unite the best lyric
poet, with the best musician of their time; three Florentine noblemen,
therefore, Giovanni Bardi count of Vernio, Pietro Strozzi, and
Jacopo Corsi, all learned and enlightened lovers of the fine arts,
chose Ottavio Rinuccini, and Jacopo Peri, their countrymen, to
write and set to Music the drama of Dafne, which was performed
in the house of Signor Corsi, in 1597, with great applause;* and
this seems the true aera whence the opera, or drama, wholly set to
Music, and in which the dialogue was neither sung in measure, nor
declaimed without Music, but recited in simple musical tones, which
amounted not to singing, and yet was different from speech, should
be dated. After this successful experiment, Rinuccini wrote
Euridice and Arianna, two other dramas for the same kind of Music.
In the same year [1600], however, that Ariadne [Euridice], set
to Music by Jacobo Peri, was performed at Florence, there was a
sacred drama, oratorio, morality, or mystery in Music, of the same
kind, by Emilio del Cavaliere, performed at Rome; which makes
it difficult to determine who was the original inventor of that
peculiar species of melody, or chant, which is called recitative, and
which has ever since been the true characteristic of the opera and
oratorio. To the printed copies of Peri's opera, and Cavaliere's
oratorio, both published in 1600, there is a long preface, in which
the origin of the invention is claimed by each of these composers :
Peri, however, modestly says, " though Signor del Cavaliere, with
wonderful invention, brought our kind of Music (u) on the public
stage before any other that I know of; yet Signor Jacopo Corsi, and
Ottavio Rinuccini, were pleased, so early as the year 1594, to wish
that I would adopt it, in a different way, and set the fable of Daphne,
written by Ottavio Rinuccini, to Music, in order to try the power
of this species of melody, which they imagined to be such as was
used by the ancient Greeks and Romans throughout their dramas."
However, in the dedication of the oratorio, dell' Anima, e del
Corpo, to Cardinal Aldovrandini, it is said by the editor, Guidotti,
that the work consists of " Singular and new musical compositions,
made in imitation of that style with which the ancient Greeks and
Romans are supposed to have produced such great effects by their
dramatic representations." He adds, that " seeing the great
applause which was universally given to the productions of Signor
Emilio del Cavaliere (a Roman gentleman) who had been able by
his own industry and abilities so happily to revive the melody of the
ancient declamation; particularly in three pastorals which were
(«) La nostra Musica.
* Peri sang the part of Apollo at this performance.
5IO
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
repeatedly recited in the presence of his serene highness the duke of
Tuscany: during the year 1590, was composed »7 Satiro, as was la
Disperatione di Fileno, and both were privately performed in the
same year: and in 1595 il Giuoco delta Cieca was exhibited in the
presence of Cardinal Monte, and Mont' Alto, as well as the archduke
Ferdinand, with great admiration, as nothing like it had ever been
seen or heard before." And farther, fixing the precise time when
this oratorio was performed at Rome, he says, " nothing could
prove more indisputably what power this style of singing had in
exciting devotion, and affecting the heart, than the prodigious
applause of the concourse of people assembled together at the
performance of this sacred drama in the oratorio of Vallicella in
Rome, last February."
Emilio del Cavaliere, the composer, in his own advertisement to
the reader, speaks of his Music as that of the ancients, recovered, or
revived, and as having such powers over the affections as could
excite grief, pity, joy, and pleasure, as was effectually shewn in a
scene of his Disperatione di Fileno, which, when recited by Signora
Archilei, whose excellence in Music is universally known, drew tears
from the audience, while the character of Fileno made them
laugh (v).
There are such instructions given in this preface for the
performance of his simple and infant drama, as would now suit the
best productions of Metastasio, set by the best composers, for the best
singers of modern times. ,
Giovanni Batista Doni [c. 1593-1647] (w), a learned and elegant
writer on Music, though extremely warped in his judgment by a
predilection for antiquity, in a dissertation on the Origin of
Stage-singing, during his own time, gives so curious and instructive
an account of the first operas which were performed at Florence,
that I shall translate the chief part of it.
" Some kind of Cantilena, or melody, has been introduced in
dramatic representations, at all times, either in the form of
intermezzi (interludes), between the acts; or, occasionally, in the
body and business of the piece. But it is still fresh in the memory
of every one, when the whole Drama was first set to Music, and
sung from the beginning to the end; because, anterior to the attempt
of Emilio del Cavaliere, a Roman gentleman, extremely well versed
in Music, there seems to have been nothing of that kind undertaken
that is worth mentioning. This composer published a drama at
Rome in 1600, called dell' Animo, e del Corpo; in the preface to
which, mention is made of a piece represented at Florence in 1588,
at the nuptials of the grand duchess, in which were many fragments
(w) Though the performers are never mentioned in the Dramatis Persona to the first
musical dramas, yet it appears that Italy has never been without singers of great abilities, and
powers to captivate and enchant an audience. Gagliano, in his preface to the Daphne oi
Rinuccini, which he set to Music a second time, allows that a great deal of its success was
owing to the singers; and mentions the great taste and feeling with which Jacopo Peri sung his
own Music, of which there was no forming an adequate idea by those who had never heard
him. But long before this period, Castiglione, in his Cortegiano, describes the different
abilities of the two singers Bidon and Marchetto Cara.
(w) Op. otnn. Tom. II. In Firenze, 1763. Folio.
5"
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of his Music; and where, likewise, two years after, was represented
another drama set by him, called II Satiro.
" It is necessary, however, to declare here, that those melodies
are very different from such as are at present composed in what is
commonly called recitative', being no other than ariets, full of
contrivance, repetitions, echoes, &c. which are totally different from
the true and genuine theatrical Music, of which Sign or Emilio could
know nothing, for want of being acquainted with ancient authors,
and the usages of antiquity (x). It may therefore be said, that
the first attempt at reviving theatrical Music, after being lost for so
many ages, was made at Florence, where so many noble arts have
been recovered. This extraordinary event was brought about by
the invention of recitative, which is now universally received,
practised, and preferred to the madrigal style, in which the words
are so utterly unintelligible.
" The beginning of this century (1600), was the aera of musical
recitation on the public stage at Florence, though it had been
used there in several private exhibitions before. There resided in
that city, during these times, Signor Gio. Bardi de' Conti di Vernio.
who was afterwards called to the service of Pope Clement VIII.
by whom he was tenderly beloved, and made his Maestro di
Camera. This most accomplished nobleman, was particularly
attached to the study of antiquity, and to the theory and practice
of Music, to which he had applied himself for many years so
closely, that he became, for the time in which he lived, a correct
and good composer. His house was the constant rendezvous of
all persons of genius, and a kind of flourishing academy where
the young nobility often assembled to pass their leisure hours in
laudable exercises and learned discourse: but particularly on
musical subjects, when it was the wish of all the company to
recover that art of which the ancients related such wonders, as well
as other noble inventions which had been ruined by the eruptions
of barbarians.
During these discussions, it was universally allowed that as
modern Music was extremely deficient in grace, and the expression
of words, it became necessary in order to obviate these objections,
that some other species of Cantilena, or melody, should be tried
by which the words should not be rendered unintelligible, nor the
verse destroyed.
" Vincenzio Galilei was at this time in some credit among'
musicians; and, flattered with his reputation, pursued his musical
studies with such diligence that, either by the help he received from
others, or by the force of his own genius, he composed his work
upon the Abuse of modern Music, which has since gone through
two impressions (y). Animated by success, Galilei attempted new
(x) Specimens of this Music will be given hereafter, in speaking of oratorios, by which it
will appear, that Doni either had not seen the book, or was partial to the Florentines, his
countrymen.
(y) Dialogo della Musica antica e moderna, 1588 [1581] and 1602. Doni insinuates elsewhere,
that Galilei was assisted in this work by Girolamo Mei. See Book III. p. 145.
512
THB INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
things, and assisted by Signor Giovanni (z), was the first who
composed melodies for a single voice, having modulated that
pathetic scene of Count Ugolino, written by Dante, which he sung
himself very sweetly, to the accompaniment of a viol. This essay
certainly pleased very much in general; however, there were some
individuals who laughed at the attempt; notwithstanding which,
he set in the same style, parts of the Lamentations of Jeremiah,
which were performed to a devout assembly.
" At this time, Giulio Caccini Romano, a young, elegant, and
spirited singer, used to attend these meetings at the house of the
Count di Vernio; and being seized with a strong passion for this
kind of Music, he studied it with great dilgence; composing and
singing to a single instrument, which was generally the theorbo,
or large lute, played by Bardilla, who happened then to be at
Florence.*
" Caccini, therefore, in imitation of Galilei, but in a more
beautiful and pleasing style, set many canzonets and sonnets
written by excellent poets, and not by such wretched scribblers (a)
as were usually employed before, and are still very frequently the
favourites of musicians; so that he may be said to have been the
first to see this error, and to discover that the art of counterpoint
will not alone complete the education of a musician, as is generally
imagined; and he afterwards confessed, in a discourse prefixed to
one of his works, that the conversations held at the Count del
Vernio 's were of more use to him than thirty years study and
exercise of his art. Here he likewise claims the merit of having
first published songs for a single voice, which, indeed, had the
greatest success. And it must be confessed, that we owe to him,
in a great measure, the new and graceful manner of singing, which
at that time spread itself all over Italy; for he composed a great
number of airs which he taught to innumerable scholars, and
among the rest to his daughter, who became a famous singer, and
still continues very excellent in that faculty (6).
" But not to defraud any one of his just praise, it is necessary
to acknowledge in this place, that Luca Marenzio, who flourished
now at Rome, had brought the madrigal style to the highest degree
of perfection, by the beautiful manner in which he made all the
several parts of his compositions sing; for before his time, if the
harmony was full and masterly, nothing else was required.
" In the recitative style, however, Caccini had a formidable
rival in Jacopo Peri, a Florentine, who was not only a good
composer, but a famous singer, and performer on keyed
instruments, having been taught by Christopher Malvezzi; and
U) Bardi de' Conti di Vernio. (a) Rimatori a Dozzina.
(b) I find this singer mentioned with great eloge, in the prefaces to several dramas,
sacred and secular.
* Antonio Waldi Bardella, a famous performer on the theorbo, was a musician in the
service of the Duke of Tuscany in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
By Arteaga he is accredited with the invention of the theorbo. The theorbo was first
introduced into England about 1605 by Inigo Jones.
Voi,. ii. 33. 5i3
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
applying with great diligence and enthusiasm to this kind of singing,
succeeded wonderfully, and met with universal applause.
" After the departure of Signor Bardi from Florence, Signor
Jacopo Corsi became the patron of Music and its professors, as
well as of every other art and science; so that his house, during the
remainder of his life, continued to be the retreat of the Muses and
their votaries, of every country, as well as of Tuscany. Ottavio
Rinuccini was at this time united with him in the strictest bands
of friendship, which seldom is durable, unless cemented by
sympathetic affections; and being, as is well known, an excellent
poet, whose works are, to the last degree, natural, pathetic, full
of grace, and, in a particular manner, calculated for Music; as
poetry and Music are sister arts, he had an opportunity of
cultivating both together, with equal success, and of communicating
his discoveries and refinements to this illustrious assembly.
" The first poem, set in this new way, and performed at the
house of Signor Corsi, was Dafne, a pastoral written by Rinuccini,
and set by Jacopo Peri and Caccini in a manner which charmed
the whole city. Afterwards, other little fables and entire dramas
were thus recited; but, above all, the Euridice of Rinuccini, written
and set to Music for the royal nuptials of Mary of Medicis with the
most Christian King Henry IV. The Music of this drama, which
was publicly exhibited at Florence, in the most splendid manner,
was chiefly composed by Jacopo Peri, who performed a part in it
himself, as in his Dafne he had represented Apollo; the rest of
the Music was composed by Caccini, and the whole was exhibited
in 1600; in which year, and on the same occasion, was also
performed the Rape of Cephalus, in which the chief part was set
by Caccini.
" Great applause was likewise bestowed on Ariadne, another
dramatic production of Rinuccini, and cloathed in suitable melody
by Claudio Monteverde, at present Maestro di Capella to the
republic of Venice.* He afterwards published the principal part of
this production, which is the Lamentation of Ariadne, and perhaps
the most beautiful composition of this kind which our times have
produced. Thus the orginal and true architects of this species of
scenical Music were Jacopo Corsi, and Ottavio Rinuccini, assisted
by the three eminent artists above-mentioned, who had conferred
great honour upon our city, as well as on the profession of Music
(c)"
It is not difficult to discover from this account, that all the
patrons and artists of this new species of Music, except Monteverde,
were Dilettanti, and shallow contrapuntists, who, as is usual,
condemned and affected to despise that which they could not
(c) As second-hand intelligence requires authority to give it weight, it may afford some
satisfaction to the careful enquirer to be told, that Doni had his information of things which
happened before his own time, from Signor Bardi, jun.
* Monteverdi's Ariadne was produced about 1607, but with the exception of the famous
Lament, which he afterwards arranged as a 5-part madrigal (1614), the music is lost.
514
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
understand, and in which they were unable to excel. The learned
contrapuntists, on the contrary, had abused their art, to the ruin
of lyric poetry, and confined it in such narrow limits, that even
instrumental Music made no advances in their hands; for all they
produced, that was not in canon and fugue, was utterly dry,
landless, and despicable. These early attempts, however, at
clearness, grace, and facility, though they now appear but mean
and feeble, had a happy effect upon the art. In process of time
they approximated parties, (for when was Music any more than
politics, without its cabals and factions!) and in appealing to the
public ear, by bringing Music on the stage, drove pedantry to
lament the degeneracy of the age in holes and corners; and
encouraged zeal and unprejudiced musical learning to unite with
taste in simplifying the art, and calling upon the graces for assistance.
As Euridice was the first musical drama, after the invention
of recitative, that was publicly represented, I shall endeavour to
give my readers all the information concerning it that I have been
able to collect.
This drama, written by Ottavio Rinuccini, and set by Jacopo
Peri [1561-1633], was performed at Florence in 1600, on occasion
of the marriage of Mary of Medicis, to Henry IV. of France. The
poem, and the Music, were published separately, the same year.
The poet, in his dedication to the Queen of France, says, " It is
generally imagined that the tragedies of the ancient Greeks and
Romans were entirely sung; but this noble kind of singing had not till
now been revived, or even attempted, to my knowledge, by any
one; and I used to think, that the inferiority of our Music, to that of
the ancient, was the cause; till hearing the compositions of Jacopo
Peri to the fable of Daphne, I wholly changed my opinion. This
drama, written merely as an experiment, pleased so much, that I
was encouraged to produce Euridice, which was honoured with still
more applause, when sung to the Music of the same composer
Jacopo Peri, who with wonderful art, unknown before (d), having
merited the favour and protection of the Grand Duke our sovereign,
it was exhibited in a most magnificent manner at the nuptials of
your majesty in the presence of the Cardinal Legate, and
innumerable princes and nobles of Italy and France," &c. The
only copy of the Music that I have been able to find was in the library
of the Marchese Rinuccini,* a descendant of the author, at Florence;
in examining and making extracts from which, I observed that it was
printed in score and barred, two very uncommon circumstances at
the time of its publication; that the recitative seemed to have been
not only the model of subsequent composers of early Italian operas,
but of the French operas of Lulli; that figures were often placed
over the base to indicate the harmony, as a [? for a minor third, a #
(d) Da altri non piu usata.
* Peri informs us that some of the music was written by Caccini. The score was published
at Florence in 1600, and reprinted at Venice in 1608. A copy of this reprint is in the B.M.
(K.i. i. 4). A modern edition was issued at Florence in 1863.
515
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
for a major third, and a 10 and 11 for the octaves of the third and
fourth; that the time is changed as frequently as in the old French
serious operas, and though the word aria sometimes occurs, it is
as difficult to distinguish air from recitative, in this drama, by any
superiority of melody, as in those of Lulli; except in the choruses
which were sung and danced at the same time, like those on the
French stage.
Peri, in his preface, after enumerating the great personages who
were present at the representation, and the eminent musicians to
whom his Music had been shewn, tells us, that it was sung by the
most excellent performers of the time; among whom were Sign or
Francesco Rasi, a nobleman of Arezzo, who represented the part
of Aminto ; Signor Brandi, Arcetro ; and Signor Melchior
Palantrotto, Pluto. He then tells us, that " behind the scenes,
Signor Jacopo Corsi played the harpsichord; Don Garzia Montalvo
the chitarone, or large guitar; Messer Giovambatista dal Violino the
lira grande, or voil da gamba; and Messer Giovanni Lapi a large
lute."
These four seem to have composed the whole band.* For
though he celebrates the performance of Giovambatista Jacomelli
on the violin, neither he, nor any one else, played on that instrument
at the exhibition. He concludes his account of this drama by
owning that some parts of it were composed by Giulio Caccini, detto
Romano, " whose great merit was known to the whole world,"
because it was to be sung by persons dependent on him; by which he
probably means to say, that they were his scholars. He boasts of
having opened the road for others, by his essays at dramatic Music.
The only arrangement of sounds, however, resembling an air in
Euridice, is a short Zinfonia, which the reader will find on the
next plates.
Giulio Caccini, detto Romano [c. 1558 — c. 1615], set this
entire drama likewise to Music, in stilo rappresentativo , and
published it in 1600, at Florence. There is still another resemblance
in Lulli' s operas to these first attempts at the musical drama in Italy,
which is, that every one that I have seen has a prologue, set to what
is called an air, such as the reader will likewise see on the next plates;
where will be inserted a scene of recitative, spoken by Dafne nuncia,
who relates the melancholy event that had befallen Euridice.**
Monteverde, one of the principal legislators of the musical
drama, set the opera of Orfeo, for the court of Mantua, in 1607,
which was printed at Venice 1615 [ 1st ed. 1609] . And in examining
this Drama, it is as difficult to distinguish airs from recitative, as in
the operas of Peri and Caccini, except where there are more than
two parts employed, which happens but seldom.
It has been said that recitative had great obligations to
Monteverde; for though Emilio del Cavaliere, Jocopo Peri, and
* Three flutes were used in a Ritomello.
** Caccini's Euridice was reprinted at Venice in 1615, and Eitner included it in Die Oper,
Vol. I.
516
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Caccini, had attempted that style before him, yet .he had so much
improved it, that he might almost be called its inventor. But being
in possession of most of the works of these early dramatic composers,
I am unable to discover Monteverde's superiority. More forms of
phrases of musical recitation still in use, may be found in Peri and
Caccini, than in Monteverde. But what surprised me still more, was
that his counterpoint in two parts is more frequently deficient than
in the other two composers, who had never, like him. distinguished
themselves in the learned style of masses, motets., and madrigals.
His controversy with Artusi, early in life, for breach of rule, has
been already mentioned (e); but though, in the new musica
rappresentativa, he was to emancipate himself from the
trammels of canon, fugue, and other restraints which had
been thought necessary in composing a capella, and was now
to have a poetical and picturesque Music, more varied and
impassioned than that of the church or chamber; yet there
were certain fundamental rules and prohibitions, totally indepen-
dent of taste, which to violate, would offend cultivated ears.
Among these, the common precept of avoiding two fifths or two
eighths, particularlv in two parts, is frequently and wantonly
neglected, without the least necessity or pretence of producing new
and agreeable effects by such a licence.
In the prologue, which is only in two parts, there are three
fifths by contrary motion, which, when unaccompanied, offend my
ear as much as if direct :
gil «uj«rs
i »
Jb Su CSTSTift X'OR
cart-mtt-DO sta-uo
T fi \-
s s s-
P. 4. the falling from the octave to the fifth, in two parts, is
still worse.
-P-Q-
m
hcT s r JfrJB
DESIO Ml SP80- - HA 3?0l?F£Q CHE TfiflSSE
^
The following anticipations are beyond my comprehension; and
by the difficulty of finding such in other composers, it should seem as
if they would be as unpleasant to other ears as my own.
j j ji d_g^
Ll --7M 7>6UCi£u TiULfiL-
P
^=^
~=-~x
*t=QZ
me M-vfi6--un
- 2
(e) See Book III. p. 190.
517
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The best fragment of his recitative that I can select, will be given
on the plates, and the ritornello or symphony page 21, being
extremely curious and short, will be inserted likewise, as a proof of
his abilities in close fugue or canon, four of the five parts moving for
a considerable time after each other in the same intervals.
The dramatic composers were now trying new effects,
combinations, and licences, some of which succeeded, and were
adopted by subsequent composers; others were rejected, as too crude
and offensive to the ear. Of this kind is the following, where in
order to express the word aspro, he has a flat seventh with the
second, and sixth and false eighth.
^^u^Wfjj^uus
?¥?
me n -nx orfeo con sue h utz «. c/ei cort-yo-iA
& 4^t
r^
I
In the fourth act, where Proserpine is pleading the cause of
Orpheus to her husband Pluto, the succession of fifths must strike
the youngest student in composition.
^si
^^-jJ^.
1 • 7
^E
m
qiaRM
SI
And afterwards, he makes as free with sevenths and eighths as
here with fifths.
•-»-_-»
a? •!
tartar as"^
P
£53
p§
^
^^
£J-
m
t£:
±=t
(/) However, Delia Valle says, that Monteverde, under the guidance of men of letters,
continued improving his style, and that his late compositions (he means, I believe, only
dramatic) were very different from the ist. Op. di Doni. II. 251.
5IS
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
P. 28 he seems the first to have used the unprepared seventh in
two parts.
if ■ mi
Vrrt?
* r t
s
P. 36. again; but Cavaliere has a similar use of the seventh in
the first act of V Anima e Corpo.
In the ritornel of page 32 there are more frequent changes of
measure than in any of Lulli's French operas, where it has been
imagined that the expression or metre of the words was thought to
require broken measures; but this ritornel or symphony, which the
reader will see on the next plates, is merely instrumental.
The work is so ill-printed, that some sagacity is necessary to
discover the errors of the press from those of the composer. The
best piece of recitative that I have been able to find in the whole
opera seems to be the scene, page 39, where Orpheus, after hearing
of the death of Euridice, determines to quit the world, and descend
into the infernal regions to try the power of song over Charon,
Cerberus, and Pluto, in prevailing on them to restore his Euridice.
In this recitative there are several new modulations and discords
hazarded, seemingly, for the first time : such as the sharp seventh
with the fourth and second, extreme sharp sixth, &c.
The orchestra, however, for the performance of this drama was
greatly superior to that of Euridice, as the reader will see by the
following list: Duoi gravicembani, duoi contrabassi di viola, died
viole da brazzo, un arpa doppia, duoi violini piccioli alia Francese,
duoi chitaroni, duoi organi di legno, tre bassi da gamba, quattro
tromboni, un regale, duoi cornetti, un flautino alia vigessima
seconda, un clarino, con tre trombe sordine*
The overture is called Toccata che si suona avanti il levar
della tela tre volte con tutti li stromenti, et si fa un tuono piu alto
volendo sonar le trombe con le sordine. It is in five parts, consist-
ing of only one movement of nine bars; and seems merely a
flourish of instruments, in which the chord of C is only employed.
Monteverde set Rinuccini's Arianna for the court of Mantua, in
1606, the words only were then printed, and reprinted several
times after. This opera was performed at Venice, 1640, to
Monteverde 's composition, and the words again reprinted; but
whether the Music was ever published, I know not.**
On the following plates will be exhibited a specimen not only
of Monteverde's ritornelli and recitative, but each of the founders
of that Canto che parla, or speaking Music.
* The gravicembani were harpsichords; the contrabassi di viola were tuned an octave lower
than the bass viol; the violino piccolo was a small violin tuned a fourth higher than the
violin; the chitarone was the theorbo; the regale a small portable organ; and the organi di
legno, small organs with wooden pipes.
** See editor's note p. 514.
519
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Fragments of the first Dramatic Music. Dull' Euridice del Peri.
Fol. 11.
w
=e=F?
fefeiEffir^
^^
^0
g^i^iE^
H^FF
£=±
Z.INFONV, FOR. S>H-UT£S
w
I ?• J 1
P3
S
^fe
i^
ps
^
^
t=f
^- o^
-0^3
ft
gS
9-^5
#^=
^
I I
£
P=^
=g=
^^
Prologue to Caccini's Euridice. Sung by Tragedy, Personified.
£r^r?
~ i i
S
-© — ©-
^T^g^^
lo chi d'al-ti sa-PiR v/i-ane o» pihn-ti
e o
5P>?/?S' C« 0/ DCCUAOR
j. jlo p w g|gS|[|Bg
I
_cLj o ^
-I k i k k
-AWCIF IL VOF-TO FEI NICL'ttMPI TE
ATRIAL PO-ftH
«>L-TO SCOLO ■ RIR DIPIC-TA vol
-TlES£MBI/W-TI
iP^
^
r^ |c* pd:
T6
ito^'r'Lir^J,^
This melody is sung to 7 different Stanzas.
Scene of Recitative in Caccini's Euridice.
g
PRENOE f\ OOLCE » J.ETT0 CON IE COMWJGM I SUE IA BCUA S, VSAjCW VIQLETTA O
-o o
P c) O
o o
520
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
• f|o bo lyJJjFV^
3ffi
rJJi^Jftr
SaS:
25
i> W
1N£ TOCUEA 0*uAcm
DALPXfCfQ e
SPINE,
ill LA O0K/-TA SfONDA 0OLC£ CATfTAVA AL t-tOttMOR
£
s
£E
iK
ifSsr^r^
±4-±-h
-Aft DELL' ON - DA. MAW
BELLA EURIDICE
s
MOV£A OANZANDILPlE
SU'LVESOtj PRATO,Q0flWDO RlA
-s — ©-
$*$£&&&
f^lgi
iS
^
^=?
J. s
s^ a —
at±
$££
o*'/
i=t
fc*q
fDRTE AC£/?-8A ANCUf CgUOO
5
£ SPl£~Vtn>CHEC£U\TO
BlORlE LEKBA
PISHSUSlL FIB CM S/ M/U-IGNO
^
^e-
-e-
±a
pIP
Ki£
^^
TtrrH
w*t
©J
«-©-
DENTE CHIMPALU-
fCOfff CHENV6U
etMLPRCIWOO CO-HE
CONJ/VSOSPJf?
gwgwxgSc
-43 — ©-
Fragment of Recitative in Monteverde's Orfeo.
ORFEQ
^^
**
^
rtOSfl 0FA
11
o o-
-O-Vp^h^g:
¥
6vfN±%£±
C(££, WW D£i WOAJOO, £ Of GVfl ^^
■©«
^P
TJJJ'J.J'j I
c wf t 'univekso fjFmsm
g ryJJJU^p
**
g r>*
*=±
Sot C«£t
Qf&KCH £'J.TUT70 MiKI 0» <«■' STEUAN-TI 6l - «/
O/Af-AH V£-\DEST'U Mfll
iB P
^
is
^5=
nr rjr'f jjigg
a>» s »
C'^fp s^
r ^src-p-v
-fer>-
.t£ «/ so/ rE-u-ce iL
GKXtm PUOBEtJ CHE f KM Tl VI
521
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Ritornello, in Monteverde's Orfeo.
Ritornello, in Monteverde's Orfeo. Atto II. do. Page 32.
rfif
ify__rMrT'T' i
• •
L.nrt: = J
*-»f fli
\ \Y7aria~» <*-
i »*M.n s m —
• n
IP
(-<£&& W ~ }
1*1
irru^J ' «H
r* — ^
li«NljJ»l 1^ ,
Recitative, Page 39. C/w Organo di Legno & un Chitarone.
522
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
riOW^
®tert*£2E«!
SSEgi;
i¥^P?
KIWI
MKOTRfiROTT/ k^
STEUf Q S£00 NCCHel\AHNt EW
R'K^to raro iNcct'.pwjrt
Similar Passage in the Recitative of all the Founders of that
Canto Che Parla.
Jacopo Peri
?
.CJUJJ^Vi
3=3=
vrrr-r^f
3£=m
H2_afl
-as-
NGLPUF./IRO&I DEI
Lft Pitt QEHA STEL-I/
AUREA FA-CEL-Lfl Ol EEL FQC AC-CENDI
S
feT^T
-«•
fe^
Emilio del Cavaliere.
BE
-e g e ff-e — o
E
3EE3E£
-h4»-». • ~Q
^rrg^gE
^
prfr tf p |
ECCG I «!£! SENSI PAEilDI, QUI TI-RI-
PO -SA£ GO
01 IN MILLE VflftU
BE
fc£
^
MONTEVERDE.
See page 49.
Giulio Caccino.
* This passage likewise freqently occurs in the melody of the times.
Though Doni complains of the little progress which the dramatic
style had made in his time, yet, in 1624 (g), he says, that
experience, which is always making discoveries, has shewn, on
many occasions, that this kind of Music has since been progressively
(g) Lezione, or lecture, read at Cardinal Babarino's: Se le azione drammatiche degl'
antichi, si rappresentava.no in Musica in tutio, o in parte.
523
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
so much meliorated, that we may soon hope to see it arrive at
its ancient splendor; and it is but a little while since the Medoro
of Signor Salvadori was sung on the stage, by which it clearly
appeared how much the recitative style was improved {h)."
In a discourse by Pietro della Valle, on the Music of his own
time, addressed by that celebrated traveller to Lelio Guidiccione
in 1640, and published in the second volume of the works of
Battista Doni, at Florence, 1763, there is an interesting, clear, and
admirable account of the state of Music in Italy, but particularly at
Rome, during the beginning of the seventeenth century.
This agreeable writer, who had studied Music under the best
masters from seven years old, and who seems to have been a perfect
judge of the subject, having been of a different opinion from his
correspondent, who, in conversation, had asserted that Music for
fifty years back had been declining, and that there were no professors
left, equal to those of former times; endeavours to prove that, on
the contrary, so far from having degenerated, it was in a state
much nearer perfection at the time he wrote, than at any former
period.
" If canons, fugues, inversions, and all the artifices of elaborate
and learned compositions are less practised in vocal Music now,"
says the author, " than formerly, it is because they are so unfavour-
able to poetry, and the intelligence of what is sung; for in fugues
of many voices, there are as many different words as notes sung
at the same time, which occasions such confusion, that it is utterly
impossible to discover the sentiment of the poet, which is thei
soul of the song, and that which chiefly makes a voice superior
to an instrument. If the words and the notes do not mutually
help to explain and enforce each other, they are ill-matched,
and unfit to be together. To the confusion arising from all the
parts singing different words at the same time, may be added
the little attention to accent in fugues, where the ligatures and
other accidents in harmony frequently throw the emphasis on
wrong words, and make long syllables short, and short long.
Another inconvenience, or rather absurdity, seems inevitable in
vocal fugues of much subtilty and contrivance, where quick and
slow, chearful and pathetic notes, are moving at the same time,
which makes good performers unwilling to sing them, as they can
neither manifest taste, nor sense, in the execution.
"The old masters certainly were well acquainted with harmony,
but few knew what use to make of it. Their compositions are
full of the most artful and difficult inventions and contrivances,
which the ear can neither taste nor comprehend in the performance;
such may be seen in the works of Soriano, and one of the
Nanini (i), as well as in many others that might be named, who,
(h) The composer's name is not recorded, but this drama was printed 1623, Drammatur.
{%) Both sincere in the Pontifical Chapel; for an account of Nanini, see Book III. p. j6?.
and Soriano has a place among the celebrated canonists of his time.
/>24
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
it is said, are so far from thinking of the accent or expression of
words, that they never chuse them till after the Music is composed,
and then adapt the first they can find.
" This is not the method by which modern masters proceed;
they have learned how to chuse and respect good poetry, in setting
which they relinquish all the pedantry of canons, fugues, and other
Gothic inventions; and, in imitation of the ancient Greeks, aspire
at nothing but expression, grace, and propriety.
" The first good compositions of this kind that have been heard
in modern times, were Dafne, Euridice, and Arianna, written by
Rinuccini, and set by Jacobo Peri and Monteverde, for the courts
of Florence and Mantua.
" And in Rome, the first who introduced this intelligent kind
of Music to the notice of the public, was my last harpsichord
master, Paolo Quagliati; who was happily imitated by Tarditi,
and others, still living (k); and who, to the facility and grace of his
melody, have added new and greater beauties of their own; and
in which, if there appear but little complication and contrivance,
it must not be ascribed to ignorance or want of art, but regarded
as the effect of judgment and choice; reserving such resources for
particular occasions; in this they differ widely from their
predecessors, who never lost an opportunity of shewing their skill
in vanquishing difficulties of their own making."
Delia Valle's account of the manner in which the first opera,
or secular musical drama, was exhibited at Rome, is so curious,
that I shall translate his own words as literally as possible.
" My master Quagliati was an excellent Maestro di Capella, who
introduced a new species of Music into the churches of Rome, not
only in compositions for a single voice (monodie), but for two,
three, four, and very often more voices, in chorus, ending with a
numerous crowd of many choirs or choruses, singing together;
specimens of which may be seen in many of his motets that have
been since printed. And the Music of my cart, or moveable-stage,
composed by the same Quagliati, in my own room, chiefly in the
manner he found most agreeable to me, and performed in masks
through the streets of Rome during the Carnival of 1606, was the
first dramatic action, or representation in Music, that had ever been
heard in that city (Z). Though no more than five voices, or five
instruments, were employed, the exact number which an ambulant
cart could contain, yet these afforded great variety: as, besides
the dialogue of single voices, sometimes two, or three, and, at last,
all the five sung together, which had an admirable effect. The
(k) Orazio Tarditi was Maestro di Capella in the cathedral of Faenza, in the Roman state,
and a very voluminous composer of masses, psalms, and motets, besides what he produced in
the recitative style.
{I) Here he seems to have forgotten the performance of Emilio del Cavaliere's oratorio,
Dell' Anima, e del Corpo, which was exhibited at Rome, in action on a stage, in the church
of Sta. Maria della Vallicella, 1600 [Feb.]. If Delia Valli had said the first secular dramatic
representation in this kind of Music, he would have been more correct.
525
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Music of this piece, as may be seen in the copies of it that were
afterwards printed, though dramatic, was not all in simple recita-
tive, which would have been tiresome, but ornamented with
beautiful passages, and movements in measure, without deviating
however, from the true theatrical style; on which account it pleased
extremely, as was manifest from the prodigious concourse of people
it drew after it, who, so far from being tired, heard it performed
five or six several times; there were some even who continued to
follow our cart to ten or twelve different places where it stopt, and
who never quitted us as long as we remained in the street, which
was from four o'clock in the evening till after midnight."*
This narration seems to furnish a curious circumstance to the
history of the stage, which is, that the first opera or musical drama,
performed in modern Rome, like the first tragedy in ancient Greece,
was exhibited in a cart. It has been imagined by many of the
learned, that the recitative in modern operas is a revival of that
species of melos in which ancient dramas were sung; and here the
moveable stage on which it was performed, like that used by
Thespis at Athens, furnishes another resemblance.
Plaustris vexisse,
Poemata Thespis. Hor.
Delia Valle, after having proved that the singing of his time was
better, and the compositions more varied, more rational, and amical
to poetry, than the more ancient, proceeds to speak of instrumental
Music; and after discriminating the different kinds of playing on
an instrument, in a solo, in a full-piece, in accompanying a voice,
or leading a band; he says he must agree with his friend, that solo
playing, however exquisite and refined, at length tires, and that it
had frequently happened to organists of the highest class when lost
and immersed in carrying on a happy subject of voluntary, to be
silenced by a bell; which never happened to singers, who, when
they leave off displease the congregation or audience to whom their
performance seems always too short. In this kind of playing he
however allows, though he only knew their merit by tradition, that
Correggio of Parma, Luzzasco of Ferrara, Annibale of Padua,
Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli of Venice, Giovanni Macque of
Naples, II Cavalier Leuto of Rome, and others whom his friend
had praised, were very great men. " But," says he, " however
admirable these performers may have been, has not Ercole di San
Pietro had great reputation, and have you not confessed that
Frescobaldi, who is still living, has often surprised and affected
you by his performance? There are many," continues Delia Valle,
" who played the organ in his manner, that I could name." And
as for other instruments, he asks his friend if he does not remember
" Gregorio del Violino, a great contrapuntist as well as performer;
another who played wonderfully on the spinet; and Gio. Francesco
* Quagliati's opera was called Carro di fidelta d'amore, and was published in 1611, with
some additional Airs.
^26
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
de Leuto who all played in his cart? " After these, he mentions a
performer on the cornet, and the first violin of the bishop of
Padua, Marco Fraticelli on the viol da gamba, Kapsberger on the
theorbo, Orazio on the harp, Michael Angelo on the violin, and
others of equal reputation, who had all surpassed the performers
of anterior times (m). These were solo players, but with respect
to the art of accompanying others, he says it was brought to such
perfection that he could not imagine it ever had been or could be
surpassed.
He supposes that there had been at all times musicians who
could lead a band well; but believes that at no time there ever was
a person who discovered more judgment and abilities in this station
than Signor Pietro Eredia, in the church of Jesus, where, though
Music is not his profession, he frequently plays for his devotion (n).
He then comes to singing, as the last thing he has to discuss;
and this he considers in solo songs, and in Music of many parts.
His friend, among the soprani, or treble voices, of his youth, had
greatly praised the falsetti who used to sing in the Pope's chapel,
and elsewhere; and Delia Valle says he remembered one of them,
Gio. Luca Falsetto, who had great execution, and went up to the
clouds (o); and mentions Orazietto, a very good singer, either in a
falset or tenor; Ottaviuccio and Verovio, famous tenors, who all
three sung in his cart. " However, these," he adds, " trills, graces,
and a good portamento, or direction of voice, excepted, were
extremely deficient in the other requisites of good singing; such
as piano and forte, swelling and diminishing the voice by minute
degrees, expression, assisting the poet in fortifying the sense and
passion of the words, rendering the tone of voice chearful, pathetic,
tender, bold, or gentle at pleasure (p) : these, with other embellish-
ments in which singers of the present times excel, were never talked
of even at Rome, till Emilio ,del Cavaliere, in his old age, gave
a good specimen of them from the Florentine School, in his oratorio,
at the Chiesa Nuova, at which I was myself, when very young,
present (q)."
(w) In speaking of the great improvement in taste which these last had introduced on
their several instruments, he tells us, in the Musical Technica of the times, that these excellent
modern musicians had joined to all the subtilties of counterpoint, a thousand graces in their
performance, di trilli, di strascichi, di sincope, di tremoli, di finte, di piano, e di forte, e di
simili galanterie, which were wholly unknown to past times.
(n) Protestants would perhaps mistake it for diversion. Tartini dedicated himself and his
violin to the service of St. Anthony of Padua, and during the last years of his life would play
no where else, in public, but at the church of that saint.
(o) Gran can tore di gorge, e di passeggi, eke andava alto alle stelle.
[p) It is difficult, in our language, to find equivalents for some of these musical terms :
such as rallegrar la voce, o immalinconirla, farla pieiosa, o ardita quando bisogni, e di simili
altre galanterie, which, in the original, are very expressive and comprehensive to a lover of
Music who has attended much to the refinements of singing.
(q) Delia Valle, in the course of his letter, says, that he was fifty-four at the time it was
written; and as he began to learn Music of good masters at seven years old, he may be said
to have served an apprenticeship to the art, and be allowed a competent judge at fourteen,
when he heard the performance.
527
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
What follows is extremely curious and satisfactory concerning
a delicate point of musical history, which is, the first establishment
of Evirati in the Pope's Chapel, and the use of them in early
operas.
Signor Santarelli, the present Maestro di Capella of the Pontifical
Chapel, himself a soprano, among the memorandums concerning
the history of Music (r), with which he favoured me at Rome, has
the two following articles, which fix the precise time when Evirati
were first admitted into the chapel, and when falset voices ceased
to be employed. " Father Girolamo Rossini of Perugia, priest of
the congregation of the oratory, flourished in the seventeenth
century. He was an excellent singer, in soprano, and was the first
Evirato employed in the Pontifical chapel, in which, till then, the
soprano, or treble part, was sung by Spaniards, in falset. Padre
Rossini was admitted into the Pontifical Chapel in 1601, and died
in 1644 (s).
" Giovanni de Sanctos, a Spaniard, who died at Rome, 1625,
was the last soprano, who sung with a falset voice in the Papal
Chapel (t)."
These two records are decisive, which, with what Delia Valle
says on the subject, will, it is to be hoped, sufficiently gratify
reasonable curiosity with respect to the origin and progress of the
inhuman practice of mutilating children in order to keep the voice
in its adolescent state. I had, indeed, made extracts and memoran-
dums in the course of my enquiries towards a more detailed
discussion of the practice, as connected in a peculiar manner with
the history of Music; but it is so difficult to treat the subject with
due delicacy, that I shall add as little as possible to what Delia
Valle has said of the number and use of these ill-fated mortals, in
Italy, during the beginning of the seventeenth century. I must,
however, in justice, as well as humanity, endeavour to remove
some prejudices which throw an unmerited contempt upon beings,
who, as they are by no means accountable for that imperfection
under which they labour, are entitled to all the pity and alleviation
we can bestow.*
There seem to have been no singing eunuchs in antiquity, unless
we allow the Galli, or ArchigaUi, priests of Cybele, to be such;
who, in imitation of Atys, the favourite of that goddess, mutilated
(r) Estratto di alcuni notizie storiche appartinenti alia facolta musicale. MS.
(s) Padre Girolamo Rossini da Perugia, prete della congregatione dell' oratorio, fiori nel
secolo XVII. Fu eccellente cantore della parte di soprano, e fu il primo evirato, che avesse
luogo nella Capella Pontificia, avenda fin d'allora servito la capella in qualita di soprani i
nazionali Spagnuoli con voce di falsetto. II prelodato Padre fu amesso tra cantori Pontifici nel
i6or, e man nel 1644, alii 23 di Decembre. Vedi Adami, Osserv. per ben. reg. il Coro della
Cap. Pontif.
{t) Giovanni de Sanctos, Spagnuolo, quale morl in Roma nell' anno 1625, e fu sepolto
nella Chiesa di S. Giovanni in Catnpo Marzo. Estato Vultimo soprano di voce di falsetto, che
abbia servito la Capella Pontificia. Vede Matteo Fomari, Notizia Storiche della Cap. Pontif.
* For a concise account of the male soprano see an article by Francis Rogers in the
Musical Quarterly for July, 1919 {Vol. V. No. 3).
52«
THB INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
themselves at their initiation, and used to sing extempore songs,
and play on instruments through the streets (u).
Castration has, however, at all times been practised in Eastern
countries to furnish jealousy and tyranny with safe-guards to female
chastity; yet never, as I have been able to ascertain, merely to
preserve the voice for the vain amusement of the public, till about
the latter end of the sixteenth century. But though I detest the
perpetrators of such horrid crimes against human nature as the
parents commit, who sacrifice that tenderness which every other
part of creation manifests for its offspring, in order to gratify
avarice or ambition; yet I cannot subscribe to the common assertion
that Evirati are ctll cowards, devoid of genius for literature, or any
solid study; and that even the voice, for the melioration of which
they are so inhumanly treated, is inferior to that of a woman or
a boy (x).
With respect to the operation affecting the mind so much as to
deprive it of all fortitude in times of danger, there is great reason
to doubt the fact : most of the generals of Eastern monarchs having
been at all times of this class; and the bravest stand that ever was
(u) It has, however, been imagined from some explanations in Hesychius that the words
aotoo; and evvovxos, were synonymous : AoiSos. ntpi /Sotjtoi. ovo/jlcuttoi. tj svvovxol. He says in
another place, Evpovxos. o-rraSuv. TO/mas. Again : Aoioos. alios. KiOnpwSos. kou o 7roi7)r>ys, (cat 6
flprjuoSos. o evvovxos. cnraStav.
In these senses this word must have been used by some writer or writers before the fourth
or fifth century, about which time Hesychius is supposed by his last learned editor to have
compiled his Lexicon.
Dion Cassius Lib. LXXV. p. 1267. Vol. II. Ed. Reimari, relates, that after the death of
Plautianus, the favourite of Severus, it was discovered, that efeTe/xe ov n-atfia? /zocoe, ovre pLSLpaKia
aWa. fccu av&pas, Kot e&Tiv ovs avrtav Kai yvvaiKat e\ovTa^, oirus r) IIA.a.VTiXAa r/ 6vyarr)p avrou,
t\v 6 Avtiuvivo^ plgto. ravr eyijpie, 6V evvovxwv Tqp re aXXrjv 6epaireici.v icai to. irepi tt\v ijlov<tiki)v.
Tt)v Te Aoimji' Sewpiay.
The reader will see, Book I. p. 284, according to Eustathius ad Odys. 3. v. 267,
that some writers have supposed the Aoioos who attended Clytemnestra to have been a eunuch :
Tives cie aoi&ov, rov ewovxoi' rapevonjo-av, u; aiSoia p.r) exb3V- This, however, was not the case ; for
aoiSos never signifies ewov^os in Homer, but always simply Cantor, a singei. The reason of this
aoiSo? being intrusted with the charge of Clytemnestra may be inferred from an observation of
Suidas, who tells us, that To aoiSiov yevos o~o><f>pov i\v to rraiKaiov.
(x) Voyez V Encyclopedic art Voix, & Diet, de Mus. par Rousseau. It is very certain
that the ancients never supposed eunuchs to have been men of inferior intellects, or that they
possessed less vigour of mind, than other men. At least the Persians were not of this opinion;
for Herodotus relates. Lib. VI. 32. p. 451, Ed. Wesseling, that when they had taken possession
of some Ionian cities, Trat5as Te tous ev nS^o-Tarovs eicA<7o,aei>oi, c^eTa/u/Of, kui enoievv ai/n eij/at
evopxtIIC ewovxovi. It is certain, however, Herodotus, Lib. viii. p. 668, says, in relating the
melancholy story of Hermotimus. that 77-a.pa toio-i /3ap;Sapoio-i Ttp.nuTepot eiai 61 rv-ovxoi, 77io-tio?
eivzKa jraoTj?, ™v evopxwvt "among the barbarians, the eunuchs are more valued than other men,
on account of their universal fidelity."
It appears from this passage of Herodotus, that in Persia, eunuchs were far from being
objects of contempt; and were even frequently promoted to the highest honours. This was,
indeed, the case with Hermotimus.
Dion Chrysostom has touched on this subject, Orat. XXI. p. 270. Ed. Morell.
We find in Agathias, who was one of the Byzantine historians, that a general in the
Roman army, named Nurses, was a eunuch. This was in the later ages. The passage is in
Lib. I. 6 St iVapcnjs, o' 0"Tparr)yo9 rioy FiD^aiioi', TO/atas r)v.
In Plutarch's Life of Aristides, Vol. II. p. 501, Ed. Reiske, Themistocles is related to have
chosen a eunuch, whose name was Arnaces, from among his prisoners, to send on a secret
embassy to Xerxes. This surely may serve to shew, that mental imbecility was not supposed
by the Greeks, to be the characteristic of eunuchism. The same story of the confidence placed
in Arnaces, who was one of the Persian king's eunuchs is related also in the life of Themistocles,
Vol. I. p. 470. Plutarch Ed. Reiske.
Aristotle paid such high respect to Hermias, who was a eunuch, and governor of Atarnea,
which is in Mysia, that he even offered sacrifices, in honour of him; as Lucian informs us,
in his Dialogue, entitled Eunuehus, Vol. II. p. 357. Ed. Hemsderh. This regard of Aristotle
for Hermias has been often celebrated, and is mentioned by Suidas, Harpocratio, and others.
See also Book I. of this History, p. 363.
Suidas, in Voce Ei/j>ovx°s, says, 'On Aptorowico! XlroXepjiiov tou Bao-iAew; eucovxo? y\v, aAA'
a^SptoSyjs tt\v npoaipeo-iv.
Vol. ii. 34- 529
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
made against Alexander the Great, was at Gaza, under the command
of one of Darius' s generals, who was a eunuch. Ammianus
Marcellinus (y) gives an account of Menophilus, a eunuch, to whom
Mirthridates entrusted his daughter, which proves the possibility
of such unfortunate persons possessing a heroism equal to that of
the most determined Stoic. I think Guadagni and Pacchierotti
were so far from timid and pusillanimous, that they would seek
danger rather than shun it, if called upon or irritated.
As to genius, I never found those of the first class in Music
deficient in intellectual abilities for more serious studies (z). Indeed,
I have seen real genius and disposition for literary pursuits, in more
than one great opera singer; and as for composition, and the theory
of Music, not only the best singers of the Pope's Chapel ever since
the beginning of the last century, but the best composers are among
the soprani, in that service.
Prejudice has been carried so far as to say, that an Evirato is
unable to utter the letter r; indeed, if an Italian, he will not perhaps
snarl that letter in so canine a manner as some French and English
singers do, perhaps to shew their manhood; but defect of elocution
is no more peculiar to eunuchs, than to any other part of the human
species (a).
I shall now return to Delia Valle's account of singers in Italy
from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the year 1640, when
he wrote his Discourse. After saying he had been present at the
performance of the first oratorio in Rome; he tells us, that the
style of singing began to improve from that time; and at present,
says he, we have Nicolini, Bianchi, Giovannini Lorenzini, Mario (b)
and many others, who not only equal, but surpass the singers of
more early times, at least in taste and judgment. — " But let us quit
the consideration of all other voices, and speak only of sopranos,
the greatest ornaments of Music. You are pleased," he says to
his friend, " to compare the falsetti of former times with the
soprani, which at present are so common? but who ever sung then
(y) L. xvi. c. 7.
(z) It has, however, been said : e mille Spadonibus qui literarum studiis operant addixere,
vix unum aliquem doctum evasisse; ac planum est, quam rudis omnino in Musica fuit, quce
tamen propria ipsorum professio est. Janus Huartus Scrutiniorum, p. 594. Ed. Jenens.
Another has gone so far as to say: produxi ergo virum a mille Eunuchis ratiocinia docentem.
Quce de Musica, addit, de ejus theoria seu scientia capio. Castrata animalia pristinum animi
vigorem, generositatem, audaciam, solertiam, amittunt, fiunt debilia; frigida, timida, el
ejfceminata animo et corpore, ut patet, nedum in hominibus, sed etiam in equis indomitis, &c.
Jo. Alphon. Borelli. De Motu. Anim.
(a) Where these cruel operations are performed, and by whom, I never was able in my
journey through Italy to discover, though it was one of my constant enquiries. M. de la
Lande, however, was more fortunate, having asserted, positively, in his Voyage d' Italie, that
there are shops at Naples with this inscription : Qui si castrano raggazzi; but I was not only
utterly unable to see or hear of any such shops during my residence in that city, but was
constantly told, both by the natives and English settled there, that the laws against such a
practice were so numerous and severe that_ it was never performed but with the utmost
secrecy. A spirited modern Italian writer, in a book entitled, Shozzo del Commercio di
Amsterdam, 1783, has taken up the defence of his country with a zeal truly patriotic against
the assertions of late writers concerning the morals and manners of the Italians.
(b) These had chiefly tenor voices.
530
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
like a Guidobaldo, a Cavalier Loreto, a Gregorio, an Angeluccio, a
Marc- Antonio (c), and many more that might be named? The
best resource then was a boy, with a good voice; but boys, the
instant they begin to know their business, lose their voices, and
it is allowed, even while they remain in their greatest perfection,
that their performance, on account of their youth and inexperience,
must inevitably be devoid of taste, judgment, and grace; indeed, it
is generally so mechanical and unfeeling, that I hardly ever heard
a boy sing without receiving more pain than pleasure. The soprani
of the present times, being, on the contrary, persons of mature
age, and judgment, sing with such science, expression, and taste,
as to ravish every hearer of sensibility. During the last age there
was no such singer, except Padre Soto (d), and afterwards,
Girolamo (e), who is still living.
' ' At present every court and every chapel in Italy is furnished
with them; and besides Evirati, what age could boast of so many
excellent female singers? " Here he celebrates the talents of a
great number, who had been in high favour at Florence and
elsewhere, both for dramatic and chamber singing, but particularly
at Rome. In speaking of these, he asks, " who hears without
rapture Signora Leonora sing to her own accompaniment on the
arch-lute, which she touches in so fanciful and masterly a manner?
And who will now venture to say, which is the best performer, she,
or her sister Caterina? nor is there one who, like me, has seen and
heard Signora Adriana, their mother, when, during her youth, she
sailed in a felucca, near the Pausilippan grotto, with her golden
harp in her hand, but must confess that in our times, these shores
were inhabited by Sirens, that are not only beautiful and tuneful,
but virtuous and beneficent." He praises likewise Signora Madda-
lena with her sister, who were called the Lolle, and were the
first he heard sing well at Rome, after his return from the Levant;
and Signor Sofonisba, who a few years before had as great applause
in Rome, as ever was given to any one in the ancient theatre of
Marcellus. After celebrating the talents of several others, who
were living at the time of his writing, he mentions la Francesca
Caccini,* by the Tuscans called la Cecchina, daughter of the famous
Giulio Caccini Romano, who had been many years the admiration
of Florence, where he heard her himself in his youth, not only for
her musical abilities both in singing and composition, but for her
poetry both in the Latin and Tuscan language. He then speaks
of the nuns of his time, as exquisite singers, particularly la Verovia,
and others, Nello Spirito Santo at Rome, who for many years had
astonished the world: the nuns of Santa Lucia in Silici, as well as
(c) All Evirati.
(d) Of these early soprani farther mention will be made hereafter.
(e) See above, p. 528.
* Francesca Caccini was born about 1581. Besides being known as a vocalist, she pub-
lished books of cantatas in 1618, an opera La Lilciazione di Ruggiero in 1625, and some
ballets. It is said that she played the part of Euridice in Peri's Orjeo.
53*
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the nuns of San Silvestro, of Magnanopoli, and Santa Chiara,
whom people flock to hear as miraculous. In short, he concludes,
that such was the number and excellence of the singers of his time,
that those who were not content with their performance, must
certainly be either too fond of antiquity, as is usual with old people;
or too fastidious and unwilling to be pleased; which proceeds from
affectation, and a pretence to more taste and delicacy than other
people, or from a nausea, resembling that of persons in sickness,
who want appetite for the most exquisite dainties.
He then speaks of composition, and asks his friend, who could
possibly bear the Villanelle, or ballads of forty or fifty years ago?
which seem, words and Music, the production of some blind, stroll-
ing musician. " The songs in favour at present," adds he, " are
of a very different kind;" and instances, among the serious, one
by Luigi, beginning Or che la notte del silentio arnica : and, among
the comic, one by Orazio (/), per torbido mare, which for delicacy
he thought could not be exceeded. And for those who delight in
triple time, and Canzonette alia Napolitana, which are all in
Spanish time, and in such favour at present with the vulgar, what
could be prettier than those published by Gio. Batista Bellis a few
years ago? As for Sicilian airs, which are extremely graceful and
pathetic, Valle says, that he was perhaps the first himself who
brought them to Rome from Naples in 1611, and afterwards from
Sicily; " though at present," he adds, " they are as common, and
as well sung there, as in Sicily itself." He then speaks of the
Spanish Ciacona, the Saraband, the Passacaille, the Portuguese
Ciacotta, and many other foreign airs, which had been but lately
known at Rome, but with which the Villanelle and Canzonette of
that city were already enriched; and adds, that he himself had in
his travels made a very curious collection of Persian, Turkish,
Arabian, and Indian tunes, wholly different from those of Italy,
both in time and intervals.
Delia Valle then proceeds to tell his friend Guidiccioni, that if
he was long ago almost out of himself when he heard Correggio
perform on the organ at Parma; he had been informed that he was
likewise in ecstacy, a few years since, when he heard the verses
of Virgil sung, which the eldest Mazzocchi had so beautifully set
to Music.
After this he mentions the madrigalists of his own time, who
had polished and improved that species of composition far beyond
those of the preceding age. However, he says, madrigals grew every
day in less request than formerly; as the singing single songs with
taste and expression, accompanied by an instrument, was now
preferred to four or five people poring over their book at a table,
which seemed too studious and scholastic for the entertainment of
a company.
(/) A performer on the harp, celebrated elsewhere by Delia Valle.
532
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVB
However, he tells his friend, that not only learned madrigals were
still composed by Muzio, Pecci, Zoilo, Nenna, and Mel;* but masses
and motets in the grand and boasted style of the preceding century,
particularly by the younger Mazzocchi,** who, at the Roman
College, not long since had admirably gratified the lovers of full
composition by pieces for six choirs; and since that, at St. Peter's
church, with a mass for twelve or sixteen choirs, with a choir or
chorus of echo placed at the top of the cupola, which, in the
amplitude of that vast temple, had a wonderful effect. Whoever is
able to accomplish this, is able to do any thing that can be required
of the most learned contrapuntist. " But give me leave to
observe," say 3 Delia Valle, that " these gigantic performances, in
which all the harmony possible is crouded, are so apt to be coarse
and violent, that every idea of taste, expression, and refinement, is
annihilated; and men content themselves with such playing and
singing, in the aggregate, as, if heard alone, would not be good
enough for a barber's shop, or the street (g)."
He had a reverence, he said, for old compositions, which he
would carefully preserve, not for use, but, like antiques, to grace a
collection, or museum.
In the Pontifical Chapel, which in choral Music gives the law to
all other Christian churches in the world, some ancient compositions
are still in use, but not to the utter exclusion of every thing that is
modern; for composers are always retained there, in order to furnish
the chapel with a constant supply of new productions.
A few years ago, after his return to Italy, Delia Valle says, he had
heard the vespers performed on Easter-Monday, by the nuns only, at
the church dello Spirito Santo, in florid Music, with such perfection
as he never in his life had heard before: and on the last
Christmas-eve, in attending the whole service at the church of St.
Apollinare, where every part of it was performed agreeably to so
solemn an occasion; though by arriving late he was obliged to stand
the whole time in a very great crowd, he remained there with the
utmost pleasure, to hear the excellent Music that was performed.
In the beginning, he was particularly enchanted by the Venite
exultimiis, which was more exquisite than words can describe. " I
know not," says Valle, " who was the author of it, but suppose
(g) Questo si chiama da fiersone conosciente ed intendente del mestiero, sonar a Barbieri.
* There were two composers, probably brothers, with the name of Pecci : —
(i) Tomaso (b. 1576), who wrote madrigals and canzonets. Christ Church, Oxford, has
the MSS. of 16 madrigals by him.
(2) Desiderio, who wrote a book of arias and a volume of madrigals.
There was a composer named Pomponio Nenna who died before 1618, and is thought
to have been the teacher of Gesualdo. He published 9 books of madrigals and a quantity
of Church music.
Presumably the Mel mentioned is Rinaldo del Mel (not Gaudio Mel). Some modern
reprints of work by him have been issued by Proske in the M.D., and by Commer in
Musica Sacra.
** This would be Virgilio Mazzochi (d. 1646), who published works for voices in 1640.
Some psalms for a double choir were published in 1648.
533
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
it to have been the production of the Maestro di Capella of that
church (h)."
What he says farther on church Music appears reasonable and
liberal; I shall, however, quit this author for the present, as more
copious extracts have been already given from him than were
intended; but as this discourse by Delia Valle is but little known,
and his information and remarks are written with the spirit of an
auditor, and discover a thorough knowledge of the subject, they are
so much more alive than such fragments and scraps of intelligence
as could be gleaned of so remote a time elsewhere, from the writings
or compositions of different authors, that it was not easy to relinquish
so good a guide.
And it is hoped that his defence of what he calls modern Music
will not offend the present patrons of the ancient, as this very Music
is now become respectable for its antiquity. The croaker family is
very ancient: Plato 2000 years ago complained of the degeneracy
in the Music of his time, as much as the greatest enemies of
innovation can do at present : where then can judgment, reason, and
good taste draw a line between improvement and corruption? If it
were possible in the history of the world to find a period when all
mankind were of one opinion about matters of taste and fancy, we
would there fix our standard of perfection; but in all my enquiries,
having met with no such golden age of Music, I fear the partizans on
both sides must still be left at war, without the least hope that the
Temple of Janus will ever be shut.
The learned, who neither know the art, nor feel the power of
Music, and are inimical to its cultivation, are compelled by historical
evidence to allow, that the ancient Greeks and Romans sung their
dramas throughout; but then they comfort themselves in supposing
that this was done in simple narrative melody, like recitative,
without what they call the absurd and preposterous modern mixture
of Airs, accompanied with instruments playing different melodies
from the voice-part. Airs thus accompanied in a musical drama
may be difficult to defend by cold reason and criticism; but they
are nevertheless very delightful to sense. And if melody united
with harmony cannot narrate or moralize,, and is equally unable to
instruct the mind or mend the heart, it can neither deprave nor corrupt
either. Music is, itself, a very expressive and intelligible language
to all those whose ears and hearts are obedient to its vibrations. I
shall not therefore join with these four censurers, whose reasoning
and complaints only convince me, that they are as deaf to the
sweetness or refined tones, as near-sighted mortals are blind to
remote objects. The hearer of Music, as well as the composer and
(ft) There was no master in Italy at this time, 1640, whose compositions this description
will so well suit, as those of the admirable Carissimi, who was novt in all probability, the
Maestro di Capella in question; though so young, that his fame was as yet unfledged; however,
it was in composing for this church that he acquired that great and extensive reputation which
he enjoyed during a long life, and which his offspring, or musical productions, still deservedly
enjoy.*
* This surmise is probably correct, as Carissimi was appointed Maestro di Capella at St.
Apollinare about 1628, and held the post until his death.
534
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
performer, must be gifted with one perfect sense at least. Every
eye that can assist its owner to avoid a post, is not able to see the
beauties of a fine picture; nor every ear that faithfully conveys to the
mind the most rapid and minute articulations of speech, equally
faithful in conveying to the inmost recesses of the soul those excellent
inflexions, of musical voice or instrument, which thrill and enchant
every sincere votary of the tuneful art.
Mankind always seem more ready to own a deficiency in any
other sense than that of hearing or feeling, when Music is in question.
" I am so near-sighted, that I did not know you — pray pardon me,
Sir." But who ever confesses with equal frankness, that his
contempt for Music arises from any other cause than superiority of
judgment or pursuits? No one says: '■' doubtless the Music you
have composed, performed, or praised, may be exquisite; but my
ear is not so well constructed as to vibrate truly on hearing it; " or
allows that he wants feeling or taste for such elegant works of art.
The lively St. Evremond and the candid Addison, with the decision
of men of letters, ignorant of Music and impenetrable to its powers,
determine the merit of French and Italian operas, without the least
knowledge or feeling in the art; and their decisions are often referred
to by other a^ovaoi, with a degree of triumph as great as if they were
mathematical demonstrations.
After this digression, for which we hope the musical reader will
pardon us, we shall proceed in our narrative concerning dramatic
Music with as little mixture of extraneous matter as possible.
The inhabitants of Bologna not only dispute the priority of
musical dramas with the Romans and Venetians, but even the
Florentines, who, as has already been related, had exhibitions of
this kind as early as the year 1590. However interesting such
disputes may be to the good people of Italy, but few of my English
readers will, I fear, think the decision of much importance. Yet if
a more minute investigation of the subject should be wished by
those who have had the patience to follow me thus far, the best
information to which I am able to recommend them is contained in
two small books entitled The Glory of Poetry and Music, published
at Venice, 1730 (i); and a Chronological Series of musical Dramas,
at Bologna, 1737 (k). By these publications, and by other informa-
tion that has been acquired, it appears that the first Italian operas
were performed in the palaces of princes for the celebration of
marriages, or on some particular occasion of joy and festivity, at
the expence of the sovereign or republic; and not in theatres
supported by general contribution.
Though a regular series of the names and writers of the musical
dramas performed in the city of Bologna is preserved, from the year
1600, yet I have not been able to discover who composed the
(i) Le Glorie delta Poesia e della Musica contenute nell' esatta notizia de Teatri delta
citta di Venezia, e net Catalogo purgatissimo de Drami Musicali quivi sin ora rapresentati, con
gl' autori della poesia, e delta Musica, e con le annotationi a suoi luoghi proprii.
(k) Serie Cronologica dei drammi recitati sit de' publici Teatri di Bologna, dall' anno 1600,
sino al corrente IJ37.
535
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Music of any of these dramas till the year 1610, when
Girolamo Giacobbi [c. 1575-1630], Maestro di Capella of San
Petronio, set the opera of Andromeda * This was a learned and
classical composer of the Bologna School, whose productions for the
church are still much esteemed. His opera of Andromeda was
revived eighteen years after its first performance.
In 1616, the famous drama of Euridice, written by Rinuccini,
which had been exhibited in Bologna in 1601, was again performed
there, to the Music of Jocopo Peri, Marco da Gagliano, and
Girolamo Giacobbi; where, according to Ger. Eggnazio Corsi, who
was one of the audience, the applause and crowd of strangers
attracted thither, were as great as in ancient times, at the sight of
the gladiators and public games with which Vitellius Caesar regaled
the people in the great amphitheatre of that city.
Though operas continued to be performed almost every year at
Bologna during the last century, yet they were chiefly composed
by Venetian masters, till the year 1674, when Petronio
Franceschini set the prologue to the opera of Caligula; and
afterwards Oronte di Mensi, 1676; Arsinoe, 1677; and Apollo in
Tessaglia, 1679.
There seems to have been no public theatre in this city till the
year 1680, when four operas are said to have been performed
there, nel Teatro pubblico. After this period the Music of
subsequent operas seems to have been supplied by native'
contrapuntists, among whom Giuseppi Felice Tosi, Giacomo Ant.
Perti, Giov. Paolo Colonna, Giuseppi Aldrovandi, Pirro Albergati,
the elder Bononcini, and Pistocchi, the celebrated singer, contributed
to form and render that school eminent.
But these masters have severally contributed so much to the
progress of their art, that it would be injustice not to specify their
peculiar merits.
Perti, born in 1656,** was a solid grave composer of church
Music; with his theatrical style I am but little acquainted: but as
he long continued to be employed, not only for the operas of
Bologna, but Venice and other cities of Italy, we may reasonably
imagine that it was excellent. Paolucci (/) has printed a good duet
by this master, in the church style; and Padre Martini (m) has
given several admirable specimens of his science in his Saggio di
Contrappunto. This great harmonist, however, does him still
more honour, by calling himself his disciple. Petri, before his
decease, must nearly have attained the age of 100; for his name
(/) Arte praltica di Contrap. Tom. I. p. 15. Mr. Perkins, an English gentleman, settled
at Bologna, and a great admirer of the compositions of Perti, kindly furnished me with an
admirable printed mass by this master, in eight real parts.
(m) Tom. II. p. 142.
* An opera by Giacobbi entitled Dramatodia, or L' Aurora ingannata, was produced at
Bologna in 1608.
** Perti was born in 1661 and died in 1756. The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has the
MS. of an Adoramus Te by Perti, and Novello included works by him in his Sacred Music.
53§
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
appears as the composer of Atide in 1679, and, according to'
Quadrio, he was living in 1744.
Tosi [c. 1630-83], the father of the writer of an excellent
treatise on singing, well known in England by the late Mr. Galliard's
translation,* between the year 1679 and 1691, composed ten operas,
chiefly for the theatre of Bologna.
Giov. Paolo Colonna [c. 1637-95], Maestro di Capella di S.
Petronio di Bologna, was the son of Antonio Colonna, alias del
Como, a celebrated organ-builder of Brescia (n). He composed
but few operas; indeed, I know of but one, Amilcar in Cipro** for
the theatre of Bologna, 1692; but he published about the latter end
of the last century many excellent works for the church, of which
P. Martini has given a list, to the amount of twelve, in the second
volume of his History of Music (o).
It was the opinion of the late Dr. Boyce, that Colonna was
Handel's model for choruses accompanied with many instrumental
parts, different from the vocal. His psalms in eight parts,
published at Bologna, 1694 (p), have been very justly admired
for their masterly composition. Paolucci has inserted (q) the
hymn, Pange lingua, set in plain counterpoint of four parts by
him, in a manner sufficiently simple and syllabic for the most
zealous reformers of church Music. His Sacre lamentationi della
settimana santa, a voce sola, published 1689, contain many
pleasing and elegant fragments of pathetic recitative, which I
should have admired much more if I had not previously been
acquainted with the works of Carissimi, who had anticipated not
only all the thoughts of Colonna in this species of Music, but
almost all those of every composer of the present century. The
airs of these Lamentationi are too short to make much impression
on the hearer.
Colonna had a controversy with Corelli in 1685, concerning the
consecution of fifths in the first movement of the third sonata of his
Opera 2da. Every lover of Music will be sorry that the charge
against Corelli should be well-founded; but it must be owned that
the base is indefensible in the passage which has been condemned
by Colonna, and was not likely to have passed uncensured, even
in an age much more licentious than that of Corelli.
Antimo Liberati, with whom Colonna was in correspondence at
the time of this controversy, seems to defend Corelli's violation of
the known rule against the consecution of fifths, in a letter written
1685, sopra un seguito di quinte, in which he reasons thus: " If a
(«) See P. Martini's Storia della Mus. Tom. III. p. 260, note (158).
(0) Vedi I'Indice degli Autori. (£) Lib. III. Op. ii.
{q) Tom. I. Esemp. xi. p. 199.
*The book on singing by P. F. Tosi, the son of G. P. Tosi, composer of operas, etc.,
was translated into English by Galliard and published in 1742 as Observations on the Florid
Song, or sentiments of the Ancient and Modem Singers.
** Amilcar, which was produced at Bologna in 1693, was the only opera written by Colonna.
A number of books and masses by him were published, and there are 6 Oratorios in MS.
537
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
quaver rest, or even a semiquaver, were not sufficient to satisfy
the rule against fifths and eighths, a composer writing in many
parts would have very narrow limits for the expansion of his
genius and fancy, or for varying the harmony." But with due
respect for the authority of Antimo Liberati, and with peace to the
ashes of the gentle Corelli, the passage is unwarrantable, and
seems the more inexcusable, as several better bases were easy to
find, without altering his design, or destroying the effect of his
trebles.
Fragment of Corelli, Sonata third, Opera 2da.
3W SftSE
^: fTf-RT' h 7
*=*
-V— i-
It appears that the excellent theorist Berardi had a reverence
for the professional erudition of Colonna, by his dedicating to him
the seventh chapter of his Miscellanea Musicale (r).
Aldovrandini [Aldrovandini c. 1673-1707], between the year
1696 and 1711, composed for Bologna and Venice seven operas;
some of which were comic, particularly one, entitled Amor Torna
5 al 50, which was written in the dialect of the Bolognese
peasants.
Count Albergati [c. 1663-c. 1735] was a Bolognese Dilettante
of a very illustrious family in that city, whose musical
compositions were very much esteemed. I meet but with two of
his operas: Gli amici, 1699, and II Principe Selvaggio, 1712.
Of the three Bononcinis : Giovanni Maria the father, and
Giovanni and Marc' Antonio, his two sons, it will be necessary to
speak hereafter in a more particular manner, as Music has great
obligations to their genius and abilities.
Giov. Maria [c. 1640-78] calls himself Modanese; however, he
seems to have resided long in Bologna, and to have published the
chief part of his works in that city, where his son Giovanni's Duetti
da Camera Op. 8va. likewise first appeared. Both were also
members of the Philharmonic Society there, and may be properly
considered as ornaments of the Bologna School of counterpoint.
(r) Delia Battuta, p. 78.
53*
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Of the celebrated Pistocchi [1659-1726], who founded the
Bologna School of singing, Mr. Galliard in a note to his translation
of Tosi, has given the best account that I have found. " This
performer," says he, " was very famous about the latter end of the
last century, and refined the manner of singing in Italy, which
was then a little crude. His merit in this is acknowledged by all
his countrymen, and contradicted by none." It is recounted of
him, that in his youth, when he first performed in public, he had a
very fine treble voice, and was admired and courted universally;
but by a dissolute life, lost both that and his fortune. Being
reduced to the utmost misery, he entered into the service of a
composer, as a copyist, where he made use of the opportunity of
learning the rules of composition, and became a considerable
proficient.* After some years, he recovered a small portion of
voice, which by time and practice changed to a fine contralto.
Having experience on his side, he took care of it, and as encourage-
ment returned, he took the opportunity of travelling all over
Europe, where hearing the different manners and tastes of the
different performers, he appropriated to himself the flowers of them
all, and formed that agreeable mixture, which he produced in
Italy, where he was admired and imitated. At length he settled
at the court of Anspach [c. 1696], where he lived in great affluence,
and had a considerable stipend as a Maestro di Capella. After
continuing there several years in an easy and honourable station,
he returned to Italy [c. 1699], and retired into a convent at
Bologna [1715], where, when his duties of devotion were
performed, he instructed for his amusement such young professors
as were remarkable for voice, disposition, diligence, and good
morals. Tosi speaks of Pistocco as remarkable in his day for a
strict adherence to measure, and firm and steady manner of
introducing graces and embellishments without breaking its
proportions. The celebrated Bernacchi, Past, Minelli of Bologna,
and Bartolino of Faenza, were four of his most renowned scholars.
Antonio Bernacchi [1685-1756], who was in England** several
times, supported the reputation of the Bologna School of singing
many years after the decease of his master Pistocchi. Amadori,
Guarducci, and Raaff, the celebrated tenor, were scholars of
Bernacchi; as was Signor Giambatista Mancini, Maestro di Canto
della Corte Imperiale e Accademico Filarmonico, who in 1774,
published, at Vienna, Pensieri e Riflessioni pratiche sopra il Canto
figurato, a useful book, as a supplement to his countryman Tosi's
treatise on the same subject.
Sig. Mancini confirms what has been frequently related of his
master Bernacchi, that when he first appeared on the stage having
* This story can hardly be true as Pistocchi was only 8 years old when he published his
Cappricci puerili in 1667. The MS. of an opera is dated 1669. His career as an operatic singer
commenced in 1675.
** He was in England in 1716, when he sang in the opera Clearte, and in 1717 he took the
part of Goffredo in Handel's Rinaldo. He made other visits to England, and in 1729 was
engaged by Handel for the Italian opera.
539
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
neither a good natural voice nor a good manner of singing, he was
so ill received, that his best friends advised him either to quit the
profession of a singer entirely, or to place himself wholly under the
direction of Pistocchi. Having followed their advice in this last
particular, Pistocchi received him with kindness, and marking out
a course or study for him, Bernacchi not only followed it implicitly,
and applied with unwearied diligence for several years, but during
this time declined singing not only in the churches and theatres,
but even in private parties, to his most intimate friends; till having
the full consent of his instructor, he appeared with such eclat,
that he was regarded by the best judges, though his voice was
originally defective, as the most refined and artificial singer of his
time.
Pistocchi 's compositions for the stage acquired him considerable
reputation. He set Leandro, o sia gl' Amori fatali, and Girello, for
Venice. The first was performed 1679, in a manner not uncommon,
at that time: the characters were represented by wooden figures
on the stage, while the singers performed behind the scenes. And
in the second, 1682, the parts were acted by figures in wax, while
the singers were invisible. This resembled the Roman custom, in
the time of Andronicus, when, according to Livy, one of the
Roman players sung while another acted before him (s). Pistocchi
set the opera of Narciso, written by Apost. Zeno, by command
of the Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1697 (t); and Le Risa di
Democrito for the imperial court at Vienna, 1700. This opera
was performed with great applause at Bologna 1708, and at Florence
1710, to the same Music*
Progress of the Musical Drama at Rome
It does not appear that any regular theatre was opened for the
performance of operas, in this ancient and renowned city, during
the former part of the last century; nor, indeed, can I discover that
any regular opera or secular musical drama was performed there
till the year 1632, when II Ritorno di Angelica nell' Indie, Drama
Musicale, is recorded by Leo Allacci, in his Drammaturgia, to
have been performed in that city; but without informing us where,
or by whom set to Music or sung.** Several musical dramas,
(s) Gagliano tells us too, that in his Dafne there were two Apollos, one to fight and
another to sing. Pref.
(t) In the preface to this drama he is called, Musico di singolar eccellenza, chi non
solamente lo pose egli stesso in Musica, ma rappresenlb mirabilmente la parte di Narciso. Op.
Dramat, d'Apost. Zeno, Tom. VII. 295.
* Girello was composed in 1669 and performed in 1682 with a prologue written by Stradella.
Other operas by Pistocchi were Bertoldo, Vienna c. 1707, and / Rivali Generosi at
Reggio in 1710.
** This performance is said to have taken place in the residence of a Roman nobleman.
It has been ascribed by Lady Morgan in the Life and Times of Salvator Rosa to one Tignali,
which name is considered by some to be a corrupt form of Tenaglia, the composer of an
opera, Clearco, produced at Rome in 1661, but now lost.
540
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
however, were performed there at the palaces of Ambassadors and
other great personages, between 1632 and 1661, when Clear co, set
by Tenaglia, a Roman master, was performed. This composer,
who had distinguished himself by his productions for the church,
is celebrated by P. Delia Valle among great Roman musicians m
1640.
The first public theatre, opened for the exhibition of musical
dramas at Rome, in modern times, was il Torre di Nona, where
Giasone [by Cavilli] was performed, 1671.* No other theatre
seems to have been used for this purpose in that city till 1679,
when the opera of Dov' e Amore, e Pieta, set by Bernardo Pasquini
[1637-1710], the famous organist, was represented Nella Sala de'
Signori Capranica. This theatre still subsists.
The year 1680 is rendered memorable to musicians by the opera
of L'Onesta negV Amove; as it was the first dramatic** composition
of the elegant, profound, and original composer, Alessandro
Scarlatti [1658-9 — 1725], who has many titles to a lasting fame;
not only for his numerous operas and exquisite cantatas, which
are still as much sought by the curious, as, during his life, they
were by the public at large, but for establishing the fame of the
Neapolitan School of counterpoint, which has since been so fertile
in great musicians, among whom his admirable son, Domenico
Scarlatti, and his elegant scholar, Adolfo Hasse, detto il Sassone,
are distinguished by all the lovers of Music who are able to separate
original genius from froth and bombast, and taste, propriety, and
exquisite sensibility, from noise and Gothic barbarism. This
early production of Scarlatti was performed in the palace of
Christina, Queen of Sweden, who after her abdication in 1654, had
chosen Rome for the place of her residence, where she died 1688.
In 1681, the opera of Lisimaco, set by Legrenzi, was likewise
performed in the palace of her Swedish majesty. The next year
four different operas were represented in this city; but as neither the
names of the composers nor singers are preserved, a farther
account of them in this work seems unnecessary. Indeed, though
counterpoint was very successfully cultivated in the Pontifical
Chapel by many composers of great abilities, dramatic Music offers
nothing very interesting to the present age till about the latter end
of the last century, when the productions of Alessandro Scarlatti,
Giovanni Bononcini, and Francesco Gasparini, with the vocal
performance of Siface, Pistocchi, Nicolini, and instrumental of
Corelli on the violin, Pasquini on the harpsichord, Gaetano on the
theorbo, and Bononocini himself on the violoncello, who frequently
displayed their several talents in the same theatre, were celebrated
* This theatre was closed by order of Pope Innocent XI in 1676. Innocent XII, whose
papacy commenced in 1691, was more favourable to opera, and the theatre was rebuilt. This
more tolerant altitude did not last long, however, for in 1697 the theatre was destroyed by
his orders. There were a few private performances of opera in 1701-2, but no public represen-
tations until 1709.
** This was Scarlatti's second opera. The first, entitled L'errore innocente ovvero Gli
equivoci nel sembiante, was produced at Rome in 1679.
541
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
throughout Europe. In 1694, Tullio Ostilio and Serse, both
composed by Bononcini, had these advantages; and in the
dramatis persona of Tullio, one of the first which I have seen,
where the singers are mentioned, we find not only the names of
Pistocchi and Nicolini, but of several other favourite performers
(«)•
In 1696, a new theatre was opened at the Aliberti palace, with
two operas composed by Perti of Bologna, Penelope la Casta and
Furio Camilla. The abilities of this master, whose Music for the
church is still much esteemed in Italy, have been considered
elsewhere (x).
Progress of the Musical Drama
or Opera, at Venice
Though the inhabitants of this city have cultivated and
encouraged the musical drama with more diligence and zeal than
any other in Italy, during the latter part of the last century, and
the beginning of the present, yet they were not very early in its
establishment: as the first regular opera, or drama, set to Music,
which was performed at Venice after the invention of recitative,
was Andromeda, written by Benedetto Ferrari [c. 1597-1681], of
Reggio, in the Modenese state, and set to Music by Francesco
Manelli of Tivoli, 1637. Ferrari was himself a celebrated performer
on the lute, an able poet, and a good musician; who, collecting
together a company of the best singers in Italy, brought this
opera on the stage in the theatre of S. Cassiano, at his own expence,
in a very sumptuous manner. An extraordinary instance of
spirit and enterprize in a private individual of moderate fortune,
to vie with princes in the support of an exhibition, of which, till
then, it was thought they only could support the splendor (y).
In 1638, La Maga Fulminata, by the same poet and musician,
was exhibited at the expence and risk of Ferrari and of five or six of
the performers, in a very sumptuous and magnificent manner,
though the expence did not amount to more than 2000 crowns. A
sum which, at present, (says the author of The Glory of Poetry and
Music, 1730) is hardly sufficient to satisfy the demands of an ordinary
singer. But at this time the performers either shared in the profits,
or were content with a moderate salary; public singers being then
but seldom wanted, and that only in the capital cities of Italy;
whereas at present, dramatic representations abound even in
villages (z).
In 1639, there were four operas performed at Venice, at the
two theatres of San Cassiano, and Santi Giovanni e Paolo. These
(u) The first opera in which the names of the singers are inserted in the dramatis personae,
is Lisimaco, set by Legrenzi, for Venice, 1682.
(x) See above, p. 536, where his character is given among Bologna composers.
(y) Le Glorie delta Poes. et della Mus. p. 19- (2) Ibid. p. 37.
542 . -
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
were La Delia, written by Giulio Strozzi, a favourite lyric poet at
the time, and set by Manelli. Le Nozze di Tete, e di Peleo, set to
Music by Francesco Cavalli, a composer of whom we shall have
farther occasion to speak hereafter. L'Armida, of which both the
words and Music were the composition of Benedetto Ferrari. And
L'Adone, set by the celebrated Claudio Monteverde, who more than
thirty years before had set Orfeo and Arianna, and was one of the
first inventors of recitative, and dramatic Music.
In 1640, the Arianna of Monteverde was revived in a third
theatre, that was erected at Venice, called II Teatro di S. Moise (a).
GV Amori di Apollo e di Dafne, by Cavalli; and II Pastor Regio, of
which Ferrari was poet, composer, and Entrepreneur.
Between the years 1641 and 1649, there were upwards of thirty
different operas performed in the several theatres of Venice, of
which the musical composers were Monteverde, Manelli, Cavalli,
Sacrati, Ferrari, Fonte, Marazzoli, and Rovetta. Of Giasone,
written b}' Giac. And. Cicognini, and set by Cavalli, one of the four
operas performed in 1649, it is said that the grave recitative began
first to be interrupted with that Anacreontic kind of stanza, which
has since been called Aria (6). The author of Storia Critica de'
Teatri (c), asks, " whether the musical drama is improved or injured
by this innovation? " and answers the question himself with
judgment and good taste, by saying that it is greatly embellished
and improved by a judicious and sober use of the discovery, and
only injured by the abuse of it : as when a composer neglects the
more interesting parts of a drama, to avail himself of the opportunity
which frequent airs afford him, of letting the action languish, in
oider to express some common and frivolous sentiment with
intemperate art and elegance; which is ever the case when the true
and interesting point of passion is not found. Frequent airs are of
infinitely more use and importance in an Italian opera performed in
England, than Italy; for the public in general being ignorant of the
language can receive but small amusement from the recitative or
narrative part, compared with that which the airs afford them; where
the richness of the harmony, ingenious complication and design of
the several parts, and elegance of the principal melody, all conspire
to captivate and charm without the assistance of poetry, fable, or
intelligence of the words; as an air well sung, is of all languages, and
must ever afford a delight much superior to that which the same
air played on an instrument could produce. But it is somewhat too
early for reflexions of this kind, yet; I shall therefore proceed to
relate the progress which the musical drama made in Italy, with
mere recitative, for the first fifty years; and afterwards for fifty
more with little assistance from measured air, or melody.
(a) Between the year 1637 and 1727, there were fifteen different theatres erected at Venice
for the exhibition of musical dramas. Several of the first were, however, only temporary theatres
or rather booths, constructed on tressels (jabbricati tutti di Tavole); though afterwards built
on a larger scale, with stone.
(6) Trattato dell' Opera in Musica, Naples, 1772, by the Cavalier Planelli.
(c) II Dottor D. Pietro Napoli Signorelli, p. 275.
543
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
II Padre Marc' Antonio Cesti [c. 1620-69], d' Arezzo, Minor
Conventuale, e Cavalier dell' Imperatore, set an opera for Venice
in 1649, called Orontea, written by the same poet as Giasone; which
was revived at Milan, with the same Music, in 1662; at Venice, 1666;
at Bologna, 1669; and again at Venice, 1683; always colla Musica
stessa, during thirty-four years!
It has been extremely difficult to find any of the Music of the early
operas, that was not printed. Luckily, a scene of Cesti's celebrated
opera of Orontea, composed in 1649, and afterwards so frequently
revived, was found in the music-book of Salvator Rosa, in that
painter's own hand-writing. And as the dramatic Music of this
period is so extremely scarce, I shall, on the next plates, insert the
scene entire, in order to exhibit to the musical reader the state of
recitative, as well as air, at this early period; which has been
supposed to be that of the first invention and introduction of an air
at the termination of a scene of recitative.
Cesti is said to have been a scholar of Carissimi, which is hardly
reconciliable with the date of this opera, as Carissimi did not begin
to be known at Rome till after the year 1640.* Adami says, that
Cesti was admitted as a tenor singer in the Pope's Chapel, 1660;
and that ' ' the most celebrated of all his operas, of which five were
composed for Venice, was La Dori, il lumi maggiore dello stil
Teatrale." This opera first appeared at Venice, 1663, and was not
only revived there in 1667, and 1671, but frequently performed
with great applause in the other principal cities of Italy. Songs
have, since these times, been so much composed to display the
peculiar talents and abilities of singers, that operas can never be
successfully revived but where the same performers, who sung in
them originally, happen to survive, and to be engaged at the same
theatre; which is not likely to happen at the distance of many years.
Indeed, if, contrary to the chances against it, such a concurrence of
circumstances should take place, twenty or thirty years generally
make such havock with fine voices, fine taste in singing, and fine
feelings in judging, that it is by no means certain that they would
then please the same critics as much as formerly (d).
(d) I never yet have known a singer able to satisfy the expectations of old critics, in
old songs. If the hearer is free from prejudice, he is a more severe judge, and more difficult
to please, than in his youth; but possession of favour once taken, no singer, however superior
his talents, can obtain a fair hearing. He is at once said, by different hearers, to sing the
air too fast and too slow; to grace and change the passages too much, and too little.
Pacchierotti, a much greater and more feeling singer than Monticelli, was never right, in the
opinion of these judges, in singing Gluck's Rasserena il mesio Ciglio. I remember perfectly
well the manner in which Monticelli sung this song: it was sweet, simple, smooth, and
unimpassioned. But though it was constantly encored, there were, as usual, two parties oi
very different opinions about the manner of his repeating it when encored; which by some
was thought so much too plain and invariable, that Palma, a singing-master of great taste,
but with as little voice as it was possibly to hear, in the smallest room, was greatly preferred
in his performance of it, merely on account of his frequent changes and riffioramenti. It is
with singing as with declamation, the original actor of a favourite part is always remembered
to the disadvantage of his successor. Man differs from man so specifically in figure, feature,
feeling, conception, and gesture, that no two can resemble each other, but by the power of
mimicry, and humble imitation. Monticelli had a style of singing that was suitable to his
voice and powers, and which justly gained him friends and admirers in songs orinally made
to display his talents; but had he ventured to sing those which Farinelli, Senesino, Carestini, or
Caffarelli had sung here, just before his arrival, he would have been pronounced as much their
* Carissimi was known at Rome before 1640, as he settled there about 1628.
544
THB INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
About the year 1650, there were four theatres open at Venice
for musical dramas or operas : the principal composers were Gasparo
Sartorio, Cavalli, Francesco Luzzo, and Cesti; and in 1654, La
Guerriera Spartana, the first opera of D. Pietro Andrea Ziani
appeared, who, after composing fifteen operas for Venice, was
appointed Maestro di Capella to the emperor, for whose theatre and
chapel, at Vienna, he produced a great number of operas and
oratorios.*
After the specimens of dramatic Music already given from the
works of Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, and Monteverde, the inventors
of recitative, and of Cesti, one of the first composers of opera airs,
it seems unnecessary to exhibit any other examples of that style
till some material change or improvement was brought about; and
I have been able to trace none till the introduction of airs, wholly
measured, and distinct from recitative, by Cavalli, in his opera of
Giasone, and Cesti in Orontea, already mentioned. The Music of
Giasone, if it is any where preserved, is so difficult to find, that it
has escaped all my researches;** however, that of the opera of
Erismena, written by Aurelio Aureli, and set, in 1655, by the same
composer as Giasone, is still in being, and luckily, in the hands of a
friend who is liberal in communicating the musical curiosities
contained in his valuable collection (e).
This opera, set by Cavalli, was the twenty-ninth he had
produced for different theatres at Venice, and the sixty-eighth
performed in that city, since the year 1637. In this drama we
find not only frequent airs, but returns to the first part, which
have been since implied by the words Da Capo.
It is amusing to see how contented, and even charmed, the
public is at one period with what appears contemptible at another.
inferior in caste, energy, and execution, as in voice. Pacchierotti is a great and original
performer; and will please real judges, in whatever he sings, let who will have sung it before
him. But to expect him, or any other singer, to perform an air now, exactly as Monticelli 01
any one else did forty years ago, is not allowing for the changes which the art or individuals
have undergone since that time. Can it be expected that such a performer as Pacchierotti,
now Monticelli is dead, should go to school to his few surviving admirers, in order to learn
how to sing this trifling and monotonous rondo, in which the motivo, or single passage upon
which it is built, is repeated so often, that nothing can prevent the hearer of taste and
knowledge from fatigue and languor during the performance, but such new and ingenious
embellishments as, in Italy, every singer of abilities would be expected to produce each night
it was performed. The air is of that kind which the French call a Canevas, or outline for the
singer to colour at his pleasure. When Manzoli was here, he sung in Ezio almost during a
whole season, but three songs : the first, Recagli quell' Acciaro, an Aria Parlante, which was
to show action more than taste in singing; Caro mio bene Addio, an adagio or cantabile air,
which he embellished every night to the utmost of his power; and Mi dona mi rende, a graziosa
air, in which there were several pauses or places designedly left for the singer to fill up, ad
libitum. Manzoli's fancy and execution were by no means equal to his voice; but he took all
the time and liberties with the song he was able, without giving offence to the lovers of
simplicity.
(e) Dr. Bever, the civilian.
* Burney confuses two composers named Ziani. Pietro Andrea held various posts in
Bergamo and Venice., and in 1676 went to Naples. After that date no definite knowledge as
to his life has been discovered. He composed over 20 operas and much other music.
His nephew, Marc Antonio, was appointed vice-Maestro di Capella to the Emperor at
Vienna in 1700, and Maestro in 1712. He wrote many operas, serenades, etc., besides Church
music, and died in 1715.
** Giasone was reprinted by Eitner in Die Oper, part 2.
Voi,. ii. 35. 545
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
For this drama, which was not only often heard with rapture at
Vienna [Venice] in 1655, the first year of its performance, and at
Bologna 1668, thirteen years after, but revived again at Venice in
a different theatre in 1670, is so deficient in poetical and musical
merit, compared with those in present favour, that no perfection
of performance could render it palatable.
Notwithstanding our Shakspeare and other dramatic writers
have been called barbarians for introducing comic characters in
their tragedies, the mixture of comic scenes in serious musical
dramas prevailed in most of the early operas, and even oratorios
(see S. Agata), and continued to disgrace them till banished by
the better taste and sounder judgment of Apostolo Zeno and
Metastasio, who convinced the public that such buffoonery was
unnecessary. Almost all the first operas that were performed in
England at the beginning of this century were degraded by the
admission of such characters as not only counteract and destroy all
tragic pathos, but such as it is not easy to imagine likely to converse
familiarly with the other great personages of these dramas. Addison
condescended to imitate this vicious taste in his Rosamond; and so
late as 1738 in the opera of Xerxes, set by Handel, a facetious
servant is introduced. Even in such musical dramas as were
without this mixture, in compliance with a vulgar taste, Intermezzi,
consisting of farcical scenes wholly unconnected with the principal
piece, were performed between the acts.
The airs of Erismena are chiefly at the beginning of scenes, not
at the end, as in the operas of the present times. The greatest part
of these airs are in a slow minuet time, or rather in the saraband
measure of f. They are psalmodic, monotonous, and dull; nor is
the recitative so passionate and expressive as that of Luigi,
Carissimi, and Cesti, of nearly the same period.
The measure, in what are called airs, in this opera, is as
frequently changed as in those of Lulli, who formed his taste about
this time in Italy and in France, from the operas of Italy, as a
comparison of his works with those of Cavalli, Luigi, Cesti,
and Graziani, will manifest. Lulli was twenty-three, in 1655, when
Erismena was set. Composers were now feeling their way, and
trying the feelings of the public, in the dramatic expression of
words. In many successful attempts at new melodies they became
legislators, as is the case with all early artists, who are imitated
and pillaged by subsequent admirers.
The trying to express the sense of single words and phrases,
instead of the general sentiment and spirit of a whole verse or
stanza, is a vice of very early date. And Cavalli, in the twelfth
scene of the first act of Erismena, has presented us with a very
inelegant and uncouth division on the words rota i giri, to furnish
the hearer with an idea of the revolution of a wheel.
II viver di speranza e un cibo amaro, is, however, well expressed,
and in a modulation which still appears new and masterly.
546
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
In the next scene there is an old Scots, or rather Provingale
close, which has been revived not long since by the late Mr. John
C. Bach, and others.
<f i y i g j m
— £• I ton sx
We may perhaps judge a little of the taste of the times by the
written cadences, of which the following is one:
The poet who wrote the opera of Erismena, Aurelio Aureli, was
author of thirty-one musical dramas; and Cavalli set for different
theatres in Venice, between the year 1639 and 1666, thirty-five
operas, besides what he produced for other cities of Italy (g). He
was Maestro di Capella of St. Mark's Church, at Venice, and
several of his operas were frequently revived long after his decease.
In 1656, Artemisia, written by Count Nicolo' Minati, was
likewise set by Cavalli. The year following I find but one opera
on record for Venice; this was Le Fortune di Rodope, e di Damira,
of Aureli, set by Pietro Andrea Ziani. In 1658, besides Medoro,
set by Fran. Luzzo, and Teseo, by Ziani, Cavalli set Antioco,
another drama by Minati; and the year following still another,
Elena, by the same poet. In 1660, there were three operas at the
different theatres of Venice; and the year following four more, which
afford no incident worth recording; except that the theatre of S.
Salvatore, which had been built of wood, was destroyed by fire
in 1661, and rebuilt of stone; not, says the author of the Catalogue
of Musical Dramas at Venice (h) , for the reception of strollers and
buffoons, as heretofore, but for the descendants of Orpheus.
In 1662, there were two operas composed by Ziani, and one by
Castro villari; but of these I have never been able to find the Music.
However, in the Imperial Library at Vienna, I discovered an opera,
composed the same year, by Bontempi, author of the Storia Musica.
This drama, he tells us (i), was written as well as set by himself,
for the nuptials of the Margrave of Brandenburg, Christian Ernest,
with the Princess Sophia of Saxony. As I transcribed several scenes
from this early opera, on the following plates I shall present my
readers with a fragment of recitative and a short air, as a specimen
of dramatic Music at this period.
(g) Quadrio makes the whole number of his operas amount to more than forty.
(h) Glorie della Poesia e delta Musica, p. 63.
(»') In his History, p. 170.
547
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Scena nell'Opera d'Orontea, rappresentata in Venezia 1649.
Del Marc antonio Cesti.
o-*
§ g I
^S
^
3£d
o Q
£3
^^
-A -VI, £
CA-RE,
£ * l£L t£ GUArtCf £ - LCTT£ BA CM -T£ LOKS
ME COR- TE 5/ COK
TBSI AU-
Q^A-*^?-^-
SE
g^fc=F
P
g=
3=5
E*B3
rr"0
33
?o-
-c^|JJ|o^
9=^F
^
«»-»
tt3
Mil
1 — r
RET - T£,
l^gg
*
HELLEGMNai LETTE BA
5=£
C/fl T£ U>« ?«£, 6A :M - 7£ ioras A1£ COR
T£S/, COK
s
1—*T
=©:
g=*3
frffiF
^S
3=5=
g££2g=£
T*uiF
SE
aiSa
l£
MS>
Jzfe
TESI flU - REJ-TE
OHIME
S
5£ M I SPURIA M VQRO SARA LA VITA
3EE^
=S
^ Id o
d- fj-
if y u f y » »
££
*fai&&ar®-
["'MIA PREDADI
£=rfc£££s==p3i
MORTE
QgftMDOROCHto SO/.
CRINE,
QUESTOSC£TTRO „„
REAL NRCQVE PER
^"J ?-
^
*
^
=5C
k-H^ilL^v^ss^rnrgj^S
^^
vflj. J
?=ff£^=P=P*
=S£
F£, TU5EI L'ANIMA
MIA TU 5£l L'ANIMIA
m
MIA, TVSE'LMOR£
I J a ^
OH D/Ol
CHI VIDE Mfl/ PIO
g^E
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
«§§
1 JJj
UNA RE
?rjtitr^
AJJ-l^Bg
-e^-"<> ^B a»
GINA AMANTE
ffi£50£
3^f3T^=
NONVU0LfW.R,Nc}JViJ0l MO - R.1R CO
"?~^i"
S| WON VUOL MO
^^
fc^^N
3=T
^
fe&XrMH^^^g
^-^J4h£
-^ ' trjjr;
-»! «-»-*-»-»_<*
V¥W* *~
J wr cosf
L£GCf5LEGGI,OM!0
Cfl-KO (W^UfSTE
O
NO TF I M/E| J/N££R/4mo-R» /N 6REVI
O —
ss
2t
•* — V
te
i
3=+
?. A3IA NELL'OPERfi t'ORONJEfi cfs/ Cesti.
Is J'Ht
^^S
^=st
-dd^-
nSz
NO-TE /MM6NSI TA O'ARDO
W.
g
DORMI
DORMI StfN
^s
-g— p-o-
&E
tes
EE
&
3gg
gg
S3
^33=
IS
DORMI I DORMI 6ENJ MIO.PEKTE
VffiUAOROIfrTEA, MIA
VfTA MIA
VITA AO
ksc
s
° ^~
=Q=gl£
r3
ps
£=«=
^fe^z5532=
^^^
ffi
te
PERTE VEGLIAORONI-TEA
^^S
VTTA AO
Dl -
fe
Q-*|d jg-^ra-yi-l^^
^^
1M^
^
Act I, Scene XIII. Fragments from the Opera of Erismena.
Set by Cavalli, 1655.
Air in which the 7th and 6th are used in a modern manner.
^S
££
e
IP a» I ^ -i
^
^
g a- a
£ f '
fe*
3**3=
RO
SVENTU RATA
s
^^
SVENTVjRA-TA fli/)J
£
SOAKM D'A-
s
-Of-
fr- O^
549
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
rp ,
C»
ft* RRI«.HTTOfVZc. /T>
j TU A PE
NOSfl QUI ■
O B S3 B at «i ° ^~
ETC R/IMPOU ) TIEN PtRSflTOLLIS
TUt
SE -
TE.
V/» - GH£
P ©=
O- -
1 «* 1
' a-
L— sm —
vS
— — a-j. » g —
550
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Act lid. Sc. XI. The Ritornel of an Air beginning, Monro despietata
is ingenious.
iafcf*MW*
g «Tj
±=±
i *,^-^+^-^iign!^=r
i£
^^=A^rfL f *-a»
Vfadff1
^— r
=s
-ti
trfai-
I
j^£
J^r?
£ff
^=t=3
^n* -2- I *_
^fe-^M'^
t=t
a
=t=r
£=
-*
Discordia. Scena nell Opera di Paride del Gio. Andr. Bontempi,
1662.
fF"?6
55i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
■lJl.'>r
ImPS ' »o» ■ €> a S—
U-2.JSB
50H=
3ET
LA OS
-MErt-TI MENA
MA CHE TAROO/Nfi: -U-C£, fWENDICAR TUTTI CCOL
TRHGGI Miei.
33
EEcE
3S
EiE
I- <**
S5
-CORDWSON'IOTUTTOMIIU-CE OfP£«
VERSI HWENei GIACORKEIL QlQKNO &C
3
gi
ct_
^¥5
i
-r'Tyri'
fJTpP" P|-fB
rf^r=e1
sLU^kJ-^-
3=£
IL OE-FIO O'UN
CO - RE A /nftN-TE
NAS -CE 5EM-PRE IS UN BA - LE - NO, MA IN UN PUN-TO
£
4J_ji>
o gg|gj|g|i§| o ppfr?m>
«*-
S
-©-»
O I Q n'O
£
e
"PM-'T?
s
o. P
feki
135^
COR VIEN ME-NO
SE l-'ARDOR NOT!
E COS-TAN -TE
MAINUNPUNTOAN
ie
COR VIEN ME - NO
#Q j O 6=
7-7^ g p 1 g
=g^^
^^
^^E
£
i-
&
53=
■RimxHEij* p A- i. .^ & jjr ej d.
■O g> -®-
-=-f^r
O Q
-+■ — 1-
5£ L'AR-DORNO E COS -TAN
-TE NON £. COS
• XANTE
^?=f^^^
=p=$®^
?3BE
g4J^#^
Ak
•j-.j- eU cLy^-,
Lg.jijUg=jfc
"SfT— jE
S
i „*ffl a P ; I g
£
hS-
<J} O
^f^
jtd- Jfl) d jjrd-
-^ fflO=
f f f* j"— e— — i
*3F
iF=§=
^-4 d , d d-
?^=£
^^
g! r f" r
?=£ej
3E
-fr— d-e-
The same Air teimiriated by the same Ritornel is repeated to
different words.
Between the year 1662 and 1680, there were near one hundred
different operas performed at the several theatres of Venice, of
which the principal composers were the two Ziani's, father and son,
Castrovillari, Cesti, Rovettino, Mollinari, Mattioli, Cavalli,
Legrenzi, Pallavicino, Boretti, Sartorio, Grossi, Parterio, Pagliardi,
552
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Gaudio, Zanettini, Viviani, Franceschini,Tomasi, Sajon, Pistocchi,
and Freschi.
During this period it seldom happens, indeed, that the names of
the poets, composers, or singers are recorded in printed copies of
these dramas; though that of the machinist is never omitted; and
much greater care seems to have been taken to amuse the eye than
the ear or intellect of those who attended these spectacles.
In 1675, we are told, in the Theatrical Annals of Venice, that
a musical drama called La Divisione del Hondo, written by Giulio
Cesare Corradi, and set by Legrenzi, excited universal admiration,
by the stupendous machinery and decorations with which it was
exhibited (k). And in 1680, the opera of Berenice, set by Domenico
Freschi [1640-90], was performed at Padua in a manner so
splendid, that some of the decorations, recorded in the printed copy
of the piece, seem worthy of notice in the history of the musical
drama; a species of exhibition, which as it originally consisted of
poetry, Music, dancing, machinery, and decorations, it is the
business of the historian to watch and point out the encroachments
which any one of these constituent parts, at different periods, has
made upon the rest. In the beginning it was certainly the intention
of opera legislators to favour poetry, and to make her mistress of the
feast; and it was a long while before Music absolutely took the lead.
Dancing stept into importance only during the present century;
but very early in the last, machinery and decoration were so
important that little thought or expence was bestowed on poetry,
Music, or dancing, provided some means could be devised of exciting
astonishment in the spectators, by splendid scenes and ingenious
mechanical contrivances.
In the opera of Berenice, just mentioned, there were choruses of
one hundred virgins, one hundred soldiers, one hundred horsemen
in iron armour, forty cornets of horse, six trumpeters on horseback,
six drummers, six ensigns, six sacbuts, six great flutes, six minstrels
playing on Turkish instruments, six others on octave flutes, six
pages, three Serjeants, six cymbalists, twelve huntsmen, twelve
grooms, six coachmen for the triumph, six others for the procession,
two lions led by two Turks, two elephants by two others, Berenice's
triumphal car drawn by four horses, six other cars with prisoners
and spoils drawn by twelve horses, six coaches for the procession.
Among the scenes and representations in the first act, was a vast
plain, with two triumphal arches; another, with pavilions and
tents; a square prepared for the entrance of the triumph; and a forest
for the chace. Act II. the royal apartments of Berenice's temple of
vengeance; a spacious court, with a view of the prison; and a covered
way for the coaches to move in procession. Act III. the royal
dressing room, completely furnished; stables with one hundred
(k) Questo Drama fu admirabile per la vastissima Idea delle Machine, ed Apparenze che
Yanno accompagnato in scena, essendo stato guest' anno Direttor del Teairo il Marchese
Gtiido Rangoni.
553
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
live horses; portico adorned with tapestry; a delicious palace in
perspective. And besides all these attendants and decorations, at
the end of the first act, there were representations of every species
of chace : as of the wild boar, the stag, deer, and bears; and at the
end of the third act, an enormous globe descends from the sky,
which opening divides itself into other globes that are suspended in
the air, upon one of which is the figure of Time, on a second that of
Fame, on others, Honour, Nobility, Virtue, and Glory.
Had the salaries of singers been at this time equal to the present,
the support of such expensive and puerile toys would have inclined
the managers to enquire not only after the best, but the cheapest
vocal performers they could find, as splendid ballets oblige them to
do now; and it is certain that, during the last century, the distinct
and characteristic charm of an opera was not the Music, but
machinery. The French established musical dramas in their court
and capital during the rage for Mythological representations, to
which they have constantly adhered ever since; and when they are
obliged to allow the musical composition and singing to be inferior
to that of Italy, they comfort themselves and humble their
adversaries by observing, that their opera is, at least, a fine thing to
see : c'est au moins un beau spectacle, qu' un opera en France.
During the infancy of the opera, says Rousseau (Z), its inventors
trying to elude the most natural effects arising from the union of
poetry and Music by their imitations of human life, transported the
scene into heaven and hell; and being unable to express the language
and passions of men, chose rather to make divinities and demons
sing than heroes and shepherds. Hence magic and every thing
marvellous became the most essential parts of the Lyric theatre;
and content with superiority in this particular, they never enquired
into its propriety. To support such fantastic illusions, it was
necessary to exhaust all that human invention could furnish most
seducing among a people whose taste for pleasure and the fine arts
was indulged by every possible degree of refinement. Theatres were
erected throughout Italy which equalled in magnitude the palaces
of kings, and in elegance the monuments of antiquity with which
that country abounded. It was there, in order to ornament these
theatres, that the art of perspective and decoration was invented.
Artists of all kinds strained every nerve to display their talents.
Machines the most ingenious, flights the most daring, with tempests,
thunder, lightning, and all the delusions of the magic wand, were
practised to fascinate the eye, while innumerable voices and
instruments astonished the ear.
But with so many means of surprize, the action always remained
cold, and the situations uninteresting; as there was no plot or intrigue
but what was easily solved by the assistance of some divinity, the
spectator, who knew the poet's power of extricating his heroes and
tf) Diet, de Mus. Art. Opera.
554
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
heroines from all kinds of difficulty and danger, reposed such entire
confidence in him as to remain tranquil during the most perilous
situations. Hence, though the apparatus was great, the effect was
small, as the imitations were always clumsy and imperfect; for
actions out of nature interest us but little, and the senses are never
much affected by illusions in which the heart has nothing to do; so
that, upon the whole, it is hardly possible to fatigue an assembly
at a greater expence.
This spectacle, imperfect as it was, remained long the admiration
of the public, who knew no better. They felicitated themselves on
the discovery of so admirable a species of representation, in which a
new principle was added to those of Aristotle; for wonder is here
added to terror and pity. They did not see that this apparent fertility
was in reality but a sign of indigence, like the flowers blended with
the corn, which render the fields so gay before harvest. It was for
want of a power to move and effect, that they wished to surprise;
and this pretended admiration was in fact so childish, that they
ought to have blushed at it. A false air of magnificence, Fairyism,
and inchantment, imposed on the public, and inclined them to speak
with enthusiasm and respect of a theatre which was a disgrace to
reason and good taste.
Though the authors of the first operas had hardly any other idea
than to dazzle the eyes and stun the ears, it was hardly possible for
the musician not to endeavour, sometimes, to express the sentiments
interspersed through the poem. The songs of nymphs, the hymns
of priests, the din of war, and infernal screams, did not so entirely
occupy these coarse dramas, but that he sometimes discovered those
interesting moments of situation when the audience was disposed to
give way to feeling. And it was soon found, that independent of
musical declamation or recitative, a peculiar movement, harmony,
or melody, on some occasions, was necessary; and that Music,
though it had hitherto only affected the sense, was capable of
reaching the heart. Melody, which at first was only separated from
poetry through necessity, availing itself of its independence, aimed
at beauties that were purely musical; harmony, discovered or
perfected, furnished new resources of pathos and expression; and
measure, freed from the slavery of syllables, and restraint of
poetical rhythm, acquired a species of accent and cadence peculiar
to itself.
Music thus becoming a third art of imitation, had soon a
language, expression, and images, of its own, wholly independent
of poetry. Harmony even began to speak in the symphonies,
without the assistance of words, and frequently sentiments were
produced by the orchestra equally forcible with those of the vocal
performers. Thus relinquishing by degrees the wonders of Fairy
tales, the childishness of machinery, and the fantastical
representation of things that humanity had never seen, pictures,
more interesting and true, were sought in the imitations of nature.
555
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Thus far the opera had been established with a view to gratify
the sight, more than the ear; for what better theatrical use was it
possible to make of a species of Music that could paint nothing,
than to employ it at the representation of things which never
existed, and of which we had it not in our power to compare the
image with the object? It is impossible to know whether we are
affected by the painting of the wonderful, as much as we should be
if it were realised; whereas every man may judge for himself whether
an artist has been able to make the passions speak their own
language, and if the objects of nature are well imitated.
In 1680, seven theatres for the performance of operas were open
at Venice, in which nine different dramas were sung. The composers,
besides Legrenzi and Pallavicini, were Marc' Antonio Ziani,
Pagliardi, Varischino, Agostino, Sajon, and Vitali; the last five
principianti (m).
About this time Music had received great improvement in Italy,
by the joint labours of Carissimi, Luigi, Cesti, and Stradella, whose
productions were in favour all over Europe. In 1683, Marzio
Coriolano, the first opera of Giac. Ant. Perti, a celebrated
contrapuntist of Bologna, was performed;* besides eleven others, in
the different theatres of Venice. From this time to the end of the
century, seven or eight new operas were produced at Venice every
year. During which period the following composers began to
flourish; in 1684 Gius. Felice Tosi, father of the writer of a treatise
on Florid Song who came to England during the reign of King
William, translated by Galliard; 1685, Domenico Gabrieli; 1686,
Carlo Fran. Polarolo, author of fifty operas for the several theatres
of Venice; 1687, Mich. Ang. Gasparini di Lucca; 1690, Ant. Caldara,
afterwards Maestro di Capella at the imperial court of Vienna, and
the first who set most of the operas of Metastasio; 1693, Ant. Lotti,
a celebrated Venetian contrapuntist and composer for the church,
as well as the stage; 1694, Tomaso Albinoni, a composer well known
in England about forty or fifty years ago, by some light and easy
concertos for violins, but better known at Venice by thirty-three
dramas which he set to Music; 1697, Attilio Ariosti, who several
years after was an opera-composer in England; and, in 1698, Marc'
Ant. Bononcini, brother to Giov. Bononcini the celebrated but
unsuccessful rival of Handel, set the opera of Camilla Regina de'
Volsci, for Venice.
As more dramas were written and set to Music for this city, from
the year 1637 to 1730, than in any other capital of Italy, so the
Venetians had more poets and musicians of their own, during that
period, than elsewhere; as the following list of their principal
authors and composers will shew.
?r T'*? *■■-!>-— ':' " >:'«>■';'' ' '' .'•;•';•-:■--.-
(m) Damira Placata, an opera set by Marc' Antonio Ziani, was represented this year with
figures of wood, as big as the life, and of extraordinary workmanship : Figure di leg.no di
straordmario artijilioso lavore. Catal. de Drami in Musica.
* Muzzio Coriolano was his 3rd opera. The first two were Atide in 1679, and Oreste in 1681.
556
No. of Op.
F7. from
5
1677 to 1735
15
1698
1717
10
1700
1729
13
1661
1679
H
1714
1728
3
1669
1676
21
1666
1687
50
1686
1722
25
6
1609
1642
10
1677
1685
7
1685
1688
33
1694
1730
35
1639
1666
4
1651
1655
4
1686
1703
I
1726
15
1664
1684
12
1716
1720
3
1659
1664
3
1669
1682
1727
1739
11
1696
1712
10
1704
1717
11
1690
1727
24
1679
1700
15
1654
1683
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
Lyric Poets. No. of Op. Composers.
Aurelio Aurelij 31 Antonio Caldara (»)
Apostolo Zeno I 20 Ant. Lotti
Jointly with Pariati J 12 Polarolo
Adriano Morselli 16 Sartorio
Agostin Conte Piovone 8 D. Ant. Vivaldi
Andrea Minelli 3 Carlo Grossi, Cav.
Antonio Marchi 8 Pallavicino
Antonio Marchese Luchini 9 Fran. Polarolo
Andrea Rossini 3 Fran. Gasparini (0)
Apollonio Apollonj 3 Claudio Monteverde
Benedetto Pasqualigo 6 Domenico Freschi
Cristofero Jvanovich 4 Gabriele
Fran. Passerini, Veronese 9 Tomaso Albinoni (p)
Fran. Salvani, Abate 37 Francesco Cavalli
Giacinto And. Cicognini 3 Luzzo
Giac. Fran. Bussani 7 D. Teosilo Orgiani
Giov. Faustini 14 D. Fran. Rossi
Giov. Fran. Businello 5 D. Giov. Legrenzi
Giov. Palazzi 4 Giov. Porta
G. C. Frigimelica Roberti 11 D. Battista Rovettino
Giulio Strozzi 5 Gio. Domenico Partenio
Girolamo Frisari 3 Salvator Apollonj, a barber, guitar-
Matteo Giannini 4 player, and Barcarol composer.
Marc' Antonio Gasparini 3 set three operas, from
Matteo Noris 40 Giov. Maria Ruggieri
Nicol6 Conte Minato,
Bergamasco 14 Girol. Polani
Novello Bonis 3 Gius. Benevento
D. Rinaldo Cialli 6 Marc' Ant. Ziani
Pietro And. Ziani
These make but a small part of the whole number of operas
which, in less than a century, amounted to 658; the chief part by
poets and composers who were natives of Venice and the Venetian
state. We shall have occasion to return perhaps to this delightful
and singular city, so abundant in musicians and musical produc-
tions, in order to speak more diffusely of the operas performed there
during the present century; when not only the poetry and musical
composition were greatly superior to those of preceding times, but
the performers, whose wonderful and enchanting powers well merit
discriminate praise and celebration in a history of the musical art.
Origin and Progress of the Musical Drama
or Opera in Naples
Though the comedies, tragedies, and mysteries or rappresenia-
tioni sacre, without Music, which appear to have been performed
at Naples during the last century, are innumerable; yet the
Drammaturgia of Leo Allatius furnishes few instances of musical
dramas that were performed in that city, till the beginning of the
present century (q). And before the time of the elder Scarlatti, it
(») He set, besides these operas for Venice, almost all Apostolo Zeno's operas and
oratorios, and many of Metastasio's for Vienna; La Passione, 1730, and Gesu presentato al
Tempio, 1735.
(0) A scholar of Legrenzi.
IP) He flourished to the year 1741, and set near fifty operas, chiefly for Venice.
{q) Leo Allatius, though no musician, has a double right to a niche in a history of Music,
as he was not only author of this useful catalogue to the year 1667, when he died, but has
written diffusely on the divine offices of the Greek church.
557
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
seems as if Naples had been less fertile in great contrapuntists, and
less diligent in the cultivation of dramatic Music, than any other
state in Italy; though, since that period, all the rest of Europe has
been furnished with composers and performers of the first class,
from that city. But this seeming sterility may perhaps have been
occasioned by the want of some such information as the Indice de
Drami of Venice, and Serie Cronologica de Drammi of Bologna,
have furnished to the compiler of the general Drammaturgia of
Lione Allacci, augmented and continued to the year 1755; in
which, after a regular perusal and examination, the first musical
drama performed at Naples that I have been able to find, is entitled
Amor non a Legge, composed by different masters in 1646, none of
whose names are recorded. In 1655, was performed II Ratio di
Elena, set by Francesco Cirilli, of whose composition several
dramas were exhibited about this time.
About 1686, the abate Francesco Rossi, of Apulia, set three
[four] operas for Venice, which, at that time, were much admired;*
and in 1690, a drama performed at Palermo, on the nuptials of
Charles II. King of Spain, entitled Anarchia dell' Imperio, had only
the prologue set to Music, by Mich, di Vio, the piece chiefly being
declaimed. In 1692, an opera entitled Gelidaura, set by Francesco
Lucinda, a Scicilian, and master of the Chapel Royal of Sicily,
was performed at Venice; and Antonio Novi, a Neapolitan,
between the year 1703 and 1716, set six of his own dramas to Music
for different parts of Italy. In 1707, Alessandro Scarlatti set
two operas, Mitridate and II Trionfo della Liberia, for Venice.
Giuseppe Vignola composed Deborah Profetessa Guerriere,
in 1698, for Naples, which was much applauded at the time. And
between that period and 1709, his name frequently occurs in the
annals of the musical drama.
Several of the principal singers in the first operas of Italy have
been occasionally mentioned already; I shall, however, finish this
chapter with some further particulars concerning the most eminent
vocal performers, in soprano, that were employed in the early
musical dramas.
Doni and Adami speak of the Cavalier Loreto Vittorj, as
excellent nel prejerire, or in pronouncing the words; and of
Campagnola, as admirable in tuttd. The following evirati are
likewise celebrated by Doni and Delia Valle. Guidobaldo, Gregorio,
Angeluccio, and Marc' Antonio Pasquilino, who, according to
Quadrio, sung on the stage, in 1634. Gagliani, in the preface to
his Dafne, celebrates the talents of Ant. Brandi, who, with an
exquisite counter-tenor voice, sung the part of the Nunzio. But
the most eminent singers of the last century were Cortona,
Balarini, Pistocchi, Baldassare Ferri [1610-80], celebrated
by Bontempi as the most extraordinary singer who had ever
appeared; and Francesco Grossi, detto Siface [1653-97], from his
* Rossi is known to-day by the air Ah\ rendimi quel core, from the opera Mitrane, produced
in 1689.
558
THE INVENTION OF RECITATIVE
excellent performance of the part of Syphax in the opera of
Mitridate. This singer, who was admitted into the Pope's chapel,
1675, was killed in a fray with his postillion, in returning from
Ferrara to Modena.*
The following were the most celebrated female singers on the
opera-stage of the same period: La Caterina Martinelli, who
performed the part of Dafne in Gagliano's opera at Mantua, 1608,
and who appears to have been frequently encored; tutti il Teatro
richedesi ancora I' esquisitezza del canto, &c. She died the same
year [Mar. 1608], at the age of eighteen, to the great regret of
the Duke of Mantua, and of all Italy. And this young person, who
would have been excommunicated in France, had a splendid
monument erected to her memory in the church of the Carmelites,
by the duke, her patron, on which it is said : Nomen mundo, Deo
vivat anima. La Vittoria Archilei, celebrated by the poet
Guarini, was the original performer of the part of Euridice, in
Jacopo Peri's opera. She likewise sung in La Disperazione di
Fileno, in which, recitando, she is said by the composer, Cavaliere,
to have drawn tears from every hearer. Francesca Caccini,
daughter of Giulio Caccini, one of the first opera composers, accord-
ing to Delia Valle, was not only an excellent singer, but composer
of Music, and of Latin and Italian verses. Quadrio has given an
indiscriminate list of near fifty female singers who performed on
the opera stage during the last century.
* Siface visited England and was for a time one of the singers in James II's chapel.
Evelyn heard him on January 30, 1687, and on April 19 of the same year, at the house of
Samuel Pepys. Purcell's air Sefauchi's farewell in Playford's Mustek's Handmaid, f>art 2,
1689, refers to Siface.
He was murdered, not by his postillion, but by the brothers of the Marchesa Marsili,
between Bologna and Ferrara. Siface was the first male soprano to be heard in England.
559
Chapter II
Rise and Progress of the Sacred Musical Drama,
or Oratorio
THE first rappresentatione, or exhibition truly dramatic, that
was performed in Italy, according to Apostolo Zeno, was a
spiritual comedy, at Padua, 1243, 1244 (s).* Another
representation of the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ, &c.
according to Muratori, was performed at Friuli, 1298 (t). In 1264,
was instituted at Rome the Compagnia del Gonf alone, the statutes
of which were printed in that city 1554, and of which the principal
employment was to act or represent the sufferings of our Lord, in
Passion-week, an institution which was long continued there (w).
According to Villani, Vasari, Cionacci, and Crescimbeni, la
rappresentatione sacra teatrale had its beginning in Tuscany (x).
Le Chant Royal was invented in France about 1380; it consisted
of verses to the Virgins and Saints, sung in chorus by troops or
companies of pilgrims returning from the holy sepulchre (y).
(s) Bibl. Ital. p. 487- W Script. Rer. Ital. Vol. XXIV. p. 1205.
(«) See Riccoboni's Reflex, hist. & crit. sur les difjerens Theatres d'Europe; &■ Trattalo
dell' Opera in Musica del Cavalier Planelli, §. i. cap. I.
(*) See Signorelli's Sloria crit. de' Teatri, p. 189. Tiraboschi, Storia delta Letterat. Ital.
Tom. V. 1. iii. cap. 3, claims the origin and invention of every species of drama for the
Italians. However, the ingenious and agreeable author of the Biog. Dramatica, or Companion
to the Playhouse (Introd. p. 9), observes, that "those who imagine the English to have been
later in the cultivation of the drama than their neighbours, will, perhaps, wonder to hear of
theatrical entertainments almost as early as the Conquest; and yet nothing is more certain,
if we may believe an honest monk, one William Stephanides, or Fitz Stephen, in his Descriptio
Nobilissimce Civitatis Londince, who writes thus : London, instead of common interludes
belonging to the theatre, has plays of a more holy subject: representations of those miracles
which the confessors wrought, or of the sufferings, wherein the glorious constancy of the
martyrs appeared. This author was a monk of Canterbury, who wrote in the reign of Henry II.
and died in that of Richard I. 1191; and as he does not mention these representations as
novelties to the people, for he is describing all the common diversions in use at that time, we
can hardly fix them lower than the Conquest; and this, we believe, is an earlier date than
any other nation of Europe can produce, for their theatrical representations."
(y) Menestrier, des Representations en Mus.
* Earlier dramatic works founded upon episodes in the Bible are the Festum Asinorum
performed at Beauvais and Sens in France in the 12th century. In Germany they were known
as Geistliche Schausptele. A pioneer in the realm of dramatic music was Adam de la Hale (c.
1230 d. before 1288) who produced a comic opera Le jeu Adam, ou de la feuillee, at Arras
c. 1262. Between 1275 and 1285 de la Hale produced his Le jeu de Robin et Marion at Naples.
De la Hale's works were issued by Coussemaker in 1872, and Robin et Marion has also been
edited by Langlois and Tiersot.
560
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
There were mysteries represented in Germany 1322. And in
the same century, 1378, the ecclesiastics and scholars of St. Paul's
school exhibited similar interludes in England.
But though every nation in Europe seems, in the first attempts
at dramatic exhibitions, to have had recourse to religious subjects,
and an Oratorio, or sacred drama, is but a mystery or morality
in Music, yet those that were written before the seventeenth century
seem never to have been entirely sung; but chiefly declaimed, with
incidental airs and choruses (z).
Gio. Battista Doni (a), speaking of oratorios, says that by a
spiritual representation he does not mean that gross, vulgar, and
legendary kind of drama used by the nuns and monk in convents,
which deserve not the name of poetry; but such elegant and well-
constructed poetical fables as that of St. Alexis, by the ingenious
Giulio Rospigliosi, many times represented, and always received
with great applause (&).
This description seems to comprehend the poetical virtues and
vices of all ancient and modern religious dramas. The Abbe
Arnaud, in his Essai sur le Theatre Anglois (c), says that the fathers
of the church in the first ages of Christianity, indulging the passion
of the people for public spectacles, opposed religious dramas, built
on the sacred writings, to the profane, which had been long used
by the Pagans.
At the revival of theatrical amusements, when the reformers
began to disseminate their doctrines throughout Europe, religious
plays were made the vehicles of opinion, both by the Catholics and
Protestants; and there are Latin dramas of this kind, as well as
others in modern languages extant, which might with propriety
be called oratorios. At the beginning of the Reformation in
England, it was so common for the defenders of the old and new
doctrines to avail themselves of plays composed on subjects of
scripture, in which they mutually censured and anathematised each
other, that an act of parliament passed in the twenty-fourth year
of Henry VIII. to prohibit the acting or singing any thing in these
interludes contrary to the established religion. It appears, however,
in Collyer's History of the Reformation, that after this period, the
(2) The late Rev. and learned Mr. Crofts and the Honourable Topham Beauclerc, in
their curious libraries had collected a great number of these religious poems or mysteries, in
Italian, of which I procured many of the most ancient, at the sale of their books, in order to
trace the origin of the sacred musical drama. Some of them, by the gross manner in which
the subjects are treated, the coarseness of the dialogue, and ridiculous situation into which the
most sacred persons and things are thrown, seem, though printed soon after the invention of
the press, to be much more ancient than that discovery.
(a) Trattato della Musica Scenica, c. vi. p. 15. Op. omn. Tom. II. S. Giovanni e Paolo,
one of the Collect, was written by Lorenzo il Magnifico : Santa Domitilla, and Santa Guglielma.
by Antonia, wife of the poet Pulci, in the fifteenth century.
(b) This oratorio, which is omitted in the Drammaturgia, though printed in score, in
folio, 1634, was set to Music by Stefano Landi, of the Papal Chapel, and performed at the
Barbarini Palace in Rome, on a stage, and in action, with dances, machinery, and every kind
of dramatic decoration, of which a splendid account is given in a preface and letter prefixed
to the work.
(c) Varieties Litt. Tom. I. p. 29.
Voi,. ii. 36. 561
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
mysteries of the Roman Catholic religion were ridiculed by the
Protestants, on a stage, in Churches (d).
The Conversion of St. Paul, performed at Rome, 1440, as
described by Sulpicius, has been, erroneously, called the first
opera, or musical drama (e). Abram et Isaac suo Figliuolo, a
sacred drama (azione sacra) " shewing how Abraham was
commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac on the mountain,"
was performed in the church of St. Mary Magdalen in Florence,
1449. Another on the same subject called Abraham and Sarah,
" containing the good life of their son Isaac, and the bad conduct
of Ishmael, the son of his hand-maid, and how they were turned
out of the house," was printed in 1556. Abel e Caino and
Sampson, 1554; The Prodigal Son, 1565; and La Commedia
Spirituale dell' Anima. " The Spiritual Comedy of the
Soul," printed at Siena, but without date; in which there are
near thirty personifications, besides St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom,
two little boys who repeat a kind of prelude, and the announcing
angel who always speaks the prologue in these old mysteries. He
is called /' angelo che nunzia, and his figure is almost always given
in a wooden cut on the title-page of printed copies. Here, among
the interlocutors, we have God the Father, Michael the arch-angel,
a Chorus of Angels, the human Soul with her guardian Angel,
Memory, Intellect, Free-will, Faith, Hope, Charity, Reason,
Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Mercy, Poverty,
Patience, and Humility; with Hatred, Infidelity, Despair,
Sensuality, a Chorus of Daemons, and the Devil.
None of these mysteries are totally without Music, as there are
choruses and laudi, or hymns, that are sung in them all, and some-
times there was playing on instruments between the acts. In a
play written by Damiano and printed at Siena, 1519, according
to Crescimbeni (/), at the beginning of every act there was an
octave stanza, which was sung to the sound of the lyra viol, by a
personage called Orpheus, who was solely retained for that purpose;
at other times a madrigal was sung between the acts, after the
manner of a chorus.
It was, however, by small degrees that entire musical mysteries
had admission into the church, or were improved into Oratorios.
All the Italian writers on the subject agree, that these sacred
musical dramas had their beginning in the time of San Filippo Neri,
who was born 1515, and founded the congregation of the Priests
{d) It is related by Cardan, in his eloge of our King, Edward VI, that he has
written a most elegant comedy, called The Whore of Babylon. The number of comedies, and
tragi-comedies, written about this time, is incredible; they are, however, said to have been
even more extravagant and gross, than numerous. One is entitled, Jesus the true Messiah, a
comedy; another, The new German Ass of Balaam; the Calvinistical Postilion; the Christian
Cavalier of Eislebn, a dilutable, spiritual comedy, including the history of Luther and his two
greatest enemies, the pope and Calvin. A pleasant comedy of the true old Catholic and
Apostolic church, &c. Storia Crit. de'Teatri, p. 248.
(e) Hist, de la Mus. Tom. I. p. 241, and Menestrier, sur les Repres. en Mus.
(/) Tom. I. p 107.
562
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
of the Oratory at Rome, in 1540 (g). During the service, and
after sermon, it was usual for this saint, among other pious
exercises in order to draw youth to church and keep them from
secular amusements, to have hymns, psalms, and other spiritual
laudi, or songs, sung either in chorus or by a single favourite voice,
divided into two parts, the one performed before the sermon, and
the other after it.
But though this devout practice was begun in so simple a manner,
with only spiritual cantatas, or songs, on moral subjects; in order
to render the service still more attractive, some sacred story or event
from scripture was written in verse, and set by the best poets or
musicians of the times. These being composed in dialogue, and
rendered interesting to the congregation, such curiosity was excited
by the performance of the first part, that there was no danger during
the sermon that any of the hearers would retire, before they
had heard the second.
The subjects of these pieces were sometimes the good Samaritan;
sometimes Job and his friends; the prodigal son; Tobit with the
angel, his father and his wife, &c. all these, by the excellence of
the composition, the band of instruments, and the performance,
brought this oratory into such repute, that the congregations became
daily more and more numerous (h). And hence this species of
sacred musical drama, wherever performed, in process of time,
obtained the general appellation of Oratorio (i).
To what kind of melody the solo parts of these early dramas
were sung, previous to the invention of recitative, I know not; but
the rest was doubtless in chorus like the ancient motet, or full
(g) This saint, who died 1595, is numbered among Italian improvisator!, by Quadrio,
Tom. I. p. 163. He was originally intended for a merchant, but was drawn from commercial
pursuits by Vocation. Oratorio, Ital. Oratorium, Lat. implies a small chapel, or particular
part of a house or church, where there is an altar. The space between the arches of Romish
churches, are called Oratorii, Ital. Oratoires, Fr. Anglice chapels. The Congregation of the
Oratory, established at Rome, and in some other cities of Italy by S. Phil. Neri, about 1558,
originated from the conferences which this pious ecclesiastic held in his own chamber at Rome.
The great number of persons who attended these meetings obliged St. Phil, to request the
administrators of the church of San Girolamo delta Carita to grant permission to hold these
assemblies there, which was granted. In 1574, they were transferred to the church of the
Florentines; and in 1583 to Santa Maria delta Vallicella. By degrees this establishment spread
itself all over Italy, where it has still many houses. The members are bound by no vow.
Diet, des Cultes Relig.
It appears that these fathers, in whatever city of Italy they had an establishment,
entertained their congregations with good Music.
\h) In the church of San Girolamo delta Carita at Rome, oratorios are still constantly
performed on Sundays and festivals from All Saints Day till Palm Sunday; as well as in the
church of La Vallicella, or la Chiesa Nuova, where they are likewise performed from the first
of November till Easter; Orator j in Musica, e sermoni, every evening on all festivals. See
Roma moderna by Venuti, 1766, p. 207. These are the two churches in which such spiritual
spectacles had their beginning; but the practice has since been so much extended to the other
churches of Rome, that there is not a day in the year on which one or more of these
performances may not be heard. And as lists of Oratorios and other Funzioni to be performed
in the several churches in the course of the year are published, like our lists of Lent preachers,
great emulation is excited in the directors and performers, as well as curiosity in the public.
(i) The first collection of the words of hymns and psalms, sung in the chapel of San
Filippo Neri, was published at Rome 1585, under the title of Laudi spirituals stampate ad
istanza de' R.R. P.P. delta Congregatione dell' Oratorio. The second in 1603: Laudi
Spirituali di diversi, solite cantarsi dopo Sermoni da' PP. delta Cong, dell' Oratorio; among
these were Dialogues, in a dramatic form. Crescimbeni, Jntrod. all' Istor. delta Vols. Poesia
Vol. I. lib. iv. p. 256.*
*See editor's note. Book 3, p. 152, with regard to the publication of the music of the
Laudi Spirituali.
563
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
anthem. Though I am in possession of the words of several sacred
dramas which seem to have been entirely sung: such as L'
Annunziazione delta beata Virgine, 1556, and 77 Figliuolo Prodigo,
1565, both printed at Florence, and severally called Dramma
Musicale, yet none of the Music of any sacred drama has been
preserved in the archives of the churches where they were first
performed, which have been carefully searched, previous to the
Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo dot Sig. Emilio del
Cavaliere, per recitar cantando, which was performed and printed
at Rome, in the year 1600; and which is generally thought to have
been not only the first sacred drama that was entirely sung, but the
first in which there was an attempt at recitative.
Having been so fortunate as to find a printed copy of this oratorio
in one of the churches at Rome, and to obtain leave to have it
tianscribed, I shall be somewhat minute in my account of it, as it
is become so scarce, that many Italian writers, as well as others,
trusting to tradition or conjecture, have spoken of it without seeming
to have seen either the poetry or the Music.
The patriotic zeal of every inhabitant of a great city or state for
the honour of the place of his birth or residence, has operated
powerfully on Giovanbattista Doni, who, in giving a history of the
Italian musical drama, assigns all the merit of the invention of
recitative, or narrative melody, to Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccino,
inhabitants of Florence, his own native place; and says (k), that
" the Music of the oratorio of I' Anima et di Corpo was very different
from that which was afterwards used on the stage, which was
recitative : Emilio's consisting of ariets, with many contrivances and
repetitions of echoes and such things as have nothing to do with the
drama," which is so far from true, that I find in it almost every
form and phrase of musical recitation which occurs in J. Peri,
G. Caccini, and Claudio Monteverde, the three other claimants for
the invention.
Indeed, it is confessed by Peri himself, in the preface to his
Euridice, that Emilio del Cavaliere " introduced the same kind of
Music on the stage before any one else that he had ever heard
of (I):" and instances his pastorals called il Satiro, and la
Desperatione di Fileno, performed at Florence in 1590, and il Gioco
delta Cieca, in 1595. But without mounting to these early attempts,
Cavaliere seems better entitled to the invention of narrative Music
than the Florentine composers by the very date of the two dramas,
which form an aera in the history of the opera or oratorio : V Anima
e Corpo, the first sacred drama or oratorio, in which recitative
was used, having been performed in the oratory of the church of
Santa Maria della Vallicella at Rome, in February 1600; and
{k) Tom. II. Append, p. 13.
(1) Dal Signor Cavaliere, primo che da ogn' altro che to Sappia, con maravigliosa
inveniione ci jusse fatta udire la nostra Musica su le scene.
564
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
Euridice, the first secular drama, or opera, at Florence, in December
of the same year.*
And this seems to settle the long disputed point of priority in
the invention of recitative, which, since the year 1600, has been
regarded as essential and characteristic in the musical drama, sacred
and secular; as an oratorio, in which the dialogue was spoken, and
the songs and choruses merely incidental, would only be a mystery,
morality, or sacred tragedy; and an opera, declaimed, with
occasional songs, a masque, or play with singing in it.
That this first oratorio, set by Emilio del Cavaliere, Romano,
was represented in action, on a stage (in Palco) in the church of
La Vallicella, with scenes, decorations, and acting chorus, a V
antique, and analogous dances, appears from the editor's dedication
to Cardinal Aldobrandini, and the composer's instructions for the
performance, from which I shall present the reader with extracts.
Emilio del Cavaliere, as well as the rest of the early composers
of dramatic Music, imagined that he had recovered, in his recitative,
that style of Music which the ancient Greeks and Romans used
in their theatres. And a singer of such Music is required by
Cavaliere, to have a fine voice, perfectly in tune, and free from all
defects in the delivery of it; with a pathetic expression, the power
of swelling and diminishing the tones, and an equal respect for the
composer and poet, in singing plain, and being particularly attentive
to the articulation and expression of the words.
It is recommended to place the instruments of accompaniment
behind the scenes, which in this first oratorio were the following:
Una lira doppia A double lyre, perhaps a viol
da gamba
Un clavicembalo A harpsichord
Un chitarone A large or double guitar
Dui flauti, o vero due tibie all' Two common flutes
antica
No violin is mentioned here; but what excites the most surprize,
at present, in these instructions for the performance of an oratorio
on the stage in a church, are the directions for the dances.
However, there are examples of religious dances in the sacred
writings, as well as in the history of almost every ancient people, in
which their religious ceremonies are mentioned. Most of these
dances are performed to the Music of choruses, which are singing in
the manner of those in the old French operas.
On many occasions it is recommended for the actors to have
instruments in their hands, as the playing, or appearing to play on
them, would help illusion more than a visible orchestra.
Besides these general rules for such as might wish to write or
bring on the stage other poems of the same kind, Cavaliere gives
* According to Grove's (Vol. 4, p. 108, art. Peri) the first performance of Peri's Euridice
took place on Feb. 9, 1600. This date is not accepted by the original writer of the article
(W. S. Rockstro) but is a correction made by the reviser. Dr. Ernest Walker in his revision
of Rockstro's article on the Oratorio (Grove's. Vol. III. j>. 709) allows the later date to stand.
565
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the following instructions for the representation of this particular
musical drama.
1. The words should be printed, with the verses correctly
arranged, the scenes numbered, and characters of the interlocutors
specified.
2. Instead of the overture, or symphony, to modern musical
dramas, a madrigal is recommended as a full piece, with all the
voice-parts doubled, and a great number of instruments
3. When the curtain rises, two youths, who recite the prologue,
appear on the stage, and when they have done, Time, one of the
characters in this morality, comes on, and has the note with which
he is to begin given him by the instrumental performers behind
the scenes.
4. The chorus is to have a place allotted them on the stage, part
sitting and part standing, in sight of the principal characters. And
when they sing, they are to rise and be in motion, with proper
gestures.
5. Pleasure, another imaginary character, with two companions,
are to have instruments in their hands, on which they are to play
while they sing, and perform the ritornels.
6. II Corpo, the Body, when these words are uttered: Si che
hormai alma mia, &c. may throw away some of his ornaments:
as his gold collar, feathers from his hat, &c.
7. The World, and Human Life in particular, are to be very
gayly and richly dressed; and when they are divested of their
trappings, to appear very poor and wretched; and at length dead
carcasses.
8. The symphonies and ritornels may be played by a great
number of instruments; " and if a violin should play the principal
part it would have a very good effect (m)."
9. The performance may be finished with or without a dance.
If without, the last chorus is to be doubled in all its parts, vocal
and instrumental; but, if a dance is preferred, a verse beginning
thus: Chiostri altissimi, e stellati, is to be sung, accompanied
sedately and reverentially by the dance. These shall succeed other
grave steps and figures of the solemn kind. During the ritornels
the four principal dancers are to perform a ballet, saltato con
capriole, " enlivened with capers or enter chats," without singing.
And thus, after each stanza, always varying the steps of the dance;
and the four principal dancers may sometimes use the galiard,
sometimes the canary, and sometimes the courant step, which will
do very well in the ritornels.
10. The stanzas of the ballet, are to be sung and played by all
the performers within and without.
These instructions will give the reader an idea of the manner in
which the oratorio was performed in its infant state, as the following
(m) Vn violino sonando il soprano per I'apunto, fara buonissimo effetto.
5§6
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
specimen will of the kind of narrative melody to which the words
were set for a single voice.
The word air never occurs in this oratorio; but though there
are fewer recitatives and more choruses in it, than in the first
operas, the choruses are all in plain counterpoint, without a single
attempt at fugue or imitation; so that the words are more intelligible
and free from confusion than in an air for a single voice that is
loaded with accompaniments.
First scene of the first Oratorio, Set to Music by Emilio del
Cavaliere, and printed at Rome, 1600.
I
s
J"L®>
CMJU
JL^U-tL
S
m- m i
g^i;.^. J
^
ILTEMPQ
FUG - - GF
SI OlS-TRUP-GE
3
Gift ME PAR
senH
S
^^
K£
♦
=© — ©-
^>— e>-e> m Q
p "^ ^o— »-a> I? *»" P
l I B" CX
I* 1* V V
¥=^
Tl-RE L'UL-TlMA TROMBA E
P^
01- RE
ST*
SCITE Oft LA FOS
CE-NE-Rl SPARSE El
d d id
^^
I
n-H #
t>6
s*
3psa
-S e
^5=5
O -
^
OS-SA
SOR-
- TE
A-NIME AfM-CO-RA
s
P) HOR HO
^
3^
^
B\lH0S
fe
SE
g-g-g— »■ — ^
^F^tTT^^^
g
X \> V k
k V \> i
N
VE-Nl-TEAD/RC, V£ RO
SE FO MEGLiOR PEftfl - S1E - RO
3
SERWR£AL MOW-DC VA-NO
d hNKM^
fe^
-o-
^
rs ^
! i 7 iT 5 m?
I E !■>
g I y =^=
O ALREDEL
ClEl SO
PRA - NO
SI CHE ClASCUM IN-TCN
-DA A.-PRA GLI
P
#^
^^
^g
f
H^g
J^^
fczS:
#* *
K
m
^SfiUJM^
s
p
zjzad
*=£=
OCCH I E C0MPREN£ A CHE QUE5TA VfTA F
un
VEN-TO CHE VO^53-
- LAlMUNMOMflM-TO H'«EN FO-«
g d 'd
gfffjtr^-i
I
fl-7<?jf#
^=^=
^J-tJt^
UBI
rr
Triry w i =t
DOJ-WN 51 MO-RE
HOGGI N PlPPA-RE
DOMAN OIS- PA- R£
Se
^=#
3
-©-
s
*
■&»
(a) La Pausa Serve per pigliar fiato, et daz un poco di tempo a fare qualche Motivo.
5&7
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
MENTR ILTEM
PO U GIO-
VA
LflS-ClAR QUA J7 F. NO. KOt,{ 00 QU/VI TUNQU INSE 0 fO
Coro.
568
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
Chorus in the Oratorio dell' Anima et di Corpo.
¥
o° gpj
=s
=CC
o o
^s:
dBzg
-0"^
FA-TE
O1
-o cl
FES-TA
AL 5(6
NO -RE
o _
OR-GA-N/E
COR-OE TJM-PA-NO
=»=3S:
SfeiSi
k£«32
CETREE
TROM
^=fc
^£
-H4
FA-T£
FE5-TA
AL S)6
NO -RE
OR-GA-N/E COR- Of
TJM-Pfl-/*
CETREE
TROM
sr-p-
-® — O:
l£*=C^
» O
j— r
225
hS=
FA - TE
FES-TA
AL S(6
-NO -RE
OR-GA-NIE
£=*
:3=rO:
m
COR -OF
CL_
r/M-f/)-/vo
CETREE
TROM
EC
^^
32= — o*
=kg
o-f-
FA-TE
AL S./G-
OR-GA-NIE
COR-OE
TlM-m-WO
CETREE
TROM
^gP^f
St
o o
t3~
2s— ©-
3^0*
^
afcfi:
# r#&# # 6
1
3==g.- O-
S
O—gh
g
^
-©-
O- O'
^=^
be ilsalmoe Chin- no
WAR-MO- N/A CON COR- DE IN
Q- OQO-
S/£M CQA/
SU0NR(M-SOM-6£
jg^-Q'-
£££
-o^g»
^^
I I r
FS3S
-p-
&-;
BE ILSALMOtjt'HlN-NO
IWAR-MO /VIA CON
COR-DEIN
SlEM CON
SUON WM-SOM-SE
CAN-TT 06 -Nl
O- Qiao:
IS
■O Q.
pug-
■Q~0 £?
-M-
£
8E ilsaimoel'wn-no
war -mo
COR-DE IN
SlEM CON
SUONRW
CflN-TI 0G-N1
3
esse
oo
se
5zzOz
FfT
-t— V-
o- o-
o-f-
8E ILSfiLMQiL'HIN-NO
INAR-WMfl CON
COR-OE /N
SlEM CON
SUCNRM BOM-BE
OTW-7H OG-NI
B f gg
f===aag=
22:
F=F£f=
OOP
o- o»
1 I I
gg=jF=
■e^-©--
£*-«£
f^S
^=F
22=
g=^
^^
LiN-GUA E
DI-CA IN
5IEM COL
5UO- MO
BE - NE
Dl-TEILSietNOR PER
■O a
CHE EGU E
? Pjb-
BUC-NO
&$&&
Tsm
o- o-
LIN -GUA E
DI-CA IN
SlEM COL
BENE
DI-TE ILSIG
NOR PERtKEEOlE
BUO-NO
=cc
=Q=
sc
■$■
■©— o
ffl- a*
o-
O^
UN -GUA E
Dl-CA IN
SlEM COL
SUO-NO
BE-NE
DI-TEILSIG NOR PER
CHEEGUE
BUO-NO
e
ffi=Q=
-Q-
33=
UN -GUA
DI-CA IN
SlEM COL SUO-NO
BE-NE
DI -TEILSIG
NOR PER
CHEEGUE.
BUO-NO
3
S
CC
=fo^
=gje
77 T«#
* 7#6#
5fc=§:
BE - NE •
fe^
gjl
BE - NE
3=
NE-
25E=S=
b^
s
SE- NE-
-22-— O-
^^
3FTE-IL5J6
Dl-TE ILS16 NOR PERIC^fGLI E
p-grq-
l I I
Dl-TE ILSIG
p-p-
4— e-
OI-TEILSlG-lNOR
Str:
Bi
^
NOR PER
o o
CHE EGLI E
Q Q
NOR PER
^
o o
CHEEGLIE
PER CHEEGUE
^~
BUO --
BUO--
^
BUO- -
8UO- -
WE
lot;
- NO.
NO.
NO.
4SJP
569'
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
From the time when this spiritual drama was performed, 1600,
till examples of composition can be produced, I shall merely give
a list of such musical rappresentationi, or plays, on sacred subjects
for Music, as have been recorded, and of which the words only of
some have come to my knowledge.*
77 gran natale di Cristo Salvator nostro, at Florence, 1625. This
sacred drama was written by the elder Cicognini, (II Dot. Jacopo)
author of several other sacred rappresentationi: as II Trionfo di
David; II Martirio di S. Agata; La Celeste Guida, &c. But of
these only the choruses, and some incidental songs, were set to
Music, by Gugl. Conti, Giovambatista da Gagliano, Filippo Vitali,
and Francesca Caccini, daughter of the celebrated Giulio Caccini
detto Romano, one of the inventors of recitative, and first opera
composers. Being in possession of all Cicognini' s dramas, I was
tempted to read his oratorio entitled II gran Natale di Christo, and
found the poetry admirable; the ideas are grand and elevated, the
characters strongly marked, and the personifications ingenious.
Lucifer, who rising from the infernal regions, speaks the prologue,
resembles, in his daring language and impious sentiments, Milton's
Satan. Human Nature personified, opens the first act with a speech
much resembling that of Adam at the end of the tenth book of
Paradise Lost. Sin and Death are likewise personified, and speak
Miltonic sentiments : accusing Human Nature of giving them their
foul existence. Death says:
Tu pur fusti colei
Che prima mi chiamasti;
Anzi col tuo fallire
La Morte non creata allor formasti.
Again : Da tua Colpa infinita
Da te, che rappresenti ogni mortale,
Io che la Morte sono hebbi la vita.
And Sin says :
Rammenta, ch' io son parto
Di tua disubbidienza
Io qual serpe mortale
Cerco d' infettar V dime,
E come il tarlo ogn'hor consumo, e rodo
La coscienza impura.
Milton calls Death the sin-born monster; and Sin, speaking to
Death, says:
Thou, my shade
Inseparable, must with me along;
For Death from Sin no pow'r can separate.
* In 1622, Kapsberger (d. c. 1633) published a work which may be called an Oratorio
entitled Apotheosis, seu consecrato S.S. Ignatii et Francisci Xaverii. The music of this
allegorical drama has been preserved. In the same year (the year of the Canonisation of the
two saints mentioned), Vittorio Loreto wrote a work on the same subject which had consider-
able success, but unfortunately both the words and music of this production have not survived.
The oratorio by Mazzochi. II martirio de' santi Abbundio, etc., mentioned later, was
produced at Rome in 1631.
570
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
In Cicognini, La Morte says:
Ed io, che un ombra sono
Pronta ti seguo, come V ombra il corpo.
Lamento di Maria Vergine, accompagnato dalle lagrime di santa
Maria Maddalena, e di S. Giovanni per la morte di Giesu Cristo,
rappreseniato in Musica in istile recitativo nella Chiesa de' santi
Innocenti, di Mantua, 1627. This drama was set to Music by
Michelagnolo Capollini.
77 Martirio de' santi Abundio prete, Abbundanzio Diacono,
Marziano, e Giovanni suo figliuolo, Dramma, in Roma, 1631. Set
by Domenico Mazzocchi, one of the most eminent and learned
contrapuntists of his time. The madrigals which he printed at Rome
in score, 1638, have been already described, Book III. chap. viii.
There are many new harmonies, for that period, in these
compositions; and he seems to have been one of the first old masters
who felt the beautiful effect of the flat fifth with the sixth, and
other discords in ligature. He is justly celebrated by Kircher for
these madrigals, and for his pathetic recitative, of which he gives
the following specimen from his spiritual cantata called the Tears
of Mary Magdalen, a composition, says Kircher, so affecting and
expressive, that when performed by such exquisite singers as the
Cavalier Loreto Vittorij, Bonaventura, or Marcantonio, it never
failed to draw tears from all who heard it.
Domenico Mazzocchi.
R.BCIT.
s
I V W «E g> Q» J
1 1 nJfgfff^g?^
^^
FFF
SENVIKJLSfl-NAiMA
IL R£ -DEN -TO -RE
SflN-GUE MA INflARNp SPARSI IL PRE -TI-
*
^H
taE
Ur^tl
+^-M^
m
m
r yv ^rff
=£=£
-o-so W-0
Sfl-RA PER LEI 01 QUEL BE A -TO SANGUE SENZA IL 00GU0S0 HU
a
5E
wm
by »
i=S
^^
4nUEJ
-M6R DEL
PtAN
TO Ml
SENZA IL DOQUO -SO H»
3
W>
^
S
I Hi"!
H^tf-
e ■
^
ba fc>
£
^^
a
J -MOR DEL
-ro
PIAN
Ml • O
»
s
^^p=
s
57i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
27 S. Alessio Dramma Musicale, set to Music by Stefano Landi,
and performed at the Barberini palace at Rome, 1634. This
oratorio was printed at Rome, in score, the same year, with a long
preface by the composer, who tells us that the ritornels for violins
are in three parts; but that sometimes there is a base added to
them which often moves in eighths and fifths with one of the parts,
on purpose, for the beauty of the effect. After this declaration the
musical reader will perhaps have as little eagerness to see such
Music as I had to transcribe it, after examining the score.
L' Annunctato , Drama sacro per Musica, Bologna. The
composer of the Music to this drama is not mentioned.
Erminia sul Giordano, Drama Musicale, performed likewise in
the Barberini palace, and printed in score, at Rome, 1637. Though
the Music of this piece is somewhat better than that of Alexis, I
saw nothing in it worth transcription. It was composed by Michel
Angelo Rossi, a celebrated performer on the violin, who played
the part of Apollo in this drama; and we are told, in a descriptive
letter prefixed to the work, that Signor Rossi, the author of the
Music, played on the violin with such sweet and graceful melody,
as proved his just title to dominion over the Muses, at the head of
whom he was placed in a car.
Sansone, dialogo per Musica, Palermo, 1638. The composer is
not mentioned.
No musical drama, under the title of Oratorio, can be found in
print, says the diligent Quadrio (n), before the time of Francesco
Balducci, who died in 1642; among whose poems are found two:
the one called la Fede, on the subject of Abraham's sacrifice, and
divided into two parts; the other entitled II Trionfo, or the
Coronation of the blessed Virgin, in one act, or parts only. These
resembling the dramas performed at the church of the fathers of the
oratory, he calls Oratorios, an appellation which was soon adopted
by many others (o).
Yet still several sacred musical dramas appear in the
Drammaturgia, and elsewhere, about this time, under the ancient
title of Dramma sacro, or Rappresentatione, which was originally
given to the mysteries and moralities: as La Pellegrina costante,
Dramma sacro, written and set to Music by the celebrated singer
Loreto Vittorii, at Rome, 1647; and II Sacrifizio d' Abramo,
rappresentatione tragi-comica, recitata in Musica, at Rome, 1648.
Debbora, melodramma sacro, Ancona, 1651.
Dialoghi sacri e morali, del Cavalier Loreto Vittorj [c. 1588-
1670]. These dialogues were dramatic, and written and set
expressly for the Chiesa nuova at Rome, in which the author,
himself, one of the first and most eminent sopranos, who sung in
the early operas, performed. Quadrio tells us (p), that Giano
in) Tom. V. 435-
(o) The poems of Francesco Balducci were published at Rome, in two parts: the first in
1630, and reprinted in 1645; the second in 1646; and both together at Venice, 1655 and 1663.
(p) Tom. V. 495.
572
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
Nicio Eritreo, speaking of Loreto Vittorj, an excellent singer and
good poet of Spoleto, relates the having once heard him in the
oratory of S. Filippo Neri, in Rome, sing a Querimonia of Mary
Magdalen weeping for her sins, and throwing herself at the feet of
Christ. And it seems as if this was the spiritual cantata set by
Domenico Mazzocchi, to which Kircher alludes in speaking of the
excellence of the recitative. Loreto was admitted in the Papal
chapel 1622. And in 1655 [1639], he set for Spoleto, the place
of his nativity, the opera of Galatea, which, according to Adami
(q), was in great favour at that time, and, being printed, was
dedicated to Cardinal Barberini.
Eufrasia, V Innocenza di Susanna, another Debbora, Maddalena
al Sepolcro, and U Annunciazione della B. Vergine, all performed
in different parts of Italy in 1656, are simply called musical dramas.
Indeed, the first time the word oratorio occurs to a poem on a
sacred subject for Music, in the Drammaturgia, is to a piece
performed at Messina, soon after the middle of the last century; and,
as the title of this drama is curious, I shall give it at full length:
Fede di Zancla, Oratorio nella solennita della Festa della sacra
Lettera, scritta dalla Gloriosa Vergine Maria a' Messinesi, Palermo,
1659. In 1662, several religious dramas, that were performed in
Italian at Vienna, in the imperial chapel, were called oratorios:
as II Diluvio, Oratorio, a cinque Voci; Santa Caterina, Oratorio;
and Le Lagrime della Vergine nel sepolcro di Cristo, set to Music
by Marcantonio Ziani. The same year was performed at Messina,
La Sensualita depressa, Oratorio. In 1667, Sisara, Oratorio, recito
nella Capella Maggiore del Palazzo publico di Bologna, Musica di
Maurizio Cruciati, Maestro di Capella di S. Petronio. In 1670, La
Sposa Vergine, Oratorio, for the feast of St. Cecilia, in Cremona.
In 1675, Santa Caterina d' Alessandria, rappresentatione sacra
per Musica, was performed at Venice; but from the year 1637,
when the Music of S. Alessio was printed, I was unable, with the
utmost diligence of research, to find throughout Italy any vestiges
of Oratorio-music till 1676,* Of this date is still preserved at Rome
in the archives of the church of S. Girolamo della Carita, where
S. Pilippo Neri first instituted his Congregation of the Fathers of
the Oratory, and where the performance of oratorios has since been
constant, the Music of two sacred dramas of that kind among many
others of more modern times.
The title of the first is: Oratorio di santa Cristina, di D.
Francesco Federici, 1676, con stromenti. There is no overture; the
performance begins with an accompanied recitative, a ritornelli,
played by two violins, tenor, and base; which is the first attempt,
that has come to my knowledge, of this species of intersticial
accompaniment. The violins never play with the voice, but always
(g) Osserv. per ben reg. il Coro.
* In the National Library at Paris are the MSS. of n oratorios by Carissimi, and 5
others are known. As Carissimi died in 1674 it is possible that they were performed between
the dates given by Burney.
573
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
in symphonies or repetitions of particular portions of the vocal
melody. There is only one short chorus in the first act; the second
ends with a duo. The terms Da Capo never occur, except when
several stanzas are sung to the same melody, and then it is said.
si repete da Capo la seconda stanza, &c.
The second of these early oratorios is for five voices, and is
entitled Santa Caterina da Sienna, di D. Fran. Federici, 1676. This
oratorio, like the other, begins by a recitative without overture
or symphony. The copy which I found having no other accom-
paniment than a base figured throughout, was probably only
a half-score; as there is a movement at the end of the first act, said
to be a quattro, to which only the base is given. The
personifications in this drama resemble those of the ancient mysteries
and moralities: as the principal characters are St. Catherine, an
Angel, the World, Vanity, and Repentance.
Though these compositions are not the productions of a composer
of eminence, as there is a grave and soothing simplicity in them
which seems well suited to the subject and place of performance,
I shall insert two of the airs on the following plates: the one sung
by the Guardian Angel of the Saint, exhorting her to renounce
the pleasures and vanities of the world; and the other by St.
Catherine herself, during her conflict with her own heart.
As musical materials for this period of my enquiries after the
sacred musical drama or oratorio are scarce, I thought myself
extremely fortunate at Rome in meeting with a production of that
kind, by the celebrated and unfortunate Stradella, with whose story
it seems necessary to present the reader here, previous to any
farther account of this composition.
Alessandro Stradella [c. 1645-82], of Naples, was not only
an excellent composer, but a great performer on the violin, and,
besides these qualifications, was possessed of a fine voice and an
exquisite manner of singing. His compositions, which are all vocal*,
and of which I am in possession of many, and have examined a
great number more in other collections, seem superior to any that
were produced in the last century, except by Carissimi; and,
perhaps, if he had enjoyed equal longevity, he would have been
inferior in no respect to that great musician.
Though it has been said by Bourdelot, in his Histoire de la
Musi que, Tom. I. p. 41. and by others after him, that Stradella was
engaged by the Republic of Venice to compose for the opera in that
city; it does not appear by the correct and regular list of the musical
dramas performed at Venice from the year 1637 to 1730, that an
opera, or any part of an opera, of his composition, was ever
performed in that city.** Nor does his name occur as a dramatic
composer for any other part of Italy, in the Drammaturgia di Lione
Allacci, augmented and continued to the year 1775. His
* There are some concertos for strings in MS.
** Larousse in the Diet . des operas records the performance of two operas at Venice, but he
does not state where he procured this information.
5/4
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
compositions are chiefly miscellaneous, consisting of single songs,
cantatas, duets, trios, and madrigals of four and five parts. One
opera, and one oratorio, of which farther mention will be made
hereafter, comprise the whole of his dramatic Music, sacred and
secular, that I have been able to find.
This musician, probably at an early period of his life, having
acquired great reputation at Venice by his talents, was employed
by a noble Venetian to teach a young lady of a noble Roman family,
named Hortensia, to sing. This lady on whom nature had bestowed
a beautiful person and an exquisite voice, notwithstanding her
illustrious birth, having been seduced from her friends, had
submitted to live with this Venetian in a criminal manner.*
Hortensia 's love for Music, and admiration of the talents of her
instructor, by frequent access, soon gave birth to a passion of a
different kind; and. like Heloisa, she found, that though at first
Guiltless she gaz'd, and listen' d while he sung,
While science flow'd seraphic from his tongue;
From lips like his the precepts too much move,
They Music taught — but more, alas ! to love !
and accordingly she and her master became mutually enamoured of
each other. Before their secret was disclosed, of which the
consequences might have been equally fatal to Stradella with those
which followed the discovery of Abelard's passion, they agreed to
quit Venice together, and fly to Naples; and after travelling in the
most secret manner possible, they arrived at Rome** in their way to
that city. The Venetian seducer, on discovering their flight,
determined to gratify his revenge by having them assassinated in
whatever part of the world they could be found; and having engaged
two desperate ruffians to pursue them, by a large sum of ready
money and a promise of a still greater reward when the work was
accomplished, they proceeded directly to Naples, the place of
Stradella's nativity, supposing that he would naturally return
thither for shelter, preferably to any other part of Italy. But after
seeking him in vain for some time in that city, they were informed
that he and the lady were still at Rome, where she was regarded as
his wife. Of this they communicated intelligence to their employer,
assuring him of their determination to go through with the business
they had undertaken, provided he would procure them letters of
recommendation to the Venetian ambassador at Rome, to grant
them an asylum as soon as the deed should be perpetrated.
After waiting at Naples for the necessary letters and instructions,
they proceeded to Rome, where, such was the celebrity of Stradella,
they were not long before they discovered his residence. But
hearing that he was soon to conduct an oratorio of his own
composition, in the church of St. John Lateran, in which he was
* The lady in question was not the mistress of a Venetian nobleman, but una giovane
patrizia. destinata sposa of Alvise Contarini, a Senator of Venice.
** There is no evidence to support this assertion.
575
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
not only to play, but to sing the principal part; and as this
performance was to begin at five o'clock in the evening, they
determined to avail themselves of the darkness of the night when he
and his mistress should return home.
On their arrival at the church, the oratorio was begun, and the
excellence of the Music and its performance, joined to the rapture
that was expressed by the whole congregation, made an impression
and softened the rocky hearts even of these savage beasts, to such a
degree, as to incline them to relent; and to think that it would be a
pity to take away the life of a man whose genius and abilities were
the delight of all Italy. An instance of the miraculous powers of
modern Music, superior, perhaps, to any that could be well
authenticated of the ancient.
Both these assassins being equally affected by the performance,
alike inclined to mercy, and accosting him in the street when he
quitted the church, after complimenting him upon his oratorio,
confessed to him the business on which they had been sent by the
Venetian nobleman, whose mistress he had stolen; adding, that
charmed by his Music, they had changed their minds; and then,
advising him and the lady to fly to some place of safety as soon as
possible, they determined to relinquish the rest of the reward that
was promised them, and tell their employer, that Stradella and his
mistress had quitted Rome the night before their arrival in that city.
After this wonderful escape, the lovers did not wait for new
counsel to quit Rome, but set out that very night for Turin, as a
place most remote from their implacable enemy and his emissaries.
And the assassins returning to Venice, told the enraged Venetian
that they had traced the fugitives to Turin, a place where the laws
being not only severe, but the difficulty of escaping so much greater
than in any other part of Italy, on account of the garrison, they
should decline any further concern in the business. This intelligence
did not, however, incline the offended nobleman to relinquish his
purpose, but rather stimulated him to new attempts: he therefore
engaged two other assassins in his service, procuring for them letters
of recommendation from the Abbe d'Estrade, at that time the
French ambassador at Venice, addressed to the Marquis de Villars,
ambassador from France to Turin. The Abbe d'Estrade requesting,
at the desire of the Venetian ambassador, protection for two
merchants, who intended to reside some time in that city, which
being delivered by the new assassins, they paid their court regularly
to the ambassador, while they waited for a favourable opportunity
to accomplish their undertaking with safety.
The Duchess of Savoy, at this time regent, having been informed
of the sudden flight of Stradella and Hortensia from Rome, and
their arrival at Turin, and knowing the danger they were in from the
vindictive spirit' of their enemy, placed the lady in a convent, and
retained Stradella in her palace as her Maestro di Capella. In a
situation apparently so secure, Stradella' s fears for his safety began
to abate; till one day, at six o'clock in the evening, as he was walking
for the air, on the ramparts of the city, he was set upon by two
576
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
ruffians, who each gave him a stab in the breast with a dagger, and
immediately flew to the house of the French ambassadors, as to a
sanctuary.
The assault having been seen by numbers of people who were
walking in the same place, occasioned such an uproar in the city,
that the news soon reached the Duchess, who ordered the gates to be
shut, and the assassins to be demanded of the French ambassador;
but he insisting on the privileges granted to men of his function by
the laws of nations, refused to give them up. This transaction,
however, made a great noise all over Italy, and M. de Villars wrote
immediately to the Abbe d'Estrade to know the reason of the attack
upon Stradella by the two men whom he had recommended; and
was informed, by the Abbe, that he had been surprised into a
recommendation of these assassins by one of the most powerful of
the Venetian nobility. In the mean time Stradella's wounds,
though extremely dangerous, proved not to be mortal, and the
Marquis de Villars having been informed by the surgeons that he
would recover, in order to prevent any further dispute about the
privileges of the corps diplomatique, suffered the assassins to escape.
But such was the implacability of the enraged Venetian, that
never relinquishing his purpose, he continued to have Stradella
constantly watched by spies, whom he maintained in Turin. A year
being elapsed after the cure of his wounds, and no fresh disturbance
happening, he thought himself secure from any further attempts
upon his life. The Duchess Regent, interesting herself in the
happiness of two persons who had suffered so much, and who
seemed born for each other, had them married in her palace.* After
which ceremony, Stradella having an invitation to Genoa to compose
an opera for that city, went thither with his wife, determining to
return to Turin after the Carnival; but the Venetian being informed
of this motion, sent assassins after them, who watching for a
favourable opportunity, rushed into their chamber early one
morning, and stabbed them both to the heart. The murderers
having secured a bark, which lay in the port, by instantly retreating
to it, escaped from justice, and were never heard of more.
This tragical event must have happened considerably later than
1670, the date that has been assigned to it by all the musical writers
who have related the story. For being in possession of the drama
which he set for Genoa previous to his murder, which is entitled La
Forza dell' Amor paterno, and dated Genoa mdclxxviii, it appears
that the dedication of this opera to Signora Teresa Raggi Saoli, was
written by Stradella himself. And at the conclusion of the editor's
advertisement to the reader is the following eulogium on the
composer of the Music : bastando il dirti. che il concerto di si perfetta
melodia sia valore d'un Alessandro, cioe del Signor Stradella
riconosciuto senza contrasto per il primo Apollo della Musica:
" Nothing further need be offered in defence of the work, than to
say that it had received the advantage of the perfect melody and
* It is not known with certainty if Stradella and Hortensia were married.
Vol.. ii. 37. 577
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
harmony of an Alexander, that is of Signor Stradella, indisputably
acknowledged to be the magnus Apollo of Music."*
This chapter being chiefly confined to the subject of oratorios,
as I am in possession of the score of the only composition of that kind
which has come to my knowledge among the works of Stradella,
and which is generally believed to have saved this charming
composer's life for some time by its effects on the hearts of the first
assassins that were employed to murder him at Rome on the night
of its performance, I shall be somewhat minute in my account of
it, and liberal in extracts; as the Music is superior to that of any
similar production of the time.
Oratorio di S. Gio. Battista, a 5, con stromenti, del Signor
Alessandro Stradella [1676] . There is a sinfonia or overture in four
parts, consisting of three short movements all in fugue, and the
composition very neat and clear; but as the powers of the violin were
at this time but little known, however superior it may be to any thing
of the kind by his cotemporaries, to exhibit a score of it here would
impress the admirers of modem symphonies with but little reverence
for the instrumental Music of Stradella.
The first scene opens with a short recitative and air by St. John,
in the counter-tenor clef, which unless sung with expression by a
fine voice, would now have but little effect. These are followed
by another short recitative and a short chorus of the Saint's disciples,
and then a dialogue between him and one of the chorus. After
this we have a spirited song in eight parts; the accompaniments being
very ingeniously contrived, like Correlli's Concertos, for two violins
and violoncello del concertino, and two violins, tenor, and base
del concerto grosso. There is not much elegant or graceful melody
in this song, but it is a very elaborate composition, and full of
masterly contrivance.
After a short recitative, there is a chorus in five parts, sung by St.
John's disciples, which is truly admirable. It begins with eight
or ten bars of excellent counterpoint, in which is a very early, if
not the first, use of the extreme sharp sixth; and then bursts into
a fugue on two excellent subjects, which are reversed and otherwise
admirably treated. Except Handel's, I never saw a better vocal
chorus, for its length. Then follows a piece of flattering recitative,
by the Consigliere of Herod; which is succeeded by a lively air
on a ground-base by Herodia, his daughter. After which, on another
ground-base, the Counsellor sings an air of a graver cast, in which
are many ingenious, and then new and elegant passages.
To all these airs on a ground-base the voice has no other
accompaniment : for, as he meant that this base should be distinctly
* The score of another work, // barcheggio, is dated 1681, and was commissioned for a
wedding ceremony in that year. 1682 is given as the date of the death of Stradella, in a
document in the archives at Modenna. Reprints of music by him have been made by the
following : —
Crosti. Les Airs cilebres (Paris, 1896).
Gevaert. Les Gloires d'ltalie. Vols. 1 and 2.
Eitner. 8 songs.
V. Novello has some in his Fitzwilliatn Music (1825).
Parisotti. Libro secondo di arie antiche (Milan, 1890).
578
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
heard, he not only leaves it clear and unloaded with harmony, but
recommends the doubling it con iutti i bassi del concerto grosso.
The next air, however, consisting of two movements is very richly
accompanied. It is sung by Herodia, and begins with a slow
symphony fugata in four parts, admirably written, and when the
voice comes in, is in five real parts. The second movement is a kind
of gavot, allegro, and is supported with ingenuity and spirit, in
fugue and imitation, to the end. This kind of writing is certainly
not dramatic, but though it is often Gothic and dull, in the hands of
composers of limited abilities, yet, when a Carissimi, a Stradella,
a Purcell, or a Handel writes a fugue on any subject, it becomes
interesting to every master and judge of good composition.
Then follows a trio, by the Figlia, Madre, and Consigliere, in a
very pleasing Sicilian style, full of imitations, good harmony, and
contrivance. After which there is a magnificent blustering base
song for Herod, a due cori. In the latter part of which there is a
very busy accompaniment for the two principal violins, while the
base onhy fortifies the voice part in unison, or in the octave. This
air is followed by a good chorus of two movements in fugues of
four parts; and the first act ends with a duet between Herod and his
daughter in triple time, of which the passages, though now
antiquated, were sufficiently new in the last century for Corelli, and
other composers posterior to Stradella, to adopt them.
The second part opens with a single air, sung by Herodia, not
devoid of grace, at the time it was composed. But melody was
then little cultivated; for as scarce any movement, not in fugue,
was deemed worth hearing by the critics of those days, every
master thought it necessary to manifest abilities in that way which
was most likely to increase his reputation. Yet, notwithstanding the
attention necessarily given to fugue and imitation at this time,
Stradella has introduced a greater variety of movement and
contrivance in his oratorio, than I ever saw in any drama, sacred or
secular, of the same period. The second air in this act has a base
in constant division, which contrasts well with the preceding air, and
with the plain and simple melody to which it is applied.
The subsequent air accompanied by two violins in perpetual
imitation, is on a ground-base, which, after several repetitions, is
reversed, and still made subservient to the original theme. There is
a second part to this air in a different measure, but still upon a
ground-base.
In a duo between Herod and his daughter, the harmony,
modulation, and contrivance, are so admirable, that I shall give
part of it as a specimen of the perfection to which this species of
writing was brought by Stradella anterior to the productions of
Purcel, Clari, Steffani, and Alessandro Scarlatti, whose road to fame
he very much contributed to point out and smooth (q) .
The air of Herod concertata, with six real instrumental parts, is
spirited, clear, and masterly. This oratorio rises in merit the further
(q) See the plates at the end of this chapter.
579
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
we advance. The recitative is in general excellent; and there is
scarce a movement among the airs in which genius, skill, and study
do not appear. This is the first work in which the proper sharps
and flats are generally placed at the clef. The modulation in the
recitative, however, is less timid than that of Stradella's predecessors,
and he neither thought it necessary to place flats nor sharps at the
clef of his recitative, nor to begin and end in one key; but let the
sentiments and passion of the words alone govern his modulation
with the true spirit of declamation.
After an animated and almost elegant duet, betweem St. John
and Herodia, fellowed by a spirited air, I expected this oratorio
would have ended with a chorus; but found it terminated by a
duet (r).
Since Oratorios have been enriched by the choruses of Colonna,
Alessandro Scarlatti, Leo, Jomelli, and above all Handel, we are
disappointed whenever they do not abound; as this species of drama,
in still life, is peculiarly calculated to display the powers of harmony
and resources of a great composer; for the performers being allowed
to read their parts, instead of acting them by memory, exempts the
author of the Music from all fear of difficulty or complication,
which might embarrass the performer, and occasion confusion in
the representation. The early oratorios being intended for
exhibition on a stage, had as few choruses, and as short and simple
as an opera. Whether this sacred drama was acted in the church
of St. John Lateran, or no, does not appear; but long, frequent,
and accompanied choruses, seem not to have been thought necessary
either by the poet or composer of this, in other respects, admirable
oratorio.
Interested and surprised as I was by the new and unexpected
beauties of Stradella's compositions, compared with those of his
cotemporaries, it is to be feared that those who have them not
before their eyes, or who only compare them with modern
productions, will think my account of this oratorio too long; I shall
therefore hasten to his other works, in which I find the germe of
many favourite compositions that were produced long after the
fatal catastrophe, which so prematurely put an end to his existence.
It will, I hope, however, afford some satisfaction to curious
collectors to be informed, that besides Stradella's opera and oratorio,
already mentioned, there are still extant the following compositions
of this excellent master: in the Museum Collection [Harl], N° 1265
and 1272, Se nel ben (s); Se Varna Filli (t); Gode allor Tranquilla;
La Ragion. In Christ-church, Oxon: Fulmini quanto sa; Ardo,
(r) If the story be true, as there is little reason to doubt, of Stradella's long persecution
and final murder, we may conclude that this sacred drama was performed about 1676; as he is
said to have survived the plan of his assassination, at Rome, two or three years.
(s) In this air the natural and clear style of vocal melody appears, which was afterwards
much improved by Hasse and Vinci.
(t) Here Stradella seems to have furnished the comic motivo, which Pergolesi afterwards
perfected in the duet of his Serva Padrona.
580
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
sospiro, e piango, duetti («). In the possession of Mr. Bailey,
organist of Chester, and collected by the late Mr. Wright of that
city, the traveller, who bequeathed them to the late Mr. Orme : Io
che lascero fur; non e al certo novita; Rider ete sotto vedovo cielo;
Ti Lasciero. In the Collection of the Academy of ancient Music:
Clori son fido amante, madrigal a. 5. And in my own collection,
transcribed from copies in the possession of the late Dr. Pepuch :
Ecco ritorno a i pianti, a 3; Chi dim che nel veleno, duo; Piangele
ccchi doienti, madrigal a 5.
The more I examine the works of this excellent artist, the more
I am convinced that Purcell had made him his model; not in detail,
in order to imitate his passages, but general style of composition.
Purcell was extremely fond of writing upon a ground-base, a species
of chaconne, which the Italians call basso costretto, and the French
basse-contrainte : and in Stradella's oratorio, it appears that more
than half the airs in that admirable production are built upon a few
bars or notes of base perpetually repeated. Purcell may have been
stimulated to exercise his powers in such confined and difficult
enterprizes as themes, by viewing the works of an author who,
according to tradition, was his greatest favourite; but he has never
made use of the same ground, or series of notes, in any of his
numerous compositions of this kind; indeed, his subjects are not
only new, but more pleasing and difficult to work upon, than any
of Stradella's, that I have seen (x).
Besides the legendary subjects which the lives of saints have
furnished, there is scarcely an event in the sacred writings, which
during the last century did not give birth to an oratorio. San
Tommaso di Canturbia (Canterbury); Tommaso Moro; and Maria
Stuarda Regina di Scozia, were likewise the subjects of several
oratorios, tragedies, and cantatas, in Italy, during the last century.
In 1678, Giustizia sposata alia pace, in the coronation of
Solomon, dialogo per Musica, Palermo. S. Agata, oratorio, sung
in the Imperial Chapel.
1679. / dolorosi pianti dell' anime del purgatorio, oratorio,
Vienna.
1680. Eresia avvelenata, oratorio, Cremona.
After this time the title of oratorio, for a sacred musical drama,
became general.
1681. La Luce nata al giusto; 1682, L' Angela custode, Mantua;
1683, Bersabea, set by Don Gaspar Torelli, at Imola (y); 1684,
L' Annunciata, Modena; 1689, La Pieta trionfante nella nascita
del monarca Britanno, Modena; 1690, II Martirio di S. Eustachio;
Ester, ovvero la Caduta di Amanno, azione sacra per Musica, in
(u) These are full of ingenious imitations, elegant passages, and new expression of words
and modulation, at the time they were composed.
(x) Writing and playing on a ground seem to have been rendered very common practices
in England, by Purcell's works and his imitators, about the beginning of the present century.,
(y) Not the violinist Torelli, of Verona, whose name was Giuseppe, and who had a
brother, Felice Torelli, who published his Concertos, 1709, con una pastorale per il santissima
natale, on the death of his brother Joseph.
581
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Mantua; 1693, La santa Vergine Rosalia. And in 1695, another
Ester, at Bologna; 1699, Eresia discacciata, Napoli; 1700,
L'Innocenza ravvivata in Adamo pentito, at Todi.
The poet Pariati, who shared the imperial laurel with Apostolo
Zeno, wrote three oratorios, about the beginning of the present
century for the Emperor's Chapel, at Vienna; the Jesuit Ceva
produced sixteen or eighteen; and Lelio Orsini many that were
chiefly performed and printed in Germany.
Bernino, Balducci, Mazzei, Stellati, Bernini, and De Totis,
were authors of a considerable number, which are specified in
Quadrio (z); as are those of Massimi, Bergamori, Lemene, Baviera,
Gigli, and Bernardoni. After these the number that were written
about the beginning of the present century, is prodigious.
Arcangelo Spagna, in 1706, published fifteen oratorios, or
melodrammi sacri, with a preliminary discourse concerning this
species of poetical composition, dedicated to his holiness pope
Clement XI.
In the first parabolical oratorios, says Quadrio (a), allegorical
and ideal personages were introduced, as Patience, Charity, Faith,
Hope, &c. in the same manner as in the ancient mysteries; and
sometimes a mixture of real and imaginary characters: when our
Saviour, the Holy Ghost, and even the supreme Being were
introduced speaking the language of mortals, and singing trivial and
profane airs. This irreverend abuse has, however, been reformed
during the present century, in which oratorios have been written
that are not, indeed, perfectly dramatic, but in which the
interlocutors are real personages, who have been made to speak
with more reason, probability, and propriety than formerly.
In Italy, oratorios are usually divided into two parts only, in
order that their performance may not exceed two hours; for being
performed during divine service, more time could not conveniently
be allowed. Malatesta Strinati, and Giulio Cesare Grazzini, both
men of literary abilities, have, however, printed oratorios, the first,
St. Adrian, in three acts, and the second, St. George, in five.
Apostolo Zeno has reduced his sacred dramas within the limits of
time and place, and written them in such a manner that they may
not only be sung without action, but represented on a stage; so
that if they were somewhat lengthened, and the several parts well
cast, they might reasonably be called sacred musical tragedies.
And such, indeed, oratorios ought to be, even when sung in still
life : as, when the laws of time and place are observed, the events
of the piece interesting, and the characters well supported, the
attention of the audience will be the more easily excited. Indeed,
as these pieces are at present performed without action, the figures
of the personages are not presented to the eye, as in other dramas,
but the ear.
The interlocutors, says Spagna, should not exceed five, nor be
fewer than three, to prevent confusion and lassitude in hearing almost
(*) Storia d'Ogni Poesia, Tom. V. 498, et seq. (a) Ubi supra.
582
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
always the same voices. In the beginning of oratorios, the vocal
parts were constantly of four different kinds: soprano, contralto,
tenor, and base; and as it would be extremely ridiculous to give to
a soprano voice, the part of St. Ilarion, or Paul the Hermit, unless
some event were presented which happened in their youth; and it
would be equally absurd to assign the part of St. Cecilia, or St.
Agnes, to a base; great care should be taken, not to write the
characters or compose the Music, till it is known who are to perform
the several parts.
In the dramatic works of Apostolo Zeno there are seventeen
oratorios, all of which were originally set to Music by Caldara,
except two: David by Porsile, and Ezechia by John Bononcini,
1737.
Zeno's oratorio of Sisara, set by Caldara, was performed in the
Imperial Chapel, 1719. And the author himself says, that the
great favour which this drama enjoyed at Vienna, " was chiefly due
to the composer of the Music, che mi ha servitb assai bene (b)."
This testimony is the more honourable for Caldara, as Apostolo
Zeno, in general, joins with other learned Italians in complaints of
the degeneracy and abuse of Music.
Metastasio was author of eight sacred dramas, which have been
set by the greatest masters of modern times, but with more force
and learning by Jomelli, perhaps, than any other; as he particularly
studied an elaborate choral style, and his long residence in Germany
obliged him to a constant exercise in learned counterpoint; for which,
though unjustly censured by his countrymen, he has acquired great
reputation among the lovers of harmony, elsewhere (c).
Sant' Elena at Calvario [1732] was admirably set by Leo
[1694-1744]. His Music to Sacri orrori, is in the sublime style,
and equal in solemnity and effects to any thing of the kind that
has perhaps ever been produced. This composition was admired
by our exquisite poet Gray, who first brought it to England.*
I have been more fortunate in finding the words than the Music
of the oratorios that were written during the last century. Next
to that of Stradella, II Trionfo della Castita [1688], dedicated to
Cardinal Ottoboni, and set to Music by Carlo Pallavicini [d. 1688] ,
is the most ancient. The score of this oratorio was brought to
England by the late Mr. Wright of Chester, the traveller, and is
now the property of Mr. Bailey, organist of that city.
There were two composers of the name of Pallavicini:
Benedetto Palavicini [d. 1612-13], the elder, was a voluminous
(b) Lettera, xli. Tom. II.
(c) / a Passione di Giesu Christo, of Metastasio, was first set by Caldara, 1730. Sant'
Elena al Calvario, 1733. Giuseppe riconosciuto, 1733, Musica di Porsile. Betulia liberata, 1734,
Musica di Giorgio Reuter. Gioas, 1737. La Morte d'Abel, 1740, Musica di D. Domenico
Valentini. Per la Festivita del Santissimo Natale. Isacco Figura del Redentore, 1740, Musica
di Predieri. Betuha liberata [1743L Isacco [1755], <£• La Passione [1749], have been since
remarkably well set by Jomelli.
* There are many MSS. of Church music by Leo in the B.M., and in the Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge. He was a prolific composer and a list of his compositions is to be
found in Grove's. Vol. Ill, pp. 140-1.
583
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
madrigalist, about the beginning of the last century. I have seen
eight different books and scored several of his madrigals for five
and six voices, all published between the year 1595 and 1612 (d).
There is no great variety of style, melody, harmony, or modulation,
discoverable in these productions. They are all of one cast and
colour; and like the works of the chief part of his coternporaries,
breathe no enthusiasm, or spirit of invention; contented with the
old and common harmonies and the few dry and simple passages in
melody which would admit of fugue and imitation, no air, or
symmetry of measure, was aime.d at by the masters of these times;
which rendered almost all their madrigals as like each other, as
peas in the same bushel, or bullets of the same caliber. If the
common track was ever quitted, it was not in search of more
beautiful or pleasing melodies, but difficult and elaborate contriv-
ances in the texture of the parts, which afforded the ear but little
amusement, in proportion to the trouble it cost the mind in
disentangling them. This species of composition was more
calculated to gratify pedantry and surprise the eye, than excite
passion, or delight the ear.
Carlo Pallavicini, the younger, began to flourish in 1666,
when he composed Demetrio, his first opera for Venice. Between
this period and the year 1687, he set twenty-one dramas for that
city. The oratorio, mentioned above, must have been composed
about the latter end of the last century, as the prelate to whom it
is dedicated was not admitted into the conclave till 1689, at only
twenty-four years of age. If Carlo Pallavicini, the author of this
Music, ever had any genius, it was exhausted when he set this
oratorio, which has neither invention nor learning to recommend it.
The next oratorio, of which I have been able to find the Music,
is entitled Maria Vergine addolerata [c. 1698], composed by
Francesco Antonio Pistocchi, of Bologna, one of the greatest
stage-singers of the last century, who began to flourish both as a
composer and vocal performer about the year 1679. He was
retained some time at the court of the Margrave of Brandenburg
[Ansbach], as Maestro di Capella; but late in life, after establishing
a school of singing at Bologna, which was continued by his scholar
Bernacchi, he retired to a monastery, where he ended his days.
There is no date to his oratorio, which is now before me; but
by the elegance and simplicity of the style, it seems to have been
produced about the end of the last century. Recitative now freed
from formal closes and in possession of all its true forms, in this
production is extremely pathetic and dramatic; and Pistocchi seems
a more correct contrapuntist than the generality of opera singers
whom the demon of composition seizes at a period of their lives,
when it is too late to begin, and impossible to pursue such studies
effectually, without injuring the chest, and neglecting the cultivation
of the voice.
(d) Most of this author's works are preserved in Dr. Aldrich's Collection, Christ-church,
Oxon.
584
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
This oratorio has neither overture nor chorus. The interlocutors
are an Angel, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and St. John. As
a specimen of Pistocchi's style, on the next plates I shall present
the reader with the first air of Mary Magdalen, in which, at this
mark + a passage occurs that Corelli, in the saraband of his
eleventh concerto, and Geminiani in " Gently touch the warbling
lyre," have used as their own property.
At the termination of this oratorio, which is truly pathetic and
solemn, all the degrees of the diminution of sound are used: as
piano, piu piano, pianissimo, equivalent to the diminuendo,
calando, and smorzando , of the present times.
The oratorio of St. Basil, composed about this time, by Paolo
Colonna [c. 1637-95], is come to my hand, from the same collec-
tion, by the favour of Mr. Bailey. It was a disappointment to me,
not to find in this composition any choruses; as it was natural to
expect, from so learned a contrapuntist, that they would have been
excellent. There is, indeed, but little melody or expression in the
songs, which are almost all upon subjects that have been long
rendered common and vulgar by frequent use. Great learning,
study, and experience, indeed, appear throughout this composition;
but not the genius, facility, and expression of Stradella, whom
Colonna survived at least twenty years.
In the manuscript oratorio of Ales. Scarlatti, which I found
in the archives of the Chiesa nuova, at Rome, there is an admirable
overture, in a style totally different from that of Lulli, which at
this time, was the general model for all Europe. The modulation
and expression of the recitatives, many of which are accompanied
with interstitial symphonies, are admirable, and such as might be
expected from a man of his original, bold, and cultivated genius,
who always disdained insipidity, and the common passages of the
times. The airs are almost all pathetic, as the subject required,
and richly accompanied. A cavitina is given as a specimen on the
following plates.
Among the songs of a different cast, there is one, accompanied
by a trumpet, in which the beauties and true genius of that
instrument have been studied, and all its defects avoided, by using
only the key-note, the second, third, and fifth of the key, all which
are alternately sustained so long, that if the fourth and sixth had
been equally employed, the harmony would have been intolerable.
John Bononcini composed many oratorios before he arrived
in England. I found one in the archives of S. Girolamo della
Carita, at Rome, with his name to it, which, by its simplicity,
seems to have been one of his first productions. The sharps and
flats of the recitatives are written at the clef; the instrumental parts
are thin, and seldom have any thing to do but in the symphonies
and ritornels, in which great use is made of the violoncello, which
was his instrument. It has but two acts or parts, which is the case
with all the Italian oratorios; as at the end of the first, there used to
be a sermon > or discourse in prose, which is printed with the first
58S
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
oratorio dell' Anima, e del Corpo. The overture has but two
movements like those of Lulli; and it seems as if Handel had been
the first to introduce the minuet, or final air; in his first oratorio
there is none. Alexander Scarlatti was a much more elaborate
writer, and gave more movement to his basses, and to all his
instrumental parts, than Bononcini, who continued during his
whole life a friend to the voice, and a lover of simplicity. Though
there were frequently, in the first oratorios, short choruses in plain
counterpoint, I seldom find any in those of the latter end of the
last century, and the beginning of the present; each act usually
ending with a duet; so that it seems as if we were not only obliged
to Handel for the best choruses that were ever composed, accom-
panied by instruments, but for the having any choruses at all.
There is no composer of oratorios, anterior to Handel, of whose
choruses I have any great expectations, except Caldara; who, from
his other productions, which are come to my knowledge, seems to
have been admirably qualified for enriching choral compositions
with harmony, contrivance, great effects, and every species of
learning which renders this elaborate style of composition grand
and majestic in its public performance, and curious and improving
to the student, in his private studies.
Though Caldara set fifteen of Apostolo Zeno's oratorios, and
several that were written by other poets, I have never been able to
procure a complete score of any one of them; which I the more
wished to do, as, upon a perusal of the words of the sacred dramas
of Apostolo Zeno, and Metastasio, there appear to be choruses in
them all.
Air. In the Oratorio of Santa Caterina da Siena.
586
RISB AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
Aria. Santa Caterina da Siena 1676.
r*.
; - ■ ■ ■ — : ' jr;
— =
"?V
7T#TV
km
]m mm m — 1
CH£ M- SOU/7 O/"ll0 PEN
• ♦■■- Ijf |
v y *
S/ERO -
jb* u * » _ »
^
=o— » '
ffl **
!>,;;i - — )
■^-y* »-»-TJfp
■ <
hv — f fa* \*»
y y T"
OU68'OCO«£ A
O g b
CHE T'APPie-LI
CH/ S£-
bsfcb=±==qzd
|g— -
*ri
gai ■
— m _. «
J CHE Rl-
SOJ.-VI
CHERI
SOLVIOMIOPEN-SfE -
-O ®-= ■» » —
»%iakm
gy Hy mb ut —
I
Z=t£"
1 * d
-A — \-
1 U
J u u±^
L4
1 — U ' ■
Duet in the Oratorio of St. John the Baptist.
By Alessandro Stradella.
H3E
fiMSIO ftSSftl.
m>jUL
NEL SE -
WoP f
Si
NEL SE
^^
»r J J ■)
^Jtp
RENOE TOOI ' CON-
TENT
REN OE M/E1 CO« TENTf NEC SE
£=fc
E
TENTI NEL SE -
Sf
REN DE MIEI CON-
W m "ft
3 FM
1 b-r-f; — " — ■
1 — ft J*„ m Ji- ■ *
itj«» f • 1
--VE DAPIU VEN-T1
^d "* • — J
C0M8AT-TU TA
i' w fe r * fe F !;
DA PW VEN-TI DA Pli) VEN-TI
COMBAT-TU TA E
com-bat-tutaeuu
v ^ ki — ■L
W NAVE LA MIA NA - - -
* J* j "
VE DA PIU VEN-TJ
DA PIU VEN-V DA WO KfN-r;
1 -■ — • ?
i " ■ m k.. — K-
1* ~ ' 1 i ■ S :
U, ■ * i 1
587
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
m
SS
gg
^
^
t5
FFyf^r
Pill ll/
5
LA TUA N^
as
'F^f
1
V£. {MFIUVEN-TI
COM6AT-TU TAELA
TUA NA " V£ 0
LA TUA NA
V ^ P w
^
5c
^1^f~T
ffi
s
COM6AT-TUTA f LA MIA
bffi^e
NA - -VE DAPIUVE/V-TI
COMBAT-TO TAE
LA MIA
NA VE £
LA MIA NA
Z=MAl\fi\**r t\± M frgfrl'
to
togJgjEC'6
^v'^gp irm^
*'Pt*cicgp
VE.SDEGNO
AMOR PIETA-DE EI
mm
S'AGGI-RA MALS))4-GI-RA N£t 7U0 .SEA/
l-RA MAL
>5D£GN0AMORPI£TA
b-»» »■
ritSlV"
JB« Hfltt
VPbl
S
SDEGNO A-
eg
NOR PIETADE FD l-RA Ml SAG Gl-KAMI Sfc6-6l-RA ENrRO
£^^
3=P
l>M ■
tV;>T? I- S g E
rer pk
g^
s
SS
I- RA MAL5fl66HW N£L TUO
SEN DO-LEN
fef^f
rrrrr
SEN 00 - - LEN
9SE
^
DO-LEN -
TE £ G«A - -
E^
iOr
^
^=^
^^
KKb»« EfciiEiEii
sq^etl^^ ^rcpgppip
=g=z3»=
VE.
SDEGNO/
^ij>r-P*J.»gty
&
■Mor MALSA6fGl RAMALSA6
PrE-TA D£ ED I RA
Gl -Rfl A/f L TUO
mg£
II
pJH- B 14
^mp
VE.SDEGNO AMOR
PIE-TAOE ED
m
(-«A MISA6-GI RAMISA( -Gl-RAEN
TRO IL SEN
i
I ' 1 r j-jlj
SD6GN0- AMOR PIEW-Dk"
ED
J CCfct MM C*l
% rEclcJWPc^
V y* V V
SEN MAI. SflG-GI-RA MAL
MPE
NEL TOOSEN'
-RA _ _ ■»■»,
PK«J"E
SOEGNO A -|«0R PIE-TAOE ED l-Rfl MflL S'flG
tfwnw
m£
l-RAMALSAG- SAG <1I-RA SOEGNO AMOR
&i- RAMflL
PIETADE ED l-RA Ml SAG^I RA Ml SAG- Gl-RA EN-TRO IL SEN DO-
7JU- J> jiN 1 lj>p j |d 5
588
ME
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
Ritornelo.
I CJr I [; u"Tr
Sa
^
-V^£&
KbC
jfc^ r j»br ?
Maddalena. Ana.
i
Del Pistocchi.
H»'ft.» » I P
£=£
i=£
HI
P*£T
S
«• gj i
3E
+++=
ES
^
•-—Of
J E CHE FA-
MISE-RA
MEl
ECHEFA-RE -
Ml -SERA
ME I
SI
«
+=£
5$^m=t
RIPRESO IL
FIE - R.O
*T w 1 S
*±
*
i — r
s^E
s&
S
m
£: 1 — 53"
VOLTO PRl|-MlERO
IL MIO DE
LITTOTOR NAR VE-
DRE-I
V'np 4h^lcj > I J j If g§
ANI - MA
a
£
«HV^
S
•frerO-
=tt
CHE P1U IWV'E
E CHE FA
REI
MISERA
ME!
IL MIO DE-
LIT-TO
TORNAR VE ORE I
@H
E^
J -sip s|p ^ff
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Aria.
DelTALESSANDRO Scarlatti.
LMIO F1GLIO O-V E CHE FA. DOVE
IL MIO TESOR 1L MIO FIGLIO LA Ml A OIOI A TE-SOR OVE CHE FA? DOVE STA. CHE FA DOVE
590
ngn
tf*
h
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ORATORIO
*£
4^*1
55 SS
r »-*r
^^
fig
3E=Se
ISfflvit
eS
faj*l
s
4*
■i — «-*" — i — m-
1 1 -N 7 E
SI
4LJtmJ>)t
s
^
s
s
£tfe
fe^
^
«tn, u j
5^
IL MIO TE-SOR. IL MIO TESOR
591
Chapter III
Of the Opera Buffa, or Comic-opera,
and Intermezzi, or Musical Interludes
during the Seventeenth Century
IT was the opinion of Muratori (e), that a musical drama or
farce, called L' Anfiparnaso, written and set by the celebrated
Orazio Vecchi, and acted and printed at Venice, 1597,* was
the origin of the Opera Buffa, or comic-opera, in Italy; and
that learned antiquary seems implicitly to have founded his opinion
upon the author's own words; who, in the preface, says, that his
performance is an accoppiamento di Comedia e di Musica, non
piu stato fatto, ch' io mi sappia, da altri, e forse non imaginato :
" A union of comedy and Music, never attempted, to his know-
ledge, nor perhaps ever thought of before." The several Italian
states being under different governments, and having but little
communication with each other, may account for Orazio Vecchi's
ignorance of any attempt at a musical drama before; but Muratori,
in later times, should have known what every stranger is able to
learn from the general register of dramas of every kind in the
Drammaturgia di Lioni Allacci , that besides the Sacrifizio of Beccari,
set to Music by Alfonso Viola, at Ferrara, in 1555, there are innumer-
able musical dramas upon record of a higher date than I' Anfiparnaso
of Orazio Vecchi : as I Pazzi Amanti, rappresentata in Musica in
Venezia, 1569; La Poesia Rappresentativa, componimento pet
Musica, Ven. 1574; La Tragedia, componimento, Poesia di
Frangipani, Musica di Claudio Merula, Ven. 1574 (/); La Poesia
(e) La Perfetta Poesia, lib. iii. cap. 4.
(/) This was performed before Henry III. of France, in his way back from Poland, and is
often called the first Italian opera. The personifying tragedy, comedy, and poetry, in the
entertainments given to this prince, accounts for the confused narrations of that event : some
tell us, that Zarlino set a drama to Music on this occasion, which is very probable, as no
less than fifteen pieces, in Latin and Italian verse, were written by various authors to celebrate
the arrival, or for the entertainment, of this royal guest.**
* Amfiparnasso was produced in 1594 at Modenna, and published at Venice in 1597. It
was reprinted by Eitner in Die Oper, and also by Torchi in A.M.I, vol. 4.
** Zarlino set some Latin verses to music on this occasion, and also produced a dramatic
work, Orjeo.
592
COMIC-OPERA DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Rappresentata, componimento Musicale cantato in Venezia, V
anno 1578; II Re Salamone, rappresentatione Musicale, cantata
in Ven. 1579 (g); Pace, e Vittoria, rappresentazioni cantata in
Musica, in Ven. 1580; Pallade, componimento per Musica, in,
Venezia, 1581; and II Fiore, rappresentazione cantata in Musica,
Ven. 1582, &c. most of which were probably sung to the same
kind of Music as Vecchi's Comedia Armonica; but to none of them
can the title of opera be accurately given, as they all preceded
the invention of narrative melody, or recitative, which, in my
opinion, can only constitute an opera serious or comic.
As this musical drama seems to have escaped the notice of many
Italian writers on the theatre, and as the Music has never been
examined by the rest, it renders a discussion of the subject necessary.
And in order to give a clear idea of the kind of Music to which this
comedy, which now lies before me, was set, I shall score a
scene of it for the satisfaction of my readers (h).
The Music of this piece is printed in five separate parts, which
are all employed throughout, even in the prologue, which in
modern times, is usually a monologue. So that each scene is
nothing more than a five-part madrigal in action : for though the
whole is in measure, and in five parts, yet all the characters never
appear on the stage together, except in the finale or last scene.
There are excellent wooden cuts at the beginning of every scene,
by which the number of persons employed in it, and their principal
business appear.
Drammatis Personce
Prologue. Lucius, a young man in love with Isabella
Pantaloon, an old man. Captain Thistle, a Spaniard.
Little Peter, his servant. A Burgamask Buffoon.
Hortensia, a courtezan. Isabella, beloved by Lucius.
Lelius, a young lover. Frulla, servant to Lucius.
Nisa, beloved by Lelius. Pickle, servant to Pantaloon.
Doctor Graziano. Jews.
In the cut preceding the prologue, and several scenes of the
piece, as only one figure is represented, though the Music is in five
parts, the other four must have been sung behind the scenes.
And as there is nothing like a solo air, or recitative, in the whole
performance, it appears that the drama had not yet got out of the
trammels of fugue, imitation, and perpetual chorus; and that so
much of the church style was still preserved as to render modulation
equivocal, and the keys difficult to determine by any rules in
present use. The time, too, is as unmarked and doubtful as the
modulation; and what little melody there is, by being divided
(s) This drama may be well called an oratorio.
m~~ ••■•
(h) It is neither mentioned by Crescimbeni, nor in the Drammaturgia; and though
Walther gives a list of twelve works which Orazio Vecchi printed between the year 1580 and
1613 the Anfiparnaso is not included. Nor is it enumerated^ among this author's works by
his scholar, our countryman, Peacham. Vecchi ranked very high among the composers of his
time; and, according to Santarelli, was the first who used the B quadro or p, not merely
to express the sound B natural in the diatonic scale, to which it had till then been wholly
confined; bat as a moveable character, applicable to any other sound that had been altered
by a flat or a sharp, which it has the power of restoring to its original pitch in the scale.
Vol. ii. 38. 593
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
among so many parts in dissimilar motion loses its effect, and must
have rendered the words unintelligible even to the natives of Italy.
As there is no overture to this or any of the first musical dramas,
we may suppose that the prologue supplied its place. Indeed, no
part for an instrument of any kind is printed throughout the piece;
consequently, as there was no orchestra, there could be no
symphonies or ritornels to the songs, or rather choruses, of each
scene.
Every movement throughout this drama begins in common time,
and very seldom changes into triple measure. There are no bars
or flats and sharps at the clef. But though it is very seldom that
any other sign than that for common time appears: as Q,, or (£,
yet I am convinced that the measures must frequently have been
changed, by agreement, in the performance, to make melody of
some passages practicable; which, though extremely difficult and
unmeaning in common time, become easy, pleasing, and
expressive in triple. And it is not perhaps so much from the
change of style and general cast of the melody, that we have lost
the expression of old Music, as from our ignorance of the time,
not only of the movements, but of the notes themselves, to which
great latitude must frequently have been given in the performance;
though the composers had not discovered the art of expressing this
latitude by the different characters or technical terms, which have
since become general. The fragment of a scene, inserted on the
following plates, though in five parts, is taken from a soliloquy.
If the author had strictly composed in plain counterpoint, the
effect might have been pleasing, though ridiculous. When a single
key of an organ is pressed down, as many sounds are produced as
there are stops out; so that when the diapason, principal, twelfth,
fifteenth, and tierce are out, we have, for each note that is struck,
unison, octave, fifth of the octave, double octave, and its sharp
third. Fontenelle.. in his History of the French Theatre, giving
an account of the mystery, or Comedy of the Passion, written by
the bishop of Angers about the middle of the fifteenth century,
tells us, that " this piece was a kind of opera; for after the baptism
of our Saviour, God the father speaks, and it is recommended that
his speech should be pronounced very audible and distinctly and
at once with three voices, treble, counter-tenor, and base, all well
in tune, and in this harmony the whole scene which follows should
be sung." Orazio Vecchi supposing himself the inventor of
this harmonious speech, did not know what high authority there
was for the practice: however, not content with a triple union,
for one of his characters, his interlocutors had all polyphonic
voices; which, by his quintuple alliance, rendered the voice of each
individual performer a full organ.
Vecchi lived in an age when an opportunity for fugue and
imitation was irresistible. In scenes of dialogue such contrivances
might have been turned to account; but there is little diversity of
style or movement from the beginning to the end of the piece. The
594
COMIC-OPERA DURING THE XVII CENTURY
language is in general Modenese and not intelligible even to many
Italians.
By comparing these specimens with those given of the narrative
or recitative style, for a single voice, from Emilio del Cavaliere,
Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini, and Claudio Monteverde, the
legislators of dramatic Music, it appears that Muratori has been
guilty of two mistakes in his account of Orazio Vecchi's musical
comedy : first, in supposing it to have been the earliest of the kind
that was wholly sung from the beginning to the end, without any
mixture of declamation, as instances have been produced of eight
anterior pieces of the same kind; secondly, in imagining that
Rinuccini took this drama for a model, as the dramas which Emilio
del Cavaliere set for Florence so early as the year 1597 offered him an
example of a species of Music much more dramatic than the madrigal
style of Vecchi, which was precisely that which Rinuccini and his
learned Florentine friend wished to avoid.*
Extract from the Anfiparnaso of Horazio Vecchi. 1597.
lido. Scena Ima. Lucio Solo.
Atto
II - r r
O £
^^
1-1-t-
MI-SE
ROCHE FA-
RO LU - CIO IN -
CE
S'OGNOMIO
61 d
=Eg=
^
&E
«
- "a
Ml -SE ROCHE FA-
RO LU-
CIO IN - FE- LI
- CE
S'OG-
o o
m
?*&
m »« Q~
MI-SE
fe^
ROCHE FA RO LU-CIOIN FE-LI -
- CE
S'OGNOMIO BEN
g'Q o o
=3gj=
MI-SE-RO CHE
FA
RO
/M-FE-LI
CE
^
^nte
3=
MI-SEROCHE FA-RO LU-CIOIN-FE
3=CC
LI
CE
S'OGNOMIO
?:??
BEN M'E
TOL -TO
AH
FINTOA-MOR'E
STOL-TO
AH CRU
DEL I- 5A-
#cio i
^
M
3*
• * 9
■IrUdld
fflrt
NOMI06EN M
ETOL-
TO AH
FINTO AMOR'E
STOL- TO
AHCRUDEL
AH CRU-
- -?
*m^
TOL -TO
AH
F1NT0 AMOR'E
STOL - TO
AH
CRU DEL
ai-ffQ
5^
^Efe
^k
S'OGNOMIO BEN fl'E TOL-
TO
AH CRU DEL
5jEjg^l
CT^£
B£N fit TOT- - T»
AH FlNTOhMRE, STOL-TO AH CRU-OEfc,
SA-
* Pany, in the Oxf. H. M., vol. Ill, i>. zj, suggests that Vecchi was possibly indulging
in a joke at the expense of the devotees of the New Music.
595
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
3fe*
wp ■
ggS
SE
i^s
BEL
LA
CHEPERIW
ELLO
PER NOVELl'AMOF
^S
si
£p-*lH
ISgSj
s§
^
••
s
DEL I - SA
BELLA CHE PERfiOVELLOAMOR
^¥?
^M^-^
• t1*^ >J
Sg?
^e
jp »yp
pt
f+3
CHEPERNO/ELLOAMORE
.oO-
NCjI/EUO AMOR Ml
0-3 — S —
u
^=£Hti
o3£
8ELLA
4r npt*>tfp^
CHE PER N0VRI) AMOR
E^
tg— -
feS
t±±
p — v-t
a
r-r-rt
BEL
LA CHE PER NOVELL'AMOR _,
S
SEI RUBEL
alpestremon
TE
J SFI Rll - RFI
^F=g
ae^z
■v-e-
3
s=
fe
ALPE5TRE
^
TE IVHD
O O
3=P=
3^5
=P=P
^
RUBELLA.
NELPWALPESmC MONTE
NfL&C
S
-PIP
£EE£
SEI RU-6EL
I
AAANEL&c
VAD 'I VAD' HOPt.
a*
>■ J p f g
^
RU-BEL - LA.
MA NEL Pll) ALPESTRE MONT' |" 1//*o
^?° ?\h> --
*»p
VAD HOR MORA
DC
N-NACRUDEL
!
1&±&A
fro d%«i
^J^igg
P"cfro~
o - ■
^
o o
HO- RA
PERCHENELULTIM
HORA 5IA
SATIOlLTUODE
510 DCN-NACRU
DEL COL
PRECI-PI-TIO
£5
E^
S^
3S3C:
^£
£M
OT
HE
-or-g-
PER
-CHE NELULTIM
HORA SIA
&c
DONNA CRU
3=*
Jgfc
DEL
S
o o°t-»
IS
g io
^3
f=fct
HORAPERCHE &C.
DON
NA
CRU - DEL
^m
L^
^Jdji,,,ip lrr|3fg3
*ff
HO-RA PERCHE^&C SIA SATIQIL-TUO
COL PREQ-PI-TIO MVSO
DON-NA CRU -DEL
596
COMIC-OPERA DURING THE XVII CENTURY
When and where the first opera buff a was performed, in stilo
recitativo, I have not been able to ascertain. There was a mixture
of comic characters in almost all the musical dramas of the last
century; however, in 1641, soon after the introduction of serious
operas upon the Venetian stage, we find the comic-opera of La
Finta pazza, written by Claudio Strozzi, and set by Sacrati, and
La Ninfa avara, written and set to Music by Benedetto Ferrari, in
the list of the musical dramas of that year. And among those
performed at Rome and Bologna, about the same time, though the
Music is not easy to find, the words have been preserved in many
collections of poems. The famous opera of Orontea, first set by
Cesti 1649, as mentioned elsewhere, was a tragi-comedy; as was
the opera of Erismena set by Cavalli in 1655, of which also an
ample account with specimens of the Music have been given. But
at this time, air, which was scarcely separated from recitative,
had not two distinct characters, as at present, for serious and comic
purposes; for the subjects of comic-operas, .during the last century,
were seldom so farcical as those of modern burlettas, and therefore
were less likely to suggest such gay, grotesque, and frolicksome
measures (i). Indeed, we learn but little of the burletta Music of
Italy till the comic-operas of Latilla, Ciampi, and Galuppi, were
performed on our stage, of which we shall have occasion to speak
hereafter.
Intermedii or Intermezzi
The ancient Romans frequently had satires performed between
the acts of their regular comedies; and these were afterwards
exhibited as farces, at the end of pious pieces (k).
The mimes at first supplied the place of choruses in Roman
dramas; and to these succeeded singing, according to Diomede (I).
Of what this singing consisted, is not known, as none of the songs
are come down to us; but it is natural to imagine it to have been
a species of cantata, resembling perhaps the ancient scolia of the
Greeks, written upon some moral subject.
The modern Romans or Italians can deduce all their dramatic
customs and characters in a regular series from their ancestors,
except Music in counterpoint. And in their most early attempts at
theatrical exhibitions in the vulgar tongue, they had intermezzi
between the divisions of each piece. In many of the most ancient
mysteries that were declaimed without Music, hymns or psalms
(«) Tragi-comedies in Music had a very early admission on the stage at Bologna, during
the last century as Andromeda Tragicomedia, set by Girolamo piacobbi, Maestro di Capella of
S. Petronio, and founder of the academy de' Filomusi in that city, was performed in 1610, and
Amore vuol gioventu, Scherzo drammatico, at Viterbo, 1659; Musica di Giambatisla Mariani,
1659. But the only real burlettas, which I have met with, are Girello, Dramma burlesca, set
by Pistocchi, 1672 [1669], which was represented at Venice by little figures of wax
[1682]; J dui Diogeni, Dramma burlesca per Musica and Agrippina in Baja, Scherzo
Drammatico per Musica, were both performed at Ferrara, 1687.
(k) See Quadrio, Tom. V. p. 43.
(J) Lib. iii.
597
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
were sung between the acts, and printed with these pieces. And
in their first regular comedies, they had singing and instrumental
Music between the acts. Crescimbeni (m) says, that in a farce
written by Damiano, and printed 1519, there were verses in ottava
rima prefixed to every act, which were sung to the sound of the
lyre or guitar, by a personage called Orpheus, who had no other
employment. At other times a madrigal was sung between the
acts, under the title of chorus, in imitation of the ancient comic
writers, who introduced singing and Music between the acts in the
time of Horace instead of the choruses, which the Greeks had to
their comedies as well as tragedies. Each act of the old Italian
comedies had an argument or prologue, and sometimes both. In
the old mysteries this argument or prologue was always spoken or
sung by an Angel: I'Angelo nunzio.
Short pieces, called Intermezzi in Musica, preceded operas in
air and recitative, near fifty years (n). Quadrio, however, says that
they were at first only madrigals and canzonets (o). And adds,
that in later times, recourse was had to intermedij or madriale
between the acts of a play or opera, chiefly when the principal piece
was feeble, or the performers not of the first class.
In a book entitled Descrizione degV Intermedii, for the arrival
of the arch-duke of Austria, in Florence, 1569, " composed by
the most learned and ingenious Alessandro Striggio, nobilissimo
gentiluomo," as he is called in the preface, these intermezzi are
mere madrigals (p).
Intermezzi were written for the Aminta of Tasso [1573], and
printed with several editions of that celebrated pastoral; as were
those written by Guarini himself for his Pastor fido- And these,
as well as the Intermezzi of the Filli di Sciro of Bonatelli, printed
1619 [composed c. 1581-90], were nothing but simple madrigals.
The public, however, being soon tired of these eventless and
inactive choruses, more animated scenes of humour and character
were instituted in their stead.
But they do not seem always to have been confined to subjects
of low humour and buffoonery : in 1623, V Amoroso Innocenza, a
tragi-comic pastoral was acted at Bologna, con gV Intermezzi delta
Coronazione di Apollo, per Dafne convertita in Lauro [16251,
written by the author of the piece. The Music of the intermezzi
was composed by Ottaviano Vernizzi, organist of the church of
S. Petronio, in the same city.
However, buffoon intermezzi in Music were in high favour
during the early part of the present century. What they were at
(w) Content. Vol. I. p. 197.
(«) Risorgimento d'ltalia, Tom. II. p. 277. But Quadrio, Tom. III. p. 83, mentions
Intermedij by Giambatista Strozzi, in a comedy called II Comodo, by Landi, printed at
Florence, 1539.
(0) Tom. V. p. 503.
(■p) Alessandro Striggio's compositions were in great favour in England during the reign
of Queen Elizabeth; and his works are often cited by Morley in his Introduction.
598
COMIC-OPERA DURING THE XVII CENTURY
Venice about the year 1721 is very well described by Mr. Wright,
a good judge of Music (q) .
" The intermezzi, or intermediate performances, which they
have in some of their smaller theatres between the acts, are very
comical in their way, which is somewhat low, not much unlike the
farces we see sometimes on our stage. They laugh, scold, imitate
other sounds, as the cracking of a whip, the rumbling of a chariot
wheels, and all to Music. These intermezzi are in recitativo and
song, like the operas. But such entertainments, between the acts
of an opera, similar in the manner but different in subject, seem to
interrupt the unity of the piece itself. And if they will have such
mirth excited, it should seem better at the end of the performance,
as the petite piece in France, and the farces, with us, after a serious
drama."
A collection of these scenes, or little dramas, was published at
Amsterdam, in two volumes, 1723, at which time few operas would
go down without this coarse sauce. Indeed, their favour continued
increasing in Italy, for more than ten years after this period, as
I find Pertici and Jozzi employed at Rome in the year 1732, to
sing in the intermezzi of the operas of Berenice and Cajo Fabrizio,
set by Sarro and Hasse; and about the year 1734 [1733], was first
performed at Naples, the celebrated intermezzo of La Serva
Padrona, set by Pergolesi, which, sixteen years after, made so many
converts to Italian Music in France, and gave birth to Rousseau's
excellent Lettre sur la Musique Francoise, and to disputes which
are not yet ended. But this charming Music, which all the rest
of Europe so much admired, was so little noticed in Italy during
its first performance, that the name of the Serva Padrona, as an
intermezzi set by the celebrated Pergolesi, is not to be found in the
last edition of the Drammaturgia accresciuta e continuata fino al V
anno, 1755 !*
It seems, however, as if Pergolesi's success in this little musical
farce had been the despair of all his brethren; for we hear of no
more intermezzi after the year 1734, about which time they seem
to have been superseded in favour of dancing, and indeed of good
taste, to which these farces, however comic the words, and
ingeniously set, acted, and sung, must have been always offensive.
Rousseau has well observed, that when the action of a drama is
interrupted, either by an intermezzo, a dance, or any other amuse-
ment foreign to the principal subject of the piece, every art
(?) Travels into Italy, Vol. I. printed 1730.
* It is often overlooked that La serva padrona, the work by which Pergolesi is best
remembered, is an intermezzo, and was first performed as one at Naples in 1733. The first
Paris performance was at the Hotel Bourgogne in 1746, but with only a partial success. It
was revived in 1752, being played between the acts of Lully's Acts et Galatea. The immediate
result was a quarrel between the Lullistes and the Boajjonistes, which was waged with almost
the bitterness displayed in the more famous quarrel between the rival supporters of Gluck
and Piccinni.
La serva padrona was produced in England and is still performed, but not as an intermezzo.
It has been reprinted many times. The first English performance was in 1740 by a Neapolitan
Company.
599
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
becomes independent, and the interest of the audience entirely
annihilated. For this reason, says he, the Italians have at length
banished comic intermezzi from their opera : for however agreeable,
piquant, and natural such spectacles may be in themselves, they
are so ill placed in the middle of a tragic action, that the two pieces
mutually destroy preceding effects, as the one can only interest at
the expence of the other.
§00
Chapter IV
Of Cantatas, or narrative Chamber-Music
THE secular Music of Italy, has never been in an absolute
rude state for more than two centuries. It has been burnishing
during that period, but can hardly be said to have wanted
a file. On the contrary, ours, and that of every other part of
Europe, a hundred years ago wanted a rasp, a pruning-knife, a
pair of sheers, a mattock, and a spade. Indeed, that of Germany
before Keyser, of France before Lulli, and of England before
Purcell, wanted every thing which cultivation, imitation, and a total
change of style have since given it.
As cantatas were first suggested by the musical recitation of the
opera in which the chief events were related in recitative; in like
manner they received several progressive changes during the last
century, previous to their perfection. First, they consisted, like
opera scenes, of little more than recitative; with frequent formal
closes, at which the singer, either accompanied by himself or
another performer on a single instrument, was left at liberty to
shew his taste and talents.
The next change was in having a single air, generally in triple
time, distinct from the recitative, and repeated to different stanzas
after each narrative part of the poem, like modern ballad airs. At
this time the term Da Capo not being in use, the air was written
over again, as often as it was wanted, sometimes in exactly the
same notes, but more frequently, with little changes and
embellishments to the same base, and to different stanzas.
It has been said (r), that " Da Capo is a new invention; that it
was unknown to Colonna in 1688, and was first used by Alessandro
Scarlatti, in his Theodora, 1693; and that in 1715, there was not
an air without it in Gasparini's opera of / Tartaro alia China."
But this chronology is by no means exact, as may be proved in
the cantatas as well as operas of the last century.
In Cesti's opera of Orontea, performed at Venice 1666 [1649],
there are frequent returns to particular portions of the airs, more
indeed in the manner of a refrein or burden, than Da Capo, or
Rondo; but in the opera of Enea, performed at Genoa 1676; in
(r) TraiU du Melodrame, p. 142 note *
6oj
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
that of Aurora, set by Zanetti, and performed in the same city
1678, there is a constant Da Capo, or return to the first part of
each song. And this is a more early period than that of any opera
that I have found set by Alessandro Scarlatti. The practice seems
to have begun about the year 1660; and in 1661, I find it sometimes
used in the opera of Clearco, set by Tenaglia, and performed at
Rome. In the motets, a voce sola, di Monferrato, printed 1673,
Da Capos occur; about which time it grew frequent; and before
1680, it appears to have been in constant use.*
It has been observed, that madrigals for voices alone, and
afterwards for instruments in unison with the several vocal parts,
constituted the chief Music that was performed in the chamber, and
in private concerts, till solo songs, accompanied by a single
instrument, were brought into favour by Caccini and his imitators,
in Italy and other parts of Europe.
Giulio Caccino detto Romano tells us, in 1615, that though he
was born at Rome, he had spent thirty-seven years at Florence,
and had begun to sing solo songs in his plain but expressive
manner, in order to make the words more intelligible than they were
in the madrigals and motets of the times. He does not seem to
claim the invention of recitative, though it is given to him by the
poet Grillo, who, in a letter of thanks to him for the admirable
manner in which he had set some of his poems, particularly /
Pietosi affetti, which had been sung before the pope, and some
other madrigals of his writing, says, " we are indebted to you for
the invention of a new species of Music; for singing without air, or
rather for a melodious kind of speech, called recitative, which is
noble and elevated, neither mangling, torturing, nor destroying
the life and sense of the words, but rather enforcing their energy
and spirit. This most beautiful manner of singing is your own,
and perhaps a lucky recovery of the ancient and long lost method
of singing used by the Greeks and Romans; an idea in which I
am the more confirmed, by hearing the beautiful pastoral of
Rinuccini sung to your Music; which all those who complain of
the absurdity of always singing in chorus, even in dramatic poetry
and representation, agree to admire. In short, this new Music is
now universally adopted by all persons of good ears and taste;
from the courts of Italian princes it has passed to those of Spain,
France, and other parts of Europe, as I am assured from
undoubted authority (s)."
In the second volume of Doni's works is inserted (t) a discourse,
sent by Giovanni de' Bardi, to Giulio Caccini, upon the Music of
the ancients, and the art of singing. It discovers the author's great
reading, but conveys little other information. Indeed, the parade
of having studied the Music of the ancients is always more likely to
gratify the vanity of a superficial Dilettante, than augment the
(s) This letter is dated 1600. {t) Page 233.
* Perhaps the earliest use of the Da Capo was in an opera by Cavalli entitled Giasone
and dated 1655.
602
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
useful science of an able professor. Caccini, I think, must have
been a young student indeed, to be dazzled by such learning; when,
in order to recommend simplicity to him, Bardi says, that in the
many hundred songs composed by the great musician Olimpus, he
never touched more than four strings of his lyre («).
The reader may perhaps be curious to know what kind of
Music it was that Caccini, the best singer of the last century,
produced; particularly, as he is said by Doni, Bardi, and all the
Florentine writers and musical reformers, to have been the chief
inventor of that grace and refinement in composing and singing
monodie, monologues, or single songs, which had been adopted by
persons of taste all over Italy. And being in possession not only
of his opera of Euridice, printed in score at Venice 1615, but of
his Nuove Musiche, or new Compositions for the Voice, published
likewise in that city the same year,* I shall give specimens from
this last work, upon which a judgment may be formed of the
justice with which these praises were bestowed; and a comparison
made between his Music and that of his predecessors and
cotemporaries, as well as modern productions.
Two things seem likely to happen in the perusal of this Music :
those who are acquainted with the operas of Lulli, will find a great
similarity between his style and that of Caccini; and contrapuntists
will soon discover, that however his melody was admired at the
time, the composition is neither correct, nor ingenious (x). We
must therefore ascribe some of its success to simplicity, poetry, and
expression; and the rest to that spirit of party against madrigalists,
and the authors and admirers of other kinds of full and learned
Music, which at this time ran high in Italy.
Extracts from Le nuove Musiche of Caccini.
F<* - __ f f
1615.
fr»— e-
S3
^&
d P?»£±Az
E^B-eH — E
S
±±
OEH,
DE
H DOVE SON FU-GI-TI
BI
DEH DOVE SON SPA-RlfTI GL'OC-CHI DEQUALI
ER
Rf\ - I IP SON
- , i g '± J^
\ He
©
^3
^
it
S
* W
S
t*.
^m
^«Uh^-rjySE
t^
-r-r
^-l
CENER O
I AU-RE
m
AUREDI-VI-NECH'ERRATE ,.„„ r
PE-RE-GRINE IN
QUESTA^RTEINQUEL
LAD£H-R£
t±
£
<4 |P j'P n
*
(«) The late Jean Jacques Rousseau did me the honour to send me an air of his own
composition, Sur trois notes. But this was an experiment, and sent as a curiosity; not that the
author, fond as he was of the Spartan customs, wished, in imitation of their treatment of
Timotheus, to cut the supernumerary strings of every lyre, to his own standard in this trichord
song.
(*) Pietro Delia Valle, the most candid and best judge of Music of all the writers on
the subject at this time, after speaking of the share which Caccini had in the invention of
recitative, and improvement of dramatic Music, says, "but for his own more early
composition, con buona pace di lui, non ci trovo tanto buono." Op. di Doni II. 251.
* The 1st edition of Euridice was published in 1600, and the 2nd in 1615.
of the Nuove Musiche was issued at Venice in 1602.
The 1st edition
§03
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
7if j_ r
Madrigale, a voce sola.
tfnt
_,
m
d r*1* J i ■•* •• * t~ r t*a
J -OR o-v'e D'A
m - h ,
-i-h= = =
noRDOGN.^^ .
J* Sd
Irgfd- p- t --• 1
*i*f f
=**
gtt
rpp*-i>»jj.5pJ3^B
S
pvjjjJ
-Q-»
I " g
CA DEH
DEHVIENIAKAJCOI-CI-REL'A-MA- -ROMIO
DOLO
REECCOCHIOTA-
si
s
r«J I Jr
o o
^
=tS
-+• — t-s
i
1 o
7*.
m
T/?
S
-©f-
5 g i-J^
*»> * •'"it-O-
^cfc
o o
- Kk EC -COChV > T A-PRO ILOD - -RE. MA
PR' IL CD
MA FEUf ACHI Rl VKQ 1 MIO MART I-
lg .U
=£=t
Ti o
S£
fe£
-j — r
JL
^3
aa
i iJujj'i
ird j
Jr-Trrf
« * i
ai i J
i
ggWWWMM^g,^ ^Jf
A0ROA-MAN-TECHE FOR-SE
VOLAINSEN
AOAL-
S
^S
^^
?E=0*
^
3d
a TB
iiNrJ^r
m O I
£g
;s£
TRDAMANTECHEKA-SE
VOIAWSENAOACTRO AW (TECHEroRSEVOWINSEN AO
ALTROAMAN
s
5
3Se
^
jf*? ? j
t±=E
604
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
rrr-g J |
sim 6
♦ PTgf p
m ? ?
ARIA
Dl -TE-LO VO-I
SEW ME VI CA-LE
CHE ILMIOGRAM-MA-LE WENDAGUXCW SUOH
m^
M
^^
^S
■^ ' i
S^
^^J-l-HJ."'1'
^
• i SjB
5E
a O
Ol-TE-IDCHE Rl-Mi-Rj
Dl 7EL0CHE RI-MIRI MENTRE . _
CH'IC MOBOfllWE-NO I W(E) -
- -MflR-TI-- R).
^
JJ^JJ-
d=t
Ptf
Though we are now inclined to wonder how pleasing effects
could be produced by such simple, unadorned, and almost
unaccompanied melodies; yet, when we consider what raptures
were long after excited in France by a similar Music in the operas
of Lulli, our wonder will cease; particularry, if we recollect that the
passages of taste and embellishment, which are now antiquated and
vulgar were then new and elegant; and that the expression of the
Music of this period in Italy is so entirely lost, that, like a dead
language, no one is certain how it was pronounced.
The first detached narration that I have found, in stilo recitativo,
is the Lamento di Didone, or complaint of Dido, in a work entitled
Le Musiche del Cavalier Sigismondo d' India, lib. v. printed in
Venice 1623, folio. This story, as well as the Lamentation of
Jason over his children, murdered by Medea, and the Complaint
of Olimpia to Bireno, from Ariosto, are all set by this composer,
who was likewise his own poet, in pure recitative, without the least
change of measure or mixture of air, except now and then a formal
close, of which recitative was not as yet divested.
Adami tells us, page 194, that Giovanni Domenico Poliaschi
Romano, admitted into the pope's chapel 1612, composed several
cantatas in a good style, and in the best taste of singing, which
were printed 1618; and page 195, that the Cavalier Loreri Vittorij
da Spoleto, soprano in the pope's chapel 1622, and one of the first
evirati employed in musical dramas on the stage, was a celebrated
composer of Arie, e Cant ate da Camera.
The first time, however, that I have found the term Cantata,
used for a short narrative lyric poem, was in the Musiche varie a
voce sola del Signor Benedetto Ferrari da Reggio, printed at Venice
1638;* which is twenty years more early than the period at which
the invention of cantatas is fixed by some writers, who have given
the honour to Barbara Strozzi, a Venetian lady, who, in 1653,
published vocal compositions, under the title of Cantate, Ariette,
e Duetti** Ferrari, detto delta tiorbo, for his excellent performance
* Ferrari published books of Musiche vane e voce sola in 1633, 1637. and 1641. Francesco
Manelli of Tivoli uses the word Cantate in his Musiche varie a una, due, e tre voci, cioe
Cantate, Arie, Canzonette, et Ciaccone, which was published by Gardano at Venice in 1636.
** Her Cantate, Ariette e Duetti, op. 2 were published by Gardano (Venice) in 1651 (B.M.
K.7-g-4) (2). and a similar set for 1, 2, and 3 voices was published in 1654 (B.M. K.7.g.4) (1).
605
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
on that instrument, was one of the earliest composers of operas for
Venice. Of the two first musical dramas that were performed in
that city, 1637 and 1638 [1639], Ferrari was only the poet; but
in 1639, he was author both of the words and Music of the opera
of Armida, as he was of several subsequent musical dramas.
In 1638, a line seems to have been drawn between recitative and
air, in the burlesque cantata of the Cavalier Tarquinio Merula, on
the subject of Marcus Curtius leaping into the gulf: Curtio
precipitato (y). Here we have not only long divisions at the closes
in the recitative, but frequent changes of measure, and movements
in triple time, distinctly different from recitation (z) .
The word Cantata, according to Du Cange, was used in the
church as early as the year 1314, to express what we at present
mean by anthem, with which it is still synonymous in Germany;
being chiefly confined in the Lutheran church to sacred Music.
The Romish church had many admirable sacred cantatas during
the last century, by Carissimi, Graziani, Bassani, and others. And
during the present century, Domenico Scarlatti set one at Rome
for Christmas Eve, which was performed in the Apostolic palace,
1717. Bononcini set another, 1729, for the same occasion and
place. The difference at present between sacred cantatas and motets
seems to be the recitative.
The secular cantata is a species of composition extremely well
suited to the chamber, in which fewer parts and great effects, and
less light and shade are necessary, than in ecclesiastic or .dramatic
Music; for the performance being in still life, and the poet and
musician without an orchestra or choir to assist in painting the
stronger passions, composers aimed, for a long time, at no effects
out of the power of a single voice and a single instrument to
produce.
Cantatas of considerable length, accompanied by a numerous
band are usually performed in Italy on great occasions of festivity :
as the reconciliation of princes after long disunion, or the arrival of
great personages in the capital of a state. Thus, when pope
Ganganelli and the King of Portugal were reconciled, in 1770, and
(y) This composer abounded in whimsical conceits; he has composed a four-part song to
the article hie, hcec, hoc, as it is declined in the Latin Grammar, through all its cases, singular
and plural. And, as if one such piece of pleasantry were not sufficient to amuse himself and
friends, he has likewise made a madrigal of qui, qua, quod. If this had been done in order
to ridicule the almost total indifference of contrapuntists in general, about this time, as to the
choice and expression of the words they set to Music, the satire would have been just_ and
laudable; but in his serious compositions he seems to have been possessed of no more delicacy
or intelligence in these particulars than his cotemporaries. It must, however, be owned that
there is rather more melody and motion given to the several parts of his compositions, than
theirs.
(z) These mixtures of recitative and air, were afterwards called Ariose Cantate, in a work
published at Venice 1655, by Sebastian Enno, which is called libro secondo. In this little book,
in long 8vo, of only four staves on each page, I find, for the first time, the following musical
terms to express the different degrees of quick and slow in the performance of the several
movements: Adasio, for adagio; Piu adasio; Affettuoso; Presto; Da Capo se piace; Allegro.
And in the Cantate da camera a voce sola, published at Bologna 1677, by Gio. Bat.
Mazzaferrata, not only all these technical terms occur, but Vivace, Largo, and Ardito. Though
these songs are called cantate, in the title-page, yet in the running-title they are styled
canzonette; a name that Metastasio has given to his charming lyric poems called La
Primavera, I'Estate, La Liberia, La Palinodia, and La Partenza, which have been often set as
cantatas, and so called, when recitative and different airs have been employed.
606
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
even before that period; and soon after, when the present Emperor
arrived at Venice, on his first visiting Italy, cantatas were sung at
Rome and Venice equal in length to an opera. But these differ
essentially from what is usually meant by a cantata or monologue
for a single voice, consisting of short recitatives, and two or three
airs at most; as they are occasional poems in which several singers
are employed; but though in dialogue, they are performed, like
oratorios, without change of scene, or action.
Such languid and whining recitative as that of Emilio del
Cavaliere, Jacopo Peri, and Caccini, is now only fit for the serious
French opera, where it has been continued, from the time it was
first brought to Paris by Lulli, to the death of Rameau, and by his
disciples and admirers, to the present time. At first it was not
sufficiently distinguished from air in Italy, if any thing then might
be called air; but it would perhaps be more accurate to say, that it
then admitted too much singing, too many long notes and formal
closes, for dialogue and narration. Monti verde accelerated its march
a little; but it was not till after the middle of the seventeenth
century, that recitative received its last laws and true character
from the productions of the admirable Carissimi and Stradella.
Recitative and air being separated, and brought to a general
standard in the composition of cantatas about the middle of the last
century, specimens of style need only be given when a composer of
superior genius considerably outstripped his cotemporaries, and by
some bold and vigorous effort, added to the common stock of
melody, harmony, modulation, or contrivance, something that has
been generally approved by the public, and adopted by professors.
To trace invention and improvements of this kind to their source,
seems at once the most necessary and difficult part of a musical
historian's business.
No composer of the last century was more the delight of his
cotemporaries or more respected by posterity than Giacomo
Carissimi [1604-74], Maestro di Capella of the German college at
Rome. Kirch er, in his Musurgia (a), describes his Music and its
effects in terms of high panegyric; and speaks of him as a master
then living, 1650, who had long filled the place of composer to the
Collegio Apollinare with great reputation. He began to flourish
about the year 1635, and, according to Mattheson (6), was living
in 1672. His productions are very numerous, though it does not
appear that he ever composed for the theatre.
His sacred and secular cantatas, and motets, have always had
admission in every collection of good Music. It has been often
asserted by musical writers that he was the inventor of cantatas;
but it has already been shewn, that these scene da camera, or
monodies, had a more early origin. Carissimi, however, must be
allowed not only the merit of transferring the invention from the
chamber to the church, where he first introduced cantatas on
sacred subjects, but of greatly improving recitative in general,
(a) Tom. I. p. 603. (6) Ehrenpforte, p. 135.
607
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
rendering it a more expressive, articulate, and intelligible language,
by its approximation to speech and declamation.
Many of Carissimi's works are preserved in the British Museum
(c), and in Dr. Aldrich's Collection, Christ-church, Oxford.
In a beautiful cantata on the death of Mary Queen of Scots,
beginning: Ferma, Lascia, ch'io parli (d), he seems to have been
the first who gave the true form to the cadence of recitation,
at this passage: —
g^rfra
mono iN-i^o-CEKire.
PiU
He has, however, in the same cantata several formal closes,
which belong only to air and melody, such as : —
&
s
»jwj'i
s
-_ -re* six\- reft* a Bio l'avkl-
aa
-«?
The following passage, which connects with the preceding, is
however, very beautiful and pathetic (d) :
toQi
f^m
«fb»-
¥+Z
id)
j?na^
*
PE-SA VI - Ll-
PE-5AJM-N0-CEN-ZA
- b* ■
*P=
EQJS
as is the last close of this recitative:
=S5=
Eg \ ti.j>i^
El
33E5E
Q"1 JUjL
§
#
3=fc
A'DIOB!U-6EL-
ffl
■LE Dl MIATRA
I J
-GE-DIA, ESPET-TA-rRlCE,
"SCE-
^^
E£
-NA.
s
tt
Ml
^
(c) No. 1265, 1272, and 1501.
(d) British Museum, No. 1265.
(e) Carissimi never writes a sharp at the clef, nor a flat, unless on B; though he frequently
composes in keys that require three or four.
608
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
The airs of this cantata are simple and pathetic, of which the
following fragment is a specimen.
Air by Carissimi, in his Cantata on the Death of Mary Queen of
Scots.
§jj
s
,.b-
m
a
»
WW
$££^2
i
B?
I
PS
A MO -W-RE,AMORl-RE^MC- Rl
-RE
rHrCr
±9-
PERSER
y'b*t{6
m
3&
M vv
m
\J^4^^&WW
G1USTIZIA, £
f"EDEPH)NON VA
-GLlONLECO-
Si
^^
ROV^E.
che se
?EE$*
^
s
*— I
s
b»| »» «$»
Vp~
la
rT^r
^=yt
BE-NE
IO RES-TO
Pf^I
ESANGUE LACQS -TAN2AALM\0
DUOLMESCEELI
51 -
RE
m
^^
*4f^
^S
5S5
EEj
^S
•-ai-V-®-
3E
£
^
CHEESE
s
£
B£-NE
/O RESTO £• SANGUE LA CDS
TANZA AL MIO OUOL NESCE ELI
51 -
RE.AMO
EB J
3!
s
s
fc±
p
•f g w h
I i U a
y++±n
&Ej
J Ri-RE,A MO
^^
Rl-RE,AMO Rl
RE
iS
-*©-
&C.
There is something interesting in the most trivial compositions
of this admirable master, and in his works may certainly be traced
more traits of fine melody than in those of any composer of the
seventeenth century. Of twenty-two of his cantatas preserved in
the Christ-church Collection, Oxon. there is not one which does
not offer something that is still new, curious, and pleasing; but
most particularly in the recitatives, many of which seem the most
expressive, affecting, and perfect, that I have seen. In the airs
there are frequently sweet and graceful passages, which more than
a hundred years have not impaired. It is, however, in the divisions
of this, and of all old Music, that the time when it was composed,
and the changes of taste, are chiefly .discoverable. These are the
fashionable forms and trimmings, which soon give way to others;
but the principal ground-work, or materials, if good at one time,
would not lose their value at another.
A commentary on these cantatas would occupy too much space
in this work; and-, unless I could exhibit them, entire, to the
musical reader's view, would convey but little information;
Vol,, ii. 39.
609
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
however, some fragments are so beautiful and fresh, that I cannot
help allotting them a place, on the following plates, as authentic
memorials of musical expression and refinements with which the
genius and intelligence of Carissimi had enriched the art, about
the middle of the last century.
The fragments N° I. II. and III. are from pathetic movements
in his cantatas, preserved in the Brit. Mus. and which seem as if
they could never be old or common. N° III. according to
Pacchierotti, still constitutes a part of the musical language of the
Sicilians.
IV. Pathetic expression, and curious modulation, from the
Oxford manuscript.
V. and VI. Fragments of Siciliana.
VII. Is Plaintive and can never be vulgar.
VIII. Puts us in mind of Purcell; and IX. of more modern
composers.
X. Elegant imitations.
XI. The whole movement, whence this is taken, furnishes
melody, harmony, and modulation, to the beauties of which the
greatest masters of modern times have added but little.
XII. Is a graceful and pleasing air, the motivo of which has
been often used in the present century. The divisions in this and
in several of Carissimi's chearful movements were not disdained,
long after, by CoreHi and Handel.
XIII. This single air, without recitative, seems the archetype
of almost all the arie di cantabile, the adagios, and pathetic songs,
as well as instrumental slow movements, that have been since
made.
XIV. Is a musical phrase that still retains its bloom.
The XIX. of his cantatas, in the Ch. Ch. Col. is truly a
curiosity, throughout, for the recitative, modulation and comic cast
of some traits in the melody. This seems the finest model for a
base song, that I have ever seen. It was certainly composed for
a voice of that kind, of uncommon compass and flexibility (/); all
the closes are particularly of that character, and in a grand and
majestic style; it begins Old, pensieri.
The last of these twenty-two cantatas contains many refinements
and subtilties of composition, that are thought new and recherches
at present, when used by the first professors in Europe.
XV. Is taken from a .dialogue, or duet, between Democritus
and Heraclitus, in which Carissimi has given a curious example
of the contrast and effects of our two genera of major and minor
keys; for nearly the same melody, which is chearful in a major
key, when repeated in the minor, has all the pathetic of a different
style, time, and arrangement of notes.
(/) The compass of two octaves, from the highest D in the base to the lowest, is the same
as that of Purcell's famous anthem, "Out of the deep."
610
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Besides his numerous cantatas, duets, trios, and four-part songs,
Carissimi' s compositions for the Church, where he first introduced
instrumental accompaniments, discover more genius, elegance, and
design than those of any preceding or cotemporary composer.
Stradella's untimely death, perhaps only prevented him from
writing as much, and as well, as Carissimi.
Kircher (g), the cotemporary of Carissimi, after a just eulogium
on his compositions in general, and telling us that he had the
power of exciting in his hearers whatever affection he pleased,
speaks of his oratorio of Jephtha, and the new and admirable
effects produced in it by his knowledge of harmony, modulation,
and happy expression of the passions. The chorus in his sacred
drama: Plorate filice Israel, which follows the lamento della figlia
di Jepte, is as remarkable for the accuracy of fugue and imitation,
as for its plaintive expression.*
Beauties of Melody & Modulation in the Cantatas of Carissimi.
Mus. Collect. No. 1272. No. 17. Fragment I.
&-&S-
yftifeyfr lP
^3
«
ss?
S
fcrk
a&
3±=F
AL MENOUNPENS1ERO
CUE
LAM -
FT&F
W^F
EZjgEJ'Trffi
ta-PPffT^aE
fe:
*d
Q ff»
^^
E?^
t=±t±i
±z±t
^^3
DONI SI
DON I SI
DONI A CHI
ss
R\ SI
DONI SI
(fe'bJ.UJUZE^^
IB. No.q.
(g) Musurgia, Tom. I. p. 604. " " ~ ■' ~" " """"
* The oratorio Jephtha has been published by Chrysander. Much of the work _ of
Carissimi was destroyed or sold for waste paper when the Jesuits were suppressed. Carissimi
was probably the last composer to write a Mass on the tune L'homme armi, which served so
many famous composers as a basis for similar works. The MS. of this composition is in the
Lateran.
6ll
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
CH.Q). COLLECT. CANTATA 3.
±fc
- RE G I *
5^
s
61-
S
LE,
a-drrri
JO DISSE
^
U
^
w» a^
=i=±
SEMPRECHELA MAR
^S
I I,, I | I
w* ^EftLJE;
^ji.J.J'rA
MOR
^
tt:
^S
?^
-O--
-TE.
IB. fl CANTATA I
W PPP
jj-n ^ IN SONNCJ PLACIDO
f^-t-
sH2
LELUCI
E^
3^^E
LANGUIDE
Hr-*-
fe
GIA
a
s
^^^^
£
L'ADDORnENTA
s*
NO
-e«
IB. flCANTATAlH « ... ,
rr J .? a.-. .•>, „tL.„,- n1,R,>, ..„»«*
s
fZ^
rs=*
E BELLOLARDIRE DbN'ANIMA
^r—j-t
fy:;i'ril£*±i-Vl
J FORTE CH'lN CONTRA LAMORTE PER NO
g?7M r r^
S*
•— ^
BIL DE-SI - RE.
±=P
g£
l£
18- CANTATA X2I.
fJa fr tlJ» » nr
^fTTf
s^^^s
3:
rW
9?
DAblE LA BELTA MOSh-RANDO PIE-TA BELJTTMfOPERME 5ENAd-DO
m
fa 1 7ftllrf'rtfn^
i — f-" — 8>f*y * wf** t —
i y y y p — 0 ■+ — y |
*r * & It "*
J ME LARORTU NAQOANTO
SASARMlA DAN - - -
NIDI MIA F£ ^ GEG
Tjo - -sa
a • T | g
1 i f | e f * T|
M-o— ©
L ' —
hgL" L^LJ-J=]
L-U-^ » w
6l2
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
tH-y^H*
^^
m
J TAIMTI LAM
NULLA IMPB-TRO
L'AB -
DO E"
d> Up g
i^fff-
^^SE
tc
E
-c- rr
be gg:
»-©-
*p=
*F^fc
33SZ
MUTO CU
PI -DO
LANGDITEESCJ-
TE CHIE DETE PIE
TE
pwp tofcfflgin1 |r?
se
s
IB.I4-.
•j, »-» » O-;
^Tfpt ^ ^
r» a b —b g-o-»-r— r« _ p ■ r * n
3E
P^rm
SI DlABANDOAUASPERflN-ZAAIlASPERflflZA
a go;
SiDIABANDOALLASPE
ffTMI
^
2
^
s§e
m
»m ? ff"f W-
L^^-U^
^^^^
41
ft 1» ■»
T I I, t,
NO~i
£3F
RAN-ZAALLASPE-R/W
-ZAEDELSENOE DAL
CbRE CH'IN A-MO-RENOY VALPIU FE-DE NO NON
jggg rjrr Uu"uLr*rrH^
a*'
^
^S:
»»•■»
vVyT
m^w
Y\V* I ^
VALP1UFE-DE NO NCN|vALCOSTAN-ZA NONVfl
COS-
-TAN
613
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Sa'rr's is ag i'\"v^^-i Fi ytrrr^
gg
§^
OVlN A-MO-Rf. NO) IVAL PIU F£ D£ NO NON
VALP/DFE DE NO NON
IS
p-n
^* tLJS
^
&*
«
S JW1 °" . lT*?TKr*rTT77\rTrl!h1i J ' 1 • *
tr™wsg
-ft-fr
VALCOSTAN _ .
N0JJWL<X)6
£5
TAN
m
;£+— » — e-
ZA SI DU
g J r j
^
s
S^Bg
B 5 r g ^
*ee±
^i
a
BANDOALLASPERAN-ZA AL
LA SPERAN -2A S| D/A
BA/VDOALIASPE-RAN
ZA.
g r r J
g^f
^f=p?=p=4
an
$
e£i
1B-2Q.
P^-f-ff
jLy^i
si
- I „ _, | y » a. a hi. a , , a-
^m
££§-
SINPEHAVR0
&P1KT0E VITA O
(Mh
SELLA O BELLA BELLA 10 TA ME RO - - ~ - -IO JTA ' f^ERo
BELLA
rrr/r-tg^
■Sri
**3Eff^
I
NT f > V V
TCT ^ J
MKl
"33*
RO'O SEL-
gfe
rJH
SINCHEHAVRd
SPlRTO
VITA O BELLA
IOTAME
**rrrffl'" rr
4=?
J j j.
^
-t*
r^fc*
e
i*©i
gs
••— K — I *"
i H J? j
m
• m * -3S
^T=+
rr *
r AMERO1.
LA O BEL-
LA BELLOIC
Pi j JJUT r ' I'J Hrr.jLl.' JiJJ-4?
3=1=3
gg ? j
w
=F=+
K
SE
PIAN
-GE
RE
Ss
t« *^
mr~trrr
©
=t=t
i uJ ' J
Duet. From Kircher's Musurgia.
DEMOCRITUS
HfRACUTUS
E PUR W
t^
££
f*y»a- ~t
ss
DE RE
x£
3
I „
E'PURftliPIAN
»y Bft
±4
S3
te
614
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
According to Mattheson (h), the famous German composer,
Kerl the younger, was sent by the Emperor from Vienna to Rome,
in 1649, to receive lessons from Carissimi; who is said to have
acquired a considerable fortune by the exercise of his profession,
and to have lived to the age of ninety (i).
He appears to have been the favourite composer and model of
Dr. Aldrich, who was possessed of a complete collection of his
works, which he scored with his own hand, and seems to have
studied with great attention. And Purcell manifestly formed his
style on the productions of Carissimi and Stradella, particularly
in his recitative and secular songs.
Fra Marc' Antonio Cesti has already been honourably
mentioned as an opera composer; but he is entitled to more
distinction as an early improver of recitative and vocal melody in
cantatas. There is a great collection of the cantatas and motets
of Cesti in Christchurch, Oxford, by which it appears that recitative
was much polished by this composer, who furnished it with many
new idioms and forms of musical speech which are not to be found
in the musica narrativa of his predecessors. Instead of several
formal closes, which are so common in the recitation of the first
operas, we frequently find in the cantatas of Cesti the true cadence
of musical speech distinct from air; as in the following passage
of the Christchurch manuscript, page 6.
ffi3
c.7 iihn
m
77^igr
Egg
r^rrr
bfrEfry
5*
Dei. K/eeR&fR
QUAL
sqrte. $u i.r mnrio
x>e Te.-s/)
it. ciel mi
3SBISS&
And as for melody, were a collection to be formed of the most
elegant and striking passages of the best composers of the last
century, which are still, and ever must remain, pleasing, in the
same manner as the beauties of our best poets and moral writers
have been selected, the works of Cesti would supply a very
considerable number. Indeed, such a collection would leave but
little to subsequent composers who have been the most celebrated
for originality and invention. It might check modern vanity, and
{h) Ehrenpjorte, p. 135.
(»") Essai sur la Hus. Tom. IV. p. 460. [Carissimi died at the age of 70].
615
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
stop disputation concerning unjust claims; individuals would have
their proper station allotted them; and justice would be done to
those gifted mortals whose inspirations have been adopted by the
most judicious and accomplished musicians of succeeding times.
But such a compilation, with whatever integrity it may be made,
and however just the design, might have an invidious appearance,
and instead of being regarded as the only true and intelligible
history of musical invention, might seem the work of a partizan,
undertaken with the insidious view of injuring the reputation of
posterior artists.
I shall, however, on the following plates, give a few fragments
from the works of Cesti, in the same manner as has already been
done from those of Carissimi.
Fragments from the Cantatas of Cesti, in the Ch : Ch : Collection.
This, with another Close, will be always graceful and pleasing.
Corelli and Handel adopted this Base.
&£ T*.
616
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
^S^rff^tfh^rrr^^^
g£p
>s
&m
-b**-&
i i r<
ti
SOf
^=E
^.AH
SFERE 5E
VE - RE AL
MEN AL
MEN PER
N0MVtDERMI5l
COSTANT/ SOFFRI
iJ^A^
3£E^
^
These were favorite Passages with Steffani.
r-n RECIT.
Curious changes of Measure.
Division in a Motet by Cesti, used by Handel in his Overture
of Saul.
ff-jy*
fes
,«gf EjE
^3
^B
@1
S
^
i i i
-• ■»- •-
From the same Motet, see Corelli's Sonatas.
fy ■■ j °&® mT^
i M »» •
i p, — ir*w* m
|B»^Mfl ft" ■
£re.
^ToT' "• *>■ hi
j. '1 J.~^~
P" th q- j
1 u». y y**
L — K_ii ! J tj J
1 mt 1
617
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Another favorite Passage with Corelli.
gEggi
*??^
Sll
SI
JIT^^MT
3=£
<c
tturr
s
Another favorite Passage with Handel
m
i&m
m
se
Mil \iT\
^S
fe
fig f -tf
i
Luigi Rossi, one of the earliest composers of cantatas, is
celebrated in 1640, by Pietro della Valle, in his letter to Guidiccioni
cited above, for his grave canzonnette, particularly that which
begins: Or che la notte del silenzio arnica. Many of his cantatas
are preserved in all collections which include the Music of the last
century, particularly in the Brit. Mus. Bibl. Harl. 1265 and 1273,
and in Dr. Aldrich's Collection, Christ-church, Oxon.
His cantata, la Fortuna, in the Museum Collection, No. 1265,
is of an immeasurable length. The recitative, however, with
formal closes, has pleasing expressions in it, that still live. No Da
Capo, or sign of reference appears in his cantata, and he writes
twice or three times over, the same airs; a trouble which these
expedients would have spared. He seems to have started several
flimsy divisions, which afterwards became common; and, indeed, it
appears from his cantatas, that as soon as secular Music had
divested itself of the pedantry of perpetual canons, fugues, and
multiplied parts, another vice crept into the art, by the frequent and
excessive use of divisions. Luigi, in songs for a single voice, has
some of this kind as long as those in modern bravura airs.
In the Magliabecchi library at Florence, I found the scene of an
oratorio called Giuseppe figlio di Giacobbe, Opera spirituale, fatta
in Musica da Aloigi de Rossi, Napolitano, in Roma. And under
the name of Rossi many of his compositions may be found in the
Museum.*
The following plates will exhibit some of his peculiarities and
happy licences, which have been adopted by subsequent composers,
as well as others which should be avoided.
Luigi, in his motets that are preserved in Christ-church
Collection, appears to have been as able to write, a capella, in
many parts with learning, as with elegance in few.
* 13 Cantatas by Rossi, edited by Gevaert, have been published.
618
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Fragments from Luigi Rossi's Cantatas.
Example of the 7th resolved upwards
Early use of the extreme sharp 6th
pg
^>P
tm~z^^
J=C
t±
mjj^jt^^g
t±
QUESTOPIOCIOUIRIO CHCCON
UNGUA D'ARGENTO MORT1C
1 3 f g S
8 po*^*
:pc
5=
#6 2
Divisions which first appeared in his works,
and which afterwards became very common.
v*P»»w'
^@
aS
^^St^*
m
£g
m as
es
RANDOACCOMP/
?gj6fe
JXL
»
S
reftflte
4f
£-£f^££
-©— ©— © — 9 — ©-
£ffi£
«2
^^
M^M^^^^
STELLE CHE RIMI
RATTECONPIET050PAL
3
S
S
s
321
|KgK_J-
*
7lf5
Only one b placed at the Clef in C minor.
ttlttfl1
TlTp yiJ
. ubf n
AoRElMOGR/WEM
«Ulf?£lMJOK
to- -
-R£.
"* &ELOSIA
Di^A^ar
'"1 1 ■&-
_/' Q J^S
O
^hO Q
1 1 . -i
u
•<
b
1 b
fe rrrr rrb
S
S^p
a^
uag3£m gjl
VA.
1
Z)cm Giovanni Legrenzi, of Bergamo, has been already
mentioned as a dramatic composer, at Venice, for the theatres of
which city he produced fifteen operas, between the year 1664 and
1684. He was likewise a favourite composer of cantatas, of which
he published at Venice two books: one of ten, in 1674 [1676?];
and a second book containing fourteen, in 1679. During his youth
he was some time organist of Santa Maria Maggiore, in his native
city of Bergamo; then Maestro di Capella of the church dello Spirito
santo, in Ferrara; and lastly of St. Mark's at Venice, and master of
the Conservatorio de Mendicanti. He was the master likewise of the
two great musicians, Lotti, and Francesco Gasparini, both of whom
are said to have resided in his house at Venice, in the year 1684,
in order to receive his instructions.
$19
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Aria del Legrenzi
Quando uscisti dal mio petto
Ove andasti entro qual sen.
Torna a me, che alcun diletto
Senza te goder non s6.
Dolce pace, &c.
Air by Cavalli.
NON ME fM PIU
SE*
V^U
DOLCE AMOR.BINDATO DIO
SOS ""-PI RAR
NON M£TAR PlU
m
S
^
j g j j
jnyj;
£
5t
i=fc
4> I W
t^Ji
jSL
fe
£
■• y
— *a «»^— -
SOS Pi RAR.
¥=&
IL TUO DARDOSIM-'ASTA D'ACCHILLE CHE Ml SA Nl LA
PIAGADELGOROCON LU-CI-
^
£=*=
JS+i
^^
3|E
^^E
s
a
±=x
=£=fl^
±J
O^TX
^spfe
jg
S
^HhR?}
Son
SAETTAR - -
DOR RIGOR
CIE-CO ARCIER Dl
DUE PU-PIL-LE
QUESTO SEN NON
P
^=^=
zjft-.sjL* y
^e
*£
^
^^
s
jfefc^
QUESTO
M
£E
£CT^
SEN NON S/
fr
-e e
v=3=
S
Fragment of a Cantata written by Salvator Rosa and set by
Bandini. See p. 623.
^y _ rj cj
a o o
«.*-»
esf — ;
1 '
k -S n
l tf
"0s"
J NON HA
TR£GUA,N
- - NE
DU0(J>1 - -
-^ (
- LO-
Ml -
o.
oo-
pa- j
??• T
■^-2 1
1
1 ' r
i i •
1 1 1
d °
43 £
L&J
620
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Among the musical manuscripts, purchased at Rome in 1770,
one that ranks the highest in my own favour, was the music-book
of Salvator Rosa [1615-73], the painter, in which are contained,
not only airs and cantatas set by Carissimi, Cesti, Luigi, Cavalli,
Legrenzi, Capelline, Pasqualini, and Bandini, of which the words
of several are by Salvator Rosa; but eight entire cantatas written,
set, and transcribed by this celebrated painter himself. The
book was purchased of his great grand-daughter, who inhabited
the house in which her ancestor lived and died. The handwriting
was ascertained by collation with his letters and satires, of which
the originals are still preserved by his descendants. The historians
of Italian poetry, though they often mention Salvator as a satirist,
seem never to have heard of his lyrical productions; and as this
book is not only curious for the Music it contains, but the poetry;
I shall present my readers with a particular account of its contents,
which, being chiefly cantatas, belong to this chapter.
The first composition in this manuscript was luckily a scene in
Cesti's opera of Orontea, which it would have been difficult to
have found elsewhere; for of the many hundred operas that were
composed for the different theatres of Italy during the last century,
except two or three that have been printed, an entire copy in score
of any one of them, before the time of Ales. Scarlatti and Bononcini,
has hardly been preserved (k).
II. Is a cantata by Capellini, a composer of no great eminence;
yet there is in it a very pleasing air in triple time of f , in which
the crotchets are expressed by minims hooked or tied like quavers.
III. Is an elegant simple air, by Legrenzi, sung to two different
stanzas; and as the vocal compositions of this master are somewhat
scarce, I shall present my readers with a copy of it.
IV. Is a beautiful Siciliana by Cavalli, the composer of
Erismena, of which an account is given in treating of the Venetian
theatre. As the movement is short and characteristic, I cannot
resist the desire of inserting it.
V. Is a cantata, written by Salvator Rosa, and set by Cesti.
Recitative had not, as yet, banished formal closes, or regular
modulation, which encroached too much upon air, and destroyed
its narrative and declamatory plainness and simplicity.
Salvator was either the most miserable, or the most discontented
of men. Most of his cantatas are filled with the bitterest complaints,
either against his mistress, or mankind in general. In this he says
that he has had more misfortunes than there are stars in the
firmament, and that he has lived six lustres (thirty years) without
the enjoyment of one happy day.
VI. Is a cantata set by Luigi, almost wholly in recitative,
which, but for the formality of the closes, would be admirable.
(fe) For the scene in Orontea, see p. 548.
621
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
VII. Another cantata by the same composer, of which the
words are very beautiful. After promising eternal constancy to his
mistress, he says:
E se la natura avara
Del suo mortal tesoro
Da questa crin max ti rubasse V oro,
Povero, ma contento,
Lo vedrb bianco
E V amerb d' argento (l).
VIII. A cantata set by Carissimi, in which the melody is
impassioned, and the recitative admirable. Too many specimens
have already been exhibited of this author's genius and abilities,
to render an extract from this composition necessary.
IX. Is a pleasing and natural air, by Marc' Antonio Pasqualini,
which is repeated to different stanzas. The composer of this air
was admitted into the Papal chapel in 1630; and from the year
1643 to 1670, he was a favourite stage-singer, with a soprano voice.
Many of his compositions are preserved in the collections of the
time, in which more grace and facility appear than force and
learning.
X. A cantata, in which the words are by Sal va tor Rosa, and
the Music by Cesti. There is great strength and imagination in this
poetry.
In the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli de PP. Certosini,
at Rome, where Salvator Rosa was buried, there is an inscription
on his tomb, at which Crescimbeni, a Florentine, is angry; as it
gives him il primato sopra tutti i Rimatori Toscani (m). This, like
almost all monumental praise, is certainly hyberbolical; but
Salvator' s poetry seems to have great merit for its boldness and
originality: it is, indeed, somewhat rough, even in his lyrics; and
his satires are often coarse; but he appears to me always more
pithy than his cotemporaries, whom Marini's affectation had perhaps
enervated and corrupted.
Salvator' s cantata, of which we are now speaking, is the
incantation of a female, distracted with love, disappointment, and
revenge. This lyric poem seems to have furnished ideas to the
author of Purcell's Mad Bess. — "By the croaking of the toad," &c.
And in Salvator all the charms and spells of the witches in Macbeth
are invoked.
all' incanto, all' incanto, Onde gelide
E chi non Mosse il del mova Acheronte. Pesci varij
lo vo magici modi Acque chimiche
Tentar profane note Neri balsami
Erbe diverse, e nodi, Miste polveri
Cib one arrestar pub le celeste rote, Pietre mistiche
Mago circolo Serpi e nottole
(I) If Nature, niggard of her treasure. Poor, but content, I still with pleasure
Should rob thy hair of all its gold, Thy silver tresses shall behold.
(m) Comment, alia Stor. della Volg. Poes. Vol. IV. p. 213.
622
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Sangui putridi
Molli viscere,
Secche mummie
Ossa e vermini.
Suffumigij ch' anneriscano,
Voci orribili che spaventino,
Linfe torbide ch' avvelenino
Stille fetide che corrompino
Ch' offuschino,
Che gelino,
Che guastino,
Ch' ancidano
Che vincano I'onde Stigie.
In quest' atra caverna
Ove nongiunse mai raggio di sole
Dalle Tartaree scuole
Trarro la Turba injerna
Fard ch' un nero spirto
Arda un Cipresso un Mirto
E mentre a poco a poco
Vi struggero I'imago sua di cera
Faro che a ignoto foco
Sua viva imago pera
E quand' arde la finta, arda la vera.
XI. Is a gloomy, grumbling history of this painter and poet-
musician's life, in which the comic exaggeration is not unpleasant;
but it is rather a satire on the times in which he lived, than a lyric
composition. However, it is set by Bandini; but being chiefly
narrative, the Music is almost wholly recitative; scarce any
measured melody being introduced, except to the first line, which
serves as a refrein, or burden.
Cantata. Parole del Salvator Rosa —
Musica del Bandini.
Non a tregua ne fine il duolo tnio.
Ricordati Fortuna che son nel mondo,
E son di came anch' to.
Venne solo alia vita
Per stentar e partir
Sudar da cane
E tra pene infinita
Speme non ho d' assicurarmi un pane.
Translation.
No end or truce to grief I find —
O Fortune ! bear my case in mind !
Nor let a man of flesh and blood.
Forever o'er his miseries brood;
Or hither come to toil and sweat
Merely to pay great nature's debt,
And crowd the mansions of the dead
Before his labours give him bread !
Per me solo si vede sordo il ciel,
Scuro il Sol, secca la Terra,
Ov' io di pace ho jede
Cola porta il gran diavolo la guerra.
S' io jo' I Bucato piove (»);
S' io metto il pie nel mare
II mar s' adira.
Se andasse a V Indie nove,
Non vale il mio teston piu d'una lira.
Is heaven deaf to me alone?
Barren the earth, and dark the sun?
And where to peace there seems no bar
Shall devils wage eternal war?
If I step forth to see a friend
The clouds a deluge instant send,
And ship I have never been on board
But winds and waves have furious roar'd.
Yet over begg'ry to prevail
Should I to India ever sail,
And coming back 'scape rocks and
killing
In purse I should not have a shilling.
Non vado al macellaro
Benche avessi a comprar di came un
grosso
Che per destino avaro
Non mi pesi la came al par dell' osso.
S' io vo a palazzo a sorte
IS anticamera og'nor mi mostra et dito
I satrapi di corte
Con le lingue mi trinciano il vestito.
At market when provisions fresh
I buy, the bones outweigh the flesh :
And if perchance I go to court
The attendants at my dress make sport,
Point at my garb, thread-bare and
shabby,
And shun me, like a leper scabby.
Son di fede Cristiano
E mi bisogna credere a V Ebreo
Sallo il Ghetto Romano
E il guardarobba mio ser mardocheo.
Non a tregua, &c.
My faith is Christian, sound and true,
Yet, like an unbelieving Jew,
I'm seiz'd without the least contrition,
And hurried to the inquisition.
No end or truce to grief, &c.
S' io non desto, o nel letto
Sempre ho la mente stivalata e varia,
Senz' esser architetto
Fabbrico tutto il di castelli in aria.
Awake, in bed, I castles build,
Which to reflexion instant yield;
And, if asleep, in dreams I feel
More torture than on rack or wheel.
(») As the author is not very poetical in telling us that it rains whenever he bucks, that
is, washes his linen, he has not been closely followed in the translation. It is curious, however,
that bucato should be so nearly English as to imply that kind of washing at a river with lye,
which is called bucking, and which gave the name to the basket in which Falstaff was carried
to Datchet-mead
623
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Villa non ho ne stanza,
AIM an' a" argcnto in fin' a I' orinale,
Ricco son di speranza
E per jede commisso ho V ospidale.
While I have neither house nor home,
Others can dwell in lofty dome;
Where e'en of silver, for parade,
The vilest utensils are made.
No other wealth have I than hope
Which shews a work-house, or a rope.
Ma di grazia osservate
Quando si sente un caldo dell' inferno,
In mezo dell' estate
lo marcia col vcilito dell inverno.
But, pray, observe, when heat infernal,
In summer threats our towns to burn all,
And marrows melt of man and brute,
How I still trudge in winter's suit.
Suol dir chi a da mangiare
Che i commodi e i quattrini,
Alfin son sogni che dolce minchionare
Haver pari I'entrate a suoi bisogni.
Oh Dio son pur pittore,
Ne posso figurarmi un miglior sogno !
Sto sempre d'un colore
Ne mi riesce mai alcun disegno.
Legni Iberi e Francese,
Col nocchiero pcnnello a V onde \o
spalmo,
Dono ad altri i paesi,
In tempo ch' io non 6 di terra un palmo.
Happy I thought the life I led
If not in want of daily bread,
And that conveniences and wealth
Were useless things in time of health —
And could a painter, senseless wretch?
A plan of life, no better sketch?
Against my skill the powers combine,
Nor let me finish one design.
I woods create in France and Spain,
And vessels riding on the main;
And though I find it hard to live,
With ease to others vineyards give;
With flocks and herds, and fields of
corn,
And all that nature's works adorn;
Can set a prince upon a throne —
While not an inch of land's mv own.
Non so che sia tortuna,
Pago a prezzo di stenti un di jelice,
Non ho sostanza alcuna
E ch' io speri, e ch' io soffir, ogn' un
mi dice.
Credete al vostro Rosa,
Che senza versi e pitture,
II mondo e bello e la piu sana cosa
In questi tempi e non aver cervello.
Fortune to me's a stranger quite,
And makes me pay each short delight
With pain and tears. Substance I've
none,
Nor can I from misfortune run.
While all, to whom I tell my tale.
In kindness thus my ears regale :
"And are you, Rosa, so unwise (prize?
To think the world should pictures
Or in these giddy thoughtless times
A value set upon your rhymes?
No, no, they hate all toil and pains,
And he'll thrive most who's fewest
brains,
For knowledge none at present dig,
Nor for your talents care a fig."
Ve le dirb piu chiare,
Hoggi il saper piu non si stima un fico.
Da me ciascuno impare
Che assat meglio e morir ch' esser
mendico.
Non a tregua, &c.
Then learn from me, ye students all,
Whose wants are great and hopes are
small,
That better 'tis at once to die,
Than linger thus in penury;
For 'mongst the ills with which we're
curst
To live a beggar is the worst.
No end or truce to grief, &c.
XII. Is an excellent cantata on the torments of jealousy, set
by Luigi, in which there is more air and less recitative than usual
at this period.
XIII. Is a single air by Ales. Scarlatti, which mu?t have been
produced early in that composer's life; as Salvator, in whose
handwriting it is entered in his book, died in 1675 (o); some writers
say in 1673. This air contains many beautiful, and then new, traits
of melody, of which Vinci afterwards availed himself when he set
deh respirar lasciatemi in Metastasio's opera of Artaserse.
(o) Orlandi, Abcdario Pittorico.
624
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Such frequent occasions will present themselves hereafter of
bearing testimony to the abilities of this great musician, particu-
larly in setting cantatas, which, in their number and excellence,
surpassed perhaps those of all the masters in Europe of his time,
that no addition to his character need be made here.
XIV. and XV. Are two single airs by Legrenzi, of which the
melody is pleasing; they were perhaps sung in operas. The Music
of all the rest of the cantatas and songs in this book amounting to
eight, is of Salvator's own composition, and is not only admirable
for a Dilettante, but, in point of melody, superior to that of most
of the masters of his time.
The two first are cantatas, but so ill written as to be difficult
to read.
The third begins with a very pleasing air, of which I shall
present the reader with the motivo, at N° I.
The fourth begins with such a spirited air as the last century
seldom produced, see N° II. The other two airs in the same
cantata are well accented and pleasing, see N° III. and IV.
In the recitative of the nfth cantata, some of the first true closes
occur, that I have met with, in the narrative melody, see N° V.
There are several airs in this and the rest of the cantatas, on
pleasing subjects, and treated in a manner above mediocrity, see
N° VI. VII. and VIII-
The last is chiefly remarkable for its moving base, see N° IX.
If we only suppose this cantata to have been composed just before
Salvator's death, it will be of a higher date than the publication,
or perhaps the existence, of any of Corelli's works, who is supposed
to have been the inventor of this kind of pendulum base; which,
however, frequently appears in the cantatas of Cesti.
The celebrated singer Pistocchi published six cantatas, with
two duets, and two airs, one to French and one to German words,
about the year 1699;* but I have never been able to find the book.
Of the thirty-one different works that were published by
Giambatista Bassani of Bologna, the last was entitled XII Cantate
amorose a voce sola con violini, 1703. Bassani was one of the first
who composed cantatas with an accompaniment for the violin,
which is so truly adapted to the genius of that instrument, that
it is fit for no other; as he has availed himself of the compass of
the violin, and the facility which it has in performing passages
composed of distant intervals. I shall insert the first symphony
to two of his cantatas, N° I. and II. to shew the use he has made
of the violin in accompanying the voice.
* Presumably the Scherzi Musicali to Italian, French, and German texts.
Voi,. ii. 40. 625
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Specimens of Salvator Rosa's Composition.
,/„ N°l
|23ir£N rjl J J
, 1 chf-^
s^-sfF^
626
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
RECIT.
-*+-
v v v w
-® — » — •-•-
itT^r
4 I i. ftujgzzfe
s
GRAZIE LIETA S'OP
Q
PO-NE ALLA NEMKA AR} DITA.
^^
N°Vl.
\ EE5i |-j— : J^H1-
72 _ au — _' ror: — SK-Off— jgs-
-itlFmt
£=£
fcdE
y CPg»-S ( <SM&
rsis
ess %
LET-TAQUES-iacOR QUESTCtoR *DU-BIO
ClO Rl
BEL-LA Ml LUJSINS-A E0ORTE-5E IRENE AL-
m
Hi
^
T^gg
t±rtrn:
^^
p=^=
H*
5
I & ft
§
^cfe
-g)" — g>-flt?
S
STA Ml LU
SING-A CLORJ
BEL-LA CLORI BEL-LAM! LU
SINS -A £ COR^TE -SE KENE.»i-LET-TA
.QOESK)
^^
feh-?^
£
QOESTO COR CHE IN 6U-6/0 STA.
Eg r ^ s |_*rrt^r-rtg
627
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
~ N°VM.
i&\ j i g .u
s
S5
££
i
^ »
STAR VI
CINOALBEU I OOLCHE
S'A - MA
E IL PIU
VA-GO Dl-
LET-T0 O'A-
MOR
gr»
-&-
3E
^asT
32
fc^
im |^4ju>rj.i|j^ihhi
J e IL PIU VA '- •
-»» o
^^i
GO Dl
LET-
.7b? r ig=£EF^^==*=fE=E
TO DA
MOR.
^=fc
Syphonies in Bassani's Cantatas, for a Violin.
We are now arrived at the golden age of cantatas in Italy,
a species of Music that was brought to the greatest degree of
perfection, without accompaniments, about the end of the last
century and beginning of the present, by the genius and abilities
of Ales. Scarlatti, Francesco Gasparini, Giovanni Bononcini,
Antonio Lotti, the Baron d' Astorga, and Benedetto Marcello; and,
at a later period in a more elaborate style, with accompaniments,
by Nicolo Porpora, and Giovanbattista Pergolesi, who seem to
have been the last eminent composers that cultivated this species
of chamber drama, till it was revived by Sarti.
628
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
The most voluminous and most original composer of cantatas
that has ever existed, in any country to which my enquiries have
reached, seems to have been Alessandro Scarlatti (p). Indeed,
this master's genius was truly creative; and I find part of his
property among the stolen goods of all the best composers of the
first forty or fifty years of the present century.
Of this fertile musician's cantatas* I was so fortunate, when at
Rome, as to purchase an original manuscript containing thirty-five
in his own hand writing, that were cfiiefly composed at Tivoli
during a visit to Andrea Adami, Maestro di Capella to the pope,
and author of Osservazioni per ben regolare il Coro de i Cantori
della Cap. Pontif. published at Rome, 1711. Each of these cantatas
is dated; by which we learn that he frequently produced one every
day for several days together, and that the whole number was
composed between the month of October, 1704, and March, 1705.
In the first of these cantatas it appears, that Scarlatti had not
quite discontinued formal closes in his recitatives, nor rosalia in his
airs. But many of his most natural and graceful passages are still
in use, though the more uncommon and far-fetched have never
been adopted; and these are therefore still new.
The violoncello parts of many of these cantatas were so excellent,
that whoever was able to do them justice was thought a super-
natural being. Geminiani used to relate, that Franceschilli, a
celebrated performer on the violoncello at the beginning of this
century, accompanied one of these cantatas at Rome so admirably,
while Scarlatti was at the harpsichord, that the company, being
good Catholics and living in a country where miraculous powers
have not yet ceased, were firmly persuaded it was not Franceschelli
who had played the violoncello, but an angel that had descended
and assumed his shape.
The complaints at present of want of variety and movement
in the bases of opera songs compared with old cantatas, which
being the sole accompaniment are busy and often beautiful, is
unfair. In songs of many parts, if all the parts are busy the
ensemble is noise and confusion. In order to preserve a unity of
melody in the cantilena, the business of the instruments must be
distributed in such a manner as never to render it inaudible.
The cantatas of Scarlatti are much sought and admired by
curious collectors. It must not, however, be dissembled that this
author is not always free from affectation and pedantry. His
modulation, in struggling at novelty, is sometimes crude and
unnatural, and he more frequently tried to express the meaning of
single words than the general sense and spirit of the whole poem
he had set to Music (q). Yet I never saw one of them that was not
(0) See 585.
(g) The word lungi, for instance, in the second and fourth cantata of my collection, he
expresses by wide intervals, as he constantly does lontano. At the words cangio in dolore, we
have a sudden, violent, and extraneous modulation. And dura, cruda, dolente, strano, &c.
were irresistible temptations to wring the ear with crudities.
* There are over 500 Cantatas by Scarlatti in existence. A complete list will be found
in Professor Dents' Alessandro Scarlatti (London, 1905).
629
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
marked by some peculiar beauty of melody or modulation.
Durante, his scholar, after his decease worked several of his cantatas
into duets of the most learned and curious kind, which the greatest
masters now living continue to study and teach to their favourite
and most accomplished scholars (r).
Having instanced some -of his defects, candour requires that a
few of his many beauties should be exhibited to the musical reader.
I shall, therefore, cite a few short airs and fragments from his
cantatas, that appear to me still graceful and elegant, though
produced more than fourscore years ago.
No. I. Is a short air where the word lungi is expressed by
the wide interval of a ninth, but which, in other respects, is pleasing
and masterly: see the following plates.
II. Is an elegant air, in which Scarlatti seems the first to omit
the shake at a common close, when it is of a pathetic cast, which,
at present, is a very fashionable refinement. See the places marked
with a + .
III. A Sicilian strain from the same cantata. There is
something arch and uncommon at the repetition of the word poco,
at the end of the second part.
IV. Scarlatti's recitative is, in general, excellent; for in that,
bold modulation is wanted. And in the fragment given at this
number, he seems to have expressed the words with peculiar
felicity.
V. Corelli, in composing the fine adagio of his eighth concerto,
certainly was obliged to this cantata of Scarlatti for more than a
hint.
VI. This air is natural, plaintive, and masterly.
VII. Is a curious mixture of air and recitative.
The whole twenty-sixth cantata in my collection is so beautiful,
that, if I had room, I should give it entire. Thus far I have
allowed composers to speak for themselves as often as possible; but
if I continued giving examples of composition as frequently as I
wish, and have hitherto done, my work would have more the
appearance of a music-book, than a history of the art. The
thirty-first, Alfin m ucciderete, has been transformed into a duet
by Durante, and occupies the eleventh place among his celebrated
riffattamenti.
VIII. Is the first part of an air in a beautifully simple style,
inserted here to shew that Scarlatti is not always scrambling at
novelty through unbeaten tracks; indeed, he is never difficult or
recherche in his opera airs; and his son, who is so wild and eccentric
in his lessons, is uncommonly natural and easy in his songs.
(r) Several musicians have doubted whether the ground-work of these very elaborate
studj was Scarlatti's, among whom was Pacchierotti; but in turning over different volumes of
bis cantatas in the presence of this admirable singer, while he resided in London, I found, and
shewed him, the subjects of every one of the movements.
630
N°l
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
Fragments from Alessandro Scarlatti's Cantatas.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
y^-y" as mJB^^f —
S
J ME. ^ CLORI SENTE I MIE1 50SPI-R.I
i^rr ytga-E;s=3Ba
CRE- JJECH'lOSWDEGNO Dl MERGE CLORI 1 sentE
Ife^r^WtTrT-rr r pL -^v^tlrJ^
as; 0*= <a
±=*
=i£
<p*a»
S'At vf-q - woit
f ^ a> Q. B<»<>-«
TUOBEL FO-
co.
^n^
^
HSU
be
i&
s^
sfe
^^
P=&#
Z?J> «*(P^S-
»a a
J TUSEI FIDA EDEGLl£-flDO SB Fi.DA ED EGLIEFI- DO A CHE
h
¥*&
^BeSSI
WW*
wurniLfoo
f=^^^^
»
^t
sJl
DUNQUE SRflRGI IL &RI
3E
DO. f
flBfflW ILTOO
FAVELLA ST/MI
FORSFAMAR-LO PO-COA
E^ES
EE3k
632
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
*9
P
ra
^^
fca=2=
^
3tf
t±3rtt
E±
I V I
MARIO RXO
MA &IA WTENDON-TUO FAVELLA,
STIMI
^L^^^^j^f^ff
m*m
Efc
ipS
tt
SE
a
<s> L.
« h^u i»
£±
^^^^pg^E^
s
S
FORSE A MARIO PO - CO
FOCO AMAR - - LO AM AR-LO PO - CO
A MAR
3m*Tza
5=^
BE
H&
LO A
ffi
»
#
"MtjJ
pr
pfc
±k=3
?*•=
J MARLO FO-CO PO^CO . 1
/!/«• * 7?EClT.
c^r^elJJtr^S
^
^P
co U.C.
LONTAN OALLflSW SFERAOGNI ELEMENTDAN
p nl a.W.
J:C gg
32c
=**
Uj TJ'»
fee
=*
a^
^>JUT4
t
«JSL__ L L_
E
5=5
*=
t» V V
r^
^COR perdeilvaIore
COSI CO
SIL'INCENDKKHEM'ACCESE AM ORE FOICHE NON MIRA
P
33==:
3i
P^3E
g Jli^^^s
S
£^
te
^__^_^
ic±
LAOO RATA FACE
LAN - - GUE
LANGUE
^
ttttH^ l<fl5
NELMESTOCORE, £ : *DRGOAKXD\ _ ..
p bd
(a) For No. V. see Book III. p. 442.
633
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
N* T
R CWEDEPOCO IN TANTO/ FFANNOQUESTO FIDO FIDO FIDO QUE5TC)
None of these cantatas have ever been printed to my knowledge,
or I should not have been so liberal of extracts. Walther specifies
only two works, of all this master's productions, that were printed:
Cantate a una e due Voci; and Motetti a una, due, ire, e quattro
Voci con Violini, both published at Amsterstam; but these are now
become more scarce than manuscripts. Indeed, Walther, with all
his diligence and exactitude, was totally ignorant of almost all the
vocal works of the best and most voluminous Italian composers.
Of the instrumental, the Dutch catalogues furnished him with many
634
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
of the titles; but he never seems to have heard of one of Ales.
Scarlatti's hundred and nine operas, or indeed of those of Bononcini,
Albinoni, Vivaldi, or even Caldara; though these last were chiefly
composed in Germany.
During the residence of Scarlatti at Naples, he had so high an
opinion of Francesco Gasparini, then a composer and a harpsichord
master of great eminence at Rome, that he placed his son Domenico,
while a youth, to study under him in that city. This testimony
of confidence in his probity and abilities gave birth to a singular
correspondence between these two great musicians. Gasparini
composed a cantata in a curious and artful style, worthy the notice
of such a master, and sent it as a present to Scarlatti : Cantata
inviata dal Signor Francesco Gasparini al Signor Ales. Scarlatti.
To this musical epistle Scarlatti not only added an air, by way
of postscript, but replied by another cantata of a still more subtil
and artificial kind, making use of the same words: Cantata in
risposta al Signor Gasparini, del Sig. Ales. Scarlatti, Eumana (s).*
This reply produced a rejoinder from Gasparini, who sent Scarlatti
another cantata, in which the modulation of the recitative is very
learned and abstruse.
Scarlatti seemingly determined to have the last word in this
cantata correspondence, sent him a second composition to the same
words, in which the modulation is the most extraneous, and the
notation the most equivocal and perplexing perhaps that were ever
committed to paper. This is entitled Seconda Cantata del Signor
Ales. Scarlatti in Idea Eumana, ma in regolo Cromatico, ed e per
ogni processor e (t).**
Francesco Gasparini's [1668-1727], twelve cantatas, of which
the second edition was printed at Lucca, 1697 [1st ed. 1695], were
the first productions that he published. They are graceful, elegant,
natural, and often pathetic; less learned and uncommon than those
of Ales. Scarlatti; but, for that reason, more generally pleasing
and open to the imitation and pillage of composers gifted with little
invention. There is a movement in his second cantata which would
remind all who are acquainted with Dr. Pepusch's celebrated
cantata, Alexis, of the air " Charming sounds that sweetly
languish."
Giovanni Bononcini [b. 1672], whose long residence in England
and contentions with Handel are well known, was perhaps the most
(s) The word is not in the Crusca nor any other Italian dictionary that I have been able
to consult, if it does not imply extraordinary, uncommon, inhuman, it may perhaps be some
assumed name of Scarlatti as the member of an academy.
(t) On shewing this very composition to Sacchini, he seemed to see its merit through all
its pedantry; and said that it was necessary to look at such Music sometimes, per non essere
sorpresa.
* Professor Dent, in his Alessandro Scarlatti, p. 140, points out that Scarlatti was in
the habit of making an h somewhat similar to an E, thus confusing Burney and others. The
word should be humana, and occurs as the heading in idea humana which is attached to one
of the cantatas.
** According to Bani, this exchange of cantatas was occasioned by some dispute between
the two composers.
635
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
voluminous composer of cantatas, next to Ales. Scarlatti, which Italy
can boast. At present none of his compositions will bear any
comparison with those of Handel for strength and vigour of genius;
but during his life many of them were more admired on the
continent in every part of Europe, for taste, expression, and grace,
than by his most violent partizans in England.
In 1721, he published in London Cantate e duetti, dedicated
alia sacra Maesta di Giorgio Re della Gran Bretagna. The work is
finely engraved on copper in long quarto; and contains many
pleasing and elegant passages for the time when they were
composed, with some ingenious harmonies and imitations; but being
less recherchees than the cantatas of the elder Scarlatti, and less
elaborate than the songs of Handel, easy and natural were then
construed by his opponents into dulness and want of science.
However, even Handel himself condescended to use many of his
passages and closes in opera songs which he composed several
years after this publication. Many of Bononcini's recitatives are
masterly and expressive, particularly in his first and eleventh
cantatas, where the modulation is bold and learned.
The whole ninth and tenth of these cantatas would be pleasing
even now to candid judges of good Music and refined taste,
particularly if they attended to the expression and nice accentuation
of the Italian language.
In a large manuscript collection of Italian cantatas made in
Germany, and already mentioned, there are six by John Bononcini,
all with an accompaniment for a violin or violoncello, in which the
able and experienced master appears. In several of them there are
many pleasing, graceful and vocal passages, but they are too
frequently repeated- His accompaniments to these cantatas for the
violin, as well as violoncello, which was his particular instrument,
and on which he had acquired great reputation by his performance,
shew a knowledge of the bow and finger-board. Among his
compositions in this collection, there is a Cantata spirituale for a
contralto voice, with a violin accompaniment, of a peculiar character.
There are some excellent cantatas extant, by his brother Antonio
Bononcini, which Geminiani and others used to prefer to those
of Giovanni.
Antonio Lotti [c. 1667-1740], was a composer of cantatas; but
upon examining them, it appears that his melody is gone, though
his harmony will always be excellent. It is generally in complica-
tion, fugue, and Music of many parts, that we must now seek for
pleasure from the works of old masters.
His disciple, however, the illustrious Benedetto Marcello
[1686-1739], composed a great number of cantatas, of which the
vigour of conception and ingenuity of design please me more than
his celebrated psalms.
The cantatas of Baron D'Astorga [1680-1755-7] are much
celebrated; yet several that I have lately examined did not fulfil]
636
CANTATAS OR NARRATIVE CHAMBER MUSIC
the expectations excited by his high character and the composition
of his elegant and refined Stabat Mater.* The three best that I
have seen begin: Quando penso; Tome Aprile; and In questo
core. In these there is expression, grace, and science devoid of
pedantry. But late refinements in melody have rendered our ears
fastidious and unjust to the simplicity of the last age, however
elegant its garb. At some of the closes, the Baron's good taste in
singing is very manifest.
Antonio Caldara, so many years composer to the emperor
at Vienna, published twelve cantatas at Venice, 1699, six for a
soprano, and six for a contralto voice. There is a copy of this
work in Dr. Aldrich's Collection, Christ-church, Oxon. but having
never heard or examined them, I am unable to speak of their
merit. However, the compositions of other kinds which I have
seen of this author are so excellent, that there is great reason to
presume them worthy the rank he bears among the professors of
his time.
D. Antonio Vivaldi merits a place among the candidates for
fame in this species of composition: several are inserted in the
collection mentioned above; but these, and all that I have seen
elsewhere, are very common and quiet, notwithstanding he was so
riotous in composing for violins. But he had been too long used
to write for the voice, to treat it like an instrument.
The cantatas of Nicola Porpora [1686-1767] have been
always much esteemed, on account of the excellence of their
recitatives, and the good taste and truly vocal style of the airs.
But by confining himself rigidly in his songs and cantatas to such
passages as are only fit for the voice, his cantatas will seem to
want spirit when tried upon an instrument. And perhaps the art is
more indebted to this master for having polished and refined
recitative and measured air, than for enriching it by the fertility of
his invention.**
Pergolesi's cantatas will be considered elsewhere. But
cantatas, which were composed with more care, and sung with
more taste and science than any other species of vocal Music, during
the latter end of the last century and beginning of the present,
seem to have been wholly laid aside, after the decease of Pergolesi,
till revived by Sarti, who has set, in the manner of cantatas,
several of Metastasio's charming little poems, which he calls
canzonette . These exquisite compositions were produced by Sarti
expressly for the voices of Pacchierotti, Marchesi, and Rubinelli,
and are, in all respects, the most perfect and complete models of
chamber Music that have ever come to my knowledge.
* There are two MS. volumes of cantatas by D'Astorga in the B.M. : —Roy. MS.
23. d. 10 (26), contains 25 cantatas for Solo Voices, and Roy. MS. 22. a. 10, has 40 cantatas for
r and 2 voices.
** Twelve of his Cantatas were published at London in 1725.
637
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Indeed, it is to be lamented that a species of composition so
admirably calculated for concerts as the cantata, should now be so
seldom cultivated : as it contains a little drama entire, having a
beginning, a middle, and an end, in which the charms of poetry
are united with those of Music, and the mind is amused while the
ear is gratified. Opera scenes, or single songs, now supply the
place of cantatas in all private concerts; but, besides the loss
which these sustain when taken out of their niche, as they were
originally calculated for a numerous orchestra, they can seldom be
completely accompanied by a small band.
63s
Chapter V
Attempts at Dramatic Music in England,
previous to the Establishment of the
Italian Opera
ALL theatrical representations and public amusements having
been suppressed by the parliament in 1647, no exhibition
was attempted till 1656 [May 23], when Sir William
D'Avenant's Entertainment of Declamation and Musick after the
Manner of the Ancients, seems to have escaped molestation more
by connivance than the protection of government. For though
Ant. Wood has asserted, that Sir William D'Avenant had obtained
leave to open a theatre for the performance of operas in the Italian
language, during the Protectorship, when all other theatrical
exhibitions were suppressed; " because being in an unknown
tongue they could not corrupt the morals of the people; " yet on a
careful scrutiny into the validity of the fact, it seems to be wholly
a mistake. Ant. Wood, at this time, had never been in London,
and seems but little acquainted with its amusements at any time.
Being in possession of the first edition of Sir William
D'Avenant's Entertainment performed at Rutland-house, and
printed in 1657, the year after, I shall give an account of the
manner in which it was disposed and arranged, from the work
itself; which informs us, that " after a flourish of Music, the
curtains are drawn and the prologue enters, ' ' who speaks in English
verse, and talks of the Entertainment being an opera, the only
word that is uttered in the Italian language throughout the
exhibition. He desires the audience, indeed, to regard the small
theatre as " their passage, and the narrow way, to our Elysian
field, the Opera/'' But not a line of this introduction is set to
Music, either in recitative or air; though, after it has been spoken,
and the curtains are again closed, " a consort of instrumental
Musick, adapted to the sullen disposition of Diogenes, being heard
awhile, the curtains are suddenly opened, and, in two gilded
rostras, appear Diogenes the Cynic, and Aristophanes the poet —
who declaim against and for publique entertainments by moral
representations." Then in two prose orations that were spoken, not
639
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
sung, public exhibitions are censured and defended in the style of
that celebrated philosopher and comic writer.*
Operas are, indeed, frequently mentioned and described:
Diogenes manifestly alluding to the splendid manner in which they
were then exhibited in Italy, when he says, " Poetry is the subtile
engine by which the wonderful body of the opera must move. I
wish, Athenians ! you were all poets, for then if you should meet,
and with the pleasant vapours of Lesbian wine, fall into profound
sleep, and concur in a long dream, you would every morning enamel
your houses, tile them with gold, and pave them with aggots!"
When the Cynic has finished his declamation, "a consort of
Musick, befitting the pleasant disposition of Aristophanes, being
heard, he answers him," and defends operas, their poetry, Music,
and decoration, with considerable wit and argument. After which
"the curtains are suddenly closed, and the company entertained by
instrumental and vocal Musick, with a song."
" The song being ended, a consort of instrumental Musick, after
the French composition, being heard a while, the curtains arei
suddenly opened, and in the rostras appear, sitting, a Parisian and
a Londoner, in the livery robes of both cities, who declaim
concerning the pre-eminence of Paris and London."
When the Frenchman has finished his Philippic against our
capital; after "a consort of Musick, imitating the waites of London,
he is answered by the Londoner." In neither of these harangues
is the opera mentioned, which, as yet, had not found its way into
either capital.** When the Englishman has terminated his defence,
there is another song; an epilogue; and, lastly, a flourish of Music;
after which the curtain is closed, and the entertainment finished.
At the end of the book we are told, that " the vocal and
instrumental Musick was composed by Dr. Charles Colman, Captain
Henry Cook, Mr. Henry Lawes, and Mr. George Hudson."
By this account it appears, that the performance was neither an
Italian, nor an English, opera. That there was no recitative, and
but two songs in it, the rest being all declaimed or spoken, without
the least assistance from Music. It seems, indeed, as if Sir William
D'Avenant, by this Entertainment, as it was called, had some
distant design of introducing exhibitions similar to the Italian opera,
on the English stage, for which these declamations were to prepare
the way.
Pope tells us (u), that " The Siege of Rhodes, by Sir William
D'Avenant, was the first opera sung in England."
" On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant, or tremble, through an eunuch's throat."
(«) Imitations of Horace, Epist i.
* Rutland House was situated in Charterhouse Yard, Aldersgate St., and the price of
admission on this occasion was five shillings. The room in which the Entertainment was pre-
sented was capable of holding some four hundred people, but on the first performance was
not much more than a third full. D'Avenant had endeavoured to build an opera house in
1639 but, although he received a patent from Charles I, his plans came to nothing.
** But see the account of the establishment of Opera in France in Book III. p. 467.
640
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ENGLAND TO 1700
What foundation our great poet had for this opinion, I know
not, unless he trusted to the loose assertion of Langbaine, who, in
An Account of the English dramatic Poets, says that the Siege of
Rhodes, and some other plays of Sir William D'Avenant, in the
times of the civil wars, were acted in stilo recitativo.
The first performance of the Siege of Rhodes was at Rutland-
house, in 1656. It was revived in 1663, and a second part added
to it. In the prologue the author calls it " our play," and the
performers, players, not singers. The first part is divided into five
entries, not acts; each preceded by instrumental Music. But I can
find no proof that it was sung in recitative, either in the dedication
to Lord Clarendon, in the folio edition of 1673 [1672], or the body
of the drama.*
It was, indeed, written in rhyme, which, after the Restoration,
became a fashion with theatrical writers, probably to imitate the
French, and gratify the partiality of Charles II. for Gallic
amusement. Such dramas were called heroic plays, and the verse
dramatic poesy.
Upon the whole, it seems as if this drama was no more like an
Italian opera than the masques, which long preceded it; and in
which were always introduced songs, choruses, splendid scenes,
machinery, and decorations. But if we might believe Mr. Pope,
in the lines just cited, this opera, as he calls it, was not only set to
recitative and florid Music, but sung by eunuchs (x) !
In another piece, however, of Sir William D'Avenant' s, The
Playhouse to be let, a musician who presents himself as a tenant,
being asked what use he intended to make of it? replies, " I would
have introduced heroique story in stilo recitativo." And upon
being desired to explain himself further, he says, " recitative
(x) Downes, the prompter, tells us that in 1658, Sir William D'Avenant exhibited another
entertainment, entitled The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, expressed by vocal and
instrumental Music, and by art of perspective in scenes. These scenes and decorations,
according to Downes, were the first that were introduced (on a public stage) in England.
Roseius Anglicanus. Mr. Malone [Sup. to Shakspeare) imagines that Cromwell, from his
hatred to the Spaniards, may the more readily have tolerated this spectacle.**
* Burney could not have examined the ist edition of the Siege of Rhodes, published in
1656, in which it is stated that the vocal music was composed by Henry Lawes (ist and 5th
entries or acts), Capt. Henry Cooke (2nd and 3rd entries), and Mathew Locke (the 4th entry).
The instrumental music was written by Charles Coleman and George Hudson.
Amongst those taking part in the production were Thos. Baltzar; J. Bannister; Catherine
Colman, who sang the part of Ianthe; Edward Colman, who played Alphonso; Capt. Cooke,
who sang Solyman; Christopher Gibbons; Mathew Locke played the Admiral; Alphonso
Marsh sang Pirrhus; and Henry Purcell (the elder).
** This was "Represented daily at the Cockpit in Drury Lane at three after noone
punctually." 1659 saw the production of The History of Sir Francis Drake, and The Marriage
of Ocean and Brittannia.
On 5th May, 1659, Evelyn enters in his Diary: " I went to visit my brother in London;
and, next day, to see a new opera, after the Italian way, in recitative music and scenes,
much inferior to the Italian composure and magnificence; but it was prodigious that in a
time of such public consternation such a variety should be kept up, or permitted. I, being
engaged with company, could not decently resist the going to see it, though my heart smote
me for it."
Vol.. ii. 41. 641
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Musick is not composed of matter so familiar, as may serve for
every low occasion of discourse. In tragedy, the language of the
stage is raised above the common dialect; our passions rising with
the height of verse; and vocal Musick adds new wings to all the
flights of poetry."
In the third act of this piece, which we are told was in stilo
recitativo, we have the history of Sir Francis Drake expressed by
instrumental and vocal Music, and by art of perspective in scenes,
&c.
Such were the first attempts at Dramatic Music to English words
in this country, long before the Music, language, or performers of
Italy were employed on our stage.
The word Opera seems, however, to have been very familiar to
our poets and countrymen, during the chief part of the last century;
stilo recitativo was talked of by Ben Jonson, so early as the year
1617, when it was a recent innovation even in Italy (y). After this
it was used in other masques, particularly scenes of plays, and in
cantatas, before a regular drama, wholly set to Music was attempted.
But the high favour to which operas had mounted in France by
the united abilities of Quinault and Lulli, seems to have given birth
to several attempts at Dramatic Music in England.
Sir William D'Avenant dying in 1668, while his new theatre in
Dorset Gardens was building, the patent, and management,
devolved on his widow, Lady D'Avenant, and his son Mr. Charles,
afterwards Dr. D'Avenant, well known as a political writer and
civilian, who pursued Sir William's plans. The new house was
opened in 1671; but the public still more inclining to favour the
King's company at Drury-lane than this, obliged Mr. D'Avenant
to have recourse to a new species of entertainments, which were
afterwards called Dramatic Operas, and of which kind were the
Tempest, Macbeth, Psyche, Circe, and some others, all " set
off," says Cibber, "with the most expensive decorations of scenes
and habits, and with the best voices and dancers."*
"This sensual supply of sight and sound," continues he,
"coming in to the assistance of the weaker party, it was no wonder
they should grow too hard for sense and simple nature, when it is
considered how many more people there are, who can see and
hear, than can think and judge."
Thus men without taste or ears for Music ever comfort them-
selves with imagining that their contempt for what they neither
feel nor understand is a mark of superior wisdom, and that every
(y) See Book III. p. 278.
*The "arrangements" of Shakespeare were the work of various people, including
D'Avenant Dryden, Shadwell, etc. A faithful presentation of a play by Shakespeare was so
unusual that Downes in his Roscius Anglicanus makes a special reference to a production ot
King Lear which was played "exactly as Mr. Shakespear wrote it."
642
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ENGLAND TO 1700
lover of Music is a fool. This is the language of almost all writers
on the subject. The ingenious author of the Biographia Dramatica
tells us, that " the preference given to D'Avenant's theatre, on
account of its scenery and decorations, alarmed those belonging to
the rival house. To stop the progress of the public taste, and divert
it towards themselves, they endeavoured to ridicule the performances
which were so much followed. The person employed for this
purpose was Thomas Duffet," (a writer of miserable farces) "who
parodied the Tempest, Macbeth, and Psyche, these efforts were,
however, ineffectual." This is fair and historical; but after saying
that " the Duke's theatre continued to be frequented; " when he
adds, " the victory of sound and shew over sense and reason was
as complete in the theatre at this period, as it has often been
since," it seems as if sense and reason had for a moment quitted
this agreeable, and, in general, accurate and candid writer. Opera
is an alien that is obliged silently to bear the insults of the natives,
or else she might courteously retort, that nonsense without Music
is as frequently heard on the English stage, as with it on the
Italian; indeed, when Metastasio is the poet, who will venture to
say that either good sense or good poetry is banished from the
stage?
But it does not clearly appear, because Music and decorations
were added to Shakspeare's Tempest and Macbeth, that one theatre
was in greater want of sense at this time than another. I have
seen the dramas as they were altered by Shadwell and Sir William
D'Avenant, and in the latter find that little was curtailed from the
original play, or sung, but what is still sung, and to the same
Music set by Matthew Lock, of which the rude and wild excellence
cannot be surpassed. In the operas, as they were called, on
account of the Music, dancing, and splendid scenes with which they
were decorated, none of the fine speeches were made into songs,
nor was the dialogue carried on in recitative, which was never
attempted on our stage during the last century, throughout a whole
piece. Indeed, it never fully succeeded in this, if we except the
Artaxerxes of the late Dr. Arne; whose Music, being of a superior
kind to what our stage had been accustomed, and better sung,
found an English audience that could even tolerate recitative. In
the censure of these musical dramas, which has been retailed from
one writer to another, ever since the middle of Charles the Second's
reign to the present time, the subject seems never to have been
candidly and fairly examined; and, indeed, it appears as if there
had been no great cause of complaint against the public taste for
frequenting such representations, particularly those written by
Shakspeare, in which the principal characters were performed by
Mr. and Mrs. Betterton, as was the case in Macbeth, though Music,
machinery, and dancing were profusely added to the treat (z).
(2) Of Betterton 's merit as an actor every one has heard and read; but Mrs. Betterton,
according to Gibber, was "at once tremendons and delightful." in the part of Ladv Macbeth.
See his Life, chap. v.
643
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The Tempest, the first of these semi-operas, was given to the
public early in 1673.* And in February of the same year, Psyche.
This last was a close imitation of a musical drama written in French
by Moliere, and set by Lulli in 1672, in the manner of the Italian
operas which Cardinal Mazarine had had performed to Louis XIV.
during his minority.** The Music of Psyche, as performed in
London, was not printed till 1675, when it was published with the
following title: "The English Opera; or the vocal Musick in
Psyche, with the instrumental therein intermix' d. To which
is adjoyned the instrumental Music in the Tempest. By Matthew
Lock, composer in ordinary to his Majesty, and Organist to the
Queen." This publication is dedicated to James duke of
Monmouth. There is a preface of some length by the composer,
Matthew Lock, which, like his Music, is rough and nervous,
exactly corresponding with the idea which is generated of his
private character, by the perusal of his controversy with Salmon,
and the sight of his picture in the music-school, at Oxford. It is
written with that natural petulance which probably gave birth to
most of the quarrels in which he was involved. He begins with a
complaint of the tendency of his brother musicians " to peck and
carp at other men's conceptions, how mean soever may be their
own. And expecting to fall under the lash of some soft-headed or
hard-hearted composer, ' ' — he sets about removing ' ' the few blocks
at which they may take occasion to stumble," with a degree of
indignation that implies an irascible spirit under no great govern-
ance. The first objection which he thinks likely to be made, is to
the word opera, to which he answers that it is a word borrowed
from the Italian, who by it distinguished this kind of drama from
their comedies, which, after a plan is laid, are spoken extempore',
whereas this is not only designed, but written with art and industry;
and afterwards set to suitable Music. In which idea he has
produced the following compositions, which, for the most part,
are " in their nature soft, easie, and, as far as his abilities could
reach, agreeable to the design of the poet. For in them there is
ballad to single air, counterpoint, recitative, fugue, canon, and
chromatick Musick, which variety, without vanity be it said, was
* According to W. J. Lawrence, in The Elizabethian Playhouse (1912), this production
was early in 1674.
It is probable that in the original production of the Tempest some music by Pelham
Humfrey was used.
There is an entry for May 16, 1674, in the L.C.R. (5/15, p. 3) as follows:— "It is his
Ma*|es pleasure that Mr. Turner & Mr. Hart or any other Men or Boyes belonging to His
Maties Chappell Royall that sing in ye Tempest at His Royall Highnesse Theatre doe remaine
in Towne all the Weeke (dureing His Maties absence from Whitehall) to performe that service,
only Saterdayes to repaire to Windsor & to return to London on Mundayes if there be
occacion for them. And that (they) also performe ye like Service in ye Opera in ye said
Theatre or any other tiling in ye like Nature where their helpe may be desired."
It is not known with certainty if the music to Macbeth was by Locke. Downes, in the
Roscius Anglicanus (1708), ascribes it to him, and Boyce published the score in 17.50 with
Locke's name as the Composer. It has been claimed for Purcell, Eccles, and Leveridge.
**This production was on January 17, 1671. Some of the music was by Quinault.
According to Downe's (Roscius Anglicanus) the English Psyche was produced in February,
.1673. _ Mr. Montague Summers in his Shakespeare Adaptations (London, 1922) disputes this
date and states that Psyche "was not performed until later in the same year. The "opera" was
the work of Shadwell and Locke.
.644
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ENGLAND TO 1700
never in court or theatre, till now presented, in this nation." He
confesses, however, that something had been attempted before in
this way of composition, but more by himself than any other. And
adds, " that the author of the drama prudently considering, that
though Italy was and is the great academy of the world for
music and this species of entertainment, yet as this piece was to
be performed in England, which is entitled to no such praise, he
mixed it with interlocutor, as more proper to our genius."
He concludes his peevish preface by confessing, that " thei
instrumental Musick before and between the acts, and the entries
in the acts of Psyche were omitted by the consent of the author,
Signor Gio. Baptista Draghi; and that the tunes of the entries
and dances in the Tempest (the dances being changed) were omitted
for the same reason."
Here we have a short history of these early attempts at Dramatic
Music on our stage, in which, as in the most successful representa-
tions of this kind in later times, the chief part of the dialogue was
spoken, and recitative, or musical declamation, which seems to be
the true criterion and characteristic of Italian operas, but seldom
used, unless merely to introduce some particular airs and choruses :
as in the modern Comus, the air, " On ev'ry hill, in ev'ry dale,"
is preceded by the short recitative " How gentle was my Damon's
air."
Upon examining this Music, it appears to have been very much
composed on Lulli's model. The melody is neither recitative nor
air, but partaking of both, with a change of measure as frequent as
in any old serious French opera I ever saw. Lock had genius and
abilities in harmony sufficient to have surpassed his model, or to
have cast his movements in a mould of his own making; but such
was the passion of Charles II. and consequently of his court at this
time, for every thing French, that in all probability Lock was
instructed to imitate Cambert and Lulli. His Music for the Witches
in Macbeth, which when produced in 1674 [1672], was as smooth
and airy as any of the time, has now obtained, by age, that wild
and savage cast which is admirably suitable to the diabolical
characters that are supposed to perform it.
In his third introductory Music to the Tempest, which is called a
curtain tune, probably from the curtain being first d;tawn up
during the performance of this species of overture, he has, for the
-first time, that has come to my knowledge, introduced the use of
crescendo (louder by degrees), with diminuendo, and lentando,
under the words soft and slow by degrees. No other instruments
are mentioned in the score of his opera of Psyche, than violins for
the ritornels; and yet, so slow was the progress of that instrument
during the last century, that in a general catalogue of Music in
1701, scarce any compositions appear to have been printed for its
use.
About this time the attempts at Dramatic Music were frequent;
and in order to give us a true taste for such exhibitions, Cambert,
645
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
organist of the church of St. Honore at Paris, and the first French
musician who had tried to set an opera, having quitted France in
chagrin at Louis XIV. having taken from him the management of
that spectacle and given it to Lulli, came to London, and was
appointed master of King Charles the Second's band. His opera
of Pomone, written by P. Perrin, seems to have been performed in
1672 at court, in its original language, as no record of it occurs in
our dramatic writers; but, according to Giles Jacob, his Ariadne,
or the Marriage of Bacchus, translated into English, "was presented
by the Academy of Music, at the theatre-royal, in Covent-Garden,
1674, by the gentlemen of the Academy of Music." I know of no
theatre-royal in Covent-Garden at this time, nor do we meet with
any mention of an English Academy of Music at this period. It
is said, in the Histoire de la Musique, Tom. I. that Cambert, who
died at London in 1677, broke his heart on account of the bad
success of his operas in England.*
Downes, the prompter, tells us that the scenes, machines,
dresses and other necessary decorations of Psyche, cost upwards
of £.800, so that, though it was performed eight days together, it
did not prove so profitable to the managers as the Tempest.
In 1677, Mr. Charles D'Avenant wrote a dramatic opera called
Circe, which was set to Music by John Banister, the king's first
violin, and performed under the poet's own direction at the Duke's
theatre, with considerable applause. The prologue was written by
Dryden, and the epilogue by the Earl of Rochester.**
Dryden from this time became an advocate for this species of
exhibition, and in 1678, he wrote an opera entitled the State of
Innocence and Fall of Man [Paradise Lost] ; but this production,
though printed, was never set or brought on the stage. And after
the several essays at lyric poetry and Dramatic Music that have
been mentioned, the King's theatre languished without Music and,
the Duke's ran in debt with it; so that shaking hands, and uniting
their performers and interests, they formed only one company at
Drury-lane, in 1682. This union, however, does not seem to have
been so advantageous to the managers and actors as was expected;
and in 1685, the last year of King Charles II. they appear again
to have been separated, and the Duke's company renewing their
attempts at opera, in Dorset-garden, with the assistance of
Dryden for lyric poet. The times were turbulent, and this great
writer, firm to the interest, or at least the wishes, of the court, wrote
an allegorical, or rather political, drama, which he calls an opera,
by the title of Albion and Albanius; and to render it still more
grateful to his royal master, he had it set by a French composer
* See editor's note p. 648 with regard to Cambert. Ariadne was by Grabu. The music with
French and English versions ot the words was published in 1C73-4.
** A MS. copy of the 1st Act of Circe is in the Library of the R.C.M.
646
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ENGLAND TO 1700
of the name of Grabut, an obscure musician, whose name is not
to be found in the French annals of the art.*
This drama, written under the auspices of King Charles II. was
rehearsed several times, as the author informs us in his preface,
before his Majesty, " who had publicly declared, more than once,
that the compositions and choruses were more just, and more
beautiful, than any he had heard in England." I believe this
prince was not very skilful in Music, nor very sensible to the charms
of any species of it but that of France, of the gayest kind; however,
royal approbation is flattering and extensive in its influence.
Unfortunately for the poet and musician, his Majesty died before
it was brought on the stage; and when it did appear, the success
seems not to have been very considerable (a).
Dryden throughout the preface to this piece, in his usual manner
diffuses entertainment and instruction; and though he probably had
never seen or heard a single scene of an Italian opera performed,
his definition of that species of drama, and precepts for its
construction and perfection are admirable, and in many respects
still applicable to similar exhibitions (b).
(a) Upon a perusal of this drama, it seems hardly possible, so near a revolution, that it
should have escaped condemnation upon party principles; as, under obvious allegories, Dryden
has lashed the city of London, democracy, fanatiscini, and whatever he thought obnoxious to
the spirit of the government at that period. Had Orpheus himself not only composed the poem
and the Music but performed the principal part, his powers would have been too feeble to
charm such unwilling hearers.** ,
(6) "An opera," says he, "is a poetical tale, or fiction, represented by vocal and
instrumental Music, adorned with scenes, machines, and dancing. The supposed persons of
this musical drama are generally supernatural, as gods, and goddesses, and heroes, which at
least are descended from them, and in due time are to be adopted into their number. The
subject, therefore, being extended beyond the limits of human nature, admits of that sort of
marvellous and surprising conduct, which is rejected in other plays. Human impossibilities
are to be received, as they are in faith; because, where gods are introduced, a supreme power
is to be understood, and second causes are out of doors: yet propriety is to be observed even
here. The gods are all to manage their peculiar provinces; and what was attributed by the
Heathens to one power, ought not to be performed by any other. If the persons represented
were to speak on the stage, it would follow of necessity, that the expressions should be lofty,
figurative, and majestical; but the nature of an opera denies the frequent use of these poetical
ornaments; for vocal Music, though it often admits a loftiness of sound, yet always exacts a
melodious sweetness; or to distinguish yet more justly, the recitative part of an opera requires
a more masculine beauty of expression and sound : trie airs must abound in the softness and
variety of numbers; their principal intention being to please the hearing, rather than to gratify
the understanding. As the first inventors of any art or science, provided they have brought
it to perfection, are, in reason, to give laws to it; so whosoever undertakes the writing an
opera, is obliged to imitate the Italians, who have not only invented, but perfected this sort of
dramatic musical entertainment. We know that for some centuries, the knowledge of Music
has flourished principally in Italy, the mother of learning and of arts; that poetry and painting
have been there restored, and so cultivated by Italian masters, that all Europe has been
enriched out of their treasury.
"It is almost needless to sneak any thing of that noble language, in which this musical
drama was first invented and performed. All who are conversant in the Italian, cannot but
observe, that it is the softest, the sweetest, the most harmonious, not only of any modern
tongue, but even beyond any of the learned. It seems, indeed, to have been invented for the
sake of poetry and Music; the vowels are so abounding in all words, and the pronunciation so
manly and so sonorous, that their very speaking has more of Music in it than Dutch poetry or
song._ This language has in a manner been refined and purified from the Gothic, ever since
the time of Dante, which is above four hundred years ago; and the French, who now cast a
longing eye to their country, are not less ambitious to possess their elegance in poetry and
Music; in both which they labour at impossibilities: for nothing can be improved beyond its
own species, or further than its own original nature will allow : as one with an ill-toned voice,
though ever so well instructed in the rules of Music, can never make a great singer. The
English have yet more natural disadvantages than the French; our original Teutonic consisting
most in monosyllables, and those incumbered with consonants, cannot possibly be freed from
those inconveniences."
* An opera by Grabu entitled Ariadne was produced at Drury Lane in 1674, but with
no success. Albion and Albanius was produced at Dorset Garden on June 6, 1685, and only
ran for six nights.
** Hawkins in his History of Music quotes some satirical verses on this production.
647
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
He tells us, that " this opera was only intended as a prologue
to a play of the nature of the Tempest; which is a tragedy mixed
with opera, or a drama written in blank verse, adorned with
scenes, machines, songs, and dances; so that the fable of it is all
spoken and acted by the best of the comedians; the other part of
the entertainment to be performed by the same singers and dancers
who are introduced in this present opera (c)."
The tragedy here alluded to was King Arthur, which was not
performed till about the year 1690 [1691] (d); by which time the
fame and productions of Purcell had convinced Dryden, that it was
not necessary to import composers from France for the support
of what were then called operas in England. Further notice has
been taken of this musical drama in speaking of our great country-
man's productions for the theatre, as well as those of the church
and chamber. As to the eloge bestowed by Dryden on M. Grabut,
some of it, I fear, must be placed to the account of flattery to his
royal master Charles II. as well as to this artist, who had been set
over the King's band at the decease of Cambert;* which not being
very agreeable to the Antigallicans of this country, or, indeed, to
unprejudiced judges of Music, while we were in possession of a
native composer whose genius was equal to that of the greatest
musicians of Europe; though from his situation, short life, and the
barbarous state of secular Music, during the period in which he
flourished, his genius was less cultivated than that of many great
professors of later times.
By Dramatic Opera, Dryden, and writers of his time, mean a
drama that is declaimed or spoken, and in which songs and
symphonies are introduced; differing from real operas, where there
is no speaking, and where the narrative part and dialogue is set to
recitative.
Cibber (e), speaking of the Dramatic Operas of the last century,
tells us, that " the sensual taste for sight and sound was lashed by
several good prologues in those days." This agreeable and lively
writer, however, says very spiritedly afterwards, that when the
bombast of Nat. Lee, came from the mouth of a Betterton, the
(c) Langbaine, who published his account of English dramas and dramatic poets in 1691,
is silent concerning this tragedy.
(d) This is the plan that has of late years been so successfully followed by Bickerstaff,
and others, in the comic-operas that have appeared on the English stage. To say the truth,
though recitative was tolerated in Dr. Arne's Artaxerxes in favour of the airs, sung by
favourite singers, we have properly no national recitative, as Mr. Mason has well observed :
Essay on Cathedral Music, p. 47. a work in which there are many remarks that do honour
to the refined taste of the author in all the polite arts; and are well worthy the attention of
our ecclesiastical composers.
(e) Apology for his Life, chap. iv.
* Cambert was killed in 1677, and there is no record of him in connection with member-
ship of the King's Band. There is an entry in the L.C. Vol. 774, p. 16, dated July 4, 1674,
as follows : — " Order that the twelve violins following doe meet in his Majesty's theatre within
the palace of Whitehall on Wednesday morning next by seven of the clock, to practice after
such manner as Monsr. Combert shall enforme them, which things are hereafter to be presented
before his Majesty at Windsor upon Saturday next."
Then follows the names of the twelve violinists. There is a similar order in L.C. Vol. 482.
Grabu's appointment as leader of the King's Band was in 1666.
648
DRAMATIC MUSIC IN ENGLAND TO 1700
multitude no more desired sense to them, than our musical con-
noisseurs think it essential in the celebrated airs of an Italian
opera." But he speaks like a man ignorant of Music and insensible
to its effects. Without a voice and poetry, an excellent air, played
by an instrument, has its merit; it is not nonsense to musical ears,
like a mere speaking voice which only articulates nonsense. But
whatever nonsense was sung at the beginning of operas in England,
Cibber lived long enough to hear and read the dramas of Metastasio,
which deserve a better title. At an opera, modulated sound is the
chief language, it is animated by articulation, figure, and gesture;
but still the principal ingredient of our pleasure there is sound.
Cibber allows, page 91, that " irresistible pleasure may arise
from " a judicious elocution, with scarce any sense to assist it,"
yet seems to deny, or forget, the possibility of being pleased with
judicious and exquisite singing in the same degree and circum-
stances. Bad actors and bad singers require good writing and
composition to render them supportable; but great actors and great
singers make every thing they utter interesting. And page 93, just
after speaking of Betterton's powers, he seems to have stumbled
on the following reflexion: " if the bare speaking voice has such
allurements in it, how much less ought we to wonder, however we
lament, that the sweet notes of vocal Music should so have
captivated even the politer world, into apostacy of sense to the
idolatry of sound " — But why lament? and why are all lovers of
good Music, well performed, to be regarded as ideots, and apostates
to sense? Did not the Greeks, the wisest and most philosophic
race of men to be found in the annals of the world, delight in Music
of all kinds? And is not every civilised and polished nation
delighted with Music, in proportion to the progress they
have made in the cultivation of the mind? Is it a necessary
consequence that every lover and judge of Music should be
insensible to the merits of a great actor, and the charms of elocu-
tion? Had not Betterton, Booth, and Garrick their share of praise
and admiration? and has it been denied to Mrs. Siddons? Are
not the subscribers boxes at the opera frequently empty on the
nights she plays, however good the Music and performance? The
prejuge du metier is a little too evident in the old comedian's
account of the power of Music, however he tried to work himself
into candour. " It is to the vitiated and low taste of the spectator
that the corruptions of the stage of all kinds have been owing. If
the public were to discountenance and declare against all the trash
and fopperies they have been so frequently fond of, both the actor
and authors must have served their daily table with sound and
wholesome diet." — This is still supposing Music and every species
of lyric poetry trash and fopperies. It is not the business of actors
or patentees to be convinced that Music vocal or instrumental ever
can be good, however well performed, in any theatre but their own.
Dramatic, and melodramatic poets, singers and declaimers, have
ever been at war; they open different shops, and there is no good
649
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ware but what they sell (/). If men were to be reasoned out of
their senses by any one of them, the world would not perhaps be
a bit the fitter to live or die in. The opera house is the shop I have
most frequented of late years, but not from contempt of theatrical
merit elsewhere, which has had its full share both of my time and
admiration.
The same sprightly writer (g) urges a stronger objection to these
musical dramas, than their want of sense, by saying, that notwith-
standing Purcell's operas of the Prophetess and King Arthur, in
which the patentees had embarked all their hopes, were set off with
the most expensive decorations of scenes and habits, with the best
voices and dancers, and though their success was, in appearance,
very great, yet the whole receipts did not so far ballance their
expence, as to keep them out of a large debt contracted at this time,
and which found work for a Court of Chancery for about twenty
years following.
It is only in times of distress that managers have recourse to
Music and dancing: when the actors are good and in favour, they
are sure of the national attention and patronage; but if, as is
often the case, the attempts at opera on the English stage are
aukward, and the agents possessed of but ordinary talents, this
good effect is produced, that, after quickening appetite in the public
by abstinence, they return with eagerness to their natural food.
(/) "It has been always judged their natural interest, when there are two theatres, to do
ODe another as much mischief as possible." Life of Cibber, p. 164.
(g) Ibid, chap. iv.
650
Chapter VI
Origin of the Italian Opera in England,
and its Progress there during the present Century
IT has been already shewn that whatever attempts were made
at musical dramas in England during the seventeenth century,
the language in which they were sung, was always English.
The stilo recitativo was, indeed, brought hither from Italy early
in that century, by Nicholas Laniere (h); but it was applied to
English only. And, afterwards, Henry Lawes and others continued
to affect this species of narrative melody in their dialogues and
historical songs, till the Restoration, when a taste for French Music
prevailed in all our concerts and theatrical Music, in order to flatter
the partiality of Charles II. for every thing which came from that
nation. About the middle of this prince's reign, the great favour
in which the musical drama was held at the court of Lewis XIV.
under the direction of Lulli, of which, from the great intercourse
between the two nations, frequent accounts must have been brought
hither, stimulated a desire in our monarch and his courtiers to
establish similar performances in London. And we find that
Cambert, the predecessor of Lulli, as lyric composer at Paris,
had his opera of Pomone, which was originally composed for the
court of Versailles, by what, in imitation of France, was called an
Academy of Music, performed in London; and after his decease,
that Monsieur Grabut was employed by Dryden to set his opera of
Albion and Albanius, in preference to our own Purcell, or any
Italian composer that could be found.
The partiality for French Music, or French politics, in England
during the short reign of King James II. was not so conspicuous.
Nor can any complaints reasonably be made of the predilection of
King William and Queen Mary for that nation. We find, however,
by the advertisements of the times, that a taste for Italian Music
was coming on before the close of the last century. Indeed, during
the reign of Queen Elizabeth the poetry and Music of Italy were
much esteemed by the English, and the madrigals of that country
served as models to our own masters in cultivating that species of
Music. But Italian Music was long talked of and performed in
England, before we heard of Italian singing. Reggio [d. 1685],
(h) See Book III. p. 278.
651
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
about this time, seems to have been the first who Was noticed for his
superior taste as a singing master. And now Italian singing seems
to be gaining ground in this country, which naturally led to the
establishment of operas, in which a variety of performers might
have an opportunity of displaying their vocal talents in a style of
singing, of which the specimens they had heard afforded lovers of
Music so much pleasure.
In 1692, an advertisement in the London Gazette (No. 2834.)
acquaints the public that " the Italian lady (that is lately come
over that is so famous for her singing) though it has been reported
that she will sing no more in the consort at York-buildings; yet
this is to give notice, that next Tuesday, January 10th, she will
sing there, and so continue during the season."*
A fortnight after, this lady is more familiarly called the Italian
woman, in the notice given in the Gazette, that she would not
only sing at York-buildings every Tuesday, but on Thursday, in
Freeman 's-yard, Cornhill.
April 3d, 1693, Signor Tosi, the celebrated author of a Treatise
on Singing,** advertises " a Consort of Musick, in Charles'-street,
in Covent-Garden, about eight of the clock, in the evening (*),
And October 26th, of the same year, it is said (k), that "Seignor
Tosi's Consort of Musick will begin on Monday the 30th inst. in
York-buildings, at eight in the evening, to continue weekly all the
winter. ' '
In January 1696, Nicola Matteis's Music, that was performed
on St. Cecilia's day, is advertised. And 1698, his consort of vocal
and instrumental Music, in York-buildings. In December of the
same year, and at the same place, a new entertainment of vocal
Music is promised, through the same channel, by Seigneur Fidelio.
In November 1702, a consort at York-buildings is advertised in
the Daily Courant, " by performers lately come from Rome."
November 19th, this Italian consort is repeated; and again in
December. On the 26th likewise of this month, a consort is
advertised " at Hickford's dancing-school, by Sig. Saggioni of
Venice, in which Sig. Gasparini will play singly on the violin (/)."
Gasparini had performed at Drury-lane the 22d of the same month,
where he was called in the advertisements " the famous Sig.
Gasparini lately arrived from Rome."
The next year, 1703, Sig. Gasparini and Sig. Petto performed
together at the concerts in York-buildings, and Sig. Saggioni lately
arrived from Italy composes. They are likewise advertised to
accompany the singers in Purcell's Fairy Queen, at Drury-lane.
In March this year, Sig Francesco had a concert at York-buildings,
with songs by Signora Anna, lately arrived from Rome.
(i) London Gazette, No. 2858. (ft) Ibid. No. 2917.
(/) Hickford's room continued the fashionable place for concerts till Mrs. Cornelis's room,
Soho-square. the Pantheon, and Hanover-square rooms, were built.
* The Italian Lady was Francesca M. de l'Epine, who is mentioned by Burney a few
paragraphs later. She was the first Italian to sing in English in public.
** See editor's note p. 537.
652
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
May 14th, Sig. Gasparini had a play, the Relapse, for his
benefit at Drury-lane, when he performed several new Italian
sonatas', and being afterwards repeated, it seems as if they had been
favourably received.
June 1st, in the theatrical advertisement for Lincoln's Inn-fields,
where the Rival Queens was promised; it is said that " Signora
Francesca Margarita de l'Epine will sing, being positively the
last time of her singing on the stage during her stay in England."
She continued, however, singing more last, and positively last
times, during the whole month; and never quitted England, but
remained here till the time of her death, about the middle of the
present century. This lady came from Italy to England with a
German musician of the name of Greber; and seems to have been
one of the first Italian female singers who appeared on our stage,
before any attempt had been made at an Italian Opera. We shall
have frequent occasions to mention her, hereafter, among the
performers in those representations, till the year 1718, when, retiring
from the stage, she married Dr. Pepusch.
This year, 1703, Signora Maria Margherita Gallia, sister of
Marg. de l'Epine, and scholar of Nicola Haym, first appeared at
the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, as a singer.*
In July, Italian intermezzi, or " interludes and mimical
entertainments of singing and dancing," were performed at York-
buildings. This was the first attempt at dramatic Music, in action,
perhaps, in the kingdom.
In November, Music at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, by Sig. Olsii, just
arrived from Italy. And a subscription concert begins at the
same theatre, in which Mrs. Tofts sings several Italian and English
songs. This lady, the constant rival of Margarita, was a principal
singer in all the first operas that were performed on our stage in
English, and in part English and part Italian, before a sufficient
number of singers from Italy could be found to perform the whole
in the language of that country.
1704. Sig. Gasparini continues to play Italian sonatas at the
playhouse (m), and Mrs. Tofts to sing at the subscription Music.
There was a prologue and epilogue to this Music, and dances were
introduced between the acts of the performance. January 29th,
Signora Margarita sings, for the first time, at Drury-lane. At her
second appearance there was a disturbance in the theatre, while she
was singing, which, from the natural and common effects of rival
malice, was suspected to have been created by the emissaries of
Mrs. Tofts; an idea the more difficult to eradicate as the principal
agent had happened to live with that lady as a servant. But as
(m) Corelli's name was not yet mentioned in the advertisements to concerts or musical
performances at the playhouses. And the first time I have found any of his works mentioned
in the lists of musical publications is in Walsh Catalogue 1705.**
* The inclusion- of the name Margherita is incorrect. Maria Gallia was the wife of
Saggioni mentioned above. For one season of nine months she received the then large sum
of £700. - ■ ........ .-■..--
** But _s.ee editor's, note Book 3, p. 399, with reference to this.
653
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the law of retaliation is frequently practised on the like occasions
by the injured party, it was thought necessary, a few days after, to
insert the following paragraph and letter in the Daily Courant,
February 8th, 1704. " Ann Barwick having occasioned a
disturbance at the theatre-royal Drury-lane, on Saturday night
last, the 5th of February, and being thereupon taken into custody,
Mrs. Tofts, in vindication of her innocency, sent a letter to Mr.
Rich, master of the said theatre, which is as followeth: Sir, I was
very much surprised when I was informed that Ann Barwick, who
was lately my servant, had committed a rudeness last night at the
playhouse, by throwing of oranges, and hissing when Mrs. L'Epine,
the Italian gentlewoman, sung. I hope no one can think that it
was in the least with my privity, as I assure you it was not. I
abhor such practices; and I hope you will cause her to be prosecuted,
that she may be punished, as she deserves. I am, Sir, your
humble servant, Katharine Tofts.
" To Christ. Rich, Esq. at the theatre-royal, Feb. 6, 1704."
The musical drama, or opera, being at this time cultivated and
in general favour on the Continent, a new musical entertainment,
" after the manner of an opera," called Britain's Happiness, was
brought out at both our theatres within a few days of each other :
the vocal part of that which was performed at Drury-lane being
composed by Weldon, the instrumental by Dieupart; and in that
performed at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, Leveridge was the composer of
the whole Music* In June this year, Matthew Lock's opera of
Psyche was revived. And in July, Circe, an English opera, set by
Banister in Charles the Second's time. But none of these musical
pieces seem to have drawn together much company, as their run
was very short.
1705. We are now arrived at that precise period of time, when
the first real opera upon an Italian model, though not in the Italian
language, was attempted on our stage. Cibber very justly says,
in the Apology for his Life, chap. ix. that " the Italian Opera had
been long stealing into England; but in as rude a disguise, and
unlike itself, as possible, in a lame, hobbling translation, into our
own language, with false quantities, or metre out of measure, to
its original notes, sung by our own unskilful voices, with graces
misapplied to almost every sentiment, and with action lifeless and
unmeaning through every character. ' ' Of the merit of the performers
we are now only able to form a judgment by tradition; but of the
poetry and Music of the first operas, as they are printed, and are
now before me, under examination, a fair opinion may be deduced
of their comparative merit, not only with similar productions of
the present times, but with those of the same period in France and
Italy.
The first musical drama that was wholly performed after the
Italian manner, in recitative for the dialogue or narrative parts, and
measured melody for the airs, was Arsinoe Queen of Cyprus,
* According to Grove's the music to both these productions was by Leveridge.
654
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
translated from an Italian opera of the same name, written by
Stanzani of Bologna, for that theatre, in 1677, and revived at
Venice 1678. The English version of this opera was set to Music by
Thomas Clayton [c. 1670-c. 1730], one of the Royal-band in the
reign of King William and Queen Mary, who having been in Italy,
had not only persuaded himself, but had the address to persuade
others, that he was equal to the task of reforming our taste in Music,
and establishing operas in our own language, not inferior to those
which were then so much admired on the Continent. In his preface
to the printed book of the words, he says, that " the design of this
entertainment being to introduce the Italian manner of Musick on
the English stage, which has not been before attempted, I was
obliged to have an Italian Opera translated: in which the words,
however mean in several places, suited much better with that
manner of Musick, than others more poetical would do. The style
of this Musick is to express the passions, which is the soul of Musick ;
and though the voices are not equal to the Italian, yet I have
engaged the best that were to be found in England; and I have not
been wanting, to the utmost of my diligence, in the instructing of
them. The Musick being recitative, may not, at first, meet with
that general acceptation, as is to be hoped for, from the audience's
being better acquainted with it: but if this attempt shall be a
means of bringing this manner of Musick to be used in my native
country, I shall think my study and pains very well employed."
The singers were all English, consisting of Messrs. Hughes,
Leveridge, and Cook; with Mrs. Tofts, Mrs. Cross, and Mrs.
Lyndsey. This opera was first performed at Drury-lane, January
16th, by subscription; the pit and boxes were reserved for
subscribers, the rest of the theatre was open as usual, at the
subscription Musics (»). In the Daily Courant, Arsinoe is called
(») The Queen's theatre in the Haymarket, since called the opera-house, was not then
finished. There were but two theatres now open : Drury-lane and Lincoln's-Inn Fields.
Betterton, who was at the head of the Lincoln's-Inn Fields company, removed to the new
theatre, built by Sir John Vanburgh, in the Hay-market, April 9th, 1705; when it was opened
with a new prologue, written by Sir Samuel Garth, and spoken by Mrs. Bracegirdle. The play
was Dryden's Indian Emperor, with singing by the Italian boy. April 23d, The Merry Wives oj
Windsor, Falstafi by Betterton, with dancing by Mad. de la Val. And on the 24th, a new
farce called The Consultation; after which was performed an Indian pastoral, called the Loves
of Ergasto* set to Music by Giacomo Greber, the German musician who had brought over
from Italy Margarita de l'Epine; the part of Licoris by the Italian boy. And this was the
first attempt at dramatic Music in the opera-house. The company continued acting plays here
till the end of June, when there were three representations of Love for Love, acted all by
women. July 20th, according to the Daily Courant, Betterton and his company returned to
the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, where they continued to act till the Queen's theatre was
entirely finished. 1 am the more minute about the first performances in this theatre, as
Cibber's account, which has been generally followed by others, is very inaccurate. October 30th,
Betterton and his company quitted Lincoln's Inn Fields a second time, and returning to the
Hay-market, opened that theatre, not with an opera, but with Sir John Vanburgh's comedy of
the Confederacy, which was now acted for the first time. This excellent comedy, though the
parts were very strongly cast (Leigh, Dogget, and Booth, being among the men, and Mrs.
Barry, Mrs. Porter, and Mrs. Bracegirdle, among the women) ran but six nights successively,
though the performance of M. des Barques, a dancer just arrived from France, was added to
the entertainment. It was, indeed, repeated once in November, and twice in December, this
year; but it was generally found necessary, even in a new theatre, and with so strong a
company, to fortify the best plays with dances or Music, and often with both. Sometimes
there was singing in Italian and English, by Signora Maria, as lately taught by Signor N.
Haym : and sometimes Music composed by Signor Bononcini, and songs by Signora Lovicini,
&c. Daily Courant.
* According to W. H. Grattan Flood this performance was on Easter Monday, April 9, 1705.
t>55
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
" a new opera, after the Italian manner, all sung, being set by
Master Clayton, with dances and singing before and after the opera,
by Signora F. Margarita del'Epine." This singing was probably
in Italian.*
Clayton is supposed to have brought from Italy a collection of
the favourite opera airs of the time, from which he pillaged
passages and adapted them to English words; but this is doing the
Music of Arsinoe too much honour. In the title-page of the Music,
printed by Walsh, we are assured that it was wholly composed by
Mr. Thomas Clayton; and in justice to the masters of Italy at that
time, it may be allowed to be his own, as nothing so mean in
melody and incorrect in counterpoint was likely to have beenj
produced by any of the reigning composers of that time. For not
only the common rules of musical composition are violated in every
song, but the prosody and accents of our language. The translation is
wretched; but it is rendered much more absurd by the manner in
which it is set to Music. Indeed, the English must have hungered
and thirsted extremely after dramatic Music at this time, to be
attracted and amused by such trash. It is scarce credible, that in
the course of the first year this miserable performance, which
neither deserved the name of a drama by its poetry, nor an opera
by its Music, should sustain twenty-four representations, and the
second year eleven !
Clayton associated with him in this undertaking, Nicola Haym
and Charles Dieupart, men of musical abilities infinitely superior
to his own; the one performed the principal violoncello in the.
opera, to which instrument several of the symphonies and principal
accompaniments were assigned, and the other the first violin.
The opera of Camilla, written, or rather translated from the
Italian of Silvio Stampiglio, by Owen Mac Swiney, and performed
by the same English singers as Arsinoe, appeared at Drury-lane
by subscription April 30th, 1706, with a prologue written by Mr.
Mainwaring.** It was represented nine times before the 9th of July,
when the Drury-lane company removed to her Majesty's theatre in
Dorset-gardens, where Camilla and Arsinoe were again performed.
The company returning again to Drury-lane November the 30th,
continued from time to time the performance of this first English
edition of that celebrated opera.
At the theatre in the Hay-market a subscription was likewise
opened for an opera, but very unsuccessfully : for Cibber says, that
in order " to strike in with the prevailing novelty, Sir John
Vanbrugh and Mr. Congreve, patentees, opened their new Hay-
market theatre with a translated opera, to Italian Music, called the
Triumph of Love, but this not having in it the charms of Camilla,
either from the inequality in the Music, or voices, had but a cold
* Clayton's Arsinoe was to an English text by Motteux, and was produced at Drury
Lane on January 16, 1706.
** The music of Camilla was composed by M. A. Bononcini.
656
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
reception, being performed but three days, and those not crowded."
This account is exact in no particular, but the bad success of the
opera; indeed, that was worse than this celebrated comedian and
lively writer has made it; for in the Daily Courant, and other
news-papers of the times, I find it advertised but twice : March 7th
and 16th; but Gibber had forgotten even the name of the piece,
which was not the Triumph, but the Temple of Love* It was set
by Greber the German, and could not with accuracy be called
Italian Music. The principal singer in this opera was his scholar,
Margarita de 1 Epine, commonly called Greber's Peg. Then
again he errs by saying, that the theatre was opened with this
opera; for on January 1st, 1706, Vanbrugh's Mistake was acted, in
which Betterton played Alvarez, and Booth Don Carlos; the
company continued to act plays only, every night till this opera was
brought out; which, after the second performance being laid aside,
no musical piece was attempted till April 5th, when Durfey's comic-
opera called the Wonders in the Sun, or the Kingdom of the Birds,
came out. This whimsical drama was dedicated to the celebrated
society of the Kit Cat Club, and furnished with the words of many
of its songs, by the most eminent wits of the age, who lent the
author their assistance.**
Nothing, however, like Italian Music, or fine singing, was
attempted in this piece, as the songs were all set to ballad tunes of
a true English growth. It was performed only five times, and then
seems to have been wholly laid aside, as was every plan for new
musical pieces during the rest of the year, at this theatre.
1707. Camilla, which had been performed in English and by
English singers, at Drury-lane sixteen times in the course of the
preceding year, continued to be acted in the same manner this year.
Indeed, operas, notwithstanding their deficiencies in poetry,
Music, and performance, for as yet no foreign composer or
captivating singer was arrived, became so formidable to our own
actors, that a subscription was opened the beginning of this year,
" for the encouragement of the comedians acting in the Hay-
market, and to enable them to keep the diversion of plays under
a separate interest from operas." Daily Courant, January 14th,
Cibber gives a circumstantial account of this humiliating
transaction, and speaks of its success with considerable triumph.
But such was now the passion for this exotic species of amuse-
ment, even in its lisping infant state, that the perspicacious critic
and zealous patriot, Mr. Addison, condescended to write an opera
foi the same English singers as were now employed in the perform-
ance of Camilla and Arsinoe at Drury-lane. And after ten
representations of the former, and three of the latter, this long
expected drama, for the performance of which a subscription was
* The Temple of Love was set by Saggione, the well-known double-bass player.
** The music was by G. B. Draghi.
Voiv. ii. 42. 657
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
opened, appeared March 4th, 1707 (o). Mr. Addison, though he
had visited Italy, and was always ambitious of being thought a
judge of Music, discovers, whenever he mentions the subject, a
total want of sensibility as well as knowledge in the art. But this
admirable writer and respectable critic in topics within his
competence, never manifested a greater want of taste and
intelligence in Music than when he employed Clayton to set his
opera of Rosamond. Indeed, it seems as if nothing but the
grossest ignorance, or defect of ear, could be imposed upon by the
pretensions of so shallow and contemptible a composer. But, to
judges of Music, nothing more need be said of Mr. Addison's
abilities to decide concerning the comparative degrees of national
excellence in the art (p), and the merit of particular masters, than
his predilection for the productions of Clayton, and insensibility to
the force and originality of Handel's compositions in Rinaldo, with
which every real judge and lover of Music seems to have been
captivated (q).
This opera, in spite of all its poetical merit, and the partiality of
a considerable part of the nation for English Music and English
singing, as well as fervent wish to establish this elegant species of
Music in our country without the assistance of foreigners, after
supporting with great difficulty only three representations, was
laid aside and never again performed to the same Music (r).
The verses of Rosamond are highly polished, and more lyrical
perhaps than in any poem of the same kind in our language. And
yet this drama is not wholly free from opera absurdities, on which
Addison was. afterwards so severely pleasant. For instance, the
King's approach to the secret bower of bliss, where his fair
Rosamond was treasured up from the resentment of his jealous
(o) The parts were cast in the following manner:
Queen Eleanor, Mrs. Tofts.
Page, Mr. Holcombe, usually called the boy.
Sir Trusty, keeper of the bower, Mr. Leveridge.
Grideline, his wife, Mrs. Linsey.
Rosamond, Sig. Maria Gallia.
King Henry, Mr. Hughs.
First Guardian Angel, Mr. Lawrence.
Second Guardian Angel- Miss Reading.
ip) See Spectator, No. 29.
(q) Ibid, No. 5, where he tells us, with a sneer, that Rossi, the poet, " calls Mynheer
Handel the Orpheus of our age; and acquaints the public, that he composed this opera in a
fortnight." If Mr. Addison had known the superior excellence of this Music over that of
Clayton, or any which had then been heard on our opera stage, the shortness of time in which
it was produced would have impressed him with wonder and respect for the author; but
trusting to Boileau's unjust and hasty decision, he treats this declaration and Tasso's poetry
with equal contempt.
(r) In the year 1733 this English drama was set, as a coup d' essai, by Thomas Aug.
Arne, afterwards Dr. Arne, and performed at the little theatre in the Haymarket; in which
his sister Miss Arne, afterwards Mrs. Cibber, performed the part of Rosamond; that admirable
actress appearing first on the stage in this character as a singer. The three following airs
were admirably set, and remained long in favour: "No, no, 'tis decreed — Was ever nymph
like Rosamond — and Rise glory, rise."*
* Mrs. Cibber's first public appearance on the stage was in the opera Amelia, by Lampe,
on March 13, 1732.
65*
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Queen, is always announced and published by a loud concert of
military instruments: Act I. Sc. 1.
"Hark, hark! what sound invades my ear?
The conqueror's approach I hear.
He comes, victorious Henry comes!
Hautbois, trumpets, fifes, and drums.
In dreadful concert join'd.
Send from afar the sound of war.
And fill with horror ev'ry wind."
It was the fashion in almost all the serious operas that were
written in Italy before the time of Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio
to mix comic and buffoon characters with the tragic, even in
dramme sacri, notwithstanding the severity of some Italian critics
upon our Shakspeare for the same practice (s).
And Mr. Addison has fully complied with this custom, in the
characters of Sir Trusty and Grideline, which are of the lowest
species of comic.
If it cannot be proved that gun-powder was invented and in
military use in the time of Henry II. Mr. Addison was guilty of
an anachronism in making him ask.
" Why did I not in battle fall
Crush'd by the thunder of the Gaul (£)?"
The loss of Rosamond in the second act of this drama is not
compensated by a single interesting event in the third, which drags
and languishes for want of her so much, that neither the flat and
forced humour of Sir Trusty and Grideline, nor the elegant
compliments made to the Duke of Marlborough and Blenheim, ever
kept the audience awake in the performance.
After the failure of this opera, from the attractions of which
such crouded houses were expected, another English opera was
brought out at Drury-lane, April 1st, called Thomyris Queen of
Scythia, written by Motteux, and adjusted, as he tells us in the
preface, to airs of Scarlatti and Bononcini.* The recitatives and
whole accompaniment of this pasticcio were committeed to the care
of Mr. afterwards, Dr. Pepusch. Nine representations of this
opera, and eight of Camilla, seem to have supplied the musical
wants of this theatre till the 6th of December, when Valentini
Urbani, a castrato, and a female singer called the Baroness,**
(s) II famoso Shakspeare, attore e autor tragico fiorl dopo la ineta del secolo XVI. e non
conobbe meglio de' Cinesi le regole delta verisimiglianza. Chiuse, com' essi, _ in una
rapprcsentazione di poche ore i jatti di' trent anni, e restb al di sotto dell' istesso Tespi per non
aver saputo separar il Tragico dal Comico. Stor. Crit. de' Teatri, p. 248.
(t) It is perhaps too frivolous to mention bad rhymes in a work of such length; but
modern critics would hardly pass uncensured such as these : plant, scent — unbarr'd, _ heard —
dream, am. It seems, however, as if Mr. Addison's ear for rhyme was no more nice than
for Music.
" And leave the arts of rhyme and verse
To those who practis'em with more success."
* The adaptation of Bononcini's Thomyris was the work of Haym.
** Warley, who made the catalogue of the Harleian Collection identifies the Baroness with
Hortensia, who was associated with Stradella, but as far as is known Hortensia and Stradella
were bo'th murdered at the same time in 1682. The Baroness appears to have been of German
extraction.
659
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
arrived; who, with Margarita de 1' Epine, were engaged at Drury-
lane to sing in the same opera of Camilla, and making use of
Bononcini's Music, performed their parts in Italian, while Mrs.
Tofts, Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Turner, Ramondon, and Leveridge,
performed theirs in English. And in this manner it was repeated
three several times : the public being always acquainted in the bills
of the day, that the part of Turnus would be performed by Signor
Valentini.
1708. By a sudden revolution in theatrical politics, Betterton
and his company of comedians, after the performance of Macbeth
for the benefit of Wilks, January 11th, abandoned their dominions
in the Hay-market wholly to foreign invaders, and uniting with
their rivals at Drury-lane, established themselves in their old
quarters. Cibber is again erroneous in his account of this
transaction, ascribing it chiefly to the arrival of Nicolini in this
kingdom. But this performer did not come to England till the end
of the year, and the opera phalanx marched from Drury-lane to
the Hay-market in January, when on the 14th of that month, under
General Swiney, they opened their first campaign. Thomyris,
which had been nine times represented before Christmas at Drury-
lane, was now performed with greater splendor; and alternately
with Camilla, continued in run till near the end of February. The
Music of Thomyris, though not of a high class, was superior to any
that had been yet heard in all the attempts at operas in this country :
the overture was of Bononcini's composition; the first movement is
well written, in Lulli's style; the second would have a turbulent
and tumultuous effect, if played by a powerful band; the third,
however, is a jig of little merit. As the airs of this opera are not
printed in score, . it is impossible to judge of their worth in point of
contrivance; the melodies are mostly short and simple; those of
Margarita and Lawrence have, however, several difficult passages
of execution. The singers were Valentini, Hughes, Lawrence, and
Leveridge; with Margarita, Mrs. Tofts, and Mrs. Lindsey (u).
In February this year, Signor Cassani, another Italian opera
singer from Italy, arrived, who, with new songs, first appeared in
the part of Mitius in Camilla. At this time a new subscription was
opened, the number of tickets at half a guinea each, not to exceed
four hundred. First gallery five shillings, upper gallery two
shillings. At the next performance of Camilla, tickets for the pit
and boxes were advertised at seven shillings and six pence. Stage
boxes ten shillings and six pence. Dances by Miss Santlow,
afterwards Mrs. Booth, and others.
At the end of this month was first brought out the pastoral
opera called Love's Triumph, under the direction of Valentini,
(«) Swiney was still sole manager at the Opera house; but it is insinuated by Motteux,
in the preface to Thomyris, that Heidegger had selected the Music. This personage afterwards
had the address to obtain and keep the management of the opera house during many years
of its greatest prosperity; Mr. Pope has honoured him with a place in the Dunciad, which,
added but little to his notoriety.
66o
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
who had the eighth and last representation for his benefit.* This
drama was written in Italian by Cardinal Ottoboni, and set to
Music by Carlo Cesarini Giovanni, detto del violone, and
Francesco Gasparini. English words were adjusted to the airs by
Motteux; and choruses with dances analogues, after the French
manner, were added as an experiment by Valentini, to try whether
our taste in dramatic Music inclined most to the French or Italian
style. The indifferent success of this opera acquitted us of all
suspicion of partiality to the Gallic taste in Music; for after five
representations Camilla and Thomyris were performed alternately
with Love's Triumph; and when Valentini's benefit was over,
March 17th, these two half Italian and half English operas, were
the support of the theatre during the rest of the season.
The opera-house opened late the ensuing winter on account of
the decease of Prince George of Denmark, who dying October 28th,
the theatres were all shut up till December 14th, when a new opera
was brought on the stage called Pyrrhus and Demetrius, written
originally in Italian by Adriano Morselli, and set to Music by
Alessandro Scarlatti, to which it was first performed at Naples,
1694. It was translated into English by Swiney, the manager,
and arranged by Nicola Haym, who composed a new overture and
several additional songs, which have considerable merit.
The performance of this drama forms an aera in the annals of
our lyric theatre, as it was the first in which the celebrated Cavalier
Nicolino Grimaldi, commonly known by the name of Nicolini,
appeared. This great singer, and still greater actor, was a
Neapolitan; his voice was at first a soprano, but afterwards
descended into a fine contralto. The first dramas in which I have
met with his name in Italy, were Tullo Ostilio, and Xerse, two
operas composed by John Bononcini for Rome, in 1694, in which
he performed with the celebrated Pistocchi, the founder of the
Bologna school of singing. So that Quadrio has ranked him
properly among the great opera singers who began to appear
between 1690 and 1700. In 1697 and 1698, I find him the principal
singer in the Neapolitan operas; and in 1699 and 1700 again at
Rome. From this time till his arrival in England, whither he was
drawn, as Cibber informs us, chap. xi. p. 315. by the report of our
passion for foreign operas, " without any particular invitation or
engagement," he sung at Venice, Milan, and other cities of Italy
where the musical drama was established.
Before his abilities as a singer are considered, let me remind the
reader of Sir Richard Steele's eloge upon him, in the Tatler, No
115, as an actor; where, after calling the opera (it was Pyrrhus and
Demetrius) ' ' a noble entertainment, ' ' he adds, ' ' for my own part
I was fully satisfied with the sight of an actor, who, by the grace
and propriety of his action and gesture, does honour to the human
* Valentini brought this opera with him from Italy. The text was translated by Motteux
and the production rights sold to Vanbrugh. The first performance was towards the end ol
February, 1708, and was probably sung in English.
6§i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
figure. Every one will imagine I mean Signor Nicolini, who sets
off the character he bears in an opera by his action, as much as
he does the words of it by his voice. Every limb and every
ringer contributes to the part he acts, insomuch that a deaf man
may go along with him in the sense of it. There is scarce a
beautiful posture in an old statue which he does not plant himself
in, as the different circumstances of the story give occasion for
it. He performs the most ordinary action in a manner suitable
to the greatness of his character, and shews the prince even in
the giving of a letter, or dispatching of a messenger. Our best
actors," continues he, " are somewhat at a loss to support them-
selves with proper gesture, as they move from any considerable
distance to the front of the stage; but I have seen the person, of
whom I am now speaking, enter alone at the remotest part of it,
and advance from it with such greatness of air and mien, as seemed
to fill the stage, and at the same time commanded the attention
of the audience with the majesty of his appearance."
The opera prices were raised on the arrival of this performer,
the first truly great singer who had ever sung in our theatre, to 15s.
for the boxes on the stage, half a guinea the pit and other boxes,
and first gallery five shillings. By what we can now gather
concerning the abilities of Signor Valentini from those who
frequented operas at this time, his voice was feeble, and hist
execution moderate; but " he supplied these defects so well by his
action," says Cibber, an excellent, and not partial judge of that
part of his performance, " that his hearers bore with the absurdity
of his singing the part of Turnus in Camilla, all in Italian, while
every other character was sung and recited in English." And
Mr. Galliard, a perfect judge of his merit as a singer, says, that
" though less powerful in voice and action than Nicolini, he was
more chaste in his singing." Indeed, Tosi, the author of an
excellent treatise on singing, is doubtful whether a perfect singer
can at the same time be a perfect actor; "for the mind being at
once divided by two different operations, he will probably incline
more to the one than the other; it being, however," continues he,
" much more difficult to sing well than to act well, the merit of
the first is beyond the second. What a felicity would it be to
possess both in a perfect degree? " And the excellent translator
of this work, the late Mr. Galliard, says, in a note on this passage,
written 1742, that " Nicolini had both qualities, more than any
that have come hither since. He acted to perfection, and did not
sing much inferior. His variations in the airs were excellent; but
in his cadences he had a few antiquated tricks (x)."
Besides these two performers, with voices and abilities wholly
new to an English audience, and who performed the principal parts
of Pino and Demetrio [Scarlatti]*, in Italian, it seems by the printed
(x) Tosi on Singing, translated by Galliard, p. 152.
* Pirro e Demetrio was composed by Scarlatti in 1694.
662
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
copy of the Music, as if Margarita and the Baroness had likewise
sung their parts in that language; while Mrs. Tofts, except in a duet
with Nicolini, Messrs. Ramondon, and Cook, kept to their mother
tongue (y).
The airs of this opera are short, simple, and elegant for the
time; but as we shall soon arrive at much better Music, examples
of the style seem unnecessary. The divisions, indeed, are
antiquated and vulgar now, and to have rendered the rest so
captivating as to have charmed a whole nation, must have required
fine voices and great art in the singers.
1709. After the six first subscription representations of this
opera were over, a new subscription was opened January 5th, at half
a guinea the boxes on the stage, the other boxes eight shillings,
pit five shillings, first gallery two shillings and six pence, and the
second gallery one shilling and six pence. The reason for this
abatement does not appear.
On the 19th of this month Nicolini had the same opera at the
Queen's theatre for his benefit, and at the same prices, which was
the eleventh representation of this motley performance. Indeed,
the confusion of tongues, concerning which Mr. Addison is so
pleasant in the Spectator, seems to have been tolerated with great
good nature by the public; who, in Music, as well as words, seemed
to care much less about what was sung, than how it was sung.
After performing Pyrrhus and Demetrius once more, the old
and favourite opera of Camilla was represented at this theatre for
the first time; in which Nicolini appeared in the part of Prenesto,
and the rest of the characters were cast in the strongest manner
possible. It was now, for the first time, that the Music of Bononcini
was performed entire (z).
And this -revived opera, and Pyrrhus and Demetrius, were
alternately performed till the 2d of March, when a new opera called
Clotilda was brought out, for the performance of which the boxes
on the stage were again advanced to fifteen shillings. After two
representations of this new drama, Pyrrhus and Demetrius was
exhibited once, which was followed by two performances more of
Clotilda, when it gave way to Camilla, and Pyrrhus and Demetrius.
After this it was performed three times, and then wholly laid aside.
This opera was composed by Conti [1681-1732], and printed by
Walsh, half in English and half in Italian, as it was performed.
The composition is not contemptible; and yet it seems to have come
(y) I am very glad, for the honour of our nation, that this absurdity was practised, for
the sake of the Music, in other countries as well as in England : for Riccoboni, in his General
History of the Stage, tells us that at Hamburgh, in the early operas, sung in the Italian
manner, " the recitative was in the German language, and the airs generally in the Italian."
English Translation, 2d edit. 1754, p. 212.
(z) It has always been imagined that this Music was composed by Giovanni Bononcini,
the celebrated rival of Handel, afterwards, in England; but I can find no proof of it in any
one of the many volumes of operas in my possession, or dramatic records that I have been
able to consult. Camilla Regina de Volsci, written by Stampiglia, and set by Marc' Antonio
Bononcini, the brother of John, for the imperial court of Vienna, about the year 1697, was in
such favour all over Italy, that it was performed at Venice 1698; Bologna 1705; Ferrara and
Padova 1707; Bologna again 1709; Udine 1715; and a third time at Bologna 1719. And this
seems to have been the opera that was performed in England, during 1706, sixteen times;
1707, twenty; 1708, ten; and 1709, eighteen; in all, sixty-four times!
663
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
into the world and gone out of it so quietly as scarcely to have left
any memorials of its existence. After the decease of this short-lived
drama, Camilla, and Pyrrhus and Demetrius, were run till the 4th
of June, at reduced prices: ten shillings and six pence the boxes on
the stage, the other boxes eight shillings, pit five shillings, first
gallery two shillings and six pence, and the second gallery one
shilling and six pence. On the 14th of May, in the Daily C our ant,
a new set of scenes, painted by two famous Italian painters lately
arrived from Venice, and all the other decorations which were
represented in the opera of Clotilda, are promised to the opera of
Pyrrhus and Demetrius.
June the 4th this year, Nicolini had a concert for his benefit
at the opera-house, consisting of vocal and instrumental Music
composed by Scarlatti, Bononcini, and others.
September 15th, on a disagreement with the patentee of Drury-
lane, Mr. Rich, sen. a considerable number of the principal
comedians revolt, and engage to act plays at the opera-house under
the management of Swiney. The chief of these were Wilks, Cibber,
Dogget, and Mrs. Oldfield. On this occasion great alterations and
improvements were made in the theatre, which however well
calculated for Music, was, according to Cibber, extremely
unfavourable to declamation.
This new republic being joined by Betterton, Estcourt, and
many others, plays very strongly cast were acted at the Hay-market
theatre till the 28th of October, when the opera of Camilla was
performed by the same troop as the preceding winter, with Nicolini
at their head; and afterwards Thorny ris, and Pyrrhus and
Demetrius, mixed with plays, till after Christmas. This last opera
was acted in the course of the year thirty times : a very uncommon
number of representations for a musical drama at present, with
Music and performers, Nicolini excepted, much superior to those
of 1709. As operas improved, the hearers became nice and
fastidious. The public soon grows familiar with excellence, and
treats her like a common woman; and after the first curiosity is
satisfied, a great part of an audience become critics, and gratify
their vanity more by being the first to discover defects in the
performers, than they did at first in pointing out their merit.
1710. The two companies, of comedians and singers, continued
to act plays and operas alternately at the Queen's theatre this year,
till the month of November. In January, after one representation
of Thomyris, and one of Pyrrhus and Demetrius, the musical troop
brought out the new opera of Almahide. Neither the poet nor
composer is mentioned in the book of the words or printed copy of
the Music, which seems all of one style, and that style more like
Bononcini 's than any other composer of the times. This was the
first opera performed in England, wholly in Italian, and by Italian
singers; who were Nicolini, Valentini, Cassani, Margarita, and
Isabella Girardeau. There were, indeed, intermezzi between the
acts, in English, and sung by Dogget, Mrs. Lindsey, and Mrs.
Cross; but the opera was wholly Italian in poetry, Music, and
664
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
performance. There were operas at this time, as at present,
generally twice a week; and Almahide was performed before the
summer recess fourteen times.
There are frequent feats of execution in the songs of Nicolini
and Margarita of a more rapid and difficult kind than are to be
found in the operas which preceded this drama; but the divisions
appear now antique and aukward. The first violin accompaniment
is printed over the voice part of most of the airs, and is frequently
busy and ingenious. However, this would now be called mechanical
Music; being neither dramatic, passionate, pathetic, nor graceful.
If, indeed, the words imply sorrow, it is slow; and in a chearful
scene, it is quick; but there is little enthusiasm, and no elegance.
By the advertisements of March 2d, it seems as if the farce of
the School-boy and the rehearsal of a new opera, formed the whole
evening's entertainment, for which the prices were: " boxes five
shillings, pit three shillings, first gallery two shillings, second
gallery one shilling, stage boxes eight shillings, being obliged to
begin exactly at six o'clock, by reason of the practice." March
6th, the public was acquainted in the bills, that " there would be
a rehearsal of the new opera, in form."
This new opera was Hydaspes, or I'ldaspe Fedele, set to Music
by Francesco Mancini [1679-1739] a Roman [Neapolitan]
composer, and brought on the stage in England, May 23d, by
Nicolini, who dedicated the libretto, or book of the words, to the
Marquis of Kent, then Lord Chamberlain to Queen Anne. This
opera was likewise wholly performed in Italian, and by Italians,
except an inferior part by Mr. Lawrence, which he sung, however,
in Italian (a). The other performers were the same as in Almahide.
Hydaspes was represented twenty-one times, and seems to have
been generally approved.
The lion in this opera gave birth to several pleasant papers in the
first volume of the Spectator, particularly N° 13. by Mr. Addison,
in which the humour is exquisite. This excellent writer, who,
at this time, was by no means partial to operas, does justice to
Nicolini in speaking of the childishness of the Leonian combat in
Hydaspes. — " It gives me a just indignation," says he, " to see a
person whose action gives new majesty to kings, resolution to
heroes, and softness to lovers, thus sinking from the greatness of
his behaviour, and degraded into the character of the London
Prentice. I have often wished, that our tragedians would copy
after this great master in action. Could they make the same use
of their arms and legs, and inform their faces with as significant
looks and passions, how glorious would an English tragedy appear
with that action, which is capable of giving a dignity to the forced
(a) This English singer continued till the year 1777, to perform under parts in Italian
operas. His voice was a tenor of considerable agility, as appears by his songs in the opera
of Thomyris, which contain more divisions, and of a more difficult kind, than those of any
singer then on the opera stage, except the Margarita.
665
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
thoughts, cold conceits, and unnatural expressions of an Italian
opera."
The Music of Hydaspes seems inferior in merit to several
preceding operas in which Alessandro Scarlatti, Gasparini, or
Bononcini had any share. The style is feeble, and the passages
were insipid and common at the time they were produced.
On November 18th this year, Macbeth was the last play which
the company of English actors performed at the Queen's theatre in
the Hay-market. After which they returned to Drury-lane, where
they began to act on Monday November 20th, leaving the opera
house wholly to the lyric Muse. On the 22d, Hydaspes was
advertised, when the part of Berenices was announced in the bills to
be performed by Signora Elizabeta Pilotti Schiavonetti, and
Artaserse by Signor Boschi, two new Italian singers. December
9th, Signora Boschi performed for the first time in Pyrrhus and
Demetrius. Schiavenetti remained here, as second woman, till the
year 1717. Boschi had a fine base voice, for which Handel
composed some of his best base songs. His wife had been a great
singer, but was much past her prime when she came to England;*
she has, however, left a name behind her among Italian writers on
Music, who speak of her abilities with great respect. She and her
husband staid in England at this time only one season; but he
returned hither in the year 1720, and continued to sing in Handel's
operas till the year 1727 [1728].
But before a character is given of the great foreign singers who
arrived here after the Italian opera was firmly established in this
country, it is but justice to say something of the English singers, who
were able by their performance to excite curiosity, give pleasure,
and set censure at defiance, when the opera was in its infancy, and
regarded by some as an ideot, and by others as a shapeless monster.
To begin then by the performers in Arsinoe, who had not only
all the absurdities usually laid to the charge of operas in general to
answer for, but at once laboured under bad poetry, bad Music, and
total inexperience.
Mr. Hughs had been a favourite singer at concerts, and between
the acts of plays, for several years before he was assigned the part of
first man, in the first opera that ever was performed on our stage in
the Italian manner. His voice was a counter tenor, as we are told
in the dramatis persona? of Thomyris; and, indeed, as the compass
of his songs discovers. He continued to perform the first part till
the arrival of Valentini, after which he either quitted the stage or
the world, for no further mention is made of him either in opera
or concert annals.
* Chrysander, in his life of Handel {Vol. I., j>. 244), thinks Boschi was the bass who
sang the amazing role of Polifeme in Handel's cantata at Naples in 1709. Some of the part
was incorporated in Rinaldo. His wife was Francesca Vanini, a contralto. She sang the part
of Goftredo in Rinaldo in 1711, but was superseded in the part by L'Epine in 1712.
666
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Richard Leveridge [c. 1670-1758] had a deep and powerful
base voice. It has been said that he performed Purcell's admirable
base song, " Ye twice ten hundred deities," which was set on
purpose for him in me Indian Queen, written by Sir Robert Howard
and Dryden (&). Now as this tragedy came out in 1665, when
Purcell was but seven years old, and five years before Leveridge was
born, it could not have been at the first representation of this play,
but a revival of it (c).* He was certainly a stage-singer a
considerable time before the expiration of the last century. In
1699, he not only appeared at Drury-lane as a singer but composer,
in an English opera called the Island Princess, of which the Music
was composed by Daniel Purcell, Jeremiah Clark, and Leveridge.
This opera was revived in 1702, and it was specified in the bills that
"Mr. Leveridge would perform his own parts of the composition."
After this, there was " singing by Mr. Leveridge," announced in
almost every advertisement for that theatre, till operas on the Italian
plan were attempted, where he had a part assigned him in each as
long as English was allowed to be sung in them. He afterwards
attached himself to Rich, the manager of Lincoln's-Inn Fields and
Covent-garden, at which last theatre he continued to sing in
pantomime entertainments till after the middle of the present
century, when he was more than eighty years old. I remember
his singing " Ghosts of every occupation," and several of Purcell's
base songs, occasionally, in a style which forty years ago seemed
antediluvian; but as he generally was the representative of Pluto,
Neptune, or some ancient divinity, it corresponded perfectly with
his figure and character. He was not only a celebrated singer of
convivial songs, but the writer and composer of many that were in
great favour with singers and hearers of a certain class, who more
piously performed the rites of Comus and Bacchus, than those of
Minerva and Apollo. He quitted this sublunary world 1758, at
eighty-eight years of age.
Mrs. Tofts [d. 1756] seemed to have endeared herself to an
English audience by her voice, figure, and performance, more than
any preceding singer of our own country whose name and excellence
have been recorded. Cibber, though he does not speak of Music en
connoisseur, and, as an English actor and patentee of a theatre, was
an enemy to Italian operas and Italian singers upon a principle of
self-defence, probably gives us the general and genuine opinion of
his acquaintance, concerning Mrs. Tofts, who, he says, had her first
musical instructions in her own country, " before the Italian taste
had so highly prevailed, and was then not an adept; whatever
(6) Though the Indian Queen is printed in the first volume of Dryden's Dramatic Works,
1762; it is likewise printed in those of Sir Robert Howard, to whom it is generally ascribed.
Dryden, however, says, in the advertisement prefixed to his Indian Emperor, that it was
written as a conclusion of the Indian Queen, " part of which poem was writ by me."
(c) The following dates will shew the utter impossibility of Leveridge singing a base
song, or any song, in 1665:
Henry Purcell born 1658. Indian Queen performed and printed 1665. Leveridge born 1670.
* Purcell's music for the Indian Queen was for a production in 1695.
667
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
defect the fashionably skilful might find in her manner, she had in
the general sense of her hearers, charms that few of the most
learned singers ever arrive at. The beauty of her fine proportioned
figure, and exquisitely sweet, silver-tone of voice, with peculiar
rapid swiftness of her throat, were perfections not to be imitated
by art or labour."
This performer had songs given to her in all styles; her compass,
however, did not surpass the common limits of a soprano, or treble
voice. With respect to her execution, of which we are still enabled
to judge by the printed copies of her songs, it chiefly consisted
in such passages as are comprised in the shake, as indeed did that
of most other singers at this time.
In Arsinoe and Camilla not one division occurs of great length or
difficulty; but in Pyvrhus and Demetrius many. However, those of
Mrs. Tofts are, in general, easy and common, except in one song,
in which there is a very early instance of iteration; and as this
seems her Aria d' Abilita in the opera, I shall insert the principal
passage among the divisions of this period.
Divisions in the first Operas performed in England.
Hughs, in Arsinoe.
^sl^Ja-q, .ta_La>-'«i©J<*— «B.«La-*— «►
ti£F#=&=^j
L° J- J fa:
-WlTH-lN MY VEINS IT BOILS
IN CAMILLA.
mo REIGNS WITHIN MY VOTS
Mrs. Lindsey, in Thomyris.
w*
C9E
>ry gay and airy be adjc
jjb a ■— 0.
• f •» »*-»■ ?* f
>,ii
^L-TgUTgM^ ' tf I
EVER MERRY
ADJOURNING CARE AND MOURNING SORROW
Mrs. Tofts, ibid.
YE POW'RS OH LET ME KNOW
Hughs, ibid.
^ i * erfr cCTHS-E t y idtT^N ^
m
THE CHAINS OF LOVE I WEAR, I BURNING I DE-SPAIR
£. — lL/1.,.oDirn iifTi n a . •-*»/<- n -i-, tJTr- TiJV Ml ICTL' TV\ MV CnDDA\t(
^^
PRETTY WARBLER HELP A LOVER, TUNETHYM'JSICK TO MY SORROW
668
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Mrs. Tofts, ibid.
,fBID.
IN LAMENTING, IN LAMENTING^ MY COMPLAINT
**» — m — ,-<P — - — — i . g^-j^-a
IF YOU KETURfi
^NOW DE - STROY
This battered passage occurs in a song of Mrs. Lindsey in the
same opera; and in Comus, thirty years after.
PYRRHUSano ff-J-TTvaJ a « o^o-
DEMETRIU5 t ! •' ! s ; -
MRS.TbFTS.
J «;kipc: _______ _______
J SKIES -------
-LY TOO
Mrs. Barbier, in Antioco.
**&
Three times
over.
SPERAN
-ZAj Sc.
Mrs. Tofts in Pyrrhus and Demetrius.
J^fc=JB=(f: frpW
— n~
B «H> i
y^-^^-^-g-
ijg^a r^ ui
J TOATRAY -
Ui
pg^I
1 -^ — ' — ^a — ksfetJ ^__
y u-?-* *
Mrs. Tofts quitted the stage in 1709 (d). Her private history,
were it known, seems now unnecessary to relate, unless the events
in her retirement were such as would interest the reader by their
singularity. But though it is publicly insinuated in the Tatler, for
Thursday, May 26th, 1709, that she was insane, it seems doubtful
(d) The talents of this singer and of Margarita de l'Epine gave rise to the first musical
factions which we hear of in this country. According to Hughes, author of the Siege of
Damascus, their abilities were disputed by the first people in the kingdom.
" Music has learn'd the discords of the state,
And concerts jar with Whig and Tory hate.
Here Somerset and Devonshire attend
The British Tofts, and ev'ry note commend;
To native merit just, and pleas'd to see
We've Roman arts, from Roman bondage free.
There fam'd L'Epine does equal skill employ,
While list'ning peers croud to th' ecstatic joy:
Bedford to hear h'er song his dice forsakes,
And Nottingham is raptur'd when she shakes :
Lull'd statesmen melt away their drowsy cares
Of England's safety, in Italian airs."
6£9
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
whether we are to take this account literally, or whether Sir
Richard Steele had not recourse to invention, or, at least, exaggera-
tion, in order to throw a ridicule on opera quarrels in general, and
on her particular disputes at that time with the Margarita or other
female singers. I shall, therefore, refer the reader to the Tatler
N° 20, and leave the comments to his own ingenuity.
After quitting the stage, by which she is said to have acquired a
considerable fortune, she married Mr. Joseph Smith, who was
afterwards appointed consul at Venice, where he resided till the
time of his death, about the year 1770. He was a great collector of
books and pictures, and a patron of the arts in general. The
celebrated lady whom he married is said to have been living in
1755.*
Mr. Lawrence, an English opera singer, has been already,
mentioned. Lewis Ramondon seems to have performed Leveridge's
comic part of Delbo, in Arsinoe [1705], at the time the Music was
printed; and sung in Camilla [1706], and Pyrrhus and Demetrius
[1708], when these operas were performed at the Hay-market. He
appears no more as a public singer after this period, but his name
occurs as a composer in a collection of songs called the Merry
Musician, 1716; and as the editor of " the song tunes in the opera
of Camilla, contrived and fitted to the harpsichord or spinet;" in
the title-page of which it is said, " that the lessons being placed on
five lines render them proper for a voilin and a base." Almost all
organ and harpsichord Music till this time was written and printed
on six-lines.**
Mrs. Lindsey, Mrs. Cross, Mr. Good, and Mr. Cook, had
subaltern parts allotted them in early English operas, by which
they seem to have contributed but little to their own fame or the
pleasure of the public : but many parts of a building are necessary
to its construction, which are never regarded as ornamental.
The execution of Margarita de l' Epine, was of a very
different kind from that just described, and involved real difficulties.
Indeed, her musical merit must have been very considerable to
have kept her so long in favour as a singer on the English stage,
where, till she was employed at the opera, she sung either in musical
entertainments, or between the acts, almost every night. Besides
being out-landish, she was so swarthy and ill-favoured, that her
* Mrs. Tofts was evidently a keen business woman and Pope lampooned her as follows : —
" So bright is thy beauty, so charming thy song,
As had drawn both the beasts and their Orpheus along;
But such is thy avarice, and such is thy pride,
That the beasts must have starved, and the poet have died."
Also we are told by Lady Wentworth in a letter dated March 17, 1709 [Wentworth
Papers, p. 66): —
" Mrs. Taufs was on Sunday last at the Duke of Somerset's, where there were about
thirty gentlemen, and every kiss was one guinea; some took three, others four, others five
at that rate, but none less than one."
According to Hawkins she had a temporary recovery from her insanity, but, he adds,
" her disorder returning, she dwelt sequestered from the world, and had a large garden to
range in," etc. If this is correct, then Burney's theory is wrong.
** He published The Lady's Entertainment in 1709, 1710, 1711. and 1738. The Air, " All
you that must take a leap in the dark," sung in the Beggars' Opera, is by him. He is not
heard of after 1720.
670 ,
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
husband used to call her Hecate, a name to which she answered
with as much good humour as if he had called her Helen. But
with such a total absence of personal charms, our galleries would
have made her songs very short, had they not been executed in
such a manner as to silence theatrical snakes, and command
applause.
Dean Swift, who was no respecter of persons, particularly
musical, in his Journal to Stella, Letter xxiv. August 6th, 1711,
being at Windsor, says, " we have a music-meeting in our town
to-night. I went to the rehearsal of it, and there was Margarita,
and her sister, and another drab, and a parcel of fiddlers; I was
weary and would not go to the meeting, which I am sorry for,
because I heard it was a great assembly."
He talks frequently of the music-meetings this summer and'
autumn at Windsor, but always with contempt — as, " in half an
hour I was tired of their fine stuff." And the fiddlers in revenge
would probably have returned the compliment, while the Dean
was preaching, and have quitted the church with a similar speech.
Puns and politics chiefly delighted the one, and puns and porter
perhaps the other; both alike despising what they neither felt nor
understood.
There is something so mysterious in the title and history of the
singer called the Baroness, that I am by no means qualified to be
her biographer. All that can be said of her with any certainty is,
that she was a German who had learned to sing in Italy, and had
performed in the operas at several German courts by that
appellation before her arrival in England, where she sung in the
operas of Camilla, Triumph of Love, and Pyrrhus and Demetrius.
In this last she sung a duet with Mrs. Tofts, and three or four songs
which required abilities. She was in England and had a benefit
in 1711, though she did not sing in the new opera of that year.
Isabella Girardeau seems to have been an Italian married
to a Frenchman. Isabella Calliari is among the female singers who,
according to Quadrio's list, flourished from the year 1700 to 1720.
She succeeded the Baroness at the Hay-market, and appeared first
in the opera of Almahide. She had two airs to sing in this opera
which required abilities of a very different kind : the first a largo,
in which pathetic expression was necessary, and the second an aria
di bravura, which required considerable agility.*
The Italian Opera ,had now obtained a settlement, and-
established a colony on our island, which having from time to time
been renovated and supplied from the mother country, has
subsisted ever since. The ancient Romans had the fine arts and
eminent artists from Greece; and, in return, the modern Romans
supply all the rest of Europe with painting, sculpture, and Music.
This last art is a manufacture in Italy, that feeds and enriches a
large portion of the people; and it is no more disgraceful to a
* Girardeau, or La Isabella, sang in the first performance of Handel's Rinaldo at the
King's Theatre, Haymarket, in 1711. In this she sang the unaccompanied air Bel piacer.
671
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
mercantile country to import it, than wine, tea, or any other
production of remote parts of the world. The French have never
yet suffered an opera in the Italian language to be performed in
their country since the time of Cardinal Mazarin; though of late
they have invited to their capital, and employed, the best Italian
composers; while the English, who tolerate all religions, have
manifested not only a liberal spirit with respect to the Italian Opera,
but good taste and good sense. It is universally allowed that the
Italian tongue is more sonorous, more sweet, and of more easy
utterance, than any other modern language; and that the Music of
Italy, particularly the vocal, perhaps for that reason, has been
more successfully cultivated than any other in Europe. Now
the vocal Music of Italy can only be heard in perfection when sung
to its own language and by its own natives, who give both the
language and Music their true accents and expressions. There is
as much reason for wishing to hear Italian Music performed in this
genuine manner, as for the lovers of painting to prefer an original
picture of Raphael to a copy.
1711. After two performances of Pyrrhus and Demetrius, a
new pasticcio opera was brought out this year, January 10th,
called Etearco. This musical drama which was performed seven
times by the same singers as were engaged at the beginning of the
winter, offers nothing memorable, either in performance or success
(e). February 3d, it was found necessary to have recourse again
to Pyrrhus and Demetrius, and afterwards to Hydaspes, which
last opera was performed four times. On the 13th, the first and
second act only of Pyrrhus and Demetrius, and the Music
performed at court on the Queen's birth-day, furnished the feast.
It is necessary now to relate an event which happened about
the end of the preceding year, 1710, of great consequence to the
Opera and to the Music in general of this country. This was the
arrival of George Frederic Handel, who came hither on a visit
of curiosity, and in compliance with an invitation from several
English noblemen, with whom he had made acquaintance
at the court of Hanover, but without any design of remaining
in England. Indeed, after making the tour of Italy, he had entered
in the service of the Elector of Hanover, a prince who had
manifested his love for Music, and good taste and knowledge in
the art, by patronising several of the greatest musicians in Europe
at his court, particularly the celebrated Bononcini, and the
admirable Abate Steffani, whom the young Handel had the honour
of succeeding.
Aaron Hill was now in the direction of the theatre in the Hay-
market, and hearing of the arrival of a master, the fame of whose
abilities had already penetrated into this country, he applied to
him to compose an opera. To which request he having acceded,
(e) Etearco was first performed at Venice 1707, to the Music of Marc' Antonio Bononcini.
The drama was written by Silvio Stampiglia.
672
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Mr. Hill sketched out the plan of a drama from Tasso's Jerusalem,*
and in his preface tells us, that "by a very particular happiness
he had met with Signor Rossi, a gentleman excellently qualified
to fill up the model he had drawn, with words so sounding, and so
rich in sense, that if his translation is in many places led to deviate,
'tis for want of power to reach the force of the original (/)."
The Italian poet declares, in an advertisement to the reader,
that the composer was so rapid in his part of the work, that he
hardly gave him time to write; and that, to his great astonish-
ment, the Music of this admirable opera had been entirely produced
in a fortnight.
This opera was entitled Rinaldo, and appeared for the first
time on the 24th of February [1711]. It continued in run till the
end of the season, June 2d, and was performed without
interruption, except the benefits, fifteen times. The singers in this
opera were Signor Nicolini, Valentini, Boschi, and Cassani; with
Signora Boschi, Isabella Girardeau, and Elisabetta Pilotti
Schiavonetti, in the service of the Elector of Hanover. Margarita
de L' Epine, and the Baroness, though not employed in Rinaldo,
sung in the old operas that preceded it, and which were performed
at the several benefits.
Though many of Handel's subsequent operas are superior to
Rinaldo, yet, after a careful examination of such as had been
composed by other masters and brought on our stage previous to
this, there is something so peculiarly compact and forcible in the
style, that I cannot pass it over without particularising some of its
beauties.
The first movement of the overture is grand and majestic.
Though the subject of the fugue wants variety, being but one
passage repeated three or four times; it has been productive,
however, of many beauties of accompaniment, and has a very good
effect in performance. The solo parts or episodes for the first violin
were frequently used afterwards in his organ concertos, and other
compositions. The jig is lively, and less vulgar than any movement
of that kind, equally ancient, except Corelli's.
The first air, Sovra baize scoscese, sung by Signora Boschi,
has many graceful, new, and pleasing passages in it, though the
words are very rough and ^wlyrical. The next air, sung by
Isabella, is spirited, ingeniously accompanied, and new. The first
air which Boschi sings is a rough defiance, fit for a Pagan and a
base voice. The next air, sung by his wife, is spirited and pleasing.
Then follows an air, Vieni o cara, which is very characteristic,
(/) Signor Rossi afterwards produced several dramas for the opera-stage; and he and
Nicolino Haym were the chief poets for that theatre till the arrival of Rolli. Aaron Hill
translated this opera himself and dedicated it to Queen Anne. It is certainly superior, as a
poem, to the version of any Italian opera which the English had yet seen, though extremely
rough for an Italian lyric poem, in the original.
* The same portion of Tasso's Jerusalem had been used by Lully in 1686, and was
afterwards used by Gluck for his opera Armide produced in 1777.
The music to Rinaldo was written in fourteen days.
Vol.. ii. 43. 673
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and, though a jig, and for a base voice, not vulgar. Furie terribile,
an air for Armida, is full of genius and fire, and truly dramatic.
Augeletti che cantate, is charming (g); there is a soothing passage
in it which he afterwards used in " Return O God of hosts." The
duet, Scherzano sul tuo volto, has in it many pretty passages,
though the plan is not dramatic, nor is it so good on the old plan,
as many duets he afterwards composed. Car a sposa is one of the
best airs in that style that was ever composed by himself or any
other master; and by many degrees the most pathetic song, and
with the richest accompaniment, which had been then heard in
England. The last air in the first act, Venti turbini, is a capital
bravura, calculated to display Nicolini's powers of execution and
acting.
The first air in the second act, Si am prossimi, is pleasing, in
the favourite style of Carissimi, about the middle of the last century.
The Siren's song is an agreeable Siciliana in Handel's own favourite
style. II tricerbero humiliata, a passionate air, for Nicolini, in
which all the parts play in unison and octaves to the voice, on
account of its boldness and seeming joviality, had English
Bacchanalian words set to it : " Let the waiter bring clean glasses,"
to which it was long sung at merry and convivial meetings all over
the kingdom. Scorta rea, is an agreeable air in two parts, fugato.
Mio cor, another spirited air, with no other accompaniment than a
base, but it is an admirable song. Basta che sol tu chieda, is an
excellent base song of an original cast and accompaniment. Fermati,
a duet of infinite genius, spirit, and originality. Modern dramatic
duets are all cast in the same mould; which though a good one,
yet others should be sought and tried. Ah crudel, the whole
opening and conduct of this admirable adagio may be found in
the author's hautbois concertos. Vb far guerra, with an accom-
paniment for the harpsichord which terminates the second act, and
which Handel played himself, during the run of the opera, must
have captivated by the lightness and elasticity of his finger; as it
contains no one learned or solid passage. However, he afterwards
drew from the brilliant parts, passages for his harpsichord lessons
and organ concertos.
The second air in the third act, Sorge nel petto, is a soothing
and pathetic morsel. The next, E un incendio, is spirited and
pleasing. The violin part reminds us of the accompaniment to a
movement in the coronation anthem. Al trionfo, a duo, which
is good Music; but the passages all occur in subsequent composi-
tions by our author, particularly in the accompaniment, where
we hear the gavot in Otho. Bel piacer, is a light natural air,
wholly unaccompanied even by a base. If the singer, Isabella
Girardeau had a remarkable fine, mellifluous, and steady voice, it
was giving it a fair hearing in all its purity; which would please
(g) There is, in the original score, a long symphony of twenty-one bars for octave flutes,
in imitation of birds, which is not printed. While this was playing, the sparrows-, concerning
which the Spectator is so pleasant, No. v. were let loose.
674
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
natural ears more than those that are depraved, in the language of
Rousseau, by harmony. Hor la tromba, is an excellent air of spirit
for Nicolini, with a trumpet accompaniment, and bold and new
effects. The last chorus is an agreeable gavot, like that in the
overture to Pastor fido, and like many other movements in Handel's
subsequent works. But no one of them requires us to mount up
to the time in which it was composed so much as Rinaldo, which
has been not only pillaged by others, but by himself. It is,
however, so superior in composition to any opera of that period
which had ever been performed in England, that its great success
does honour to our nation.*
Indeed, this great success alarmed the actors and friends of our
own theatres; and Sir Richard Steele, a patentee, and Mr. Addison,
his friend, still bleeding for the fate of his Rosamond, tried every
means tney could devise to check and disgrace our musical taste.
To ridicule, it was certainly open; but what is proof against it?
The Opera was now in its nonage; the poetry often absurd, for
Apostolo Zeno and the admirable Metastasio had not then purified
and sublimed it; and a rage for the marvellous in machinery and
decorations was carried to a puerile excess.
I am as ready to allow the force of Mr. Addison's and Sir
Richard Steele's humorous papers on the opera, and to laugh at
them as heartily as any one; but as theatrical praise and censure
are always suspicious, we should not forget who were the authors
of the Tatlers and Spectators, nor how they were circumstanced.
Sir Richard Steele had not only an interest in one of the English
theatres, but had let his concert room, in York-buildings, to
Clayton, Dieupart, and Haym, who losing their power and
importance at the opera on the arrival of Handel, solicited
subscriptions for a concert at York-buildings, and were abetted
and patronised by the Spectators, number 158 and 178, both
written by Steele.
Mr. Addison had, in a former number of this popular and, in
general, excellent periodical wOrk, levelled his chief artillery of
ridicule at the absurdity of going to an opera without understand-
ing the language in which it is performed: " an absurdity," says
he, " that shews itself at first sight. It does not want any great
measure of sense to see the ridicule of this monstrous practice {h)."
Now Mr. Addison puts the language of Music, and excellent acting,
out of the question, and speaks of this monstrous practice as if it
were going to hear a Persian or Chinese oration, without under-
standing a single word that is said. But he never told the public
that it was absurd to go to concerts of good Music, nay, he
recommends those of Clayton, by the insertion of his letters, to
(h) See Spectator, No. 18.
* " After having subjected the entire series of Handel's Italian Operas to a careful and
most minute analysis, we feel no hesitation in saying that, taken as a whole, Rinaldo is
entitled to the first place on the list of its author's dramatic masterpieces. Finer movements
may possibly be found in some of the later productions; but in none is the interest more
unflaggingly maintained." W. S. Rockstro, Life of Handel, p. 61,
675
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
public encouragement. Now it may be asked, what entertainment
there is for the mind in a concerto, sonata, or solo? They are
mere objects of gratification to the ear, in which, however,
imagination may divert itself with the idea, that a fine adagio is a
tragical story; an andante, or grazioso, an elegant narrative of some
tranquil event; and an allegro a tale of merriment.
What did the ancient Greeks and Romans understand at their
pantomime representations? yet all the admirers of antiquity and
classical knowledge speak of the mimes with praise and admiration.
An opera, at the worst, is still better than a concert merely for the
ear, or a pantomime entertainment for the eye. Supposing the
articulation to be wholly unintelligible, we have an excellent union
of melody and harmony, vocal as well as instrumental, for the ear.
And, according to Sir Richard Steele's account of Nicolini's action,
" it was so significant, that a deaf man might go along with him in
the sense of the part he acted (i)."
No one will dispute but that understanding Italian would render
our entertainment at an opera more rational and more complete:
but without that advantage, let it be remembered by the lovers of
Music, that an opera is the completest concert to which they can go;
with this advantage over those in still life, that to the most perfect
singing, and effects of a powerful and well-disciplined band, are
frequently added excellent acting, splendid scenes and decorations,
with such dancing as a playhouse, from its inferior prices, is seldom
able to furnish (k).
The ridicule and reasoning of Mr. Addison, from his high
reputation as a writer, has been long and implicitly admitted, and
imagined sincere; but besides his want of knowledge, as well as
love for Music, when it is considered that his friend Sir Richard
Steele was a patentee of the playhouse, and at any rate to down
with the opera, and exalt the English drama; and that Addison
himself was not only angry at the death of Rosamond, but at the
opera being crouded, while his friend Mr. Smith's tragedy of
Phcedra and Hippolitus was neglected; but it has always been
neglected, even when no opera was performed against it; for, as Dr.
Johnson says, it pleased the critics, and the critics only. If we put
these circumstances together, we shall ascribe some part of the
Spectator's severity to want of skill in the art of Music; some to
peevishness; and the rest to national prejudice, and the spirit of
party in favour of our .domestic theatre.
London now has a sufficient number of inhabitants to supply a
musical theatre with an audience, and yet not injure our own drama.
People will be pleased their own way; when great talents draw,
the opera is crowded; but when only mediocrity can be found there,
(i) Tatler, No. 115.
(k) What do we understand when English is singing on our stage without a book? The
Music of the Romish ritual is perhaps the chief part of what affects the people ignorant of
the Latin tongue. And the Russian is exactly like our own early operas, performed in two
languages : ancient Greek, of which the generality of the congregation is ignorant, and
Sclavonian which they understand.
676--
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
neglected. It is ever so with the playhouses; nor can it be said
that native excellence has been always robbed of its share of public
favour by our partiality to foreigners; though Mr. Addison has
said, that " we know not what we like in Music; only in general
we are transported with any thing that is not English: so it be
of foreign growth, let it be Italian, French, or High Dutch, it is
the same thing." But was this the case in 'his own time, with
respect to singing? Were not Mrs. Tofts, and Mrs. Anastasia
Robinson in very high favour, though English women? And in
our own time, has Mrs. Sheridian, Mrs. Bates, or Mrs. Billington,
ever experienced neglect? Or have the powers of Garrick, Mrs.
Siddons, or Mrs. Jordan ever been slighted?
Disputable talents frequently remain in obscurity, but supreme
excellence will burst through all prejudice, indifference, and opposi-
tion, and always shine with due lustre in the eyes of the grateful
public.
Complaints of neglect are generally the croakings of inferiority,
which never mended matters, or convinced mankind that they were
either deaf, blind, or stupid.
The consistency of Sir Richard Steele in the Tatler may be
estimated by comparing N° 4 with 115. In the one, operas and
the public are condemned, because Pyrrhus and Demetrius was
performed with great applause — in the other, the British Censor is
" surprised to find a thin house at so noble an entertainment:"
then follows his admirable eloge on Nicolini as an actor, totally
apart from his vocal powers as a singer. Yet this same Nicolini
performed in the same troop and band, and in the same opera, on
both these occasions.
Mr. Addison pretends to be surprised that the passion for operas
" is not the taste of the rabble, but of persons of the greatest
politeness, which has established it." But he surely did not want to
be told, that cultivated ears want cultivated Music, and natural ears
natural.
Things to be heard or seen, as exhibitions, must be extra-
ordinary : people will never be at the trouble and expence of going
to a public place for what they can hear or see at home.
As to the understanding having no part in the pleasure we
receive at an opera, it may at least be allowed the negative praise
which was given it even by the black fanatic Cromwell, that " being
in an unintelligible tongue it cannot corrupt the morals of the
people." But who will now say, if the opera were English, that
the moral sentiments of Metastasio would poison and deprave the
mind? And who, that our own Beggar's Opera which burlesques
the other, and comedies of Congreve and Vanbrugh, however
excellent in other respects, are immaculate systems of ethics, and fit
lessons for " the fair, the gay, the young," who chiefly frequent
public places?
Indeed, the pleasantry of Addison and Steele upon opera
absurdities is often extremely risible and amusing; but their serious
677
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
reasoning on the subject is unjust, and generally under the guidance
of self-interest and national prejudice.
The theatre in the Hay-market opened November 10th, with
the last year's opera of Almahide, in which Mrs. Barbier, a new
English singer, appeared for the first time in the character of
Almanzor, which, during the first run of the opera, had been
performed by Valentini. Her timidity on this occasion gave birth
to an admirable paper in the Spectator (I), in which Mr. Addison
apologises for, and commends, diffidence and modesty with a
sympathetic zeal and sensibility. It is well known that this excellent
writer, with all his learning and abilities, was never able to perform
his part in public as a speaker, when he was secretary of state and
in parliament, long after this paper was written; and here, by a
kind of precognition, he extenuates his fault before it was com-
mitted. With respect to Mrs. Barbier's distress on her first facing
an audience on the stage, Mr. Addison has put it in the most
amiable light possible: " this sudden desertion of oneself," says
he, " shews a diffidence, which is not displeasing, it implies at the
same time the greatest respect to an audience that can be. It is a
sort of mute eloquence, which pleads for their favour much better
than words can do; and we find their generosity naturally moved to
support those who are in so much perplexity to entertain them.
I was extremely pleased," continues he, " with a late instance of
this kind at the opera of Almahide, in the encouragement given to
a young singer, whose more than ordinary concern on her first
appearance, recommended her no less than her agreeable voice, and
just performance."
This lady was a native of England, who continued to sing at the
opera several years, and afterwards was a favourite concert and
playhouse singer, till the year 1729 (m).
After three performances of Almahide, Hydaspes was again
represented, in which a new Italian singer, Signora Rosa Piscina,
a) No. 231.
(m) In the year 1717, it seems as if she had a little vanquished her bashfulness in
private, however it may have incommoded her in public; for she had mustered courage
sufficient to elope from her father's house with a person that was suspected to be of a different
sex. During her absence Mr. Hughes wrote the following pleasant verses :
O yes ! — hear all ye beaux and wits, Genteel her motion when she walks,
Musicians, poets, 'squires, and cits! Sweetly she sings and loudly talks;
All, who in town or country dwell, Knows all the world, and its affairs,
Say, can you talc, or tidings tell Who goes to court, to plays, to pray'rs,
Of Tortorella's hasty flight? Who keeps, who marries, fails, or thrives,
Why in new groves she takes delight. Lead honest or dishonest lives;
And if in concert, or alone What money match'd each youth or maid,
The cooing murmurer makes her moan? And who was at each masquerade;
Now learn the marks by which you may Of all fine things in this fine town,
Trace out and stop the lovely stray! She's only to herself unknown.
Some wit, more folly, and no care, By this description if you meet her.
Thoughtless her conduct, free her air; With lowly bows and homage greet her;
Gay," scornful, sober, indiscreet, And if you bring the vagrant beauty
In whom all contradictions meet; Back to her mother and her duty,
Civil, affronting, peevish, easy, Ask for reward a lover's bliss,
Form'd both to charm you and displease you; And, if she'll let you, take a kiss;
Much want of judgment, none of pride, Or more, if more you wish and may, ]
Modish her dress, her hoop full wide; Try if at church the words she'll say, Y
Brown skin, her eyes of fable hue. Then make her, if you can — obey. J
Angel when pleas'd, when vex'd a shrew.
678
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
first appeared, in the part of Darius, which had been originally
performed by Valentini; but it seems as if her reception had not
been very favourable, for after two performances, the same part
was consigned to the Margarita.
December 12th, Antiochus, a new opera, written by Apostolo
Zeno, and originally set by Francesco Gasparini for Venice 1705,
was brought on our stage. By the dedication of the book of the
words to the Countess of Burlington, it appears that the opera was
now under the direction of Mr. John James Heidegger, usually
called the Swiss Count (n). The performers in this opera were
Nicolini, Cassani, Mr. Lawrence; with Margarita, Pilotti, Isabella
Girardeau, and Mrs. Barbier. Valentini seems to have quitted
England at the end of the preceding winter, and appears no more
in the opera lists till the autumn of 1712.
Antiochus was performed but four times, before Hydaspes and
Almahide were again represented.
1712. In the beginning of January this year Antiochus was
repeated four several times, at fifteen shillings for the stage boxes;
and Hydaspes and Almahide, at half a guinea. Then a second run
of Rkialdo continued till the end of February, when after nine
performances of that favourite opera, the second year, Hamlet,
in Italian Ambleto, another musical drama, written by Apostolo
Zeno [revised by Nicolini?], and set for the Venetian theatre 1705,
by Francesco Gasparini, was brought on our stage, under the
conduct of Nicolini, who dedicated the poem to the Earl of Portland.
There is very little resemblance in the conduct of this drama to
Shakspeare's tragedy of the same name, though both seem to have
been drawn from the same source, the Danish history by Saxo-
Grammaticus. But if Zeno is much inferior to our divine Shakspeare
in variety of character, knowledge of the human heart, and genius,
in its most unlimited acceptation, his drama is exempt from all the
absurdities and improprieties which critics, insensible to the effects
of Music, had leisure to find in former operas.
The overture of Hamlet has four movements, ending with a
jig; though the overture of most of the former operas had but two.
Nicolini' s second air is printed in the contralto clef, and goes no
higher than C, and in others only to D : when he came here first
the passages in his songs frequently went up to F; so that he seems
to have lost, or at least to have descended, two or three notes in
his voice during his residence in England. Signora Isabella has
a noisy song for trumpets and hautbois obligati, in Hamlet; in
Margarita's songs there are many passages of bravura; and the airs
of Mrs. Barbier, who sings in the contralto, are chiefly pathetic.
There are few songs, however, in this opera, which would please
(») This personage continued manager of the opera till about the year 1738. During his
regency Ridottas and masquerades were first introduced in that theatre. Dr. Arbuthnot
inscribed to him a poem called The Masquerade, in which he seems more severe upon the
count's ugliness, which he could not help, than on his voluntary vices.
079
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
modern judges of Music, either by their melody, harmony or
contrivance (p).
March 22d, was advertised for the benefit of Nicolini, " the
Music performed before the Queen on her birth-day, and the famous
scene in Thomyris, by Scarlatti."* After this the operas of the
preceding winter were repeated, till the 3d of May, when Hercules,
a new opera, written by Rossi to Music of different composers,
seems to have been killed by critical serpents in the cradle, for it
appeared but three times at the distance of five or six weeks, when,
instead of an apotheosis, it was d — d, and sent to Hades (q).
On the 14th of May [1712], another attempt was made at an
opera in our own language. Mr. Hughes, an agreeable poet, in
close friendship with Mr. Addison, and according to Sir Richard
Steele, a practical musician, as well as painter, imagining that " it
could never have been the intention of those who first promoted
the Italian Opera, that it should take entire possession of our stage,
to the exclusion of every thing of the like kind which could be
produced here," wrote an opera in English, entitled Calypso and
Telemachus, which was set by Mr. Galliard, an able musician, who,
though a German, had been long enough in England to be well
acquainted with our language and taste.** In a well written preface
to this opera Mr. Hughes candidly allows, " that though the English
language is not so soft and full of vowels as the Italian, it does not
follow that it is therefore incapable of harmony," (the author means
melody.) " It is certainly of great consequence in dramatic enter-
ments, that they should be performed in a language understood
by the audience : and though the airs of an opera may be heard
with delight, as instrumental pieces, without words, yet it is
impossible that the recitative should give pleasure when the words
are either taken away, or unintelligible." This is all so true as to
admit of no dispute. The poetry of an Italian opera in England is
wholly out of the question; nor has the Music much to do with its
success; it is generally upon the singing that its favour entirety
depends. In France and Italy, on the contrary, where operas are
performed in the language of each country, the poetry and conduct
of a drama are of infinite consequence to its success. And on our
own stage, when we have attempted operas, neither the Music nor
(p) Though Ambleto was originally set by Gasparini for Venice, the Music performed in
England to this drama has more the appearance of a pasticcio of ill selected songs, than an
entire drama by that elegant master. Indeed, no name of composer is mentioned in the printed
copy of either the words or the Music. It was performed but seven times.
(q) The Italian poet, in an advertisement prefixed to this opera, emphatically calls
Nicolini 1' Anfione dell' udito e Proteo della Vista.
* Nicolini left England in 1712 after the season ended, and was absent until 1714.
** In Swift's Journal to Stella there is the following entry dated February 8, 1711/12: —
" I dined to-day in the city; this morning a scoundrel dog, one of the queen's musick,
a German, whom I had never seen, got access to me in my chamber by Patrick's folly, and
gravely desired me to get an employment in the customs for a friend of his, who would be
very grateful; and likewise to forward a project of his own, for raising ten thousand pounds a
year upon Operas: I used him civiller than he deserved; but it vexed me to the pluck — — ."
Does this refer to Galliard, who was in favour at the court, and who had been appointed
Chamber musician to Prince George of Denmark?
680
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
performance could ever support a bad poem. Great and favourite
singers only can save an Italian musical drama of any kind in this
country; indeed, I can recollect no English operas in which the
dialogue was carried on in recitative, that were crowned with full
success, except the Fairies, set by Mr. Smith 1755,* and Artaxerxes,
by Dr. Arne in 1763 [2nd Feb., 1762]; but the success of both was
temporary, and depended so much on the singers, Guadagni and
Frasi in the one, and Tenducci, Miss Brent, and Peretti in the
other, that they never could be called 9tock pieces, or, indeed,
performed again, with any success, by inferior singers (r).
The dialogue of Mr. Hughes's Calypso, and the songs, are
poetical, and very superior to those of any translated operas of that
period; but besides the want of interest in the incidents of the
drama, and the serious cast of the sentiments, which, however
edifying in a sermon or in the closet, are seldom received with due
reverence in a place of amusement, Nicolini, the favourite singer
and actor of that time, had no part in this drama, which was
performed by Margarita, Signora Manini, a new and obscure singer,
Mrs. Barbier, Mrs. Pearson, and Leveridge, who, though good
second and third rate performers, were not sufficiently captivating
to supply the place of such singers as the town had then been
accustomed to.
Calypso supported but five representations, during which short
run, other operas were alternately performed. After the third night,
Nicolini appeared in Antiochus for the last time before his
departure for Italy, as was imagined, for ever. Mr. Addison in
the Spectator for June 14th, 1712, N° 405, says, "lam sorry to
find, by the opera bills for this day, that we are likely to lose the
greatest performer in dramatic Music that is now living, or that
perhaps ever appeared upon a stage. I need not acquaint my
readers, that I am speaking of Signor Nicolini. The town is highly
obliged to that excellent artist, for having shewn us the Italian
Music in its perfection, as well as for that generous approbation he
lately gave to an opera of our own country, in which the composer
endeavoured to do justice to the beauty of the words, by following
that noble example, which has been set him by the greatest foreign
masters in that art." This is all allusive to the opera of Calypso,
with the fifth performance of which the season was closed, June
25th.
In November following, the Queen's theatre opened with an
opera called II Trionfo d'Amore, of which I have met with no
(r) Upon the strength of Mrs. Billington's captivating powers and public favour, Artaxerxes
was very successfully revived in 1787, at Covent-garden theatre.
* John Christopher Smith (1712-95), a native of Anspach, was the son of the J. C. Smith
who came to England and was appointed treasurer to Handel. The son received tuition in
music from Handel, and later from Pepusch. After Handel became blind, Smith, junr., acted
as his ammenuensis.
The opera The Fairies was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night s Dream,
and met with great success.
As a legatee under Handel's will, Smith came into possession of all his original MS. Scores,
his harpsichord, etc. Smith presented the MS. Scores to George III., and they are now in
the Royal Library at the B.M.
68l
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
other memorial than what the Daily Courant furnishes; which tells
us, that it was performed twice: November 12th and 15th; we find,
however, .during the same month that Mr. Handel was again in
England, where he furnished our stage with a second opera, entitled
II Pastor Fido, or the Faithful Shepherd. This drama, which
appeared for the first time November 22d [Nov. 26th], was
written by Rossi, author of Rinaldo, and performed by the
Cavalier Valeriano, a new singer, successor to Nicolini, Valentini
Urbani, just returned to England, La Pilotti Schiavonetti,
Margarita, Mrs. Barbier, and Leveridge. The overture, one of the
most masterly and pleasing of the kind, is well known; but the opera
itself having never been printed, I shall be somewhat minute in
my account of it. The first air for a soprano, lets us know what
kind of voice the Cavalier Valeriano was possessed of; and the
pathetic style of the first part of his song, as well as the agility
necessary to the execution of the second, seem to imply abilities
in that performer, of no mean kind. This air, and many other
airs in the opera, are only accompanied by a violoncello, in the
old cantata style; but Handel always contrives to make this single
accompaniment interesting without overwhelming the voice part, or
depriving it of attention. The next air, for the same singer, has
not even a base to accompany the voice-part, which is doubled by
the violins in unison. This purity and simplicity, when the melody
and the voice which delivers it, are exquisite, would be always
pleasing to an audience, as a contrast to rich harmony and contriv-
ance; but some of these airs are now too trivial and far advanced
in years to support themselves totally without harmony. The
following air for the Pilotti Schiavonetti, has no accompaniment
but a busy base; which, however, if doubled and not kept under,
would be as much as a voice not uncommonly powerful could
penetrate. In the ritornel, which is in the style of the first opera
songs of the last century, Handel has enriched the harmony by
ingenious and admirable parts for two violins, tenor, and base.
The air, N° 4, in this act is natural and pleasing, with only a
violoncello accompaniment, except in the ritornello. This air, in
the year 1732, was introduced in the opera of Ezio to .different
words, as appears from a pencilled memorandum made by Handel
himself in the score. The air N° 5, which was originally composed
for the Margarita, and is accompanied by two violins, tenor, and
base, requires more execution than any other in the first act.
N° 6, sung by Valentini, is an air in jig time, of which, at present,
the passages would be thought trivial and common. N° 7, for
Mrs. Barbier is a simple air of a pathetic kind, with no other
accompaniment than a base, in almost plain counterpoint. N° 8,
and the last air in the first act, for Valentini, though it has some
pretty passages, yet little of Handel's fire, or true vocal grace, is
discoverable in it.
Act second contains nine songs, three of which are short and
inconsiderable: one of these, however, is very pathetic, and
accompanied in a singular manner by the violins and violoncellos in
682
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
unisons and octaves, pizzicati, and by the harpsichord arpeggiato
throughout. The fourth air, Finte labbia, has a solo part for the
hautbois, and is written in Handel's best manner. It was sung by
Margarita, as were almost all the best songs of this drama. The
next air, Sol nel mezzo, written for Valentini, is of a very original
and gay cast : French horns, which it seems to want, had now not
been introduced into the opera orchestra. This air is in jig time,
alia Caccia, and was perfectly adapted to the character by whom
it was sung in the opera, a gay and frolicksome swain, much
fonder of field-sports, than the society of females. The next air.
N° 14 (5), Se in ombre nascosto, sung by Mrs. Barbier, has in it
much of Handel's spirit; but the passages are now somewhat
antiquated. N° 15, Nel mio core, the sixth air of this act is very
pleasing, and a great part of it still remains elegant and graceful.
The divisions and embellishments, which, when a song is new, are
its most striking and refined parts, soonest lose their favour and
fashion. There is a passage, often repeated in this air, of which
Handel made frequent use afterwards in other things:
f^ffrrnrrjfgr
N° 16, No, non basta, has a great deal of Handel's fire and
grandeur; and N° 17, the last of the act, Ritorno adesso amor,
with solo parts for two hautbois, is strictly fugata upon two
subjects, and a very masterly composition. This style of writing,
which was so much admired at the beginning of the present century,
has, however, been long banished from the opera, as undramatic :
for the voice-part is so much overpowered and rendered so
insignificant by the complicated business of the accompaniments
that she loses her sovereignty. Such ingenious contrivances seem
best calculated for instruments, where narration and poetry are out
of the question; but in a drama where instruments are, or ought to
be, the humble attendants on the voice, riot and noise should not
be encouraged. Most of the hautbois passages and the divisions
in the voice-part of this air were afterwards used in the overture of
Esther.
Act third, the first air, Se m' ama, o caro, N° 18, though short,
simple, and unaccompanied, except by a base, is extremely plain-
tive and elegant. Time has robbed the next of some of its beauties
(t). The subsequent air, which is to express joy and exultation, is
truly gay and festal. Handel has been accused of crouding some of
his songs with too much harmony; but that is so far from being
the case in this opera, that he not only often leaves the voice without
(s) All the airs of this opera are numbered in the book of the words.
(<) The symphony reminds us of Corelli's fifth solo; and there is a stroke of modulation
in it, which the ear can hardly tolerate :
s
683
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
any other accompaniment than a violoncello, but sometimes even
silences that. In the present air, and in an additional song to the
beginning of the third act, the singer is frequently left alone, or
with only a violin in unison; and when the voice is good and the
performer knows how to use it, this is always acceptable to the
undepraved part of an audience. N° 22, is a short light air
resembling one in the same key, but differing in measure, in his
lessons. This air is followed by a solemn and fine symphony chiefly
for two hautbois and a bassoon, accompanied by the rest of the
orchestra. After which is an accompanied recitative and an
admirable duet in the style of the times, which, though not
dramatic, admits of great beauties of composition. N° 23, is a
spirited base song which was sung by Leveridge; this was preceded
by a short introductory symphony, that is truly characteristic and
Handelian. The usual short and light theatrical chorus terminates
the opera; which, upon the whole, is inferior in solidity and
invention to almost all his other dramatic productions, yet there
are in it many proofs of genius and abilities which must strike
every real judge of the art, who is acquainted with the state of
dramatic Music at the time it was composed. In the first place, it
was a pastoral drama, in which simplicity was propriety. Besides,
Handel had at this period no real great singer to write for.
Valeriano was only of the second class; and Valentini, with little
voice when he arrived in this country, if that little had remained
undiminished, having been five years among us, must have lost
the charms of novelty, as was the case with Margarita, who had
been a playhouse singer now for more than twelve years. Nothing
but miraculous powers in the performers can long support an opera,
be the composition ever so excellent. Plain sense and good poetry
are equally injured by singing, unless it is so exquisite as to make
us forget every thing else. If the performer is of the first class,
and very miraculous and enchanting, an audience seems to care
little about the Music or the poetry. This opera was performed
but four times [six]: November 22d [26th], 29th, December 3d
and 6th. After which the opera-house seems to have been shut up
till January 10th.
1713. Nicolini was not yet returned to England. And we
only find the names of Valeriano, Valentini, La Pilotti Schiavonetti,
the Margarita, and Mrs. Barbier, in the dramatis personse of
Dorinda, a pasticcio opera, of which, as the songs were never
printed, I am unable to give any further account (x). Ernelinda,
another pasticcio, followed Dorinda, in which the performers were
the same, with the addition of La Vittoria Albergatti. But the
only opera upon record for this year, which merits particular
notice is Teseo, Dramma Tragico, written by Nic. Haym, and
set to Music by G. F. Handel, Maestro di Capella di S. A. E. di
(x) In the year 1729, an opera of the same name, said to have been written by the
celebrated patrician, Benedetto Marcello, and set by Galuppi and Pescetti, jointly, was performed
at Venice.
684
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Hanover. Handel, at the time of composing this opera resided with
the Earl of Burlington, to whom the drama is dedicated. Nicolini
seems to have been still on the Continent, as his name does not
occur in the dramatis personam. The singers were the same as
those just mentioned, in Dorinda.
The first representation of Theseus was on December 10th;*
after four performances, Dorinda was advertised for January 31st.
Then Theseus again, February 4th, and Dorinda 7th. After which
there were three more representations of Theseus, when its run
was again interrupted by other operas. And in April, when its
performance was again resumed, the popular tragedy of Cato, was
in run, which was acted twenty nights successively, and then only
discontinued on account of the benefits and lateness of the season.
In the first movement of the overture of Theseus, there is
something bold and piquant in the harmony, which must have been
very new at this time to all ears but those accustomed to the
cantatas of the elder Scarlatti (y). The last movement has passages
in it that he afterwards used in his organ concertos and other
compositions; and the divisions in the first violin had perhaps been
previously thought of by Corelli ; however the hautbois and violon-
cello parts, and effects of the whole, were new and original in
1713.
The first air, E pur hello, was composed for the Margarita, and
has some spirited divisions and solo parts for the two principal
violins. The whole first part of this song is richly and ingeniously
accompanied, and in the second part which has only a base
accompaniment, this base is made interesting by having the subject
of the first symphony given to it.
The second air, Deh serbate, was likewise written for Margarita,
but is in a very different style : it is an andante, with a solo part
for the hautbois, and two violins echoing each other in short
passages of semiquavers, throughout.
The third air, Ti credo, for her sister, is light, easy, and
pleasing; and fit for a second or third singer of no great abilities.
The fourth air, Ah cruda gelosia, was sung by Mrs. Barbier.
This singer's voice was a contralto, In this opera, and in general,
she performed a man's part, which, on account of the low pitch of
her voice, was very convenient for the opera stage. The air she
had now to sing is pathetic, and has no accompaniment but a
violoncello; and for this simple species of accompaniment Handel
(y) Bar 2d, the second with the fourth accompanied by the fifth, which, though unusual,
has a good effect. The second violin in the manuscript is written in the soprano clef. The
score of this overture seems to have been corrected by Handel himself : in the 3d movement,
from the rapidity of composition, he had made the first violin and base run up together in a
series of eight fifths, of which he has taken away the unseemly appearance to the eye, by
changing the base; though the effect is of little consequence to the ear, in such rapid and
convulsive passages.
* Theseus or Teseo was not completed until after December 10, 1712. On the MS. score
now in the B.M. is written Fine del Drama G.F.H. a Londres, ce 19 de Decembr. 1712. The
first performance took place on January 10, 1713. Before the end of the season Teseo was
performed twelve times. MacSwiney, the manager, disappeared after the second performance,
leaving a shoal of debts behind him. The singers carried on under the management of
Heidegger, the " Swiss Count."
685.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
had two very opposite reasons: the first was to afford an
opportunity to singers of great taste and expression to display their
powers, undisturbed by instruments; and the second, when the
singers were shallow musicians, and unable to stand fire, that is, to
keep steady while a number of dissimilar parts were at work in the
orchestra. The scene in which Mrs. Barbier sung her first song in
Teseo is finished by a short duet, which has nothing in it remark-
able, except the base, its sole accompaniment, which is masterly
and of a good effect.
The next scene opens with a song by Valentini in the character
of Egeus beginning, Serenatevi o luci belle, which is pleasing;
but Handel could not write with all his native and juvenile fire for
such a singer, who seems to have been gifted with very limited
powers. The next song, Sovengati o bella, was likewise sung by
the same singer. It contains some pleasing and ingenious passages;
but it seems manifest that Handel was obliged, in writing for this
performer, to ride Pegasus with a curb-bridle. There is a passage
in the second part of this air, of which he afterwards made a better
use in the first movement of the overture in Saul.
The next air, M' adora V idol mio, which terminates the act, is
extremely well written, with a solo part for the hautbois, which
was now played by Mr. Galliard, an excellent musician, of whom
we shall only speak, hereafter, as a composer (z). The other
instruments are not idle in this song; so that it required the voice
and energy of a Margarita to battle it with always four to one
against her, and still preserve her vocal superiority. As there is no
great poetical beauty in the words of this air, the voice-part might
be performed by another hautbois, or by a flute or violin, as an
instrumental movement, without any great loss to the hearer (a).
The second act opens with a charming Cavatina (b), Dolce
riposo, sung by Signora Pilotti in the character of Medea. This air
is likewise accompanied by the hautbois and two violins, and is rich
in harmony and pleasing in effects. The next air, for the same
singer, Quell' amor, is wholly in a different style, but admirable of
the kind; it is clear, natural, phrased, and has a base superior to
the principal melody, which, however, has not been sacrificed to
the instruments. After this there is a duet, Si ti lascio, upon a
very ingenious and original plan. It is sung by two lovers who
have quarrelled, and have determined to part. And as their
inclinations move different ways, so do the notes they sing. It is
accompanied by a violin, two hautbois, and two tenors obligati,
and is a very agreeable and masterly composition. The instruments
(z) It seems as if he had been now a favourite performer, as he is wholly unaccompanied
in the last symphony, during several bars of no very uncommon cast. The second part of
this air begins exactly like "The flocks shall leave the mountains."
{a) It was in consequence of this total indifference about the words of Handel's Italian
songs, and perhaps the want of singers able to execute them, that his chamber airs, as they
were called, accommodated to the German flute, in seven volumes, folio, or forty-nine collections,
remained so long fh universal use and favour, totally detached from the words.
(6) An air without a second part.
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
are judiciously kept under while the voices are engaged, which
renders the effect more dramatic. After this we have a chorus of
Athenians; but not like his oratorio choruses, for an evident reason :
in these the subject being generally, solemn, and in the church
style, should partake of choral complication; and the performers
having the Music before them, are not obliged to get it by heart;
whereas an opera chorus, being in action, and committed to
memory, must necessarily be short, easy, and dramatic (c).
The next air, Quanto a me sian care, sung by the Cavalier
Valeriano, is a short, simple, and elegant Siciliana, without treble
accompaniments. The following air is likewise for the same singer;
for though the same personage in modern operas has never two airs
together, it happens frequently in this drama. This song is in jig
time, and is rather more vieillie than the rest : jigs must be new,
and happily composed, not to remind us of country-dances and
other vulgar tunes in the same measure. The last air of this act,
0 stringerd nel sen, sung by the enraged Medea, is full of fire and
dramatic effects. It is preceded by an accompanied recitative,
which is admirable, and in which the word furore is particularly
well expressed.
Fragment of accompanied recitative in Handel's opera of Teseo.
The first air in the third act, Le luci del mio bene, sung by
Mrs. Barbier, is gay, pleasing, and richly accompanied by two
flutes, two violins, and two tenors obligati. The second air,
Risplendete, has, however, only a violoncello accompaniment; but
that accompaniment is extremely pleasing, and of a particular cast.
The third air, Piu non cerca liberta, is in a singular style; great use
being made in minuet time of the mixture of double measure, or
three crotchets instead of three quavers. The next air, Vieni torna,
is graceful and simple. Then follows a sprightly air of an original
cast for the hero of the piece, who seems, however, to have drawn
(c) The late exquisite composer Sacchini, finding how fond the English were of Handel's
oratorio choruses, introduced solemn and elaborate choruses into some of his operas; but though
excellent in their kind, they never had a good effect; the mixture of English singers with
the Italian, as well as the aukward figure they cut, as actors, joined to the difficulty of getting
their parts by heart, rendered those compositions ridiculous, which in still life would have
been admirable.
687
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
from Handel's pen no testimony of uncommon powers as a singer;
though the composition has, in the accompaniment, some of the
author's own fire. In the next scene we have an accompanied
recitative, in which the wild and savage fury of the enraged
sorceress, Medea, and her incantations, are admirably painted by
the instruments. This is followed by such an air of spirit as the
situation of the actress called for: Sibillando ululando; and thus
ends the third act, but not the drama, as is usual; for, contrary to
the constant practice in Italy and elsewhere, during the present
century, this opera has five acts (d).
We next have an air, act fourth, full of rage and resentment,
from Egeus; and after it a very gay and agreeable air, Benche
tuoni, which was sung by Mrs. Barbier. In the next scene Margarita
had a short aria di cantabile: Deh v' apprite, which only wants
length to be equal to Handel's best songs in that style; the harmony
is extremely rich and grateful, and the voice-part fit for a great
singer. After this, another song by the jealous Medea: Dal cupo
baratro, full of rage, vengeance, and incantation. Then two
different airs by Theseus: the first, Chi ritorna, a short, but
exquisite cantabile; the other, Qual tigre, a song of rage and
resentment, in which the accompaniment, in iterated notes, is
uncommon and admirable.
Then a very expressive adagio, by Margarita, upon the
following motivo, or subject:
AbM
ffi
-&— &
mtnrri 10 3i vcr- Jfci
^sm
^=*F=£
W V 7 «£
*
^^
CIEL ll-CIEL Lo
3^
M
SA, &C
EclE
in the second part of which, the following passage is uncommonly
beautiful and elegant:
5£
te
BE?
u>uz?a eon-TE
^m
K
«
£
^F?
£
s
s
•Cft INF-l-TieL Tl
££
5
s
After which the fourth act is ended with a most admirable duet,
Caro ti dono in pegno il cor, equal if not superior to any one of
the kind that Handel ever composed. Some of the passages have,
indeed, been since rendered common by his imitators; but there
still remains such fire and originality, as can be found perhaps in no
other duet of the same period.
The first song in the fifth act, Vuo morir, ma vendicata, sung
by Medea, is in a grand style of bravura, or execution, in which
Handel's fire is in full blaze; it is constantly in five parts, and
id) The division of a musical drama into three acts, says the late M. Diderot, has been
fixed on very rational principles; as it furnishes a beginning, a middle, and an end to the
narrative or event on which the plot is founded. MS. Reflex.
688
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
supported with great genius and abilities. After this, Valentin!
has an air of spirit, Non e da Re quel cor, in which the accompani-
ments are very masterly and ingenious. The next air, Ho per
mano, is a graceful and pleasing minuet. After which, as the
usual opera denouement advances happily, there is another gay
and agreeable air, Si, t' amo o caro, which is followed by a duet,
Unito a un puro afjetto, so natural, pleasing, and graceful, that,
as it has never yet been printed, I should give it to my musical
readers, if it was not likely soon to appear to greater advantage
in Dr. Arnold's edition.*
After this duet, an accompanied recitative, and a light gavot
chorus terminate the opera; which if Handel had had greater
singers to write for, might perhaps have been better; but I can see
no reason why it should never have been printed, as it contains
many fine airs, passages, and strokes of genius of this great master,
superior to those of several of his printed productions that were
long in high favour with the public.
This opera was performed twelve times in the course of the
season; the last representation, May 16th, being advertised " for
Mr. Hendel, with an entertainment for the harpsichord." The
opera-house closed this season, May 30th, with Ernelinda, when
the stage boxes were advertised at fifteen shillings, other boxes eight
shillings, pit five shillings, gallery two shilling and six pence.
There were no more operas performed at this theatre till after
Christmas.
1714. Nicolini having left the kingdom, it seems as if the
passion for musical dramas in England had a little abated, for
none were attempted from May, in the preceding year, till January
the 9th of this, when Dorinda was advertised, in which the
Galerati and Margarita were to sing. At the third representation
of this old opera, " Signor Ver acini, lately arrived, performed
symphonies." This was his first exhibition in England.** January
27th, a new pasticcio opera called Creso was advertised, in which
Mrs. Anastasia Robinson,*** afterwards Countess of Peter-
borough, was to perform a part, for the first time of her appearing
as a dramatic singer. After nine representations of this opera,
another, called Arminio, by an anonymous composer, was
advertised for March 4th. The drama is dedicated, by Heidegger,
to the Countess of Godolphin; and the songs are printed without the
author either of the poetry or Music being mentioned: however,
* In 1786 Dr. Arnold started his project of publishing a uniform edition of Handel's works.
In all he issued 108 numbers in about 40 volumes. The text was not very accurate, and many
errors of interpretation owe their inception to this edition.
** This debut took place on January 23, 1714, at the King's Theatre, and he continued to
perform solos between the acts of the operas until December 24. On April 22, he had a
benefit concert at Hickford's Rooms, which is recorded as "an Extraordinary concert of Music
both vocal and instrumental of his own compositions, viz., several solos for violin never
performed before."
*** At the height of her fame she received ^1,000 and a benefit concert, for the season.
Her marriage to the Earl of Peterborough took place in 1722, and she left the stage in 1724.
She died in 1755, not 1750 as stated by Burney in his note.
VOL. ii. 44. 689
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
an opera of the same title was written by Antonio Salvi Fiorentino,
1703, and performed at different times in several parts of Italy.
In 1722 it was set by Car. Fr. Pollaroli for Venice.
The singers who performed in the opera of Creso, in London,
were Valentini, the Margarita, and Mrs. Barbier, for the last time
on the opera stage, with the Galerati, Mr. Lawrence, and the
celebrated Mrs. Anas. Robinson. This performer, descended from
a good family in Leicestershire, was the daughter of a portrait
painter, who, having visited Italy for improvement in his art, had
made himself master of the Italian language, and acquired a good
taste in Music. And finding that his daughter Anastasia, during
her childhood, had an ear for Music and a promising voice, he had
her taught by Dr. Crofts, at first as an accomplishment; but
afterwards being afflicted with a disorder in his eyes, which
terminated in a total loss of sight; and this misfortune depriving
him of the means of supporting himself and family by his pencil,
he was under the necessity of availing himself of his daughter's
disposition for Music, to turn it to account as a profession. She
not only prosecuted her musical studies with great diligence, but
by the assistance of her father had acquired such a knowledge in
the Italian tongue as enabled her to converse in that language, and
to read the best poets in it with facility. And that her taste in
singing might approach nearer to that of the natives of Italy, she
had vocal instructions from Sandoni, at that time an eminent
Italian singing master resident in London, and likewise from the
opera singer called the Baroness (e).
Her first public exhibition was at the concerts in York-buildings,
and at other places, where she usually accompanied herself on the
harpsichord. Her general education had been pursued with the
utmost care and attention to the improvement of her mind, as well
as to ornamental and external accomplishments; and these
advantages seconded by her own disposition and amiable qualities,
rendered her conduct strictly prudent and irreproachable. And
what still entitled her to general favour, was a behaviour full of
timidity and respect to her superiors, and an undissembled gentle-
ness and affability to others, which, with a native chearfulness that
diffused itself to all around her, gained her at all times such a
reception from the public, as seemed to ensure her success in
whatever she should undertake. Encouraged by the partiality of
the public towards his daughter, and particularly by the
countenance and patronage of some persons of high rank of her own
sex, Mr. Robinson took a house in Golden-square, where he
established weekly concerts and assemblies in the manner of
conversazioni, which were frequented by all such as had any
pretensions to politeness and good taste (/).
(e) Mrs. Anastasia Robinson's voice was originally a soprano, but sunk, after a fit of
sickness, to a settled contralto.
(/) June the gth, 1713, she had a benefit concert at the opera-house. Daily Courant.
690
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Thus qualified and encouraged, she was prevailed upon to
accept of an engagement at the opera, where she made her first
appearance in Creso, and her second in the character of Ismina,
the principal female part in Arminio (g). From this period till
the year 1724, she continued to perform a principal part at the
opera with increasing favour and applause. Her salary is said to
have been £. 1000, and her emoluments by benefits and presents
were estimated at nearly as much more. When she quitted the
stage it was supposed to have been in consequence of her marriage
with the gallant Earl of Peterborough, the friend of Pope and
Swift, who distinguished himself so heroically in Spain during the
reign of Queen Anne (h).
The following anecdotes of Mrs. Anastasia Robinson having
been communicated to me in 1787, by the late venerable Mrs.
Delany, her cotemporary and intimate acquaintance, they will
doubtless be read with confidence and pleasure, not only by such
as had the happiness of knowing her personally, but by all those
to whom rumour has conveyed a faithful account of her longevity,
virtues, and accomplishments; for this excellent person having
been allowed by Providence to extend her existence to the great
age of eighty-eight, in the constant enjoyment of all the felicity
which the friendship and admiration of rank, virtue, and talents
could bestow; it seems as if, without hyperbole, she may be said
to have been " beloved by God and man."
" Mrs. Anastasia Robinson was of a middling stature, not
handsome, but of a pleasing, modest countenance, with large blue
eyes. Her deportment was easy, unaffected, and graceful. Her
manner and address very engaging, and her behaviour, on all
occasions, that of a gentlewoman, with perfect propriety. She
was not only liked by all her acquaintance, but loved and caressed
by persons of the highest rank, with whom she appeared always
equal, without assuming. Her father's house, in Golden-square,
was frequented by all the men of genius and refined taste of the
times : among the number of persons of distinction who frequented
Mr. Robinson's house, and seemed to distinguish his daughter in a
particular manner, were the Earl of Peterborough and general H — ;
the latter had shewn a long attachment to her, and his attentions
were so remarkable, that they seemed more than the effects of
common politeness; and as he was a very agreeable man and in
good circumstances, he was favourably received, not doubting but
that his intentions were honourable. A declaration of a very contrary
(g) It has been said, that she first appeared on the stage in Domenico Scarlatti's opera
of Narciso, 1720; but the public papers and printed book of the words of Arminio, as well
as of the Music, confute this assertion.
[h) Though the marriage was not publicly declared till the earl's death 1735, yet it was
then spoken of as an event which had long taken place. And such was the purity of her
conduct and character, that she was instantly visited at Fulham as the lady of the mansion,
by persons of the highest rank. Here and at Mount Bevis, the earl's seat near Southampton,
she resided in an exalted station till the year of her decease, 1750, surviving her lord fifteen
years; who, at the time of the connexion, must have been considerably beyond his prime,
as he was arrived at his seventy-fifth year when he died.
691
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
nature was treated with the contempt it deserved, though Mrs.
A. Robinson was very much prepossessed in his favour.
" Soon after this, Lord P. endeavoured to convince her of his
partial regard for her; but, agreeable and artful as he was, she
remained very much upon her guard, which rather increased than
diminished his admiration and passion for her. Yet still his pride
struggled with his inclination; for all this time she was engaged to
sing in public, a circumstance very grievous to her, but urged by
the best of motives, she submitted to it, in order to assist her
parents, whose fortune was much reduced by Mr. Robinson's loss
of sight, which deprived him of the benefit of his profession as a
painter.
" At length Lord P. made his declaration to her on honourable
terms; he found it would be vain to make proposals on any other,
and as he omitted no circumstance that could engage her esteem
and gratitude, she accepted them as she was sincerely attached to
him. He earnestly requested her keeping it a secret till it was a more
convenient time for him to make it known, to which she readily
consented, having a perfect confidence in his honour. Among the
persons of distinction that professed a friendship for Mrs. A.,
Robinson were the Earl and Countess of Oxford, daughter-in-law
to the lord treasurer Oxford, who not only bore every public
testimony of their affection and esteem for Mrs. A. Robinson, but
Lady Oxford attended her when she was privately married to the
Earl of P. and Lady P. evei acknowledged her obligations with
the warmest gratitude; and after Lady Oxford's death, she was
particularly distinguished by the Duchess of Portland, Lady
Oxford's daughter, and was always mentioned by her with the
greatest kindness for the many friendly offices she used to do her in
her childhood when in Lady Oxford's family, which made a lasting
impression upon the Duchess of Portland's noble and generous
heart.
"Mrs. A. Robinson had one sister,* a very pretty accomplished
woman, who married Dr. Arbuthnot's brother. After the death of
Mr. Robinson, Lord P. took a house near Fulham, in the
neighbourhood of his own villa at Parson's-Green, where he settled
Mrs. Robinson and her mother. They never lived under the same
roof, till the earl being seized with a violent fit of illness, solicited
her to attend him at Mount Bevis, near Southampton, which she
refused with firmness, but upon condition that, though still denied
to take his name, she might be permitted to wear her wedding ring;
to which, finding her inexorable, he at length consented.
" His haughty spirit was still reluctant to the making a
declaration, that would have done justice to so worthy a character
as the person to whom he was now united; and, indeed, his
uncontrolable temper, and high opinion of his own actions, made
him a very aweful husband, ill suited to Lady P. — 's good sense,
* Elizabeth Robinson, also a singer who studied under Bononcini, and also under Rameau
at Paris.
692
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
amiable temper, and delicate sentiments. She was a Roman
Catholic, but never gave offence to those of a contrary opinion,
though very strict in what she thought her duty. Her excellent
principles and fortitude of mind supported her through many
severe trials in her conjugal state. But at last he prevailed on
himself to do her justice, instigated, it is supposed, by his bad
state of health, which obliged him to seek another climate, and she
absolutely refused to go with him unless he declared his marriage:
her attendance upon him in his illness nearly cost her her life.
" He appointed a day for all his nearest relations to meet him
at the apartment, over the gate-way of St. James's Palace,
belonging to Mr. Pointz, who was married to Lord Peterborough's
niece, and at that time preceptor to prince William, afterwards
Duke of Cumberland. Lord P. also appointed Lady P. to be
there at the same time; when they were all assembled he began a
most eloquent oration, enumerating all the virtues and perfections
of Mrs. A. Robinson, and the rectitude of her conduct during his
long acquaintance with her, for which he acknowledged his great
obligations and sincere attachment, declaring he was determined to
do her that justice which he ought to have done long ago, which
was presenting her to all his family as his wife. He spoke this
harangue with so much energy, and in parts so pathetically, that
Lady P. not being apprised of his intentions, was so affected that
she fainted away in the midst of the company.
" After Lord P — 's death she lived a very retired life, chiefly
at Mount Bevis, and was seldom prevailed on to leave that
habitation, but by the Duchess of Portland, who was always happy
to have her company at Bulstrode, when she could obtain it, and
often visited her at her own house.
" Among Lord P— 's papers she found his memoirs, written
by himself, in which he declared he had been guilty of such actions
as would have reflected very much upon his character (i). For
which reason, she burnt them : this, however, contributed to
complete the excellency of her principles, though it did not fail
giving offence to the curious enquirers after anecdotes of so remark-
able a character as that of the Earl of Peterborough."
Though Nicolini did not sing this season in Arminius, which
was performed in the spring, yet he must have been here in the
summer; as I find his name in the Daily Courant, where it is
announced that " on Saturday, June the 14th, Signor Nicolini
would appear for the last time before his voyage to Italy." If,
however, he performed this voyage he returned the next winter,
for he sung in Rinaldo January 4th, 1715. And afterwards in
Amadigi. In the spring of 1714, the operas of Crcesus, Arminius,
and Ernelinda, were frequently performed, with solos on the violin
by Veracini. The opera band had been led till about this time
(i) Lady B. who had seen these memoirs, says, he boasted in them that he had committed
three capital crimes, before he was twenty. W.
693
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
by Mr. Corbet,* an Englishman, who had long resided in Italy (j).
The theatre in the Hay-market was not shut this year till the 23d
of June. It opened again October 23d, with Arminio, which was
performed " before the prince," afterwards George II (k). The
performers mentioned in the bills were Mrs. Anastasia Robinson,
the Margarita de 1' Epine, the Galerati, Signor Balatri, and Signor
Stradiotti. The stage boxes were again raised to fifteen shillings,
pit and box tickets ten shillings and six pence, gallery two shillings
and six pence, and only four hundred tickets were to be issued out.
At the bottom of the opera bills, on opening the theatre this
autumn, was the following advertisement: " Whereas by the
frequent calling for the songs again, the operas have been too
tedious ; therefore, the singers are forbidden to sing any song above
once; and it is hoped nobody will call for 'em, or take it ill, when
not obeyed."
October 26th, Arminio was performed before the King.
November the 3d, the same opera was repeated. On the 16th,
Ernelinda was revived, and the part of Ricemero performed by a
new Italian singer, Signora Diana Vico, who seems afterwards to
have had parts assigned her of the second class, which she long
continued to fill with credit. Ernelinda was continued till
December the 11th, when Arminio was performed by command.
This opera and Ernelinda continued to be repeated alternately till
December the 30th, when Rinaldo was revived, and performed
before the prince, the part which used to be performed by Nicolini,
being performed by Diana Vico, the new female singer from Italy.
1715. January 4th, Rinaldo again, before the prince, to begin
at half past five. Nicolini being now returned, this opera had as
great a run as at first, and always before some of the royal family.
February 26th, a new opera called Lucio Vero was performed
before the prince. This drama, written by Apostolo Zeno, and set
by an anonymous composer, was performed seven times, and always
honoured with the prince's presence. March 26th, Arminio by
command; and April the 2d, his Majesty was present at the
performance of Lucio Vero, for the benefit of Signora Pilotti
Schiavonetti. And the benefits of Mrs. Robinson, the Galerati,
Diana Vico, and Nicolini, were all by command. Hydaspes was
now revived again, and had a considerable run.
May 25th, Amadigi, or Amadis of Gaul, a new opera composed
by Mr. Handel, was first performed, being the fourth with which he
(j) His dismission from the opera about this time, perhaps rendered it necessary to try
the zeal of his friends in patronising a benefit concert; for April 28th was advertised " at
Hickford's room, a concert for Signora Lodi and Mr. Corbet."
(k) Queen Anne dying August the 1st this year, the arrival of King George I. and the
royal family in London soon after, attracted much company thither about this time, and
contributed to croud the theatres in a very uncommon manner, for so early a part of the season.
* Corbett appears to have left England when a new band was installed at the Opera
House for the production of Rinaldo, in 1711. In 17x3 he was back in England, and in 1716 he
was made a member of the King's Band. He had a collection of instruments which he
bequeathed to Gresham College. On account of lack of room in which to display the
instruments, the College authorities refused the legacy, and the collection was sold by auction
on March 9, 1751.
694
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
had supplied our theatre.* The words of this drama are .dedicated
by Heidegger, in the character of author, to the Earl of Burlington.
And it appears by the following passage in this dedication, that
Handel still resided at Burlington-house: " this opera more imme-
diately claims your lordship's protection, as it was composed in
your own family."
There are but four characters in this drama, and these were
performed by Nicolini, Diana Vico, Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, and
Elizabetta Pilotti Schiavonetti. As the Music of this opera was
never printed, and his Majesty's complete score has been confided
to my care for examination, the musical reader shall be acquainted
with the result.
The overture is well known; for though some others may have
enjoyed a greater degree of favour from the final air, yet this has
been long and frequently performed at our theatres and concerts,
public and private. The opening is very solemn; the fugue clear
and spirited; and the gavot as gay and lively as the minor third will
admit.
The first air, Pugnero contro del jato, is in a very bold and
original style. The divisions, as well as the subject of the air, are
still new; and it seems as if the not printing this opera had
preserved it from the pillage of the many plunderers who preyed
upon Handel for so many years. The second air, No'tte arnica,
which was sung by Nicolini, is finely written: the voice-part is
elegant and supplicating, and the accompaniment marked and
masterly. At the close of this air there is a wild symphony of
enchantment, followed by an accompanied recitative. The next air,
Non sa temere, is extremely natural, free, and spirited; but as the
divisions in all airs soonest lose their fashion, so these have been a
little injured by time. The subsequent air, Ah Spietata e non ti
move, is slow, pathetic, and still new. There is a fine solo part
for the hautbois, which is in dialogue with the voice-part, while the
two violins, tenor, and base, have a quiet accompaniment in the
modern style of iterated notes. The second part is quick, and full of
agitation and fury. This air executed by a great singer, and well
accompanied, will always foe excellent Music. In the next scene we
have a rapid and spirited air of a very peculiar cast, Vado, corro,
al mio tesoro. Though Handel had such a happy felicity in
multiplying parts, yet he could produce effects by unisons and
octaves which other composers were afraid to attempt. In this air
the roll of the symphony and accompaniments, by an opera
orchestra, must have a grandeur of effect which perhaps the genius
of Handel could only produce. The next air, Agitato il cor mi
sento, sung by Diana Vico, in the character of Dardanus, is truly
animated and dramatic. This singer having a contralto voice had
generally a man's part assigned to her, as Mrs. Barbier, whom she
superseded, had before her. After this air, according to the book
* In 1713 Handel composed the Utrecht Te Deum, which was performed on July 7,
1713, in St. Paul's Cathedral. For this he received a pension of ^200 per annum, from the
Queen. Queen Anne died on August, 1714, and upon the accession of George I., the name of
the Opera House was changed to the Rings Theatre.
695
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of the words, an enchanted palace falls to pieces, al suono di
strepitosa sinfonia, " at the sound of a boisterous symphony;" but
for this Handel has given us a regular overture, with a slow first
movement, largo, and an excellent fugue, allegro, good enough for
the opening of any serious opera. Thunder, lightning, and ruin, are
announced by the poet, but nothing picturesque or imitative is here
attempted; perhaps the orchestras of these early times were not so
powerful or able to execute new and dramatic ideas, as at present.
The next air, Gioie veri.te in sen, is one of the most graceful and
pleasing that has ever been composed in the Siciliano style. Every
note in the accompaniments is so select and tranquil, that the voice,
wholly undisturbed, is left to expand in all the tenderness and
expression which the air itself excites. Nothing but the remaining
so long in manuscript could have prevented this air from being long
in favour and frequently revived by great and favourite singers.
It was originally sung by Mrs. Ana stasia Robinson, and is the
best which I have ever seen in any of her parts. After this, Nicolini
had a gay air, E si dolce il mio contento, in the gavot style, which
cost Handel little trouble to write. However, there was the more
propriety in the lightness of this air, as, after it had been sung, it
measured the steps of a dance for enchanted knights and ladies.
The opening of the next air, 0 car o mio tesor, which was likewise
sung by Mrs. Robinson, is extremely fine; but in the latter part of
the first strain, when the words are divided by crotchet rests in all
the parts: vie — ni a — con — so — lar, I am unable to know what
effect was intended to be produced. The following spirited air,
Godo scherzo e rido, sung by the Pilotri Schiavonetti, in the
character of the sorceress Melissa, with rage and insult, is character-
istic, and has in it many pretty passages. The next air, 0 rendetemi
il mio bene, which terminates the first act, is in Handel's most
masterly and ingenious style of accompaniment; for though it is only
in three parts, the violins in unison have an original character of
passage, that is supported throughout the song, without encroaching
too much on the vocal part, which is pathetic, and calculated for
a great singer.
The first air in the second act, Sussurate, onde vezzose, is an
admirable cavatina, accompanied by two common flutes, two
violins, tenor, and base. The bright and brilliant tones of the violins
playing in octaves, from which so many pleasing effects have lately
been produced, seems to have been first discovered by Handel in
the accompaniment to this song, which must have delighted and
astonished every hearer, more than seventy years ago. The second
air in this act, S' estinto e I' idol mio, is, in my opinion, one of the
finest which Handel ever produced in his best and most masterly
style: the pathetic subject, the natural and pleasing imitations in
the instrumental parts, the richness of the harmony, the affecting
modulation, particularly in the second part; but above all, the strain
of sorrow which runs through every passage of the voice-part, all
conspire to render it one of the most perfect compositions of the
kind with which I have been acquainted. The next air, T amai
696
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
quant' il mio cor, begins in a sublime style of cantabile, and in
the second part is painted all the rage and fury which could be
excited in an offended knight errant, and expressed by the voice
and action of such a performer as Nicolini. In the succeeding air
the lady, not to be behind-hand with the hero in rage, tries " to out
Herod, Herod." The imitations in the accompaniments of the first
violin and base only, have all the spirited effect of a crouded score.
After these, we have a quarrel supported with great spirit between
the hero Amadis, and the slighted Enchantress, a grand orchestra,
in a score of seven parts. And still in the subsequent air, Pena
tiranna, we have eight parts, obligati: hautbois, bassoon, three
violins, tenor, voice-part, and base. The bassoon and hautbois
parts are remarkably fine in this air, which is one of the most
elaborate and masterly compositions in the opera. Then follows a
light air, in which the passages are too much repeated for modern
times. But scene eighth. Tu mia speranza, is more original and
different, not only from other composers, but from Handel himself,
than any of his airs that I have seen. In the symphony, the violin
and tenor play in octaves to each other, while the base to almost
the whole first part is little more than a drone. The principal
melody is lively, and the effect of the whole new and pleasing. Of
the next song, Ch' io lasci mat, the words are different from those
in the printed book; they are set to a very spirited and agreeable
bravura air, of which the divisions are still good. The finale of this
act, Desterb dalV empia dite, is a capital aria d' abilita, accompanied
by a trumpet and hautbois, in which there are important solo parts,
both in the symphony and song. This is a very masterly and fine
air of the kind, and has never been performed in public during
my time.
The third act begins with a simple and plaintive air, Dolce vita
del mio petto, which must always please when executed by a
favourite singer. The next air, Vanne lungi dal mio petto, is a
rattling air of contrast, without a few of which an opera would be
monotonous. After this, we have, Cangia al fine il' tuo rigore, a
very graceful and soothing duet, which in 1758 was introduced in a
pasticcio opera called Solimano; it was sung by Potenza and Mattei,
and printed in the collection of favourite songs of that opera. In
the next scene we have Handel's idea of the manner in which a
ghost would sing, in an aria parlante accompanied in plain counter-
point, and performed by the Ombra, or Spirit of Dardanus, prince
of Thrace. Then an accompanied recitative followed by a short
and pathetic fragment of an air, in which the Enchantress Melissa
breathes her last. After this the happy denouement comes on,
and all brightens up. There is more enchantment and machinery
in this opera than I have ever found to be announced in any other
musical drama performed in England. We have now a chearful
and pleasing symphony to introduce another Enchanter, or good
Genius, to put an end to the torments of the two lovers. After
which, a charming air for Nicolini, concertato with a trumpet and
697
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
hautbois, and the whole orchestra. According to the idea which
tradition gives us of the abilities of Nicolini, his part in this opera
must have drawn out all his powers, both as a singer and actor;
and Mrs. Anastasia Robinson never had so good a part assigned to
her. The coro finale, is short and light, and after being sung, is
played for the dance which terminated the opera; a production in
which there is more invention, variety, and good composition,
than in any one of the musical dramas of Handel which I have yet
carefully and critically examined.
This opera came out too late in the summer to have a long run.
It was performed by subscription, May 25th, and discontinued for
a benefit till June 11th. It was again repeated June 15th, and
again stopt for Nicolini's benefit, for which he had Rinaldo.
Then Amadis again June 28th, July 2d, and 9th, when the
theatre was shut up. The last two performances of this opera
were before the prince.
It appears from the following advertisement in the public papers,
that Signor Castrucci,* who afterwards led the opera band, came
to England about this time: " July 23d, there will be a benefit
concert for Signor Castrucci, who lately came over from Italy with
Lord Burlington." This violinist, who was more than half mad,
is represented in one of Hogarth's prints as the enraged musician;
the painter having sufficient polissonnerie, previous to making the
drawing, to have his house beset by all the noisy street-instruments
he could collect together, whose clamourous performance brought
him to the window in all the agonies of auricular torture.
August 27th, of this summer, the opera-house was opened for
one night only, by command of his Majesty, when Hydaspes was
performed. The principal parts by Nicolini, the Margarita, and
Diana Vico, with dancing by Mad. Aubert. And this was the last
performance at the theatre in the Hay-market till the next year.
1716. The opera-house did not open this year till the first of
February, when Lucio Vero was performed by command; the
principal parts by Nicolini, Giacomo, Diana Vico, Pilotti, and the
Croce Viviani. After three or four performances of Lucio Vero,
Amadigi had four representations, successively. And then Pyrrhus
and Demetrius was revived, and continued in run till April 18th,
when Cleartes, a new opera by an anonymous composer, was
brought out, and seems to have pleased as it was performed thirteen
times in the course of the year. His Majesty again honoured.
Nicolini with his presence at his benefit this year, May 2d, when
Pyrrhus and Demetrius was performed. Nothing memorable
happened at the lyric theatre this season, except the arrival of
Antonio Bernacchi, as second man. This performer's voice seems
by nature to have been feeble and defective, but he supplied the
defects of nature by so much art, that his performance was always
* Castrucci, who was a pupil of Corelli, was bom in 1679 and died at Dublin in 1752.
He invented the violetta marina, a viola with sympathetic strings which is used by Handel
in Orlando and in Sosarme.
698
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
much more admired by professors than by the public in general.
He staid here at this time but one year, after which he went back to
Italy; but returned in 1729. After quitting the stage, Bernacchi
established a school for singing at Bologna, where he had himself
been educated, under the celebrated Postocchi, and where he
formed several admirable scholars,* who rendered his name and
school famous.
His Majesty George I. commanded the opera of Pyrrhus and
Demetrius for his benefit in London, June 2d. And it was this
summer, June 13th, that an opera was performed for the
Instrumental Music, which his Majesty likewise honoured with his
patronage and presence. The opera performed was Amadige; and
it was perhaps on this occasion that Handel composed his admirable
hautbois concerto in F, which was long known by the name of the
orchestra concerto. July 12th, the season was closed with the
opera of Amadis, between the acts of which a new symphony was
performed by Signor Attilio Ariosti on the viol d' amour. This
was the first time that such an instrument had been heard in
England.** Signor Ariosti, during this visit, staid here but a little
while; but in the year 1720, he returned, as a composer to the
opera, by invitation of the directors of the Royal Academy of
Music (Z).
The opera-house did not open the next season till December,
and then only repeated Cleartes three times, an opera which had
been brought out in the spring.
1717. January 5th, Rinaldo was revived and the parts cast in
a stronger manner than heretofore: Rinaldo by Nicolini; Goffredo,
Bernacchi; Argante, Berenstadt; Armida, Pilotti; and Almirena.
by Mrs. Anastasia Robinson. This favourite opera, though six
years old, an age more than sufficient to render the generality of
musical dramas superannuated, was performed no less than ten
times, during the remainder of the season. The places in the boxes
were now, for the first time, all let on the same terms, at half a
guinea each, pit five shillings, gallery two shillings and six pence.
February 16th, Amadigi was revived and performed four or five
times, the first by his Majesty's command, the last for Nicolini's
benefit; and at one of the intermediate representations, for Mrs.
Robinson's benefit, a new additional scene, composed by Mr.
Handel, was introduced.
March 13th, a new opera called Venceslao written by Apostolo
Zeno, and set by an anonymous composer, was brought on the
(/} It has been said by a late musical historian, that he did not come hither till 1723,
and that Coriolanus was his first opera.
* Mancini, Guarducci, Raff, and Amadori, were pupils of Bernacchi.
** Evelyn (Diary, November 20, 1679) mentions a performance on the viol d'amore at
Mr. Slingby's, The Master of the Mint, when " above all for sweetness and novelty, the Viola
dAmore of five wire strings played on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin played on
lyra-way by a German."
Evelyn does not tell us if the instrument was fitted with sympathetic strings.
Vivaldi wrote a concerto in D minor for Viol d'amore and lute, and both Bach and Handel
have used the instrument. Ariosti published six sonatas for viola d'amore (London, 1728).
Meyerbeer includes it in the orchestra required for Les Huguenots, as does Strauss in the
Sir.fonia Dotnestica.
699
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
stage; but it seems to have had a cold reception, as it sustained but
three representations, and the Music was never printed. Cleartes,
an opera of the last season, was frequently performed; which, with
a new pasticcio, called Tito Manlio, repeated eight times, brought
the season to a conclusion, June 29th (m).
No Italian operas were performed from this time till 1720,*
when a plan was formed for patronising, supporting, and carrying
them on; and a fund of £.50,000 raised by subscription among the
first personages in the kingdom; to which, as his Majesty King
George I. had subscribed £.1000, this establishment was called
the Royal Academy of Music, consisting of a governor, deputy
governor, and twenty directors. The first year the Duke of
Newcastle was governor, Lord Bingley deputy governor, and the
directors the Dukes of Portland and Queensbury, the Earls of
Burlington, Stair, and Waldgrave, Lords Chetwynd and Stanhope,
Generals Dormer, Wade, and Hunter, Sir John Vanbrugh, Colonels
Blathwayt and O'Hara, with James Bruce, Thomas Coke of
Norfolk, Conyers D'Arcy, Bryan Fairfax, George Harrison,
William Pulteney, and Francis Whitworth, Esquires.
And in order to render this design as complete as possible, it was
determined by the directors not only to engage a lyric poet in their
service, but the best vocal performers that could be found in the
several parts of Europe where there was a musical theatre, and the
three most eminent composers then living who could be prevailed
on to visit this country. For this purpose, Bononcini [Glov.
Mar.], as he tells us himself, had been invited hither from Rome
(n); Attilio Ariosti, from Berlin; and Handel, who resided at this
time with the Duke of Chandos, at Cannons, was not only included
in this triumvirate, but commissioned to engage the singers. And
with this view he went to Dresden,** where the Elector of Saxony,
Augustus, then King of Poland, had Italian Operas performed at
his court in the most perfect and splendid manner possible; and
here Handel engaged Senesino, Berenstadt, Boschi, and the
Durastanti.
1720. The first opera that was performed after this establish-
ment, was Numitor, April 2d, composed by Giovanni Porta
[c. 1690-1755] of Venice; the Music of this drama that was printed
(m) An attempt was made at the little theatre in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields this winter, to
call the attention of the public to English operas. Owen Mac. Swiney being out of the
management of the theatre in the Haymarket, had the opera of Camilla performed nine or ten
times, and Thomyris twice, entirely by English singers, except Margarita. The success was
such as might have been expected, at a time when the Music and performance at the Italian
theatre were in much greater perfection than they had ever yet been brought in this, or
perhaps any other country.
(») Qui mi trovo, chiamato da Roma per servigio delta real accidentia di Musica.
Dedication of his cantatas and duets to Geo. I.
* The Royal Academy was started in 1719 and the first performance took place at the
ICing's Theatre in the Haymarket. Unfortunately for the venture this opening coincided with
the " South Sea Bubble " and by 1728 the performances were discontinued.
** On this tour Handel payed a visit to his mother at Halle. J. S. Bach, who at the
time was in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Cothen, hearing that his great contemporary
was only a matter of about twenty miles away, journeyed from Cothen to Halle, in the hope
of seeing him. Unfortunately, however, Handel had left for England before Bach's arrival
at Halle.
700
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
seems superior to that of any preceding opera which we had had
from Italy. There is one of the most pleasing Sicilianas among the
airs: Virtu de pensier miei, which had been then produced; and of
which our ballad-mongers have enjoyed the plunder. " Love
sounds the alarm," in Acis and Galatea, is called to mind by Porta's
Dove spiega la jama i suoi vanni. However, Porta never was in
England, and probably had never seen Handel's song, which
though composed originally in Italy, had never been published.*
After five representations, Numitor was superseded, April 27th,
by Radamisto, written by Nic. Haym, and the first opera which
Handel composed for the Royal Academy. This drama, which had
a run of ten nights when it first came out, was not only resumed
the next season, but revived in 1728, with additional songs: Arte
aggiunte di Radamisto , when it had likewise a long run.
The composition of this opera is more solid, ingenious, and full
of fire than any drama which Handel had yet produced in this
country (o). The first movement of the overture is grand and
majestic, and the fugue written with that spirit and science which
have always rendered his movements of that kind superior to any
that can be found in the overtures of other composers. There is
no minuet or popular air at the end of this prefatorial production,
which has prevented it from being as frequently played as many
others.
The opening of the opera, Sommi Dei, is truly grand and in a
tragic style of composition. The second air that is printed, Deh
fuggi un traditore, has a very spirited and ingenious accompani-
ment. The third, Tu vuoi ch' io parta, an adagio, which a great
singer can make charming at any period of time. The fourth,
Straggi, morti, with a trumpet, is a good song of the kind, and fit
for a tyrant. The next air, Cara sposa, was always admired, and
so elegantly simple and pathetic, that it must always please when
well sung. Son contenta, though the base is so full and incessant,
would want more accompaniment if performed now, as the violin
has little to do, except in the ritornels. This air, though masterly
and in a favourite style at the time it was composed, has strong
marks of age upon it. Ferite, uccidete, is a spirited song in the
style of the times. Son lieve le catene, an agreeable base song.
And the last air of the first act, Doppo torbide procelle, is one of
the most agreeable arie jugate that I know.
(o) It seems as if he was not insensible of its worth, himself; as he dedicated the book
of the words to King George I. subscribing himself his Majesty's "most faithful subject,"
which, as he was neither a Hanoverian by birth nor a native of England, seems to imply
his having been naturalised here, by a bill in parliament. He likewise had the songs of this
opera finely engraved on copper, and published them himself, as well as the additional songs.
It was natural to imagine that the score of the songs, printed by and for the author himself,
under his own eye, would have been complete, and not curtailed by many essential parts, in
the manner of Rinaldo and many operas printed by Walsh; but upon collating this score
with Handel's original manuscript in his Majesty's possession, it appears nearly as defective
as the printed copy of any other opera of which he himself was not the editor.**
* Porta was in London from 1720-36. In the published book of words of Numitor he is
described as " Servant to His Grace the Duke of Wharton."
** The full score of Radamisto was not published until it was issued in the HandeU
Gesellschaft edition.
701
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Act II. Quando mai, is pathetic, clear, and simple. And the
next air, Ombra cava, was regarded by Geminiani and cotemporary
masters as one of Handel's first vocal compositions for a single
voice. Indeed, too much praise cannot be given to that song, in
which, though the composition is so artful, an inverted chromatic
imitation being carried on in the accompaniments, yet the cantilena
is simply pathetic throughout. I remember hearing Reginelli sing
this air at the opera in 1747, among some light Italian songs of
that period, and it seemed the language of philosophy and science,
and the rest the frivolous jargon of fops and triflers. Gia che morir
non posso, though not composed for a great singer, has in it many
strokes of true genius and fire : the base of this air is remarkably
fine. Troppo sofferse, is extremely pathetic, and calculated to
display a fine voice and good action. Empio perverso cor, is a fine
acting song of two characters. Vanne sorella ingrata, is an admir-
able composition of the old school; whoever understands a score,
will admire the beauty of the accompaniment, and the distinct
character of the hautbois part from the violin. And the duet which
ends the second act has no appearance of age, except in the plan.
The first air of the third act, S' adopri il braccio, has in it a
spirit and vivacity of no common kind (p). The air Dolce bene,
though in a style that is a little superannuated, is admirably put
together, and would still entertain as an instrumental composition.
Sposo ingrato, is a very elaborate and spirited aria concertata, with
a solo part for the violin, to display the talents of a Cleg or
Castrucci; this air, which Handel composed originally for one of his
juvenile cantatas at Hamburgh, Casti amori, was now accommo-
dated for the Durastanti and a great orchestra, giving solo parts
not only to the violin, but principal hautbois, bassoons, and
violoncellos. The words of this air are omitted in the edition of
1728. Alzo al volo is likewise a grand' orchestra, with solo parts
for two French horns, which seems to have been their first admission
into our opera-band. The vocal divisions are now worn out, but
the violin accompaniment to the second part is admirable. Deggio
dunque, is a pathetic and fine air, which a great singer could always
make modern.
Among the additional songs, Con la stragge de' nemici, is an
admirable air for a base voice. Handel's genius and fire never
shine brighter than in the base songs which he composed for Boschi
and Montagnana: as their voices were sufficiently powerful to
penetrate through a multiplicity of instrumental parts, he set every
engine at work in the orchestra, to enrich the harmony and enliven
(p) Neither this air nor the preceding duet appears in the edition of the words of the
opera printed 1728, when it was revived and greatly altered foi Faustina, who sung in it
then for the first time. In examining the score of the songs published by Handel himself,
in which some of the singers are named, it does not appear that any of the airs were originally
designed for Senesino, who seems not to have been arrived. Indeed, it is manifest from
Handel's foul* score, that the Part of Zenobia was composed for Mrs. Anastasia Robinson,
and Radamistus for a soprano voice, and not for Senesino, a contralto.
* A foul score is a rough copy.
702
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the movement. Perfido, di a quel empio, is a spirited air, composed
for Senesino, probably when it was brought on the stage again,
eight months after its first appearance. Vuol cK io serva, and
Lascia pure, with the accompaniments, are two extremely original
and pleasing airs. In the latter there is a close for the first time
to my knowledge, which at present is perfectly modern, elegant,
and in good taste; indeed, the whole air is exquisite. Barbaro
partiro is extremely animated; and the duet, Non ho piu affanni,
charming.
Few of Handel's operas would offer more amusement to a
modern audience than Radamisto, in which there are so many fine
songs in various styles, that with a few changes to accommodate
the singers, and comply with the taste of the times, its intrinsic
worth and Handel's still increasing celebrity would excite attention
and renovate its favour (q).
The third musical drama that was performed after this establish-
ment of the Royal Academy, was an opera called Narciso, May
30th, composed by Domenico Scarlatti, and conducted by Thomas
Roseingrave, who composed several additional songs. It seems
necessary here to give some account of this musician, who was an
enthusiastic, ingenious, and worthy man, of considerable eminence
in his youth for his performance on the harpsichord and organ, both
as a sight's-man and voluntary player; and his intellects being a
little deranged in the latter part of his life, rendered him so
whimsical and eccentric a character, that he is too prominent to be
over-looked.
Thomas Roseingrave [1690-1766] was the son of Daniel
Roseingrave, who having been brought up in the King's Chapel at
the same time as Purcell,* was first promoted to the place of organist
(q) In the Daily Courant, No. 5777, for Wednesday, April 27th, the day on which
Radamisto was first performed, the following advertisement appeared: "The governours and
court of directors of the Royal Academy of Musick do hereby give notice, that a general court
will be held on Friday the 6th of May next, at eleven a-clock in the forenoon, whereof each
subscriber is desired to take notice." This advertisement was repeated Wednesday 14th July.
And October 31st, " Notice was given that a general court of directors of the Royal Academy
of Musick would be held November 4th, at their office in the Hay-market pursuant to
adjournment." November 2d, 1720. Mr. Handel's Harsichord Lessons, neatly engraven on
copper-plates, were advertised to be published on Monday the 14th inst. and to be had at
Mr. Christopher Smiths, the sign of the hand and Music-book, in Coventry-street, and at
Mr. Richard Mears's Music-shop, in St. Paul's Church-yard. When this advertisement was
repeated, November 9th, there was the following addendum: "the author has been obliged
to publish these pieces to prevent the publick being imposed upon by some surreptitious and
incorrect copies of some of them that have got abroad." The last time these were advertised,
on the 14th of November, the price is said to be one guinea; but whether this publication
included the two books of his lessons does not appear.** November 7th, I find the following
advertisement in the Daily Courant which seems to imply no great prosperity in the opera
management: "The directors of the Royal Academy of Musick, by virtue of a power given
them, under the King's letters patents, having thought it necessary to make a call ot £.5 per
cent from each subscnber, have authorised the treasurer to the said Royal Academy, or his
deputy, to receive the same, and to give receipts for each sum so paid in. This is therefore
to desire the subscribers to pay. or cause to be paid, the sum of £.5 per cent, according to
the several subscriptions, on the 19th, 21st, and 22d of this inst. November, at the opera
house in the Hay-market,_ where attendance will be given by the deputy treasurer, from nine
in the morning till one in the afternoon, who will give receipts for every sum so paid by
each subscriber, as aforesaid."
The Monthly Mask of vocal Music, is advertised by Walsh in the same paper .
* Daniel Roseingrave is said to have studied under Dr. Blow and Henry Purcell. His
first appointment appears to have been as organist at Gloucester Cathedral from 1679-81. He
was also organist at Winchester Cathedral from 1682-92.
** The 2nd vol. of the suites was not published until 1733, when Walsh issued them
without having obtained permission from Handel.
703
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of Salisbury cathedral [1692-98], and afterwards of St. Patrick's,
Dublin [1698] . Daniel had two sons, both musicians, one of them,
Ralph [c. 1695-1747], succeeded his father at St. Patrick's
[1726]; the other, Thomas, being regarded as a young man of
uncommon dispositions for the study of his art, was honoured by
the chapter of St. Patrick's with a pension, to enable him to travel
for improvement; and about the year 1710 he set off for Italy.
Being arrived at Venice in his way to Rome, as he himself told me,
he was invited, as a stranger and a virtuoso, to an academia
at the house of a nobleman, where, among others, he was
requested to sit down to the harpsichord and favour the company
with a toccata, as a specimen della sua virtu. And, says he,
" finding myself rather better in courage and finger than usual, I
exerted myself, my dear friend, and fancied, by the applause I
received, that my performance had made some impression on the
company." After a cantata had been sung by a scholar of Fr.
Gasparini, who was there to accompany her, a grave young man
dressed in black and in a black wig, who had stood in one corner
of the room, veiy quiet and attentive while Roseingrave played,
being asked to sit down to the harpsichord, when he began to play,
Rosy said, he thought ten hundred d — Is had been at the
instrument; he never had heard such passages of execution and
effect before. The performance so far surpassed his own, and,
every degree of perfection to which he thought it possible he should
ever arrive, that, if he had been in sight of any instrument with
which to have done the deed, he should have cut off his own fingers.
Upon enquiring the name of this extraordinary performer, he was
told that it was Domenico Scarlatti, son of the celebrated Cavalier
Alessandro Scarlatti. Roseingrave declared he did not touch an
instrument himself for a month; after this rencontre, however, he
became very intimate with the young Scarlatti, followed him to
Rome and Naples, and hardly ever quitted him while he remained
in Italy, which was not till alter the peace of Utrecht, as appears
by an anthem which he composed at Venice in 1713, and which
Dr. Tudway has inserted in the fifth volume of his Manuscript
Collection of English Music [Harl MS. 7342], page 149: "Arise,
shine, for thy light is come," Isaiah, chap lx. There is much fire
and spirit in the introductory symphony of a very modern cast.
Roseingrave is here erroneously called a student of Christ-church,
Oxon. instead of Dublin, whence he had his exhibition.
His election to the place of organist of St. George's, Hanover-
square [1725], was attended with very honourable circumstances.
The parishioners consisting chiefly of persons of rank and fortune,
being very desirous of having a good organist, and unwilling to
trust to their own judgment, or be teazed by the solicitations of
candidates of mean abilities, requested Mr. Handel, Dr. Pepusch,
Dr. Greene, and Mr. Galliard, to hear the competitors play, and
determine their degree of merit.
704
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The candidates were allowed half an hour each to manifest their
abilities on the organ, in whatever way they pleased, and then were
severally required to play extempore on subjects given by the
judges. Mr. Handel did not attend in person, but sent his subject;
among the numerous candidates for this place there were several
who acquitted themselves very well during the half hour of free-
agency, by playing with great neatness pieces they had probably
studied for the occasion; but when subjects of fugue were presented
to them for extemporaneous treatment, they neither knew how nor
when to bring in the answer, or even to find harmony for the
themes with either hand when they were brought in. Roseingrave,
on the contrary, whose style though too crude and learned for the
generality of hearers when left to himself, treated the subjects given
with such science and dexterity, inverting the order of notes,
augmenting and diminishing their value, introducing counter-
subjects, and turning the themes to so many ingenious purposes
that the judges were unanimous in declaring him the victorious
candidate. The late Dr. Arne and Mr. Mich. Christ. Festing, who
were both present at this contention, informed me of these
particulars, which happened in the year 1726*, and spoke with
wonder of Roseingrave as aD extempore fughist; but confirmed
the general censure of his crude harmony and extravagant
modulation, which, indeed, his printed compositions imply.
Roseingrave having a few years after this election fixed his
affections on a lady of no dove-like constancy, was rejected by her
at the time he thought himself most secure of being united to her
for ever. This disappointment was so severely felt by the
unfortunate lover, as to occasion a temporary and whimsical
insanity. He used to say that the lady's cruelty had so literally
and completely broke his heart, that he heard the strings of it
crack at the time he received his sentence; and on that account
ever after called the disorder of his intellects his crepation, from
the Italian verb crepare, to crack. After this misfortune poor
Roseingrave was never able to bear any kind of noise, without great
emotion. If, during his performance on the organ at church, any
one near him coughed, sneezed, or blew his nose with violence, he
would instantly quit the instrument and run out of church,
seemingly in the greatest pain and terror, crying out that it was old
scratch who tormented him and played on his crepation.
About the year 1737, on account of his occasional insanity, he
was superseded at St. George's church by the late Mr. Keeble,
an excellent organist, intelligent teacher, and a worthy man, who,
during the life of Roseingrave, divided with him the salary. I
prevailed on him once to touch an organ at Byfield's the organ-
builder, but his nerves were then so unstrung that he could execute
but few of the learned ideas which his mental disorder had left
* According to Grove's this appointment was made in 1725.
Vol,, ii. 45. 705
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
him. His sweetness of temper and willingness to instruct young
persons who were eager in the pursuit of knowledge, tempted me
frequently to visit him at Mrs. Bray's, at Hampstead, where he
resided. His conversation was very entertaining and instructive,
particularly on musical subjects. Indeed, his passion for the art
never quitted him to the time of his death, which happened in
Ireland about the year 1766. The instrument on which he had
exercised himself in the most enthusiastic part of his life, bore
very uncommon marks of diligence and perseverance, for he had
worn the ivory covering of many of the keys quite through to the
wood. In his younger days, when he enjoyed the mens sana in
corpore sano, he was regarded as having a power of seizing the
parts and spirit of a score and executing the most difficult Music
at sight beyond any musician in Europe. Indeed, it was said
that he could read a music-book if turned topsy-turvy; but this
seems exaggeration of praise, which few can believe, who know
the difficulty, without ocular and auricular demonstration. The
harmony in the voluntaries, which Roseingrave published, is
rendered intolerably harsh and ungrateful by a licentious and
extravagant modulation, and a more frequent use of the sharp third
and flat sixth, than any composer with whose works I am at all
acquainted, not excepting Dr. Blow; and his double fugues are so
confused by the too close succession of unmarked subjects, that it
is impossible, at the end of the performance, to remember what
they are. His cantatas, which he published by subscription, being
composed on the model of the elder Scarlatti, are the most pleasing
of his works, but they were still-born, and never lived to speak
in public*
The singers in the opera of Narciso, the Music of which had
been brought over by Roseingrave, were Signor Benedetto
Baldassarri, Mr. Gordon, Signora Durastanti, Mrs. Anastasia
Robinson, and Mrs. Turner Robinson, daughter of Dr. Turner, and
wife of Mr. Robinson, organist of Westminster- Abbey.
Roseingrave 's additional songs were composed in the style of his
friend Mimo Scarlatti, in whose Music of Narcissus, though there
were many new and pleasing passages and effects, yet those
acquainted with the original and happy freaks of this composer
in his harpsichord pieces, would be surprised at the sobriety and
almost dulness of his songs. His genius was not yet expanded,
and he was not so much used to write for the voice as his father,
who was the greatest vocal composer of his time, as the son
afterwards became the most original and wonderful performer on
the harpsichord, as well as composer for that instrument. But it
seems impossible for any individual to be equally great in any two
things of difficult attainment!
* His chief published works were : — 15 voluntaries and fugues for the organ or harpsichord;
8 suites of lessons for the harpsichord or spinet; 6 cantatas to Italian texts; the opera Phaedra
and Hippolytus. He also published an edition of Dom. Scarlatti's 42 Suites of Lessons for the
harpsichord, and for this he wrote an opening piece in G minor. They were printed by
John Johnson, at the Harp and Crown, London.
706
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After five representations of this opera, and one of Radamisto,
the season closed with Numitor, June 25th.
The new singers whom Handel had engaged at Dresden being
arrived, the autumnal season began November 19th, with a new
opera called Astarto, composed by Bononcini, which ran ten nights
before Christmas, and was performed at least twenty times more
in the course of the next year.
Happening to be in possession of the proof-sheets of this opera,
which was printed under the author's own inspection, I shall
examine it with the same spirit of fair enquiry as I have the musical
dramas of Handel, of which there has been already occasion to
speak.
The drama of Astartus, performed for the Royal Academy of
Music, is dedicated by the poet, Rolli, to the Earl of Burlington,
with the following motto from Milton's Paradise Lost, book first:
to mitigate and swage
With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase_
Anguish, and doubt, and fear, and sorrow, and pain.
In the dedication he reminds his noble patron, " that in his first
voyage to Italy, he had honoured the rehearsal of this opera, when
it was performed at the Capranica theatre at Rome [1714], with his
presence; and that his approbation of it, which was followed by that
of the public, was not only the cause of its being proposed to the
Royal Academy in England, but of its renowned author's arrival in
this country, and of his adding such beauties to the composition, in
order to render it more worthy the protection of his noble patron/'
Hence it appears not to have been written or composed expressly
for the Royal Academy, but revived and accommodated to the
singers engaged in its service; who were Senesino, Boschi,
Berenstadt, and Berselli; with the Durastanti, Salvai, and Galerati
(r).
The opening of the introductory symphony, or overture, is
spirited, but devoid of variety, and common in melody, harmony,
and modulation; the fugue too, if it deserves that name, is upon an
obvious and juvenile subject, and treated with no great art or
contrivance. It seems but an extract from the last movement of
Corelli's first solo, which had now been published twenty years.
Indeed, there is as much difference between a fugue of Handel and
this, as between a man and a child; and we soon became fastidious
judges of this species of composition, when accustomed to his bold
yet natural subjects, and his masterly manner of treating them.
The first air for Durastanti, Figlio d' un bel valor e, accompanied
only by a violoncello, is simple and natural; but instead of satisfying
the expectations of a first singer, at present, it would hardly be
(r) By collating tne English edition of this drama with an opera of the same name in
the tenth volume of the works of Apost. Zeno, which was performed at Venice 1708, they
appear to be precisely the same, though no notice is taken by Rolli of Apost. Zeno, either
in the title-page or dedication.
707
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
thought good enough for a ballad. The next is a trifling air
accompanied by a common and unmeaning passage, perpetually
repeated. The third is a little better. In the accompaniment of
this the principal passage reminds us of one in Handel's Acis and
Galatea, " As when the dove," consisting of a chord arpeggiato.
The subsequent air, Se jingo, se spero, has some spirit, but no
variety. We have next a symphony in which French horns are
introduced (s). The air which follows, sung by Senesino, in the
character of Clear co, the hero of the drama, was probably rendered
interesting by his voice and manner of singing; but in itself, as
Music, there is little invention, grace, or passion in the voice-part,
or contrivance in the instrumental; and yet this short movement
of only eight bars, seems one of the most capital airs of the first
act. The next air, In che peccasti? is dramatic, and would have
an effect on the stage from a good actress as well as singer, which in
a room and in still life could not be produced. After this, Senesino
has an air of spirit, Stelle ingrate, with a lively accompaniment,
which, from his majestic voice and action could not fail to please.
The subsequent air, Si, peria, for Boschi's powerful voice, has more
originality and spirit than any one in the first act. After this,
Senesino has another air, Care pupille, upon a favourite, and of
course, a common subject with all the composers of those times, bul
to which little has been added by Bononcini from his own stock of
invention. We have then a bravura air, Sdegne tornata, which
was sung by the Durastanti, the merits of which may be divined
from the divisions, on the next plates. The subsequent air, Caro
mio ben, and the last of the first act, begins in dialogue, and ends
in duo. It is an elegant and natural Siciliana, which never fails to
please, when sung with grace and expression.
The first air in the next act, Non mi seguir, is impassioned, in
the voice-part, and suitable to the situation of the singer; but the
accompaniment is unmeaning and frivolous. The second air, La
costanza, sung by Senesino, is of two characters: the first
movement, slow and soothing; the second, rapid and furious.
Senesino probably gave adventitious beauties to this song, which
cold notes cannot paint, and of which new fashions in melody
render us unfair judges. The next air: Sapete, is light, and now
trifling. It is only accompanied by a violoncello in the ancient opera
style, with a laboured ritornel, in full harmony. The motivo, or
text, of this air, is repeated near twenty times, and being in itself
neither uncommon nor beautiful, becomes more and more tiresome
at each repetition. After this, another light air, Spero, which is
now become so vulgar as to be below criticism. Senesino, however,
after this has a slow air, alia Siciliana : Se vuoi che in pace, which
is very pleasing, though the passages have been since often intro-
duced into English ballads. And the next air, for Durastanti, 0
(s) Most of the horn passages seem to imply a knowledge of the genius of that instrument1,
but in the peri'sal of the score, it is hardly possible to overlook the poverty and false
composition of the tenor.
708
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
quanto invidia, seems itself but a pleasing and easy ballad. After
this the Salvai had an air of spirit and character, Non e poco; but
neither in a grand nor tender style. The next air, Mi da crudel,
has the merit of vivacity, but discovers neither invention nor science,
the most elaborate air in this act seems Mi veggo solo, in which the
tenor and violoncello are playing in division and in octaves through
the whole movement; but there is little melody in the voice-part,
and the violins only mark the accents of each bar. The base to the
last movement of Dr. Pepusch's cantata, " See from the silent
groves," seems to have suggested this accompaniment (u). The
first strain of the next air, Ah no non inganna, is the most chantant
and pleasing of the principal woman, Durastanti's part. A light
and airy duet, Innamorai, with a French-horn symphony and
accompaniment terminates the second act. The novelty of the
instruments, the singing, and the facility of the melody, are very
likely to captivate an English audience, whose taste in Music, and
experience in operas, were at this time not very great.
The third act begins with a gay air, Sai pur s' io vivo, of a
common cast, in minuet time; which is followed by another, Cosi
fedele, of a different cast, somewhat more solid, but not more
pleasing. The next air, Amanie e sposa, is more graceful, and has
more spirit and character in the accompaniment than any other
in Senesino's part; in which, however, there is none of that grandeur
of style, which the abilities of such a singer and actor required.
The subsequent air, Coglierb la bella rosa, is natural and pleasing;
which is all that can be said of that which follows it: U esperto
nocchiero. We after this have a base song, for Boschi, Disciolte
dal piede, which is written with spirit and facility. The divisions in
this air seem to imply unusual agility for a voice of such low pitch.
The next air, Se vedrai, for Senesino, must have derived its chief
merit from the performance; for, as Music, its claims to favour are
very small. The most spirited air in the opera is Con disperato
sdegno, sung by Galerati. There is an additional song of the same
kind for Senesino, L' onor severo, in which the divisions, though
now very common, must have had a great effect, as rolled and
thundered by the powerful voice and articulate execution of this
singer. The duet, Mai non potrei goder, upon the general model
of the times, discovers no great resources in fugue and imitation,
and the passages of other kinds were not very new at the time.
(u) The first book of Pepusch's cantatas, in which Alexis is contained, was advertised
for sale in the Tatler, No. 164, for the 1st of May, 1710.
In the perusal of old operas, discoveries are perpetually made of plagiarisms and imitations
in the most favourite vocal airs and instrumental movements of our own composers. The
accompaniment to the first movement of this air, for instance, must have suggested to Dr. Arne,
the symphony to the recitative which precedes " On ev'ry hill," in Comus; and the air itself
is very like one of Handel's, in Amadigi. There is some very extraneous modulation in the
second part of this air in Astarto, not very accountable er pleasant.
709
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Divisions in Nicolini's Songs, and in those of his Cotemporaries and
immediate Successors.
hydaspes mo.
£**&
i^^^^pERairSrgr^
LAC6RAR M'lL SEN LACERAR
■MARGARITA
IN Oo.
VALENTlNI
IN Do.
ISABELLA
in Do.
RIS-TO - - - - -- --- .RAL.
CHI M'OL - TRAG - GIO - LO fc^SDEG-NO CO SDEGNO GRI-OA.
BAGNATEMORMORAtf ^ '-"t4- br^ - . - -QO IL 5ENO A ^.r^.
VALENTlNI
IN Do.
ff^rrretfttrtftr^arTrTtrr
J----- ---_ --=■* Z _ 5" _ _ , _ nF, opNc AMA,
Do. IN
DEL BENE AMAR.
Z SB flw^rj ^U : i-UJ LLU LLLj Lj_ ri feet; r \f!j I Ua &i-" I M
BOSCHI
IN Oo.
SENESfNO r*
INCRISPO
H2t
710
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Many of these Divisions occur in Operas of the same period,
particularly in Handel's Julius Caesar, and Attilio's Vespasian.
These passages by frequent use became as common as the
Aphorisms in Swift's Tritical Essay, or the Jokes in his Polite
Conversation.
InGRISELDA
nzz.
|k J'ljjJj i-^-r^gf^pfEiHftfrtr^
tea- i £WjfE| I ^W* 8
§k n\sai itn &&!£
ACCOMPANIMENT
OF GRISELDA.
SUBJECT OF THE
F1RSTMOVEMENT
IN THE OVERTURE
op- DO.
i b o — »
faiM?t4iii>^+^rt^^al?f|;
OV£R-
_.5E IN
COMUS.
I have now carefully and candidly examined this opera, which
afforded great pleasure to our ancestors, if we may judge from the
number of its representations, amounting to near thirty, in the two
first seasons of the Royal Academy; yet I am unable to discover
the cause of its favour from the excellence of the composition. The
spirit of party, ignorance of good Music, and an unformed and
trivial taste, must have enchanced its value with the public; but,
for my own part, I am not only unable to point out a single air in
which there is dignity, originality of design, or a fanciful melody,
but to discover that tenderness and pathos, for which Bononcini
has been so celebrated, even by those who denied his invention
and science. And this sentence is not passed in consequence of the
extreme difference between this Music and that of modern times;
711
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
but by mounting up to the period of its production, and comparing
it with cotemporary compositions, lately perused, in which there
are infinitely more of what were thought the necessary requisites of
good Music sixty years ago, than can be found in the opera of
Astarto.
After the tenth representation of this drama, Radamisto was
resumed, and performed December 28th and 31st.*
1721. January 4th, Radamisto again. Then Astarto four
times, and Radamisto twice. And after one performance more of
Astarto Arsace, a new pasticcio opera was first performed, and
had a run of eight nights.
As soon as Handel returned from Dresden, where, as has been
already related, he went to engage performers, besides preparing
for the stage the opera of Radamisto, he had an act to set of
Muzio Scevola, a drama which the directors chose to divide the
task of setting to Music among their three composers: assigning
to Attilio,** the first act; Bononcini, the second; and to Handel the
third. This opera has been thought to form an epoch in Handel's
life; as it has been concluded, though without sufficient proof, that
the partition of the same drama among the three composers, was a
premeditated plan, to try their several abilities,, and determine
pre-eminence. But it seems to have been thus distributed merely
for greater dispatch, without meaning it as a final competition.
The same expedient has been frequently practised in Italy for
variety as well as expedition, when two or three great masters have
been in the same city; and nothing was determined in consequence
of this concurrence in London. The three composers were engaged
on no such conditions. They were all equally invited hither to
compose for the academy, not with the expectation of being
dismissed, if an opera, or part of an opera of their composition,
happened to be adjudged inferior to that of their colleagues. And
though the public will dispute and decide about their own pleasures,
of which they are certainly best able to judge, and great feuds
arose in consequence of this joint production, yet no one of the
three composers was discarded in consequence of this concurrence :
for we find Bononcini and Attilio composing operas for the Royal
Academy alternately with Handel many years after this event,
which has erroneously been always called decisive.
The original score of Handel's portion of this drama is still
preserved in his Majesty's collection of this great musician's'
manuscripts. And having been indulged with an opportunity of
examining it at my leisure, I shall lay before the reader such
remarks as occurred to me at the time.
The opera of Muzio Scevola, of which I have the original
edition of the words, was written expressly for the Royal Academy
of Music, by P. A. Rolli, who signs himself Segretario Italiano
*For this revival some of the songs were rewritten for Senesino and Durastanti.
** Attilio Ariosti had nothing to do with the composition of any part of Muzio Scevola.
The first act was written by Mattei, and the first performance took place on April 15, 1721.
712
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
delta Medesima, Italian secretary of the said Academy. It is
dedicated to the King. The singers were Francesco Bernardi
detto Senesino, Matteo Berselli, and Boschi; with the Margarita
Durastanti, Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, Galerati, and Madalena
Salvai.
In the distribution of this drama to three composers, assigning
to each a single act, it was thought necessary by every one of
them to compose an overture, and a chorus, in order to render
each act a whole, giving it a beginning, a middle, and an end, in
the manner of an entire drama.
The overture composed by Handel, at the beginning of which
he has written with his own hand, in French, L' Ouverture pour
V Acte 3 de Muzio, begins in his usual, grand, and majestic style.
The fugue is upon a gay and pleasing subject in triple time, and
treated with great felicity (y). The use that he made of the
subject in accompanying the solo parts for the two hautbois, has a
most admirable effect, in keeping it in mind while it is relinquished
by these seeming episodes. It is astonishing to see with what ease
and certainty Handel wielded the pen on all occasions, and how
clear and well arranged must have been his conceptions previous to
committing them to paper. In the first foul copy of this excellent
fugue of seven parts, written with the haste of a man whose
thoughts flowed faster than his ink, scarce a single note has been
altered, blotted, or erased!
The first air, Lungo pensar, which is very pleasing and graceful,
with a violin accompaniment of a different character from the
voice-part, was composed for the Durastanti, who seems to have
had the principal female part in this opera. Handel had frequently
been accused of crouding his score with too many parts, by which
the voice was suffocated and rendered either inaudible or indistinct ;
but I can perceive no such redundance of parts in his opera songs,
when he had a good singer to write for; the cantilena of this air,
for instance, is as clear and free from interruption as a Venetian
ballad, the violin part being more frequently in dialogue, than
unison, with the voice (z). The second air, Pupille sdegnose,
preceded by four lines of admirable accompanied recitative, was
written for Senesino, and is simple, natural, clear, and elegant:
the accompaniment is still more quiet than the preceding, consist-
ing of one violin part only. It is remarkable that this first man's
part of Muzio, is wholly written in the soprano clef, though
Senesino's voice was always regarded in England as a contralto.
It does not appear, however, that he goes higher than D in this
part, or lower than C. The next scene produces a piece of such
impassioned accompanied recitative, that if Dr. Arnold was not
(y) The F sharp in the answer to the subject was admired by Geminiani as a happy
licence which gratified the ear by a breach of a fugue law, as regulated by solmisation. The
first violin and base are in strict canon for the first five bars.
U) It is_ more in his oratorios, the songs of which were chiefly written for performers
of mean abilities, that Handel made amends for the poverty of the singing, by the richness
of the accompaniments.
713
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
likely to publish it soon in a better manner, I should not resist
the wish of presenting it here to my musical readers, reminding
them that in the year 1720 this species of dramatic painting, was*
somewhat new, at least in England.
The air which follows this recitative, Dimmi crudele amove, is
full of original spirit; but being already printed, its insertion here
is unnecessary. In the fourth scene for Porsena, in the part that
was composed for Boschi, Handel has kindled all his fire, in the
air, Volate piu de' venti, where the running accompaniment of
the tenor and base, with the distinct character of the first violin,
and the bold and unembarrassed vocal part, render it one of the
first airs of the kind which I have ever seen. The second part of
this air is pathetic, and very rich in harmony and accompani-
ment. After this, as an admirable contrast, comes a pathetic air
for Senesino, 77 confine delta vita, upon an elegant and beautiful
subject. The air in the fifth scene, Non ti fidar, composed for
Mrs. Anas. Robinson, furnishes no extraordinary testimony of her
abilities as a musician. The motivo is, indeed, uncommon and
not very easy, and Handel has cancelled near half the song in
different places, as if la prima intentione had embarrassed the
singer; but the making the hautbois play all her passages in unison,
almost amounts to a proof that, however sweet the tone of her
voice, and beautiful her person, she was not a firm and steady
performer who could go without leading-strings. Indeed, this air
seems the least captivating in the whole act. But the next air,
Cara, se ti vedrb, which was written for Berselli, is to my present
feelings the most pleasing and agreeable of all Handel's charming
Sicilianas. This singer must have been high in the composer's
favour for taste, as he is left to himself in no less than six ad
libitums and adagios, which he had to embellish {a). The next
air for Mrs. Robinson is another proof to me that she was not in
favour with Handel as a singer. There are few opportunities in it
for the display of a fine voice, taste, or expression; the movement
is more lively and ingenious than chantant. The violin and tenor,
however, would keep it alive, if little attention were paid to the
voice-part. The subsequent air for Senesino, is in itself a very
agreeable composition, but, executed by such a singer, must have
been captivating. Scene eighth, begins with a pretty air, Ah chi
vive, in minuet time, for a third rate singer. Handel has set these
words twice over: the second time to a pleasing pastoral strain,
with a charming accompaniment for the German flute, then almost
a new instrument in England. Mrs. Robinson has now another
air of much more consequence than the former; the composition
is rich and elaborate, and she had a fair opportunity given her of
displaying her voice and pathetic powers in several solo passages,
which required good singing.
(a) Handel hazarded two or three new combinations in this song, which must have been
thought very bold at the time : as the minor ninth and seventh, the sixth, sharp seventh
and ninth, &c.
714
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After this song we have an excellent battle-piece or charge, in
which are inserted two or three bars of his celebrated water-piece.
This is followed by a very agreeable duet, Vivo senz' alma, which
was sung by Berselli and Mrs. Robinson. This duet, of which
the accompaniments are clear and ingenious, begins upon a plan
similar to modern dramatic duets; reserving the junction of voices
till near the close. After a long recitative, we have another duet,
Ma come amarl in a higher style of composition, for the two
principal singers, Senesino and the Durastanti. This is upon the
ancient model, fugato throughout; but the harmony, contrivance
and texture of the parts, at a time when this kind of duet was
highly reverenced, and we may conclude well sung, by singers
of the ancient school, must have greatly extended the composer's
reputation. The Coro finale is composed of richer materials than
are usually bestowed on opera choruses; it contains several passages
and effects that remind us of the Coronation Anthem. Upon the
whole, this one act of an opera must have evinced the enlightened
public, of Handel's great powers of invention and knowledge of
harmony as effectually as a hundred entire operas could have
done.
Since this article was written, I have met with a printed copy
of " The favourite Songs in the Opera called Muzio Scevola/'
published by the elder Walsh and Hare [1721]. There is an
overture but no composer is mentioned either of that or of any of
the songs; we may, however, suppose the overture to be that which
was performed to Bononcini's act of the opera, as it consists of
the first and last movement of the overture to Thomyris, which
was performed in 1707, and then printed in his name, but probably
forgotten at the distance of thirteen years, when Muzio Scevola
was performed. The first movement is rather heavy and
monotonous, but good composition. The tenor received some
corrections in this new edition. The second movement is a jig,
of which the best passages belong to Corelli. The third movement
is a minuet, in the composition of which, the author put himself
to no great expence of thought. Among the songs, I find but one
that belongs to the first act, and this, beginning Cedo ma pur mi
chiama, we may ascribe to Attilio; but it would add little to his
reputation, were I to insert it here. The subject itself is dull, and
the repetitions of unmeaning passages are innumerable, and intoler-
able; and yet it was written for Senesino, for whom he probably
did his best. There are four airs in this collection that were sung
in the second act, which was set by Bononcini, and three in the
third act by Handel. Bononcini's airs are easy and natural, but
no vigour of genius is discoverable in the subject, design, or texture
of the parts; the passages are repeated in as tiresome a manner in
these songs, as in that just mentioned of Attilio; and, compared
with the three airs by Handel, which are by no means the best in
his act, they seem to be rather the productions of a timid and
superficial dilettante, than a professor of great original genius.
7i5
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
What was now called writing upon a theme, or adhering to a
subject, was very convenient to a steril fancy; this subject was to
be heard as often in a simple melody of one part, as in a fugue
of many parts, which occasioned such incessant repetitions of the
same passage, in scale, in the fifth, the fourth, with a major and
a minor third, as to our ears at present are very dull and tiresome.
A song which was sung by Mrs. Barbier, in the Antioco of
Gasparini, no contemptible composer, would tire the patience of the
greatest admirers of old masters: 3ap=p!pj^»r 5 1 J5j% » *1 I &c.
seven times. In Nicolini's best songs, the longest division is but
the same series of notes repeated above or below their first station
in the movement. Corelli hardly ever fails to repeat the same
passages in three different keys, generally rising a note higher each
time. Such repetitions, however, in all the relative keys, discover
much less ingenuity in the composer, and afford less pleasure to
the hearer, than such passages as naturally arise out of the subject
and are connected with it in melody, measure, and style. In no
other art, except architecture, is identity, or exact repetition, a
beauty; and in that, symmetry requires the same pillars,
windows, and ornaments to be multiplied; but in the sister arts of
poetry and painting, the same figures, lines, or ideas, are never
presented to the eye or the mind. There are, indeed, happy effects
sometimes produced in Music by a precise repetition of the same
passage in passionate movements, by which the sentiment is
enforced and impressed deeper in the mind, as a nail is driven
farther by repeated strokes of the hammer; but this energy is not
given to passages by the cold, dull, and barren iteration of the
same series of sounds through all possible keys, at which the ear
recoils, as a nail does by strokes too frequently repeated. The
excess of every style in Music, as well as of every moral virtue,
borders upon vice; and the adhering too closely to a subject in
Music seems to have been the vice of the last age, which by
repressing invention, and manacling imagination, frequently
occasioned dulness and monotony. It is but justice to say, that
Handel's resources and good taste enabled him to shun the excess
of repetition more than any one of his cotemporaries; and I have
been often surprised in perusing his early works, to see how
ingeniously he has avoided those insipid repetitions in which his
cotemporaries indulged themselves.
Between the second and third representation of Mutius Sccevola,
the opera of Arsace was performed once, May 10th, for a benefit.*
Then Muzio again, on the 13th and 17th of the same month. After
this, May 20th, a new opera, composed by Attilio Ariosti, entitled
Ciro, o i/ Odio, et Amore, was performed four times, and Muzio
Scevola once more. The favourite songs of Ciro were printed by
* Chrysander, in his G. F. Handel (Vol. 2, j>. 56), considers the opera Arsace to be the
work of Mattei, who wrote the first act of Muzio Scevola.
716
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Walsh, and after eight representations it was laid aside till
November 1722, when it was revived and performed four times.
The theatre closed this season, July 5th, after Durastanti's benefit
by command (b).
It seems as if the efforts of three great composers, and of the
completest band of singers which had yet been assembled in this
country, had not indemnified the directors of the Royal Academy
of Music for the expence of supporting the undertaking; for on
July the 10th, the following advertisement appeared in the Daily
Courant, N° 6152.
" The court of directors of the Royal Academy of Musick
finding several subscribers in arrear on the calls made on them
this year, do hereby desire them to pay in the same before Thursday
the 2d inst. otherwise they shall be obliged to return them as
defaulters, at the general court to be held that day, for their
instructions how to proceed : and it appearing to the said court of
directors, on examining the accounts, that when the calls already
made are fully answered, there will still remain such a deficiency
as to render it absolutely necessary to make another call to clear
the year's expences. The said court of directors have therefore
ordered another call of £.4 per cent, (which is the sixth call) to be
made on the several subscribers, payable on or before the 27th
inst. Attendance will be given on that and the two preceding days
at the office in the Hay-market, in order to the same."
Now as £.50,000 was the original sum subscribed, the first call
of £.5 per cent, amounted to £.2500. And as all the several calls
which I have seen advertised in the papers of the times, are for
£.5 each, except the last, we may fairly suppose that a sum nearly
amounting to £.15,000 had been sunk in a little more than a year,
from the establishment of the academy.
October 30th, the opera of Arsace was advertised for Nov. 1st.
But previous to this, Oct. 21st, a general meeting was summoned
for the 25th of the same month, when " all persons concerned
were desired to attend, and also to order the payment due on their
calls. Attendance will be given at the office the two preceding
days for the receipt thereof, and a list of defaulters to be laid before
the said general court, to receive their instructions how to proceed
hereon." And November 2d, in consequence of this meeting the
following advertisement was inserted in the Daily Courant:
By order of a general court of the Royal Academy of Musick,
held October 25th, 1721. Whereas some few of the subscribers
to the operas have neglected, notwithstanding repeated notice has
been given them, to pay the calls which have been regularly made
by the court of directors, and according to the condition of the said
subscription, signed by each of the- said subscribers: these are to
give further notice to every such defaulter, that unless he pays the
(6) This singer seems to have been in great favour at court; for in the Evening Post,
No. 1810. from Saturday, March 4th, to Tuesday the 7th 1721, we have the following paragraph :
" Last Thursday, his Majesty was pleased to stand godfather, and the Princess and the Lady
Bruce, godmothers, to a daughter of Mrs. Durastanti, chief singer in the opera-house. The
Marquis ViscontI for the King, and the Lady Litchfield for the Princess."
717
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
said calls on or before the 22d of November next, his name will
be printed, and he shall be proceeded against with the utmost
rigour of the law."
The next day, November 3d, a further call of five per cent,
which was the seventh call, payable on or before the 8th, appeared
in the same newspaper.
On the 20th of November, another general court of the corpora-
tion of the Royal Academy of Music was announced for the 22d,
when new directors were to be chosen. And the next day another
meeting was held for the choice of a new deputy-governor, when
the Duke of Manchester was elected. On the 25th, the following
advertisement appeared:
" Application having been made to the Royal Academy of
Musick, for tickets entitling the bearers to the liberty of the house
for the ensuing season; the academy agree to give out tickets to
such as shall subscribe on the conditions following, viz. that each
subscriber, on the delivery of his ticket, pay ten guineas. That on
the 1st of February next ensuing, such subscriber pay a further
sum of five guineas. And likewise five guineas more on the 1st of
May following. And whereas the academy propose the acting fifty
operas this season, they oblige themselves to allow a deduction
proportionably, in case fewer operas be performed than that
number."
This seems the origin of a general subscription, free from all
risks of future demands.
At the beginning of this season [1721] the three operas of
Arsace, Astarto, and Radamisto , were performed alternately from
November 1st to December 9th, when a new opera called
Florid ante, written by Rolli, and set by Handel, was brought
on the stage.
The singers in this opera were Senesino, Baldassarri, sometimes
called Benedetto, who had been here before in 1712, Boschi, Mrs.
Anastasia Robinson [now a contralto], and the Salvai. The
overture, though bold and masterly, is perhaps one of the least
pleasing, and the most seldom performed of any one of Handel's
compositions of this kind. One cause of the little favour it has
obtained is the want of a popular air at the end; but besides that,
the fugue being upon a convulsive and unpleasant theme, which
has given birth to no counter-subject of a different cast, or variety
of style or passage, even in the solo parts for the hautbois, the
movement seems dull and monotonous (c). In the first act, after
two pleasing airs in very different styles by Mrs. Anastasia Robinson
and the Salvai, Senesino had a Siciliana, Alma mia, which an
ordinary singer can always render agreeable, and a fine voice
exquisite. In the air Ma pria vedrb, the words are admirably
expressed, particularly, precipitarsi in Mar, to which the sounds
given are true echos to the sense; and the symphonies of this air
are characteristic of Handel's fire and thunder.
(c) The fugue resembles one in his harpsichord lessons, but is longer, and less pleasing.
7lS
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The partizans for Bononcini seem to have had little foundation
for their praise of his plaintive and pathetic songs; as there are
generally more airs of that kind in a single act of an opera set by
Handel, than in any one of Bononcini's whole dramas. In the
first act of Floridante, for instance, there are three charming slow
airs, besides an exquisite duet in a grand style of pathetic, Ah mia
car a. The second act has not an air without some peculiar merit
or character, either in the voice-part or accompaniment; but that
of the duet, Fuor di periglio, in which the cooing of the dove is
attempted to be expressed, must have had a new and pleasing
effect. And the solemn air, Notte care, with the accompanied
recitative after it, is in Handel's finest style of majestic pathos.
In the third act, the two airs, Se dolce m' era gia, and Vivere per
penare, are of a pathetic kind and admirable. And the next air,
Questi ceppi, for Senesino, is in a grand style of cantabile. After-
wards there is a bravura air, for Mrs. Robinson, in which, however,
the passages were the most easy and natural of the time, and are
now a little advanced in years. When this opera was afterwards
revived, and the Durastanti performed Mrs. Robinson's part,
additional airs were composed to display her peculiar powers; and
we find by these, that her abilities as a singer and musician were
greatly superior to those of her predecessor, though perhaps less
amiable and captivating to an audience, or at least to the spectators.
One of these airs, Dolce mia speranza, is the most pathetic and
beautiful of the slow Siciliana kind I ever heard. I mention the
slow songs in this opera particularly, as superior in every respect
to those of Bononcini, who has frequently been extolled by his
admirers for unrivalled excellence in airs of tenderness. The spirit,
invention, and science of Handel, has never been disputed; but by
a recent examination of his early works, I am convinced, that his
slow airs are as much superior to those of his cotemporaries, as the
others in spirit and science.
1722. After two more representations of Floridante, January
3d and 5th, Crispo, a new opera written by Rolli, and set to Music
by Bononcini, was first performed January 10th. The singers in this
opera were now Senesino, Boschi, Baldassarri, Mrs. Anastasia
Robinson, and Madalena Salvai. The airs are short, simple, and
elegant for the time. All that were printed were sung by Senesino
and Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, in contralto. When this opera was
revived, the next year, the part which Baldassarri had sung, was
given to Berenstadt, an evirato of a huge unwieldy figure; and Mrs.
Robinson's to Margherita Durastanti, whose person was coarse and
masculine; Mrs. Robinson being only assigned the second woman's
part, which at first had been performed by the Salvai. This opera
was performed ten nights, successively. Then Floridante twice;
and February 22d, Griselda, another new opera, set by Bononcini,
was brought on the stage.* This drama, which was new written
by Rolli, upon the plan of an opera of the same name by Apostolo
Zeno, performed at Venice 1701, seems to have been regarded as
* It is thought that Griselda was the work of M. A. Bononcini, brother to G. B.
719
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Bononcini's best theatrical production in this country; and being
in possession of a complete score of the Music, I shall peruse it
with attention, and endeavour to give my musical readers an idea
of its merit.
It is manifest that Handel's bold and varied style, rich harmony,
and ingenious contrivance, had made such an impression on the
public, as to render it necessary for Bononcini, in setting this opera,
to quit his ambling nag, and to mount his great horse, accoutred
in all his trappings, and endeavour to move with unusual pomp
and stateliness. In the overture he introduced trumpets and kettle-
drums; gave a rapid solo part to the first violin, and a minuet at
the end; wisely waving the usual fugue, probably from a conscious-
ness of his inability to rival Handel in that species of composition.
The first movement is likewise different from most others of the
time, by being cast in a mould totally unlike that of Lulli. And upon
the whole, this overture is one of the best instrumental compositions
that I have seen of this author.
The melodies, in general of this opera, are as graceful and
elegant as any of the time, and though there is little ingenuity of
design in the accompaniments, or science in the harmony and
modulation, yet there is a clearness and facility of style, which
was more likely to afford pleasure to the unlearned and greater part
of an audience, than original and masterly composition, of which
they knew nothing. In process of time, however, Handel taught us
how to judge of these, and to despise inartificial composition, in
which harmony is sacrificed to trite and frivolous melodies, consist-
ing of rapid and unconnected passages of execution, which by
frequent use are become as common and insipid as the flat and stale
jokes of Swift's Polite Conversation. Senesino's first air, Parto,
amabile ben mio, is not without dignity, and seems to have been
well suited to that performer's style of acting and singing. The
accompaniment to Quanto mi spiro, is lively and well supported.
The divisions in the songs of execution, appear now, as usual, at
any distance of time, to be the most common and trifling parts of
each melody.
Senesino's capital air in the second act, seems more calculated
to introduce a symphony for French horns, than shew the abilities
of this great singer; the passages are in themselves poor, and
enriched by no other accompaniment than a violoncello.
The base songs in this opera, composed for Boschi, are more
inferior to those of Handel, than the airs of any other kind. A
voice sufficiently powerful to bid an orchestra defiance, and not
so mellifluous as to make us regret the diminution of its force by
a band well disciplined and well employed, afforded an opportunity
for opening all his sources of harmony and contrivance, which he
seldom neglected. None of Mrs. Robinson's airs are remarkably
captivating now; and yet, it is supposed, that by the performance
of the part of Griselda, or Patient Grisel, in this opera, she
completed her conquest over the stout heart of the Earl of Peter-
borough. Indeed, there seems to have been some remote similarity
720
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
in the situations of that character, and the events of Mrs.
Robinson's own life. Griselda, a country girl of mean birth,
elevated for her beauty, to a throne; then degraded, and sent back
to her original obscurity; and, for her virtues, afterwards restored
to royalty, with superior splendor to that of her first exaltation.
Mrs. Robinson, the daughter of an artist of no great eminence,
elevated to a theatrical throne for her beauty and talents; then
quitting her high dramatic state, and, in appearance, degrading
herself to the humble character of mistress to a nobleman, who
afterwards owned her for his wife, and invested her with all the
honours, privileges, and splendor, of a peeress of Great Britain. The
best air in Griselda seems to be Son qual face, in which there is
dignity, and a marked character of accompaniment.
This opera had twelve successive representations; then Crispus
four, Floridante two, and Griselda again five. After which,
Crispus, Floridante, Astartus, and Griselda, were acted by turns
till the end of the season, June 16th.
The theatre opened again, November 7th, with Muzio Scevola,
after three performances of which, Attilio's Cyrus was revived and
exhibited five times; then Floridante seems to have been renovated
in the favour of the public, being represented seven times
successively, running almost during the whole month of December.
After this Crispus was performed, till January 12th.
1723. When a new opera came out, entitled Ottone, or
Otho, written by Haym, and set to Music by Handel. This
opera was composed in the summer of 1722; as Handel's foul
score, in his Majesty's collection, is dated by the author himself a
Londres, August 10th, 1722. It had eleven successive representa-
tions, continuing to run till February 16th. The overture long
remained in favour throughout the nation: the opening is
remarkably pleasing, and the fugue on a gay and agreeable
subject; the fugue first intended for this overture, according to
Handel's original manuscript score, was afterwards transposed into
A sharp [A major] , and used in the overture of Julius Caesar ; but
the gavot at the end, which was the first popular final air in any
of Handel's overtures, that were as yet composed, though now
made vulgar by frequent use as a horn-pipe or country-dance, was
the delight of all who could play, or hear it played, on every kind
of instrument, from the organ to the salt-box (d). The second air
Giunt' in porto e la speranza, which is extremely gay and pleasing,
has been omitted in the printed copy.
The band of singers being reinforced by the arrival of Cuzzoni,*
[d) Though an air is rendered common and vulgar by general use, and depreciated in
the opinion of fastidious hearers, it is a sure mark of original excellence, to have afforded
universal pleasure when new. But few airs of this happy kind are ever produced by the
greatest composers during a long life.
* Cuzzoni had a wonderful knowledge of the value of discreet publicity. She also had a
temperament. Whilst indulging in it at a rehearsal, Handel threatened to throw her out oi
the window and made as if to carry out his threat — the temperament vanished. Evidently
the correct way to treat temperaments! -prima donnas.
Cuzzoni evidently could sing, and did so. On one occasion, the first performance of
Otho, a man in the gallery shouted: — "Damme, she has a nest of nightingales in her belly."
Burney, however, places this incident during the first production of Admetus. Probably
Otho was the best of Handel's operas written in England. It is said that five guineas was
offered for seats for the second performance.
Vol,, ii. 46. 721
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
was now much stronger than it had ever been heretofore; consisting
of Senesino, Berenstadt, and Boschi, for men's parts; and Cuzzoni,
Durastanti, and Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, for the female.
The number of songs in this opera that became national
favourites, is perhaps greater than in any other that was ever
performed in England. The slow air, Falsa imagine, the first
which Cuzzoni sung in this country, fixed her reputation as an
expressive and pathetic singer; as Assanni del pensier did Handel's,
as a composer of such songs. The airs sung by Senesino, Ritoma
o dolce amor, Dopo V orrore, Dove sei (e), Tanti assani, all in
different styles, have severally some peculiar merit of melody,
harmony, or contrivance. The airs for Durastanti, La speranza,
Pensa ad amare, long after they had done their duty at the opera-
house, were favourites with all the performers on the German-flute
in the kingdom, which about this time superseded the common-
flute, and became the fashionable gentleman's instrument. Del
minacciar del vento (/), and No, non temere, two airs for Boschi
in different styles, are admirable. Handel is as superior to other
composers in his base songs as choruses. An excellent symphony
played in the first act, was afterwards printed as part of one of
his hautbois concertos. The accompanied recitative for Cuzzoni,
0 grati orrori, with the subsequent air, S' io dir potessi, had a
great effect in the performance, as I have often been assured by
persons who heard the opera performed. The duet, Vieni o
figlio, in the style of Steffani, is a fine composition; and the
light and gay duet, Teneri affetti, was long a favourite with flute
players. Indeed, there is scarce a song in the opera, that did not
become a general favourite, either vocally or instrumentally. And
the passages in this and the other operas which Handel composed
about this time, became the musical language of the nation, and
in a manner proverbial, like the bons mots of a man of wit in
society. So that long after this period all the musicians in the
kingdom, whenever they attempted to compose what they called
Music of their own, seem to have had no other stock of ideas, than
these passages (g).
This, though a humiliating confession, is a disgrace not peculiar
to England. The French who, during the last century, had a
taste to form, were wholly indebted to Lulli, a foreigner, for all
their musical ideas, at least in the theatre. And the Germans, who
have always had men of great abilities of their own country in the
composition and performance of instrumental Music, were not less
obliged to the language, melody, and taste of Italy, for their vocal
dramatic Music, than the English.
February 19th, after the first run of Otho was over, Caius
Marcius Coriolanus, written likewise by Haym, and set by
(e) Different from the air in Rodelinda.
if) There is a tenor part to this song in Handel's original manuscript, which is omitted
in the printed copy.
(g) Otho was revived and the book of the words reprinted in 1726. It sustained eleven
uninterrupted representations, and during the same year nine more, with additions.
722
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Attilio Ariosti, was brought on the stage, and had ten successive
representations. The singers were the same, with the addition of
Mr. Gordon, as in Otho; which opera was again performed, March
26th, for the benefit of Cuzzoni.
March 30th, Erminia, a new opera set by Bononcini, was first
performed, and was repeated April 2d, 6th, 16th, 20th, 27th,
30th, and May the 4th, when it gave way to two representations
of Coriolanus.
About this time, the following advertisement appeared frequently
in the papers: " There remaining very few of the subscribers who
have neglected to pay the calls of the Royal Academy of Music,
pursuant to the late advertisement in several Courants and the
Gazette of the 23d of March last; and the court of directors
supposing that such neglect may have proceeded from the respective
persons either being out of town, or not apprised of the said
advertisement, have therefore thought fit to prolong the time till
Monday, the 8th inst. (April); and after such time, the tickets of
those that have not paid their calls will be absolutely refused, other
subscribers taken in their room, and proper measures taken to
oblige them to pay what is due."
After this, the opera of Flavius, written by Haym, and set by
Handel, was first performed May 14th.
The poet in his dedication of this drama to the directors of the
Royal Academy of Music, says that operas in England had originated
from the foundation of the theatre in the Hay-market, 1705, and
that he himself had had some share in laying the first stone:
meaning the assistance he had afforded to Clayton and others, in
nursing this amusement while in its infancy. That it had been ever
since advancing to perfection in the slow manner by which all
excellence is acquired, till it was so nobly patronised and supported
by the united generosity and diligence of such a great number of
the first personages in the kingdom, that they had now qualified
this elegant and innocent amusement in their own country, to
dispute the palm with Italy itself.
The singers in this opera, though not mentioned in the dramatis
personam, appear, from the printed copy of the Music published by
Handel himself, to have been Senesino, Berenstadt, Boschi, Mr.
Gordon, Cuzzoni, Durastanti, and Mrs. Robinson.
The overture, though it has no third movement, is admirable.
The opening is at once solemn and pleasing, and the fugue upon
two new subjects, is treated in a manner totally different from all
his other excellent productions of that kind (h). Though this
opera is less renowned than many other of Handel's dramatic
compositions ; and though few of the songs were in such high favour
in the theatre, or so long and universally used off the stage,
after its run was over, as those of Otho, yet there are innumerable
fine and masterly strokes in it, that would have set up an inferior
composer, who had his reputation to make. The alia breve air for
(h) The reply to the first subject being constantly made in the octave below, instead
of the fourth or fifth.
723
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Boschi, in the second act, S' egli ti chiede affetto, which is fugato,
and in the church style, is extremely artificial and masterly; in the
second part, the subject of imitation is inverted with great skill in
the accompaniments. In an air for Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, in
the same act, Con un vezzo, there is an imitation carried on between
the voice part and first violin, of which Dr. Boyce, one of the most
honest of our composers, afterwards availed himself in a favourite
movement of his sonatas. The opera had then so long been laid
aside, that to draw from it incurred no danger of detection (i).
Senesino's air, Amor, nel mio penar, in B flat minor, is extremely
pathetic; and the subject of the duet, D eh per dona, is still new and
graceful, though the divisions, as usual in old Music, have been
long since worn out.
This opera, with two performances of Otho, ran to the end of
the season, which closed, June 15th, with the eighth representation
of Flavius.
In November following, the theatre opened again, with
Farnace, an opera set by Bononcini, which was first performed
on the 27th; and which, after the fourth representation, was laid
aside for Otho, which had now another run of six nights (ft).
1724. After three representations of Farnace, Vespasiano, a
new opera, written by Nicolo Haym, and set to Music by Attilio
Ariosti, was first performed, January 14th, and continued in run
till February 20th.
The opera of Vespasian, written by Nicolo Haym, and set by
Attilio Ariosti, was first performed January 14th, and had a run of
nine nights successively. As the Music of this drama was published
by the composer himself, we may suppose the score to be complete
and correct. I shall therefore review it, as a fair specimen of the
abilities of one of the renowned triumvirate, who at this time divided
the nation into musical factions.
This master, who was a native of Bologna and intended for the
priesthood, had in early youth such a passion for Music that,
defeating all the intentions of his family, he devoted his whole time
to the study of it, and, in spite of all remonstrances, determined to
make it his profession. He was known in Germany much earlier
than in England : as Walther tells us, that he composed La Festa
d' Imeneo, & Atis, at Brandenburg, in 1700, where he was appointed
Maestro di Capella [or private composer] to the Electrice. But
before he quitted Italy we find his name enrolled among the opera
composers at Bologna and Venice : in the first city he set an act of
Apostolo Zeno's Daphne, in 1696; and in the second, the opera of
Erifile (I) [1697]. In 1706, he composed Nebuchadonasar, an
(i) In tbe examination of old operas, particularly those of Handel, we see the first idea
and source of almost every movement and passage of our own composers productions, that
were most in favour with the public.
ik) The new lyric productions of this year, 1723, amounted to six : one by Attilio, two
by Bononcini, and three by Handel.
(/) Le Gloria della Poesia & della Musica. Here he is called Padre Attilio Ariosti,
Servita Bolognese; and it is believed that he had been regularly initiated as a Dominican
friar, but that by a dispensation from the pope he had been exempted from the rule of his
order, and permitted to exercise a secular profession.
724
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
oratorio, for Venice; and the same year the opera called La piu
gloriosa Fatica d' Ercole, for his native city Bologna. In 1708, we
find him again at Vienna, when he set to Music the opera of Amor
tra Nemici. His first arrival in England was in the year 1716,
where it appears, by the London Courant, that at the sixth
representation of Handel's Amadigi, July 12th, he performed a
new symphony on the viol d' amour, an instrument unknown in
this country till that time. We hear no more of him till the
establishment of the Royal Academy of Music in 1721, when he
composed the opera of Ciro or Odio ed Amore; the first act of
Muzio Scevolo; and afterwards two other operas already
mentioned.*
The opera of Vespasian, of this year, has considerable merit.
The overture, in the style of the times, is a good composition; the
opening is spirited, the fugue well-worked, and there is a gay and
pleasing gavot, en rondeau, at the end. Attilio seems to have been
a perfect good harmonist, who had treasured up much good Music
in his head, but had little invention. I can sometimes trace Corelli
in his works, who we are certain did not steal from him; but as for
his immediate cotemporaries, there appear, on a general reading,
so many claimants for the favourite passages of the day, that it
is difficult to assign them to the right owners. In Vespasian,
Senesino has a natural simple air in minuet time, page 17, and Mrs.
Robinson one that is pathetic, page 18, of the printed copy, both
of which were likely to captivate an audience. Page 24, there is
an adagio which a good singer might render modern and elegant at
any period of time. But the most spirited air in the opera is Sorga
pur, page 32; and page 35, To ti lascio, sung by Mrs. Robinson,
is pathetic and pleasing. His divisions were blown upon ere he
used them; but divisions being the fashionable trimmings of an air,
are as general as those of a garment.
Handel, Bononcini, and Attilio, all give the same divisions in
songs of execution, as they did in rapid accompaniments to other
songs. As Senesino's aria d' abilita, in V espasiano , seems to include
all the roulemens, or rapid passages he was able to execute, I shall,
on the next plates, insert it, as an exhibition of all the furbelows,
flounces, and vocal fopperies of the times.
The opera of Vespasian was succeeded by Handel's Julius
C^sar (m).** The overture and airs of this musical drama were
neatly engraved in an octavo size soon after it was performed, and
published by Handel himself, under a patent obtained in June
1720, for the sole printing and publishing his works for the term of
(m) This drama was written by Nicolo Haym, and dedicated to the Princess of Wales,
afterwards Queen Caroline, in which he tells her royal highness that the first musical sounds
she heard were those produced by the voice of the celebrated Pistocco, the father of good
taste, then in the service of her illustrious sire, at the court of Anspach.
* Ariosto's Daphne was produced at Venice in 1686. His oratorio, Nabucodonosor, was
produced at Vienna in 1706. See editor's note p. 712 with regard to Muzio Scevola.
** Streatfield, in his Handel, p. 95, gives February 20, 1724, as the date of the first
production of Julius Ccesar. Prof. Dent, in his Handel {Duckworth), p. 70, gives February 14.
725
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Aria nei Vespasiano.
*# PRESTO. ,3-J]jf _^lH-h
Attilio Ariosti.
pi i*y {.IT ^ \ 7 1 1 r r i § r i] I ' t tjt t b
LABBRI MlE - I _MOR-
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
fourteen years. The patent was signed by Mr. Secretary Craggs,
the friend of Pope, whose epitaph upon him is well known.
Handel's manuscript score of Julius Ccesar, in his Majesty's
possession, is complete in every respect but the recitatives, of which
though the words are all transcribed by the composer himself ready
for their musical cloathing, yet the notes were never set to them in
this copy of the opera.
The first movement of the overture, and the fugue, have as
much fire and animation in them as he ever manifested on such
occasions; but the minuet was never much in favour with the public,
perhaps from the too great number of repetitions of the same
passage, in the printed copy; but in the manuscript score it appears
that this minuet was merely the accompaniment to a very pleasing
chorus, Viva, viva il nostro Alcide, with which the first scene opens.
The subsequent air, Presti omai, is totally different from that which
is printed, and I think more original and more excellent; and instead
of the printed air, Priva son d' ogni conjorto, is a pathetic and
charming duet alia Siciliana. But upon a further comparison of
the score with the old printed copy, it appears that the airs are all
727
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
dislocated from their original situation, and that this is a second
score made by Handel on the revival of the opera in 1725, when
several new singers first appeared in it. The original set were
Senesino, Berenstadt, and Boschi; with Cuzzoni, Durastanti, and
Mrs. Robinson. In the second set, instead of Berenstadt,
Durastanti, and Mrs. Robinson, I find, by the printed copy of the
words, that Pacini, Borosini, and the Dotti were employed. This
accounts for the recitatives not having been filled up by Handel in
the new copy, as they were probaoly transcribed by his copyist
from the first foul score.
In the second part of the air, Svegliatevi nel core, first composed
for the Durastanti, Handel seems again to have felt the peculiar
power of octaves in the treble parts of the accompaniments, and has
made an admirable use of them. The words Nel tuo seno, which
are finely set in the printed copy, he has new set in this manuscript
to a still more pathetic air. The air V adoro pupille, in the second
act, was prefaced by a long symphony for the viol da Gamba,
which is omitted in the printed copy. And the air Venere bella,
new set; but, I think, to a less pleasing melody than the former.
The fine composition set to Se pieta, is in the manuscript score
preceded by a turbulent symphony, through which a chorus of
conspirators is heard at a distance; and likewise an accompanied
recitative not printed. There is also in the third act, a very spirited
martial sjanphony in the manuscript score, that was played during
the conflict between the troops of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. The air
Troppo crudele siete, which is added in the manuscript score to the
part of Cleopatra, for Cuzzoni, is one of the finest of all Handel's
admirable Sicilianas. There is likewise a most magnificent
symphony in ten parts, as an introduction to the last scene, which
has not been printed with the rest of the opera. There are perhaps
fewer capital and captivating airs in this opera than in its prede-
cessor Otho; but there are three accompanied recitatives superior
to those of any that I have seen in his other operas, or in any
operas by cotemporary composers; these are the celebrated Alma
del gran Pompeo, and Doll' ondoso periglio, which are printed, and
in which Senesino gained so much reputation as an actor, as well
as singer; and one that is equally beautiful and pathetic, for
Cuzzoni, in the last act, beginning Voi, che mie fide ancelle, which
is not printed.
The airs, Priva son; Va tacito, richly accompanied with remark-
ably fine solo parts for a French horn; U Emf>io Sleale, a bold and
theatrical base song of great spirit and effect; Tu sei il cor, very
original, and unlike all other base songs; All' lampo dell' armi, full
of fire and genius, though the divisions are now antiquated;
Piangerb la sorte mia, which is truly pathetic, and in a style in
which Handel was almost always sure of success; the second part
of this air reminds us of the base to a movement in Corelli's eleventh
solo; the air, Da tempeste, for Cuzzoni, till the arrival of Faustina,
admired as a very extraordinary bravura; Non ha di che temere,
sung by Mrs. Robinson, which is pleasing and singular; there is
728
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
however a triple rosalia in it, page 108, which for the sake of the
base is more excusable than most repetitions of this kind. These
are the principal airs of Julius Ccesar, an opera abounding with
beauties of various kinds, but in which both the composer and
performers seem to have acquired even more reputation from the
recitatives than the airs (n) .
This opera sustained thirteen successive representations, from
February 20th to April the 11th, and was afterwards frequently
revived.
April 16th, Coriolanus was performed for a benefit, after which
on the 18th, Calphurnia, an opera written by Grazio Braccioli
for Venice, 1713, and now somewhat altered by Haym, and set by
Bononcini for the Royal Academy of Music, was first performed.
It had an uninterrupted run of nine nights, from April 18th to
May 16th; after which Aquilio, a new pasticcio, had five represen-
tations, which with two more of Calphurnia, terminated the season,
June 13th, when Mrs. Anastasia Robinson quitted the theatre.
The arrival of Cuzzoni in England seems to have diminished
the importance of this most amiable person on the stage, as well as
that of the Durastanti; anterior to that period, they seem alternately
to have performed the principal female parts; but now they were
degraded to second and third parts. Whether this diminution of
theatrical honour accelerated Mrs. Robinson's retreat from the
stage, and her enjoyment of honours of a more solid kind; or
whether she quitted the stage in consequence of an affront she had
received from Senesino, and for which he underwent a severe
chastisement, is now not easy to determine (o).
October 31st [1724], the lyric theatre was again opened, with a
new drama called Tamerlane, written by Nicola Haym, and set
by Handel.* The book of the words is dedicated by the author to
the Duke of Rutland, not only as one of the directors of the Royal
Academy of Music, and a liberal patron of science, but as a noble-
man who, by study and application, had rendered himself a most
intelligent judge both of the theory and practice of the art of
Music (p).
The original performers in this opera were Senesino, Paccini,
Boschji, and Borosini; with the Cuzzoni and Anna Dotti. The
overture is well known, and retains its favour among the most
striking and agreeable of Handel's instrumental productions (q).
I have never seen a complete score of this opera; all I am able to
(») The small engraved score of the songs in this opera, is the most full and complete
of any copy of Handel's operas which had been hitherto published. There is a folio pirated
edition of the songs of Julius Caesar, in two books, but more incomplete.
(o) Mr. Walpole says, that he well remembers this quarrel, at the time, to have been an
animated topic of conversation. It was said that Mrs. Robinson had been offended by
Senesino at a public rehearsal of an opera, for which Lord Peterborough publicly and violently
caned him behind the scenes.
_{f>) It is well known that the first Duke of Rutland was an excellent performer on the
violin; that his grace brought Carbonelli hither from Italy, when he returned from his tour
through that country; and that the solos which this musician dedicated to him, were composed
expressly for his use.
(g) See Commemoration of Handel, p. 97, where the two first movements of this overture
have been described; but the minuet, which was judiciously omitted in Westminster Abbey
is among the best final movements of Handel's overtures.
* The music to Tamerlane was written in 20 days.
729
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
speak to being a few of the favourite songs, that were
surreptitiously published, in despight of Handel's patent.
After the performance or perusal of an opera by Bononcini or
Attilio, the proceding to one of Handel's, is going from Arabia
Petrea to Arabia Felix; from barren rocks to spontaneous fertility.
Many of Handel's operas offer perhaps more specimens of his fire
and learning, but none more pleasing melodies and agreeable
effects. The air sung by Senesino, Se non mi rende, is extremely
gay and ingenious. The imitations and dialogue between the
voice-part and accompaniments is supported with great art and
felicity, without the least appearance of labour. The slow part of
the next air, for Cuzzoni, Folle sei, is in a very captivating style
of cantabile. And the pastoral sung by the Dotti, Par che mi
nasca, is a beautiful melody and beautifully accompanied.
Cuzzoni's next song, Non e piu tempo, is gay and pleasing. In
the next, Deh lasciati mi, the composer, in compliance with the
taste of the times, adheres perhaps somewhat too closely to the
text, and almost every two bars being in nearly the same metre.
It is, however, original and totally different from all the other
songs in the opera; and the last air m this collection, Bella asteria,
seems to be one in which Senesino, according to the idea with which
tradition has furnished us of his powers, must have greatly
distinguished himself (r).
This opera ran all the month of November, and after nine
successive representations, was succeeded by Artaserse, a drama
written by Apostolo Zeno, and set by Attilio, which had likewise
nine representations, continuing to run from December 1st to the
29th (s).
1725. January 2d, Julius Ccesar was revived and performed
eleven times, with little interruption; after which Rodelinda
Queen of Lombardy, an opera written by Haym and set by
Handel, was first performed February 13th, and continued in run
thirteen nights (t). The singers were the same as in Tamerlane.
The overture to this opera is so spirited and different from the
author's former introductions of this kind, that it long remained in
favour; this favour, however, was considerably lengthened by the
natural and pleasing minuet at the end, which required no great
science or sentiment to write, perform, or hear. But this cannot
(r) November 17th, during the run of Tamerlane, the following three advertisements were
inserted in the Daily Courant, No. 7204. First, for a general court on Wednesday, December 2d,
to chuse a new deputy-governor and directors. Second, that no member of the corporation
would be allowed to vote in chusing him, who had not paid the several calls made by the
Royal Academy, at the time of such election. Third, for a further call of £.5 per cent, which
was the twelfth, on or before the 12th of December.
(s) It is somewhat extraordinary, that Nicola Haym, who, in the seeming character of
author, dedicates this drama to the Duke of Richmond, never mentions the name of Zeno,
either in the title or dedication, though it is precisely the same in the London edition, as in
the Venetian, for which it was written 1708; except that the two inferior characters of Berenice
and Lido, for want of performers, were omitted on the English stage. The singers in this
opera were the same as those of the preceding year. The favourite songs of Calphurnia, Aquilius,
and Artaxerxes, were printed, and are now before me; but they furnish no new proofs of the
abilities of the masters who composed them.
{t) Handel himself has recorded the day and year when he had finished the composition
of this drama; having written on the last page with his own hand, in the foul score of his
Majesty's collection — Fine dell' opera, li 20 di Genaro 1725.
73°
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
be said of the air with which the opera begins, Ho perduto il caro
sposo, which is of that kind of elegant pathetic which no change
in musical taste can injure. Cuzzoni gained great reputation by
the tender and plaintive manner in which she executed this song
(u). The second air, L' empio rigor, which is gay and airy, was
likewise sung by Cuzzoni. The third air, which was sung by
Borosini, is well written, and has in it two or three very masterly
and pleasing passages. The next air, sung by A. Dotti, the second
woman, is sufficiently lively in itself to attract attention from the
singer to the composition. The fifth air, for Boschi, Di cupido
impiego, has Handel's usual fire in writing for this celebrated
performer of base songs. After this there is a solemn and beautiful
symphony to introduce a fine accompanied recitative, Pompe vane
di morte, which Senesino pronounced, according to tradition, with
uncommon energy and expression, previous to a beautiful
and always favourite air, Dove sei amato bene (v). The whole
seventh scene, beginning Ombre, piante, urne funeste, where
Rodelinda appears with her infant son at the tomb of her supposed
deceased husband, is in a grand theatrical style of pathetic. She
has an air of rage and passion in the next scene, Morrai si, which
is likewise very dramatic. In the subsequent air, Se per te, sung
by Borosini, the style is totally different from all the rest, and there
is a peculiar felicity in the manner of setting the interrogative,
perche? which must have had a good effect on the stage. Though
the divisions in songs of the same age, particularly for the same
singer, generally seem to be cast in the same mould, yet those of
the air, Sono i colpi delta sorte, composed for Paccini in the first
act, do not come under this description, as they were not only new
in 1725, but are so still. The last air of the act is masterly, and
full of ideas which correspond with the words, though some ot
the passages have since been in too frequent use to be now either
new or elegant.
(m) There is but one bar in this air which a great singer need modernize to remove every
appearance of age: if instead of F natural, in the following passage, it were made sharp, it
might pass for a composition of Handel's grandson.
S
4=t
S
g^
-fta IE
SEEip
The great favour of Cuzzoni received little addition from her personal charms; as Mr.
Walpole, who perfectly remembers her in the character of Rodelinda, says she was short and
squat, with a doughy cross face, but fine complexion; was not a good actress; dressed ill; and
was silly and fantastical. And yet on her appearing in this opera, in a brown silk gown,
trimmed with silver, with the vulgarity and indecorum of which all the old ladies were much
scandalised, the young adopted it as a fashion, so universally, that it seemed a national
uniform for youth and beauty.
(v) The favour of this air extended into the country, where it was heard with indulgence
at a concert fifteen years after its performance; when, without knowing how to construe, or
even pronounce the words, I had been taught to sing it by the organist of Chester, at fourteen
years old.
731
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The first air of the second act, though written for an under
singer, has spirit sufficient to excite attention. Rodelinda's first air,
Spietati; io vi giurai, in this act, is not in Handel's score, though
he mentions it after the recitative with which it was introduced;
but instead of it, is a very pleasing and favourite air, Ben spesso in
vago prato, which was long after parodied, or rather burlesqued,
by Harry Carey, to the words, 0 my pretty Punchinello . But
even to this balderdash, it is the prettiest air to which English
words had ever been applied, and will always give pleasure as a
melody of a gay and lively cast. After this, Borosini had an air
that is extremely gay, graceful, and pleasing : Prigioniera ho V
alma, in which the accompaniment for the violins is very difficult.
The next is a base song, for Boschi, of a very original and admirable
cast. Then Pacini has an air, Fra tempeste, which, though inferior
to the rest, was at the time a good song, for a second or third
singer; as Con rauco mormorio, which follows it, is for a first.
This air for Senesino, is in Handel's best Sicilian style, with a fine
bassoon-part, echoing the first violin and voice throughout. After
this comes, Scacciata dal suo nido, the same air transposed into C
minor, as occurred before in F sharp to the words Ben spesso in
vago prato, but, with the symphony and accompaniment, much
altered. The next air is a very pleasing Siciliana for Cuzzoni:
Ritorna o caro. This was followed by an air of great spirit and
ingenuity of accompaniment, for Borosini, not so low as usual for
a base singer, but in the true style of airs for that pitch of voice :
Tuo drudo, e mio rivale. The second act was terminated by a
duet: Io t' abbraccio, which may be ranked among Handel's
finest compositions (w).
The first air in the third act : Un zeffiro spiro, though written for
Pacini, a subaltern singer, is very graceful and pleasing, and very
richly and gayly accompanied by a flute, a violin, tenor, violon-
cello, bassoon, and base. After this, the Dotti has a gay and
chearful air: Quanto piu fiera, in which there are many new and
pleasing passages. Borosini has likewise an air of spirit: Fra
sospetti, in which the symphony and accompaniment abound in
elegant and lively traits of melody. But Handel seems to have
reserved the chief part of his force for the third scene, in which
Senesino, the hero of the drama, in a dungeon, has one of the finest
pathetic airs that can be found in all his works : Chi di voi. This
air is rendered affecting by new and curious modulation, as well as
by the general cast of the melody. It is followed by a fine soliloquy
for the same actor, in an accompanied recitative, a tempo, or
measured, which if not the first, was at least a very early attempt
(w) The original score of Rodelinda in his Majesty's possession, has been much deranged
by the composer, who, on the revival of this opera at different times, changed some of the airs,
and removed others from their original station. The duet has been taken out, probably for
insertion in some other drama; and instead of it there are two airs: S' artni a miei danni, for
a tenor, and Dal mio brando, for a counter-tenor, of which the words are not to be found in
the printed book of this drama. These are both airs of spirit, and full of Handel's usual fire.
The admirable duet : Io t' abbraccio, was performed in the Pantheon at the Commemoration
of Handel, in the account of which, p. 66, some of its beauties are specified.
732
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
at such a dramatic effect. Cuzzoni after this had an air in the
highest style of pathetic: Se il mio duol, of which the melody,
harmony, and accompaniment by a flute, violin, tenor, bassoon,
and base, are in Handel's best style of cantabile. This air can
never be old-fashioned, as long as a good singer and orchestra can
be found. Senesino's next air is light and agreeable, Verrete a
consolarmi. These words are not in the printed book, but instead
of them the following : Se fiera belva, to which I find no Music in
the original score. Borosini has after this an animated and
passionate recitative, followed by a pastoral air of the most elegantly
simple kind: Pastorello di povero armento. A very pleasing and
lively air for Cuzzoni: Mio caro, caro bene, with a light and
chearful chorus, terminate the opera; which contains such a number
of capital and pleasing airs, as entitles it to one of the first places
among Handel's dramatic productions.
April 5th, Dario, a new opera, set by Attilio Ariosti, was first
performed, and had nine representations. The author of the poem
is not mentioned. It was originally written in 1716, for the theatre
of St. Angelo, at Venice, and set by the musical ecclesiastic, Don
Antonio Vivaldi. This opera was followed, May 11th, by
Elpidia, a drama written by Apostolo Zeno, of which the Music
is said, in the printed book of the words, to have been "composed
by Leonardo Vinci [1690-1730], excepting some airs." The singers
were Senesino, Pacini, Boschi, Borosini, Cuzzoni, and the
Sorosini. As the Music of this opera was never printed, nothing
can be said of its merit. The composer was young, and but little
known in Italy at this time; and if the composition was in the free
and elegant style of his later operas, which rendered him so famous,
we seem to have been ignorant of its worth; the songs were but
little noticed, and soon forgotten. It was, however, performed
eleven times. It is by slow degrees that the superior genius of a
young artist makes its way into the world; mankind in general
judge not from feeling; they wait to be told what is excellent, by
the voice of fame.
The opera-house was shut this season, May 19th. In autumn,
Elpidia was again performed five times, from November 30th to
December 14th, after which Rodelinda was revived, and had four
representations {%).
1726. After four representations of Rodelinda, the first new
opera for the beginning of this year was Elisa, January 15th, a
pasticcio, which after six representations was consigned to oblivion,
February 8th, Otho was revived, and had a run of nine nights.
February 28th, the court of directors ordered a call of £.5 per
t, ^ a ^e newsPaPer records of 1725 inform us, that January 14th a general court of the
Royal Academy of Music was summoned for the 20th, and February 2d, there was a call of
£.5 per cent, on all the subscribers, being the 13th. December 1st, a general court was likewise
convened for the purpose of electing a deputy-governor and directors for the ensuing year; in
which advertisements, the subscribers were reminded of an order passed in May, 1724, " that
no member of this corporation should have a vote in the choice of a deputy-governor, or
directors^ who has not paid the several calls made by the Royal Academy at the time of such
election. December 8th, was advertised a fourteenth call of £.5 per cent, on all the
subscribers, payable on or before the 22d inst.
733
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
cent, being the fifteenth, "to be made payable on all the
subscribers, on or before the 4th of March. After which Scipio
[March 12th], a new opera, set by Handel, was performed by the
same singers as the preceding drama, except Borosini and the Dotti,
who seem to have been superseded by Antinori and the Costantini.
Baldi, a contralto, also appears in this opera for the first time.
The words seem to have been altered from an opera of the same
name, written by Apostolo Zeno. The composition of the Music
was not finished, according to Handel's own record in the score,
till March 2d (y) . So that it must have been brought on the stage
with great rapidity, as its first performance, according to the
newspapers, the most indisputable authority in such matters, was
on the 12th of the same month.*
The overture is spirited and pleasing in a different style from
all his former prefatory compositions. The fugue, in triple time,
is upon two pleasing and marked subjects, and the last movement,
a minuet, of an agreeable and uncommon cast. The march which
was played on the drawing up of the curtain, for Scipio's triumph,
was a general favourite, and adopted by his Majesty's life-guards,
and constantly played on the parade for near forty years; and, soon
after its first performance, it was likewise introduced by Gay in
his opera of Polly, to the words, Brave boys prepare. The two
first airs in this opera, for Baldi, are not very striking; but the
third : Un caro amante, for Cuzzoni, is a very pleasing pastoral.
Senesino's first air, Lamentandomi corro a volo, is likewise agree-
able, though cast in no uncommon mould. The Costantini's first
air: Libera chi non e, discovers her voice to have been a contralto,
but manifests no abilities in the singer. Antinori's first song does
not require great abilities in the expression or excution, though the
composition is lively and agreeable. Cuzzoni' s second air in this
act: Dolci auretti, with only a violoncello accompaniment, is
pleasing and pathetic, and in her best style of singing (z). And
Senesino's second song: Dimmi, cara, was long in favour through-
out the nation. The melody is natural, elegant, and pleasing; and
being without any other accompaniment than a violin all' ottava
with the voice-part, and a violoncello, could be sung by every one
possessed of an ear and a voice. Vanne, parti, a third song, for
Cuzzoni, is spirited and agreeable; and the air, Figlia di reo timor,
for Senesino, which terminates the act, has merit of a different
kind: it is plaintive, pleasing, and natural; but there seems to be
less of Handel's accustomed fire, originality, and contrivance in
the airs of this act, than in any of those that preceded this period.
There is an admirable air in Handel's manuscript score : So
gli altri debellar, of which the words are not to be found in the
printed book, where the first air, is Braccio si valoroso, a most
(y) Fine dell' opera. G. F. H. March 2, 1726. MS. in his Majesty's Collection.
(z) That is, in the style of falsa imagine.
* In February, 1726, Handel made his petition for naturalisation papers to the House oi
Lords. On the 14th Feb. he took the oath of allegiance, and on the 20th the King gave his
assent.
734
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
admirable base song, that was sung by Boschi. The second air:
Tutta raccolta ancor, sung by Cuzzoni, is a delicious morsel!
Senesino's first air in this act, Parto, fuggo, which paints the rage
of a jealous lover on the point of quitting his mistress for ever, is
extremely characteristic and theatrical; and though there is no other
accompaniment than that of a single violin, the agitation and
passion of the singer is admirably expressed and supported
throughout. Nor has Cuzzoni's next air, Come onda incalza altr'
onda, less merit, of a very different kind : it is all tenderness and
expression, and written in Handel's never-failing Sicilian style, of
which this air may be placed at the head, for the beauty of the
melody and richness of the accompaniment. The next two airs,
for inferior characters, are less happy, yet not without musical
merit, though less impassioned and dramatic. But the subsequent
air: Cedo a Roma, of two characters, is full of dignity and
passion, and calculated to display the abilities of a great actor as
well as singer. In the allegro part of this air, Handel penetrated
into future times, by the use he has made of iterated notes in the
accompaniment; as he did by all the passages in the voice-part,
and kind of spirit in the symphony and accompaniment of the next
air, for Cuzzoni: Scioglio d' immota fronte, in which the style is
as bold, fanciful, and elegant, as in any of the best dramatic songs
of Vinci or Pergolesi, with a more rich and full accompaniment
for three violins, two hautbois, tenor, bassoon, and base. This
second act of Scipio is equal in excellence to that of any of Handel's
most celebrated operas.
The first air in the third act: Tutta rea la vita umana, was
sung by Boschi, and may be ranked among the most agreeable
of the many admirable songs which Handel composed for this
singer. The second air: Se mormora riva, for Senesino, is a
cantabile in a very pathetic style, and in which many bold and
new effects are produced. The next air: Gia cessata, for Cuzzoni,
appears now more common and unimportant than any one in the
opera, though it seems to have been Handel's design to have
terminated the second act with it.
Scene the fourth of this act, opens with an excellent symphony
for the ceremony of Scipio 's reception of ambassadors. The
subsequent air Gioja si speri, sung by Baldi, is gay and pleasing.
From this air to the end of the opera, there is little correspondence
between Handel's score and the printed book of the words, either
in the songs or recitatives. There is a long scene in the manuscript
score, terminated by a most agreeable air, alia Siciliana, La nobilta
del regno, composed for Antinori, of which not a line is to be found
in the printed copy of the words; but instead of it, there is a scene,
terminated by a different air, Del debellar, the Music of which is
not in Handel's score. The air, Come al natio boschetto, for
Senesini, is however in both, and one of the most agreeable of all
Handel's gay opera songs; the melody itself is natural and pleasing,
and each of the instrumental parts has a distinct character, which
735
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is preserved in an ingenious and masterly manner during the whole
first part of the song. Cuzzoni's next air, Bella notte, is less happy,
the passages are more common, and their repetitions too frequent.
After this air, a whole scene has been omitted in the printed copy
of the poem, which occurs in Handel's score, and in which there
is a very pleasing song for Senesino : Son pelegrino, sweetened with
two or three strokes of unexpected modulation. A duet, less
original and pleasing than many of his former dramatic duets; and
a gay chorus, in the style of a march, and less slight than the usual
finale of a serious opera, terminate this drama, according to the
printed book of the words; but in Handel's manuscript in his
Majesty's possession, there is an additional base song, for Boschi,
T' aspetta fuor dell' onde, which is excellent; and the fragment of
another, Mi par sognar, for Cuzzoni, which is very promising.
Upon the whole, though the first act of this opera is rather feeble,
and the last not so excellent as that of some of his other dramas,
the second act contains beauties of various kinds sufficient to
establish its reputation, as a work worthy of its great author in
his meridian splendor.*
This opera continued in run, uninterruptedly, near two months,
sustaining thirteen representations, from March 12th to April 30th
inclusive.
On May 5th [1726], the opera of Alessandro, by an anonymous
writer, and set to Music by Handel, first appeared. In the
dramatis personam of this opera we find the name of a new capital
performer: Signora Faustina Bordoni, whose arrival forms an
aera in the annals of musical contests. The umbrage given to
Cuzzoni by her coming hither, proves that as Turkish monarchs
can bear no brother near the throne, an aspiring sister is equally
obnoxious to a theatrical Queen. As Alessandro was the first
opera in which these rival sirens sung together on our stage, a parte
eguale, this seems the place to characterize their talents, and give
some account of their lives.
Francesca Cuzzoni [c. 1700-1770] was born in Parma, and
had her vocal instructions from Lanzi, an eminent professor of his
time, under whose tuition she became a most exquisite performer;
having been endowed by nature with a voice that was equally clear,
sweet, and flexible. It was difficult for the hearer to determine
whether she most excelled in slow or rapid airs. A native warble
enabled her to execute divisions with such facility as to conceal
every appearance of difficulty; and so grateful and touching was
the natural tone of her voice, that she rendered pathetic whatever
she sung, in which she had leisure to unfold its whole volume.
The art of conducting, sustaining, increasing, and diminishing her
tones by minute degrees, acquired her, among professors, the title
of complete mistress of her art. In a cantabile air, though the
notes she added were few, she never lost a favourable opportunity
of enriching the cantilena with all the refinements and embellish
* Scipio v,*as a failure, and only had 13 performances.
736
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
ments of the time, Her shake was perfect, she had a creative
fancy, and the power of occasionally accelerating and retarding the
measure in the most artificial and able manner, by what the
Italians call tempo rubato. Her high notes were unrivalled in
clearness and sweetness; and her intonations were so just and
fixed, that it seemed as if it was not in her power to sing out of
tune (a).
The first time that she appeared on the stage as a public singer,
seems to have been with her rival Faustina in the opera of Lamano,
set by Michel Angelo Gasparini, at Venice, 1719. She is called
in the dramatis personse of this opera, Virtuosa di Camera of the
grand Duchess of Tuscany. After this, she sung in most of the
great theatres of Italy, before her arrival in England, 1723,*
where she continued in undiminished favour till 1729, when she
returned to Italy, where she frequently met her rival Faustina,
particularly at Venice, in the Carnivals of 1729 and 1730; but
never on the same stage : Cuzzoni generally singing at one theatre
with Farinelli, and Faustina at another with Bernacchi or Pasi.
In 1734, she came to England a second time, and sung in the
operas composed by Porpora, under the patronage of the nobility,
against Handel, in whose service Strada was engaged. Cuzzoni
on her first arrival in England married Sandoni, a harpsichord-
master and composer of some eminence. She came to London a
third time, in 1749 [1750],** just after Giardini's arrival, who
performed at her benefit, at the little theatre in the Hay-market,
the first time he was heard here in public [May 23] . I was at this
concert myself, and found her voice reduced to a mere thread;
indeed, her throat was so nearly ossified by age, that all the soft
and mellifluous qualities, which had before rendered it so enchant-
ing, were nearly annihilated, in her public performance; though I
have been assured by a very good judge, who frequently
accompanied her in private, that in a room fine remains of her
former grace and sweetness in singing Handel's most celebrated
songs, by which she had acquired the greatest reputation, were still
discoverable.
Many stories are related of her extravagance and caprice. She
survived, however, not only her talents and powers of pleasing, but
even those of procuring a subsistence; being long imprisoned in
Holland for her debts, and at last ending her days in extreme
indigence at Bologna.
Faustina Bordoni Hasse [1693-1783], of Venice, wife of the
celebrated Saxon composer Hasse, was a scholar of Michel Angelo
(a) The chief part of this character is not merely traditional, but recorded by an excellent
professor and judge, who not only conversed with her cotemporaries in Italy, but frequently
heard her himself, before her decline. See Pensieri e riflessioni pratiche sopra il canto
figurato, di Gia?nbatista Mancini. Maestro di Canto deila Corte Imperiale, e Academico
Filarmonico. In Vienna, 1774.
* Her first appearance on the English stage was as Teofane in Handel's Otho on
Jan. 12, 1723.
** Hawkins gives 1748 as the date of a visit to England and records her singing in
Mitridate.
Vol. ii. 47- 737
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Gasparini of Lucca. She in a manner invented a new kind of
singing, by running divisions with a neatness and velocity which
astonished all who heard her. She had the art of sustaining a note
longer, in the opinion of the public, than any other singer, by
taking her breath imperceptibly. Her beats and trills were strong
and rapid; her intonation perfect; and her professional perfections
were enhanced by a beautiful face, a symmetric figure, though of
small stature, and a countenance and gesture on the stage, which
indicated an entire intelligence and possession of the several parts
she had to represent. She first appeared, as a theatrical singer,
at Venice in 1716, when she performed in the opera of Ariodante,
composed by Carl. Fran. Pollarolo. In 1719, she appeared on the
same stage with Cuzzoni and Bernacchi, in an opera composed by
her master Gasparini. Here she is called Virtuosa di Camera of
the Elector Palatine. In 1722, she sung in Leo's opera of Bajazet,
at Naples; and in 1725, we find her at Vienna, where, according
to Apostolo Zeno (b), she received great honours, as well as
presents. At the palace of Prince Lichtenstein, singing to a great
assembly, she was presented with a purse containing a hundred
pieces of gold (ungheri ruspi), and near as much more at the
French ambassador's. " But," says this poet, "whatever good
fortune or encouragement she meets with, she merits it all by her
courteous and polite manners, as well as talents, with which she
has enchanted and gained the esteem and affection of the whole
court." The same author speaks della bravura di Faustina, and
the bella Musica di Porsile, in an opera by the Abate Pasquini,
performed at Vienna, 1725; and of the regret expressed by the whole
court at her quitting that city to go to London [1726]. She
remained here but two seasons, and then returned to Venice, where,
in 1732 [1730], she was married to Hasse, and soon after went
to Dresden, in the service of which court she remained till the year
1756 [1763]. At the bombardment of that city by the late King
of Prussia, Hasse, her husband, had all his manuscripts burned,
which were to have been printed at the expence of his master and
patron, the Elector [1760].
During the war they went to Vienna, and remained there till
the year 1775; then retiring to Venice, the place of the Faustina's
nativity, they ended their days in that city, she in 1783, at the
great age of ninety, and he soon after, at nearly the same age.
A late writer upon Music (c), of considerable merit with respect
to the present times, though frequently erroneous as to the past,
speaking of the Faustina, says that her agility of voice has seldom
been equalled; a matchless facility and rapidity in her execution;
dexterity in taking her breath, exquisite shake, new and brilliant
passages of embellishment, and a thousand other qualities
contributed to inscribe her name among the first singers in Europe.
Such were the two performers who in the opera of Alessandro
(6) Lett. Tom. II. 395, 416, 418, Tom. III. 93.
(c) Le Revoluz. del Teatro Mus. Ital. di Stef. Arteaga, Bologna, 1783, p. 307.
73*
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
began to kindle the flames of discord among the frequenters of the
opera and patrons of the art, which increased to a more violent
degree of enmity than even the theological and political parties of
high church and low, or Whig and Tory, which then raged in this
country (d). And yet, according to Tosi, their cotemporary, and
a most excellent judge of their several merits, their talents, and
styles of singing, were so different, that the praise of one was no
reproach to the other. " Indeed, their merit," says he, " is
superior to all praise; for with equal force, in a different style, they
help to keep up the tottering profession from immediately falling
into ruin. The one is inimitable for a privileged gift of singing,
and enchanting the world with a prodigious felicity in executing
difficulties with a brillancy, I know not whether from nature or
art, which pleases to excess. The delightful soothing cantabile of
the other, joined with the sweetness of a fine voice, a perfect
intonation, strictness of time, and the rarest productions of genius
in her embellishments, are qualifications as peculiar and
uncommon, as they are difficult to be imitated. The pathetic of
the one, and the rapidity of the other, are distinctly characteristic.
What a beautiful mixture it would be, if the excellences of these
two angelic beings could be united in a single individual (e) ! "
Let us now see how Handel set these wonderful engines to work
in Alessandro , the first opera in which he tried their powers upon
the feelings of the public in this country (/) .
There is no passing by the overture of this opera without
remarking its excellence. The first movement, though cast in the
general mould of the prefatory productions of the times, is written
with uncommon force; and the modulation into the key of D minor
at the fifth bar from the end, is as unexpected and pleasing, as
the sliding almost imperceptibly into the major key before the close
is masterly and happy. Senesino's first song: Tra le straggi, is
full of fire and contrivance, with divisions of a different cast from
those of the times; which being, in general, such as may be said to
have been set on the singers barrel, and sure to be well executed,
were in common with all composers. But these, particularly in
the second part, are more difficult than any preceding divisions in
the airs of this singer, whose articulate and voluminous voice must
have rendered them very striking. The motivo of Cuzzoni's first
air: Quanto dolce amor saria, is graceful and elegant; and
(d) It is related by the Hon. Mr. Walpole that his mother, the lady of Sir Robert
Walpole, had these two sirens at her house to sing in a concert, at which were all the first
people of the kingdom. She was under the greatest difficulty how to settle the precedence, or
prevail on either to relinquish the pas, which could only be accomplished by renouncing the
pleasure of hearing either of them herself : the knot could not be untied, but it_ was cut, by
the following expedient. Lady W. finding it impossible to prevail on one to sing while the
other was present, took Faustina to a remote part of the house, under the pretence of shewing
her some curious china, during which time the company obtained a song from Cuzzoni, who
supposed that her rival had quitted the field. A similar expedient was practised in order to
get Cuzzoni out of the room, while Faustina performed.
(e) Osservz. sopra il Canto figurato.
if) It is remarkable that the subscribers to this excellent opera, finely engraved and
published by the author, did not amount to a hundred and twenty; and that among these
not above two or three of the directors of the Royal Academy, or hardly any other great
personages appear in the list, though the publication preceded the quarrel with the nobility, a
considerable time !
739
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Faustina's first air: Lusinghe piu care, became a national favourite.
Though there is no dignity in the subject, it is light and airy; and
though the divisions were neither remarkably new nor difficult, we
may easily suppose, from the renown of this singer for neatness of
execution, that she performed the air with a rapidity and precision
which, at this period, were very uncommon. The divisions in
Cuzzoni's second air: No, piu soffrir, if she sung them as fast, are
quite as difficult as those given to Faustina. The symphony and
accompaniments of this air must have had a new and fine effect.
Great use is made of Faustina's brilliant shake in her second air:
Un lusinghiero , which has, besides, several graceful passages that
became fashionable in the melodies of other composers many years
after. A quartetto, in the fifth scene of the first act, has not been
printed. Boschi's air in this act: A sprone, a fren leggiero, is
extremely gay and pleasing. The duet Placa V alma, between two
rival singers passibus equis, ambitious of fame and supremacy,
must have excited as much emulation in them, as attention in the
audience.
Act second opens with an elaborate and rich symphony to a fine
accompanied recitative and pathetic air: Aure, fonti, which few
singers, eminent for execution, are able to sing. Che tirannia,
Cuzzoni's first air in the second act, is in Handel's never-failing
Siciliana style of pathetic; and Faustina's subsequent air is a new
and curious style of execution to contrast with it. The words: alia
sua gabbia d'oro, &c. are ingeniously expressed both in the voice
part and accompament. Faustina had here a fair opportunity of
warbling all " her native wood-notes wild," and rivalling the
nightingale Cuzzoni, in bird-like passages. Senesino has an air
in this act : 77 cor mio, that is, and ever must be, pleasing to lovers
of elegant simplicity. Faustina finished the act with a sprightly
air in minuet time: Dicail falso, which, by her manner of singing,
she doubtless rendered very interesting.
The third act begins with a very fine slow cavatina : Sfortunato
e il mio valore, which was sung by Boschi, in the character 01
Clitus. Cuzzoni's first air in this act, is gay and pleasing in subject,
but not marked by any peculiarity of composition or execution.
But in the next : Brilla nell' alma, for Faustina, it is manifest that
Handel intended to display the uncommon talents of a great singer.
It is a bravura of the first class, for the time it was written: the
divisions are long and rapid, and the singer is left to herself, with
a quiet, pulsative accompaniment, of eight quavers in a bar, as
regular as the vibrations of a pendulum; a species of accompani-
ment so favourable to the singer, either in airs of expression or
rapidity, that to gratify the vanity and pretensions of even bad
singers, less worth hearing than the instruments, the composers of
Italy, since this period, have tired us of this inartificial and
monotonous employment of the orchestra. Beside this mark of
Handel's confidence in the abilities and firmness of the singer, he
has given the Faustina an opportunity of displaying her taste and
740
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
fancy in a cadence, ad libitum, at the end of each part of this
song; a compliment but seldom paid to vocal performers at this
period of time. In the next air: L' amor che per te sento, for
Cuzzoni, is cast in a different mould from all the rest; and the
composer's reliance on her steadiness and powers of pleasing, seems
to have been so entire, that she is left solely to herself, during a
considerable part of the air, without even a base to accompany
her. Pupille amate, for Senesino, has little other merit than'
gaiety: it is a gavot with a slight accompaniment, and few new
passages, at the time. The subsequent air for Faustina : Tempesta
e calma, is a quick minuet in a minor key, and contains many
new and many old passages and effects. The subject begins with
the sharp seventh of the key, by a kind of appoggiatura, a licence
of which I can recollect no other instance. The divisions are more
instrumental than vocal, and the closes quite antique; yet the last
division in the first part required a flexibility and an accent in the
execution, which, at this time,, perhaps Faustina only could boast.
The next air, for Senesino, is not in Handel's best manner, having
neither the force nor dignity of the songs given to this singer in
many of his other operas; and it seems in general that he tried to
work better for his rival queens, than for the hero of the piece.
The last air, which Senesino first sings with Cuzzoni, then with
Faustina, in duo, and with both afterwards, as a trio; and which,
at length, becomes the general coro finale, is graceful and pleasing;
and this may be said of the whole opera, the third act of which
seems inferior to the two first: nor do those, though charming,
contain so many bold, original, and learnpd specimens of Handel's
genius, as several of his former operas.
This .drama continued in run till the end of the season, June 7th.
It was advertised for the 11th, but Senesino being taken ill just
before the time of performance, the company assembled at the
opera-house was dismissed, and the money advertised to be returned
to the purchasers of tickets, on the 13th, in the Daily Courant.
As soon as Senesino was able to travel, he set off for Italy this
summer, for the recovery of his health, with a promise to return to
London the next winter; which promise, however, was not
performed time enough for the opera-house to open till after
Christmas (g).
(g) It appears from the London Journal, No. 382, for November 26th, 1726, that the opera
of Camilla had been revived, entirely in English, upon which there is an eloge, and the
prologue spoken by Mrs. Younger on the occasion; but from neither does it appear at which
of the English theatres, or by whom it was performed. Senesino's absence is confirmed by the
followed lines at the close of the prologue :
" Ye British fair, vouchsafe us your applause.
And smile, propitious, on our English cause;
While Senesino you expect in vain,
And see your favours treated with disdain :
While, 'twixt his rival queens, such mutual hate
Threats hourly ruin to your tuneful state,
Permit your country's voices to repair.
In some degree, your disappointment there :
Here may that charming circle nightly shine;
'Tis time, when that deserts us, to resign." *
* This production was at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mrs. Pendarves records that
she was not much pleased by it, but "I liked it for old acquaintance sake, but there is not
many of the songs better than ballads."
741
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In the beginning of November, the theatre was occupied by an
Italian company of comedians, who were patronised bj? the King,
performing constantly by royal command, on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, till operas were again resumed, and on different nights
afterwards, during the whole winter.
December the 5th, a general court was summoned by the
governor and directors of the Royal Academy, in order to elect a
deputy-governor and directors for the year ensuing; and on the 17th
was inserted in the Daily Courant the following ' ' List of the deputy-
governor and directors of the Royal Academy of Music, chosen last
week:
Duke of Richmond, deputy-governor. Earl of Albermale; Earl
of Burlington; Hon. James Bruce, Esq. Hon. Patee Byng, Esq.
Sir John Buckworth, Bart. Hon. James Brudenell, Esq. Marquis
of Carnarvon; Earl of Chesterfield; Henry Davenant, Esq. Charles
Edwin, Esq. Monsieur Fabrice; Sir John Eyles, Bart. Lord Mayor
of London; Lord Viscount Limerick; Duke of Manchester; Earl of
Mountrath; Sir Thomas Pendergrass, Bart. Sir John Rushout, Bart.
James Sandys, Esq. Major General Wade; Sir William Yonge;
directors.
1727. January 2d, the court of directors of the Royal Academy
begun this year by a call of £.5 per cent, being the sixteenth call
on all the subscribers, payable on or before the 18th inst. And
under this notice, the public was informed by another advertisement,
that annual tickets would be issued out for the ensuing season,
entitling the bearers to the liberty of the house, on the same terms
as last year.
January 4th, Senesino being returned, a new opera called
Lucius Verus, set by Attilio Ariosti, was announced for the 7th,
and was repeated on the 10th, 14th, 17th, 21th, 24th, and 28th, of
the same month.
On Tuesday, the 31st of January, Handel's opera of Admetus
was first represented. This drama had a run of nineteen nights,
without any other interruption than by the opera of Otho one night
for a benefit, and two other nights by the indisposition of Faustina,
and afterwards of Cuzzoni (h). As this opera, according to the
testimony of a gentleman who constantly attended its representa-
tion, attracted more company every night than any other opera
had ever done for so long a period of time, continuing from January
31st to April 18th,* it seems to merit a particular examination.
The overture is more in the style of Lulli than almost any one
which Handel ever composed; and the fugue, though spirited and
masterly, has been more injured by time than most of his
productions of that kind; the chief passages upon which it is
constructed having been before and since in very common use. The
(h) It was performed March 7th, with additions, for the benefit of Faustina. King George
the First dying this summer at Osnaburg, in the electorate of Hanover, June nth, may have
somewhat shortened the theatrical season, in London. The general election in August, had
likewise, in all probability, an effect upon public places in the capital.
* Admeto kept the boards until it was superseded by Bononcini's Asiynax on May 6th.
742
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
hautbois solo parts, particularly, are unmeaning, except one, which
is very beautiful. The opening of this overture is in precisely the
same notes as that of Lulli's Persee. But it is only in the first
movement, and the omission of a popular air after the fugue, that
there is the least resemblance between the overtures of Lulli and
Handel; for his fugues are not only upon better subjects, but
treated with such force, intelligence, and original fire, as Lulli
never manifested in any overture he ever composed. There is no
air, or third movement, at the end.
This opera was composed by Handel during his greatest pros-
perity, and English patronage. The whole nation seems to have
united in acknowledging his superior abilities, and nothing was
disputed but the talents of his principal female singers, the Faustina
and Cuzzoni. Senesino was established in the public favour as
first man; Boschi had likewise great merit in his style of singing;
and the rest, Baldi, Palmerini, and the Dotti, were unexceptionable
in the inferior parts.
The first act opens with a dance of Spectres in the bed-room,
where Admetus lies in sickness and delirium. The Music to this
.dance is very original and characteristic. After the dance there is
an impassionated and admirable accompanied recitative, followed
by one of the finest pathetic airs that can be found in all Handel's
works: Chiudetevi miei lumi. I have been told by persons who
heard this opera performed when it first came out, that Senesino
never sung or acted better, or more to the satisfaction of the public,
than in this scene. After which, Boschi, in the character of
Hercules, had an admirable base song. In the next scene, which
is very dramatic, the Faustina, in the character of Queen Alcestes,
trying to soothe and tranquilize her sick lord, had a charming
pathetic song.
After this, Cuzzoni appeared; the air, however, which she had
assigned to her in this scene, does not seem to indicate the great
composer or great singer: indeed, it seems to partake but little of
the best manner of either. We have then an air in a Sicilian style,
followed by one for Senesino, which is very chearful and pleasing;
as is the subsequent air: Un lampo e la speranza, which was a
great favourite in its day, though some of the passages now have
lost their charms of novelty. The next air: Se V arco avessi, is
one of the best and most agreeable hunting songs that was ever
composed. The French-horn parts are remarkably well written,
and introduced with peculiar propriety. This air remained in
public favour many years after the run of the opera was over.
The last air of the first act : Sen vola, was calculated to display the
seeming natural warble of Cuzzoni (i). Its merit has suffered but
little diminution in sixty years; so that a favourite singer might still
recover its charms; and not only this air, but all the first and third
(i) While she was singing this song, a fellow cried out in the gallery: "D — n her! she has
got a nest of nightingales in her belly.*
* See Editor's note p. 721 with regard to this incident.
743
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
scenes of this act, would still, if well performed, have a fine effect
on the stage, and be well received by the public.
At the beginning of the second act, in the book of the words, a
horrid symphony to express the cries and shrieks of tortured souls
in the infernal regions, is announced; but instead of wild jargon
and hellish dissonance, Handel has given us a regular overture with
one of the most artificial chromatic fugues that was ever produced;
in which the subject, in itself very curious and uncommon, is
reversed in the answer, and then interwoven and carried on as a
counter subject throughout the movement. There is, however, a
bold and picturesque symphony, while Hercules attacks the Furies
in order to rescue Alcestes from their tortures.
The subsequent air: Quanto godra, was sung by Faustina, but
though an allegro, it affords but little opportunity for the display
of that neat and articulate execution for which she was so
celebrated; the divisions being given to the instruments more
liberally than to the voice.
Handel's science and invention could make the songs of the
inferior characters of an opera interesting to judges of Music, by
the ingenuity of the composition: thus the next song of this
drama, Bella non t' adirar, though the voice-part says but little, is
enriched and enlivened by a very curious accompaniment. After a
second easy simple air, Cuzzoni has a song of great spirit, in which,
though there are few .divisions, she had frequent opportunities for
the display of her fine shake, for which she was much celebrated.
The next air was sung by Senesino : Sparite o pensieri, and seems
to have been in his best style of singing, which was pathetic, or
majestic. This air is slow, simple, and often without any other
accompaniment than a base, in order to furnish an opportunity for
unfolding his whole volume of voice in all its purity and force.
Cuzzoni sings the next air: Da tanti ajfanni, which is a pathetic
Siciliana in Handel's best manner, and a kind of movement in
which this singer was always much admired. After this, Faustina
has an aria di bravura, with divisions more long and rapid than I
have met with of the same period; and yet they are such as would
not now establish the reputation of a singer for great execution,
however neatly they may be executed. In the next scene, Senesino
had a fine accompanied recitative, and a very pathetic air,
accompanied in a rich and masterly manner. Cuzzoni, after a
song by an inferior character of no great importance, has a very
lively and agreeable air, in which her shake is again the most
surprising part of the execution. The second act is terminated by
an aria fugata, that is excellent composition; it was sung by
Faustina, and though perhaps neither in her style of singing, nor
dramatic, yet such was the taste of the times, that this artificial
and elaborate kind of writing was more studied by masters and
expected by an audience, than picturesque or passionate Music.
Act third opens with a very fine slow air of an original cast : A
languire e a penar; it was sung by Senesino, and is written almost
744
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
on a ground-base; there is but one violin accompaniment, but
this preserves a particular character of complaint from the beginning
to the end, without disturbing the voice-part, which is truly
pathetic. The second air, set for Palmerini, contains nothing
remarkable. There must be, in every drama, inferior characters,
voices, and abilities J and to make a hero of every attendant, would
be as injudicious as to degrade the real great personages of the
piece to a level with their domestics. If all the airs of an opera were
equally laboured and excellent, the Music would be monotonous,
and all abilities confounded. The next air, for Senesino, is
spirited, but less original and happy in its conception than the rest
of his songs in this opera. After this, we have an agreeable base
song by Boschi, but not written with that force with which many
of the airs for this singer, in Handel's other operas, are composed.
The next air, La dove gli occhj io giro, for Faustina, is a very
agreeable song for the display of her execution, which, though now
it would not be thought wonderful, in the year 1727, was imagined
to be supernatural (j). Cuzzoni has her aria d'abilita after this,
in which a pleasing passage in the base runs through the whole
movement in a masterly manner, without impoverishing the voice-
part. To enable my readers to form an idea of the comparative
merit of these celebrated rival singers, I shall insert here the
character drawn of them by an excellent and unprejudiced judge,
the late Mr. Quantz, who was frequently present at the performance
of this opera in London, during its first run, 1727.*
" Cuzzoni had a very agreeable and clear soprano voice; a pure
intonation, and a fine shake; her compass extended two octaves,
from C to c in alt. Her style of singing was innocent and affecting;
her graces did not seem artificial, from the easy and neat manner
in which she executed them: however, they took possession ot
the soul of every auditor, by her tender and touching expression.
She had no great rapidity of execution, in allegros; but there was a
roundness and smoothness, which were neat and pleasing. Yet.
with all these advantages, it must be owned that she was rather
cold in her action, and her figure was not advantageous for the
stage.
" Faustina had a mezzo-soprano voice, that was less clear than
penetrating. Her compass was only from B flat to G in alt; but
after this time, she extended its limits downwards. She possessed
what the Italians call un cantar granito : her execution was
articulate and brilliant. She had a fluent tongue for pronouncing
words rapidly and distinctly, and a flexible throat for divisions,
with so beautiful and quick a shake that she could put it in motion
upon short notice, just when she would. The passages might be
smooth, or by leaps, or consisting of iterations of the same tone,
(j) In the book of the words which has fallen into my hands, is written by the first
proprietor (Lady Cowper) opposite to the name of Signora Faustina Bordoni, "she is the d — 1
of a singer."
* This was Quantz (1697-1773) the distinguished flautist who visited London in 1727.
745
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
their execution was equally easy to her as to any instrument
whatever. She was doubtless the first who introduced, with
success, a swift repetition of the same tone. She sung adagios with
great passion and expression, but was not equally successful, if
such deep sorrow were to be impressed on the hearer, as might
require dragging, sliding, or notes of syncopation, and tempo
rubato.
" She had a very happy memory in arbitrary changes and
embellishments, and a clear and quick judgment in giving to words
their full power and expression. In her action she was very
happy; and as she perfectly possessed that flexibility of muscles
and features, which constitutes face-playing, she succeeded equally
well in furious, amorous, and tender parts : in short, she was born
for singing and for acting.
" The violence of party," says M. Quantz, " for the two
singers, Cuzzoni and Faustina, was so great, that when the
admirers of one began to applaud, those of the other were sure to
hiss; on which account operas ceased for some time in London."
After these sirens have exercised their inchantments, SignoFBaldi
has a very spirited and dramatic air, of which though many of
the passages are now antiquated, yet the base and accompaniments
give it an energy which none but a great master could bestow on a
similar air. We have then an admirable duet, written on a theme,
which is led off by the violins in unison, and afterwards repeated
by the base and other instruments alternately, while the voice-parts
have traits of beautiful melody totally different from the subject of
the accompaniment: I can recollect no duet of Handel's that is
more pleasing or ingenious than this. The last air in the opera, Si
caro, si, sung by Faustina, is so natural and graceful, that such a
favourite singer could not fail to render it pleasing to every class
of hearers; indeed, this song was the delight of all lovers of Music
throughout the kingdom many years after the opera was laid
aside.
After the coro finale there are three additional songs in his
Majesty's score of this opera : Spera si, for Cuzzoni, and Io son qual
Fenice, for the Faustina, with a slight air for an inferior singer.
Cuzzoni's air is full of that graceful tenderness for which she was
so much celebrated; and the air for Faustina, if it had been sung
quick, would have been very difficult to execute; the time, however,
is marked only andante, and even in that slow and sedate motion
there are passages in arpeggio, that required a flexible throat to
execute them.
The principal fable on which this drama was founded is
admirably calculated for an opera,* as it admits of passion,
tenderness, and marvellous circumstances and situations for
machinery and decoration] but the poet, whoever he was, has
injured it greatly by the introduction of a counterplot, in order to
* The libretto of Admeto is founded upon the story of Alcestis.
746
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
introduce two heroines on the stage at once, a parte equate, for
the rival singers, Faustina and Cuzzoni.
Music had now quitted that tranquil and unimpassioned state in
which it was left by Corelli; it was no longer regarded as a mere
soother of affliction, or incitement to hilarity; it could now paint
the passions in all their various attitudes; and those tones which
said nothing intelligible to the heart, began to be thought as insipid
as those of " sounding brass or tinkling cymbals."
Upon the whole, this opera contains many of Handel's best
dramatic productions, and if heard or examined by candid judges,
(though at present sixty years old) it will long continue to give
pleasure in the performance and perusal.
March 15th, a seventeenth call of £.5 per cent, payable on or
before the 30th, and a general court appointed for April 17th.
May 6th, a new opera set by Bononcini, called Astyanax,
appeared, which seems to have been the last that this composer
produced in England. Its first representation was postponed from
time to time for several nights, on account of the indisposition of
Cuzzoni; and Handel's Floridante revived and performed in its
stead. Astyanax was written by N. Haym upon the same incidents
as the Andromaque by Racine, and Distressed Mother by Philips.
The author has dedicated this .drama to the Duchess of Marl-
borough, not only as the patroness of the composer Bononcini,
" but as the daughter of that great commander, who wanted not
the swell of poetry to magnify his deeds, which so far surpassed
those of the Grecian heroes of Homer, that instead of being ten
years in conquering a single city, he had conquered more than ten
such cities in one year." The singers in this opera were Senesino,
who performed the part of Pyrrhus; Cuzzoni, Andromache;
Faustina, Hermione; and Boschi, Baldi, and the Dotti, the rest.
The Music was not printed, though it had nine representations;
being performed, uninterruptedly,* till the end of the season, June
6th. Indeed, this production seems to have been soon forgotten,
except the slow and plaintive little air in minuet time: Ascolto o
figlio, sung by Cuzzoni in the third act; which was long in favour
at the playhouse in my own memory, whenever soft Music was
wanted (k).
As Bononcini quitted the conflict with Handel after this opera,
which terminated the contention between them on the English
stage, this seems the place to take my leave of him.
Of all the works which this celebrated composer published in
England, his book of Cantate e Duetti, dedicated to his Majesty
George I. in 1721, the year after his arrival here, seems the best.
Of these an account has already been given, page 636. In 1722,
{k) The air : Deh ! lascia o core, sung by Cuzzoni, at the end of the second act, has been
printed; the subject is pathetic, and the accompaniment judicious and masterly; but the
divisions in the voice-part are neither graceful nor pleasing, but aukward and difficult, without
effect.
* Perhaps Burney is indulging in a subtle joke in using this word, as Astynax was usually
performed amidst scenes of great disorder, and the Opera was nightly the meeting place of the
riff-raff of the town bent upon creating as much noise as possible. On June 6, Faustina was
shouted down by the supporters of Cuzzoni. This led to a riot in the body of the theatre,
and the two vocalists, not to be outdone, engaged in a fracas upon the stage.
747
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
his Divertimenti da Camera, tradotti (transposed or accommo-
dated) pel Cenbalo da quelli composti pel Violino o Flauto, were
published by himself, and sold at his lodgings in Suffolk-street. In
these we meet with pleasing and masterly passages, but they are
so inferior in force, contrivance, and invention, to the lessons of
Handel, that even his admirers, on a comparative view, must have
regarded them as frivolous and trivial. The adagios are the best
movements in them, and have notes of taste and passages of
expression which must have been then new to English ears.
Bononcini, however, like other composers of his time, is very
sparing of his passages, and indulges idleness and want of invention
by frequent Rosalias, which Handel seems always to avoid more
than any composer of this period, except the Scariattis, father and
son. In several of these lessons the subject is heard in one part
or other throughout a whole movement: as in the minuet, page 35,
the first bar is perpetual.
His funeral anthem for the Duke of Marlborough, was set and
performed the same year, 1722. The short symphony, and whole
first movement are grand, and of a melancholy cast. The second
movement has not much to recommend it. The third, is more
languid, than passionate or pathetic. The fourth, is plaintive, but
was not new at the time it was written. The fifth, and last
movement has musical merit, but none of true feeling or genius;
no " heart-rending sighs," or such exclamations of sorrow and
affliction as would naturally be expected from a man of great
abilities, who either felt the words, or the loss of his patron.
Bononcini was a celebrated and voluminous composer long
before he arrived in England : his eighth work, consisting of Duetti
da Camera, was dedicated to the Emperor Leopold, and published
at Bologna in 1691 (I). The seven operas he composed during his
residence in England, make but a small part of his dramatic
productions. He produced two operas at Rome in 1694 [Tullo
Ostilio, and Serse] ; after this he went to Vienna, where he composed
many operas and oratorios for the Imperial Court and Chapel.
In 1720, he was again in high reputation as a .dramatic composer
at Rome, whence he was invited to London by the directors of the
Royal Academy of Music. In 1732, he published Twelve Sonatas
for two Violins and a Base. It was about this time that he was
accused of arrogating to himself a madrigal composed by Lotti of
Venice, and published in that city in 1705, in a work entitled
Duetti, Terzetti, e Madrigali a piu Voci, dedicated to the Emperor
Joseph. The title of the madrigal is La vita caduca, and has for
initial line, In una siepe ombrosa.* I am in possession of the book
in which this composition was printed, and upon examination, am
(/) An account has already been given of this work, in speaking of chamber vocal duets.
Book III. chap. viii.
* This madrigal was introduced to the Academy of Ancient Music by Dr. Maurice Greene
as a composition by Bononcini. The deception was soon discovered and Bononcini was
expelled from the Academy. Greene evidently thought the punishment too severe, and he
withdrew from the Academy and founded a rival organisation called the Apollo, which met at
the Devil Tavern in the vicinity of Temple Bar.
748
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
extremely astonished that Bononcini would risk the great reputation
of which he was already in possession, for a production which
could increase it so little. The counterpoint of this madrigal is
certainly correct, but it is dry, and all the subjects of fugue are
such as had been used by thousands before Lotti was born. There
are many madrigals by much older masters, particularly Luca
Marenzio, Stradella, and the elder Scarlatti, that are learned and
pleasing in modulation, and more fanciful and agreeable in the
traits of melody that are used as subjects of imitation. Indeed,
Bononcini' s plagiarism was as weak as wicked. I used to doubt
the truth of the charge, from an idea that his reputation was so
well established, and his genius so fertile, that he had not the least
occasion to have recourse to such illicit means of extending it. The
crime of theft is very much aggravated when the thief is not
impelled to it by want. Rich men and misers have, however, been
often detected in illegal appropriation. Yet upon a careful and
critical examination of the works of John Bononcini, I think his
wealth did not consist in rich and deep mines of science, nor were
his resources in learned and elaborate composition either in the
ecclesiastical or madrigal style, very great. His performance on
the violoncello, his cantatas, and his operas, had been admired
in every part of Europe; but not content with partial fame, he
aimed at universality. In his anthem for the funeral of the Duke
of Marlborough, he attempted to rival Handel in his grand church
style; and finding in how much veneration well written madrigals
were held at the Academy of Ancient Music in London, where
Handel at this time was regarded as a modern, and an innovator,
he was tempted to risk the reputation he had fairly acquired, by
trying to augment it in an illegal manner. Tradition had filled
my mind with ideas of his abilities, which the examination of his
works has diminished; while a strict scrutiny into Handel's produc-
tions has greatly augmented my veneration for that composer.
T have now before me, in a printed pamphlet, all the letters that
passed between the secretary of the Academy of Ancient Music
and Signor Ant. Lotti on this occasion, with such testimonies and
certificates from the most respectable professors at Venice and
Vienna, in proof of the madrigal in .dispute having been composed
by that master and not by Bononcini, that not the least doubt
remains of the fact.
Soon after the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough [1722], the
Countess of Godolphin, who, upon the decease of her father,
became Duchess of Marlborough, as settled in his patent of creation,
received Bononcini into her house, in the Stable-yard St. James's,
and settled on him a pension of £.500 a year.* Here he lived in
* Lady Bristol in a letter to her husband dated Oct., 1722, writes : "Bononcini is dismissed
the theatre for operas, which I believe you and some of your family will regret. The reason
they give for it is his most extravagant demands."
Mrs. Pendarves (Mrs. Delaney) writing to her sister on May 16, 1723, says : " The young
Duchess of Marlborough has settled upon Bononcini for his life £500 a year, provided he will
not compose any more for the ungrateful Academy, who do not deserve that he should entertain
them, since they don't know how to value his works as they ought.''
Despite the proviso mentioned in Mrs. Pendarves' letter, Bononcini continued his association
with the Academy until 1727.
749
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
ease and affluence, enjoying as an artist the otium cum dignitate
in its full extent: the duchess having concerts twice a week, in
which no other Music was performed to the first people in the
kingdom than the compositions of her favourite master, executed
by the principal singers of the opera. It is supposed that he gained
a £.1000 by the book of cantatas which he published by a two-
guinea subscription: many of the nobility subscribing for five or
ten copies; the Duke and Duchess of Queensbury for twenty-five
books each, and the Countess of Sunderland alone for fifty. After
the dispute concerning this madrigal, his importance and reputation
diminished considerably; and about the year 1733, he quitted the
kingdom. After which he resided at Paris for several years, where
he composed masses and motets for the Chapel Royal. At the
conclusion of the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, he was invited
to Vienna by the Emperor of Germany to compose the Music for
that occasion, and is said to have been presented with eight hundred
ducats for his trouble. After the celebration of the peace was over,
quitting Vienna in company with Monticelli, he set off in the same
post chaise with this celebrated singer, for Venice, where they were
both engaged, Bononcini as composer, and Monticelli as first man,
in the operas for the ensuing Carnaval, in that city. Here we lose
sight of this renowned composer, who if we suppose him to have
been no more than thirty years of age in 1691,* when his eighth
work was printed at Bologna, and dedicated to the Emperor
Leopold, he must at this time have attained his eighty-seventh
year; which will give weight to the general opinion, that his life
was extended to near a century !
May 10th, during the run of Astyanax, notice is given that a
general court of the subscribers will be held on the 15th, " when a
new subscription is to be proposed." Which seems to imply a
total expenditure of the sum for which the members of this society
first engaged to be answerable. This meeting was adjourned till
the 22d, " when all the subscribers to the said academy were
desired to be present, the new subscription being then to be taken
into consideration."
On June 6th, the last night of the performance of Astyanax,
and of the season, according to the London Journal, a weekly
newspaper published June 10th, 1727, " A great disturbance
happened at the opera, occasioned by the partizans of the two
celebrated rival ladies, Cuzzoni and Faustina. The contention at
first was only carried on by hissing on one side, and clapping on
the other; but proceeded, at length, to the melodious use of cat-
calls, and other accompaniments, which manifested the zeal and
politeness of that illustrious assembly. The Princess Caroline was
there,** but neither her Royal Highness' s presence, nor the laws
* Bononcini was only 19 years of age in 1691. He was born in 1672.
** According to the Countess of Pembroke (cited by Rockstro, Life of Handel, p 152 n) it
was the Princess Amelia who was present on this occasion.
750
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
of decorum, could restrain the glorious ardor of the combatants
(m)."
July 13th, the following advertisement appeared in the Daily
Courant ; ' ' Whereas several persons stand indebted to the Royal
Academy for calls and otherwise, the court of directors do hereby
order notice to be given, that they shall pay or cause to be paid,
at the office in the Hay-market, or to the person attending them
in that behalf, such sum or sums as they are owing, on or before
Wednesday the 19th, inst. otherwise they shall be obliged to cause
process to be made at law against them, in order to recover the
same."
October 2d, in the same newspaper, notice was given that ' ' My
Lord Chamberlain, at the request of the directors of the Royal
Academy of Musick, had offered a general court of the said
academy on the 6th, inst. upon extraordinary business." This
notice was repeated on the appointed day. On the 18th, another
call of £.5 per cent, payable the 25th, being the eighteenth call.
On the 21st, in order to prevent frauds, the method of receiving
tickets was changed : at the front and back-door a box was placed,
leading into the stone passage in which gentlemen and ladies were
desired to drop their tickets at going into the house. Subscribers
only admitted by producing their silver tickets.
The autumnal season began October 3d, with Admetus; and
on the 11th of the next month [1727], Ricardo Primo, Re d'
Inghilterra, an opera, written by Rolli, and set by Handel, was
first represented. This drama is dedicated in an Italian sonnet by
the poet to the new King, George II. The singers were the same as
in the preceding winter: Senesino, Boschi, Baldi, Palmerini,
Cuzzoni, and Faustina.
The introduction in this overture is one of the best written and
the most spirited of all Handel's prefatory movements. At the
sighth bar the first violin leads off a passage, which is inverted in
the base for four or five bars in a very masterly manner; and the
leading notes to the first bar of the movement, after the close, is
full of fire. The fugue is admirably worked, and the three initial
aotes of the dux, or subject, are finely introduced in accompanying
the solo parts for the hautbois (n). The want of a third movement
for unlearned hearers, has kept this overture out of many a concert.
The first air for Cuzzoni: Se pen V amato bene, is plaintive,
pleasing and original. And the second : Vado per ubidirti, for
Faustina, is the most agreeable song of execution of the times.
I have been told that the brilliancy of her voice made its way
through the busy accompaniment of this song in a manner which
filled the whole theatre (o). A close in this air appears for the
(m) No. 410.
(») If there is any thing less pleasing than the rest in the theme of this fugue, it is the
fifth note in the second bar, which is aukward to the hand, and not very pleasing to the ear.
In modern times this G would have been sharp.
(0) E was a remarkably powerful note in this singer's voice, and we find most of her
capital songs in sharp keys, where that chord frequently occurred.
751
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
first time, which has since become fashionable, as well as the return
to the subject in the Da Capo. There are fine things in Senesino's
first song: Calmate le tempeste, but the subject passage is too often
repeated. Faustina's second air in this act: Bella teco, has an
original character, and though the time is only andante, afforded
opportunities to manifest a fine shake, and voluble throat.
Cuzzoni's second song is more passee. The subsequent air : Agitato
da fiere tempeste, for Senesino, is in a grand style of bravura, and
must have had a great effect when accompanied by a good orchestra,
and thundered by such a voice. Though many of the divisions
appear in his former songs, yet there is one passage which Farinelli,
Baverese, Monticelli, and other singers of later times, frequently
introduced in their songs of execution as an extraordinary feat :
V?
Nothing can be more elegant and pleasing than the next air for
Cuzzoni : Di notte il pelegrino. This is followed by a base song for
Boschi, fugato in the accompaniment with Handel's usual
superiority. The subsequent air for Faustina has no peculiar
character of execution or expression, but might be made very
agreeable by a good singer and a good band. Cuzzoni's next song:
Caro vieni a me, is truly captivating, and needs only to be sung
by a singer of taste and feeling, to be modern now, or at any more
distant period from the time of its first performance. The short
but exquisite cavatina : Quanto tarda, in Handel's best style of
cantabile, is a canevas which a great singer only can colour, and
souls susceptible of pleasure from the most select and sentimental
sounds can truly enjoy. After this, Faustina has a coquetish, gay,
and lively air : A i guardi tuoi, with two or three volute in it, which
however laborious to sluggish throats were sport to her. Nube che
il sole, is a very agreeable air, which was sung by Senesino. After
this Faustina had an air, U aquila altera, in a very masterly style
of composition, which has been long banished from the opera-
house. The duet which finishes the second act, has in it many fine
passages, but some of them having been frequently used by Handel
elsewhere, are more withered and faded than the rest.
In the third act, Senesino's first song: AW orror delle procelle,
is a song of great execution, not only for that time, but for any
time, and any singer. Handel's fire blazes in the orchestra, and
the whole composition glows with genius. Cuzzoni sung the next
air: Morte vieni, which is mixt with accompanied recitative, and
is in a very sublime style of pathetic. The next air: Quell'
innocente, in a totally different style from the other two, was sung by
Faustina, and is in the highest degree graceful and pleasing. I have
never met with three successive airs by the same composer, at once
so beautiful and so various. After these, Boschi has an air of
great fire and spirit, in which all the parts are busy, but that of
752
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the first violin is remarkably cramp and difficult. The air which
succeeds this : Bacia per me la memo, seems to me one of the finest
pathetic airs in all Handel's works; it was sung by Cuzzoni, and
though there is a peculiar character supported throughout in the
base, and the violins and tenor are almost constantly employed,
the melody of the voice-part is never disturbed, but is uniformly
clear and plaintive, from the beginning to the end. After these
five capital songs, there are three others that have considerable
merit: one for Cuzzoni, with a German-flute accompaniment; one
for Faustina, with very difficult divisions; and a very sweet and
graceful air for Senesino: Volgete ogni desir. Upon the whole,
the last act of Richard is replete with beauties of every kind of
composition, and seems not only the best of this particular opera,
but of any that I have yet examined.
The performance of this opera was continued till December 16th,
having eleven representations; after which Alessandro and
Radamisto, were revived, and alternately performed till February
17th, 1728, when Siroe a new opera, by Handel, was first
represented.
Dec. 4th, a general court was called for chusing a deputy-
governor and directors for the year ensuing, on which occasion none
would be allowed to vote who had not paid their arrears. December
23d, a nineteenth call, for £.5 per cent, on all the subscribers.
1728. The opera of Siroe, which at present every one
acquainted with the Italian language almost knows by heart, was
so new to my countrymen at the time it was first brought on our
stage, that Nicolino Haym ventured to dedicate the poem to the
directors and subscribers of the Royal Academy of Music, as his
own (p), and the plagiarism, however flagrant, seems to have been
successful; for it does not appear that it was ever detected. This
drama, written expressly for Venice in 1726, was first set by the
celebrated Leonardo Vinci, for the theatre of San Giangrisostomo
in that city; but it has since been set by almost every eminent
composer who has been employed for the stage. Upon collating the
poem which Handel set with the opera of Siroe,* in the third volume
of Metastasio's works, there appears very little difference between
them, except that Haym has foisted info his edition two or three airs
of a much coarser texture than can be found in that of the original
author (q).
(p) Alii eccellentissimi ed illustrissimi Signori Li Signori Direttori, e sottoscrittori dell'
Accademia Reale di Musica Vmilmente dedica queslo Drama I' umilissimo e devotissimo
Servitor loro, N. Haym. These words spread out on the surface of a whole page, have all
the appearance of author-like appropriation.
(q) This drama, the first of Metastasio's writing that was performed in this country, had
certainly more poetical merit than any which Handel had as yet ever set to Music, though he
long remained ignorant perhaps of the real author.
During the run of this opera there was a call by the court of directors on all the subscribers
to the Royal Academy of £3 per cent, which was the twentieth call, to be paid on or before
the 30th of March. And April 3d, the governor and court of directors summoned a genera!
court, "to consult such measures as may be thought most proper for the speedy recovery oi
all their debts." Another call of two and a half per cent, being the twenty-first call, on or
before the 24th of April.
* Much of the music of Siroe was adapted from the earlier opera Flavio.
Vol,, ii. 48. 753
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In the first movement of the overture there are two or three
strokes of bold and happy modulation, particularly the A flat in the
base of the twelfth bar, which manifest the great master. The
fugue, of which the third bar of the subject, which furnishes the
chief solo parts for the haubois, has been too often used by others
to give much pleasure now, is treated with his usual superiority and
strength; and the jig was always a favourite as long as movements in
that measure were in fashion. Handel himself seems to have been
not insensible to its merit, for I heard him play it by memory as
a lesson at Mrs. Cibber's, with wonderful neatness and spirit near
twenty years after it was composed.
The singers were the same as in the opera of Riccardo. The
first air for Boschi: Se mio paterno amore, is in the free and
animated style of many of the excellent base songs he wrote for that
performer. Fausina's first song: D' ogni amator la fede, may
perhaps have been since set to a more graceful melody, but has never
been accompanied with so much meaning and ingenuity.
Senesino's first air: Se il labbro, was not, at the time it was first
performed, in so captivating a style as many others which Handel
had composed for him, and yet there are still passages in the base
and accompaniment which are heard with pleasure by true judges of
composition. Palmireni's first air: 0 placido il mare, is spirited,
and required considerable agility of throat in the execution. To
the words of Senesino's next air: La sorte mia tiranna, so many
other airs are vibrating in modern ears, that Handel's would not
now be fairly heard; but with Senesino's voice and action it doubtless
had a fine effect in 1728. The subsequent air: Vedesie max, for
Faustina, is extremely pleasing, and must have exhibited the
brilliant execution of that singer to great advantage. The words
of the air with which Haym has finished the first act : Or mi perdo,
which Handel has adapted in his foul score to the Music of another
air : Ho nel seno, are not the same as in Metastasio, who terminates
the act with Fra I' orror delta tempesta, which has been often
admired as a dramatic song of passion and execution in the Siroe
of different composers. Handel's air to the words Or mi perdo, is
originally and beautifully accompanied (r).
The second act begins with an exquisite cantabile: Deh! voi
mi dite, for Senesino, which wants nothing but length to render it
equal to Handel's most excellent songs of that kind. The next
air: Mi lagnerd tacendo, sung by Cuzzoni, is a beautiful Siciliana
of a peculiar cast. The complaint expressed in the words and
melody is admirably enforced from time to time by a single note in
the violin accompaniment. After this Senesino had a very pleasing
and dramatic air: Mi credi infedele, in which the accompaniment
is modern and the modulation affecting and masterly. Faustina's
next air : Sgombra dall' anima, long enjoyed the public favour for
the natural gaity of the melody. The air Fra V orror, with which
(r) There is an air wanting in the score : Chi e piit fedele, and instead of it two or three
scenes of another opera, in which the names of Olibrio and Placidia two characters in a drama
written by Apostolo Zeno, occur.
754
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Metastasio has terminated the first act, Haym has transplanted into
the fifth scene of the second. Handel has set it to an admirable
instrumental movement in five parts, strictly fugato. As it was
written for Baldi a singer of no great abilities, he took the
opportunity of rendering the composition interesting by assigning
the chief part of the business to the instruments, which, so employed,
were better worth hearing than the voice. Boschi had the next air :
Tu di pieta mi spogli, which is spirited, and cast in a different mould
from all his other admirable songs. The subsequent air: Fra dubbj
affetti, is less happily set than usual with Handel in composing
for Senesino : it is a soothing minuet, but without dignity or passion.
Cuzzoni had the next air: U aura non sempre, which is light and
gay, but unmarked by any peculiar force or expression; but the
final air of this act : Non vi piacque, ingiusti Dei, is one of the most
elegant, beautiful, and pathetic, in all Handel's works; it was set for
the Faustina, and conveys an idea of her great abilities as a
cantabile singer, as most of her other songs do of neat and brilliant
execution.
The third act begins with a short and spirited symphony,
consisting of only twenty-two bars; in which, however, Handel's
fire began to blaze sufficiently to make us wish it had been longer.
The first air, for Cuzzoni : Se il caro Figlio, is graceful and pleasing,
and was among the favourite songs of that singer. The next air:
Gelido in ogni vena, is so fine a composition of the grand pathetic
kind, that it is difficult which most to admire, the richness of the
harmony, learning of the modulation, texture of the parts, or
expression of the words. Palmerni sung the subsequent air : Benche
tinta, which has merit and fire in the composition, though it was
not likely to be a favourite, as he was not a captivating singer, and
performed a detestable character in the drama. The whole next
scene, beginning with an accompanied recitative: Son stanco, and
ending with the air Deggio morire, for Senesino, was justly admired,
at the time of its first performance, and is still new and replete with
refinements, which have been imagined of much later times (s).
In the symphony to the accompanied recitative, Handel seems to
have made a new use of piano and forte, and in the second violin,
tenor, and base parts of the subsequent air, to have anticipated the
quiet accompaniment of modern times. Faustina had the next air:
Ch' io mai vi possa, which has few peculiar beauties of invention
or expression; and the air in the next scene for Senesino : Se V amor
tuo, though the voice-part is graceful and pleasing, is rendered
somewhat monotonous by a too frequent repetition of the same
passage in the symphony and accompaniment. But the following
air: Torrente cresciuto, for Cuzzoni, is perhaps the most elegant,
fanciful, and pleasing, of all Handel's dramatic songs of the bravura
kind. The next air: La mia speranza, and the last in the opera,
was sung by Faustina. It is of the same kind, gay and agreeable;
but seems now the eldest of the two by many years.
(s) See Sketch of Handel's Life, p. 24, and seq.
7.55-
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
This opera, of which Handel himself, in the foul score preserved
in his Majesty's collection, has signed and dated the coro finale,
" London, February 5th, 1728," contains many proofs of the
superior abilities of this great composer; but chiefly in the last act,
which seems greatly to surpass, in musical excellence, the rest of
the drama.
The opera of Siroe was first performed February 17th, when
it was honoured with the presence of their Majesties, the Princess
Royal, Princess Amelia, and Princess Caroline. It had nineteen
representations successively; but having a very powerful rival at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields, in the Beggar's Opera, which came out the
same winter [Jan. 29, 1728], joined to the factious disputes con-
cerning the superiority of the singers, this was not an auspicious
season for the musical drama.
A letter ascribed to Dr. Arbuthnot, which was inserted in the
London Journal, March 23d, during the first run of Siroe, describes
the declining state of operas at this time so well, that I shall insert
part of it here, as a fragment of musical history.
" As there is nothing which surprises all true lovers of Musick
more, than the neglect into which the Italian operas are at present
fallen, so I cannot but think it a very extraordinary instance of the
fickle and inconstant temper of the English nation : a failing which
they have always been endeavouring to cast upon their neighbours
in France, but to which they themselves have at least as good a
title; as will appear to any one who will take the pains to consult
our historians." After several other just reproaches, for the child-
ish eagerness with which we had discarded our own language and
Music for the Italian, which the instant we had acquired in the
greatest perfection, only serving to raise disputes among us and to
divide the nation into parties, proved that our excessive fondness
for Italian operas proceeded not from a true taste for good Music,
but a violent affectation of it. The author concludes in the following
manner: " The Beggar's Opera, I take to be a touch-stone to try
British taste on; and it has accordingly proved effectual in discover-
ing our true inclinations; which, how artfully soever they may have
been disguised for a while, will one time or other start up and
disclose themselves. iEsop's story of the cat, who at the petition
of her lover was changed into a fine woman, is pretty well known :
notwithstanding which alteration, we find, that upon the appearance
of a mouse, she could not resist the temptation of springing out of her
husband's arms to pursue it; though it was on the very wedding
night. Our English audience have been for some time returning
to their cattish nature; of which some particular sounds from the
gallery have given us sufficient warning. And since they have so
openly declared themselves, I must only desire they will not think
they can put on the fine woman again, just when they please, but
content themselves with their skill in catterwauling.
" For my own part, I cannot think it would be any loss to real
lovers of Music, if all those false friends, who have made pretensions
to it only in compliance with the fashion, would separate them-
756
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
selves from them; provided our Italian opera could be brought
under such regulations as to go on without them. We might then
be able to sit and enjoy an entertainment of this sort, free from
those disturbances which are frequent in English theatres, without
any regard, not only to performers, but even to the presence of
Majesty itself. In short, my comfort is, that though so great a
desertion may force us to contract .the expences of our operas, as
would put an end to our having them in as great perfection as
at present, yet we shall be able, at least, to hear them without
interruption."
1728. The opera of Tolomeo Re d'Egitto, written by Haym,
was first performed April 30th, by the same singers as Siroe. In
the dedication to the Earl of Albemarle, the author implores the
protection of this nobleman for operas in general, as " being on
the decline (t)." Whether this was occasioned by the feuds
concerning Handel and Bononcini, Faustina and Cuzzoni, or from
caprice or satiety, I know not; but if there ever was a time when
this species of amusement merited the national support more than
another, it seems to have been at this period, when we were in
possession not only of the best composer in Europe, but the three
greatest singers which the lyric stage could boast.
The fugue in the overture to Ptolomy is written on a subject so
lively, and is treated with such freedom and spirit, that none of the
trammels of this species of composition appear in the execution.
And though the first three bars of the movement are almost entirely
built upon the common chord of the key-note, no idea of monotony,
or want of variety in the harmony, is excited during the perform-
ance. The French-horns in this fugue were unusual, and have an
admirable effect.
The first scene opens with a very fine accompanied recitative,
which with Senesino's voice and action must have had a great
effect. The subsequent air for the same singer: Cielo ingiusto, is
spirited, and has the hand of a master upon it, but the style and
passages are now a little antique. The next air: Non lo diro, for
Baldi, is an elegant ballad; but the third air: Quell' onda, set for
Faustina, is the most elegantly gay and fanciful imaginable;
performed by such a singer, and neatly accompanied, it would
please now as much as ever; as would the subsequent beautiful
pastoral for Cuzzoni: Mi volgo ad ogni fronda, which is of all
times and all places. Faustina's next air: Se talor, is in a style
which Handel's pen, and the singers of the time, could render
expressive; but it has so long been discontinued, that we now
hardly know how to perform, or hear it. After this, there is a short
but beautiful Siciliana : Tiranna miei pensieri, which was sung by
Senesino. The next, is an elaborate and pathetic composition in
seven parts, to the words: Fonti amiche, for Cuzzoni, which did
the composer and performer equal credit. After this, an agreeable
base song, and a pathetic air: Torna sol, for Senesino, of the most
soothing and tender kind, finished the first act.
[t) Fate, che da lei prenda vigore il sostento delle opere quasi cadenti nell' Inghiltetra.
757
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The second act begins with a cantabile air of a very beautiful
and uncommon cast: Voi dolci aurette, sung by Faustina; to whom
the second air: Quant' e felice, was likewise assigned. This air,
though not rapid, seems to have been written for her peculiar
talent of neat execution. The next air: Aure portate, for Cuzzoni,
seems now old-fashioned and common, from the frequent use which
others have since made of the passages. The subsequent air : Se un
solo e quel core, for Senesino, is not of the first class of pathetic;
it is languid, without passion or novelty. The following air:
77 mio core, sung with the spirit and precision of a Faustina, would
always please. The next song: Pur sento, for Baldi, is a pleasing
composition. Then follows an air that was called the echo song:
Dite che fa? chiefly sung by Cuzzoni; several of the passages,
however, were repeated by Senesino, behind the scenes, by which
his recognition was brought about in the drama. The melody of
this air is extremely graceful and pleasing, and the accompaniments
are rich and beautiful. Boschi has, after this, an admirable base
song: Piangi pur, with a running accompaniment in a very bold
and masterly style. The second act is terminated by one of the
most pleasing of all Handel's duets, in the favourite style of the
times : Se il cor ti perde. The imitations are natural and plaintive,
and the accompaniment quiet and curious.
The third act begins with a short but very pathetic and expres-
sive accompanied recitative. Baldi sung the first air in this act:
Se V inter no, which is spirited and uncommon. The next which is
a very agreeable base song: Sard giusto, was sung by Boschi.
Faustina's first air in this act: Voglio amore, is less happily
composed than the songs which Handel usually gave her; and the
subsequent air, for Cuzzoni : Senza il suo bene, though plaintive,
has lost much of its grace and novelty by time. After this, Faustina
has an air of passion and spirit: Ti pentirai, which her neat
execution must have rendered captivating. Senesino had the next
air: Son qual Rocca, which has in it a considerable portion of
Handel's fire and thunder; the style, however, is now no longer in
use for a first singer at the opera. Cuzzoni's next air: Torna omai,
is an andante, and is pleasing; but not of the first class in the
graziosa style. The whole next scene for Senesino, consisting of an
accompanied recitative, beginning: Innumano Fratel, and an air:
Stille amare, with which it is terminated, is, however, so pathetic
and masterly in a truly grand dramatic style, that it ought to save
the worst opera, in other respects, that was ever composed. After
this, a lively duet, and a very gay chorus terminate the drama;
which, though it abounds with fewer striking and favourite airs
than many of Handel's preceding operas, has many that are
beautiful, and some in his best style of writing. The author himself
has settled the time when this composition was finished by the
following memorandum, on the last page of his Majesty's original
score: " Fine dell' opera, G. F. Handel, April 19th, 1728."
This drama was performed but seven times, during its first run;
after which, Admetus was represented three times : May 25th, 28th,
758
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
and June the 1st, which not only terminated the season, but was the
last opera performed under the auspices and direction of the Royal
Academy of Music; an institution, in the support of which the
whole sum of £.50,000, originally subscribed, seems to have been
sunk in less than seven years, besides the money produced by the
sale of tickets, and that which was taken at the door, for the
admission of non-subscribers.
The governor and directors of the Royal Academy of Music,
after the sum originally subscribed for its support was expended,
relinquished the idea of entering into new engagements for amusing
the public at their own expence. Indeed, either from the difficulty
of finding a sufficient number of subscribers that were willing to
involve themselves in so costly and hazardous an enterprize, or
from an opinion that the opera being no longer in an infant state,
was now robust enough to go alone, it appears by the bills and
advertisements, that there were no annual subscribers in 1727, but
its whole maintenance and support depended on the original
subscribers and public favour. Whether the feuds which so long
agitated the critics and patrons of Music, concerning the abilities of
Handel and Bononcini, and of Faustina and Cuzzoni, precipitated
the dissolution of the Royal Academy, or the disagreement between
Handel and Senesino, cannot now be easily determined. Perhaps
all these causes conspired to relax discipline and to tire the public;
for though zeal and attention were at first stimulated by these
debates, yet they seem to have been succeeded by disgust and
indifference.
At the close of this season the whole band of singers dispersed,
and the next year we find Senesino, Faustina, and Baldi, performing
in one theatre at Venice, and the Cuzzoni, with Nicolini, Farinelli,
and Boschi, at another, in the same city.
May 15th, a general court was summoned of all the subscribers
to the Royal Academy of Music. And on the 16th, notice was
given in the same paper, " That the general court of the Royal
Academy of Music stands adjourned till eleven o'clock on
Wednesday next, the 22d inst. in order to receive any further
proposals that shall be offered for carrying on the operas. ' ' Another
meeting, by adjournment, on the 29th. On the 31st, " The general
court of the Royal Academy of Music stands adjourned till eleven
o'clock on Wednesday the 5th of June next, in order to consider of
proper measures for recovering the debts due to the Academy, and
discharging what is to due to performers, tradesmen, and others;
and also to determine how the scenes, cloaths, &c. are to be disposed
of, if the opera cannot be continued. N. B. All the subscribers are
desired to be present, since the whole will be then decided by a
majority of votes."
Nothing farther appeared in the newspapers concerning the
Royal Academy of Music, till December 2d; when the following
advertisement was inserted in the Daily Courant: " The time
appointed by the charter of the Royal Academy of Music for chusing
a deputy-governor and directors of the said Academy, being on the
759
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
22d of November in each year, or within fourteen days after, notice
is hereby given, that a general court, by order of the governor of
the said Academy, will be held at twelve o'clock on Friday next,
being the 6th inst. at the usual place in the Hay-market." Whether
the court ever met, or any measures were taken, in consequence of
this advertisement, does not appear.
In the autumn of this year, and the spring of the next, the
opera-house was shut up, and the musical drama suffered to lie
fallow till December 2d.
1729. Though there was no vocal opera performed at the theatre
in the Hay-market this year, yet January 23d, there was a ball;
February 13th another; and April 10th, " an assembly with several
alterations; to begin with the instrumental opera of Radamistus."
Indeed, Handel had prepared the soil for cultivation by a new
compost, and had transplanted new exotics from Italy, in order to
try the influence of our climate upon them. For finding the theatre
abandoned by the singers, and unsupported by its former patrons,
he entered into an engagement with Heidegger, who was then in
possession of the opera-house, to carry on the musical drama at their
own risk.* And in order to save time, and not to trust to the
uncertainty of report concerning the abilities of distant performers,
in the autumn of 1728, he set off for Italy, where he engaged an
entire new band of singers, who did not, however, arrive in London
before the autumn of the year following. These were announced
to the public in the Daily Courant for July 2d, 1729, in the
following manner :
" Mr. Handel who is just retuned from Italy, has contracted
with the following persons to perform in the Italian operas : Signor
Bernacchi, who is esteemed the best singer in Italy. Signora
Merighi, a woman of a very fine presence, an excellent actress, and
a very good singer, with a counter-tenor voice. Signora Strada,
who hath a very fine treble voice, a person of singular merit.
Signor Annibale Pio Fabri, a most excellent tenor, and a fine voice.
His wife, who performs a man's part exceeding well. Signora
Bertoldi, who has a very fine treble voice; she is also a very genteel
actress, both in men and women's parts. A base voice from
Hamburgh, there being none worth engaging in Italy." This last
w as John Godfrid Riemschneider.
These new performers gave birth to new ideas and a new style,
particularly in divisions, which by writing for nearly the same
singers during six or eight years, Handel had often repeated.
The first opera in which he employed his new singers was
Lotharius, drama written by Matteo Noris, and originally called
Berengario Re d' Italia (u). The first representation of this opera
did not take place till December 2d; whether this late commencement
(u) The English edition of this drama is printed without preface, dedication, or the least
information concerning the poet.
* They each subscribed /io.ooo towards the cost of the new venture at the King's
Theatre. The date of Handel's departure for Italy was 1729, for in the Daily Post of Jan. 27,
1729. we read that : "Yesterday morning Mr. Handell the famous Composer of musick, took
leave of Their Majesties, he being to set out this day for Italy."
760
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
of the season, after a Sabbatical year, was occasioned by the late
arrival of the vocal performers, or by obstacles which are now
forgotten, is at present difficult to discover. The score was not
finished till November 16th, according to Handel's own record {%)',
so that it was transcribed, got by heart, rehearsed, and brought on
the stage, in the fortnight.
The first movement of the overture is majestic and pleasing; and
the second movement, which is a fugue upon two gay subjects
in triple time, is chiefly constructed on a ground-base, and is perhaps
the last agreeable and successful effort of a great composer under
such restraint. It is a species of writing which admits of ingenuity,
but is necessarily monotonous. The last air of this overture is gay
and graceful.
The first scene opens with a cavatina, of a very uncommon cast :
Grave e il fasio di regnar; it has never been printed, but was
probably intended to display the peculiar abilities of the new tenor,
Annibale Pio Fabri (y). The second air: Non pensi quell' altera,
was performed by the same singer; it is a song of spirit, but the
voice-part is not loaded with divisions, like modern tenor songs,
of which though the subjects are frequently grand and interesting,
yet the constant roulemens which it is thought necessary to give to
the voice, soon degrade it to the level of a mere instrument which
has nothing to do with poetry or articulation. The divisions in this
air of Handel, which are numerous, are given with great propriety
to the violin, by which means the singer was allowed more leisure
for action, energy, and expression of the words (z). The third
air: Venne a colei, was sung by Signora Merighi; it is written in
the contralto, in F, though it was afterwards printed five notes
higher. It is a natural, and pleasing air, which required no great
abilities to execute (a). The subsequent air: Per salvarti, is in
triple time, and was sung by Signora Bertolli, in a male character.
The most striking passage in this song was afterwards used by
Handel in his favourite minuet in the concerto he played in the
oratorio of Esther : |(ftP |g U£_^T '-^ &c. See his second
J
Organ Concerto. Bernacchi's first song: Rammentati cor mio,
(x) "Fine dell' opera, G. F. Handel, November 16th, 1729." MS. in his Majesty's
possession.
(y) The merit of this tenor was often sufficient in Italy to supply the want of it in the
principal soprano. Indeed, Bemacchi was at this time past his meridian; his voice was never
good, but now little was left, except a refined taste and an artificial manner of singing, which
only professors and a few of the most intelligent part of the audience could feel or comprehend.
I purchased, at a stall, some years ago, an old music-book, in which were Solfeggi di Soprano,
del Signor Annibale Pio Fabri, by which we may judge of his taste and knowledge. They
contain many of the useful as well as ornamental passages of the day, and those of Leo, that
have been so long celebrated, and used as lessons to form the greatest singers in Europe
can boast no other merit. Many of the passages are now become so common and vulgar as to
be shunned by all good composers, and are, therefore, useless to singers of modern Music,
who require exercises for the voice formed of all such divisions and difficulties as are in the
highest favour with great composers and with the public : otherwise their labour is vainly
bestowed on useless and inelegant traits of melody, that are not likely to occur, or to give
pleasure to a polite audience, if accidentally introduced as changes or embellishments to airs
in present use.
(z) This air which was printed in C, is in A, in Handel's original score.
(a) Hasse afterwards worked on the same theme in Gianguir, but in different measure, to
the words; Parto se vuoi cosi.
7<3i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is an air of great dignity, and susceptible of much taste and
expression; particularly as Handel judiciously left this singer
to himself undisturbed by instruments, through which his
voice had not sufficient force to penetrate. The first song that
was sung by the new base voice, Riemschneider : Se il mat
promette calma, though it was never printed, is admirable for the
contrivance of the parts, as well as vocal melody; it is in a different
style from all the airs of Handel previously attempted for Boschi,
or afterwards for Montagnana, and may be ranked among his most
ingenious and spirited compositions of that kind. The next air:
Quel cor che mi donasti, the first that Strada ever sung on our
stage, seems chiefly calculated to display her fine and brilliant
shake, for which there are more than thirty occasions in the course
of the song. This singer had many prejudices to combat on her
first arrival in this country : the enemies of Handel were of course
unwilling to be pleased with any part of the entertainment he had
provided for the public; the abilities of Cuzzoni and Faustina had
taken possession of the general favour; and Strada's personal
charms did not assist her much in conciliating parties, or disposing
the eye to augment the pleasures of the ear; for she had so little
of a Venus in her appearance, that she was usually called the Pig.
However, by degrees she subdued all their prejudices, and sung
herself into favour, particularly with the friends of Handel, who
used to say that by the care he took in composing for her, and his
instructions, from a coarse singer with a fine voice, he rendered her
equal at least to the first performer in Europe. Bernacchi's second
song, in this act: Gia mi sembra, has no peculiar merit; it is an
allegro with a very thin accompaniment, and the melody itself is
not very striking. There is a gay chorus: Viva, viva, after this
air, in Handel's manuscript score, of which even the words are
not printed. After this Merighi had a lively air: Orgogliosetto va
V augelletto, in triple time and in a minor key, which is not of a
kind to have been ever in high favour. The next: Scherza in
Mar, and the last in the act, is an aria di bravura, for Strada, in
which Handel has given her many of his favourite divisions, which
frequently occurred to him afterwards in composing and playing.
It is a spirited song, in which not only the singer, but orchestra,
has much to do (b).
The second act opens with a short but admirable military
symphony at the close of a battle, followed by an accompanied
recitative. The first air in this act: Regno, e grandezza, which
was sung by Annibale Pio Fabri, is calculated to display a good
actor and singer of considerable execution; but as this air was not
printed, it seems as if it had not been in much favour with the
public. The subsequent air, Tiranna, ma bella, sung by Bernacchi,
is natural and pleasing, but not of that kind which, if well
performed, would establish the character of the singer, either for
(6) This air seems to lose some of its orignal spirit by being transposed from A sharp,
in which it was composed, to G.
762
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
agility, taste, or expression. The Strada's first air in the second
act: Menti eterne, is truly pathetic, and fit only for a singer
possessed of science and feeling. After this, there is a spirited
air in Handel's score: Non t' inganni la speranza, which was
sung by the German Baritonno, Riemschneider, that was not
printed; indeed, as none of this performer's songs were published
with the rest of the opera, soon after its first representation, it
seems to imply his want of success on the stage. The next air:
Arma lo sguardo, composed for the Merighi, in the contralto, is
injured, in the printed copy, by a transposition from its original
key of F minor to A natural. There is much peculiar spirit of
haughtiness and disdain in this air, that suited the situation of the
singer in the character of Matilda. The following air: Bella, non
mi negar, for Bertolli, who performed a man's part, though it is
a pleasing composition, was not printed, which it certainly would
have been, had a singer of the first class awakened the attention
of the public. Another reason may be assigned for the next air:
D' una torbida sorgente, not having a place in the printed copy : it
was probably too new and ingenious in the accompaniment to be
generally admired or comprehended. Bernacchi had, after this, a
cavatina: Quanto, piu forte, of great beauty, of which the
symphony is grand and original. This air, which was never
printed, is followed by a brilliant and agreeable song of execution :
V instabile fortuna, which was sung by the tenor, Fabri. After
which, the act is terminated by a charming air, richly accompanied :
Non disperi pelegrino, for Bernacchi. Several passages in this
song occurred to Handel in subsequent compositions, particularly
in Return, 0 God of hosts, where there is a modulation into the
minor third of the key.
The third act begins with a short spirited symphony, whence
he afterwards drew several passages for his organ concertos.
Strada's first aid: Non sempre invendicata, which is not printed,
has infinite spirit, and affords oportunities for good action as well
as singing; while the orchestra supports the situation of the performer
with great force and effect. This is followed by an impassioned
air: Vi sento si, for Fabri, in which there is a passage in the
accompaniment of peculiar energy, which, tho' often repeated in
different modulations, is always welcome:
PbUriJirtrtr^ic)
The next air: Quel superb o, which was sung by the Merighi,
and is not printed, has great instrumental and dramatic spirit.
Then, after a short military symphony, there is an admirable base
song: Aha al ciel, in Handel's best style, which was sung by
Riemschneider, but never printed. The next air: Vedrb piu liete,
composed for Bernacchi, has many divisions in triplets, and
abounds with spirit more than any other song that, was assigned
(c) This passage occurs in one of his hautbois concertos.
763
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
to this singer in the opera (d). Merighi then has an air of
character: Impara codardo, which has considerable spirit and
originality. This is followed by a pathetic and supplicating air of a
peculiar cast: SJ e delitto, sung by Bertolli; and a very pleasing
duet: Si bel sembiante, with which, after a chearful chorus, the
opera is terminated. Upon the whole, though this has many
agreeable songs, it abounds with fewer airs on great and masterly
subjects than many of his preceding operas; and whether oppressed
by opposition and less supported by his singers than formerly, his
invention seems to have been less fertile than usual, to which the
success of the songs seems to have been proportioned; as no one
of them appears to have ever been in general favour throughout the
nation.
1730. This opera continued in run from December 2d till
January 13th, 1730, and had ten representations. After which,
Julius CcBsar was revived, and performed nine nights. And
February 24th, a new opera was brought on the stage, called
Parthenope, written by Silvio Stampiglia, originally for Naples,
but new set by Handel, for the same singers as performed in
Lotharius.
The overture of this opera is less captivating than that of any of
his former productions of this kind. The first movement, in the style
of Lulli, contains nothing new; and the fugue, on a convulsive and
unpleasant theme, is embellished by no solo parts for hautbois, and
but little diversified by counter subjects or episodes. The last
movement is the best, though in jig time, and at present somewhat
vulgar. Act first, after a short recitative, there is a very pleasing
chorus : Viva, viva, Partenope. The first air in the opera : U amor
ed il destin, which was sung by Strada, abounds with passages of
execution of a very agreeable and uncommon kind, that required a
flexibility and agility of voice superior to any difficulties which this
singer had to encounter in Lotario. The next air: 0 Eurimene,
sung by Bernacchi, is a beautiful cantabile, with no other
accompaniment than a violoncello. After this, there is a pleasing
Siciliana : Se non ti sai spiegar, sung by the Merighi, which is
followed by a natural and agreeable air, though of no uncommon
cast: Voglio dire, for Bertolli. The next air, sung by Merighi : Un
altra volta, is, however, of an original and lively kind, and abounds
in passages that are interesting. After this, there is a fine pathetic
air, for Bernacchi : Sento amor, of which the melody and
accompaniment are truly elegant. Then follows one of the most
agreeable of all Handel's base songs : 7" appresta forse amore, for
Reimschneider, to which there is a rapid accompaniment for the
violin that is carried on with much art and fancy. The next air:
Sei mia gioia, for Strada, is lively, but less uncommon, than the
following: Io son ferito, which was both elegant and new at the
time it was composed, though it has not been printed. The next
(d) Though this air is printed in G, the original score is in E sharp [E maj.].
764
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
air: Dimmi pietoso del, for Bernacchi, has the stamp of a great
master upon it, though many of the passages are now out of favour.
This is followed by an air of some difficulty in the execution : Anch'
io pugnar saprb, for Fabri; but of which the divisions are the least
pleasing parts of the melody. After which, there is an air: Io ti
levo V impero, for Strada, in the style which Hasse and Vinci were
now successfully cultivating, and in which the melody of the
voice-part was more polished, and the accompaniment more simple
and quiet, than any that could be found in the songs of their
predecessors. For the subsequent air: Or a spiegarsi, written for a
singer of the second or third class, but not printed, Handel put
himself to no great expence of thought. The next: E figlio il
mio timore, for Bernacchi, though printed, is not in Handel's
manuscript score. This air has some pretty passages, but is not to
be ranked among his capital productions; it is followed by an
elaborate hunting song, in a score of nine parts : Io seguo sol, in
which the French-horns have solo parts; many of the passages are
now become common, from the constant use of them by others, in
airs of the same kind; yet the effect of this composition, which
terminates the first act, if well accompanied by a powerful and
well-disciplined band, would be still admirable. It was sung by
Merighi, whose voice, though a female, was a low contralto.
In the beginning of the second act, we have several species of
military Music: an excellent march, which serves as an
accompaniment to a dialogue or duet, between the leaders of the
two armies, and a chorus; after which, there is a martial symphony
during an engagement; and a song of triumph at the end of it. In
the second scene, there is an excellent accompanied recitative,
followed by an air: Barbaro fato, for the tenor, Annibale Pio Fabri,
which required great abilities of execution. Scene third, Strada had
a short slow air of great dignity and beauty: Care mura. The
subsquent air: Voglio amare, which is extremely graceful and
pleasing, was likewise sung by Strada. It is an andante allegro, in
which while the base chiefly moves in quiet iterated notes of a
modem cast, the other instruments carry on a subject, different from
the principal cantilena, in a very masterly and agreeable manner.
This air is so smooth and free from wrinkles that it is difficult to
imagine it to be near sixty years of age. It is followed by an
agreeable duet, or rather dialogue, of a peculiar kind : E vuoi con
dure tempore, by Bernacchi and the Merighi, in which one of the
two lovers, who have quarrelled, only upbraids the other from time
to time with the epithets infido, ingrato, without ever singing
together. Fabri after this had a gay and graceful air, which is
misplaced in the printed copy : Qual farfalletta, in as modern a style
as if it had been composed but last week. The next air, however:
Furie son dell' alma mia, for Merighi, though spirited and masterly,
is now somewhat rude and uncouth. The subsequent aid: Poterti
dir vorrei, for Bernacchi's contralto voice, is a pleasing minuet:
but it is followed by a jig that is less agreeable. The next air:
Furibondo spira il ventc, which finishes the act, is animated with
765
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Handel's genius and fire, though the passages have been long since
vulgar and common.
The third act begins with a march, a symphony, and, after a
scene of recitative, a short but agreeable quartetto, between the four
principal singers: Non e incauto il mio consiglio. Then there is a
fragment of a charming Siciliana : Arsace, o Dio cost, which was
sung by Merighi, and is followed by an agreeable air for Strada,
and another of a superior cast for Fabri : La speme ti consoli. We
have next an excellent aria di cantabile, for Bernacchi: Ch' io
parla? which has no fault but brevity. Then a spirited song for
Merighi, in triple time : Quel volta mi piace; and in the next scene,
another, in common time for Bernacchi : Nobil core; this is enlivened
and rendered very pleasing by an ingenious accompaniment. The
Music of the next scene, which was performed by Bernacchi, is
admirable! It is in Handel's best dramatic style: after a short
recitative, there is a very pathetic air in seven parts : two German-
flutes, two violins, tenor, voice, and base, played on the theorbolute,
and by the violoncellos and double basses, pizzicato: Ma quai
notte di mesti lamenti; this air, at the close of which the hero of
the drama falls asleep, is finely written, and will be always elegant
and pleasing. It is followed by a fine accompanied recitative, and
a trio for Strada, Bernacchi, and Merighi, of great spirit, and well
calculated for action. After this, the air: Fatto e amor un Dio d'
inferno, for Bernacchi, is full of Handel's own fire and originality;
the base is remarkably bold, busy, and, being in F minor, difficult
of execution. The subsequent air: La gloria in nobil alma, for the
tenor, Pio Fabri, is likewise on a spirited and pleasing subject; but
seems somewhat degraded by the divisions, many of which, though
natural and easy to a harpsichord player, can hardly be called vocal.
The next air: Si scherza, which is the last, is light and airy, but
not very common. It was sung by Strada, but required no great
powers of execution or expression. The coro finale is an agreeable
gavot, in which there are some masterly imitations.
This opera, which is among the best of Handel's dramatic
productions, was finished, according to his own date at the end of the
manuscript score, the 12th of February 1730, and first performed
on the 24th of the same month, had but seven representations. It
was, however, revived the next season, and performed in December
and January seven times more. But in the spring of 1730, after the
first run of Pathenope was over, and one performance of Julius
CcBsar before his Majesty, March 31st, for the benefit of Anna Strada
del Pb, Ormisda, a new opera, was performed; but whether a
pasticcio, or by whom composed, does not appear by the book of
the words, public papers, or by any other record that I have been
able to find (e). It had an uninterrupted run of thirteen nights,
from April 4th to May the 14th; and was again performed June 9th,
November 24th, 28th, and December 1st, 5th, and 8th. In the
(e) The Drama of Ormisda was written by Apostolo Zeno, and originally set for the
Imperial Court at Vienna, 1722, by Caldara; but whether this was the Music to which it was
now performed in London, I am unable to discover.
766 ;
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
middle of the run of this opera, April 21st, there was however,
a change of twelve songs, which seems to imply a want of attraction
in those that were superseded. None of the airs appear to have
been printed, except a few for the flute, with those of Parthenope,
by Walsh.* The singers were the same as had sung in Handel's
opera of the same year, and the performance must have been under
his direction, which excites curiosity to know what compositions he
thus honoured with his approbation. Previous to the close of the
spring season his own opera of Ptolemy had six representations. In
the advertisement for the performance of this opera, inserted in the
Daily Journal June 2d, several alterations were promised; and notice
given, that " as the opera was short, it would not begin till seven
o'clock." The season was terminated by the performance of
Ptolemy, June 13th.
August 28th, in the Daily Post it was said that " Signor
Senesino, the famous Italian singer, was engaged to come over
against the winter to perform under Mr. Heidegger in the Italian
opera; " and October 9th, by a paragraph in the Daily Journal,
the public was informed that " grand preparations were making
at the opera-house in the Hay-market, by new cloaths, scenes, &c.
and, Senesino being arrived, that the performances would begin
as soon as the court returned to Saint James's (/)." And yet an
opinion has long prevailed that the chief cause of the dissolution
of the Royal Academy of Music, was a disagreement between
Handel and this singer, and that the separation which ensued upon
the breaking-up of that establishment, 1728, was perpetual. The
return of Senesino however at this time to sing Handel's Music,
when the theatre was chiefly under his own direction, proves the
contrary. Indeed, it seems as if the quarrels of the singers, and
disagreements with this composer, had not so much contributed to
the ruin of the Academy, as the enormous expence, and want of
persons sufficiently intrepid to involve themselves in the renewal of
so hazardous, or rather ruinous, an undertaking, as the opera had
hitherto been.
November the 3d, the ensuing season was begun with the revival
of Scipio, which was performed six times; and this, with five
representations of Ormisda, and four of Parthenope, in all which
Senesino and the Strada sung, finished the year.
1731. Parthenope was likewise performed January 2d, 5th,
and 9th; and on the 12th was represented an opera called
Wenceslaus, by an anonymous composer (g). A musical drama
of the same name was performed in England two or three times in
1717, to Music of different composers. Of the airs now used, under
Handel's direction, we are at present utterly ignorant. It sustained
at this time only four representations; after which February 2d,
(/) This summer was spent by the King and royal family at Windsor.
(g) This drama, written by Apostolo Zeno, was first performed at Venice, 1703, to the
Music of Carlo Fran. Pollarolo.
* Handel and Walsh settled their differences about this time, and under a new contract
Walsh became Handel's publisher. The music to Ormisda was by Fr. Conti. There is a copy
in the B.M. Add. MS. 31551.
767
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
a new opera, the Alessandro of Metastasio, under the name of
Poro, was brought on the stage, in which Senesino performed the
principal part.
The first movement in the overture is grave and grand, in
Lulli's meliorated style, by Handel. The fugue is in jig time, and
is more German of that period, and less pleasing, than most of the
second movements of his other opera overtures. There is no third
movement, or air, after this allegro. The original performers in
this opera were Senesino, contralto; Annibale Pio Fabri, tenor; and
Comano, base: with the Strada, soprano; and the Merighi and
Bertolli, both counter-tenors.
The first air, for Bertolli : E prezzo leggiero, though it is neither
remarkable for learning nor invention, is gay and pleasing, and
fit for a singer of limited abilities and of small importance in a
drama. The second air, which was sung by Senesino: Vedrai con
suo periglio, is spirited, natural, and enlivened by the ritornels and
accompaniment. The third air, for Annibale Pio Fabri : Vil trofeo,
is in a style which a good singer can always render modern and
interesting. The next air: Chi vive amante, sung by Merighi, is
lively and agreeable, and though it displays no particular talent in
the performer, has little strokes of ingenious composition, which
are only to be found in the works of able masters. But in the
next short air, for Senesino : Se mai piu, which has no second
part, there is a happy and impassioned boldness and expression in
the appoggiaturas, which I do not recollect to have seen hazarded
by any composer of that period. This cavatina, in other respects,
is admirable.
.FIRST VIOLIN
The subsequent air, which was the first in Strada's part, might
be rendered extremely pleasing by a performer possessed of a fine
voice, a good shake, and an elegant manner of singing. After this,
Senesino had an air: Se possono tanto, which has been always
justly admired for its elegance. It is written in a measure and style
in which Handel had been frequently successful; but the clear and
quiet accompaniment in iterated notes was that which Hasse and
Vinci rendered fashionable, and which subsequent masters carried
to excess (h). The next air: Compagni nelV amore, is light and
(h) This air has been lately revived, and admirably sung by Rubinelli, for whose compass
of voice it is as well suited as that of the original singer, Senesino. It is so different from the
generality of Handel's airs in the accompaniment, that the Italians, who had only seen it in
manuscript, were unwilling to allow it to be of his composition. However, the printed copy,
as well as the original score in Handel's own hand-writing, which are both before me, render
these doubts ridiculous. The composer seems to have finished this song with unusual attention :
having cancelled eleven bars in his manuscript, and made several other changes both in the
melody and instrumental parts.
768
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
pleasing, with a lively accompaniment for violins in unison. After
this Fabri had an agreeable air: Se amor a questo petto, which
required considerable agility in the execution. The first act is
terminated by an admirable duet: Se mai turbo, in which the
lovers, Porus and Cleofida, are ironically repeating the former
promises which they had made to each other of fidelity and
confidence. The composition of this duet is excellent, and in a
style truly dramatic, which has been since generally adopted.
After a bold and spirited military symphony, the second act
begins with another duet in a very different style: Caro amico
amplesso, of which the words are not be found in Metastasia.
The composition, which more resembles that of the chamber-duets
of Steffani than the preceding, is masterly; and the four instru-
mental parts of the accompaniment being totally different from
the vocal, render the harmony very rich and grateful. The
following air: D' un barbaro scortese, for Fabri the tenor, is in a
very spirited and original style. After this, Strada had an air:
Digli chJ io son fedele, which is fugata and more laboured, but less
captivating than the former. Senesino had after this, a very
pleasing air : Senza procelle ancora, of which the accompaniments,
by French-horns, flutes, violins, tenor, and base obligati, must
have had an admirable effect when performed by a well-disciplined
opera-band. The next air: Se il del mi divide, sung by the Strada,
with a solo accompaniment on the violin by Castrucci, the first
violin of the opera at this time, is now a little passee (i).
Bertolli, after this, had an exquisite air, alia Siciliana,
beginning: Se viver non poss'io, which is the best of Handel's
innumerable songs in that style. The last air in the second act : Di
render mi la calma, for Merighi, is very gay and agreeable.
According to Handel's own memorandum, the composition of this
act was finished December 30th, 1730.
In the manuscript score there is an inedited symphony at the
beginning of the third act, in G minor, and in the usual style of
the first movement of Handel's overtures. The first air of this
act : Risveglia lo sdegno, sung by Senesino, is spirited, but of no
peculiar cast of melody or design. The next air was assigned to
Strada : Se troppo crede. It is an andante in a minor key, with a
second part in a major key, which is much more pleasing than the
first. This is followed by an air for Merighi : Come il candore, of
no great beauty. The next air: Serbati a grandi imprese, for
Fabri, has, however, considerable merit, as a bravura of the time;
many of the divisions are, indeed, instrumental, but the voice
singing an octave above the base, while the accompaniment is busy,
has a new and good effect. The subsequent air for Senesino : Dov'
e? Si affretti, is in a grand style of theatrical pathetic. It is not
only the best air in this opera, but equal, at least, to any of
Handel's best .dramatic productions. The plan of accompaniment
(i) These words seem never to have been set with so much genius, passion, and effect as
by Piccini. His air was never performed on our stage; when it was introduced in Didone, a
pasticcio opera, in 1786, by the Mara, without a general and rapturous encore.
Vol,, ii. 49. 769
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is majestic, and melody impassioned and expressive. This is
followed by a short and simple air : Mio ben, in a ballad style, for
Bertolli; after which, there is a very pleasing and characteristic
pastoral: Son confusa pastorella, which was long in high favour,
not only with singers, but performers on the German-flute. The
next air: Spirto amato, for Strada, is written on a short ground-
base, of one bar only, repeated fourteen or fifteen times; while the
melody is as free and pathetic as if the composer had been under
no such restraint. Handel has manifested great abilities in writing
upon this theme, which offers no very obvious accompaniment:
^Aiyifiji ^5
The last air: Caro vieni, which was first sung in Dialogue by
Senesino and Strada, afterwards in duo, and finally in chorus, was
so simple and pleasing that it soon became a national favourite (k) .
This opera, though it contains but few airs in a great and
elaborate style, was so dramatic and pleasing, that it ran fifteen
nights successively in the spring season, and was again brought on
the stage in the autumn, when it sustained four representations
more.
After the first run of Porus was over, the opera of Rinaldo was
revived, and performed five times (Z); when it was succeeded by
Rodelinda, with the seventh representation of which, the season was
closed, May 29th (m).
In the autumn, besides the repetition of Porus, Tamerlane and
Admetus were revived, and these continued to be performed till
January 15th, 1732, when the opera of Ezio, written by Metastasio
and set by Handel, was brought on the stage.
The overture to this opera, was originally intended, according
to the title given it by Handel in his foul score, for another drama,
entitled Titus V Empereur. In the manuscript there is a third
movement, a tempo di gavotta, which is not printed in Walsh's
edition of Mtius. The opening and fugue are pleasing, but not
written with the force and originality of some of his anterior opera
overtures (n).
The first scene opens with an agreeable march, which has not
been printed with the songs. The first air: Se tu la reggi, for
Bagnolesi, has dignity and character in it suited to the business of
(k) The Music of Porus has been printed more comformably to Handel's original
manuscript score, than any other which Walsh published; no entire songs, or instrumental parts
have been omitted, and nothing is wanting, except the recitatives, to render it complete.
(1) In the title-page of the printed book of the words, this opera is now said to have been
"revised, with many additions by the author, and newly done into English by Mr. Humphreys."
(w) February 22d of this year, a concert was advertised at Hickford's room, for the
benefit of Signor Castrucci, first violin of the opera, who was to play the first and eighth
concertos of his master, the famous Corelli, and several pieces of his own composition,
particularly a solo, in which he engaged to execute "twenty-four notes with one bow." This
advertisement was burlesqued, the next day, and a solo promised by the last violin of
Goodman's Field's playhouse, in which he would perform "twenty-five notes with one bow."
(») After the overture there is a chorus in the manuscript : Numi eccelsi, with a running
accompaniment for the violins, which does not belong to the opera of Mtius.
770
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the drama. The second air: Pensa a serbarmi, for Senesino, is a
short, simple, and beautiful Siciliana, which must always please
when well sung. The third air: Caro padre, for Strada, is
plaintive, but not likely to captivate an audience, unless it is
performed by a great and favourite singer. The fourth air: II
nocchier, for the tenor Pinacci, is in minuet time, and written with
thoughtless rapidity. The fifth air, to the charming words:
Quanto mai felici siete, is marked by Handel's originality and
contrivance, but seems to be less simple than the poetry requires.
In the sixth air: Se un bell' ardire, Handel brings into action the
base voice of Montagnana, but neither fatigued himself nor the
singer by labour or difficulty : it is light and chiefly in unisons and
octaves. The next air: Se povero il ruscello, for Pinacci, is in
Handel's best manner; it consists of two movements, the first
innocent and pastoral, the second rapid and full of spirit : in both,
the beautiful words of Metastasio are well expressed. The
subsequent air: So chit' accese, is animated and dramatic.
Senesino 's voice and action probably gave weight and dignity to the
next air : Se fedele mi brama; but at present it does not seem likely
to charm an audience by common singing. The final air of the
first act: Finche' un zefiro, is an elegant mezza bravura, richly
and ingeniously accompanied, which the voice, spirit, and abilities
of the Strada, must have rendered charming.
The second act opens with a very fine solemn symphony, and
accompanied recitative : Qual silenzio e mai questo ! which are not
printed. The first air: Vi fido la sposa, was sung by Bagnolesi, in
the character of the emperor Valenfinian. It appears now of an
ancient cast, but well expresses the perturbation into which the
singer is thrown by his situation in the scene. The second air of
this act: Va dal furor, is full of fire, and paints the fury and
indignation excited in the personage for whom it was composed.
After this, Strada had an accompanied recitative, in which the
harmony and modulation are extremely masterly, and the words
expressed in a manner truly pathetic. The next air: Recagli quell'
acciaro, delivered with the majestic voice and style of Senesino must
have had a great effect. The words of this air have, however, been
often set since Handel's time in a manner more dramatic, by making
it an air of two characters: in the first, expressing indignation
at delivering up that sword to the Prsefect with which he had
defended the imperial throne; and in the second, addressed to
Fulvia, his intended spouse, softening into love and tenderness.
After this, Strada had an air: Quel fingere affetto, on a pleasing
subject, and abounding with graceful and elegant passages;
among which those in triplets are not included, as they seem
common and foreign to the subject; Handel has, however, made
a good use of them in the accompaniment. The subsequent air:
Nasce al bosco, for Montagnana, is composed on a plan different
from most of Handel's other base songs, and was manifestly
intended to exhibit the peculiar power of the singer. After this,
77i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Bertolli had an air of no great consequence: Finche per te; this is
followed by another for Strada: La mia costanza, which, though
spirited and pleasing, is not one of Handel's happiest effusions.
The act is terminated by a very beautiful Siciliana for Senesino:
Ecco alle mie catene, the melody of which is elegant and
impassioned, and the accompaniment delicate, clear, and amical
to the voice-part (o).
The first air in the third act : Guarda pria, which was likewise
set for Senesino, is full of spirit and dignity, with a busy and
masterly accompaniment (p). The second air: Peni tu, for
Bertolli, is graceful and pleasing (q). The third, for Senesino:
Se la mia vita, is a magnificent aria concertata in ten parts, with
solo passages for the first violin, tenor, violoncello, flutes, and
French-horns. It is in a grand style of cantabile, and with
Senesino 's voice and action must have had a great effect (r). The
next air : Per tutto il timore, sung by the Bagnolesi, is spiritedly
accompanied in an ingenious and masterly manner. The subsequent
air: Tergi V ingiuste lagrime, for the tenor, Pinacci, is elegantly
pathetic, and may always be rendered captivating by a singer of
taste and expression. Handel seems to have bestowed uncommon
study and pains in the accompaniment of the second part of this
charming air. All the twelfth scene of this act, for the Strada,
consisting of an accompanied recitative: Misera dove son\ and
terminated by the air: Ah non son io, is admirably composed in
a grand style of theatrical pathetic. The last capital air of this
opera : Gia risonar d' intorno, is a military song, for Montagnana,
accompanied by a trumpet, and composed in Handel's fullest and
best style of martial Music. The rest of the original manuscript is
wanting; but on examining the book of the words, it appears, that
nothing has been lost but the recitative of the two last scenes, and
a light air in gavot time, which has been printed: Stringo al fine.
It was sung alternately, en vaudeville, to different words, by
Senesino, Strada, Bertolli, and Montagnana; and lastly, as a coro
finale, by all the characters of the drama (s).
This opera, the third which Handel set of Metastasio's writing,
with all its musical merit, and the beauty of a new species of lyric
poetry, was represented but five times, at the four last of which
the King and royal family were present.
(o) There are two scenes terminated by the two airs: Di tante rossore, and Che mi
giova, in the drama of Metastasio, which Handel has not set.
(p) There is in Handel's manuscript, at the beginning of the third act, a short agreeable
symphony, in E minor, which is not printed.
(q) It is remarkable, that this air in D minor begins with the chord of B flat, or sixth to
the key-note.
(r) This air might have been well revived by Rubinelli, whose voice and majestic style of
singing would have done it ample justice.
(s) The whole opera of Ezio, or Mtius, was printed in score by Walsh, and advertised in
February. A spurious copy of the favourite songs previously appeared at the printing-office in
Bow church-yard, established by Cluer.*
* Cluer had printed a number of works by Handel, including the Harpsichord Suites, in
1720. Cluer died c. 1730 and the business was carried on by Thomas Cobb who married the
widowed Mis. Cluer.
772
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After the short run of Ezio, Julius Ccesar was revived, and
performed five times, from February 1st to the 15th inclusive,
and on the 19th of the same month, a new opera called Sosarmes,
written by Matteo Norris, and set by Handel, was brought on the
stage (t). This drama continued in run till the 21st of March, and
sustained ten successive representations.
The overture of Sosarme is one of the most pleasing, in all its
movements, of Handel's productions of this kind. The opening
being in triple time gives it a different cast from the generality of
cotemporary overtures upon Lulli's model. The fugue on a marked
and pleasing subject, is treated with great art and spirit; and the
minuet, in which the hautbois enforce every other bar, almost from
the beginning to the end, in an ingenious and uncommon manner,
seems liable to no objection except the too frequent repetition of
the same passage, which perhaps to some ears may have a
monotonous effect.
The singers in this opera were the same as in Ezio. After the
overture there is a fine accompanied recitative, followed by a
spirited military chorus: Alle stragge, alia morte, filled with
Handel's polyphonic art. Then another accompanied recitative
precedes a charming air, for Strada : Rendi il sereno, of which the
sweet voice of Harrison has lately renewed the public favour. The
next air: Forte inciampo, though full of lively passages of the
times, will hardly be called again into notice; but the subsequent
air: Fra V ombre e V orrori, for Montagnana, in which the base
voice of this new singer, its depth, power, mellowness, and peculiar
accuracy of intonation in hitting .distant intervals, were displayed,
will ever be admired by judges of composition, and heard with
delight by the public whenever it is executed by a singer whose
voice and abilities shall be equal to those of Montagnana. The
next air, for Bertolli: Si, minaccia, is as good as generally comes
to the share of a subaltern singer of bounded abilities, and has,
moreover, the merit of facility and a sprightly accompaniment.
This is followed by an air written for Senesino, with more science
and care: II mio valore; which, though in a style that has been
long abandoned by .dramatic composers, is so ingenious and amusing
to professors, that they cannot help admiring the art with which it
is constructed. The subsequent air: La turba, for the tenor singer,
Pinacci, is excellent in the present theatrical style; in which the
agitation and passion of the singer is painted by the instruments in
iterated notes, which neither incommode the performer, nor distract
the attention of the hearer by complication. After this, the
Bagnolesi has an air in a pleasing and masterly style of composi-
tion: Due parti del core. The next, which terminates the first
act, is a capital bravura air for the Strada: Dite pace, in which
(t) The original title of this opera was Alfonso Primo; but Handel, after adhering to the
author's dramatis persona, when he first set it to Music, changed all the names in his foul
score, before it was performed. He has very minutely recorded in his manuscript score the
time when he had finished the composition of this opera, in the following manner: Fine dell'
opera. G. F. Handel. Venerdi li s. di Febraro, 1732.
773
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
her powers of voice and execution are displayed with great abilities,
in turbulent accompaniments and difficult .divisions.
The second act is opened with a charming cavatina of a truly
pathetic and tender cast: Padre, Germano, e sposo, in which the
same performer had an opportunity of exhibiting powers of a very
different kind from those which the preceding air required. This
air is followed by a duet: Se m' ascolti, for two subordinate
characters in the drama, and has the merit of being theatrical,
though its effects off the stage would not be very captivating; it
is, however, followed by a graceful air: Se discordia, which, if
well sung, would please at all times and in all places. The next
air: So che il del, is original and masterly; and as the words:
cader V indegna frode su I' autor che V inventa, the modulation
is extremely curious. This is followed by a spirited and excellent
base song for Montagnana : Sento il cor, in which the accompani-
ments, as usual in Handel's airs of this kind, are busy to great
effect. After this, there is an extremely graceful and pleasing duet:
Per le porte del tormento, which, though written for Senesino and
Strada, would be very welcome to modern ears, if executed by
favourite singers of the present times. This is followed by an
elaborate air, accompanied by French-horns, written for Senesino,
in a score of nine parts: Se la sfere della gloria, of which the
passages are extremely natural and pleasing. The next is a
passionate and characteristic air of great spirit: Vado al campo,
which was sung in the counter-tenor by Bagnolesi; after which we
have a very graceful and pleasing air in minuet time : In mille dolci
modi, which was sung by Senesino, and, according to tradition,
always heard with great pleasure. This is followed by a rapid and
pleasing air, for Strada: Vola V augello, which terminates the
act (u).
The third act opens with a short agreeable military symphony.
The first air: S' io cadrb per tuo consiglio, was sung by Pinacci,
it is of a very original cast both in melody and accompaniment;
indeed, it seems impossible to name any dramatic composer who
so constantly varied his songs in subject, style, and accompaniment,
as Handel, for he not only avoided ever setting two airs following
each other in the same key or measure, but seems studiously to
have precluded all resemblance between one air and another
throughout a whole opera. The second song in the third act of
Sosarmes : Cuor di madre, is an admirable aria parlante calculated
not only to display the powers of an actor and singer, but the
abilities of the principal violin, Castrucci, for whom there was a
solo part. This is followed by a light and easy air: Sincero affetto,
for the Bertolli. After which Senesino has an air of spirit: M'
opporrb da generoso, which, taken from its niche, would have no
great effect; but the agitation and fury of the character for whom
it was composed considered, it has great theatrical merit. The
next, seems now to be an air of small importance : Vorrei ne pur;
(«) This air, though inserted in the printed copy, is not in his Majesty's original MS.
774
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
but a great singer renders trifles interesting, and this was sung by
Strada. The following air: Tiene giove, in gavot time, for
Montagnana, seems likewise to want a favourite singer to give it
weight. These are followed by a very gay and pleasing duet:
Tu caro sei, which, aided by the performance of Senesino and
Strada, became a general favourite. After this duet, the opera
is terminated by a pleasing finale, or chorus: Doppo V ire, in a
measure and style different from that of any of his preceding
dramas. Though Sosarmes contains fewer great airs in an elaborate
style of composition than several of Handel's more early operas, yet
it may be ranked amongst his most pleasing theatrical productions.
March 25th, Attilio's opera of Coriolanus, composed in 1723,
was revived under Handel's direction, and performed five times:
after which it gave way to his own Flavins, which had immediately
succeeded Coriolanus, when its first run was over. This revived
opera sustained four representations; after which Handel introduced
a new species of exhibition at the opera-house in the performance
of Esther, a sacred drama, and Acis and Galatea, a pastoral
drama, both performed at the opera-house, in English, and in
still life.
Handel seems to have been stimulated to this attempt by the
encroachments of other adventurers upon his property. But as the
success of this undertaking gave rise to the composition and
performance of his immortal Oratorios, I shall present the
reader with all the information, I have been able to obtain on this
curious point of musical history.
Oratorios, though common in Italy during the last century (x),
were never attempted in England, either in public or private, till
the year 1720, when Handel set the sacred drama of Esther* for
the chapel of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons. In 1731 [Feb. 23,
1732] , it was represented, in action, by the children of his Majesty's
Chapel, at the house of Mr. Barnard Gates, their master, in James-
street, Westminster (y). After this, it was performed by the same
singers at the Crown and Anchor; but this being a subscription
concert [the Ancient Academy of Music], the exhibition could not
be called public. However, in the beginning of April, 1732, the
following advertisement appeared in the Daily Journal: " Never
performed in public, at the great room in Villar's-street, York-
buildings, by the best vocal and instrumental Musick, Esther an
Oratorio, or sacred drama, will be performed, on Thursday, April
20th, as it was composed for the most noble James Duke of
Chandos, by George Frederick Handel. Each ticket five
shillings (z)."
{%) See Chap. II. of this volume.
(y) See Sketch of the Life of Handel, p. 22.
(2) In the next two advertisements, the words were said to have been written by Mr.
Pope; an assertion that was never contradicted by that great poet.
* This work was originally a masque entitled Human and Mordecai and Gates took part in
the first performance at Cannons. The 1732 performance was in honour of Handel's birthday.
Pope had written the words of the masque, but as Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London, had prohibited
any public performance of Haman, some further text was added by Samuel Humphreys, and
the work emerged as the oratorio Esther. John Beard, who later became famous as an
exponent of Handel's music took part in this production.
775
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
April 19th, the following advertisement appeared above the
preceding, in the same newspaper: " By his Majesty's command,
at the King's theatre in the Hay-market, on Tuesday the 2d day of
May, will be performed the sacred story of Esther; an oratorio
in English, formerly composed by Mr. Handel, and now revised
by him with several additions, and to be performed by a great
number of voices and instruments. N.B. There will be no acting
on the stage, but the house will be fitted up in a decent manner,
for the audience. The Musick to be disposed after the manner of the
coronation service. Tickets to be delivered at the usual prices."
By another advertisement after the first performance of Esther,
the purchasers of tickets by persons who could not obtain admission,
are told that their money would be returned, or the tickets changed
for another day; which seems to imply that the house had greatly
overflowed.
A similar provocation seems to have been given to Handel for
the performance of Acis and Galatea,* by the following
advertisement: " May 10th, at the theatre in the Hay-market, on
Thursday the 12st inst. Acis and Galatea, a pastoral drama, set by
Mr. Handel, will be performed, with all the choruses, scenes,
machines, and other decorations; being the first time it was
performed in a theatrical way. The part of Acis by Mr. Mountier,
being the first time of his appearing in character on any stage;
Galatea by Miss Arne. Pit and boxes at five shillings (a)." This
exhibition took place on the 17th, which seems to have produced the
following advertisement from Handel: " June the 10th, will be
performed Acis and Galatea, a serenata, revised with several
additions, at the opera-house, by a great number of the best voices
and instruments. There will be no action on the stage, but the scene
will represent, in a picturesque manner, a rural prospect, with rocks,
groves, fountains, and grottos, among which will be disposed a
chorus of nymphs and shepherds, the habits and every other
decoration suited to the subject." It was repeated the 13th, 17th,
and 20th; and next season, December the 5th, 9th, 12th, and 16th.
And this seems to have been thet origin of Handel's performance of
oratorios in still life, and of serenatas and other secular musical
dramas, during Lent, in the manner of oratorios.**
Between these two admirable productions in English, an Italian
opera, entitled Lucio Papirio Dittatore was represented four
several times. Whether this was a pasticcio, or by whom the Music
(a) It seems as if the elder Ame, the Upholsterer, in King's-street, Covent-garden,
mentioned in the Spectator, and father of Dr. Arne and Mrs. Cibber, had been the principal
projector and manager of these performances of Handel's compositions to English words; as
it is said in one of the advertisements, that subscriptions for English operas "are only taken in
by Mr. Arne, at the Crown and Cushion, King's Street, Covent-garden." J. C. Smith, J. F.
Lampe, and Harry Carey, as well as his son young Arne, were adventurers in this under-
taking; and Miss Arne and Miss Cecilia Young, afterwards Mrs. Arne, were the principal
female singers.
* Acis and Galatea was also compiled at Cannons, probably about 1720. There is no date on
the autograph score. The words were by Gay, but for the revised version of 1732 additions to
the text were made by Dryden, Pope, and Hughes.
** For this production Handel introduced into the Canon's work, some of the music from
his early serenata Acis, Galatea, e Polifemo, composed at Naples in 1708.
776
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
was composed, does not appear from any publication that has
come to my knowledge.
June 24th, a pastoral entertainment, composed by Bononcini,
was performed at the opera-house by command of her Majesty
Queen Caroline, then regent in the absence of King George II. and
with this performance the season was closed.*
In November following the lyric theatre was opened with a
new opera called Cato, which had six representations. No
composer is mentioned, though the favourite songs were printed by
Walsh, during its run. A drama, however of the same name, set
by Leo, was performed at Rome and Venice in 1728.
In December, Handel's Alexander was revived, and represented
six times; which, with four performances of Acis and Galatea
finished the year.
1733. January 2d, Ptolemy, an opera composed by Handel in
1728, was revived and performed seven times. After which,
January 23d, he brought out a new opera called Orlando, originally
written by Braccioli, in 1713, for Venice, and set by Alberto Ristori.
It was afterwards set by many different masters, particularly by
Orazio Pollaroli, in 1725, and in 1727, by Vivaldi, for Venice;
but the Music to which it was now performed in London was entirely
new composed by Handel, and finished, according to his own
memorandum, November 20th, 1732.
The overture, though an excellent composition, has never been
in great favour, or general use; and this neglect has not arisen from
the want of a third movement for those who, unable to follow a
composer through the mazes of learned modulation and complicated
parts, listen only to the tune of the principal melody; for there is a
very gay and airy jig at the end. But the difficulty of the key in
which this overture is written, which is F sharp, seems to render
its performance infrequent. In the first movement, where the two
violins set off in regular fugue, the subject is inverted in the base;
and this ingenious artifice is again practised in another key, previous
to the close. The fugue is clear and masterly; but being in triple
time, and not enlivened by any counter subject, or solo parts for
hautbois, has in it less dignity and variety, than most of Handel's
fugues in common time.
The first scene opens with a fine accompanied recitative, a
tempo, or aria parlante, which was composed for Montagnana, in the
character of the Persian philosopher Zoroastre, who in a night scene
is introduced meditating on the motions of the heavenly bodies:
Gieroglifici eterni; the Music of this scene, which is not printed,
has a wild grandeur in it of a very uncommon kind. This is
followed by a charming cavatina, for Senesino: Stimulate dalla
gloria, with no other accompaniment than a violoncello.
Montagnana has the next air : Lascia amor, in eight parts, which is
extremely spirited, and rich in harmony and contrivance; the violin
accompaniment has, however, rapid passages, that are very
* Strada was asked to sing in Bononcini's Pastoral, but for some reason or other she
refused to do so.
777
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
aukward and difficult, without effect. After this, there is another
accompanied recitative followed by an agreeable air: Non fu gia,
for Senesino. We have then another accompanied recitative, which
introduces an innocent pastoral air : Ho un certo rossore, for Signora
Celeste, who performed a subordinate character. These are
followed by a pleasing air: Ritornava al suo bel viso, in dialogue,
between Strada and Bertolli. After which, Strada has a lively air:
Chi possessore e; and Bertolli one that is plaintive: Se il cor. The
next air: O care parolette, is very gay and pleasing; and this is
followed by an elegant slow air for Strada : Se fedel. Then Senesino
has a very animated air: Fammi combattere; after which, an
agreeable terzetto : Consolati o bella, finishes the first act.
The second act begins with a very elegant and pleasing pastoral
air: Quando spieghi, for Celeste, which seems to require greater
abilities in the execution, than are usually found in a singer of the
second or third class. The same performer had likewise the next
air: Se mi rivolgo, which is a beautiful Siciliana. Then Senesino
had an air of great spirit and passion : Cielo se tu, which displayed
his abilities in acting and execution. This is followed by an
admirable base song for Montagnana, in a style different from most
of his celebrated songs for a base voice. Bertolli, after this, has
a very graceful and pleasing air, alia Siciliana: Verdi allori; and
Strada two in very different styles : the one lively : Non pottra dir
mi, with divisions which required considerable agility; the other:
Verdi piante, pathetic, and richly accompanied. The whole last
scene of this act, which paints the madness of Orlando, in
accompanied recitatives and airs in various measures, is admirable.
Handel has endeavoured to describe the hero's perturbation of
intellect by fragments of symphony in § , a division of time which can
only be borne in such a situation.
The air in gavot time : Vaghe pupille, of which the two first bars
are so frequently repeated, always disappoints my ear, which
expects the key to be D minor, and the C in the second bar to be
sharp :
^^
« \//l
£3F
^jp~
m
V* ■■■ QHE TV-
m-
\ \ s
s
±
PrS
v^ S=
Ab/V -PlfWGE - T£
f • 7 ,
^^
m
In the larghetto part of this air, upon a ground-base, Handel
hazarded a transient chromatic in the accompaniment, perhaps for
the first time, which has since been adopted to excess, in modern
compositions :
77«
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The third act opens with a symphony in four parts, which has
not been printed. The style in which this movement is written
is now out of fashion, but the harmony, contrivance, and activity
of the several parts will always please real judges of musical
composition. The first air: Vorrei poter, sung by Bertolli, is gay
and natural. The next scene has no regular air, but fragments of
airs, sung by the frantic Orlando. In these, there are fine passages,
though designedly incoherent. In the subsequent scene, Strada
has a graceful and pleasing air: Co si giusta. After this, Celeste
had a gay, spirited, and beautiful air: Amor e qual vento, in
which Handel seems to have first ventured at the diminished
seventh, the invention of which was afterwards disputed in Italy
by the friends of Jomelli and Galuppi (b).
This is followed by an admirable base song, in Handel's grandest
style of writing for a base voice : Sorge infausta. Montagnana, who
sung this air, must have had an uncommon compass and agility of
voice to do it justice. The divisions in many songs written
expressly for his voice are both numerous and rapid, and sometimes
extend to two octaves in compass. Handel, in his score, has
cancelled many passages in this air, which was originally much
longer than in the printed copy. After this comes a duet : Finche
prende, which is chiefly in dialogue, upon a constantly moving base,
and is the most masterly composition in the opera. This duet is
followed by an accompanied recitative, which is admirably
characteristic of Orlando furioso; and this is succeeded by a
beautiful invocation to sleep : Gia V ebro mio ciglio, which was sung
by Senesino, accompanied by violette marine. This accompaniment
was written, according to Handel's own manuscript instructions to
the copyist, for the two Castruccis: per gli Signori Castrucci (c).
This air is followed by another fine accompanied recitative for
Montagnana, in the character of Zoroaster, who appears in this
drama more as a magician than philosopher or legislator. He
undertakes, by the power of enchantment, to cure Orlando of
insanity; and to assist his charms and incantations a beautiful
symphony was played, which has never been printed. The hero's
last air: Per far mio diletto, has an original boldness in it, which
seems extremely suitable to the character. This is soon followed
by the final chorus, which is a pleasing gavot.
This opera sustained ten representations during its first run, and
six more in April and May.
(b) See account of this controversy, Book II. p. 522, et seq.
(c) The violetta marina seems to have been a kind of viol a" amour, with sympathetic
strings. Castrucci first played upon it in England at his own benefit concert, at Hickford's
room, 1732, when it was advertised, that he would play "a solo on a fine instrument called
violetta marina."
779
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
After the first run of Orlando was over, Floridante, an opera
composed by Handel in 1721, was revived March 3d, and
performed four times. March 17th, Deborah was performed, in
English at the opera-house for the first time, on a Saturday night,
by his Majesty's command, instead of an Italian opera. It was
executed, according to the advertisment, "by a great number of
voices and instruments, being the last dramatic entertainment at
the King's theatre before Easter." And a promise was made, that
" the house should be fitted up and illuminated in a new and
particular manner." Tickets for this night only, were one guinea
each; gallery half a guinea. But this seems to have been a trial
of public liberality, which did not succeed; as the second time
Deborah was performed, March 27th, the prices were reduced to
the common standard. This composition was not then generally
called an oratorio; for in the Daily Journal, April 2d, a paragraph
says, that " the King, Queen, Prince, and three of the eldest
Princesses, went on Saturday night to the King's theatre in the
Hay-market, to see the opera of Deborah."
Esther was revived April 14th and performed in the same
manner, on opera nights. After which, April 24th, Orlando was
again brought on the stage, and exhibited six times. Then
Floridante twice more; and lastly, Bononcini's opera of Griselda,
composed in 1722, was revived May 22d, and represented till the
close of the season, June 9th. By what influence this opera, the
work of a rival composer, was now brought on the stage, and
whether performed under Handel's direction, is not easy to discover.
Had the private quarrels of public characters been then the subjects
of newspaper discussions, as frequently as at present, it would not
have been difficult to clear up these points of musical history (d).
It seems to have been about this time that the quarrel between
Handel and Senesino became serious; for June the 13th, a few
days after the opera-house was shut up, the following advertise-
ment was inserted in the Daily Post : ' ' The subscribers to the opera
in which Signor Senesino and Signora Cuzzoni are to perform, are
desired to meet at Mr. Hickford's great room, in Panton-street,
on Friday next [the 15th], at eleven o'clock, in order to settle
proper methods for carrying on the subscription. Such persons
who cannot be present are desired to send their proxies."
Orlando was the last opera in which Handel composed songs
expressly for Senesino; and whether the quarrel, which had been
long fermenting between them, and which at length terminated in
an open rupture and perpetual separation, operated insensibly
upon his faculties in writing for this singer, or whether, as an
intentional mark of resentment, he was careless of his own fame, in
order to diminish that of his enemy, is now out of the reach of
conjecture; but by a comparison of the songs intended for Senesino,
after the opera of Poms, with those which Handel had composed
(d) It is, however, most likely that Heidegger, the proprietor of the theatre, had lent it
to Bononcim, when Handel's season was over.
780
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
for him previous to that period, there seems a manifest inferiority
in design, invention, grace, elegance, and every captivating
requisite.
There were in England at this time several candidates for fame
in theatrical and choral Music: Arne, Lampe, Smith, Defesch,
and Greene, tried their strength against Handel; but it was the
contention of infants with a giant. Indeed, they composed for
inferior performers as well as inferior hearers; but they appear to
have been so sensible of their own want of resources, that the
utmost they attempted seems to have been an humble and timid
imitation of Handel's style of composition. Arne began to
distinguish himself by new setting Addison's opera of Rosamond
[1733]; Lampe by Amelia [1732], an English drama written by
Carey; and Smith by Teraminta [1732], another opera, written by
the same author; these were all said, in the play-bills and advertise-
ments, to be set in the Italian manner. Defesch set an oratorio,
called Judith [1733], and Dr. Greene a Te Deum, and part of the
Song of Deborah [1732]. These, though not very successful,
contributed to diminish the public attention to Italian operas, and
by that means injured Handel, without essentially serving
themselves.
But Handel had a rival to contend with, whose reputation and
patronage were far superior to those of any one already mentioned.
The nobility and gentry, subscribers to the opera, who had taken
sides in the differences between him and the singers, Senesino and
Cuzzoni, and were offended at the advanced price for admission to
the oratorios on opera nights, opened a subscription for Italian
operas at Lincoln' s-Inn Fields, inviting Porpora hither to compose
and conduct; and engaging Senesino, Cuzzoni, Montagnana, Segatti,
Bertolli, and, afterwards, Farinelli, to perform there.
The first opera that was brought on this stage was Ariadne,
written by Paolo Rolli, per la nobilta Britannica, and set by
Nicola Porpora. As little of the Music of this opera was printed,
and a manuscript score is not be found, I am unable to speak of
its merit, but by analogy. Porpora was more a man of judgment
and experience, than genius. His other operas and cantatas,
which I have seen, are written with good taste; the melodies of
the airs are graceful and natural; and the recitatives, particularly
of his cantatas, are still regarded in Italy as models of perfection,
for narrative Music. In his airs he rather polished and refined
the passages of other composers than invented new; and in his
accompaniment there is nothing very picturesque or ingenious.
He was long esteemed the best singing-master in Europe, and was
fortunate in the voices he had to form, particularly in that of
Farinelli.
Porpora's Ariadne was first performed December 29th, 1733,
and continued in run till February 2d of the next year. After
which it was discontinued till the arrival of Cuzzoni, when it was
resumed and frequently performed till the end of the season, June
781
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
15th. This opera, supported by the spirit of party, probably,
more than by its intrinsic worth, sustained twenty representations.
Before the arrival of Cuzzoni, it was performed ten times;
Ferdinando, set likewise by Porpora, four; Bononcini's Astarto,
five; Belmira, a pasticcio, four; and Ariadne in April and May,
after the arrival of Cuzzoni, ten times. Then a new opera called
^Eneas, by an anonymous composer, had six representations,
which with repetitions of Ariadne brought the season to a close,
June 15th.
The opera-house in the Hay-market was opened October 30th,
with a drama called Semiramis, by an anonymous composer;
which, after four representations, gave way to Handel's Otho,
revived November 13th, and represented likewise four times. Who
were the performers in these operas, I am unable to tell, not being
in possession of the printed book of the words; but December 4th,
a new opera, probably a pasticcio, called Cajus Fabricius, was
brought out in order to display the abilities of a new singer,
Giovanni Carestini [c. 1705-c. 1758], who now appeared on our
stage for the first time.
This was so renowned a theatrical singer, that some respect is
due to his memory. His abilities have been celebrated by Quantz
(e), and Mancini (/), who had frequently heard him at the best
period of his performance. He was born at Mount Filatrana, in
the March of Ancona, and at twelve years old went to Milan, where
he was patronised by the Cusani family, whence he was frequently
called Cusanino. His voice was at first a powerful and clear
soprano, which afterwards changed into the fullest, finest, and
deepest counter-tenor that has perhaps ever been heard (g). His
first appearance on the stage seems to have been at Rome, in the
female character of Costanza, in Bononcini's opera of Griselda,
1721. In 1723, he was at Prague, during the great musical
congress there, on occasion of the coronation of the Emperor Charles
VI. as King of Bohemia. In 1724, I trace him at Mantua, and
in 1726 at Venice, where he performed with Farinelli, and the
famous tenor Paita. In 1728, he was at Rome, and again in 1730,
where he performed in Vinci's celebrated operas of Alessandro nelV
Indie and Artaserse, both written by Metastasio. He was now;
engaged by Handel to supply the place of Senesino, who together
with his whole troop, except the Strada, had deserted from him,
and inlisted under the banners of Porpora and the Barons at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields. Carestini's person was tall, beautiful, and
majestic. He was a very animated and intelligent actor, and
having a considerable portion of enthusiasm in his composition,
with a lively and inventive imaginative, he rendered every thing
(e) See Present State of Music in Germany, Vol. II. p. 181.
if) Pensieri sopra ill Canto fig. p. 18.
(g) Handel seems to have expected to find it a soprano, for the songs he composed for
him in Ariadne, before his arrival in England, are written in that clef and compass; and his
whole part of Theseus was obliged to be transposed a note and sometimes two notes lower,
than it stands in the original score.
782
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
he sung interesting by good taste, energy, and judicious embellish-
ments. He manifested great agility in the execution of difficult
divisions from the chest in a most articulate and admirable manner.
It was the opinion of Hasse, as well as of many other eminent
professors, that whoever had not heard Carestini was unacquainted
with the most perfect style of singing. He continued in the highest
reputation for twenty years after quitting England [in 1735], and
sung at Berlin with the Astrua in 1750, 1754, and 1755.
The opera of Fabricius, in which the part of Pyrrhus was
performed by Carestini, was represented but four times, and those
at the distance of a week between each representation; but such was
the influence of Handel's enemies and Senesino's friends, that it
seems to have repressed all curiosity for what was now transacting
at the opera-house.
1734. January 5th, Arbaces, a new opera, was performed at
the King's theatre in the Hay-market, of which I am unable to
give any account either of the words or Music. In all probability
it was an old drama with a new name, and adjusted to airs selected
from the works of different masters. After six representations it
was superseded for Ariadne in Crete, a new opera set by Handel.
So many dramas have been written for Music with the title of
Ariadne, that I am unable to assign the poetry of this opera to any
particular .author.* Though it was not performed till January 26th,
the composition was finished the 5th of October, in the preceding
year (h), near three months before Porpora's opera of the same
name was brought on the stage, and which was now in run at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields. Handel's singers were Carestini, Scalzi, and
Waltz, for the men's parts; and for the female the Strada,
Durastanti, just arrived for the second time, after an absence of
ten years, and the Negri. Abandoned by his former singers,
opposed by the nobility, and depending solely on the public at
large for protection and patronage, he seems to have exerted his
powers of invention, and abilities in varying the accompaniments
throughout this opera with more vigour than in any former drama
since the dissolution of the Royal Academy of Music in 1728.
The overture of Ariadne is so well known and has continued in
such constant favour, that little need be said in its praise. The
subject of the fugue, which seems to promise no great variety of
accompaniment, has been enlivened and embellished through all
its repetitions in a manner peculiar to Handel. The minuet which
pleases in every way in which it is tolerably performed, must have
had a very striking effect in the theatre, as it is not played as part
of the overture, but, after the curtain was drawn up, as a
symphony to the first scene, where Minos King of Crete receives
the tribute of Athenian youths and virgins, to be sacrificed to the
Minotaur. It being first played, piano, without wind-instruments,
W) The author has written with his own hand on the last page of the foul score: Fine
dell' opera, Londres 5 Octobre, 1733. G. F. Handel.
* The libretto of Ariadne was by Colman.
783
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and afterwards, forte, with French-horns and hautbois, surprised
and pleased the audience in an uncommon manner, at that time.
The first air : Mira mi, has spirit and originality. The second air :
Dille che nel mio seno, though simple in melody, is curious in
modulation. The third air: Deh lascia, for the Strada, has an
agreeable vivacity in it, which a favourite singer would render very
captivating. The subsequent air : Nel pugnar, which is the first in
Carestini's part, is admirable, as a spirited composition intended
to display the great and peculiar abilities of that singer. His low
notes, fine shake, and articulate execution of divisions, were all
put in action in the course of this air (i). Scalzi, the second man,
to whom Handel gave but little to do in this opera, had the next
air: Tal' or d' oscuro velo, does not rise above the dignity of a
pleasing ballad (k). The Negri seems to have possessed no
uncommon abilities; the first air that came to her share : Quel cor,
is enlivened by a very pretty accompaniment. As Carestini's first
air afforded him an opportunity of manifesting energy and spirit,
the second : Sdegnata sex, is a fine cantabile, in which, according
to tradition, his feeling and expression were equally eminent.
Strada's next air: Sdegno amore, which terminates the first act,
is extremely spirited, and of an original cast.
The beauties of the first scene of the second act, of which the
symphony, accompanied recitative, and air, have been all printed,
have not been surpassed in any one of Handel's dramatic works,
that I can recollect (/); they all belong to Carestini's part, as did
the next air: Salda querela, though it is given to Strada, in the
printed copy. This air, which he sung a note lower than it was
engraved, is in a grand style of bravura, and contains longer and
more difficult divisions than had been heard on our stage before
the arrival of Farinelli. The next air: Non ha diffesa, for Scalzi,
contains nothing that would augment the reputation, or disgrace
a composer or singer : it is innocent of meaning and passion, like
the poetry. Strada had the subsequent air: So che non e, which
is a very beautiful melody, alia Siciliana (m). After this,
Durastanti had an animated air: Qual Leon, in ten parts, and
cast in a mould totally different from all the rest. The next air
for the Negri : Narrar gli allor, contains no peculiar beauties; nor
is there much invention or felicity in either of the two airs which
succeed this. Scalzi had, however, after these a very plaintive
and pleasing air: Son qual stanco pellegrino, with a fine solo part
for the violoncello, intended to display the abilities of Caporale,
(«) Handel, in accompanying the roulemens in this song, seems first to have adopted the
quiet effect of iterated notes, which then prevailed in the airs of Hasse and Vinci.
(k) According to Mancini, this performer became afterwards a singer of the first class:
Carlo Scalzi Genovese, nusci nella professione tin soggetto si valente, che jit stimato fra il
numero de' primi cantanti. Pensieri sopra il Canto figurato, Vienna 1774, p. 26.
(I) The recitative begins: 0 palria, oh cittadini\ and the air: Sol ristoro.
(m) In this air occurs the only combination of major third and minor sixth that I have
seen in Handel's works, except in one of his organ fugues where it seems to have had
admission for the sake of bringing in a counter-subject.
784
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
just come over. The next air: Se ti condanno, was sung by Waltz,
a German, with a coarse figure, and a still coarser voice («). This
base song is followed by a very graceful and pleasing duet : Bell'
idolo amato. After this, Strada had a plaintive pastoral air: Se
nel bosco, which terminated the second act (o).
The first air in the third act : Un tenero pensiero, bears a great
resemblance, in many passages, to the jig in Corelli's twelfth solo.
The second air, however: Par che voglia, is not only more original,
but more pleasing. The next song in the original score, though
in Walsh's mangled copy it has been misplaced, is the celebrated
air: Bella sorge, which was long a national favourite; it was
composed in E flat, but being transposed for Carestini, and printed
in D, the flute players eagerly seized it as their property. In the
next scene Carestini, in the character of Theseus going to attack
the Minotaur, has a fine accompanied recitative and an air: Qui
ti fido, of infinite spirit, heightened by a full and rapid
accompaniment. After this, Strada had a very pleasing air of a
more placid kind : Turbato il mar; and the Negri another : In mar
tempestoso, of a gay and original cast, in which the second violin
seems to be assigned the part of Boreas. The duet which follows :
Mir a adesso questo seno, is admirable, though in a style somewhat
ancient. After which, the favourite air: Bella sorge, is sung in
chorus, as a finale to the opera.
Handel's Ariadne was performed, during its first run, from
January 26th to March 12th, thirteen times; and being revived in
the autumn following, had six representations more, which made
its performances, in the course of the year, amount to nineteen; the
exact number of times which Porpora's opera of the same name
had been exhibited.
This being the time when the Prince of Orange was in England,
and his nuptials with the Princess Royal daily expected, all the
theatres in London were preparing some exhibition in honour of
that solemnity. And on Monday, March 11th, was inserted in the
Daily Journal the following paragraph : ' ' We hear that amongst
the public diversions, preparing on occasion of the approaching
nuptials, there is to be performed at the opera-house in the
Hay-market, on Wednesday next, a serenata called Parnasso in
Festa. The fable is, Apollo and the Muses celebrating the marriage
of Thetis and Peleus. There is one standing scene, which is Mount
Parnassus, on which sit Apollo and the Muses, assisted with other
proper characters, emblematically dressed, the whole appearance
being extremely magnificent. The Music is no less entertaining,
being contrived with so great a variety, that all sorts of Music are
properly introduced in single songs, duettos, &c. intermixed with
(») It has been said that he was originally; Handel's cook. He frequently sung in
choruses and comic entertainments at Drury-lane, in my own memory; and, as an actor, had
a great deal of humour. It was imagined that his countryman Lampe had this song and
singer in mind when he set "Oh, oh, master Moor," in the Dragon of Wantley.
(o) This air has still many beauties, though a little wrinkled by time. It has been printed
with only a single violin accompaniment; but in the original manuscript there are parts for
a second violin and tenor, which are very important to the harmony and effects.
Voi,. ii. 50. 785
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
choruses, somewhat in the style of oratorios. People have been
waiting with impatience for this piece, the celebrated Mr. Handel
having exerted his utmost skill in it."
This serenata was performed March 13th, and on the 14th the
wedding was solemnised. The serenata was repeated again the
16th, 19th, and 23d. The King, Queen, Royal Family, and
Prince of Orange, honoured the first representation with their
presence.
The Music of this exhibition, of which His Majesty has a fine
score transcribed by Smith, was chiefly selected from the oratorio
of Athalia, which having been only performed once at Oxford, the
preceding summer,* was new to the ears of the greatest part of a
London audience; and Handel with all the riches of his genius and
invention, was very ceconomical, and as frequently turned and
patched up his old productions, as if he had laboured under
indigence of thought. The second movement of the overture is the
same as had been performed at Oxford, and which has been lately
printed to the oratorio of Athalia, in Dr. Arnold's edition of
Handel's works. The first air: Virginelle dotti e belle, is likewise
the same air as was set to Blooming virgins, in that sacred .drama.
After this, we have a very lively chorus: Corriamo pronti, which
is in Athalia to the words " The traitor if you there descry." The
subsequent air: Deh! cantate, which is the same Music as " Tyrants
would in impious throng," of Athalia, has choral parts, and a very
original accompaniment of a kind not very easy for any instru-
ment. This movement, the melody of which is very graceful, must
have had a fine effect, with the solo parts sung by Carestini and
Strada. It is followed by a fine pathetic air, richly accompanied:
Spira il sen, the same as " Softest sounds no more can ease me,"
in Athalia. This was supposed to be sung by Orpheus; and the
next: Gran tonante, Giove immenso, by Apollo. And these airs,
well executed, must have been thought in 1734, worthy of the
characters to which they were assigned. The next movement is an
excellent chorus upon a spirited kind of ground-base : Gia vien da
lui, (The cloudy scene begins to clear.) After this, the air: Con
un vezzo, is the same as Strada sung at Oxford, in Athalia, to
the words " Soothing tyrant." A natural and elegant duet
followed this: Sin le grazie nel bel volto, to the same air as " Joys
in gentle trains." After which, the air in Athalia: " Faithful cares
in vain extended," is adjusted to the words Quanto breve e il
godimento. Then we have a spirited chorus: Cantiamb a Bacco,
to " Chear her 0 Baal;" a beautiful air: Sciolga dunque al ballo;
and, lastly, S' accenda pur, a chorus full of fire and pleasing effects,
which terminates the first part.
The second part begins with an air and chorus from Athalia:
" The rising world," to the Italian words: Nel petto sento. The
following air: Tome pure, seems not to have been taken from
* The first production of Athalia was on July 10, 1733, and altogether was given five times
to crowded audiences.
786
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Athaiia. Nel spiegar, is the same as " Through the land." But
the charming hunting chorus: 0 quanta bella gloria, in thirteen
vocal and instrumental parts, which fills twenty-eight folio pages
in the manuscript, seems originally composed for the serenata; as
does Fra sentier di amene selve; after which, part of the chorus:
0 quanto bella, is repeated. Gia, gia le furie, taken from " Hark!
hark! his thunders," is a fine composition, fugata, in the accom-
paniments. Dopo d' aver perduto, an accompanied recitative, is
seemingly original; but the admirable subsequent pathetic air: Ho
perso il caro ben, given to Orpheus, and the chorus, into which
it is afterwards formed, are both in Athaiia, to the words "O Lord,
whom we adore," and " Hear from thy mercy seat." After these,
the graceful dialogue and duet: Cangia in gioia, in the parts of
Apollo and Clio, are exact transcripts of, " Cease thy anguish,"
in the same oratorio; as is the coro finale of the second part: Cor alii
e perle, of " The gods who chosen blessings send," a little simplified
in the accompaniment (p).
The third part begins with a military symphony, for the entrance
of Mars; which, after a short recitative, is followed by a very
animated chorus of sixteen parts, in the time, key, and style of the
symphony. The first fourteen bars only of this admirable song
and chorus, seem new; after which the chief part of the base song
and chorus of Athaiia: " When storms the proud to terrors doom,"
are worked in. These are followed by a pathetic air : Da sorgente
rilucente, in the same motivo as " Joys in gentle trains," but in
a minor key. Then an air, alia breve : Sempre aspira, the same
as " Gloomy tyrants;" and a most agreeable pastoral, in Corelli's
style, for Apollo : Non tardate fauni, ancora, which terminates in
chorus. This is not to be found in Athaiia. Circond' in lor vite,
the same as " My vengeance awakes me." Si parli ancora, altered
from " Round let acclamations ring." Han mente eroica, is not
in Athaiia, any more than the song and final chorus : Lunga serie;
these are in a military style, with trumpets, wind-instruments, and
long solo parts in bravura, for the first soprano, the divisions of
which, as usual, are more thread-bare than the rest of the move-
ment : the choral parts, indeed, are admirably interwoven with the
principal voice-part, and the whole is conducted with great fire
and spirit.
The Italian words are adjusted to the Music with such
intelligence and attention to accent and expression, that if we were
not acquainted with the new and particular occasion on which
Parnasso in Festa was prepared, it would be difficult to discover
whether the Music was originally composed for that serenata, or for
the oratorio of Athaiia.
After the fourth night of this serenata, Arbace was performed
twice; and then the oratorio of Deborah was revived, April 2d,
and performed three times, always by his Majesty's command;
(p) This chorus, if I mistake not, may be found in one of Handel's early operas; and,
indeed, more than the mere subject, in Arne's Comus : '.'Away, away ! to Comus' court
repair."
7*7
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and though in English and still life, always on the nights usually
appropriated to the Italian opera. Then Ariadne, Sosarmes, Acis
and Galatea, till May the 18th, when Pastor Fido, was revived,
" with several additions, intermixed with choruses; the scenery
after a particular manner, and preceded by a new dramatic enter-
tainment, called a Prologue in the book of the words, but in the
advertisement it is entitled Terpsichore/'* All the choruses and
most of the airs, as well as the prologue and overture, were new.
It ran thirteen nights, and terminated the season July 6th, and
Handel's contract with Heidegger, in the Hay-market. There was
but one chorus in the drama of the same name, that was performed
in 1712, and at the distance of twenty- two years, the style of singing
and the public taste were extremely changed; the first, Pastor Fido,
was uncommonly simple, even for the time; and Carestini and
Strada were possessed of vocal abilities unknown at that period,
on our stage, and perhaps on any other.
October 5th, Handel having quitted the King's theatre [July 6,
1734], began his campaign in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, with the same
auxiliaries as the preceding season. Here he performed Ariadne
and Pastor Fido, till December the 18th, when he removed to the
new theatre in Co vent-garden, where he brought out an opera
called Orestes, but whether new, or by whom composed, does not
appear by newspapers, libretto, or any other record that I have
been able to find.** It was only represented three times: December
18th, 21st, and 28th; Handel furnished the overture (q).
The opera established by the nobility against Handel, at the
theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, under the direction of Porpora, the
preceding season, was now rendered doubly attractive by the
arrival of Farinelli [1705-82]. Handel having abandoned the
theatre ^ in the Hay-market, the troop in opposition quitting
Lincoln's-Inn Fields, took possession of it, and began the season
October 29th with the opera of Artaxerxes, cast in the following
formidable manner: Artaxerxes, by Montagnana; Arbaces,
Farinelli; Artabanes, Senesino; Megabyses, Signora Segatti;
Semira, Signora Bertolli; and Mandane, by Cuzzoni. The Music
of this opera was chiefly by Hasse and Riccardo Broschi, the
brother of Farinelli. The airs of greatest favour, were Palido il
sole, set by Hasse, and sung by Senesino; Per questo dolce
amplesso, by thes&me; and Son qual nave, by Broschi; all performed
by Farinelli (r). This renowned singer, whose vdice and abilities
seem to have surpassed the limits of all anterior vocal excellence,
(q) The names of Mr. Beard and Miss Cecilia Young, afterwards Mrs Arne first annear in
the dramatis persons of Handel's operas, performed at Covent^ardln this season PP
brotfcU\0maSrwerraoreLcl1on0^ ™ * ^"^ C°mp°Sed by Br0Schi to dis^ his
^.t^^c0^ wasJnot Produced at the Haymarket Theatre. It was written for the French
season ^the in^'^ US<& ?,S a J*01?** to II P*?*°* ™<> which Handel revived for hi
season at the Lincoln s Inn Fields Theatre commencing Oct. ■; 17*4 Mile Salle had
already made appearances at that theatre in some productions by Rich
** Orestes was a pasticcio made from Handel's earlier operasi
788
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
was born at Naples 1705; he learned the rudiments of Music of his
father, and singing of Porpora, as he informed me himself. In
1722, at the age of seventeen, he went from Naples to Rome, with
his master, then engaged to compose for the Aliberti theatre in that
city, where he contended with a famous performer on the trumpet
(s). Here he continued with Porpora till 1724, when he first went
to Vienna. In 1725, he performed at Venice in Metastasio's first
opera of Didone Abbandonata, set by Albinoni. After this he
returned to Naples, where he performed with the celebrated female
singer, Tesi, in a serenata composed by Hasse. In 1726, he sung
at Milan, in Ciro, an opera set by the elder Ciampi. In 1727, he
performed at Bologna, with Bernacchi, in an opera set by Orlandini.
In 1728, he went to Vienna a second time; and afterwards
returning to Venice in autumn, he sung with Faustina, just returned
from England, in Metastasio's Ezio, set by Porpora. Here he
continued two years, performing in 1729 with Gizzi and Nicolini,
in Semiramide Riconosciuta, set likewise by Porpora, and in Cato,
by Leo; and in 1730, with Nicolini and Cuzzoni in Hasse's
celebrated opera of Artaserse, in which he first appeared in
England; and in Idaspe, set by his brother Riccardo Broschi. In
1731, he returned to Vienna a third time, where he continued in
increasing favour with the Emperor Charles VI. till his arrival in
England.
As general praise would convey to the mind of a musical reader
no distinct ideas of the powers of this extraordinary singer, it will
be necessary to discriminate the specific excellencies of which he
seems to have been possessed.
No vocal performer of the present century has been more
unanimously allowed by professional critics, as well as general
celebrity to have been gifted with a voice of such uncommon power,
sweetness, extent, and agility, as Carlo Broschi detto Farinelli
(t). Nicolini, Senesino, and Carestini, gratified the eye as much
by the dignity, grace, and propriety of their action and deportment,
as the ear by the judicious use of a few notes within the limits of
a small compass of voice; but Farinelli without the assistance of
significant gestures or graceful attitudes, enchanted and astonished
his hearers by the force, extent, and mellifluous tones of the mere
organ, when he had nothing to execute, articulate, or express. But
though during the time of his singing he was as motionless as a
statue, his voice was so active, that no intervals were too close, too
wide, or too rapid for his execution. It seems as if the composers
of these times were unable to invent passages sufficiently difficult to
display his powers, or the orchestras to accompany him in many
of those which had been composed for his peculiar talent. And
(s) See Present State of Music in France and Italy.
(t) It has been said, that he had the cognomen of Farinelli, from farina, flour; his father
having been a miller, or mealman : but as he said he learned the rudiments of Music of his
father, and his brother was a composer of some rank, it seems as if his ancestors had not
contented themselves with the mere clack of the mill. Indeed, when he was ennobled in
Spain, and made knight of the order of Calatrava and St. Iago, it was necessary for him to
send to Italy for his pedigree; and the Neapolitan heralds were diligent and ingenious enough
to deduce his lineage from an ancient and honourable stem.
789
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
yet, so great were his forbearance and delicacy, that he was never
known, while he was in England, to exclaim, or manifest discontent
at the inability of the band, or mistakes of individuals by whom he
was accompanied. He was so judicious in proportioning the force
of his voice to the space through which it was to pass to the ears
of his audience, that in a small theatre at Venice, though it was
then most powerful, one of the managers of the opera complained
that he did not sufficiently exert himself — " let me then," says
Farinelli, " have a larger theatre, or I shall lose my reputation,
without your being a gainer by it."
On his arrival here, at the first private rehearsal at Cuzzoni's
apartments, Lord Cooper, then the principal manager of the opera
under Porpora, observing that the band did not follow him, but
were all gaping with wonder, as if thunder-struck, desired them to
be attentive; when they all confessed, that they were unable to keep
pace with him: having not only been disabled by astonishment,
but overpowered by his talents. This band was small, consisting
only of Carbonelli, Mich. Christ. Festing, Valentine Snow, after-
wards sergeant-trumpet, and Mr. Vezan, a dancing-master, who
was likewise a steady and excellent concert-player on the violin,
and constantly employed whenever Carbonelli or Festing was the
leader: it was from this worthy man that I had this anecdote.
There was none of all Farinelli's excellencies by which he so far
surpassed all other singers, and astonished the public, as his messa
di voce, or swell; which, by the natural formation of his lungs, and
artificial ceconomy of breath, he was able to protract to such a
length as to excite incredulity even in those who heard him; who,
though unable to detect the artifice, imagined him to have had the
latent help of some instrument by which the tone was continued,
while he renewed his powers by respiration.
Of his execution the musical reader will be enabled to judge by
a view of the most difficult divisions of his bravura songs. Of his
taste and embellishments we shall now be able to form but an
imperfect idea, even if they had been preserved in writing, as mere
notes would only show his invention and science, without enabling
us to discover that expression and neatness which rendered his
execution so perfect and surprising. Of his shake, great use seems
to have been made in the melodies and divisions assigned to him;
and his taste and fancy in varying passages were thought by his
cotemporaries inexhaustible.
The opera of Artaxerxes, in which he first appeared on our
stage, had an uninterrupted run of eleven nights, and was after-
wards so frequently revived, that the whole number of its
representations, during Farinelli's residence in England, amounted
to no less than forty. However, when it was performed the
twentieth time, for his benefit, March 15th, 1735, it was said to
be revived with alterations and additions. Of what these consisted,
is now not easy to discover; but as the three capital songs mentioned
above seem to have supported their favour through all the
790
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
subsequent changes and additions, and form an aera in theatrical
Music, I shall, on the next plates, insert the most difficult of them
for the satisfaction of my critical readers.
After the eleventh night of this opera, Otho was performed,
December 10th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 23d, 28th, and 31st. As this
Drama was not said in the bills to be new, but was merely called
an opera, it is most probable that the Music was Handel's, in the
performance of which Senesino and Cuzzoni had been so much
applauded (u).
As two lyric theatres were now open, and both supported by
composers and performers of great eminence, I shall recount their
several transactions in opposite columns, to enable the reader to
judge of the conflict, by a view of the forces that were opposed to
each other, and the means that were severally used for obtaining a
victory.
1735. King's Theatre, Hay-
Market.
Composer, Nicola Porpora.
Singers : Senesino, Farinelli,
Montagnana; Cuzzoni,
Bertolli, Segatti.
January, Artaxerxes was per-
formed twice a week during this
whole month.
February 1st, Polifemo, a
new opera written by Paolo
Rolli, and set by Porpora, per
la nobilta Britannica, was first
performed. In examining the
favourite songs of this opera that
were printed by Walsh, among
which are five of Farinelli' s,
with one of Senesino's, and one
of Montagnana's, there appears
to be considerable merit in the
melody. Indeed much of
the new taste, and new passages
of this period, seems to have been
derived from Porpora's songs;
and the difference of style and
fancy in the airs of Farinelli with
those that were sung by Nicolini
two or three and twenty years
before, is wonderful. Yet the
1735. Covent-Garden.
Composer, Geo. F. Handel.
Singers : Carestini, Messrs.
Beard, Waltz, Stoppelaer;
Strada, Maria Negri, Mrs.
Young.
January 8th, Ariodante was
first performed. This opera con-
tinued in run, and always by
his Majesty's command, till
March 5th. Some friend of the
composer had endeavoured to
excite expectation in the public
for the Music of this opera, by
inserting in the London Daily
Post, so early as November the
4th of the preceding year, the
following paragraph : "We are
informed, that when Mr. Handel
waited on their Majesties with his
new opera of Ariodante, his
Majesty expressed great satis-
faction with the composition, and
was graciously pleased to sub-
scribe £.1000 towards carrying
on the operas this season at
Covent-Garden."
Nothing but the intrinsic and
sterling worth of the composition
(«) Ottone in Villa, an opera set by the celebrated Vivaldi, was performed at Venice 1729;
whether this or Handel's Music was now used, is difficult to discover.
791
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Opera-House.
songs of Nicolini being the best of
the time, were equally admired
by the public, who reason from
what they hear, and improve in
criticism by excellence in compo-
sition and performance, so much,
as never to tolerate inferiority,
while memory enables them to
form a comparison. The King,
Queen, Prince of Wales, and
Princesses, honoured the first
representation of Polifemo
with their presence, and there
was the fullest house of the
season (x).
This opera, with no other
interruption, than the benefits
continued in run twelve or
thirteen nights.
In Lent, as Handel was to be
attacked at all points, Porpora
had an oratorio of his own
composition, called David, per-
formed at the King's theatre.
In this attack he seems to have
sunk under his antagonist's
superior force and fire. For this
oratorio was executed but three
times, while Handel continued
the performance of different
oratorios, without operas, for
near two months.
April the 8th, Issipile, a
new opera, by a composer
at present unknown, was first
performed; it lived but four
nights when recourse was had
to the favourite opera of
Artaxerxes, which, with several
alterations and additions, was
represented till the 3d of May;
after which, another short-
lived new opera was brought
out, called Ifigenia, which,
after five performances, was
Covent-Garden.
could have enabled Handel at
this time to make head, not only
against four of the greatest
singers that ever trod the opera
stage, but against party pre-
judice, and the resentment,
power, and spleen of the
principal patrons of Music
among the nobility and gentry
of this kingdom. Ariodante was
performed twelve times (y).
After which, as Handel's capital
singers were inferior in number
and renown to those of his rival,
he very wisely discontinued the
performance of operas for a con-
siderable time, and rested his
fame and fortune on his choral
strength in the composition of
oratorios, in which species of
writing posterity has done him
the justice to allow his
superiority in learning, force,
effects, to any composer that the
world has yet seen. Esther was
performed six times this spring;
Deborah thrice; and Athalia five
times.
April 16th, Alcina was first
performed : an opera with which
Handel seems to have van-
quished his opponents, and to
have kept the field near a month
longer than his rival Porpora
was able to make head against
him. This opera, which was
always performed by command
of their Majesties, till the King
went to Hanover, and then by
command of her Majesty only,
till the close of the season, July
2d, sustaining eighteen succesive
representations.
Besides the royal patronage
and public approbation with
(y) We shall review this opera hereafter, in the same manner as the preceding dramatic
productions of Handel.
(x) London Daily Post.
702
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Opera-House. Covent-Garden.
likewise superseded for which Alcina was honoured,
Artaxerxes, which was repeated Handel's friends seem to have
till the 7th of June, when the been zealous and active in his
season was closed with Polifemo, favour : for on the first day of
by command of her Majesty. performance was inserted in the
During the run of Polifemo at London Daily Post, the follow-
the Opera-house, the footmen ing paragraph: " Their
terrifying the ladies by crouding Majesties intend being at the
into the lobby with lighted opera in Covent-Garden to-
flambeaux, and refusing to retire night; and we hear the new
when ordered by the gentlemen, opera will exceed any composi-
created a great disturbance; and tion of Mr. Handel's hitherto
the assistance of the guards performed." And in the middle
having been called for, the of its run, another paragraph
Marquis of Tweedale's servant says: "Last night their Majesties
received a wound of which he and the Princess Amelia were at
died a few days after. the opera of Alcina, which meets
with great applause."
Farinelli sung at a great entertainment given by Count Monti jo,
the Spanish ambassador, at Powys-house: and likewise in a Te
Deum performed at the Portuguese Chapel on the Princess of
Brazil's being brought to bed of a daughter (z).
Carestini, immediately after the twentieth performance of Alcina
set off for Venice, where he was engaged to sing the ensuing season.
The opera of Ariodante was originally written by Antonio
Salvi, and set by Carlo Pollaroli, for Venice. The subject was
taken from the sixth book of Ariosto, and was first performed under
the title of Genevra.
The first movement of the overture to this opera, as set by
Handel, is majestically pleasing; the fugue, upon a plain subject
in triple time, is clear and spirited, but rigidly pursued without
episode, or solo part for wind-instruments. The last movement is
a very agreeable gavot, accented in a way that would admirably
mark the steps of a dance.
The first act opens with a very pleasing air : Vezzi, lusinghe,
with an original and gay accompaniment; it was sung by Strada,
as was the next : Orrida agli occhj miei, which is a cavatina full of
spirit and pleasing passages. The third air: Apri le luci, belongs
to the second woman's part, Dalinda, which was performed by
Miss Cecilia Young, who was afterwards the wife of Dr. Arne.
This part seems to have been intended for another singer, as it is
written in Handel's original score, for a contralto voice, and Mrs.
Arne's was a high soprano. The air is elegantly simple and not
(z) The newspapers of the times tell us that "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
was pleased to make a present of a fine wrought gold snuff-box, richly set with diamonds and
rubies, in which was inclosed a pair of brilliant diamond knee-buckles, as also a purse of one
hundred guineas, to the famous Signor Farinelli, who had constantly attended all his Royal
Highness's concerts since he came from Italy." They likewise have recorded, that he went
to Scarborough in the summer with the Duke of Leeds; a nobleman after whom Farinelli made
great enquiries when I saw him at Bologna in 1770.
793
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
more elaborate than a pleasing ballad. The next air: Coperta la
frode, for the Negri, is not of a more exalted kind; but both have
the stamp of a master upon them. After this, Carestini has a very
beautiful pathetic cavatina: Qui d' amor, upon a very elegant and
original plan : it is accompanied, alia moderna, in a clear and
quiet manner by three violins, tenor, and base, which never disturb
or divert the hearer's attention from the voice-part; in the short
symphony, however, the first violin and violoncello are dialogued
in a very pleasing and masterly manner; and during the song, the
base is silent till there is an opportunity for its saying something
interesting. This air is followed by a very graceful and pleasing
duet, between the two principal characters of the drama : Del Fato
piu inumano. The next air: Volate amori, was a kind of bravura
in its day; but it has now lost its bloom, and is more wrinkled than
any other movement in the opera. This is, however, followed
by an admirable base song : Voli colla sua tromba; it was sung by
Waltz, and accompanied by two French-horns, though the words
called for a trumpet. This air deserves a better singer, for Waltz
had but little voice, and his manner was coarse and unpleasant; but
the rival theatre had not only robbed Handel of his base singer,
Montagnana, but of his trumpet, Snow, who had the brightest tone,
and most accurate intonation, of any performer I ever heard on
that instrument. The poet has given the composer but little variety
of expression and imitation in the latter part of this act, for we have
wings and flying, in almost every air. Con V ali d' amore, the
next air in Carestini's part, is a gay and pleasing bravura of a very
modern cast, except in the divisions, which, as usual, have been
more frequently used by younger composers than the rest. The
subsequent air: Spero per voi, for the Negri, has great spirit and
originality (a) . The next is a slight air : Del mio sol, that was sung
by Mr. Beard; but his part in this opera was certainly not originally
composed for him, any more than that of Miss Young, as the first
is written in the soprano clef, and the second in the contralto.
After a beautiful pastoral symphony, a gay gavot : Se rinasce, sung
in duo, by Carestini and Strada, and repeated in chorus, a ballate,
terminates the first act.
The second is opened with a moonlight scene; and Handel
seems, by a gentle and gradual ascent of two octaves in the principal
melody, of a short, but beautiful symphony, to follow the mild
luminary up to her " highest noon." As the first act, in the poetry,
is monotonously happy, this is replete with scenes of wretchedness
and misery. The first air: Tu preparati a morire, which was sung
by Carestini, is full of rage, distrust, and passion. The second,
sung by Mr. Beard : Tu vivi, seems well calculated for a singer and
actor of spirit; the first bar in this air is frequently introduced in
the accompaniments with great art, as a subject of fugue and
imitation. Carestini has the next air: Scherza infida, which
paints his growing jealousy, indignation, and despair; and is
(a) In this air, Handel is more licentious in the use of discords, than usual, particularly
the seventh with the ninth.
794
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
admirably accompanied by two violins and tenor, con sordini, a
base, pizzicato, and a solo part for the bassoon. This is followed
by a very agreeable Siciliana for the second woman : Se tanto piace.
After which there is a light air: Se lJ inganno, which was sung by
the Negri; and another of a common cast, for Waltz. In Handel's
score, this is followed by a plaintive and charming Siciliana in F
minor, for a base voice : Invida sorte, for which I can find no words
in the libretto. Strada had the next air: Mi palpita il core, which
though short, is characteristic, and of a cast totally different from
all the rest. Beard then had an air: II tuo sangue, full of energy
and fire, which probably, as this seems to have been his first winter
on the stage, contributed to establish his reputation for songs of that
kind. After this, Strada had a fine accompanied recitative, and a
very plaintive air: II mio crudel martoro, by which she is lulled
to sleep; and during her trance, there is a dance, or entree des songe
agreables, the Music of which is sketched out in Handel's foul
score, and with which the acts was terminated (6).
The third act opens with a grave and sorrowful cavatina:
Numi ! lasciarmi vivere, for Carestini; who, after a long recitative,
has another air : Cieca notte, of a bold and original kind. The next
air: Neghittosi, or voi, for the second woman, is extremely
animated; as is that which follows it, in a different style: Dover,
giustizia, for the second man. Strada after this, in the character
of Genevra, has a short, but very pathetic and tender air of suppli-
cation to her offended father: Io ti bacio, o mano augusta. Then
Waltz had a short air; after which, Strada had an impassioned air
of two characters: Si mono; it begins slow and ends quick; the
second movement is very original and masterly. It has a solo
part for the first of four violins, and for the violoncello. Then
Carestini had a very agreeable aria di bravura of considerable
agility, with a modern accompaniment: Dopo notte. After which,
the second man and second woman had a light duet, chiefly in
dialogue: Dite spera. The scene then changes to a dungeon, where
Genevra, the heroine of the piece, is imprisoned; who, after a
complaining recitative, begins a very pathetic air: Manca, oh Dei!
but this is interrupted at the fourth bar by a gay symphony, which
is an introduction to the happy denouement that has been long
thought necessary to the termination of a musical drama; the two
principal characters, Ariodante and Genevra, represented by
Carestini and the Strada, have then a very pleasing duet: Bramo
aver mille vite, upon a plan and subject totally different from any
of Handel's other opera duets, that I can recollect. After this, a
lively chorus and a dance, in which the celebrated Mademoiselle
Salle performed, completed the opera; which, though it has fewer
capital and captivating airs than some of his preceding dramas,
abounds with beauties and strokes of a great master.
(6) Handel has made a memorandum on the first page of his score, that he began to
compose the opera, August 12th, 1734; dates the end of the second act September gth; and
the final chorus October 24th.
795
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The drama of Alcina, taken from the sixth and seventh cantos
of Orlando Furioso, was originally written by Ant. Marchi, and set
for Venice, in 1725, by Tommaso Albinoni. As the Armida of
Tasso is an imitation of the Enchantress of Ariosto, it may be said
that the opera of Alcina has given birth to all the Armidas and
Rinaldos of modern times.
Handel must have set this drama during the violence of his
conflict with the rival theatre, while he was making head against
his opponents, and conducting the performance of Ariodante and
his oratorios; for he dates the end of his work April 8th, 1735, and
it was brought on the stage the 16th of the same month; yet few
of his productions have been more frequently performed, or more
generally and deservedly admired, than this opera. In the
examination of which I shall be the more exact, as some have
imagined that Handel when he composed it, adopting the new taste
which Vinci, Porpora, and Hasse had rendered fashionable in Italy,
had changed his style, and beat them at their own weapons. But
though several airs might be pointed out in which the more modern
dramatic style seems to have been followed, yet the best and most
favourite airs of the opera were certainly composed by Handel in
his own manner, without leaning to that of others, either by
accident or design. Indeed, the airs of this opera may be numbered
and classed in the following manner: arte all' antica, or in Handel's
own style, twenty-one; alia moderna, eight; antica e modema, or
of a mixed style, three (c)*
The overture of Alcina has always been a favourite of the
public. The first movement is dignified with Handel's genuine
gravity and grandeur. The fugue is unusually spirited and active;
and at the eighteenth bar, when there was danger that the close
adherence to the subject and its numerous repetitions would tire the
ear, a new under subject of a totally different cast, is introduced in
the base, and, afterwards, in all the other parts, alternately, in a
very happy and masterly manner. The musette and minuet were
within the comprehension of all hearers, and long served as models
of imitation to our playhouse composers (d).
The chorus of the first act : Questo e il cielo di contento, is set
twice over in Handel's manuscript: first, in the same graceful and
pleasing manner as it is printed; but in the second, he has made
the admirable first movement of his fourth organ concerto, the
ground-work and accompaniment of this chorus. Dl cor mio,
(c) Of the first class are: Chi m insegna; Di te mi rido; Semplicetto; SI son quella;
Tornami; Col celarvi; Pensa a chi; Vorrei vendicarmi; Ama, zospira; Mio bel tesoro; Tra
speme; Ah mio cor; Verdi prati; Ombre pallide; Credete al mio; Un momenio; Ma quando;
AW alma fcdel; Mi restano; the trio, Non £ amor; and the coro finale. Of the second class:
O s' apre al riso; the chorus, Questo e il cielo; La bocca vaga; Qual porlento; Mi lusinga;
E un folle; the accompanied recitative, Ah\ ruggiero; Sta nell' Ircana. And of the third
class : E gelosia; Dl cor mio; and Barbara, Io ben lo so.
{d) Particularly to the late Dr. Howard, in his overture of the Amorous Goddess.
* "Yesterday morning my sister and I went to Mr. Handel's House to hear the first
rehearsal of the new opera Alcina. I think it is the best he ever made, but I have thought so
of so many, that I will not say positively 'tis the finest, but 'tis so fine I have not words to
describe it. . . . Whilst Mr. Handel was playing his part, I could not help thinking him a
necromancer in the midst of his own enchantments." (Mrs. Delaney, quoted by R. A. Streatfield).
796
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Strada's first air, is extremely elegant and pleasing; and La bocca
vaga, in Carestini's part, is full of grace, passion, and new effects.
Qual portento, is grand in the style, original in the accompaniment,
and dramatic in its arrangement. Mi lusinga, is one of the most
graceful and agreeable airs in all Handel's works; and Verdi prati is
always a new and charming composition, whenever it is revived
by a singer of sufficient abilities to do it justice.* Ah! mio cor! has
merit of various kinds, but is peculiarly original and masterly in
the continued activity of the base, and tranquility of the accom-
paniments in the first part, and their spirit in the second. These
six airs are mentioned as capital. And among the agreeable may
be instanced: 0 s' apre riso; Credete al mio dolor; Un momento;
Mi restano; and many more. Some may be praised for their
uncommon spirit: as, E un folle; Sta nelV Ircana; Barbara, io ben
lo so : and others for masterly composition : as, Ombre pdllide, and
the Trio. Upon the whole, if any one of Handel's dramatic works
should be brought on the stage, entire, without a change or mixture
of airs from his other operas, it seems as if this would well sustain
such a revival (e).
Handel having lost his first man, Carestini, was unable to
engage another capital performer to supply his place before the
next year.
The King's theatre was opened by his Majesty's command,
October 28th, with the opera of Polypheme, which had a new run
of eight nights. As this drama was performed twenty-one times in
the course of the year, I was curious to see what share of its
success could be ascribed to the Music; and having been able to
procure a copy of the favourite songs, printed by Walsh during its
run, which are chiefly those that were sung by Farinelli, I shall
speak of each as they affected me on examination. Of the five airs
that were expressly composed for the talents of this great singer,
th? first was a mezza bravura, accompanied on the hautbois by the
celebrated San Martini. Two such performers must have made a
worse production interesting; but the composition now appears
poor, and the passages light and frivolous. The second air, which
abounds with phrases manquees, has long notes in distant intervals,
and brilliant divisions, to display the voice and execution of the
performer. The third air which is a cantabile, has elegant passages,
and seems well calculated to shew the taste and expression of a
superior singer. The fourth air is languid, common, and uninterest-
ing, on paper; how it was embellished and meliorated by the voice
and pathetic powers of Farinelli, those can best imagine, who have
been delighted with the performance of a great singer, in spite of
bad Music. The fifth air is a bravura with innumerable unmeaning
shakes, and divisions that are now become common and insipid.
(e) It is remarkable, that of the original singers in this opera, consisting of three Italian,
three English, and one German, the three English, Mr. Beard, Mr. Savage, and Mrs. Arne,
are still living, though now (in 1788) fifty-three years have elapsed since its first performance.
* Carestini considered the beautiful song, Verdi prati, not good enough for him. He sent
it back to Handel, but after a typical Handelian rejoinder, the singer withdrew his objection
to the Air.
797
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
November 25th, Adriano, a new opera composed by Veracini,
was first represented by his Majesty's command. This opera, of
which though the favourite songs were printed, the plates have been
long lost, ran to the end of the year, having ten representations.*
At this time, though Handel was silent, there were six theatres open
in London: the King's theatre or Opera-house, Drury-lane, Covent-
Garden, Goodman's-Fields, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, and the Little
Theatre in the Hay-market.
1736. This year, like the last, was begun with a revival of
Artaxerxes at the Opera-house, which was performed four times
successively; after which, January 24th, a new opera called
Mitridate, was brought on the stage, of which no composer is
mentioned in the bills of the time, and the airs were never printed.
It was probably a pasticcio, and as it had but four representations,
we may suppose that its favour with the public was not very great.
After this, February 7th, the performance of Veracini's Adriano
was resumed, and repeated seven times.
While these were the transactions of the King's theatre, Handel,
unable to muster a sufficient number of Italian singers for an opera,
set Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, in English, and had it
performed at opera prices during the second run of Adriano at the
rival theatre, under the title of Alexander's Feast [Feb. 19].
The public expectations and effects of this performance seem to
have been correspondent; for the next day we are told in the public
papers (/) that " there never was, upon the like occasion, so
numerous and splendid an audience at any theatre in London,
there being at least thirteen hundred persons present; and it is
judged that the receipt of the house could not amount to less than
£.450. It met with general applause, though attended with the
inconvenience of having the performers placed at too great a
distance from the audience, which we hear will be rectified the
next time of performance." And this happened when Farinelli
was employed at another theatre, supported by the principal
nobility in the kingdom, and when Handel had no other capital
singer in his service than Strada.
Alexander s Feast was performed once a week till March 24th,
when it was changed for Acis and Galatea, which was repeated the
31st. Thus far no organ concerto is mentioned; but April 7th and
14th, when the oratorio of Esther was performed, Handel played
two concertos each night.
At the King's theatre, March 2d, a new pasticcio called Orfeo
was brought on the stage, the airs in which were chiefly selected
from the works of Hasse, Vinci, Araja, and Porpora; this drama
had thirteen representations. Farinelli had again Artaxerxes for
his benefit, Saturday March 27th, with an addition of several new
songs. The same opera was repeated, the Tuesday after, when the
following notice was inserted at the bottom of the bills : ' ' Whereas
(/) London Daily Post, and General Advertiser, February 20th, 1736.
* Adriano was given 17 times in all during the season.
79a
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the repetition of songs adds considerably to the length of the
opera, and has been often complained of, it is hoped no person
will take it ill, if the singers do not comply with encores for the
future." It was very natural for lovers of Music to wish for a
repetition of the delight they received from so exquisite a singer as
Farinelli, and as natural for those whose pleasure was small to think
these repetitions tedious; but it seems as if both parties might have
been satisfied, if an uninteresting song by a bad singer had been
omitted for every one of a different kind that was encored (g) .
After another performance of Artaxerxes, Orpheus was resumed,
and continued in run till April the 13th; when another new opera,
called Honorius, was brought out. But after one performance,
it was withdrawn, and never represented again, as I have been
able to discover.
Handel was still unable to mount the stage for want of
auxiliaries; with which the public was made acquainted by the
following paragraph in the newspapers, April 13th: " We hear
that Signor Conti, who is esteemed the best singer in Italy, being
sent for by Mr. Handel, is expected here in a few days."
After the failure of Honorius at the Opera-house, the managers
had again recourse to Orpheus, April 17th, 29th, and May 1st.
At this time her Serene Highness the Princess of Saxe-Gotha,
to whom his Royal Highness Frederic Prince of Wales had been
affianced, was daily expected, and all the theatres were eager to
manifest their zeal in the celebration of so great an event as the
royal nuptials. The Princess landed at Greenwich, on Sunday
April 25th, where her Highness continued on Monday to repose
herself after the fatigues of her voyage; and on Tuesday the 27th
the marriage was solemnised in the Chapel Royal, at St. James's.
Operas had been advertised for this week at both the lyric theatres :
Orfeo at the Hay-market for Tuesday, and Ariodante at Covent-
Garden for Wednesday; but both were postponed on this important
occasion. On Thursday, however, the opera of Orfeo was performed
at the Hay-market, and honoured with the presence of their
Majesties, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and all the royal
family. On Saturday, the same opera was repeated, and again
honoured with the presence of their Royal Highnesses the Prince
and Princess of Wales; and on the Tuesday following, May
4th, a Theatrical Feast was promised in honour of the royal
nuptials (h).
As yet there had been no opera at Co vent-Garden; but a
paragraph in the daily papers informed the public, that Handel
had composed an opera on the occasion of his Royal Highness' s
(g) I know it will be said by those who love poetry better than Music, that this would
ruin the drama; but as the business of the drama is chiefly transacted in the recitative, and
as few people interest themselves in England about an Italian drama, the evil would not be
insupportable.
_ (h) This was a drama written by Paolo Rolli, and set by Porpora on the occasion,
entitled, The Feast of Hymen : Festa a" Imeneo, per le nozze reale di Frederico Prencipe
reale di Vallia e Principe Elettorale di Hanover, con la serenissima Principessa Augusta di
Sax-Gotha. Farinelli sung in this drama, which was performed in the manner of an oratorio,
with only one fixed scene, painted by Kent.
799
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
marriage; but as the wedding had been solemnised sooner than was
expected, great numbers of artificers, as painters, carpenters,
engineers, &c. were employed to forward it with the utmost expedi-
tion; and that several singers who had been sent for from Italy
for that purpose were lately arrived, and would make their first
appearance in the opera of Ariodante."
Opera House [1736].
On Tuesday, May 4th, Porpora's drama called the Feast of
Hymen was first performed. We are not told how it was received;
but if we may judge from the shortness of its existence, its constitu-
tion was not very robust; for it only survived four representations.
After which Adriano was resumed, and represented four times;
which, with one performance of Artaxerxes and four of Orpheus,
brought the season to a conclusion, June 22d.
Indeed, there are no memorials of the uncommon prosperity
of this theatre at a time of such universal joy and festivity.
Covent Garden [1736],
On Wednesday, May 5th, Handel began his campaign with
the revival of Ariodante, an opera of the preceding year.
The next day the following eulogium on his new singer was
inserted in the Daily Post: " last night Signor Gioachino Conti
Gizziello [1714-61], who made his first appearance in the opera
of Ariodante. met with an uncommon reception; and in justice
both to his voice and judgment, he may be truly esteemed one of
the best performers in this kingdom." Neither his friends nor the
friends of Handel could venture to say more, while Farinelli was
in the kingdom. Conti was at this time a young singer, more of
promising, than mature, abilities; and so modest and diffident, that
when he first heard Farinelli, at a private rehearsal, he burst into
tears, and fainted away with despondency. He had his cognomen
of Gizziello from his master Gizzi, once an eminent stage singer,
who, in his old age, became an excellent master. Gizziello after he
quitted England studied with such diligence and success, that he
turned the tables, by exciting envy in Farinelli, at Madrid, where
he sung with uncommon applause in the operas under his direction.
He was one of the constellation of great singers which the King
of Portugal had assembled together in 1755 (i)* And narrowly
escaping with his life, during the earthquake which happened at
Lisbon that year, he was impressed with such a religious turn by
that tremendous calamity, that he retreated to a monastery, where
he ended his days. It was soon after this event that Guadagni
shut himself up in the same convent, not so much for spiritual
consolation as musical counsel; which he so effectually obtained
from the friendship of Gizziello, that from a young and wild singer
(i) These were, according to Pacchierotti : Elisi, Manzoli, CaSarelli, Gizziello, Veroli,
Babbi, Luciani, Raaf, Raina, and Guadagni.
* Conti appears to have left the stage about 1753- After the earthquake in 1755 he returned
to Naples, the place of his birth.
800
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
of the second and third class, he became, in many respects, the
first singer of his time.
After a second performance of Ariodante, May 7th, Handel
brought out his opera of " Atalanta [May 12, 1736], composed
on occasion of an illustrious marriage." May 13th, the following
paragraph appeared in the Daily Post : ' ' Last night was performed
at the theatre-royal Covent-Garden, for the first time, the opera of
Atalanta, composed by Mr. Handel on the joyous occasion of the
nuptiels of their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales.
In which was a new set of scenes painted in honour of the happy
union, which took up the full length of the stage: the fore-part
of the scene represented an avenue to the Temple of Hymen,
adorned with statues of Heathen Deities. Next was a triumphal
arch, on the summit of which were the arms of their Royal High-
nesses. Under the arch was the figure of Fame on a cloud, sounding
the praises of this happy pair. The names Fredericus and
Augusta appeared above in transparent characters. The opera
concluded with a grand chorus, during which, several beautiful
illuminations were displayed. There were present, their Majesties,
the Duke, and the four Princesses, accompanied with a very
splendid audience, and the whole was received with universal
acclamations (k)." This opera continued in run till the end of the
season; June the 2d, it was performed by command of the Queen,
the Duke, and Princesses; and on the 9th, when the season closed,
her Majesty likewise honoured it with her presence (I).
Proposals for printing the opera of Atalanta in score, by sub-
scription, were published immediately after its first performance;
and early in June it was ready to deliver to the subscribers, who
amounted to about one hundred and eighty.
The overture of Atalanta is uncommonly gay and spirited, as the
hilarity of the occasion required. The fugue, different from most
of Handel's other overture fugues, which are often upon grave
ecclesiastical subjects, is light and airy; and the trumpet part,
intended to display the tone and abilities of Snow, who had returned
to his orchestra, has fewer notes that are naturally and inevitably
imperfect in the instrument, than common. The fourth of the key
is, however, too much used even for vulgar ears to bear patiently
(m). The gavot is marked, pleasing, and popular.
The singers in this opera were Signor Conti, usually called
Gizziello, Signora Strada, Signora Maria Negri, with Messrs. Beard,
Waltz, and Reinhold.
Conti' s two first songs in the first act (n), seem to have been
written to his new, graceful, and pathetic style of singing. Beard's
(£) The royal bride and bridegroom were this evening at Drury-Iane to see the tragedy
of Cato, and the farce of Taste a la mode.
{D The King set out for Germany this year the 22d of May.
(m) At the sixty-fourth and sixty-fifth bars, and the seventy-seventh, eightieth, and
eighty-first, the G is intolerable. Indeed, whenever the fourth or sixth of the key is otherwise
used than as a passing-note, the ear is offended.
(») Care selve and Lascia, ch' io fiaria solo.
Vol. ii. 51. 801
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
first song: S'e tuo piacer, is extremely agreeable, and of a kind
which not only pleased the age in which is was produced, but will
always please, when well sung. Waltz's air: Impara ingrata, has
in it many passages and strokes of a great master (o). The Negri's
air: Come alia tortorella, is an elegant pastoral. Strada's first air:
Al varco, is of a very peculiar cast; it is as spirited and original as
her next air : Ripertai gloriosa palma, is elegant, gay, and uncom-
mon. The last air in the first act: Non saria poco, for Conti, contains
many agreeable passages; the base and accompaniments are of a
modern cast, and, except the closes and two or three of the
divisions, the whole seems of the present age.
The chorus which opens the second act: Oggi rimbombano, is
gay and pleasing. Strada's first air: Lassal ch' io t' ho perduta;
and the subsequent duet: Amarillil oh, Dei\ are more in Handel's
own early style than any of the movements in the first act. Conti' s
second air: Si, mel ricorderb is likewise all' antica', as is Beard's
Di ad Irene. The air for Negri: Soffri ni pace is of the same
ancient cast, but extremely agreeable; and the accompaniment,
all' ottava, was not common at that time, and has a very pleasing
effect. Contis air: M' allontano, is more modern; and Strada's:
Se nasce un rivoletto, is a pleasing minuet, but not very new. This
air finishes the second act, which we find, by Handel's dates, was
composed in five days (p).
The third act is opened with a short, but spirited and agreeable
symphony. The first air: Ben ch' io non sappia, is new and
ingenious, and so much the composer's own property, that it
cannot be classed with any thing else, either ancient or modern.
Beard's air: Diedi il core, is gay and pleasing; but has a tiresome
rosalia of a common passage. The Negri's air: Ben' io sento, is
new, in an old style of jig. The next short air, or cavatina:
Custodite, o dolci sogni, for Strada, with no other accompaniment
than a violoncello, would have but little effect from an ordinary
singer, but is a canevas for a great singer that would admit of fine
colouring. The air Sol prova, for Reinhold, is not in Handel's
usual bold style of base song; by being more modern, it is more
feeble. Or trionfar, is a much better air; but that and another:
Tu solcasti, which are in the original score, have not been printed.
Of the first, indeed, the words do not appear in the libretto, any
more than of the duet : Cara, nel tuo bel volto, which is an agree-
able mixture of antica e moderna, or rather Corelli highly polished.
The gavot in the last chorus, from its facility and familiar style, was
long a national favourite.
Handel never till now had a first man to write for with so high
a soprano voice. Nicolini, Senesino, and Carestini, were all
contraltos. There was often dignity and spirit in their style; but
Drag(oL^Sley%MtSqwUordd fafe.1""'* °f ** * * 0hl °k] «"'" *»"• °* fte
802
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Conti had delicacy and tenderness, with the accumulated refine-
ments of near thirty years, from the time of Handel's first tour to
Italy. I think it is not difficult to discover, particularly in the
first act, that in composing Conti's part in this opera, he modelled
his melody to the school of his new singer. Indeed, Handel was
always remarkably judicious in writing to the taste and talents of
his performers; in displaying excellence, and covering imperfectons.
Very soon after the two opera-houses were shut up, the public
was informed, by a paragraph in the daily paper, that " several
persons were sent to Italy from the two theatres, to engage
additional voices for carrying on the operas next season : and that
Signor Domenichino, one of the best singers in Italy, was engaged
by Mr. Handel, and expected over in a short time."
It appears that Farinelli, during the summer of this year, made
an excursion to France, as an article from Paris in the Daily Post
of September 13th informs us, that " his most Christian Majesty
had lately made a present to that celebrated performer of his
picture set in diamonds."
Strada likewise made a tour to the continent; as the same paper,
October 5th, says, that " last night the famous Signora Strada
arrived from Holland, expressly to sing next Thursday in a concert
of Music at the Swan Tavern, in Exchange-alley." The arrival
of Signor Domenico Anibali, " a famous singer from the court of
Saxony, engaged for Mr. Handel's operas," was likewise announced
the same day. And soon after, it was said that this performer had
been sent for to Kensington, " when he had the honour to sing
several songs before her Majesty and the Princess, who expressed
the highest satisfaction at his excellent voice, and the judicious
manner of his performance."
These paragraphs seem chiefly to favour Handel; but November
18th, the Daily Post informs us, that " Signora Merighi, Signora
Chimenti, and the Francesina (three singers lately come from Italy
for the Royal Academy of Music), had the honour to sing before
her Majesty, the duke, and princesses, at Kensington, on Monday
night last, and met with a most gracious reception; and her
Majesty was pleased to approve their several performances: after
which the Francesina performed several dances to the entire
satisfaction of the court."
Handel, however, this season, got the start of his opponents,
and opened his theatre more than three weeks before them. The
Opera-house was repairing, and not ready for use till late in
November; and on the first of that month a paragraph tells us,
that their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales
intended to honour Mr. Handel with their presence on Saturday next
at the opera of Alcina : ' 'which is the reason for performing operas
earlier in the season than intended." And accordingly on the 6th
of November, this opera was revived and performed by command
of their Royal Highnesses, "to a numerous and splendid audience."
On the 10th and 13th, this opera was repeated; and on the 20th,
803
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Atalanta was revived in honour of the Princess of Wales's birthday,
at the end of which were exhibited on the stage " several fine
devices in fire-works, proper to the occasion." Their Royal
Highnesses were present at this performance; which was repeated
the 27th. The opera of Poms was to have been revived by command
of the Prince and Princess of Wales, December 1st, when Annibali
was to have made his first appearance; but Strada having been
taken ill of a fever and sore throat, the company was dismissed and
the performance postponed till the 8th, when it was honoured with
her Majesty's presence. This opera, which had now five representa-
tions, continued in run till January of the next year. Of the voice
and abilities of the new singer, Domenico Anibali, we shall be
better able to speak in reviewing an opera in which a part was
expressly composed for him, as it is probable that the songs which
were assigned to him in Porus, had been originally written for
Senesino.
The other lyric theatre began the season November 23d, with a
new opera called Siroe, composed by Signor Hasse. This is the
first time that I ever perceived the composer of an opera named in
the advertisements and bills of the day. In all probability it was
now thought of consequence to mention Hasse, whose reputation
was very high at this time in all parts of Europe, otherwise the
opera would have been thought the production of Porpora.
The favourite songs of this opera were published by Walsh
during its first run, and I have them now before me. They were
certainly written in the best taste of the times. There is not, indeed,
the bold and vigorous invention, the richness of harmony, or
ingenuity of accompaniment, which abound in the operas of
Handel; but with respect to clearness, grace, and elegance, there
is infinite merit in these early songs of Hasse. The first air that
was printed in Siroe: Gelido in ogni vena, which was sung by
Tolve, an obscure singer, has a beautiful continued accompaniment
in triplets, to a melody that is grand and dramatic; and the closes
to this and the subsequent airs are, in general, such as were then
new, and which are still in use. Chimenti, the first woman, this
year, had a very pleasing air, in the simple and elegant style of
Vinci: Sorger' benigna. Farinelli had another of the same kind,
with a little more execution : Deh se placer; and an aria di bravura :
Parto con V alma in pene, of which the most extraordinary
passages will be exhibited on the next plates, filled with his peculiar
difficulties of execution.
1737. After eight representations of this opera, in November
and December, it was reinforced January 1st by an intermezzo, or
comic interlude, called II Giocatore, the first of the kind which
was ever introduced between the acts of an Italian opera in England
(q). This opera and intermezzo were repeated January 4th at the
(q) Her Majesty, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the duke, and all the princesses were
at this opera the first night the Giocatore was performed; the King did not return from his
German dominions till the middle of January, having been detained at Helvoetsluis upwards
of five weeks by contrary winds.
804
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
King's theatre; and on the 5th, Handel's Porus was performed at
Co vent-garden. On the 8th, Merope, a new opera, was first
performed at the King's theatre; and on the 12th, Arminio,
entirely new set by Handel, was brought out at Covent-garden (r).
These two dramas were run against each other for upwards of three
weeks; but neither of them seem to have been very successful:
for on the third night of Merope it was thought necessary to tack
to it the intermezzo of the Giocatore; and on the sixth and seventh
the two last of its representations, a new interlude, called
Pourceaugnac and Griletta; and, after five representations of
Arminio, Handel was forced to discontinue its performance and
revive Parthenope.
The composition of Arminio was finished October 3d, 1736,
though it was not performed till the January following. The
beginning of the first movement of the overture is very beautiful,
from the happy and masterly use that is made of the moto contrario,
or contrary motion of the parts. The fugue is written upon a
curious subject in triple time, which none but a veteran in that kind
of writing would have ventured to treat. The minuet, indeed, is
not very striking, and the whcle overture, perhaps for that reason,
was never in high favour.
The singers in this opera were Conti, Annibale, Strada, Bertolli,
Maria Negri, Beard, and Reinhold.
In examining Handel's score of this opera, though there are but
few captivating airs, and none that I remember to have been revived
in modern times, yet fine things frequently occur which catch the
eye, and manifest the great master. There is much art in the
composition of Strada's air in the first act: Scagliano amore.
Annibale's first air: Al par della mia sorte, discovers his voice to
have been a counter-tenor, which Handel gave him an opportunity
of displaying by a messa di voce, or swell, at the beginning; but no
peculiar taste, expression, or powers of execution, appear in his
part; his bravura air in the second act: Si cadrb, contains only
common and easy passages. His abilities during his stay in
England seem to have made no deep impression, as I never
remember him to have been mentioned by those who constantly
attended the operas of those times, and were rapturists in speaking
of the pleasure they had received from singers of the first class.* The
cavatina: Duri lacci, which he had in the second act, is in a fine style
of pathetic. The bravura for Conti: Quella fiamma, in the same
act, and which was accompanied on the hautbois, by Martini,
though spirited, contains but a few passages worthy of such a singer,
or such a player. Vado a morir, is a very fine slow air in Annibali's
part, that is written in Handel's most solemn and best style. The
next air, for Strada : Rendimi il dolce sposo, is an elegant and
original strain, alia Siciliana. Annibali's accompanied recitative, in
(r) This drama had been performed on our stage to other Music, 1714. The Prince and
Princess of Wales honoured Handel's opera with their presence the first night of its
performance.
■* Mrs. Delaney wrote that Annibali had "the best part of Senesino's voice and Carestino's,
with a prodigious fine taste and good action."
805
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the third act: Fier teatro di morti; and the air: Ritorno alle
ntorte, are in a grand and dramatic style. Vol, combatti, for Strada,
has original passages and peculiar difficulties of execution.
Upon the whole, it seems as if Handel had more bases and
accompaniments in iterated notes, in this opera, than in any
preceding work. He was advancing rapidly in the modern style
of opera songs, when he quitted the stage, and retreated back to
a more solemn and solid style for the church. It is chiefly in writing
for Conti and Annibali that the conformity to a different style from
his own appears. Strada was a singer formed by himself, and
modelled on his own melodies. She came hither a coarse and
aukward singer with improvable talents, and he at last polished
her into reputation and favour. For which her husband, Del P6,
was the most ready to serve him — with a writ, when his affairs
were deranged by opposition and misfortune (s). For Beard,
Reinhold, and the Negri, he still adhered to his own early style.
A subscription was opened for printing the whole opera of
Arminio, in score, at half a guinea, the second day of performance.
The list of subscribers was published with the book, which did not
amount to one hundred and fifty. But the being able to publish
so many of his works in score, while those of his rivals were suffered
to die in silence, after a short existence, manifests the different
degree of respect in which Handel's compositions were held by the
public (t).
The attractions of Merope and Arminio being found insufficient
to draw company to the lyric theatres, while new operas were
preparing to supersede them, Siroe had three representations at the
Hay-market, and Parthenope as many at Cov en t- garden.
February 12th, the opera of Demetrio, by Pescetti, was first
performed at the King's theatre, with the comic interlude called
II Giocatore; and on the 16th, at Co vent-garden, a new opera set by
Handel, called Giustino, or Justin. These two operas were run
against each other till Lent; when Handel, probably to counteract
or shun the centripetal force of Farinelli's attraction, gave notice
at the bottom of the opera bills, that " the days of performance
during Lent would be on Wednesdays and Fridays." But it seems
as if a prohibition from the Lord Chamberlain, or the legislature,
had obliged him to relinquish this idea: for on Friday, March 11th,
the editor of the London Daily Post says " we hear since operas
have been forbid being performed at the theatre in Covent-garden
on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, Mr. Handel is preparing
Dryden's Ode of Alexander's Feast, the oratorios of Esther and
Deborah, with several new concertos for the organ and other
instruments; also a new entertainment of Music called II Trionfo del
(s) See Sketch of his Life.
(<) The favourite songs in Adriano by Veracini and Orfeo by Hasse, were, indeed,
published by Walsh; but the plates have been long lost, and none of them were thought worth
inserting in Le delizie dell' opera. Mitridate, Onorio, La Festa d' Imeneo, Merope, Tito, and
Demofonte, in all which Farinelli performed, were never published, as I have been able to
discover either from Walsh's catalogues or the newspapers of the times. In 1738, when the
subscription to Faramond was closed, Walsh advertised it with seventeen other Italian
operas of Handel, which had been published in score.
806
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Tempo, e della Verita, which performances will be brought on the
stage and varied every week."*
From this period may be dated the custom to which Handel
afterwards adhered, of performing oratorios only on Wednesdays
and Fridays during Lent, not merely on account of their gravity and
fitness for that holy time, but to avail himself of the suspension of
all other public amusements which were likely to divide the public
attention and favour.
It appears from the newspapers of the time, that, besides five
Wednesdays and Fridays at the beginning of Lent, Handel was
allowed to perform oratorios on the four first days of Passion-week :
for on Monday, April the 4th [1737], was advertised II Trionfo del
Tempo; Tuesday the 5th, Alexander's Feast; and on Wednesday the
6th, and Thursday the 7th, the oratorio of Esther.
It does not appear that their Majesties went either to a play or
an opera during this whole season, probably on account of the bad
state of the Queen's health; but their Royal Highnesses the Prince
and Princess of Wales very frequently honoured Handel's oratorios
with their presence.
The favourite songs in Pescetti's [c. 1704 — c. 1766] opera of
Demetrio, which had fourteen representations, were printed by
Walsh. The air : Non so frena, which was sung by Farinelli, is in
good taste still. This composer, who was a Venetian and scholar
of Lotti, though he never had much fire or fertility of invention, was
a very elegant and judicious writer for the voice. His melodies are
extremely simple and graceful. He was in strict friendship with
several of the greatest singers of his time, particularly Manzoli,
who was so partial to his natural easy style, that it was with
reluctance he sung any other Music (x).
Handel's opera of Justin, which started with Demetrio, having
been stopt in Lent, after the fifth representation, was not resumed
till the month of May, when the oratorios were over, and then was
performed but twice more, yet this opera has too much merit to
be passed over in silence. I shall therefore, from a perusal of the
original score, speak of it in the same discriminate manner as of his
preceding dramas.
The overture of Justin may be numbered among the most
agreeable of Handel's dramatic symphonies. The first movement,
though shorter than usual, is not deficient in dignity or spirit; and the
fugue, upon a natural and lively subject, is admirably worked; nor
(x) Pescetti came to England this year, to supply the place of Porpora, and remained
here a considerable time. In 1739, he published a book of harpsichord lessons, which he
dedicated to the Hon. Miss Boyle, daughter of the Lord Viscount Shannon; it consists of nine
sonatas, with the overture Nel vello d' oro, adapted to the harpsichord for a tenth; and
some ariette nell' opere sue. There are several flimsy fugues on common subjects, and the
overture is a feeble imitation of Handel's style. There are, however, some agreeable
movements among the lessons; but they could afford but little pleasure, at that time, to those
who had been accustomed to the rich harmony and contrivance of Handel. Pescetti quitted
England about the year 1740, and we heard but little about him, till the arrival of Mansoli,
whose three favourite airs in the opera of Ezio : Recagli quell' acciaro; Caro mio bene addio;
and Mi dona mi rendi, by Piscetti, all in different styles, are still remembered with pleasure.**
* II Trionfo del Tempa was composed at Rome in 1708. For this revival Handel composed
several new pieces.
** Pescetti was made a Director of Covent Garden Theatre in 1739, and in 1740 was
appointed to a similar position at the King's Theatre. He remained in England considerably
longer than Burney states.
807
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is the last movement, in a gavot style, inferior to any overture
finale of that kind.
The singers in this opera were the same as in Arminio. The
poem was written originally for Venice by the Count Nicolo
Beregani, and had been set by Legrenzi, and afterwards by
Tommaso Albinoni.
The first act opens with a short gay chorus. Conti sung the
first air: Tin vostro sguardo, which is very pleasing, alia moderna.
The first close in this air was soon after copied by Arne in his popular
song of Rule Britannia, in Alfred. The next air: Da tuoi begV
occhj, for Strada, is graceful and charming; a passage in this air
was long after imitated by Perez. Pub ben nastere, for Annibali,
is a very pleasing cavatina, in Handel's first manner. Bel restoro,
an invocation to sleep, for the same singer, is excellent. Corri,
vola, preceded by a long symphony, and terminated by a chorus,
has great spirit, and is in Handel's most nervous style. The
accompanied recitative : Chi mi chiama, and the subsequent air : Se
pari a, for the contralto Annibali, are dramatic and full of fire.
Nacque al bosco, for the second woman, Bertolli, is a very graceful
and pleasing air of a very modern cast. Handel had at first set these
words in a different but less pleasing manner, as appears by his foul
score, where the first sketch is cancelled. E virtute, is a base song,
in jig time, but not in Handel's best style. Alloy ch' io forte, is a
capital air in nine parts, with pleasing solo passages and echoes for
the French-horn and hautbois. Conti's next air: Non si vanli,
is of two characters : the first, graceful and ingeniously accompanied;
the second, passionate and accompanied in a modern style. AW
armi, is a cavativa of a bold and military cast, for Mr. Beard. Vanni,
si, is another spirited air for the same singer (y). In the last air
of the first act : Mio dolce amato sposo, which is extremely pathetic,
Handel has made a very new and curious use of chromatic intervals.
The second act opens with a storm and ship-wreck, during which
a spirited symphony is played, which is good composition, but not
picturesque. This is followed by a short but lively base song, for
Reinhold : Ritrosa bellezza. In the third scene of this act,
fragments of a plaintive air are repeated by an echo; after which,
while Justin engages and slays a sea-monster, a most animated and
descriptive symphony is played. This is followed by a duet : Mio
bel tesoro, which would have been very graceful and pleasing, if
the first bar had not been so often repeated. After this there is a
short and gay chorus of mariners : Per voi soave. The next is a
cavatina for the Negri : Sventurata navicella, of a very lively and
modern cast. The subsequent air: Verdi lauri, though now a little
passee, is full of Handel's native fire and spirit. This is followed
by an air for Annibali : SulV altar, in a very grand and masterly
style. The last air in the act : Quel torrente, seems written for the
display of Strada's powers of execution, with a quiet
accompaniment, alia modeyna.
(y) Arne took a favourite passage from this song, when he set "Would
noon-tide air," in Comus, at the words, "to love's alarms."
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The first air in the third act, for Conti : 0 fiero e rio sospetto, is
a very beautiful Siciliana. A spirited symphony, and an air for
Mr. Beard : 27 piacer, in which though some of the passages have
been since in very common use, there are very strong marks of
Handel's bold and original genius. The next air, for Conti:
Zeffiretto, is an admirable cantabile, in a very modern style of
pathetic; as the next air: Re sdegnato, is of spirit and passion. And
these are still followed by an exquisite air: II mio cor, for Strada,
in such an elegant and masterly style of composition as was but
little known in any part of Europe at this time. The base of the
next air : Augelletti reminds us a little of that to the celebrated jig in
Corelli's fifth solo. The next short air: Dell' occaso, has Handel's
stamp upon it, particularly in the base. There are besides two or
three fragments of fine accompanied recitative, and several pleasing
airs in this last act, as Sollevar il mondo, for Annibali, which is very
modern; Or che cinto, for Reinhold; Ti rendo questo cor, for Strada;
and the finale: In braccio a te la calma, which is a charming
quintetto, that terminates in a chorus. Upon the whole, this opera,
so seldom acted and so little known, seems to me one of the most
agreeable of Handel's dramatic productions.
It is said in the newspapers of the time, that their Royal
Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales were at the sixth
representation of> the opera of Justin, at which time '■' it was
performed to a splendid audience." When this was discontinued,
Handel revived Parnasso in Festa, March the 9th, as an oratorio,
'"' with concertos on several instruments (z)." This was performed
three times : Alexander's Feast twice; and, March 23d, Il Trionfo
del Tempo, e della Verita, by command of their Royal
Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. It is called " a
new oratorio, with concertos on the organ and other instruments
(a)." It was repeated the 25th, and, according to the newspapers,
"to a crouded audience." Alexander's Feast was performed
again, March 30th, and oratorios April 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th,
the last four being in Passion-week.
On Wednesday the 13th of April was performed for the first
time, at Covent-garden, by Handel's singers and band, a new opera
called Dido, concerning the Music of which I am unable to give
any account. The songs were never printed, and no record remains
of the existence of this opera but the advertisements of its
performance, by which it cannot be discovered whether it was an
entire work, by one composer, or a pasticcio by many composers;
perhaps this opera was brought out during Handel's illness, for
after three representations, at the distance of a week from each
other, April 30th was inserted the following paragraph in the London
{z) These were Handel's grand concertos, which were now printing by subscription at
two guineas the twelve, and of which during this and the next season, besides Handel's organ
concertos, two were generally played between the several parts of his oratorios.
(a) This oratorio to Italian words was first set by Handel at Naples, 1710 [1708]. His
Majesty is in possession of the score in its original form.*
* II Trionfo del Tempo was first performed in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni at Rome.
809
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Daily Post: " Mr. Handel, who has been some time indisposed
with the rheumatism, is in so fair a way of recovery, that it is hoped
he will be able to accompany the opera of Justin on Wednesday
next, the 4th of May; at which time we hear their Majesties will
honour that opera with their presence."* Justin was performed
that day, and on the 1 1th; but it does not appear that their Majesties
were there. However, May 18th the King, Queen, and all the royal
family were present at the first performance of a new opera set by
Handel, called Berenice. This was the last drama which Handel
composed for a set of singers in his own service, and the last in
which Conti, better known afterwards by the name of Gizziello,
and the Strada, sung for him (b).
The first movement of the overture is peculiarly majestic and
masterly. The subject, led off by the first violin, and regularly
answered by the tenor, second violin, and base, is spirited and
pleasing; but the modulation in the fourth bar, by the D flat in the
base, is remarkably striking and unexpected. The fugue, on a
lively subject, is closely pursued without episode, or solo parts for
wind-instruments, from the beginning to the end. But the slow air,
in triple time, is one of the most graceful and pleasing movements
that has ever been composed. The two violins are in unison; but the
harmony between them, the tenor, and base, is purity itself; and the
imitation between the treble and base, at the ninth bar of the
second part, is happy and pleasing to an uncommon degree. Of the
final jig, I shall say nothing, but that I am sorry it was ever
composed and printed, as it is totally unnecessary, and unworthy of
the rest of the overture.
The first air: No, che servire, sung bv Strada, is in a very
uncommon style, and supported and accompanied with spirit and
ingenuity. In the second air: Vedi V ape, which is very gay and
pleasing, he has endeavoured to express in the accompaniment the
restless state of the bee, who flies from flower to flower in search
of fresh sweets. The next air: Che sara, which was composed for
Conti, has many pretty passages in it of a modern cast, and an
accompaniment that is extremely gay and pleasing:
This passage was afterwards transplanted into the symphony of
Sweet bird. There is a leap of a 9th in the voice-part of this song
of which the design or beauty is not easy to discover :
m
rt
:ee££
5S=3E
mv • si :
EtTTTH
J se Centre dispreziaal- Let- tacosi
(6) According to memorandums made by Handel himself in his original score, this opera
was composed in a month, being begun December 18th, 1736, and finished the 18th of January,
1737-
* Unfortunately, instead of recovering from his indisposition, Handel was getting
steadily worse.
8lO
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After this, Annibali had an air : Nd, soffrir non pud, in a fine style
of cantabile; which is followed by a dramatic air for Bertolli, in a
very different style: Gelo, avampo. The next: Con gli strali d'
amor, is of no great importance (c); but it is followed by an air for
Strada: Dice amor, full of grace and gaiety. The next air: Senza
nudrice, for the Negri, has pleasing passages in it, but Handel,
who was seldom licentious, sometimes tries experiments. In the
third bar of the symphony to this song, for instance, there is a
passage which is aukward to the hand, and unpleasant to the ear.
Conti, after this, has an air: Quell' ogetto, of a pleasing cast; in
the second part of which an ingenious use is made of the moto
conirario, which, in modern times, has been often practised as a
new contrivance. The next movement, which terminates the first
act, is a very fine duet, for a soprano and contralto : Se il mio
amor, in which there is an agreeable mixture of ancient and modern
styles (d).
The second act begins with a very beautiful cavatina, for
Annibali : Se non ho V idol mio, calculated to display a fine counter-
tenor voice. Mr. Beard after this had a spirited air: Guerra e
pace, in a style which now appears somewhat antique, but with
Handel's science and force, it will always have its merit. The
subsequent air for Strada; Sempre dolce, has a mixture of tender-
ness and spirit that is extremely agreeable. The next whole scene
is rendered interesting by an accompanied recitative, and an air:
Su megera, which, though it abounds with divisions and passages
that now seem old-fashioned, has others which will always appear
new, and mark the great master, particularly the use that is made
in the symphony and accompaniment of a single semiquaver.
This is followed by an aria di cantabile, for Conti, without a second
part, in an exquisite style of pathetic: Mio bel sol; in which there
is not a passage that has suffered by time or fluctuations in taste.
The next air: La bella mano, for the same singer, though of an
inferior kind, is not without its beauties. But the spirited air
which was given to Annibali, in the next scene: Amore contro
amor, has perhaps the most elegant and new symphony and
accompaniment, that can be found in any opera song of that period.
The next : Senza te, is a slight base song; and the subsequent air :
Traditore, is not Very striking as a single air, though set with great
propriety for the drama. After this, there is an air: Si, tra i
ceppi, of which the composition is excellent, in point of harmony
and contrivance; but it is in a dry and laboured style, which has
been long since banished from the opera, as undramatic. The
next air, however: Si poco e forte, which is the last in the act,
has so much originality, that I can scarce recollect any thing like
(c) The most remarkable thing belonging to this air is, that it begins on the sixth of
the key :
m CD-3lr~^
(d) Fine dell' atto primo, December 27th, 1736.
8ll
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
it, elsewhere, except in Eman. Bach's second set of sonatas
printed by Walsh. But the measure, § which renders the melody
and accents so singular, has not precluded grace, and pleasing
effects. The second part of this air is impassioned, and of a
different measure and character from the first, with accompaniments,
alia moderna (e).
The third act opens with a bold and spirited symphony for
three violins, tenor, and base, in which the five parts are very
busy and the harmony very full. The first air : Per fi bella cagion,
for Annibali, in which the parts begin in unisons and octaves, is
admirably written in Handel's early and masterly manner. The
second air: Chi t' intende, for Strada, is a very elaborate and fine
composition, with a solo part for the hautbois. This air is of two
characters: it begins slow, ad libitum, then changes to an allegro,
and has frequent changes of measure throughout. This seems the
Erincipal aria d' abilita of the heroine of the drama. It is followed
y a very pathetic air, for Bertolli : Tortorella, che rimira, in which
Handel has an ingenious imitation, in the symphony and
accompaniment, of the cooing of the dove. The next air: Questa
qual sia, for the same counter-tenor voice, is graceful and pleasing.
After this, there is a kind of duet, in dialogue : Le dirai, to a natural
air in gavot time; which is followed by a very beautiful and
pathetic Siciliana, for Conti : In quella sola. After this there is an
animated processional symphony; which is followed by a very
graceful and pleasing duet : Quel bel labbro, for the two principal
singers. Then there is a very gay and pleasing air: Le vicende
della sorte, for Annibali, which, with the final chorus, terminates
the opera (/). A production, which, with all its excellence, was
represented but four times. After which, with the performance of
Dido, Alicina, Justin, and, by command of the Prince and Princess
of Wales, Alexander' s Feast, Handel concluded his season, Tune
25th.
His antagonists at the Opera-house were not able to keep the
field so long. After thirteen representations of Demetrio, with
(e) Handel's date of the second act is, London, fine dell' atto secondo, Jan. 7th, 1736, but
he must mean OS.
(/) In the original score is the following memorandum, by the composer:
812
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
intermezzos, Tito, a new opera, was brought out, which lived but
four nights. Then, as the last effort, April 26th, another new
opera was announced by the following pompous paragraph in the
newspapers: " Signor Rolli's new opera called Sabrina, was
rehearsed yesterday in Mr. Heidegger's apartments. The Signora
Marchesini, lately arrived from Italy, performed in it with universal
approbation; and we hear that their Royal Highnesses the Prince
and Princesses of Wales, to whom she sung on last Friday night at
court, intend to honour the entertainment with their presence this
evening at the theatre-royal in the Hay-market. The Signora
Marchesini's songs are distributed after such a judicious manner, by
the ingenious author, so as to rise gradually upon the audience in
each act."
Notwithstanding all these advantages, the town was so blind and
deaf to its own interest, that after the third night, it was found
necessary to tack an intermezzo constantly to the performance of
this opera; and even with that additional lure, according to Colly
Cibber, it was at this that Farinelli sometimes sung to an audience
of five and thirty pounds (g).
May 24th, anothej opera, Demofoonte, was performed, and
advertised for the 28th, but put off, on account of Farinelli's
indisposition. He sung, however, in Sabrina on the 31st; and on
the 6th of June he was said, in the papers, to be " perfectly well,
and able to sing in the same opera on the 7th, when their Majesties
and the rest of the royal family would be present." It appears
that Sabrina was performed that night, but none of the royal family
seem to have been there. On the 11th, Farinelli sung in this
opera for the last time, though it was advertised for the 14th, but
the performance was put off on account of Farinelli being indisposed
with a cold, and never again advertised. With so little eclat did
this great singer quit the English stage, that the town seems
rather to have left him, than he the town! Indeed, May 21st,
before he had done singing here, the following paragraph appeared
in the newspapers: " We hear that the directors of his Majesty's
Opera-house in the Hay-market, have engaged for the ensuing
season, the famous Caffariello, reputed to be the best singer in
Italy." This was probably inserted merely to accelerate the con-
tract with Farinelli, for the ensuing season; for though Caffarelli
did come to England the next year, it was to sing for Handel, not
the nobility; and Farinelli himself assured me, in 1770, that before
his quitting England in 1737, he had entered into articles with the
nobility to perform in England the next season.
It seems to be with musical effects as with medicinal, which
are enfeebled and diminished by frequent use. Indeed, such
execution as many of Farinelli's songs contain, and which excited
such astonishment in 1734, would be hardly thought sufficiently
(g) See Apology, published 1739, where, chapter twelfth, p. 342, he says, "there is always
such a rage for novelty at the opera, that, within these two years, we have seen even Farinelli
sing to an audience of five and thirty pounds.
813
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
brilliant in 1788 for a third-rate singer at the opera. The dose of
difficulties to produce the same effects as fifty years ago, must be
more than doubled. But every excellence in Music when it has
been pursued to excess, is thrown aside to lie fallow till forgotten;
and after a series of years, like a fashion in apparel, it is started
again, as a new invention. Great powers of execution depend on
the natural voice and peculiar talents of a singer; the exertion and
use of those powers, on the state of composition at the time. If
sobriety and simplicity reign, no great exertions will be allowed,
however capable the singer may be of performing extraordinary
feats; but if refinement, subtilty, high notes, or rapid divisions are
the mode, the singer must not then submit to the limits of nature
and facility, but must torment himself day and night in attempting
impossibilities, or he will be heard with as much indifference as a
ballad-singer in the streets.
At this time, however, the rage for operas seems to have been
very much diminished in our country, in spite of good composition
and exquisite performance. But man tires of dainties sooner than
of common food, to which he returns with pleasure after surfeits.
The English appetite for Italian friandises was certainly palled by
plenitude. It is in vain to ascribe the ruin- of operas to faction,
opposition, and enmity to Handel; the fact was, that public
curiosity being satisfied, as to new compositions and singers, the
English returned to their homely food, the Beggar's Opera, and
ballad farces on the same plan, with eagerness and comfort (h).
Farinelli seems to have quitted London this summer a la
sourdine; for after the opera of Sabrina was said to be put off on
account of his indisposition, (which was construed into doubts
whether his reputation would not have been injured by the thinness
of the house) , without any reason or apology appearing for a future
day not having been named for the performance of this opera, the
public was told, July the 7th, that " Sig. Farinelli, the famous
Italian singer, who had been at Paris for a considerable time, was
setting out for Spain, where he designed to continue till the close of
the year, and then return to England." However, September 26th,
the following paragraph in the London Daily Post, must have
bereaved his English admirers of all hope of his return. " Advices
from Madrid," sa}^ the editor, " inform us, that his Catholic
Majesty has settled a pension of 14,000 pieces of eight on Signor
Farinelli, to engage him to stay at that court, besides a coach,
which the King will keep for him at his own charge. This," adds
the news-writer, " is important intelligence for the Hay-market."
(h) The same neglect of musical merit and talents is now on the point of happening again
in this country; where the public is so much familiarised to excellence of composition and
performance, that in a short time nothing will be good enough for their depraved appetites,
which already occasion yawning and apathy during the most exquisite musical feasts that the
art of man has ever been able to furnish. Nothing but the miraculous powers of an unheajd-
of band, and _ the uncommon expence and difficulty of admission has awakened attention" to
Handel's^ Music, which was neglected during his life-time, and laid aside as lumber after his
death, till taken up by a zealous and persevering party, and honoured in a singular manner
with royal patronage.
814
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Though English fortitude and philosophy were proof against
his enchantments, the inhabitants of every other part of Europe
heard him with extasy: he had excited rapture in all the great
cities of Italy, before he quitted that country; in the three several
times he had been at Vienna, his favour with the emperor and the
whole court was greater the last time than the first; and, according
to Riccoboni, even at Paris, where Italian Music was detested, his
voice, at least, had occasioned the highest pleasure and astonish-
ment; but in Spain, his performance was thought too exquisite for
subjects; it was instantly appropriated to royalty; and the proofs
of admiration which his talents acquired in that court were too solid
not to be sincere. A pension of more than £.3000 sterling a year
was settled upon him for life. He was honoured with the order of
St. Iago by his first royal master, Philip V. and with that of
Calatrava by his successor, Ferdinand VI. Of the manner in which
he spent his time in Spain, some account has been given, from his
own mouth, in a former work (i). The lovers of anecdotes might,
indeed, be gratified with innumerable particulars concerning the
effects of his amazing talents, if anecdotes were not below the
dignity of history. One or two, however, that do honour to his
heart and natural .disposition as well as vocal powers, my graver
and more critical readers will, perhaps, excuse.
It has been often related, and generally believed, that Philip V.
King of Spain, being seized with a total dejection of spirits, which
made him refuse to be shaved, and rendered him incapable of
attending council or transacting affairs of state, the Queen, who
had in vain tried every common expedient that was likely to
contribute to his recovery, .determined that an experiment should
be made of the effects of Music upon the King her husband, who
was extremely sensible to its charms. Upon the arrival of Farinelli,
of whose extraordinary performance an account had been trans-
mitted to Madrid from several parts of Europe, but particularly
from Paris, her Majesty contrived that there should be a concert
in a room adjoining to the King's apartment, in which this singer
performed one of his most captivating songs. Philip appeared at
first surprised, then moved; and at the end of the second air, made
the virtuoso enter the royal apartment, loading him with compli-
ments and caresses; asked him how he could sufficiently reward
such talents; assuring him that he could refuse him nothing.
Farinelli, previously instructed, only begged that his Majesty would
permit his attendants to shave and dress him, and that he would
endeavour to appear in council as usual. From this time the
King's disease gave way to medicine: and the singer had all the
honour of the cure. By singing to his majesty every evening, his
favour increased to such a degree that he was regarded as first
minister; but what is still more extraordinary, instead of being
intoxicated or giddy with his elevation, Farinelli never forgetting
that he was a musician, behaved to the Spanish nobles about the
(») Present State of Music in France and Italy, p. 213 et seq.
Sl5
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
court with such humility and propriety, that instead of envying
his favour, they honoured him with their esteem and confidence.
One day in going to the King's closet, to which he had at all
times access, he heard an officer of the guard curse him, and say
to another that was in waiting " honours can be heaped on such
scoundrels as these, while a poor soldier, like myself, after thirty
years' service, is unnoticed." Farinelli, without seeming to hear
this reproach, complained to the King that he had neglected an old
servant, and procured a regiment for the person who had spoken
so harshly of him in the anti-chamber; and in quitting his Majesty
he gave the commission to the officer, telling him that he had heard
him complain of having served thirty years, but added, " you
did wrong to accuse the King of neglecting to reward your zeal."
The following story, which is less serious, was frequently told
and believed at Madrid, during the first year of Farinelli' s residence
in Spain. This singer having ordered a superb suit of cloaths for
a Gala at court, when the taylor brought it home, he asked him for
his bill. " I have made no bill, Sir, says the taylor, nor ever shall
make one. Instead of money," continues he, "I have a favour
to beg. I know that what I want is inestimable, and only fit for
monarchs; but since I have had the honour to work for a person of
whom every one speaks with rapture, all the payment I shall ever
require will be a song." Farinelli tried in vain to prevail on the
taylor to take his money. At length, after a long debate, giving
way to the humble entreaties of the trembling tradesman, and
flattered perhaps more by the singularity of the adventure than by
all the applause he had hitherto received, he took him into his
music-room, and sung to him some of his most brilliant airs, taking
pleasure in the astonishment of his ravished hearer; and the more
he seemed surprised and affected, the more Farinelli exerted himself
in every species of excellence. When he had done, the taylor over-
come with extacy thanked him in the most rapturous and grateful
manner, and prepared to retire. — " No," says Farinelli, " I am
a little proud; and it is perhaps from that circumstance that I
have acquired some small degree of superiority over other singers;
I have given way to your weakness, it is but fair, that, in your
turn, you should indulge me in mine." And taking out his purse,
he insisted on his receiving a sum amounting to nearly double the
worth of the suit of cloaths.
Farinelli, during two reigns, lived upwards of twenty years at
the Spanish court, with a constant increase of royal favour, and the
esteem of the principal nobility of the kingdom. And Sir Benjamin
Keene, when last in England, spoke highly of the prudent conduct
and amiable character of Farinelli, during his greatest favour at
the court of Madrid, with which he seemed no more elated than with
the acclamation which his extraordinary talents acquired him, when
he sung in public.
On the present King of Spain's accession to the throne, in 1759,*
the new monarch and new politics not being favourable to Music
* That is Charles III.
816
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
or to any transactions of the former reign, Farinelli had orders to
return to Italy; his pension, however, was continued, and he was
allowed to remove his effects. After visiting Naples, the place of
his nativity, he settled at Bologna in 1761, in the environs of which
city he built himself a splendid mansion, which in Italy is called a
palazzo. Here he resided the rest of his life, in the true enjoyment
of affluent leisure; respected by the inhabitants of Bologna; visited
by illustrious travellers; and still enjoying the smiles of fortune,
though denied the blandishments of a court (k). This extraordinary
musician, and worthy man, died in 1782, after arriving at the
eightieth year of his age.*
During the summer of 1737, Handel, whose season had not been
prosperous, had been too ill in health and humour to form any plan
for carrying on operas, at his own risk, the ensuing winter. The
newspapers say that his disorder was the rheumatism; but his
biographer** tells us, in the Memoirs of his Life, published 1760,
that he at once laboured under the double misfortune of insanity,
and a stroke of the palsy; for which, with great difficulty, he was
prevailed upon to go to Aix-la-Chapelle. October 28th a paragraph
in the London Daily Post informed the public, that " Mr. Handel
the composer of the Italian Music, was hourly expected from Aix-
la-Chapelle;" and November 7th, that he was returned, " greatly
recovered in his health."
Heidegger had now undertaken the management of the opera at
the Hay-market, which the nobility had abandoned, in consequence
of Farinelli's detention at Madrid (/). Arsace, a 'pasticcio, was
advertised and performed October 29th; and November 1st,
Caffarelli was come over as first singer; and Pescetti was the
nominal composer. But though Sabrina, an opera of the preceding
season, had been often advertised in November, it was deferred
from time to time, till all the theatres were ordered to be shut, on
account of the death of her Majesty Queen Caroline, which
happened November 20th. After this event, no public amusements
were announced in the newspapers till the end of December, when
Faramond, a new opera composed by Handel, was promised on the
2d of January.
(k) He was remarkably civil and attentive to the English nobility and gentry who visited
him in his retreat, and seemed to remember the protection and favour of individuals, more
than the neglect of the public, during the last year of his residence in London. When the
Marquis of Carmarthen honoured him with a visit at Bologna, upon being told it was the son
of his patron and friend the Duke of Leeds, he threw his arms round his neck, and shed tears
of joy in embracing him.
{I) It has been said that Lord Middlesex, had now undertaken the direction; but it does not
appear that his lordship became the manager of the Hay-market theatre till the autumn of
1741; when Monticelli first appeared on our stage. Caffarelli assured me in 1770, that his own
performance in England was during the latter end of Heidegger's reign; and his advertisements
the year after, are confirmations of this fact.***
* Farinelli was bom in 1705.
** This refers to Mainwaring's Memoirs. Handel finished the season on 1st June, 1737. He
was a ruined man. The opposition "Opera of the Nobility," on the defection of Farinelli, had
to close down with debts of at least ^12,000.
Handel's creditors accepted bills for the amount owing to them, with the exception of
del P6, Strada's husband, who wanted cash. It is satisfactory to note that these bills were
afterwards met in full.
*** Lord Middlesex had some connection with the Haymarket Theatre in 1739, when
according to Mrs. Delaney he was "chief undertaker" of some concerts there.
Vol.. ii. 52. 817
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
1738. There was, however, no opera on Tuesday the 2d of
January, as had been promised, nor apology for its being deferred.
But the following paragraph was inserted in the London Daily
Post on the 3d, " We hear that on Tuesday se'night the King's
theatre will be opened with a new Oratorio, composed by Mr.
Handel called Saul." But this oratoria was not performed till
the next year [Jan. 16, 1739], though this proves it to have been
now in meditation. But on the 7th of January, the Opera-house
was opened with Handel's new opera of Faramond (m)* The
performers in this drama, which was originally written by Apost.
Zeno for Venice, were Gaetano Majorano, detto Caffarelli,
Montagnana, Ant. Lottini, Mr. Savage; and Elizabetta du Pare,
detta la Francesina, Margarita Chimenti, Maria Antonia
Marchesini, detta la Lucchesini, and the Merighi. Most of them
singers for whom Handel had never written before.
Caffarelli. who, after he quitted this country became a singer of
great renown, arrived here at an unfortunate period; besides the
recent remembrance of Farinelli's wonderful powers, it is said that
he was never well, or in voice, all the time he remained here. His
first appearance in public was at Rome, in the opera of Valdemaro;
1726,** and he had gained considerable reputation in several
theatres of Italy, before his arrival in England; but it was not till
a later period that he was classed among the most exquisite singers
on the Italian stage (n).
In a letter I received from my friend Mr. Garrick, during his
tour through Italy, dated Naples, February 5th, 1764, is the
following passage concerning this singer, who was then turned of
sixty : " Yesterday we attended the ceremony of making a nun, she
was the daughter of a duke, and the whole was conducted with
(m) It is worthy of remark, that this opera, according to Handel's own record in the
score, was begun November 15th. Though he was just recovered from a long fit of sickness
and insanity, and it was but five days before the Queen's death, an event that produced a
funeral anthem, which in expression, harmony, and pleasing effects, appears to me at the
head of all his works. Faramond was finished on Christmas eve, December 29th, 1737.
(») At his best time, Caffarelli was thought by many a superior singer in some respects,
to Farinelli : among these, Porpora, who hated him for his insolence, used to say, that he was
the greatest singer Italy had ever produced. At the marriage of the present King of Sardinia,
then prince of Savoy, with the infanta of Spain, who had long been a scholar of Farinelli, it
was with great difficulty that Caffarelli was prevailed on to go to Turin with the Astrua, to per-
form at the royal nuptials, in an opera which _ the King of Sardinia wished to have as perfect
as possible. But Caffarelli, who came with an ill-will, by order of the King of Naples, seemed
but little disposed to exert himself; declaring before-hand that he had lost a book of closes
on the road, and should be able to do nothing. This was told to his Sardinian Majesty, who
was much perplexed how to treat such impertinence. Caffarelli was not his subject, and had
been sent by the King of Naples out of compliment, on occasion of the wedding. But the first
night of performance the prince of Savoy, in his nuptial dress, went behind the scenes, just
before the opera begun, when, entering into conversation with Caffarelli, he told him that he
was glad to see him there, though the princess of Savoy thought it hardly possible that any
one should sing in such a manner as would give her pleasure, after Farinelli. "Now,
Caffarelli," says the prince, "clapping him on the shoulder, exert yourself a little, and cure
the princess of this prejudice in favour of her master." Caffarelli was penetrated by this
condescension in the prince, and cried out, "Sir, her highness shall hear two Farinelli's in one,
to-night." And he is said to have sung, on this occasion, better than any one ever sung
before. The Astrua was piqued by his great exertions to display all her talents, which, like the
collision of flint and steel only fired them the more. Mr. Joseph Baretti's brother, who was at
Turin during this conflict, furnished me with the anecdote.
* According to Newman Flower (G. F. Handel, abridged ed. p. 233) the first performance
of Faramond took place on January 3rd. It was in this production that Caffarelli made his first
appearance on the English stage.
** Caffarelli's first public appearance was in a female part at Rome in 1724.
818
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
great splendor and magnificence. The church was richly
ornamented, and there were two large bands of Music of all kinds.
The consecration was performed with great solemnity, and I was
very much affected; and to crown the whole the principal part was
sung by the famous Caffarelli, who, though old, has pleased me
more than all the singers I have heard. He touched me; and it
was the first time I have been touched since I came into Italy."
In 1770, I heard Caffarelli, myself, sing in a room at Naples.
He was then sixty-seven; yet, though his voice was thin, it was
easy to imagine, from what he was still able to do, that his voice
and talents had been of the very first class. He had been so
prudent as to provide for old age during youth; and he was now
not only living in ease and affluence, in a sumptuous house of his
own building, upon which was this inscription : Amphion Thebas,
Ego domum; but had purchased a dukedom for his nephew after
his decease (o).
The overture to Faramond is one of the most pleasing of all
Handel's opera overtures; and as there are no solo parts for wind-
instruments, it is more frequently played at small concerts than
most of his other compositions of this kind. Nothing can be more
grand than the opening, or more free and spirited than the fugue;
and as to the air, it speaks intelligibly to all ears.
The first scene ends with a short, light chorus; and the second,
with a fine air for Montagnana's base voice : Viva si. It is a happy
circumstance, when Handel has a fine voice of this kind to write
for, as he is never more majestic and superior to other composers
than in his best songs for a base voice. The next air : Conoscierb,
se brami, for Francesina, is airy and pleasing, and afforded the
audience a specimen of that natural warble, and agility of voice,
which Handel afterwards seems to have had great pleasure in
displaying. After this, Chimenti, who seems to have performed
the second man's part, had a pleasing graceful air, in a modern
style: Chi ben ama. Then the Marchesini, delta la Lucchesina,
has an air: Vanne che piu ti miro, which is curious in its
modulation and accompaniment (p). To this performer, who
seems to have had the principal female part, Handel has generally
given airs of a modern cast. Caffarelli, who performed the part
of Faramond, the hero of the drama, has now an air: Rival ti
sono, which gives an idea of dignity and abilities. In the course of
the song, he is left ad libitum several times, a compliment which
Handel never paid to an ordinary singer. After this, the Merighi, who
performed a man's part, had an air of great spirit : Voglio che
(o) Caffarelli died in 1783, at eighty years of age; and the nephew, to whom he bequeathed
his fortune, is now Duca di Santi Dorato.
(p) At the word cresce, in this air, Handel
makes the flat seventh rise to the sharp seventh, in
a very uncommon manner:
9-±-l£
CKE.S ce.
I i j i
819
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
mora, still of a modern cast and accompaniment. Then Caffarelli
had a slow air, thinly accompanied: SI tornerb, which is a fine
out-line for a great singer. The Lucchesina has the next air:
Sento ch' un giusto sdegno, which contains many fine passages,
but still in Handel's new manner. After this, Lottini had a base
song: Vado a recar, but not clothed in Handel's usual thunder.
Then Francesina had an air of considerable spirit and execution:
Mi parto lieta; and Caffarelli another: Se ben mi lusinga, which
terminates the first act.
The second act is introduced with a symphony, in Handel's
early style. The first air: Si V intendesti, was sung b}^ Lucchesina.
It is an air of great spirit and energy, and was in great favour in
my own memory. Palma used frequently to sing it at concerts,
more than ten years after it was composed; and the dignity and
passion with which the words
BgggSSg TMDI- To*.
.n MRM3BQ WElz Ton
were expressed, never failed to strike every hearer. The next air :
Non inganarmi, is spirited in an old style; as that which follows it:
Poi che pria, for Caffarelli, is pathetic, in a style which will never be
old. Francesina's spirited manner was well displayed in the air:
Combattutta da due venti, of which the composition is very original.
The subsequent air: Si a piedi tuo, is beautiful in Handel's juvenile
manner. After this, Montagnana had an air : Sol la brama, which
neither in melody nor accompaniment is worthy of the composer or
singer. The next air: Nella terra, though for Merighi, a singer of
the second or third class, is full of beauties, peculiar to Handel.
The following duet : Vado e vivo, is light and playful, but seems to
want dramatic dignity, particularly as it was sung by the two
principal singers, and terminated an act.
The third act begins with a symphony, in composing which,
Handel gave himself no trouble to seek for new materials, any more
than in the subsequent duet: Caro, tu m' accendi. Nor is much
praise due to the air : Cost suole, which is a minuet of no uncommon
cast. But the fire and spirit of the next air: Voglio che sia, for
Caffarelli, make ample amends for preceding trivial movements.
This air is finely planned for the stage, and for a voice of great
volume. The passages are contrasted, and accompaniments
picturesque and impassioned. The next air: Se ria procella, is
agreeable trifling, which requires no great abilities in the singer.
And the subsequent air : Sappi crudel, though for the first woman,
might have been sung by the last, without suffering for want of voice
or execution. The composition is clear and masterly; but there is no
passion in the melody, or interesting effect in the harmony or
modulation. Francesina has, however, an air after these, which is
admirably calculated to display her lark-like execution: Un aura
placida. The next air: Virtu, che rende, which is the last in the
opera, and terminated in a coro finale, is one of the most agreeable
820
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
movements in a hunting style that has ever been composed; the
score is of nine parts, and those for the French-horns remarkably
gay and pleasing (q).
This opera was performed but six times, which reflects more
disgrace on the public than composer. Handel, in conformity to
the taste of the times, had introduced a variety of style, to suit the
education and talents of his new singers; and if we compare his
Music with that of the two other composers that were employed
this season, Pescetti and Veracini, we shall not only find it greatly
superior in strength and solidity, but in grace and invention (r).
January 28th, a new opera was performed by the same singers,
called La Conquista del Vello d' Oro. No composer is
mentioned; but it was composed by Pescetti, and had a run of eight
nights; though the Music was never printed, except the overture and
two or three airs in his book of harpsichord lessons.
February 25th, an opera called Alessandro Severo, was first
performed. It was a pasticcio by Handel, with an excellent new
overture, and had seven representations (s).
March 14th, a new opera called Partenio, was first brought out.
It was composed by Veracini, and performed nine times. The
favourite songs were published by Walsh.
April 15th, Handel produced another new opera, entitled
Xerxes (t). The first movement and fugue in the overture to this
opera are bold, natural, and pleasing; but the last air, which is a
jig, has now lost its charms.
The first act opens with a short recitative, and a charming slow
cavatina, for Caffarelli : Ombra mai fit, in a clear and majestic style,
out of the reach of time and fashion. In the second air: 0 voi che
penate, Handel has made the flutes play the symphony and
accompaniments an octave higher than the violins, an expedient
which he tried many years before; but after being discontinued from
the time of Handel till about twenty years ago, treble instruments
playing all' ottavo then became in fashion, and very agreeable effects
are now frequently produced by this easy expedient. The third
song: Va godendo, is a gay air that was sung into favour by
Francesina. The next air : Io le dirb, which was alternately sung by
Caffarelli and the Lucchesina, is graceful and pleasing. The
subsequent air: Si si mio ben, is of an agreeable comic cast. Meglio
in voi, is not marked with any peculiar beauties; nor is the next : Di
tacere, very striking, though the accompaniment and modulation
are masterly. The air, however, which follows it: Ne men con
(q) The minuteness and exactitude with which Handel continued through life to date
his manuscripts, is wonderful ! that love of regularity and order which enabled him to give to
the world so many astonishing proofs of genius and diligence, never quitted him in hurry,
sickness, or perturbation. At the bottom of the first page of the score of Faramond, he has
written in German: Angefangen der, 15 November, 1737. Dienstag. And at the end of it: Fine
dell' atto 1. Montag der 28 November, 1737. Fine dell' alto ido. Der 4 December, 1737.
Sontag abend um 10 uhr. And at the end, Fine dell' opera, G. F. Handel, London, December
24th, 1737.
(r) This opera was printed in score, and published by subscription in February.
(s) The favourite songs, only, of this opera were printed by Walsh during its run, and
published in March, price 2s. 6d.
(t) This composition, Handel has recorded with his usual exactness, was begun December
26th, 1737. Angefangen der 26 December, Montag, der 2 X dag.
821
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
V ombre, is extremely agreeable. After this, there is an air for a
counter-tenor : Se cangio, which would well suit a base voice, if sung
an octave lower; it is in Handel's bold and nervous style, though
some of the passages are now a little antiquated. After a short
chorus, Montagnana had an agreeable base song: Soggetti al mio
volere. But the capital air, of the first act, is Piu che penso, which
is in a very grand style. The passages are contrasted, and frequent
opportunities given for the singer to display his taste and fancy. I
have not been able to discover the author of the words of this drama;
but it is one of the worst that Handel ever set to Music : for besides
feeble writing, there is a mixture of tragi-comedy and buffoonery
in it, which Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio had banished from the
serious opera. However, it gave Handel an opportunity of
indulging his native love and genius for humour; and the airs for
Elviro, a facetious servant in this opera, are of a very comic cast. Of
these, Signor, Signor, in the first act is one. The air which follows
it : Non so se sia, seems by the style to have been composed at the
beginning of the century; and there is but little fancy or science in
the two subsequent airs: Sapra delle mie offese, and Se V idol
mio. The last air of the act: Un cenno, is, however, gay and
pleasing, but in a comic style (u).
The whole first scene, and the chief part of the next, in the
second act, is comic. The tenor accompaniment to the air Or che
siete, is masterly and curious. The third scene consists only of
pretty fragments, except the air: Dim che amor, which can only
be styled an agreeable ballad. The fourth scene is terminated with
a lively air for Caffarelli: Se bramate, with a base in iterated
quavers, very much in the style of Hasse and Vinci; indeed, no
Music fifty years old can have a younger appearance. E gelosia, for
Francesina, has Handel's broad seal upon it; the writing is good,
but the passages are too frequently repeated. The next air: Anima
infida, is a fine mixture of old and new passages and effects, with
a Corelli base, and a modern accompaniment. Quella che tutta
fe, is a fine and pathetic Siciliana. Per dar fine, is very much in the
style of a French air tendre of the last age. Si la voglio, is an old
melody, with a very modern accompaniment (x). Voi mi dite, is
natural and pleasing; and II core spera, charming, in a serious style.
Del mio car a Baco, is wholly comic. The rest of the act contains
nothing remarkable (y).
The third act begins with a symphony, which, though it is
only in three parts, from their activity, produce all the effects of full
harmony. The first air: No, no, se tu mi sprezzi, is admirable, in
the buffo style. Handel's Muse does not seem to have been in good
humour again till the end of the seventh scene, where there is a very
pleasing duet: Troppo oltraggi, of which the base is remarkably
beautiful and masterly. The ninth scene is terminated by an air :
(m) Fine dell' atto itno. Jan. 9, 1738. Handel's memorandum, shews this opera to have
been composing while Faramond was in run.
(%) Here Handel seems the first to have invented a short-hand for semiquavers, placing
only a dot upon a line or space for every four of the same kind,
(y) Fine dell' atto 2do. Jan. 25, 1738.
822
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Crude furie, which is curious, spirited, and original; and the last
air: Caro vox siete, which is made the subject of the final chorus, is
beautifully simple. The chorus is, however, filled up with iterated
semiquavers in such a manner, that it has all the appearance and
effect of common Italian Music of the present day.
This opera was finished February 6th, but not performed till the
15th of April. It was represented but five times. And, indeed,
though it contains many pleasing and excellent compositions, it is by
no means to be ranked with Handel's best dramatic productions.
He was neither in health, prosperity, or spirits, when it was
composed; appearances remain in his foul score of a mind disturbed,
if not diseased. There are more passages, and even whole pages,
cancelled in this score, than in any one of all his former operas.
There are more old-fashioned and worn-out passages in some of the
songs, than in any other of his works of this period; and this
half-close occurs in almost every song :
fa
^
■£-"
T
Handel had been so great a loser by striving against the stream
of fashion and opposition the preceding season, that he was obliged
to sell out of the funds the savings of many former years, to pay his
performers, and was still in some danger of being arrested by the
husband of Strada, for the arrears of her salary. It was at this
time that his friends with great difficulty persuaded him to try
public gratitude in a benefit, which was not disgraced by the event;
for on Tuesday, in Passion-week, March 28th, was advertised at
the Opera-house in the Hay-market, an Oratorio, with a Concert
on the organ, for the benefit of Mr. Handel; pit and boxes put
together at half a guinea each ticket, and " for the better
conveniency, there will be benches on the stage." The theatre, for
the honour of the nation, was so crouded on this occasion, that he
is said to have cleared £.800.*
After the short run of Xerxes was over, nothing new was
brought out, the season being finished with repetitions of the former
operas of Arsace, Faramondo, II Velio d' Oro, and Partenio; after
which, the house was shut up, June 6th. At the bottom of the bills,
the last five or six nights, notice was given, that " as it had been
impossible to perform the whole number of operas this season, each
subscriber might have a ticket extraordinary delivered to him each
night the opera was performed, upon sending his silver ticket to the
office." This implied, that the manager's engagement with the
subscribers had not been fulfilled, on account of the time the theatre
had been shut up, in consequence of the Queen's death.
This had certainly been a very calamitous season at the
Opera-house, where nothing seems to have been crowned with
success, but Handel's single benefit.
* Over £1,000 is nearer the amount received by Handel as a result of this Benefit Concert.
823
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Heidegger, however, previous to the shutting up the theatre,
inserted the following advertisement in the newspapers: " Opera-
house, May 24th (z). All persons that have subscribed, or are
willing to subscribe, twenty guineas, for an Italian opera to be
performed next season under my direction, are desired to send ten
guineas to Mr. Drummond, the banker, who will give them a receipt,
and return the money in case the opera should not go on." Signed
J. J. Heidegger.
Two hundred subscribers were required to enable him to be
answerable to the singers.
June 21st, a fortnight after the last opera, the following
paragraph appeared in the London Daily Post : ' ' On Saturday last,
set out for Breda, Signora Strada del P6, to which place she goes in
obedience to the commands of her royal highness the princess of
Orange, from whence she intends to go to Italy, but before her
departure desires the English nobility and gentry, from whom she
has received so many signal marks of favour, might be acquainted
that it is no way owing to her, that the present scheme for performing
operas next winter, in the Hay-market, under the direction of Mr.
Heidegger, has miscarried, as has been maliciously reported; she
having agreed with Mr. Heidegger above a month ago, as the
said gentleman can testify."
July 26th, the following advertisement appeared at the head of
the first column of the same newspaper: " Hay-market, July 25th,
1738. Whereas the operas for the ensuing season, at the King's
theatre in the Hay-market, cannot be carried on as was intended, by
reason of the subscription not being full, and that I could not
agree with the singers, though I offered One Thousand Guineas
to one of them. I therefore think myself obliged to declare, that
I give up the undertaking for next year, and that Mr. Drummond
will be ready to repay the money paid in, upon the delivery of his
receipt. I also take this opportunity to return my humble thanks to
all persons, who were pleased to contribute towards my endeavours
at carrying on that entertainment." J. J. Heidegger.
From this time to the end of the year, nothing was said in the
newspapers of Italian operas, Italian singers, or of Handel's future
schemes, who seems to have been rendered silent and inactive, by
illness.
During this time of privacy, and the pressure of adverse fortune
and infirmities, Handel was not forgotten by his friends or the
public. His statue was now erected at Vauxhall, by the late
Jonathan Tyers, the spirited proprietor of those gardens. An
honour which has seldom been conferred on a subject and a
professional man in any country, during his life-time. And as this
transaction does honour, not only to the genius of Handel, but to
the public spirit of his votary, whose taste and intelligence, kept pace
(z) The day on which his present Majesty was born. It is remarkable, that the play of
Volpone was advertised on this day, by command of the prince and princess of Wales. Her
royal highness had been well enough to walk in St. James's park the night before; but, luckily,
had not quitted Norfolk-house in St. James's-square, at that time the residence of the prince
and princess of Wales, before alarming symptoms had come on.
824
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
with his liberality, I shall relate it as recorded in the registers of the
times.
April 15th, in the London Daily Post, a paragraph says: " The
effigies of Mr. Handel, the famous composer of Music, is going to be
elected at Vauxhall Gardens, at the expence of Mr. Jonathan
Tyers." And on the 18th of the same month: " We are informed,
from very good authority, that there is now near finished a statue
of the justly celebrated Mr. Handel, exquisitely done by the
ingenious Mr. Roubillac, of St. Martin' s-lane, statuary, out of one
entire block of marble, which is to be placed in a grand niche,
erected on purpose in the great grove at Vauxhall Gardens (a), at
the sole expence of Mr. Tyers, conductor of the entertainments there;
who, in consideration of the real merit of that inimitable master,
thought it justice and propriety that his effigies should preside in
that place, where his harmony has so often charmed even the
greatest crowds into the most profound silence and attention. It is
believed, that the expence of the statue and niche cannot cost less
than £.300; the said gentleman, likewise, very generously took at
Mr. Handel's benefit, fifty of his tickets."
May 2d, we have a farther account of this species of apotheosis,
or laudable idolatry, in the following words: " Last night at the
opening of the Spring-gardens Vauxhall, the company expressed
great satisfaction at the marble statue of Mr. Handel, who is
represented in a loose robe, sweeping the lyre, and listening to its
sounds; which a little boy sculptured at his feet seems to be writing
down on the back of a violoncello. The whole composition is in
an elegant taste."
Soon after, the following verses appeared: —
"That Orpheus moved a grove, a rock, or stream.
By Music's power, will not a fiction seem;
For here as great a miracle is shewn
A Handel breathing, though transform'd to stone (6)."
1739. No preparations having been made for the performance
of operas this year, at the King's theatre in the Hay-market,
Handel hired that theatre of Heidegger, the patentee, in order to
carry on Oratorios. And January 9th, advertised for the 16th, a
new Oratorio called Saul, which was then first performed. In
February Alexander's Feast was revived; in March II Trionfo del
Tempo e delta Verita; and in April [4th], a new oratorio called
Israel in Egypt.*
The composer Pescetti, and some of the Italian singers who had
been employed in the late operas at the Hay-market, being still in
(a) A small temple has since been erected for the reception of this statue in the centre of
the gardens.**
(6) We hear no more of Handel this year, except that his first six celebrated organ
concertos [Op. 4] were now first collected and published by Walsh, "corrected by the
author, price three shillings ! " Public players on keyed- instruments, as well as private, totally
subsisted on these concertos for near thirty years.
* The composition of Saul was started on 23rd July, 1738, and finished on Sept. 27th.
Handel immediately commenced his Israel in Egypt, which was completed in 27 days, a
remarkable achievement even when the "borrowings" from other composers are taken away.
** It is now housed in the premises of Messrs. Novello & Co., Ltd., Wardour St., London.
825
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
England, an attempt was made at carrying on the musical drama
at Co vent-garden. And February 26th, the following paragraph
was inserted in the London Daily Post, at that time the only public
paper in which theatrical representations were advertised: " We
hear that a new serenade, composed by Sig. Pescetti, will in a few
days be acted, in the same manner as an opera, at the theatre
royal in Covent-garden ; part whereof will be performed by Signor
a Moscovita, just arrived from Italy, and by Signora Marchesina,
and others." And March 10th, by his Majesty's command, was
performed a pastoral opera, called Angelica and Medoro; at
opera prices. It was repeated the 17th and the 24th, and April
11th, which being on a Wednesday in Lent, the piece was called a
serenata, and probably performed as an oratorio without action.
To this serenata was now added a new interlude, called L' Asilo
d' Amore.
After this, no further mention is made of these productions, or
Italian operas, at Covent-garden, or elsewhere, till the next winter;
when, Dec. 1st, an Italian serenata, called Diana and Endymion,
was performed at the little theatre in the Hay-market. The
composer was not named; but it appears from four of the airs which
were printed by Walsh, that it was composed by Pescetti, and that
Carestini and the Moscovita performed the principal parts.
After three performances, it was laid aside; and on December
15th and 18th, at the same theatre, and at opera prices, was
advertised an entertainment, consisting ot " Several Concertos
on different instruments, intermixed with a variety of chosen airs
by the best masters in Italy. The whole divided into three parts.
To which, by desire, will be added, the famous Salve Regina,
composed by the Signor Hasse, and sung by Signor Carestini."
As Handel had not yet wholly abandoned the opera, we must
still keep him within its vortex. On the four last days of April
1739, the following advertisement appeared: "At the King's
theatre in the Hay-market, Tuesday, May 1st, will be represented
a dramatic composition called Jupiter in Argos; intermixed with
choruses, and two concertos on the organ." At opera prices.
This production, whatever it was, seems to have died in its birth,
for I can find no other memorial of it.*
In November this year, Handel tried his fortune at Lincoln's-
Inn Fields; and on the 22d, being St. Cecilia's day, first performed
Dryden's second Ode,** with two concertos for several instru-
ments, preceded by Alexander' s Feast, and a concerto on the organ,
at opera prices. The same performance was repeated on the 27th;
and December 13th, were performed Acis and Galatea, with two
* This work by Handel, although announced, was never performed, and according to
Newman Flower (G. F. Handel, p. 248) no complete copy is known to exist.
The Fitzwilliam Museum has a small portion of the autograph score, with some
transcriptions made by Christopher Smith. The B.M. has a copy of these songs of later date,
and in another hand. Mr. Newman Flower has in his possession Christopher Smith's
transcription of all the songs, and states the MS. in the B.M. was made from this copy.
** The first performance of this work was on November 17, 1739.
826
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
new concertos, never performed but once (c), to which was added,
Alexander's Feast, and a concerto on the organ. December 20th,
these were repeated, for the last time of performing before the
holydays.
Handel's activity and spirit of enterprize at this time, in his
fifty-sixth year, were truly wonderful! opposed and oppressed by
the most powerful nobles and gentry of the kingdom ! suffering with
bodily and mental disease! with rivals innumerable; when a
Spanish war was just broke out, which occupied the minds, and
absorbed the thoughts of the whole nation! Amidst all these
accumulated misfortunes and impediments, he composed his twelve
grand concertos, and Dryden's second ode; brought out Saul;
Israel in Egypt; Jupiter in Argos; published seven sonatas [op. 5] ;
and revived II Trionfo del Tempo; Acis and Galatea; and
Alexander's Feast! And yet this seems to have been one of the
most idle years of his public life.
1740. The opera, a tawdry, expensive, and meretricious lady,
who had been accustomed to high keeping, was now reduced to
a very humble state, and unable to support her former
extravagance. Instead of the sumptuous palace which she used to
inhabit, she was driven to a small house (d), in the neighbourhood
of her former splendid mansion, where her establishment was not
only diminished, but her servants reduced to half-pay. Pescetti
seems to have been her prime minister, Carestini her head man,
the Muscovita her favourite woman, and Andreoni a servant for
all work.
The allurements she offered to the public were, at first, not very
attractive, consisting, instead of a regular entertainment, only of
concertos, chosen airs, and Salve Regina, which, however, were
twice postponed: first, on account of the indisposition of Carestini;
and secondly, of the Moscovita, ill of a pleurisy.
At length, January 22d, a pasticcio was brought out, called
Meride e Selinunte (e) which though not of sufficient importance
to support the state and magnificence of a larger theatre had a
run of fourteen nights in this snug retreat; which, probably, on
account of the severity of the weather at this time, was preferred
to more spacious places of public exhibition, by the few who had
the courage to quit their fire-side (/).
March 15th, another opera, entitled Olimpia in Ebuda, was
brought on this little stage; at the first performance of which his
Majesty was present. The Music was chiefly composed by Hasse
(g). This opera was represented fifteen times. After which, a
(c) These were two of his grand concertos, now publishing by subscription.
(d) New theatre in the Hay-market.
(e) This opera, founded on the friendship of Damon and Pythias, was written by Apostolo
Zeno. Walsh printed four of the aiis by the unclassical name of Merode. The plates are now
well lost, for they contained nothing jf great value to the musical world.
(/) This was the memorable winter of the great frost.
(g) Four of the airs of this opera were published with those of Meride, by Walsh, in a
half-crown collection. There is a plaintive cast, and elegant melody, in Non pensar, which
was sung by Andreoni; and grandeur and pathos in Vedo I'ombra del mio bene, sung by
Carestini.
827
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
third drama, called Busiri, overo il Trionfo d' Amore, set by
Pescetti, was brought out, and performed by his Majesty's
command May 10th. This production lived but four nights. The
season was closed, May the 31st, with Olimpia, which had been
alternately performed with Busiri (h).
Handel, who had nothing to do with the opera this winter,
confined himself wholly to the performance of oratorios, for which
he rented the theatre in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, of Rich the patentee.
November the 8th of the subsequent winter, still continuing at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields, he began the new season with his serenata,
Parnasso in Festa,* performed in its original oratorio manner, with
the addition of scenes, dresses, and concertos on the organ, and
several other instruments. It is to be feared that the success of
this performance was inferior to its merit, as it was not repeated.
After this single performance, his theatre was not opened again
till the 22d, when, having mustered the best singers that were now
in this country, he put his stage in action, and had a new operetta
performed, called Imeneo, or Hymen. This was advertised again
for the 29th, but deferred for near a fortnight, on account of the
indisposition of Francesina. On the 13th of December, it was
however performed, for the second, and last time.
It is not in my power to give the reader a regular review of
this little opera, as Handel's original foul score is very incomplete:
there being no overture; and in the recitatives, sometimes the
words are written without the notes, and sometimes the notes
without the words; nor are the instrumental parts to the airs always
filled up.
Act I. The first air: La mia bella, for a soprano, with only
the accompaniment of a violoncello, is elegantly simple and
beautiful. At the end of a long scene of recitative, we have a very
gay and pleasing chorus: Vien Imeneo, superior in style and
contrivance to most opera choruses that I have seen, even in the
dramas of Handel. Scene the fifth, the subject of the air: V e un
injelice, is graceful and pleasing.
There are, however, but few airs, in which much vigour of
invention is discoverable, before the second act, when there is a
bravura air : Sorge nelV alma mia, of great spirit, in a style that was
then new, and which was long after continued on the stage. E si
vaga, is set to an air which is printed in his grand concertos. Pieno
il core, is grand and original; and Al voler, gracefully simple.
These are the principal airs that I have been able to decipher in
the hasty sketch which Handel has left of this operetta, which
consisted of only two acts.
Not discouraged by the failure of the opera of Imeneo, Handel
brought out another new drama, January 10th [1741], called
Deidamia, which was the last he ever composed for the stage.
{h) The songs of this short-lived opera were never printed.
* Parnasso in Vesta was adapted from Athalie. February, 1740, also saw the first
performance of L' Allegro, il Penseroso e il Moderato.
828
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The first movement of the overture to this opera, is excellent,
alia Lulli; but the fugue is written on a subject less fertile and of
less dignity than he usually chose for such purposes. The march,
however, is admirable, and one of the best upon the old military
model, to be found in all his works.
Act I. The first air in the part of Ulysses, which was
performed by Andreoni : Grecia tu offendi, is in a very grand and
dramatic style; full of fine passages, some of which, indeed, have
been too frequently used by subsequent composers, to seem new,
at present; but whoever is acquainted with the state of melody in
the year 1741, and its revolutions since, must see the merit of this
air {%). The next air: Al tardar della vendetta, for a base voice,
is admirable! rich and ingenious in the accompaniments; and the
principal melody pleasing, in a style less robust than is usual in
songs for that species of voice. Another air for a base voice : Nelle
nubi intorno al Fato, succeeds this, and, in a different style, it is
equally excellent j it is fugata in the accompaniments, in a most
agreeable manner, without impoverishing the voice-part, or
distracting the attention. Then follows an air: Due bell' alme,
with no violin part; and the violoncello is only accompanied by
the harpsichord and lute, in chords, without treble-melody (k);
this is a very pleasing cavatina, in Handel's own early manner.
Da lusinghe, is an elegant and pleasing cantabile, full of taste and
fancy. Handel either found that his singer was unequal to this air,
or disliked it himself, for he has set the same words to a different
melody, reserving, however, some of the passages of the first air,
to which he gave the preference when the opera was printed. Seguir
di selva, for Achilles, personated by a lady, Miss Edwards, is on
a gay and pleasing subject; but it has not been dilated much in
the score, nor is it enriched with any accompaniment. Quando
accendran, is somewhat languid and antique. Se pensi amor, is a
pleasant aria buff a; and Si che desio, an excellent composition in
the style of Handel's youth (Z). Perdere il bene, is an air of two
characters: in the first part, pathetic, elegant, and worthy of a
great singer; in the second, rapid, impassioned, and such as
makes a return to the first part welcome. Nascondi V usignol,
which finishes the first act, is a light, airy, pleasing movement,
suited to the active throat of the Francesina. This act, which
was finished November 1st, 1740, seems equally excellent with
that of any of his early operas.
Act II. Un guar do solo, is elegantly simple, and pathetic.
Lasciami, is spirited and dramatic. D' amor ne' primi istante, is a
natural and pleasing air, for a second singer. Se il timore, truly
(i) It is singular, thai this air, composed and sung before the arrival of Monticelli in this
country, contains passages similar to those in an air by Pergolesi : Tremende oscuri_ attroci,
which that performer brought over and sung in Olimpiade, the next year. Pergolesi died in
1737 [March 17, 1736] ; and Handel dates the coro jinale of Deidamia, November 20th, 1740.
(k) This is the last use that seems to have been made of the lute in our opera orchestra.
(1) He has set these words twice over : the second time to a minuet, in which the subject
passage is too often repeated for the present age.
829
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
pathetic and touching. Nel riposo is admirable in harmony and
design; and Delia guerra, an excellent chorus, alia caccia. Non
ti credo, is innocent and simple. Presso ad occhj, is, however, a
base song of no uncommon merit; and No, no, quella belta, is an
air which has suffered by time, both in the subject and divisions.
But Va perfido, is extremely animated; and though this air is
printed, it is not in Handel's manuscript score. SI m appaga,
which terminates the act, is a very gay and pleasing ballad (w).
Act III. Degno piu di tua belta, is an agreeable and original
short air for a base voice in 3. Quanto inganno, is one of those
subordinate airs of an opera for the under singers, which afford
attentive hearers time to breathe, and discuss the merit of superior
compositions and performance. Ai Greci questa spada, for
Achilles, is spirited, military, and characteristic of that hero's
intrepidity. M' ai resa infelice, is an air of two characters^ well
calculated for the stage. Come all' urto, is an admirable
composition, with a fine solo part, originally designed for Caporale's
violoncello. Or pensate, is lively; but it would have been heard
with more pleasure fifty years ago than at present. Consolami se
brami, is gay and agreeable, but has few new passages; and though
the air Non vub perdere, is extremely lively and pleasing, Handel
set the same words again to a very graceful melody, in minuet
time, which, however, has not been printed. The duet: Ama —
nell' armi & nell' amar, is in jig time, and composed of passages
that are now common and not free from vulgarity. This,
however, is followed by a coro finale, which would rank high
among opera choruses. Indeed, the sum total of fine airs in this
opera is so considerable, that though the first act is superior to
the second, and the second to the third, it may be numbered
among the happiest of Handel's dramatic productions. And
when it is recollected that, exclusive of the operas which he had
set in Germany and Italy, before his arrival here, this was the
thirty-ninth Italian drama which he had composed for the English
stage, the fertility and vigour of his invention must appear
astonishing ! The airs in this last opera of Deidamia are as much
contrasted in style, design, and passages, as those he composed
thirty years before; and in this particular, Handel's resources
seem superior to those of any voluminous opera-composer within
my knowledge. In examining the scores of Hasse, Graun,
Galuppi, Perez, Piccini, and Sacchini, we find innumerable fine
airs; but not that diversity of plan and subject, as in Handel.
Deidamia, with all its intrinsic merit, was performed but three
times: January 10th, 17th, and February 10th; after which, it
was laid aside for ever! And yet the public injustice, though
Handel often felt it, must not be too heavily arraigned on this
(m) Fine dell' atto 2do. G. F. Handel, $ November 7th, 1740. Handel marks the days of
the week with astronomical signs.*
* He commenced using the old Astrological signs in 1739 on the score of his Ode for Saint
Cecilia's Day.
830 - ; ,
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
occasion; for the singers were such as had but little power of
exciting rapture, after the exquisite performers to which frequenters
of operas had been accustomed. Andreoni and Francesina, the
first man and woman, were only singers of the second class, in
which they were placed the next season, and the rest were below
criticism.
After the third performance of Deidamia, Handel, with the
same singers, returned to oratorios; but as the chief effects of these
depend on the mass of harmony produced by the choruses, the
solo singers were not required to be equal in abilities to those of
the opera.
As this was the last opera which Handel composed, we must
now take a melancholy leave of his regency; for after this period,
having no concern in the composition or conduct of Italian operas,
he never set any other words than English, and those wholly
confined to sacred subjects.
Divisions in the Songs which Farinelli performed during his
residence in England.
IN ARTASE kRS£ H54-
„SPARIRA
P t \j 1 1 jj y \e
g^m i r I Car m ^ 1 1 ftjjf^
^^
m
±=SL
ft fr. ,tf fe *£
H-ttny
§5^ r
■-AS-
PET
^S
831
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
IN ORFEO
1736.
IN-A-MO-RAR
ty*-rnH
^s
^Efe
^^t^^^^^
fac
IJS. /fTj. 1 1 r g g j 1
PIU Fl - DA IN AMO-RAR.
jg^p^r^^^i -7T] -7]] ^^
PENAR
-ti"tt'"ii.~f^
air B rl*Hfe i>TJ tjjina^
• P» ?»»» »»,
fl -«?T h=-*1_
^ fr ?<
f* **'"
1 J£**-^ffm
lu; t-=a^j<^ «'«]
1 * •'^ • ^
in 5 1 ROE
1737
by HASSE
SffiU3flJiail*gna'|ttrrpcr,'J
- m.
' t__t i m n*Ti\u -iU ly^t
fiLLESIfO
m
^h^Tr^£^±^^^=U^w\^ £
3fc
3E
ftf n ..$« f . h
.. ^1 «.£> *»w»
ffli ffyf (jj33 ff rr-
(j)yj-&Ki v. J
- J J »" %£u> ' M '
»** y |-4 *° UU4-4
^fcftf f m Um
~\ 1 K-"? S^
« w ■ a- ■ ■ b =— — s-
•' g 1 1 | R"
-■ — » i£— I -*— ■)
-V — J -3 — y 7 J
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Sung by Sigr. Farinello in Artaxerxes.
Riccardo Broschi.
VIOL INI
UNlSSONI.
VIOLA
LLLrljggtr^
Vol.. ii. 53
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
SON QUALNA VE
CH'A-GI-TA-TA
Dfii PIU 5CO-GU IN
N1EZ-ZO ALLON -DE
SI CON
-•— • — • — • ■ m m 9-
a^ragtftf
g^
-j—j-
VA SObCAN-DO IN
AL-TO MAR-
834
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
FDR
FOR
^gpgk^Jfc, " * ^tff » ^tfRp?~=^-^ *
835
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
*5*
• L
^fe
m
^ j %
s
^^
# M*#)
-»©b--^®7i — e<*
sgaggggg
^g^^p
«^^^f
AL-TO MAR IN
836
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
ffl
iJT3^u?ri
^t^ri'iJB
1 1 u-^JTXh
7? WJjJa
— R — r^4Q-
— e — •-
■ Nm& *ffif
I i i i r_i i i
j
^gprijfi
fell ilLl
u a jti —
FAR
• •■a s> at & ae
0.f r.
— ]"| a cj»
—J — w w „•
•
1 M — . ■ — -
c #■ *
837
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
tt^S=^5&
— fis ■ il —
^ *y
-8&— — rr 1L_ HbE
*
II — » ■»—
f.
it . ——
• ®
1 £ vAin PORTO A
RI-PO -
RI-PO
^
•^IIM LL1J
1 ff
After this period, Handel having been ruined by carrying on
operas at his own expence in opposition to the nobility, and unable
to indemnify himself by the profits of his oratorios, went to Ireland
[Nov., 1741] : a measure which was probably precipitated by the
certain information he had received of the Earl of Middlesex having
taken upon himself the perilous and troublesome office of
impresario of Italian operas; for the performance of which, he had
engaged the King's theatre in the Hay-market, and an almost
entire new band of singers from the Continent, with Galuppi to
compose.
At the opening of the Opera-house, October 31st [1741], the
new singers, as usual, were allowed to display their abilities in songs
of their own chusing, which were interwoven by the new composer,
Galuppi, in a pasticcio, called Alessandro in Persia. The Music
in this drama was so judiciously selected, that few operas afford
a greater variety of beautiful airs in different styles (n). The
composers of the songs that have been printed, were Leo, Hasse,
Arena, Pescetti, Lampugnani, and Domenico Scarlatti. The air:
Sparge al mare, by the composer last mentioned, is one of the
finest songs of the kind, that I know. The rolling of the billows,
and distraction of the crew, during a storm and ship-wreck, are
admirably painted by the orchestra; and the voice-part is full of
fine passages for a great singer. The celebrated air : Vo solcando,
composed by Vinci, in his Artaserse, 1730, seems built on the same
idea in melody and accompaniment. In the voice-part the divisions
are reversed, and when Scarlatti descends in the wreck, Vinci
mounts, in following the will of fortune, at the word seguitar.
There is more variety, passion, and genius in the composition of
Scarlatti, though the other is a very fine song. If this air was only
set for Scarlatti's Merope, which was first performed at Rome 1740,
Vinci has the merit of primogeniture; and, as I cannot find the
words in any of his other operas, I suspect this to be the case.
The style, likewise, is too modern for any other opera that I can
find, by Domenico Scarlatti. Passaggier che fa ritomo, the second
air in this collection, is likewise by Mimo Scarlatti, and very new
and fanciful for the time. The third air is anonymous, but more in
the style of Lampugnani than of any other composer. This is
followed by an agreeable air in minuet time, from Galuppi' s
Penelope; a fine air from Hasse's Olimpia, sung by Carestini: Vedo
(«) Walsh published two collections.
838
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
V ombra del mio bene; and Miro del tebro V onda, from Galuppi's
Scipione in Cartagine, a pleasing air of which the modulation of
the first four bars is the same as Pergolesi's Tremende oscuri attroci.
There are, however, some new divisions in this song, not very
easy to execute with the voice. The opera of Alessandro in Persia
was written originally for Lucca, in 1738, by the Abate Francesco
Vaneschi, when it was set by Para dies, before the arrival of these
personages in England. Vaneschi being, however, in London at
the time that Lord Middlesex's opera regency began, was employed
by his lordship, first as poet, and then as assistant manager. In
process of time, from prime minister, upon his lordship's abdication,
he assumed the sovereignty of the opera state.
The singers in Alessandro in Persia, which sustained twelve
representations, were Monticelli, soprano, first man; Andreoni,
soprano, second man; Amorevoli, tenor; Signora Visconti, first
woman; Signora Panichi, second woman; and Signora Tedeschi,
third woman. Of these performers, it will be necessary here to
give some account previous to the mention that will be made of
the songs in which they chiefly distinguished themselves.
Angelo Maria Monticelli [c. 1710-64] first appeared on the
stage at Rome in the year 1730; and, having a beautiful face and
figure, began in that city, where no women are allowed to mount
the stage, by representing female characters. His voice was clear,
sweet, and free from defects of every kind. He was a chaste
performer, and never hazarded any difficulty which he was not
certain of executing with the utmost precision.* To his vocal
excellence may be added the praise of a good actor; so that nothing
but the recent remembrance of the gigantic talents of Farinelli, and
the grand and majestic style of Senesino, could have left an English
audience any thing to wish. Andreoni was a good singer of the
second class, though his powers were not sufficiently attractive for
the principal man's parts of an opera. Amorevoli was an admirable
tenor; I have heard better voices of his pitch, but never, on the
stage, more tasce and expression. The Visconti had a shrill flexible
voice, and pleased more in rapid songs than in those that required
high colouring and pathos. She was so fat, that her age being the
subject of conversation in a company where Lord Chesterfield was
present; when a gentleman, who supposed her to be much younger
than the rest, said she was but two and twenty; his lordship, inter-
rupting him, said " you mean stone, Sir, not years." The Panichi
and Tedeschi, being " without mark or likelihood," shall remain
nondescripts.
The first specimen which Galuppi gave of his abilities as a
composer, was the opera of Penelope, written expressly for our
stage by Paoli Rolli, and dedicated to the noble impresario, Lord
Middlesex. The genius of Galuppi was not as yet matured; he now
copied the hasty, light, and flimsy style which reigned in Italy at
* "Monticelli dines frequently with Sir Robert, which diverts me extremely : you know how
low his ideas are of music and the virtuosi; he calls them all fiddlers." — Horace Walpole,
July 7, 1742.
839
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
this time, and which Handel's solidity and science had taught the
English to despise. Galuppi's first opera here was performed but
five times; and in examining the songs that were printed by Walsh,
it seems not to have been unjustly treated. The air, however:
A questa bianca mano, is truly dramatic and impassioned (o).
1742. At the beginning of this year the performance of Penelope
was discontinued, and that of Alessandro in Persia resumed, during
six nights. After which, January 19th, a new pasticcio, called
Polidoro, was performed, and had seven representations; but of
its merit I am unable to speak, having never seen any of the
songs. February 19th, 23d, and 27th, Penelope was again
exhibited; and March 2d, another new opera, by Buranello, was
brought out, called Scipione in Cartagine. In this opera: Di
madre ai cari amplessi, is a fine cantabile air, in the gran gusto;
the accompaniment, in terzini, was his own, or, at least, new to
us. Rinaldo di Capua & Terradellas, had accompaniments of the
same kind, about this time. Many of Galuppi's passages, indeed,
have been made common by plagiarists; but at this time they were
new. Insultami superb a, is spirited, and in a grand dramatic style.
After nine representations of this opera, an excellent pasticcio was
brought out, April 20th, called Meraspe, o l'Olimpiade, written
by the admirable Metastasio. The Music was chiefly selected from
Pergolesi, and this seems to have been the first time his serious
compositions were publicly heard in England. The first air:
Tremende oscuri attroci, in Monticelli's part, was sung at concerts
by Frasi for ten years, at least, after the run of the opera was over;
and the whole exquisite scene where Se cerca se dice occurs, was
rendered so interesting by the manner in which it was acted as
well as sung by Monticelli, that I have been assured by attentive
hearers and goo.d judges, that the union of poetry and Music,
expression and gesture, seldom have had a more powerful effect on
an English audience. Besides this Music by Pergolesi, there was a
fine cantabile air by Domenico Scarlatti; Immagini dolente, which
was sung with exquisite taste by Amorevcle (p); Per novo amor
delira, composed by Leo; and two agreeable airs by Lampugnani
and Leo. After the run of Olimpiade was over, an opera called
Ceffalo e Procri was performed three times; but of which, as the
Music was never printed, I am unable to speak. The season was
ended, June the 1st, after two representations more of Scipione in
Cartagine.
The lyric theatre was opened again, the following winter,
November 2d, with a new opera written by Apostolo Zeno, called
Gianguir, of which the Music is said, in Walsh's catalogue, to
have been composed by Hasse; there are, however, but two of his
(o) During the run of these two operas, Garrick was acting at Goodman's-Fields, Beard
and Lowe contending at Drury-lane, and acting the same parts alternately, where the Fausans
and Michels danced; while Barberini and Domitilla, at Covent-garden, were joined by
Monsieur Picq, and Mademoiselle Auguste, just arrived from the opera at Paris.
(p) This opinion is traditional, as I was not in London during the performance of the
opera, but being in possession of the Music, and having heard Amorevoli sing in 1744, I have
little doubt of its being well founded.
840
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
songs printed; the first, Se poi senti, in F minor, a very fine one,
with new chromatic in the accompaniment; the last, Parti se vuoi
cost, a very pleasing air, sung by Amorevoli. The rest by
Lampugnani, Brivio, and Ranaldo di Capua. In Lampugnani's
airs there are new and difficult divisions. Rinaldo di Capua's is a
fine air, in a grand style, with an accompaniment in triplets.
After three performances only of this opera, Alessandro in
Persia, was revived and represented five times. And then a
pasticcio called Mandane, another name for Metastasio's drama of
Artaserse, was brought on the stage and performed, likewise, five
times : that is, to the end of the year.
1743*. On the first day of this year a new opera was brought
out, called Enrico, composed by Galuppi, more frequently
called by the Italians Buranello, from the little Venetian island
which gave him birth; this drama was originally written for the
theatre at Florence, in 1732, by Vaneschi, afterwards manager;
and now new set and performed on the English stage under his
own direction. The London edition is dedicated to Earl Fitzwilliam.
In this opera, the principal singers, Monticelli, Visconti, and
Amorevoli, were the same as in the preceding year; but the inferior
characters were represented by three new female performers, who
now first appeared on the English stage : these were Frasi, Galli,
and Contini. The two first, after transplantation from Italy, took
root in this country, and remained here in great public favour, for
many years; the third seems to have remained in England but
one season. Giulia Frasi was at this time young, and interesting
in person, with a sweet and clear voice, and a smooth and chaste
style of singing, which, though cold and unimpassioned, pleased
natural ears, and escaped the censure of critics. Galli having a
voice of a lower pitch, which the Italians call mezzo soprano, and
her appearance being less feminine than Frasi's, began in this
opera with a man's part, and was afterwards frequently employed
in male parts on the opera stage. There was something spirited
and interesting in her manner; however, she was little noticed by
the public till she sung in Handel's oratorio of Judas Maccabceus,
1746, when she acquired such favour in the air " 'Tis liberty
alone," that she was not only encored in it every night, but became
an important personage, among singers, for a considerable time
afterwards.**
There are many pleasing and elegant movements in Enrico ; and
a gay air sung by Monticelli, beginning : Son troppo vezzose, was
* "Handel has set up an Oratorio against the Operas, and succeeds. He has hired all the
goddesses from farces and the singers of Roast Beef from between the Acts at both theatres,
with a man with one note in his voice, and a girl without ever an one; and so they sing,
and make brave hallelujahs; and the good company encore the recitative, if it happens to
have any cadence like what they call a tune." So writes Horace Walpole on Feb. 24, 1743.
If this letter refers to Samson which was first produced on 17th Feb., 1734, then Walpole's
remarks about the singers are unfortunate, as the leading parts were sung _by Mrs. Cibber
{Micah). John Beard (Samson), Signora Avolio and Mrs. Clive.
Walpole again writes on March 3, 1743: "The Oratorios thrive abundantly — for my part,
they give one an idea of heaven, where everybody is to sing whether they have voices or not."
** Judas Maccabceus was not performed until April 1st, 1747. The first performance was
postponed several times, as Handel thought the public too interested in the trial of Lord Lovat.
841
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
constantly encored at the Opera-house, and long remained in
general favour. Indeed, many of the refinements in modern melody,
and effects in dramatic Music, seem to originate from the genius
of Galuppi at this period, at least in England.
February 22d, Temistocle, an opera written by Apostolo
Zeno, and set by Porpora, was first performed at the King's theatre
in the Hay-market, by the same singers, and had a run of eight
nights. The air in this opera beginning : Di che a sua voglia
eleggere, is in a grand and original style; the shakes, however,
on the first note of a phrase or passage, seem strange, from so great
a singing master. U ire tue, has some new effects and embellish-
ments, and was pillaged by Wiedeman in his best minuet. I never
saw Music in which shakes were so lavished; Porpora seems to
have composed the air: Contrasto assai, in a shivering fit. After
the run of this opera, and two more performances of Enrico,
Sire-ace, another drama set to Music by Galuppi, was brought out,
which likewise ran eight nights, from April 9th to May 17th, when
an end was put to the season (q).
How much the ballance turned out in favour of the noble
impresario, I am unable to say; if considerable, the honour must
be totally ascribed to the composer and performers, as dancing
appears to have had no share in attracting the public attention.
In the autumn of this year, the same singers were retained; but
Lampugnani [b. c. 1706], a new composer, was engaged to supply
the place of Galuppi, who was returned to Italy. Roxana, the
first opera by this new master, was brought out, November 15th,
and ran till the end of the year, having twelve uninterrupted
representations. As this opera seems not to have been printed
tinder the name of Roxana, but on its revival in 1746, when I
heard it performed by the title of Alessandro nell' Indie, I shall
then speak of its merit.
1744. January 3d, a new opera called Alfonso, set by
Lampugnani, was first performed. Upon a cool and fair
examination of the works of this composer, I now find more genius
and merit of various kinds, than I used to allow. He was thought
slight and flimsy when he was here; as all musical people were then
imbued with the solidity of Corelli, Geminiani, and Handel, and
were unwilling that any composer should turn over a new leaf, or
advance one step farther. Lampugnani's is not a grand style; but
there is a graceful gaiety in the melody of his quick songs, and an
elegant tenderness in the slow, that resemble no other composer's
works of that time. If any defect is more prominent than another
in his productions, it is want of dignity and richness of harmony.
This composer, who was very young at this time, and is still living
(q) In the first air of this opera that was printed by Walsh : Se belle tanto siete new
effects are produced from rinforzando; B flat, as a passing-note, is first used against B natural;
and a quiet accompaniment, in quavers, to a vocal division had not been often used before.
Indeed, all the airs of this opera, the last which Galuppi directed himself, in England, are
pleasing, and in good taste. He seems the first, in this opera and Enrico, who used the sharp
fifth in melody next to Porpora, who started this intermediate note of taste. See the next
plates.
842
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
at Milan, rioted too much with comedy, for a serious drama. There
is more bravura for Monticelli in the songs of Alfonso, than I ever
remember that singer to attempt in any other.
After eight representations of this opera, it gave way, January
31st, to another, called Roselinda, set by Veracini, at that time
the leader of the opera band. The first air that presents itself in the
printed copy of the favourite songs is " The lass of Patie's mill,"
which Montcelli condescended to sing, and Veracini to set parts
and ritornels to, in order, as they imagined, to flatter the English.
But as few of the North Britons, or admirers of this national and
natural Music, frequent the opera, or mean to give half a guinea
to hear a Scots tune, which perhaps their cook-maid Peggy can
sing better than any foreigner, this expedient failed of its intended
effect (r). Veracini's own Music in this opera is wild, aukward,
and unpleasant; manifestly produced by a man unaccustomed to
write for the voice, and one possessed of a capo pazzo. This
opera, to my great astonishment when I examined the Music, ran
twelve nights.
After this, L' Errore di Solomone, another opera composed
by Veracini, had two representations, and Aristodemo, a pasticcio,
seven, before the 28th of April, when Alceste, a new opera by
Lampugnani, was first performed. To the Music of this drama the
same praise is due, as to that of Alfonso. Questo baccio, is pathetic,
elegant, and dramatic. Placata e gia I' onda, has the merit of
tenderness and passion. This opera which was in great favour with
the votaries of the new lyric style of Italy, ran ten nights, and
terminated the season, June 16th. There were no operas at the King's
theatre in the Hay-market from this time till January 1746. In
November 1744, Handel finding the house unoccupied, engaged it
for the performance of oratorios, which he began November 3d,
and continued to his great loss, and the nation's disgrace, till the
23d of April.*
1745. From this period, there will be little occasion for my
having recourse to tradition or books for information concerning
the musical transactions of our own capital, as it has been the chief
place of my residence ever since; except from 1751 to 1760. But
during those nine years, though Norfolk was my home, I visited
London every winter, in order to rub off rust and revive friendships;
so that I shall seldom depend on hear-say evidence, or doubtful
information for facts, but speak of persons and things from my
own memory, acquaintance, and professional intercourse.
(r) Palma, who embellished this air with great taste, seems to have been more admired
in singing it without a voice than Monticelli with one that was exquisite; a singer in a room
may hazard refinements, which on a stage, accompanied by a powerful orchestra, would have
no effect.
* January 5, 1745, saw the production of Hercules, which only survived a few performances,
and was followed by Belshazzar on March 27. This also proved a failure and Handel revived
Semele, Joseph, and Saul. The whole season was a failure and Handel was only able to
give 16 concerts, although he had announced 24.
The Countess of Shaftesbury, on March 13, 1745, writes — "I went last Friday to Alexander's
Feast, but it was such a melancholy pleasure as drew tears of sorrow to see the great though
unhappy Handel, dejected, wan, and dark, sitting by, not playing on, the harpsichord, and
to think how his light had been spent in being overplied in music's cause."
843
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The great Opera-house being shut up this year on account of
the rebellion, and popular prejudice against the performers, who
being foreigners, were chiefly Roman Catholics; an opera was
attempted April 7th, at the little theatre in the Hay-market, under
the direction of Geminiani. Prince Lobkowitz, who was at this
time in London, and fond of Music, with the celebrated and
mysterious Count Saint Germain, attended all the rehearsals.
Pasquali led; and I remember, at a rehearsal, Geminiani taking
the violin out of his hands, to give him the style and expression of
the symphony to a song, which had been mistaken, when first led
off. And this was the first time I ever saw or heard Geminiani.
The opera was a pasticcio, and called L' Incostanza Delusa. But
Count St. Germain composed several new songs, particularly Per
pieta bell' idol mio, which was sung by Frasi, first woman, and
encored every night. The rest of his airs, and two by Brivio,
Frasi 's master, which Walsh printed, were only remarkable for
insipidity. The first man's part was performed by Galli. The
success of this enterprize was inconsiderable, and the performances
did not continue more than nine or ten nights.
1746. There was no opera attempted at the great theatre in the
Hay-market, till January 7th, when La Caduta de' Gigantt,
set by Gluck, was performed before the Duke of Cumberland, in
compliment to whom the whole was written and composed. The
singers were Monticelli, Jozzi, and Ciacchi; with Signora Imer,
Pompeati, afterwards better known by the name of Madame
Comelie, and Frasi. The first woman, Imer, never surpassed
mediocrity in voice, taste, or action; and the Pompeati, though
nominally second woman, had such a masculine and violent manner
of singing, that few female symptoms were perceptible. The new
dances by Auretti, and the charming Violetta, afterwards Mrs.
Garrick, were much more applauded than the songs, which,
however, for the time, had considerable merit. The first air in G
minor is of an original cast, but monotonous. The second air has
genius and design in it. Then a duet, in which he hazarded many
new passages and effects. The following air, for Monticelli, is very
original in symphony and accompaniments, which a little disturbed
the voice-part in performance, I well remember, and Monticelli
called it aria tedesca. His cotemporaries in Italy, at this time,
seemed too much filed down; and he wanted the file, which when
used afterwards in that country, made him one of the greatest
composers of his time. The next air printed, is in a very peculiar
measure, and like no other that I remember: it has great merit of
novelty and accompaniment; the voice-part wants only a little
more grace and quiet. The following song, set for Jozzi, a good
musician with little voice, is full of new and ingenious passages
and effects; I should like much to hear this air well performed at the
opera; it is kept alive from beginning to end. Something might be
expected from a young man able to produce this opera, imperfect as
it was. It had, however, but five representations.
844
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
January 28th, II Trionfo della Continenza, a pasticcio,
but chiefly by Buranello, came out, and ran ten nights. The airs
in this opera are admirable, and still in good taste. Tu mia
sposa, page fourteen, of the songs printed by Walsh, is a model for
aria parlante. La sorte mia tiranna, is likewise excellent, though it
was afterwards surpassed by Piccini (s).
March 4th, was first performed, Artamene, set by Gluck, in
which Monticelli was every night encored in Rasserena il mestn
ciglio. The motivo of this air is grateful to every ear; but it is
too often repeated, being introduced seven times, which, there
being a Da Capo, is multiplied to fourteen. The second part is
good for nothing. Indeed, no other air in this opera, that has
been printed, furnished a single portent of the great genius this
composer afterwards manifested.* This opera ran, however, ten
nights. Then, April 15th, Alessandro nelV Indie, by Lampugnani,
was revived, and had eight representations. There is much fire
and imagination in the cantilena of these airs, which are natural
and of easy execution for the voice. The composer, however,
though toujours gai and agreeable, was likely, after two or three
operas, to be pronounced a riotous trifler.
May 13th, Antigono, set by Galuppi, was first exhibited, and
continued in run to the end of the season; which was the last in
which Monticelli appeared on our stage. In the charming air:
A torto spergiuro, of this opera, we see the first time, perhaps, when
the base was struck after the treble, of which Emanuel Bach and
Haydn have often made a happy use. The accompaniment of Gia
che morir deggio, in slow triplets, has been the model of many
subsequent songs, particularly Piccini's invocation to sleep; Vieni
al mio seno, in La buona Figliuola (t).
In the autumn of this year, Reginelli, an old but great singer,
whose voice, as well as person, was in ruin, first appeared on our
stage, in a pasticcio, called Annibale in Capua (u). This
performer was now turned of fifty; his voice a soprano, but cracked,
and in total decay; his figure tall, raw-boned, and gawky; but
there were fine remains of an excellent school in his taste and
manner of singing; indeed, he had some refinements in his
embellishments and expression, that cannot be described, and which
I have not since heard in any other singer. In a cantabile, his taste,
to those who had places near enough to hear his riffioramenti, was
exquisite; but the imperfections of his voice and figure disgusted
(s) We see the model of all the best songs of our own composers, in looking back to
Handel and his successors. Page 25 of the songs printed by Walsh, we find in Cedo alia sorte,
the idea, and almost all the passages, of Arne's "When Britons first, &c."
(I) The speaking of songs that are now many of them out of print, may be thought useless
and absurd; but as numerous copies of all the operas of the times of which I am at present
treating were circulated, and are still in the hands of general purchasers, and collectors, among
whom, if I may hope for readers, my remarks and references to the printed copies of these airs,
v/ill not perhaps be wholly nugatory.
(w) Though there are airs, among those of this opera that were printed, with the names
of Hasse, Lampugnani, Paradies, the Cavalier Malegiac, and Terradellas, prefixed to them, the
little original merit they could ever boast, has been long since diminished by plagiarism, and
the vicissitudes of fashion.
* Qluck made his appearance at the Haymarket Theatre on April 23, 1746, as a performer
on the musical glasses, with an orchestral accompaniment.
845
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
those at a distance, to whose ears only the worst part of his
performance arrived.
The rest of the singers of this season were not captivating:
Borosini, Triulzi, and Ciacchi, among the men, having never been
possessed of the powers of pleasing; and the Pirker, a German
woman of small abilities, with Casarini, and Frasi, then in an
inferior class, did not supply Reginelli's deficiencies, in the power of
attracting company to the Opera-house.
After six representations of Annibale, Mitridate, an opera
entirely by the new composer Terradellas [1711-51], was brought
out, December 2d, and had a run of ten nights. In the two
collections of favourite songs in this opera, printed by Walsh, those
that were sung by Reginelli are admirable, and the others very
agreeable: particularly, Chi fingere non sa, which, from its easy
and natural melody, was a great favourite; Se spuntan vezzose, sung
by Pirker, with a hautbois obligato, for T. Vincent, pleased much;
as did some of Casarini's songs.*
1747. The Earl of Middlesex, who, till this winter, was
patentee and sole director at the opera, had been joined by a
number of noblemen, at the beginning of the season, by whom four
general subscriptions were opened : the first, in November, for six
nights only ; the second, in December, for ten ; the third, in
January, for seventeen; and the fourth, in March, for fourteen
nights.
January 17th, which was the first of the second subscription,
Phaeton, a new opera set by Paradies, just arrived in this country,
was first performed. In examining the airs of this opera that
were printed, the first seems very common and ill-phrased, nor is
there much estro, or grace, in any of his songs that I have seen (x).
Indeed he seems to have had no great experience as an opera-
composer. And during his residence in England he acquired more
reputation by the lessons he published for the harpsichord, and the
scholars he made on that instrument, for which he was an admirable
master, than by his vocal compositions.
The drama of Fetonte, or Phaeton, was written by Vaneschi,
afterwards manager; to which is prefixed A Discourse on Operas,
inscribed to the Earl of Middlesex. The author, whoever he was,
makes no contemptible defence of the musical drama, against the
common objections of critics insensible to the power of musical
sound; but the best apologies for the absurdities of an Italian opera
in a country where the language is little understood, are good
Music and exquisite singing. Unluckily, neither the composition,
nor performance of Phaeton had the Siren power of enchanting men
so much, as to stimulate attention at the expence of reason.
(x) An air in the style of a common minuet, by Hasse; another by Paradies; and an
ordinary song in common time,, for Triulzi, an ordinary singer, forms the whole collection. Many
choruses were interwoven in this drama, but how set, or what their effect, as I have neither seen
nor heard them, I am unable to say.
* A letter from Horace Walpole is of interest. On Dec. 5, 1746, he writes — "We have
operas, but no company at them; the Prince and Lord Middlesex impresarii. Plays only are
in fashion : at one house the best company that perhaps ever were together, Quin, Garrick,
Mrs. Pritchard, and Mrs. Cibber." . .
846
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After nine representations of Phaeton, and seven of
Lampugnani's favourite opera of Roxana, which was a second
time revived, the fourth subscription began, March 24th, with a
new opera by Terradellas, called Bellerophon. The compositions
of this master, now just arrived in London, are in general good.
Passages are, indeed, still too often repeated, in Rosalia, and
symmetry and phraseology are sometimes wanting. But crescendo
is used in this opera, seemingly for the first time; and new effects are
frequently produced by pianos and fortes. Bellerophon had ten
representations, which, with four of Mithridates, completed the
fourth subscription and the season, which had not been very
propitious: the expences far exceeding the receipts, so that the
noble directors were considerable losers, and obliged to pay the
pipers all deficiencies.
In November, the Opera-house was opened with a pasticcio,
called Lucio Vero, chiefly from Handel; and I well remember the
richness of the harmony and ingenuity of the contrivance of several
songs, were very striking, compared with the light melodies and
their accompaniments of what I had heard at the Opera-house
before. Ombra cara; Affanni del pensier; and the duet, Io t'
abbraccio, had a very fine effect, and were extremely grateful to the
remaining friends of Handel's talents and opera administration.
This drama continued in run till Christmas, and was performed
fourteen times in November and December; and,
1748. In January eight times more : an uncommon number of
representations for any opera, old or new, during this period 1
While this opera was in run, at the great theatre, there was an
attempt at another : L' Ingratitudine Punita, in the little theatre,
by some discontented and unemployed performers, who,
however, were only able to support their rebellion during two
representations: January 26th and February 2d. At the other
theatre Reginelli was still first man, and the rest were chiefly the
same as have been already mentioned, except that Galli was
engaged, who, by her performance in Handel's Judas Maccabaeus,
had sung herself so much into favour, as to be thought a consider-
able acquisition at the Opera-house. The season, however, went
on heavily; and the Earl of Middlesex was again a considerable
loser by the undertaking. May the 14th, the house was shut up,
after trying Enrico by Galuppi, Roxana by Lampugnani, and
Dido and Semiramis by Hasse, in vain; for no Music can support
an opera, without great and favourite singers. The Music of these
two last operas was not entirely composed by Hasse, though printed
under his name. There was at this time too much of the Scots
catch, or cutting short the first of two notes in a melody, thus:
w ~ a m jpi m . mJ*1^ **Hi— — ^ss^ W a. -* —
Ombra cara, sung by Casarini, is a charming air. Nel duol che
prova, by Frasi, is innocent, and beautifully accompanied. It
847
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
appears from Hasse's operas, where Emanuel Bach acquired his
fine vocal taste in composing lessons, so different from the dry and
laboured style of his father. Graun and Hasse were almost the only
dramatic composers whose works the late King of Prussia would
hear. There is a song in C minor, by Pergolesi, in this collection,
that is not very striking. Neither he nor Hasse had yet found out
the secret of exact phraseology. A subject begun in the symphony
upon the first part of a bar, is by both frequently commenced, in
the song, at the second. Rosalia and too frequent repetition of
passages still subsisted, as did Da Capos. Page 121, there is a
pleasant gay air by Lampugnani. Two pretty airs by Pasquali, for
Galli; with a light and slight air by Hasse in Semir amide.
In Se vi lascio, the first air of the opera last-mentioned, the
enforcing a single note was new, and has been since often adopted.
It is almost the sole merit of this song, which is a minuet composed
of passages that are now very common. Consola il mio marine,
is a fine cantabile, by Lampugnani. We have there a passage
which the French introduced on all occasions for a long time after :
In the autumn of this year, serious operas being discontinued, a
new company of comic singers was brought hither from Italy, for
the first time, by Signor Croza. These performers, consisting of
Fertici, Laschi, and Guadagni, then very young, for first man;
Frasi, and afterwards Mellini, for serious woman, and the comic
female parts by the wives of Pertici and Laschi, the two best buffo
actors I ever saw, formed a very good troop; and in the comic
operas of La Comedia in Comedia, Orazio, Don Calascione, Gli
tre Cicisbei ridicoli,* &c. composed by Latilla, Natale Resta, and
Ciampi, who came over as maestro to the company, pleased the
public, and filled the theatre, very successfully, during the whole
season (y).
1749. Besides the operas already mentioned, La Finta
Frascatana, II Giramondo, La Pace in Europa, were brought out
in the spring, but as they were pasticcios of little merit, and with-
drawn after one or two performances, their names hardly deserve
a place in opera records.
At the beginning of the next season, in November 1749, upon
a quarrel with the manager, Signor Croza, there was a schism at
(y) Some notice seems due here to this new and ingenious species of dramatic Music; but
as it is of the same kind as that of intermezzi, which have a distinct article elsewhere; and as
the composers will be duly mentioned as masters of the Neapolilan School. I shall here only
observe, that of the three first opere buffe, which have been mentioned, the Music of Don
Calascione, by Latilla, was much the best; the whole being truly characteristic and charming.
Till the Buona Figliuola, nothing equal to it was produced, except II Filosojo di Campagna,
which is less comic, though more elegant. Gli tre Cicisbei ridicoli had likewise great comic
merit; but this species of composition was now so new, and the acting of Pertici and Laschi, so
excellent, and so fully engaged the attention, that critics had little leisure left for a severe
examination of the Music.
* A song from Ciampi's Gli tre Cicisbei ridicoli entitled Tre giorni son che Nina is
erroneously attributed to Pergolesi. It is usually sung as a serious song, but the original form
published by Walsh, and given in the Ox. H.M., Vol. IV. p. 235, proves that the character of
the song has been misunderstood.
848
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the great theatre, and the composer, with the principal singers
withdrew, and erected their standard at the little theatre in the
Hay-market, where they performed a new comic-opera set by
Ciampi, called II Negligente, nine times.
1750. The latter end of January, a burletta, called Madama
Ciana, composed by Latilla, in 1744, for Venice, where it had an
uncommon success, was so coldly received on our stage, that it
was withdrawn after the second representation. This disappoint-
ment has frequently happened in transplanting favourite operas of
the comic kind; for, except the Buona Figlioula, the productions
which had obtained the greatest applause and celebrity in their own-
country, have had the least favour shewn them here. This may
be partly ascribed to a difference of taste in things of humour; but
more, I believe, to our natural aversion to the being told what we
should admire.
On the failure of this burletta, after two performances of Don
Calascione, Adriano in Siria, a new serious opera set by Ciampi,
was attempted; but as no new serious singers were arrived, and
Guadagni, then a young and wild performer, and Frasi, performed
the principal parts, after six thin houses, it was superseded for the
comic-operas of the preceding winter. Indeed, it was performed
April 27th, for Laschi's benefit, but by way of farce; after this
opera he found it necessary to add to the night's entertainment
Pergolesi's charming intermezzo, La Serva Padrona, which was
the first time of its being heard in this kingdom. Another opera,
set by Ciampi, called 77 Trionfo di Camilla, was brought out, but
lived only two nights. The airs are full of common-place passages;
indeed none are printed but those of Giacomazzi and Frasi. The
productions of Ciampi strike me now as they did near forty years
ago: they are not without merit; he had fire and abilities, but
there seems something wanting, or redundant, in all his composi-
tions; I never saw one that quite satisfied me, and yet there are
good passages in many of them. Adriano in Siria was composed
for second-rate singers, and the Music is of the same kind. There
is more spirit and effect in the air : Infelice in van mi lango, than
in any other of that opera. The duet and cantabile air, however,
have merit. The comic songs of II negligente are infinitely better
than his serious, and convince me that his genre was buffo, for
which he came over. La mia crudel tiranna, sung by Laschi in
this burletta, is charming, and had always great applause. The
second air: Che bel contento e questo, is comic, and spirited; the
subject of the third, is taken from Pergolesi.
The arrival of Giardini in London, in the spring of this year,
forms a memorable aera in the instrumental Music of this kingdom.
His first performance in public was at a benefit concert for Cuzzoni,
May the 18th, at the little theatre in the Hay-market; where, as
this was her third arrival in this country, and she was grown old,
poor, and almost deprived of voice, by age and infirmities, there
was but little company; yet, when Giardini played a solo of Martini
Voiv. ii. 54. 849
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of Milan's composition, the applause was so long and loud, that I
never remember to have heard such hearty and unequivocal marks
of approbation at any other musical performance whatever.
Farther notice will be taken of the effects of his superiority on the
violin in pursuing the progress of that instrument in this country.
Poor Cuzzoni returned to the Continent after this unprofitable
concert, more miserable than she came; and is said to have died in
a hospital or workhouse, at Bologna, in the utmost wretchedness.
This spring, Dr. Croza, the manager of the opera, after having a
personal benefit, April 7th, ran away, leaving the performers and
innumerable tradespeople, and others, his creditors; and May 15th,
an advertisement appeared in the Daily Advertiser, signed Henry
Gibbs, a tea-merchant, in Covent-garden, offering a reward of
£.30 to any one who would secure his person. This event put
an end to operas of all kinds, for some time.
The following plates will shew the divisions and refinements
which were brought into favour about the middle of the present
century.
Vocal Divisions and refinements in Dramatic Music from 1740 to
1755.
CAR.ESTINI in DIANA and EN DY- ^MION I 74o.
AL- LO SPLENDOR
MOSCOVITA
IN THE SAME
OPERA.
MONTICELU
IN GlANGUlR.
174-2
GALUPPI
IN
ENRICO
74-3.
inDi
THESE PASSAGES WERE AFTERWARDS IMITATED BYSAGCHINI ANCTOTHERS
85O
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
GALUPPI
IN
MONTICELLI
DO.
lil4_iSlrrr_grT*" 1
— —
J THESTo.
U.1.1 M U-L 1 1 1
*
tt.
rt*A 1 n •
1 _ •
';.» i • • \,
• 1 ll
n V '
V 1 r
BRAVURA FOR THE
SAME SINGER IN
ALFONSO I744-.
%,. ^r, -V- -r. / —
<P""Hr»ftETtt?r[gffl P1">J
gstatarrTBM il Ml' fe
TV. TV.
U 1 I
VISCONTI IN
NERONEI75i
ALLEGRO Dl MOLTO.
i . i _ •«<« ^ LLLi
RICC1ARELLI IN
IPERMESTRA
17 54.
MINGOTTliN EZIO
BY PEREZ, 1755.
fe
%#^^^
Jive. m»mm »»w«r~»yH7j L7*» I ■.•*** *ft>a>iygr^Lr:fcvV«
851
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In 1753 and 1754,* serious operas, after languishing in poverty
and disgrace from the departure of Monticelli, in 1746, were again
attempted under the management of Signor Vaneschi. And in
November, the theatre was opened with pasticcios, and revived
operas, performed by a company of singers, to which the public
manifested no great partiality. During this year, and the
beginning of 1754, Nerone, a pasticcio; Galuppi's Enrico; Didone
by Ciampi; Artaserse, a pasticcio; Admeto, by Handel; and
Attilio, by Jomelli, were all received with great indifference, as
performed by Serajini, the first man, with little voice, though a
good actor; Visconti, first woman, but now P asset; with Ranieri,
Albuzio, and the Passerini and Frasi; nor could the united powers
and sum-total of attraction, of these singers, keep the manager out
of debt, or hardly out of jail, till the arrival of Mingotti, who,
in the autumn of 1754, revived the favour of our lyric theatre, with
considerable splendor (z).
The theatre opened with the new troop, and under Vaneschi's
government, November 9th, with Ipermestra, an opera composed
by Hasse and Lampugnani, which had a run of eleven nights
before Christmas, and was several times performed between other
operas, afterwards. There is a charming plaintive air of this opera,
by Hasse, in the printed collection: Tu sai ch' io sono amante,
which Mingotti used to sing admirably; there are likewise pleasing
bravura airs by both the composers, in the fashion of the times,
which differs but little from the present. Galuppi's Penelope was
revived, and performed three or four times at Christmas, but with
so many changes, that it was rather a pasticcio, than the uniform
production of one master. Only two of the new airs were printed :
the first, Se non ti moro allato, is admirable in the pathetic style;
and the other lively, natural, and pleasing. These are by Hasse.
1755. In January Siroe, a new opera by Lampugnani, had a
run of nine nights. The Music is light, airy, and pleasant. It
(z) The Music is not always without merit, when operas are unsuccessful; the public in
general is more able to judge of extraordinary vocal powers, than of good composition. Only
a single air in the opera of Nerone was printed, it was composed by Perez, is extremely rapid,
and was sung by Visconti. But the Didone of Ciampi is the most agreeable of all this
composer's serious operas that were performed on our stage; here he is more frequently new,
as well as graceful, than formerly. In Attilio Regolo, by Jomelli, the first air, sung by
Serafini, is a pleasing minuet, but now become common. The next, sung by Visconti, is at
present somewhat familiar; as is the third and fourth. The subsequent air is a cantabile, in a
grand style of singing, but thinly accompanied : Jomelli had not yet been in Germany, where
more harmony and contrivance were expected. It seems, however, worth recording, that a scene
of recitative, in the part of Serafini, was encored every night during the run of this opera;
the only instance of the kind that I remember. Senesino was extremely admired and
applauded in many scenes of recitative, but I never heard of his being encored. It was in the
last scene of Jomelli's opera, which ends without an air, that Regulus, determined to return to
Carthage, addresses the Roman people who endeavoured to prevent his departure, in the
recitative which had so uncommon an effect, beginning: Rotnani, addio. Siano i congedi estremi
degni di noi, &c.
* Horace Walpole to Horace Mann, dated Jan. 28, 1754: "We abound in diversions, which
flourish exceedingly on the demise of politics. There are no less than five operas every week,
three of which are burlettas; a very bad company, except the Niccolina, who beats all the
actors and actresses I ever saw for vivacity and variety. We had a good set four years ago,
which did not take at all; but these being at the playhouse, and at play prices, the people
instead of resenting it, as was expected, are transported with them, call them their own operas,
and I will not swear that they do not take them for English operas. They huzzaed the King
twice the other night, for bespeaking one on the night of the Haymarket opera."
852
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
wants dignity, as is usual with the compositions of this master, but
it is never vulgar or tedious; it is the Music of a gay man of the
world; no study or labour appear, though fashion or elegance are
never wanting. This opera was succeeded, February 4th, by
Riccimero, composed by Galuppi, except the first air in the printed
collection, which is by Leo, and a good one. The rest of the Music
is still new and excellent, though not quite so fresh now as that
of Ezio, the next new opera, by Perez, which is in general good
Music, that still stands its ground. Sventurata non ho piu pace,
sung by Mingotti, has passages of bravura not of very easy
execution. Ecco se miei catene, sung by Ricciarelli, is a pathetic
air, excellently composed; and Ah non son io che parlo, is a fine
air of spirit. The rest are admirable. There are two airs by Hasse
in the collection, of an inferior style. This opera, which had a
run of eleven nights, carried the manager well through the season,
which ended June 7th.
At this time Giardini led the band, in which he introduced new
discipline, and a new style of playing, much superior in itself, and
more congenial with the poetry and Music of Italy, than the
languid manner of his predecessor Festing; who, except one or two
seasons, when Veracini was at the head of the orchestra, had led
the opera band from the time that Castrucci was dismissed, till
the arrival of Mingotti. Ricciarelli, the first man, was a neat and
pleasing performer, with a clear, flexible, and silver-toned voice,
but so much inferior to Mingotti, both in singing and acting, that
he was never in very high favour. Ciprandi, the tenor, was
possessed of much taste and feeling; and Colomba Mattei, the
second woman, was both a charming singer and a spirited and
intelligent actress, who soon after became a great favourite, as
first woman. Among these singers, the Curioni, as third woman,
and Mondini, with a baritono voice, between a tenor and base,
brought up the rear (a).
In November this year, nearly the same company appeared in
the Andromaca of Jomelli. The first air of this opera : Si soffre un
cor trianno, has considerable merit; but the close of the allegro is
now old-fashioned. A great part of this opera was composed by
Jomelli in his first manner; but originality and the hand of a,
master always appears. The air: Eccoti il figlio, as sung and
acted by Mingotti, was truly dramatic and affecting. The whole
is very superior to almost all cotemporary productions.
Upon the success of this drama a damp was thrown by the
indisposition of Mingotti [1728-1807], during which, Frasi was
(a) About this time the Giordani family, consisting of five performers, brothers and
sisters, exhibited comic-operas at the little theatre in the Hay-market. They performed the
burlettas of L' Albergatrice, and La Cameriera Accorta so well, that the whole troop was
engaged at Covent-garden, where the eldest sister was so admired, not only as a singer but
actress, that in the comic-opera of Gli Amanti Gelosi, she was frequently encored two or three
tunes in the same air, which she was able to vary so much by her singing and acting, that
it appeared at every repetition, a new song, and she another performer. The Music of this
burletta, by Cocchi, was not of the first class; however, the part of Spiletta was so admirably
performed, that it became the general name of the company.
853
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
called upon to perform her part in that opera, as she had been
twice in Riccimero, the preceding season; when suspicions arising
that Mingotti's was a mere dramatic and political cold, the public
was much out of humour, till she resumed her function in
Metastasio's admirable drama of Demofoonte, in which she
icquired more applause, and augmented her theatrical consequence
beyond any period of her performance in England. The air, in
the grand cantabile style, by Hasse, beginning: Se tutti i mali miei,
was in the highest degree pathetic, and the audience seemed now
to feel her powers of expression, for the first time. Her style of
singing was always grand, and such as discovered her to be a
perfect mistress of her art; and she was a most judicious and
complete actress, extending her intelligence to the poetry, and
every part of the drama; yet her greatest admirers allowed that
her voice and manner would have been still more irresistible, if
she had had a little more female grace and softness. The perform-
ance in men's parts, however, obviated every objection that her
greatest enemy could make to her abilities, either as an actress,
or singer. In the anonymous Demofoonte that was now performed,
the first air is an imitation of Handel's minuet in Ariadne, not
very well done: the air itself is much better. These cookeries are
generally intended to flatter Handel's admirers; but they never
succeed: every note that is added, changed, or omitted,
disappoints the ear, and offends reminiscencp. Even when the
melody of Return, 0 God of Hosts, was sung to Italian words, at
the opera, by Monticelli, and Paccfn'erotti, in nearly the same
notes, the different style of singing from what the public had been
used to, dissatisfied, instead of charming, the audience. For the
rest of the Music in this Demofoonte that has been printed, except
Hasse's Se tutti i mali miei, either Mr. Walsh preferred the shortest
songs to better, that would have filled more plates, or it was very
ill selected; as there is nothing sinking in the subject or treatment
of the other airs (b). The opera of Demofoonte came out
December the 9th, and in the course of the winter was performed
more than twenty times, running constantly, till the month of
March, the next year; when, after trying Riccimero, and a
pasticcio Olimpiade, chiefly by Galuppi, it was performed five
times more in April (c).
1756. Tito Manlio, an opera composed by Abos [c. 1708-86],
a good master,* of the Neapolitan school, was performed but once;
the parts being probably ill cast, and the songs unfit for any but
(6) At this time Mingotti and Giardini not allowing the opera-copyist to dispose of the
favourite songs to Walsh upon the usual easy terms, had them printed elsewhere; this was the
case with II Re Pastore, some of the songs in Demofoonte, and other operas.
(c) Of the favourite songs of this Olimpiade, the first is an agreeable air by Galuppi. The
second, by Minati, despicable ! The third, a pretty minuet by Galuppi. Then follows Superbo
di me stesso, a pleasing air by the same composer. Grandi d ver, by Pergolesi, but not in his
best manner, nor without Scoticisms. And lastly, an agreeable air in a comic style, that was
sung by Frasi.
* Abos was maestro al cembalo at the Opera in T756.
854
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the singers for whom they were originally composed (d). But
Lampugnani's Shoe, and Hasse's Ipermestra, which were now
revived, had a better fate, and continued in run till the end of the
season, June 19th.
Vaneschi had been manager from the time that serious operas
were renewed, in 1753, till now; when his difference with Mingotti
had occasioned as many private quarrels and public feuds, as
the disputed abilities of Handel and Bononcini, or talents of
Faustina and Cuzzoni, had done thirty years before. The frequent
contentions with Mingotti, which shook his throne, had prejudiced
the public against both. On a toujour s tort in these disputes; and
addressing the town is but making bad worse, for not a word which
either party says is believed (e). These squabbles ended in
Vaneschi 's being a bankrupt, a prisoner in the Fleet, and afterwards
a fugitive; and in Mingotti and Giardini acquiring, for a while, the
sovereignty in the opera kingdom, by which gratification of ambition
they were soon brought to the brink of ruin, as others had been
before them.
Vaneschi having withdrawn, a la sourdine, during the summer,
in the same manner as his predecessor Dr. Croza, nearly the same
company of singers went through the next winter, with great eclat,
under the direction of Giardini and Mingotti. The operas then
performed were Alessandro neli/ Indie, a pasticcio, till
January 22,
1757. After which II Re Pastore, an excellent composition
by Hasse, was brought out, and had eleven representations;
Antigono, by Nicola Conforto, twelve; Rosmira, by Giardini, six;
and Euristeo, by Galuppi, five.
But though great applause was acquired, and appearances were
favourable, yet the profits to the managers were so far from solid,
that they found themselves involved at the end of the season in such
difficulties, that they were glad to resign their short-lived honours,
and shrink into a private station.
After the resignation of Giardini and Mingotti, the nobility
having paid too dear for their experience, to wish again to resume
the government of so expensive and froward a family, the state now
remained without a chief, till Mattei and her husband Trombetta
made interest for the chance of speedy ruin, and obtained the
management.
id) The favourite airs of this opera were printed by Walsh, though none were favoured
by the public. The first air, however, is pleasing: Se che fiiii amor, but has too much repetition
and Scots snap of the first of two notes. The second, is languid and monotonous. The third,
a larghetto, is good and theatrical. The last air, sung by Frasi, has the Neapolitan comic
cast; but none of the fire of that school flashes in these songs, by Abos. There was one air,
by Lampugnani, introduced, in which there is spirit, and something follatre in the symphony
and accompaniment, peculiar to that composer.
(e) Mrs. L , afterwards lady B , a zealous friend and protectress of Mingotti,
having applied to the Hon. General C for a decided opinion concerning the disputes
between that singer and Vaneschi, stating the case very minutely in a long detail of facts;
the general, after listening a long while with seeming attention, a little discomposed the lady,
when she finished, by asking, with seeming ignorance, and real indifference, "And pray, ma'am,
who is Madam Mingotti?" — "Get out of my house!" cries the lady, "you shall never hear her
sing another note at my concerts, as long you live."
855
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
During the whole time that Mingotti performed, no master had
been invested with the title of opera composer; but Music already
composed for other theatres on the Continent, was procured, and by
the professional abilities of Mingotti, and the arrangements and
additions of Giardini, it was made to answer the purpose of new
productions on our stage. Mattei, however, engaged Signor
Gioacchino Cocchi [c. 1715 — c. 1804] of Naples, as composer to
the opera, during her administration. The season was began
November 8th, with a pasticcio called Demetrio, which was
arranged and conducted by this master; who supplied it with two or
three new airs, and a pleasing finale.
Mattei now assumed the dignity of first woman, and Potenza,
an uncertain singer, and an affected actor, with more taste than
voice, supplied the place of Ricciarelli (/). Giardini's successor,
as leader of the band, was Pinto (g).
The opera of Demetrio was performed fourteen times without
interruption, and continued to run till January 10th,
1758, when it gave way to Zenobia, an opera entirely set by
Cocchi. This was performed but six times, before its representation
was discontinued for Solimano, a pasticcio, which was performed
alternately with Zenobia and Demetrio, till March 14th, at which
time another new opera, by Cocchi, was brought out, called
Issipile; and, April 1st, still another, entitled Creso, which, with
those already mentioned, completed the subscription; and June 5th,
the theatre closed with Demetrio, the Alpha and Omega of the
season.
To enable the musical reader to keep pace with the times, I
shall describe the effect which the composition of these operas had
on myself and others at the time of performance; indeed, my own
memory has been assisted, and opinion confirmed by a recent
perusal of the airs that were printed.
The songs of Demetrio are chiefly anonymous, but several of
them were in very great favour, particularly: Voi leggete in ogni
cori; Ah se un cor barbaro, sung by Mattei with great energy and
feeling; the duet likewise : Caro spiegar vorrei, and the finale : Deh
risplende, by Cocchi, were justly admired and applauded.
(/) This performer found so little to do on his return to the Continent, that he engaged to
teach and travel with admiral (afterwards Sir Robert) Harland's family, with whom he
returned to England, about the year 1760, continuing to reside in the house and to instruct
Miss Harland, whose performance in bravura and high notes, was brought to as high a pitch
as Agujari's and very much admired.
(g) This excellent performer on the violin was born of Italian parents, in England [1714].
He was a miraculous player on his instrument, when a boy. And, long before manhood came
on, was employed as the leader of large bands in concerts. He was at this time, however, very
idle and inclining more to the fine gentleman, than the musical student, kept a horse, was
always in boots of a morning, with a switch in his hand, instead of a fiddle-stick; till the
arrival of Giardini, whose superiority to all the performers he had ever heard inclined him to
think it necessary to practise, which he did for some time with great diligence. With a very
powerful hand and a marvellous quick eye, he was in general so careless a player that he
performed the most difficult Music that could be set before him, better the first time he saw
it, than ever after. He was then obliged to look at the notes with some care and attention;
but, afterwards, trusting to his memory, he frequently committed mistakes, and missed the
expression of passages, which if he had thought worth looking at, he would have executed
with certainty. After leading at the opera, whenever Giardini laid down the trunchion, he was
engaged as first violin at Drury-lane theatre _ where he led during many years. He married
for his first wife Sybilla a German under-singer at the opera, and sometimes employed in
burlettas at Drury-lane. After her decease, he married the celebrated Miss Brent, and, quitting
England, settled in Ireland, where he died about three or four years ago.
856
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Few of the airs of Zenobia surpass mediocrity; they are
monotonous in style and passages. The best was Resta in pace,
which Mattei rendered interesting by her singing, though in itself,
it is tame and languid.
The two airs of Solimano, by Perez, that were printed, are
charming. The first : Ah se in del, is full of graceful and beautiful
passages; and the second: Infelice abbandonata, is one of the most
pleasing bravuras of that style and time. A very pleasing air, by
Bertoni, follows : Non so disdoglere, which has been sung to English
words in one of our theatres. The last composition of the collection,
and of Walsh's ninth volume, is Cangia il fine, a short and favourite
duet in Handel's opera of Amadigi. Issipile is in the same style as
Zenobia. Cocchi came from Naples, a country where good
composers abounded; he had good taste, and knowledge in
counterpoint, and in all the mechanical parts of his profession; but
his invention was very inconsiderable, and even what he used from
others, became languid in passing through his hands. The
composers named in the pasticcio of Creso, are Abos, Bertoni, and
Cocchi; but no one air was distinguished from another by genius,
or the applause it received from the public (h).
November 11th, the Opera-house opened with Attalo, a
pasticcio, represented eight times, successively, by the performers
of the preceding season. There is a very pleasing short duet by
Cocchi at the beginning of the collection : Sempre facdam contenti.
After this, a spirited bravura air, by Aurisicchio [d. c. 1779], an
excellent Roman composer, who died young, and of whose
compositions this is the only air that was ever sung on our stage.
Then a cantabile, sung by Tenducci, who was just arrived. This
air was set by Caffarelli the singer. It is in a fine style of grand
pathetic, such as, six years after, Manzoli's Caro mio bene addio
was written in, by Pescetti. The next is a pleasing graziosa by
Perez. An air in minuet time for Calori, by Potenza, in which the
composer and performer were well matched; and an anonymous air
in agreeable common-place, sung by Portenza, terminates the
collection.
After this, the favourite opera of Demetrio was resumed and
continued till February 3d,
1759; when Ciro Riconosciuto, a new opera by Cocchi, was
performed for the first time. This is the best of his productions
during his residence in England. Rende mi il figlio mio, is
happily set, and was still more happily sung, by Mattei. This air
is full of spirit and passion, and perfectly suited to the situation of
the character by which it was performed. This is one of the first
capital opera airs without a second part and Da Capo. The duet
[h) About this time, Walsh published a collection of songs by Vinci : among which is that
admirable, and still favourite air, Vo solcando. The second air: I doni non voglio, has
character and spirit; but the passages are too frequently repeated. There are grace and facility
in Chi vive amante, which were then new, as was the monotonous base; but now we find
nothing new in this air. Barbara prer.di e vena is excellent, and has been the model of many
subsequent fine songs for the theatre. Luci spietate is a pretty air for a small singer; the triple
repetition of the same passages makes an impression, and seems impassioned. Qui V ombra
pallida, is finely set; and the quick part of the air has energy and passion in it. He repeats
the same passage often in the same notes with good effect, but seldom in rosalia.
857
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
has considerable merit, but too many of the passages are alia
scozzese. This drama was represented during a great part of the
remainder of the season. It was in this opera that Tenducci was
first noticed on our stage; and, though a young performer, and only
second in rank, he had a much better voice and manner of singing
than Potenza to whom he gave precedence. Mattei afforded the
audience great pleasure in this opera; as her manner of singing,
though not quite in the grand gusto, was extremely amiable and
pleasing; her figure was unexceptionable; and her acting, in some
scenes of passion and distress, acquired her as great applause as her
singing, particularly in the air Rende mi il figlio mio, which was
constantly encored. She was a scholar of Perez and Bertoni, and
sung many songs of their composition, which they themselves had
taught her, in an exquisite manner.
Quilici, a good musician with a base voice, was added to the
band of singers this season, and Calori and Laura Rosa were the
second and third women.
February 20th, Il Tempio della Gloria, set by Cocchi, was
performed for the first and last time. Then Ciro and Demetrio
were performed alternately, till the 24th of April, when Farnace,
set by Perez, was brought on the stage, and had sixteen represen-
tations, the season being terminated with it on the 22d of June.
The first air is a very brilliant bravura, with passages of rapid
iteration which few singers are now able to execute agreeably.
The second air: Se vivo ben mio, is elegant and full of grace. The
third, is a long and laboured song of two characters, pathetic and
spirited, by Cocchi; in which he seems to have done his best to no
great purpose. The next, a very agreeable song of spirit, by Perez.
The following season began with Vologeso, a pasticcio in which
Cornacchini, a new first man, superseded Potenza; the public,
however, gained but little by the change, as his voice was not good,
and his style of singing by no means grand or captivating. The
first air in Vologeso is Cocchi's, and as good as any of his spirited
songs; the Scots snaps excepted. Perez's song (the second) is full
of little else, but that little is good, and worthy of so great a
master. The opening of the third song, by the same composer,
though a slow minuet only, has dignity in it, with grace and
agreeable melody and effects. The next air, by Jomelli, is very
pleasing, and so much in Perez's style, that it is manifest they
were both of the same school. The Scots snap seems to have been
contagious in that school at this time; for all the three masters
concerned in this opera are lavish of it. The duet, by Jomelli, is
extremely pleasing, and the first I have found on the present
dramatic models of dialogue, with only bursts of passion, in two
parts. Vologeso and Farnace supplied all the variety of
composition that was given till the 15+h of January,
1760; when La Clemenza di Tito, a new opera set by Cocchi
was brought out, which discovered no new resources in this
composer. In March, Arminio, a pasticcio, was performed; and
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
in May, Antigona, another. All the airs in Arminio that Mattei
sung were composed by Perez. And among these, Nel pensar al
gran cimento, is one of the most pleasing and original bravuras I
ever heard. There are two duets in this opera, which pleased; the
first easy enough to be sung a table, and without accompaniment;
the second dialogued and dramatic. Se V amor tuo, is an elegant
graziosa, which has served for a model since to several others, by
different composers. In Antigona, a bravura air by Galuppi,
spirited, but now not new; one by Conforto full of Scoticisms; a
bravura by Cocchi, in his best manner; and a duet by the same
composer, in Solimano, constitute the whole of the collection that
was published by Walsh under the title of Antigona. At the end
of May, Erginda new set by Cocchi was likewise brought out; but
after three representations, to very thin houses, the season was
closed, June 7th, without its having afforded much rapture to the
public, or profit to the impresaria; who not having been able to
procure a capital singer to perform the first man's part, and
Cocchi's invention, which was never fertile, being now exhausted,
the season passed on rather heavily. Indeed, Mr. Gallini, as first
dancer this year, received great applause, and in a pas seul was
frequently encored, which I never remember to have happened
to any other dancer. The Asselin was then the principal female
dancer, and a favourite of the public.
The next season, 1760 and 1761, while Mattei was still in
possession of the supreme power, the opera troops were reinforced,
not only with Elisi, a new first man, of great reputation and
abilities, but by a complete company for comic operas, consisting
of Paganini buffo Caricato, Tedeschini second, Sorbellone serious
man; Signora Paganini first buffa, Eberardi second, and Calori
serious woman.
With these forces the campaign was opened, November 22d,
when II Mondo della Luna, a comic opera by Galuppi, was
performed. The Music of this opera, the first in which the
Paganini sung, is in a truly pleasant and agreeable comic style,
particularly: Se I' uomini sospirano — Quando si trovano — O come
e dolce amar, which, excellent in themselves, by the captivating
manner in which they were sung and acted by the Paganini, became
doubly interesting. In this opera Tedeschini, who afterwards
became an eminent singing-master, appeared for the first time,
in the part of second buffo.
With the Music and performance of this burletta the town
seemed so pleased, that the new serious singer, Elisi, was kept in
reserve till December, when he first appeared in Arianna e Teseo,
a pasticcio, in which some admirable songs of Galuppi's composition
were introduced, particularly: Fra stupido e pensoso, an aria
parlante, in a new and fine style of dramatic Music, in which the
accompaniments, in two of three slow triplets after each note in
the base, had a new and fine effect. Eberardi's pleasing air by
Scarlatti: No non mi vuol si misero, with her amiable manner of
859
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
singing, was much applauded, and generally encored. La speme
amabile, one of the best airs which Cocchi ever composed for
Mattei, was admirably executed; and Elisi's second air: Vorrei
spiegar V affanno, by Jomelli, was both written and sung in a grand
style.
This opera, in which Mattei performed the first woman's part,
was very much applauded by crouded houses a great part of the
season. Elisi, though a great singer, was still a greater actor: his
figure was large and majestic, and he had a great compass of voice.
He was fond of distant intervals, of fourteen or fifteen notes, and
took them well. Several airs of Jomelli, which he introduced in
different operas, were calculated to shew the dexterity and accuracy
with which he could form these remote intervals. Sorbelloni, a
young singer of limited abilities, with an exquisitely toned voice,
was an agreeable second singer, and Eberardi gave great pleasure
in the simplicetta and innocente way, both in the serious and comic
opera of these times. Tenducci had quitted London, but Calori
still remained.
1761. In January, was brought out II Filosofo di Campagna,
a comic opera, composed by Galuppi.* This burletta surpassed
in musical merit all the comic operas that were performed in
England, till the Buona Figliuola. And its success was
proportioned to its merit. Though Signor Paganini was but a
coarse first man, his wife, Eberardi, and Sorbelloni, performed
their parts very much to the satisfaction of the public. The simple
and elegant air : La bella che adora, sung by Sorbelloni, from the
mere tone of his voice, was always applauded; Eberardi's innocent
manner of singing : La pastorella al prato, interested every hearer;
and the lively and playful air : Donne, donne siamo nate, was sung
in a way so piquant and agreeable, that the applause Paganini
acquired by it amounted almost to acclamation. Other parts of the
Music were sufficiently good to support bad singing; for the base
song : Ho per lei in mezzo al core, was always heard with pleasure,
though sung by Paganini, almost without a voice. This opera had
an uninterrupted run of fifteen nights (i). Indeed, the airs of every
kind, in II Filosofo di Campagna, were in such favour, that
Paganini was generally encored in whatever she sung. This
performer, though not young when she came hither from Berlin,
increased in reputation so much during the run of this opera, that
when it was her turn to have a benefit, such a crowd assembled
as I never remember to have seen on the like occasion, before, or
since; indeed, not one third of the company that presented them-
selves at the Opera-house doors were able to obtain admission
Caps were lost, and gowns torn to pieces, without number or
mercy, in the struggle to get in. Ladies in full dress, who had
(i) During which time Paganini got up a new comic opera for her benefit, called / tre
Gobbi rivali, which abounded with so much buffoonery and so little good Music, that it was
never performed again.
* This opera was produced at Dublin in 1762 with the title The Guardian Trick'd.
860
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
sent away their servants and carriages, were obliged to appear
in the streets and walk home in great numbers without caps or
attendants. Luckily the weather was fine, and did not add to their
distress by rain or wind; though their confusion was greatly
augmented by its being broad day light, and the streets full of
spectators, who could neither refrain from looking or laughing at
such splendid and uncommon street-walkers.
After running Arianna from December 2d, 1760, to February
7th, 1761, Tito Manlio, a new opera by Cocchi, was brought
out by the serious company; but it being found that Arianna,
notwithstanding its many representations, had still more attractions,
this opera, after three or four trials, was wholly laid aside, and
Arianna resumed, till Didone Abandonata, a serious opera by
Perez and Galuppi, in which Elisi had some admirable songs,
could be got ready; and this opera, by returning now and then to
Arianna, carried the impresaria reputably and profitably through
the season, as far as concerned the Saturday nights. Didone
Abandonata was chiefly by Perez, with two or three airs by Galuppi;
indeed, all the airs that were sung by Elisi, in this opera, seem
to have been composed by Galuppi, and those of Mattei, by her
master Perez; among which: Va crescendo il mio tormento, is a
graceful and pathetic minuet, and Son regina an air of great
spirit; but those airs which we have since heard Agujari, Gabriele,
and the Mara, sing to the same words, make us forget or despise
all others. On the Tuesdays, besides the favourite operas of II
Mondo nella Luna, and II Filosofo di Campagna, at the end of
April, La Pescatrice, in which Paganini had some very capital
songs, was brought out, and well attended till the end of the
season. The Music to this burletta is extremely pleasing, and
many of the airs, sung by Paganini and Eberardi were constantly
encored: Un pescatori me V a fatta brutta, of the first, and Sono
amante, of the second. No composer is mentioned either in the
book of the words, or printed copy of the Music; but it must have
been chiefly by Galuppi and Latilla, as there were no other
masters at this time who wrote so well in this style.
The season closed, June 6th, with Arianna e Teseo, to which
was added a Grand Serenata, the Music by Cocchi; which was
not sufficiently admired to encourage the manager to perform it
more than twice.
In the autumn of this year, the arrival of her Majesty, with
the royal nuptials and coronation, filled the capital with more
company than perhaps had ever been assembled there since its
foundation. And this may be safely asserted, not from its own
increasing magnitude and population, but national curiosity, to see
a young prince and princess of whom fame had published so much
good, that a long and uninterrupted national felicity was expected
during their auspicious reign.
September 19th, an occasional drama was exhibited at the King's
theatre, called Le Speranze della Terra; after which, there was
86i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
no other performance there till October 13th, when a new serious
opera, by Cocchi, appeared called Alessandro nell' Indie, which
had nine representations, continuing in run till Christmas.
The two operas of Tito Manlio and Alessandro nell' Indie, by
Cocchi are in the same style as his former productions, in which,
however, his favourite and usual passages afforded less pleasure for
want of novelty. He had two admirable singers to write for,
Elisi and Mattei; yet their performance could not procure any of
his airs an encore in the Opera-house, or popularity out of it. In
Tito Manlio : Padre con questo amplesso, a cantabile; Prendi V
ultimo addio ; and the duet, are the best. And these have as much
merit as he ever mustered on any occasion in this country.
The comic troop began with the favourite opera of II Filosofo
di Campagna, by command of their Majesties, which being the
first time the royal pair had honoured the lyric theatre with their
presence, occasioned such an unusual crowd of claimaints for
admission, as could not have been gratified with places, if instead
of our diminutive Opera-house we had had a theatre of equal
magnitude with the Coleseo at Rome.
November 7th, a new burletta was first performed, entitled II
Mercato di Malmantile, by Galuppi and Fischietti. The chief
part of this Music is worthy of the fertile pen of Galuppi, which
succeeded equally well in serious and in comic songs; there is a
spirit and a sportiveness in the airs inferior in no respect to the
preceeding operas. Fischietti' s songs have likewise considerable
merit of the same kind.
1762. The remainder of the season was filled up with the
following operas; serious: Tolomeo, a pasticcio, which had ten
representations. The whole collection of songs that was printed
of this opera consisted only of three : Se mai senti, a fine cantabile
by Galuppi, that was sung by Elisi; a bravura by Ciampi: II
nocchier, not very common, for Mattei; and another bravura for
Elisi, by an anonymous composer, that was good for nothing.
The next opera was La Disfatta di Dario., of which, being a
pasticcio that was acted but three times, and never printed, I can
give no account. And, lastly, Attilio Regolo, by Jomelli.
There is some excellent composition in this opera,* which had been
produced in Italy chiefly to display the extent of voice, and powers
of expression of Elisi. Non so sfrenare il pianto, is in a fine
style of cantabile, which was afterwards imitated by Pescetti, for
Manzoli, in Caro mio bene addio.
The comic operas this spring were Bertoldo, by Ciampi; with
Le Nozze di Dorina, and La Famiglia in Scompilia by Cocchi.
Bertoldo had been performed in 1751 or 1752, when Laschi,
Pertici, and Guadagni were here. The two first airs in the second
collection that were now sung by Paganini, are gay and pleasing.
Felton's ground [Gavot] was introduced, at this time, in the opera
* Especially in the air Teneri affetti miei with mutual horns.
862
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
of Bertoldo, by Eberardi; but was become too common and vulgar
for an opera audience, though sung by a favourite performer.
The air: Felice io sono, originally composed for Guadagni, and
published in the first collection, is natural and elegant. Cocchi
was quite exhausted long before his comic operas were produced.
His invention did not flow in torrents, it was but a rill at its
greatest swell; and now, with hardly a single smile upon any one
of the airs, his heavy and thread-bare passages were doubly
wearisome. Indeed, his resources in the serious style were so few,
that he hardly produced a new passage after the first year of his
arrival in England; but in attempting to clothe comic ideas in
melody, or to paint ridiculous situations by the effects of an
orchestra, he was quite contemptible. Without humour, gaiety,
or creative powers of any kind, his comic opera was the most
melancholy performance I ever heard in an Italian theatre (k).
But so full was the capital this winter, that if the Music and
performance had been ever so despicable, the theatre would have
been equally crouded. And since this period, operas have seldom
been so contemptible as not to be an excuse for infinite crowds
assembling in the Hay-market of a Saturday night, from the time
of her Majesty's birth-day, till Whitsuntide. Indeed, it should
seem as if that Music, singing, and dancing, which are detestable on
a Tuesday night, by some latent cause or magic, were sure of being
exquisite on a Saturday. The houses of parliament not sitting on
that day may account for a little addition to the crowd, but the rest
is certainly the work of Fashion.
At the close of this season Mattei retired from the stage, but
continued the management of the opera another year. And
perceiving a partiality in the public for comic operas, seems in her
first arrangements to have neglected the serious, for which she
provided no first woman; and the first man, who was to supply the
place of Elisi, was not of the highest class. She had, indeed,
{k) When Cocchi first arrived in England, he brought over the new passages that were
in favour at Rome and Naples, to which, however, he added so little from his own stock of
ideas, that by frequent repetition, the public was soon tired of them; and his publications in
this country are now as much forgotten as if he had lived in the fifteenth centuiy. Indeed, all
the animation and existence they had, was conferred on them by the performance of Elisi and
Mattei. He remained here long enough to save a considerable sum of money by teaching to
sing. Plutarch informs us, that Dionysius the tyrant of Syracuse, when he had lost his
kingdom, became a schoolmaster, the common resource of opera composers and singers, who
after being dethroned in the theatre, often submit to the same drudgery. Cocchi set an opera for
Rome, called Adelaide, so early as the year 1743; Bajasette, another, in 1746; and Arminio, a
third, in 1749 . In 1753, he set II Pazzo Glorioso, a comic opera for the theatre of S. Cassiano,
in Venice. The operas he composed and arranged in England have been specified, till the
summer of 1762, when his engagement, as opera composer, ceased. In 1765, he compiled a
serious pasticcio, called La Clemenza di Tito, in which he introduced a few of the songs from
his own former opera of that name, which had been performed in 1760; and in 1771, he
composed an opera called Semiramide Riconosciuta, and this was his Finale; but the nation
had been too long accustomed to better Music to listen to it with much pleasure. _ About 1772.
he retired to Venice, where he had been maestro of a conservatorio before his arrival in
England; and there he still enjoys the fruits of his labours in ease and tranquillity. His wife,
a Venetian, had been formerly a buffa singer on the stage, but never performed publicly in
England; however, one night I was luckily present at Frasi's, when, after supper, she was
prevailed on to sing, and treated the company, which was chiefly composed of Italians, with
whom she was intimate, with a comic song of a very curious and uncommon kind : it seemed
a practical example of the acceleration of notes in the time-table; for she began the first
stanza of her song with semibreves, in a kind of slow psalmody; the second in minims, having
two syllables to each note; then three, four, five, six, and so on, till the rapidity of notes
and articulation of words were truly astonishing; and such as would have enabled her, had
she been of a clamorous disposition, to communicate her opinions to her sposo, in times of
domestic debate, to some tune.
863
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
engaged the De Amicis' family for burlettas, and Zingoni their
maestro, with Giustinelli and the Cremonini, for the serious parts.
November 18th [November 13th], 1762, the Opera-house opened
with the comic opera of II Tutore e la Pupilla, a pasticcio, in
which Anna De Amicis [b. c. 1740] captivated the public in various
ways. Her figure and gestures were in the highest degree elegant
and graceful; her countenance, though not perfectly beautiful, was
extremely high-bred and interesting; and her voice and manner of
singing, exquisitely polished and sweet. She had not a motion that
did not charm the eye, or a tone but what delighted the ear. Indeed,
she acted and sung for the whole family; for by her merits and good
works, she covered the multitude of their sins, which would
otherwise have had no remission (I).
Giustinelli had a good voice, and sufficient merit to supply the
place of second man on our stage in the serious operas, for several
years after; the Cremonini had more schooling, and attempted
more than the Eberardi, as second woman; but was less amiable.
Her voice, though a young woman, was in decay, and failed on ail
occasions of the least difficulty; which, however, did not prevent
her from attempting passages that not only required more voice,
but more abilities than she could boast.
Ciardini, a soprano, the serious first man, being arrived, Mattei
hastened to try his powers and those of such other performers as
she could muster, in a serious opera; and had a pasticcio cooked up
for the occasion, called Astarto Re di Tiro, in which Ciardini,
Giustinelli, and Quilici were the male singers; and the Cremonini,
Valesecchi, Carmignani, and Segantini, the female. Ciardini,
the only performer of whose abilities any expectations were formed,
disappointed every hope, by turning out a singer who seemed to
have been possessed of no very capital powers, originally, but now
wholly in decay (m).
1763. In January, a new comic pasticcio was brought on the
stage, called La Cascina; and in February, another comic opera,
composed by Galuppi, called La Calamita de' Cuori, which had
in it some charming airs, that seem to have been originally intended
for the display of all the enchanting powers of the young Anna De
Amicis (n).
Though Mattei had made such a scanty provision of singers for
a serious opera; yet perceiving, probably, how much Cocchi's
limited powers of invention were exhausted, and that he had been of
little use but in preparing pasticcios, for some time, she had engaged
Mr. John Christian Bach [1735-1782], who had added new lustre
to his name and family by his dramatic productions in Italy, and
been appointed by the Empress Queen organist of the Duomo at
(l) The airs of this burletta are pleasing, characteristic, and truly comic.
(»») A very pleasing air which Bach composed for him : Pupille vezzose, is printed with
the favourite songs of the burletta called La Calamita de Cuori.
(w) Of this burletta, as well as the preceding, the elegant and interesting De Amicis was
the chiei support. The rest of the singing was so despicable, that only her songs have been
printed.
864
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Milan [1760]. On his arrival here [1762], he was extremely
mortified to find that he had no better singers to write for than
Ciardini and the Cremonini, and for some time totally declined
composing for oar stage, being unwilling, as a stranger, to trust his
reputation to such performers. But, at length, having heard the
De Amicis sing two or three serious songs in private, it suggested to
him the idea of giving her the first woman's part in his serious opera;
and having communicated his design to Mattei the impresaria,
matters were soon arranged, and the De Amicis, who afterwards
held the first rank among female singers in the serious operas of
Naples and other great cities of Italy, was now first taken from the
comic opera, and invested with the character of principal woman in
the serious. And during the rest of the season, on Tuesday nights,
she delighted the town as the representative of Thalia, and on
Saturdaj^s as that of Melpomene.
Mr. Bach's first opera in England, called Orione, o sia Diana
vendicata, was honoured with the presence of their Majesties on
the first night, February the 19th, 1763, and extremely applauded
by a very numerous audience.* Every judge of Music perceived
the emanations of genius throughout the whole performance; but
were chiefly struck with the richness of the harmony, the ingenious
texture of the parts, and, above all, with the new and happy use he
had made of wind-instruments: this being the first time that
clarinets had admission in our opera orchestra. Their Majesties
honoured the second representation likewise with their presence,
and no other serious opera was wanting for near three months. On
the 7th of May, however, Zanaida,** a second serious opera by
Mr. J. C. Bach, was performed, with which the season was closed,
June 11th.
The principal songs of these two operas, though excellent,
being calculated to display the compass of voice and delicate and
difficult expression and execution of De Amicis, were not likely to
become common or of much use out of the Opera-house (o) . The
(o) De Amicis was not only the first who introduced staccato divisions in singing on our
stage, but the first singer that I had ever heard go up to E flat in altissimo, with true, clear,
and powerful real voice. The Agujari, long after, ascended much higher, but in falset. The
Danzi, now Madame Le Brun, went much higher than the Agujari, in real voice, of the same
register as her middle notes. It seems a trick, however, which persons gifted with a fine voice
of a common compass may learn : for Mrs. Sheridan, to. my great astonishment, sung one night
in my hearing Madam Le Brun's song of greatest compass, which goes up to Bb in altissimo;
and when this charming singer was in her highest practice, I never heard her attempt a note
above Bb or C in alt. But I must own, that such tricks, such cork-cutting notes, as they
were once well called by a musical lady of high rank, are unworthy of a great singer, and
always give me more pain than pleasure. Such notes may become a Canary-bird; but they are
not human; and as a friendly warning to those who may aspire at such unnatural heights, my
fair vocal readers will I hope pardon me, if I now stop them to relate a short story, well
known in Italy, for the truth of which I will venture to risk my historical fidelity. "Lucca
Fabris, a young singer with a soprano voice, who, at the age of twenty-four, the last of his life,
was the delight and wonder of the Italian theatre. His voice and manner of singing were
equally perfect, and he was able to contend with the celebrated Guadagni when at the summit
of his glory; till a fatal effort to sing a very high and difficult passage, which a Neapolitan
composer had injudiciously and cruelly given him to execute in the great theatre of San
Carlo, cost him his life. It is asserted that this master, merely to encourage him to try to
surpass another singer, composed an air beyond his natural compass and powers of execution;
and though the unfortunate Fabris protested to him that he could only attempt it at the nsK
of his life, the master insisted on his performing it; by which he burst a blood-vessel, that
brought on a haemorrhage, which all the art of medicine and surgery being unable to stop,
soon put an end to his existence!" Essai sur la Mus. Tom. III. p. 317-
* There are copies of Orione in the B.M.— H. 348, c. (2); G. 159; and also Add. MSS. 31,717.
** Copies in B.M. G. 159; and g. 212. a.
Voi,. ii. 55. 865
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
rest of the airs were so indifferently sung, that they were more
admired as instrumental pieces, than compositions for the voice. But
this excellent master soon convinced us that he possessed every
requisite for a great musician; by the songs he afterwards composed
in every style of good singing; by his symphonies, quartets, and
concertos for almost every species of instrument, as well as by his
expressive and masterly performance on the piano forte. It is with
pleasure I take this opportunity of doing justice to his talents and
abilities. Mr. J. C. Bach having very early in life been deprived
of the instructions of his father, the great Sebastian Bach, was for
some time a scholar of his elder brother, the celebrated Charles Phil.
Emanuel Bach, under whom he became a fine performer on
keyed-instruments; but on quitting him and going to Italy, where
his chief study was the composition of vocal Music, he assured me,
that during many years he made little use of a harpsichord or piano
forte but to compose for or accompany a voice. When he arrived
in England, his style of playing was so much admired, that he
recovered many of the losses his hand had sustained by disuse, and
by being constantly cramped and crippled with a pen; but he never
was able to reinstate it with force and readiness sufficient for great
difficulties; and in general his compositions for the piano forte are
such as ladies can execute with little trouble; and the allegros rather
resemble bravura songs, than instrumental pieces for the display
of great execution. On which account, they lose much of
their effect when played without the accompaniments, which are
admirable, and so masterly and interesting to an audience, that want
of hand, or complication in the harpsichord part, is never
discovered.
There are many admirable airs in the operas he composed for
our stage that long remained in favour. The richness of the
accompaniments perhaps deserve more praise than the originality
of the melodies; which, however, are always natural, elegant, and
in the best taste of Italy at the time he came over. The Neapolitan
school, where he studied, is manifest in his cantilena, and the
science of his father and brother in his harmony. The operas of
this master are the first in which Da Capos disappeared, and which,
about this time, began to be generally discontinued : the second part
being incorporated with the first, to which, after modulating into
the fifth of the key, the singer generally returns.
Bach seems to have been the first composer who observed the
law of contrast, as a principle. Before his time, contrast there
frequently was, in the works of others; but it seems to have been
accidental. Bach in his symphonies and other instrumental pieces,
as well as his songs, seldom failed, after a rapid and noisy passage to
introduce one that was slow and soothing. His symphonies seem
infinitely more original than either his songs or harpsichord pieces,
of which the harmony, mixture of wind-instruments, and general
richness and variety of accompaniment, are certainly the most
prominent features. In the sonatas and concertos which he
composed for his own playing, when his hand was feeble, or likely
866
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
to tire, he diverted the attention of the audience to some other
instrument; and he had Abel, Fischer, Cramer, Crosdil, Cervetto,
and other excellent musicians to write for, and take his part,
whenever he wanted support.
At the close of the season, June 11th, Signora Mattei left
England, and Giardini and Mingotti again resumed the reins of
opera government.
During the winter of 1763 and 1764, the following operas were
brought on the stage. Cleonice, a pasticcio. This was the first
opera printed by Bremner,* who superseded Walsh, and continued
opera publisher for more than twenty years. Cleonice was
engraved in a half score, with instrumental parts printed separately,
ready for use in concerts; a plan which seemed promising to the
public and the editor, but it was not favoured. The airs selected
for this collection were composed by Galuppi and Giardini, with a
duet by Bertoni. There is, however, nothing very captivating in
any one of them. The duet seems to have the most merit of any
one of them: Tu parti mio ben. The singers were the Mingotti, in
the decline of her favour; Marrietti, Peretti, Giustinelli, La Sartori,
and La Baini.
Siroe, the second opera, was likewise a pasticcio, of which
Giardini furnished the principal part. His air: Ah non so per eke
tu sei, sung by Mingotti, was long in favour both to Italian and
English words. Tremo fra dubbj miei, a bravura air by Galuppi,
was brilliant in its effect, as sung by the same performer, though the
passages have been since worn out. Giardini's D' ogni amator la
jede, was pleasing.
Enea e Lavinia, the third opera, was entirely by Giardini, for
the same singers as Cleonice. The airs and duets that are printed,
have never been much noticed.
Leucippe e ZenocPvITA, the fourth opera,** was a pasticcio,
in which there are two or three airs by Vento [c. 1735-76], whom
Giardini invited hither upon a supposition he should continue
impresario. This was his first winter in London, and in the
specimens he gave of his abilities, the melody is graceful and
pleasing. His rondeau: Se fidi fiete, was always encored at the
Opera-house, and afterwards at Ranelagh, to English words. This
was the last collection that Bremner published, with separate
instrumental parts. And here the reign of Giardini and Mingotti
seems to have ended, after an inauspicious season.
1764 and 1765. We are now arrived at a splendid period in the
annals of the musical drama, when, by the arrival of Giovanni
Manzoli [b. c. 1725], the serious opera acquired a degree of favour
* Bremner was established as a music publisher at Edinburgh before coming to London in
1762 In 1763 he bought the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book for ^10 ios., when Dr. Pepusch's library-
was sold. He afterwards gave it to Lord Fitzwilliam. Bremner died in 1789, and the business
was purchased by John Preston.
** There are some errors here. Burney makes two operas into one. Leucippe was the
third opera of the season and was produced on January 10. 1764. Zenocrita, with music by
Piccini and D. Perez was produced on Feb. 21. This was followed by Alessandro veil' Indie, a
new opera by an unknown composer. Enea e Lavinia was not produced until May 5th.
867
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
to which it had seldom mounted, since its first establishment in this
country.
The expectations which the greac reputation of this performer
had excited were so great, that at the opening of the theatre in
November [24th], with the pasticcio of Ezio, there was such a
crowd assembled at all the avenues, that it was with very great
difficulty I obtained a place, after waiting two hours at the door.
Manzoli's voice was the most powerful and voluminous soprano that
had been heard on our stage since the time of Farinelli; and his
manner of singing was grand and full of taste and dignity. In this
first opera he had three songs, composed by Pescetti, entirely in
different styles: Recagli quell' acciaro, an animated aria parlante;
Caro mio bene addio, an adagio in a grand style of cantabile; and Mi
dona mi rende, of a graceful kind, all which he executed admirably.
The lovers of Music in London were more unanimous in approving
his voice and talents than those of any other singer within my
memory. The applause was hearty, unequivocal, and free from all
suspicion of artificial zeal; it was a universal thunder. His voice
alone was commanding from native strength and sweetness; for it
seems as if subsequent singers had possessed more art and feeling;
and as to execution, he had none. However, he was a good actor,
though unwieldy in figure, and not well made in person; neither was
he young when he arrived in London; yet the sensations he excited
seem to have been more irresistible and universal, than I have ever
been witness to in any theatre.*
Scorn, the first woman, with an elegant figure, a beautiful face,
and a feeble voice, sung in a very good taste; and, though in want
of power, she possessed great flexibility and expression. Tenducci,
the second man, now arrived for the second time, and much
improved; Ciprandi, an excellent tenor (p); Cremonini, second
woman, a good musician, with a modern style of singing, but almost
without voice; and Miss Young, afterwards Mrs. Barthelemon,
composed the company.
Every composer now in London was ambitious of writing for
such a performer as Manzoli. And the managers, to manifest
impartiality, gave our countryman, Dr. Arne, an opportunity of
distinguishing himself by setting Metastasio's admirable drama of
Olimpiade.** But the doctor had kept bad company: that is, had
written for vulgar singers and hearers too long to be able to comport
himself properly at the Opera-house, in the first circle of taste and
fashion. " He could speak to the girls in the garden " very well;
but whether through bashfulness, or want of use, he had but little to
say to good company. The common play-house and ballad
passages, which occurred in almost every air in his opera, made
(p) He was very deservedly applauded and generally encored in Bach's charming air:
Non so donde viene, originally composed for the celebrated tenor Raaf.
* The outstanding musical event of 1764 was the arrival of the Mozart family on a visit
which lasted from April 1764 to September 1765.
** Olytnpiade was not produced until April 27, 1765. Ezw was followed by Berenice on
Jan. 1st, and this was succeeded by Adriano in Siria, Bach's third London opera.
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
the audience wonder how they got there. A tarnished Monmouth-
street suit of cloaths in the side boxes, would not have surprised
them more. This production was performed but twice, and never
printed. Many reasons may be assigned for this failure of a man
of real genius, who had on so many occasions delighted the
frequenters of our national theatres and public gardens : a different
language, different singers, and a different audience, and style of
Music from his own, carried him out of his usual element, where he
mangled the Italian poetry, energies, and accents, nearly as much
as a native of Italy just arrived in London, would English, in a
similar situation.
The next opera that was brought out, after Olimpiade, was
Berenice [1st January, 1765], a pasticcio, to which Hasse,
Galuppi, Ferradini, Bach, Vento, and Rezel, contributed. Abel
likewise furnished a march; and yet the favour of this opera was not
great, nor was any one of the airs ever noticed after its short run was
over. The best song in the printed collection is: Conjusa,
smarrita, by Bach, which from the melancholy key of F minor, and
the expression of the beautiful, but feeble-voiced, Scotti, had a very
pleasing effect.
This opera was succeeded by Adriano in Siria [B. M. H. 348,
c. (1)], new set by Bach. The expectations of the public the first
night [January 16, 1765] this drama was performed, occasioned
such a crowd at the King's theatre as had been seldom seen there
before. It was impossible for a third part of the company collected
together on this occasion to obtain places. But whether from heat
or inconvenience, the unreasonableness of expectation, the composer
being out of fancy, or too anxious to please, the opera failed. Every
one seemed to come out of the theatre disappointed, and the drama
was performed but two or three times. This seemed matter of
great triumph to the Italians, who began to be jealous of the
Germanic body of musicians at this time in the kingdom. The
songs were printed by the elder Welcker, and many of them sung
afterwards at concerts with great applause, and found, as detached
airs, excellent, though they had been unfortunate in their totality.
After this, Demofoonte, anew opera, by Vento, was performed
[2nd March], of which the airs are natural, graceful, and pleasing;
always free from vulgarity, but never very new or learned. They
were, however, in great public and private favour a considerable
time (q).
Manzoli had for his benefit [7th March] II Re Pastore, an
opera of which the Music was chiefly by Giardini, and, except the
songs he composed expressly for Manzoli, had been performed in
1755. This opera and Solimano, a pasticcio [14th May], were all
that were brought out during the rest of the season. In this last
opera an agreeable aria andante, by Ciccio da Majo: Serba gli
afjetti o cava, and Se non ti moro allato, by Perez, in a fine style of
cantabile, render the collection worth procuring. The public,
(a) Bremner published two collections.
869
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
however, seems to have been more delighted with Manzoli's
performance in Ezio than in any other opera that was brought on
the stage during his residence in this country, which was only one
season, at the end of which he returned to Italy, and was succeeded
here by Elisi, who arrived in London, a second time, in the autumn
1765.
The opera regency was now undertaken by Messrs. Gordon,
Vincent, and Crawford; the two first experienced professors, and
the third had been many years treasurer, under different managers.
Gordon, the son of a Norfolk clergyman, had been a good performer
on the violoncello; and Vincent, a scholar of San Martini
[Sammartini], long a favourite on the hautbois. His father was a
bassoon player in the guards, and his brother, James Vincent, who
died young, was joint organist of the Temple with Stanley, and a
brilliant performer. Mr. T. Vincent, the impresario, had been in
great favour with the prince of Wales, father to his present Majesty;
had acquired a considerable sum of money in his profession, which
he augmented by marriage. However, the ambition of being at the
head of so froward a family as an opera vocal and instrumental
band, turned his head and his purse inside out; in short, he soon
became a bankrupt, and his colleagues, though they escaped utter
ruin, were not enriched by the connexion.
The first opera that was performed [November 23rd, 1765]
in autumn this year, under the new direction, was Eumene,
a pasticcio, which was not much noticed on the stage, or thought
worth printing.
The next was La Clemenza di Tito, a revived opera, by Cocchi,
with a few new airs for Elisi [December 3rd]. It shared the same
neglect both by the public and publishers as Eumene, and is neither
to be found in any memory, or shop whatever. The singers this
season with Elisi were the Visconti, Spagnoli, Ciprandi, and Savoi,
for the first time.
This was succeeded [21st January, 1766] by Sofonisba, an
opera wholly set by Vento in that easy and graceful style which
pleased more generally than what professors would call better Music.
Savoi's fine voice was now the more noticed, as Elisi's was upon the
decline. This drama was represented more frequently than any
other during the season; and the songs, printed by the elder Welcker,
were long after in favour at concerts and public places, as well as
among lisping misses and dilettanti.
An opera called Artaserse, and said to have been composed by
Hasse, was brought out in January 1766 [February 20th]; but the
songs were not printed, and neither memory nor tradition furnish
me with any farther information concerning it. L' Eroe Cinese,
an opera set by Galuppi, performed about this time [April 12th],
is alike swept away by the waters of oblivion.
The last drama that was brought out this season [May 24th] , in
which Elisi and Scotti performed the principal parts, was Pelopida,
870
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
set by Mr. Barthelemon [1741-1808] , who now led the opera band.*
The favourite songs were printed by Welcker, in two collections.
There were traits of genius and bold modulation in this Music, which,
promised, with experience in writing for the voice, and a more
perfect acquaintance with the Italian language and stage, future
works of great worth and abilities.
During the summer of this year a new plan was formed by the
opera managers for the ensuing season, which involved future
impresarij in great difficulties and expence. The lyric theatre
having been much neglected on Tuesdays, even when it was
crouded on Saturdays, it was thought expedient, in order to excite
curiosity by a different species of entertainment to engage two
distinct companies of singers for the performance of serious operas on
Saturdays, and comic on Tuesdays; and for this purpose Mr.
Gordon, one of the managers, went to Italy, during the recess, in
order to engage performers. The serious troop he brought over were
Guarducci, first man; Grassi, first woman; with the two females
Piatti and Ponce; with whom were retained Savoi, Micheli, and
Miss Young, of the preceding season. The burletta company
consisted of Lovattini, Morigi, Signoras Guadagni, Quercioii,
Maggiore, and Piatti, to whom were occasionally added, Savoi and
Micheli. The principal of these performers I shall characterize
as they are brought into action.
The first drama presented to the public this winter [1766] was a
comic opera, October 21st, called Gli Stravaganti, by different
composers, in which there were several airs by Piccini; but his
reputation was not yet sufficiently established for them to be
honoured with particular notice.
While this was in run, a serious pasticcio, entitled Trakebarne
gran Mogul was brought on the stage [November 1st] , in which the
two principal singers made their first appearance, without impressing
the public with very favourable ideas of their talents.
The third opera, however, which was the celebrated Buona
Figliuola of Piccini,** first performed December 9th, rendered
the name of this composer, which had scarcely penetrated into this
country before, dear to every lover of Music in the nation. This
admirable production, before it was brought hither, had saved the
impresario of the opera at Rome from ruin, and been performed in
the principal cities of Italy. In the year 1760, Piccini passing
through Rome, in his way to Milan, was entreated to compose a
comic opera for the Teatro delle Dame in that city, which had lately
been very unfortunate. No libretto was ready, and application
having been made to the poet Goldoni, at this time in Rome, he
furnished the musical drama of La Boano Figliuola, from his comedy
* Barthelemon was one of the most celebrated violinists of the period. Besides his music
for the stage he published sonates and other works for the violin. He is now best remembered
for his setting of Bishop Ken's hymn, Awake my Soul. He married Miss Young, the singer, in
1766.
** This opera, the full title of which is La Cecchina, ossia la buona figliuola, was played
with great success all over Europe.
871
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of Pamela, in a few days. Several of the original performers were
now in London, particularly the first buffo, Lovattini, and the
serious man Savoi, with the buffo caricato Morigi. And though
females are not allowed to appear on the stage at Rome, yet
Signora Guadagni had previously performed the part of Cecchina
in several cities of Italy, with great and well-deserved applause.
Lovattini's voice, which was a sweet and well-toned tenor, with
his taste, humour, and expression, insured him great and constant
applause, in whatever character he appeared; but the Music of this
drama was so admirable, from its originality, fire, and instrumental
effects, that a worse singer than Lovattini, would have been sure of
a favourable reception. And some of the success of the opera,
particularly in England, must be ascribed to the drama, which has
more character, and much less ribaldry and buffoonery, than usual
in Italian burlettas. The under parts were well filled on our stage
by the Quercioli, Maggiore, Piatti, Micheli, and, afterwards, by
the Gibetti. Slingsby and Radicati were the principal dancers this
year, and as far as agility and neatness of execution could gratify,
afforded the public high entertainment.
In the spring of 1767, two serious operas were brought out, in
the performance of which, the principal singers, Guarducci and
Grassi, excited more attention, and acquired more applause, than
had been bestowed upon them before Christmas. These operas
were Carattaco [February 14th] by Bach [B. M. H. 740, c], and
La Conquista del Messico [4th April] by Vento; both well entitled
to favour from different excellencies: the one for correct and rich
harmony, and the other for elegant and graceful melody.
Tommaso Guarducci Toscano [b. c. 1720], a scholar of
Bernacchi, was tall and aukward in figure, inanimate as an actor,
and in countenance ill-favoured and morbid; but with all these
disadvantages, he was a man of great probity and worth in his
private character, and one of the most correct singers I ever heard.
He was unfortunate in arriving here so soon after Manzoli, the
impressions of whose great voice and majestic manner of singing
had not been effaced by his immediate successor, Elisi. Guarducci's
voice, though of much less volume than Manzoli's, was clear, sweet,
and flexible. His shake and intonations were perfect, and by long
study and practice he had vanquished all the difficulties of his art,
and possessed himself of every refinement of his particular school,
as well as of the general vocal embellishments of Italy at this period.
Though prejudice ran high against him on his first arrival in
London, his merit at length made its way, and his highly polished
manner of singing was very much approved and felt by the principal
professors and persons of taste and discernment who heard him.
He soon discovered that a singer could not captivate the English
by tricks or instrumental execution, and told me some years after,
at Montefiascone in Italy, that the gravity of our taste had been of
great use to him. " The English," says he, " are such friends to
the composer, and to simplicity, that they like to hear a melody in
872
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
its primitive state, undisguised by change or embellishment. Or if,
when repeated, riffioramenti are necessary, the notes must be few
and well selected, to be honoured with approbation." Indeed,
Guarducci was the plainest and most simple singer, of the first class,
I ever heard. All his effects were produced by expression and high
finishing, nor did he ever aim at execution. He sung in the English
oratorios upon short notice, with very little knowledge of our
language, and still less practice in pronouncing it. However, he
was well received and well paid, for he had £.600 for twelve
oratorios, a larger sum than was ever given on a like occasion, till
the time of Miss Linley.
Cecilia Grassi [b. 1746], afterwards Mrs. Bach, who performed
the first woman's part for several successive years at the opera with
Guarducci and Guadagni, was inanimate on the stage, and far from
beautiful in her person; but there was a truth of intonation, with
a plaintive sweetness of voice, and innocence of expression, that
gave great pleasure to all hearers who did not expect or want to be
surprised.
After the great success of the Buona Figliuola, the public was
disposed to hear with partiality any compositions by the same
master, and when the Buona Figliuola Maritata, or sequel of
the Buona Figliuola was brought out, the crowd at the Opera-house
was prodigious; but expectation, as usual, was so unreasonable as
to spoil the feast; to gratify it, was impossible. Some ascribed
their disappointment to the composer, some to the performers,
but none to themselves. The Music was excellent, full of invention,
fire, and new effects; but so difficult, particularly for the orchestra,
that the performers forgot it was winter. The principal part of
the Marchesa, was given to Zamfarini, a very pretty woman, but an
affected singer. Music so difficult to perform, was not easy to hear;
and this drama was never sufficiently repeated for the public to be
familiarly acquainted with it. They were glad, as well as the
performers, to return to the Buona Figliuola for their own ease
and relief from a too serious attention.
In October [27th] , the King's theatre was opened with a new
serious opera, by different authors, called Tigrane, in which an
admirable cantabile air : Care luci, composed by Sacchini, was sung
in an exquisite manner by Guarducci. This air, the first that was
ever performed on our stage of Sacchini's composition,* was printed
without his name.
In November [7th], a most agreeable comic opera by Piccini,
called the Schiava, was brought out, and in the course of the winter
had fourteen representations. Several very pleasing airs in this
drama were admirably sung by Lovattini and the Guadagni : such
as Ah che la mia schiavetta, by the former; and Ah quegl' occhi
ladroncelli; and Se quel cor, by the latter, who was a graceful and
elegant actress, as well as singer.
* Some of Sacchini's music had been used in the pasticcio Eumene, which was produced
in November, 1765.
873
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In December [8th], another serious pasticcio, called Sifare, was
performed, in which Guarducci gained great applause by his polished
manner of singing a simple and elegant air by Galuppi : Quel labro
addorato, which was constantly encored during the run of the opera.
Abel composed an air for him in this drama : Frena le belle legrime,
with an accompaniment for the viol da gamba, which he played
himself; but it was laboured, and had not the effect that might be
expected from the united powers of two such complete musicians.
1768. In January [16th] this year was first performed
Ifigegnia in Aulide, a new serious opera, by a new composer,
Pietro Guglielmi [1727-1804], of Naples, just arrived in England.
This master had some Neapolitan fire, and brought over the new and
fashionable musical phrases from Italy, but he wrote too fast, and
with little invention or selection of passages. Indeed, he arrived
here at an unfortunate period, when cabals in favour of Cocchi,
Bach, Vento, and Giardini, as composers of serious operas, ran
high; and when the comic operas of Piccini were so justly admired,
that their merit was not likely to be effaced or eclipsed by a composer
of inferior fame and intrinsic worth, when it was less the interest of
rival candidates for public favour to decry the productions of Piccini
who was absent, than of Guglielmi who was present, and a mark for
envy and detraction to shoot at. Guglielmi never had great success
here. Indeed, it seems to have been fairly proportioned to the
abilities he manifested, though he has since composed better and
more successfully in Italy. His harpsichord pieces are full of froth
and common passages, and have little other merit than appearing
difficult, though of easy execution; and which, though pert, can
never be called dull or tedious.*
Another new composer arrived here about this time, Felice
Alessandri [1747-98], of Rome, the husband of Signora Guadagni,
who set two comic operas for our stage : La Moglie Fedele, and 77
Re alia Caccia, which are not devoid of merit; but there were so
man)/ masters here at this time, whose fame was already established,
that a young composer, who had his reputation to make, had little
chance of being much noticed. He has however distinguished
himself, since he left England, by writing for some of the first singers
in the principal theatres of Italy.
Guarducci, instead of an opera, had for his benefit this spring
the oratorio of Betulia Liberata, set by Jomelli, in which among
many admirable compositions, an air of supplication, through which
were heard the cries of the people in a distant chorus, sung extremely
soft, was justly admired for its new and fine effect.
* The year 1768 saw the first use of the Pianoforte as a solo instrument in England. The
Public Advertiser for 2 June, 1768, has the following advertisement: — "For the benefit of Mr.
Fisher (J. C. Fischer). At the Large Room, Thatch'd House, St. James's-street, This Day,
June the 2nd, will be performed a Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music. First
Violin and Concerto by Sig. Pugnani. Concerto on the German Flute, Mr. Tacet. Concerto on
the Hautbois by Mr. Fisher. Songs by Sig. Guarducci. Solo on the Viola di Gamba by Mr.
Abel. Solo on the Piano Forte by Mr. Bach. "
The instrument used by Bach was by Zumpe. This was not the first use of the
Pianoforte in public, however, as on May 16, 1767, Mr. Dibdin had accompanied Miss Brickler
at her Benefit Concert at Covent Garden "on a new Instrument call'd a Piano Forte.
874
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Among the comic operas produced this season, Galuppi's Filosofo
di Campagna, which was so superior to all other burlettas of
Paganini's time, was revived; but not heard with the same pleasure
as formerly. The fire and originality of Piccini's productions
proved, that Music had not remained stationary since this opera
■was first composed.
The lyric theatre was shut June 30th, but opened again in
August, for the entertainment of the King of Denmark, then in
England. There were six performances on this occasion.
Guarducci was returned to Italy, and there were no capital singers
left to enable the managers to present his Majesty with a serious
opera. However, besides the Buona Figliuola and the Schiava,
Arianna e Teseo was revived on this occasion, when Luciani and the
Giacomazzi, the serious singers in the comic operas, supplied the
principal characters.
The theatre after these performances was shut up till November
5th [8th], 1768, when it was opened for the subscribers, with the
comic opera of Gli Amanti Ridicoli, by Buranello. During this
whole season, no serious operas were attempted. The ingenious
and lively productions of Galuppi, Piccini, and Guglielmi,
performed by the comic troop, of which the favourite singers,
Lovattini and the Guadagni, were principals, supplied the wants of
the public till the second arrival of Guadagni in this kingdom, in
autumn 1769 (r).
Gaetano Guadagni [b. c. 1725], of Vicenza, came first into
this country at an early period of his life, as serious man in a
burletta troop of singers, 1748. His voice was then a full and well
toned counter-tenor; but he was a wild and careless singer.
However, the excellence of his voice attracted the notice of Handel,
who assigned him the parts in his oratorios of the Messiah and
Samson, which had been originally composed for Mrs. Cibber; in
the studying which parts, as I often saw him at Frasi's, whom I
then attended as her master, he applied to me for assistance.
During his first residence in England, which was four or five years,
he was more noticed in singing English than Italian. He quitted
London about the year 1753. In 1754 he was at Lisbon as second
serious man under Gizziello, and 1755 very narrowly escaped
destruction during the earthquake. After this dreadful calamity,
Gizziello, seized with a fit of devotion, retired into a monastery,
where he spent the rest of his life.* Having a friendship for
Guadagni, and being pleased with his voice and quickness of parts,
he persuaded the young singer to accompany him in his retreat,
(r) Besides the compositions by the three masters just mentioned, in the spring season
of 1769, the comic operas of II Mercato di Malmantile by Fischietti, an agreeable composer,
and Nanetta e Lubino, by Signor Pugnani, who then led the band, were performed. This
last, though an able and celebrated professor on the violin, seems to have begun writing for
the voice too late in his life to arrive at great excellence in lyric compositions. He has, how-
ever, since he left England, composed serious operas for several of the great theatres of Italy.
* See editor's note page 800
875
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
where, during a considerable time, he took great pains in directing
his studies; and it is from this period that Guadagni's great reputa-
tion, as a refined and judicious singer, may be dated. His ideas
of acting were taken much earlier from Garrick, who, when he
performed in an English opera called the Fairies, took as much
pleasure in forming him as an actor, as Gizziello did afterwards
in polishing his style of singing. After quitting Portugal, he
acquired great reputation as first man, in all the principal theatres
in Italy, and the year before his return to England, he excited
great admiration by his talents, as well as disturbance, by his
caprice, at Vienna. The highest expectations of his abilities were
raised by rumour, before his arrival here for the winter season;
and as an actor, he seems to have had no equal on any stage in
Europe: his figure was uncommonly elegant and noble; his
countenance replete with beauty, intelligence, and dignity; and his
attitudes and gestures were so full of grace and propriety, that they
would have been excellent studies for a statuary. But though his
manner of singing was perfectly delicate, polished, and refined,
his voice seemed, at first, to disappoint every hearer. Those who
remembered it when he was in England before, found it
comparatively thin and feeble. For he had now changed it to a
soprano, and extended its compass from six or seven notes, to
fourteen or fifteen. And let a fluid of six feet in depth be spread
over more than double its usual surface, and it will necessarily
be shallower, though of greater extent. The Music he sung was the
most simple imaginable; a few notes with frequent pauses, and
opportunities of being liberated from the composer and the band,
were all he wanted. And in these seemingly extemporaneous
effusions, he proved the inherent power of melody totally divorced
from harmony and unassisted even by unisonous accompaniment.
Surprised at such great effects from causes apparently so small, I
frequently tried to analize the pleasure he communicated to the
audience, and found it chiefly arose from his artful manner of
diminishing the tones of his voice, like the dying notes of the
dorian harp. Most other singers captivate by a swell or messa di
voce; but Guadagni, after beginning a note or passage with all
the force he could safely exert, fined it off to a thread, and gave it
all the effect of extreme distance. And though neither his voice nor
execution contributed much to charm or excite admiration, he
had a strong party in England of enthusiastic friends and
adherents, of whom, by personal quarrels and native caprice, he
contrived to diminish the number very considerably before his
departure. He had strong resentments and high notions of his own
importance and profession,, which revolted many of his warmest
friends, and augmented the malice of his enemies.
The serious operas in which he performed during the season of
1769 and 1770, were Olimpiade [Nov. 11, 1769], a pasticcio, but
chiefly by Piccini, though the favourite song was Quel-labbro
addorato, by Bach; Ezio, by Guglielmi; and Orfeo, by Gluck
876
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
[April 7, 1770], (s).* In this last drama his attitudes, action, and
impassioned and exquisite manner of singing the simple and ballad-
like air: Che faro, acquired him very great and just applause;
but in the midst of the utmost public favour, his private
difference with the Hon. Mr. Hobart, the patentee at that time,
concerning an imagined affront put upon his sister in favour of
Zamparini, together with his determined spirit of supporting the
dignity and propriety of his dramatic character, by not bowing
acknowledgment, when applauded, or destroying all theatrical
illusion by returning to repeat an air, if encored at the termination
of an interesting scene, he so much offended individuals, and the
opera audience in general, that, at length, he never appeared
without being hissed (t).
In the Lent of 1770, Bach undertook oratorios at the King's
theatre in the Hay-market, with Guadagni, Grassi, Signora
Guglielmi, and others, to sing for him, and tried to recover his
organ-playing; but he was too much out of practice to satisfy
Stanley's friends, or those that remembered Handel. The
compositions he had performed, were La Passione by Jomelli, and
his own Gioas Re di Giuda; the success, however, was neither
flattering nor profitable, though the undertaking was patronised
and frequently honoured with the presence of their Majesties.
During the next season of 1770 and 1771, in the few serious
operas that were performed, Tenducci was the immediate successor
of Guadagni. This performer, who came here first in the time of
Mattei and Potenza only as a singer of the second or third class,
was now so much improved, during his residence in Scotland and
Ireland, as not only to be well received as first man on our stage,
but, afterwards, in all the great theatres of Italy.
From May 1771 there was no serious opera attempted, till the
arrival of Millico [b. 1739], in the spring of 1772. This judicious
(s) The unity, simplicity, and dramatic excellence of this opera, which had gained the
composer so much credit on the Continent, were greatly diminished here by the heterogeneous
mixture of Music, of other composers, in a quite different style; whose long symphonies, long
divisions, and repetitions of words, occasioned delay and languor in the incidents and action.
A drama, which at Vienna was rendered so interesting, as almost to make the audience think
more of the poet than musician, in England had the fate of all other Italian dramas, which
are pronounced good or bad in proportion to the talents and favour of the singers.
{t) His enemies knowing him to be -passion's slave, frequently began an encore with
which they knew he would not comply, on purpose to enrage the audience. Guadagni was
allowed to be the finest billiard player in Europe; but his antagonists^ discovering his
irritability, used, when he was playing for large sums, to dispute, as unfair, something that
was clearly otherwise, by which he was so agitated, as not to be a match for a child. He
quitted England for the last time in the summer of 1771 ; in 1772 he performed at Verona, and
afterwards accompanied the late Electrice Dowager of Saxony, a dilettante of the first order
in abilities as well as rank, to Munich, where he continued till 1776. when he appeared on the
stage, for the last time, at Venice. After which he settled at Padua in the service of Sant'
Antonio, where he lost his sight in 1786, by a paralytic stroke, and soon after his life.
* The following notice appeared in the programme for this production : —
"The Music as originally composed by Signor Gluch, to which, in order to make the
Performance of a necessary length for an evening's entertainment, Signor Bach has very
kindly condescended to add of his own new composition all such chorusses, airs, and
recitatives, as are marked with inverted commas, except those which are sung by Signora
Guglielmi, and they are likewise an entire new production of Signor Guglielmi, her husband.
"The Poetry is from Signor Calzabigi, with additions by G. C. Bottarelli of all thai
Messrs. Bach and Guglielmi have enriched this Performance by their Music."
J. C. Bach's contribution to this production was 7 numbers.
877
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
performer, and worthy man, who was not an Adonis in person,
and whose voice had received its greatest beauties from art, found
the musical part of our nation in no favourable disposition towards
him. The admirers of Tenducci and Guadagni, as well as the
Cocchi, Guglielmi, Giardini, Vento, and Bach parties, however
hostile in other particulars, all agreed in decrying every part of
that opera in which their favourite had no concern. Sacchini,
who arrived here soon after [April, 1772], was involved in these
cabals. None of the friends of their predecessors would allow that
Millico could sing or the new master compose. Violent and virulent
means were used to poison, or at least to shut the ears of the
unprejudiced public; but not with much success. Indeed, at first
both the Music anrl performance were frequently hissed: but, at
length, Sacchini's compositions were generally allowed to be
admirable, and Millico 's importance was manifested by a crouded
house at his benefit, composed of the first persons for taste and
rank in the kingdom; and at the end of the next season, several
who had boldly pronounced that neither Sacchini could compose
nor Millico sing, would have given a hundred pounds if they could
have recalled their words, or made their acquaintance forget they
had been guilty of such manifest injustice and absurdity.
It was during this period that Dancing seemed first to gain the
ascendant over Music, by the superior talents of Mademoiselle
Heinel, whose grace and execution were so perfect as to eclipse all
other excellence (u).
The first opera in which Millico performed was Artaserse,
arranged by Giordani, and the favourite air :Infelice, ah dove io
vado, which he sung with great feeling and expression. Grassi
was the first woman in this opera. In the next, which was the
pasticcio of Sofonisba, arranged, and in part composed, by Vento,
Signora Girelli Aguilar, a new principal female singer, first
appeared. Her style of singing was good, but her voice was in
decay, and her intonation frequently false, when she arrived here:
however, it was easy to imagine from what remained, that she
had been better.
In January 1773 [19th], Sacchini's first opera for our stage II
Cid came out; and in the May [6th] following Tamerlano, both
admirable productions, full of taste, elegance, and knowledge of
stage effects. The principal singers in these operas were Millico
and Girelli.*
(u) At this time crowds assembled at the Opera-house more for the gratification of the
eye than the ear; for neither the invention of a new composer, nor the talents of new
singers, attracted the public to the theatre, which was almost abandoned till the arrival of
Mademoiselle Heinel. whose extraordinary merit had an extraordinary recompence; for besides
the £.600 salary allowed her by the Hon. Mr. Hobart as manager, she was complimented with
a regailo of six hundred more from the Maccaroni Club. E molto -particulare, said Cocchi the
composer, ma quel Inglesi non janno conto a" alcuna cosa se non e ben fiagata: "It is very
extraordinary, that the English set no value upon anything but what they pay an exorbitant
price for."
* The most important operatic event of 1773 was a performance of the original Vienna
version of Gluck's Orfeo.
878
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
In November, 1773, Mrs. Yates, who was now joint manager
with Mrs. Brook, spoke a poetical exordium at the opening of the
King's theatre [November 20th] ; by which it appeared, that she
intended mixing plays with operas, and entertaining the public with
singing and declamation, alternately; but permission could never be
obtained from the Lord Chamberlain for putting the plan into
execution.
The first opera which was performed this season [November
20th], was Lucio Vero, composed by Sacchini, in which Miss
Cecilia Davies [1738-1836], known in Italy by the name of
L' Inglesina, first appeared, and sung several very agreeable airs
composed on purpose for the display of her neat and rapid execution,
admirably.* Miss Davies has the honour of being not only the first
Englishwoman who has performed the principal female parts in
several great theatres of Italy, but who has ever been thought worthy
of singing there at all. She went very young into France with her
sister, who was much admired for her performance on the glasses;
and after travelling with her to Vienna, they there became connected
with the family of the celebrated composer Hasse and Faustina.
Here Miss Davies seems to have acquired much of that steady and
prudent carriage of her voice, as well as recitative and action, for
which she has been so justly admired. Her powers of execution
were at this time allowed to be unrivalled by those of any other
singer that had been heard in England. Italians and travellers used
to confess, that only Gabrielli on the Continent could surpass them.
Her voice, though not of a great volume, or perhaps sufficiently
powerful for a great theatre, yet was clear and perfectly in tune.
Her shake excellent, open, distinct, and neither sluggish like the
French cadence, nor so quick as to become a flutter. The flexibility
of her throat rendered her execution of the most rapid divisions fair
and articulate, even beyond those of instruments in the hands of
the greatest performers. The critics, however, though unanimous
in this particular, did not so readily allow her excellence to be equal
in the cantabile style. She took her notes judiciously, they readily
granted; sung them perfectly in tune; but was said by some to
want that colouring, passion, and variety of expression, which
render adagios truly touching. And I own that I felt myself more
tranquil when she sung slow songs than quick. In rapid airs of
bravura, if I had had as many hands as Briarius, they would have
been all employed in her applause; but in cantabile movements,
though there was nothing to blame, and much to commend, the
transport of pleasure and satisfaction was less violent. Indeed, if
both styles had been equal, she would have been two distinct singers.
And it very seldom happens that persons possessed of much pathos,
are equally admirable in rapid execution; or that singers remarkable
for agility of voice, are gifted with the power of impressing slow
notes with passion. And yet, -from ignorance of ourselves, or from
the hope of defending weak places, singers more frequently try
to acquire reputation by such talents as they want, than by those
* She had, however, made public appearances as early as 1763 at Dublin. Her first
London appearance was in 1767, when she sang songs from Artaxerxes, etc.
879
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
they have. Thus Shooter and Weston, when left to themselves
at their benefits, chose to appear in tragedy! Their fame, on
comic ground, was natural right and inheritance; all they gained in
tragedy was pais conquis.
In the spring season of 1774, Sacchini produced two admirable
new operas, Nitteti e Perseo [and Lucio Vero], that were
performed by the same singers, except that the Carara sung the
second woman's part in the one, and the Marchetti in the other.
The first of these females was not without merit, but it was not of a
spirited kind; the second had a brilliant toned voice, bel metallo di
voce, with which she might have become a singer of the first class,
if want of health had not prevented her from that persevering
practice which is so necessary to the vanquishing vocal difficulties
In November the new season began with Alessandro nell'
Indie, new set by Corri [1746-1825], a young composer of genius;
but his name was not sufficiently blazoned to give his opera much
eclat, or, indeed, to excite the attention it deserved.* The articles
of Millico and Miss Davies being expired, Rauzzini began his career
on our opera stage this winter [November 8th], with the Schindlerin,
who had performed with him at Venice, previous to his arrival in
England.
Venanzio Rauzzini [1747-1810] was at this time a beautiful and
animated young man, as well as an excellent musician, who not
only knew his own business well as a singer, but that of a composer :
being as able to set an opera as to sing in it (y). His voice was sweet,
clear, flexible, and extensive; being in compass more than two
octaves. But it was not powerful when I heard it at Munich, two
years before; and it was perhaps daily rendered more feeble by
his applying closely to composition. He played the harpsichord
neatly, and had a real genius for writing, which inclined him to
devote that time to the pen and the improvement of his hand, which,
in his station, would have been better bestowed in nursing and
exercising his voice. It was some time before his abilities were felt
by the public here, to the favour of which nothing can so speedily
convey the merits of a singer as a great and powerful voice:
however, his taste, fancy, and delicacy, together with his
beautiful person and spirited and intelligent manner of acting, before
the season was over, gained him general approbation.**
(x) In Sofonisba and the Cid, Madame Syrmen, the scholar of Tartini, who was so
justly admired for her polished and expressive manner of playing the violin, appeared as a
singer, in the part of second woman; but having been first woman so long upon her instrument,
she degraded herself by assuming a character in which, though not destitute of voice and
taste, she had no claim to superiority.
(y) Piramo e Tisbe, and La Vestale, may be instanced in proof of this assertion.
* Alessand.ro was produced on Dec. 3, 1774, and had been preceded by a pasticcio
Armida, conducted by Giordani. and in which Rauzzini, and Marianne Schindler made first
appearances.
** In 1794 Haydn and Bumey visited Rauzzini at Bath, and it was on this occasion that
Haydn composed the well-known canon or round to the words. "Turk was a faithful dog,
and not a man" — Turk being a dog belonging to Rauzzini. The canon is not included in
the 1929 edition of Grove's, but will be found in the earlier editions under the heading Turk.
880
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The moderate abilities, and more feeble voice of the female
singer Schindlerin, were advantages to him, though none to the
public. She was engaged at his recommendation, was a native of
Germany, young, and by many thought handsome. Her figure was
elegant and graceful on the stage, and she was a good actress.
Off the stage, however, she was coquettish, silly, and insipid. Her
voice was a mere thread, for the weakness of which there was
neither taste nor knowledge to compensate. Indeed, she always
appeared on the stage, what she really was off it, Rauzzini's scholar;
and she was so inferior to him in voice and abilities, that he
thought it necessary to lower himself to her level, in order to make
her appear to more advantage. It is injudicious and dangerous to
consult either the first man or the first woman, of an opera, about
the performers they are to contend with for fame. Millico wished
to sing with no better performer than his young and inanimate
scholar, the Carrara. GabrieUi long made it a condition of her
coming to England, that Manzoletto should be the first man; and
Rauzzini made several ingenious manoeuvres to have the Schindlerin
for his partner a second season. Singers of nearly equal abilities,
though of different kinds, regard one another with horror;
reciprocally imagining that all the applause gained by their colleague
is at their own expence.
Lovattini, who had merited and enjoyed the public favour during
eight years, having left England this summer, Trebbi, a new buffo,
was engaged to supply his place; but his voice was not so sweet, his
taste so good, or his humour so risible, as those of his predecessor.
Signora Sestini came here about the same time, from Lisbon, as
prima buff a. When she first appeared on our stage in La Marchesa
Giardiniera [March 7th, 1775], by Anfossi, her face was beautiful,
her figure elegant, and her action graceful. Her voice, though by
nature not perfectly clear and sweet toned, had been well directed
in her studies, and she sung with considerable agility, as well as
taste and expression.
The most memorable musical event of the next season, 1775 and
1776, was the arrival of the celebrated Caterina Gabrielli
[1730-96], called early in life La Cuochetina, being the daughter of
a cardinal's cook at Rome. She had, however, no indications of
low birth in her countenance or deportment, which had all the grace
and dignity of a Roman matron. Her reputation was so great,
before her arrival in England, for singing and caprice that the
public, expecting perhaps too much of both, was unwilling to allow
her due praise in her performance, and too liberal in ascribing
every thing she said and did to pride and insolence. It having
been reported that she often feigned sickness, and sung ill when
she was able to sing well, few were willing to allow she could be
sick, or that she ever sung her best while she was here; and those
who were inclined to believe, that sometimes she might perhaps
have exerted herself, in pure caprice, thought her voice on the
decline, or that fame, as usual, had deviated from truth in speaking
of her talents. Her voice, though of an exquisite quality, was not
Vol. ii. 56. S81
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
very powerful; and her chief excellence having been the rapidity
and neatness of her execution, the surprize of the public must have
been diminished, on hearing her after Miss Davies, who sung
in the same style many of her songs, with a neatness so nearly
equal, that common hearers could distinguish no difference. There
were, however, a few fair and discriminating critics, who discovered
a superior sweetness in the natural tone of the Gabrielli's voice; an
elegance in the finishing her musical periods or passages; and, an
accent and precision in her divisions, not only superior to Miss
Davis, but to every singer of her time. As an actress, though of
low stature, there were such grace and dignity in her gestures and
deportment, as caught every unprejudiced eye; indeed, she filled
the stage and occupied the attention of the spectators so much,
that they could look at nothing else while she was in view. Her
freaks and espiegleries which had fixed her reputation, seem to
have been very much subdued before her arrival in England. In
conversation she seemed the most intelligent and best bred virtuosa
with whom I had ever conversed; not only on the subject of Music,
but on every subject concerning which a well educated female,
who had seen the world, might reasonably be expected to have
obtained information. She had been three years in Russia previous
to her arrival in England, during which time no peculiarities of
individual characters, national manners, or court etiquette, had
escaped her observation. In youth, her beauty and caprice had
occasioned a universal delirium among her young countrymen,
and there were still remains of both sufficiently powerful, while
she was in England, to render credible their former influence.
With respect to the rapidity of her execution, it was never so
excessive as to cease to be agreeable; in slow movements her
pathetic powers, like those in general of performers the most
renowned for agility, were not sufficiently touching or effectual to
occasion disputes concerning her genre. Soon after she quitted
England, she retired to Bologna, where she still resides in private
tranquillity, after all the storms which her beauty and talents had
occasioned, while she remained in the service of the public.
The operas in which the Gabrielli performed, during her
residence in England, were Didone, chiefly by Sacchini [Nov. 11,
1775]; Cajo Mario [Apl. 20, 1776], by Piccini; and La Vestale,
by Vento. The dancing was at this time attractive : the principal
performers being Fierville and Baccelli, serious; and the two
Valouys, in demi-caractere.
At this time, there was no male singer, di gran grido, in
England, except Rauzzini, who more frequently pleased than
surprised his audience; but it was during this period, that the
proprietors of the Pantheon ventured to engage the Agujari
[1743-83], at the enormous salary of £.100 a night, for singing two
songs only ! And yet, however exorbitant the demand, or
imprudent the compliance with it may seem, the managers of this
most elegant and superb building, which would have done honour
882
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
to Greece at its most splendid period of taste and magnificence,
have since involved the proprietors in disgrace and ruin, by going
a more ceconomical way to work. Indeed, in subsequent under-
takings, they have more frequently had money to pay than receive;
for, notwithstanding so much was disbursed to the Agujari, much
was likewise cleared, and the dividend was more considerable
than it has ever been since that memorable sera.
Lucrezia Agujari was a truly wonderful performer.* The
lower part of her voice was full, round, of an excellent quality,
and its compass, after she quitted its natural register, which it
was to be wished she had never done, beyond any one who had
then heard. She had two octaves of fair natural voice, from A on
the fifth line in the base, to A on the sixth line in the treble, and
beyond that, in alt, she had in early youth more than another
octave; as Sacchini told me, he had heard her go up to B|? in
altissimo. Her shake was open and perfect, her intonation true,
her execution marked and rapid; and her style of singing, in the
natural compass of her voice grand and majestic: though the
pathetic and tender were not what her manner or figure promised,
yet she had expressions sometimes, that were truly touching, and
she would have been as capable of exciting universal pleasure, as
admiration, if she had been a little less violent in the delivery of her
passages, and her looks had been more tempered by female softness
and timidity (z). She sung hardly any other Music while she was
here than her husband's, Signor Colla, which, though often good,
was not of that original and varied cast which could supply the
place of every other master, ancient and modern.**
In 1776, a new Neapolitan composer was engaged for the opera,
Signor Tomaso Traetta [1727-79]; but, though an able master of
great reputation, he arrived here too late : for Sacchini had already
taken possession of our hearts, and so firmly established himself
in the public favour, that he was not be supplanted by a composer
in the same style, neither so young, so graceful, or so fanciful as
himself. Traetta, who was one of the last scholars of Durante,
had, previous to his arrival in England, after composing for all
the great theatres of Italy, been invited to Vienna and Petersburg,
where he increased his reputation. In his younger days he
possessed much original genius and fire, and composed many
operas which will bear a comparison with the best works of the most
celebrated masters of his own and later times; particularly, Armida
and Ifigenia, two grand operas with choruses and ballets, which
he produced at Vienna in 1759 (a).*** Though many excellent
(z) This great singer died at Parma, in 1783.
(a) Ifigenia, though never exhibited on our stage, had lately the advantage of being
admirably performed at Mrs. Blaire's by herself and friends, who, among dilettanti, are of the
first class for voice and style of singing.
* For an interesting account of an evening spent with Agujari see The Early Diary of
Frances Burney (Bonn's edition, Vol. II., p. 1 et seq.)
** Grove's Vol. I, p. 50, prints a passage which Mozart heard her sing in 1770.
*** Amida was produced in 1760. According to C. S. Terry in his life of J. C. Bach
(Oxford Press, 1929), Traetta produced an opera, Telemaco, on 15th March, 1777, and
7 Cabricci del Sesso, on May 13. 1777-
883
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
songs and scenes of his composition have been introduced in
pasticcio operas, yet I can remember but two entire dramas of this
master that were executed here: Germondo [Jan. 21, 1777], a
serious opera, and La Serva Rivale, a burletta (6).
Anna Pozzi arrived here in autumn 1776, as successor to the
Gabrielli; but though young, handsome, and possessed of a voice
uncommonly clear, sweet, and powerful, yet her want of experience,
both as a singer and actress, rendered her reception not very
flattering, after so celebrated a performer as Gabrielli; though the
public had never been partial, or, I think, just to her, while she
was in England. Before the season was far advanced, Pozzi was
superseded by Miss Davies; and after this degradation she generally
appeared as second woman, in which character she was always
thought more superior to singers of that rank, than any of the first
women to whom she was obliged to give the pas, were to herself.
The spirit and brilliancy of her voice, with more study and
experience, have since rendered her one of the best and most
admired female singers in Italy (c).
The musical annals of this period require some account of
Matthias Vento, who, about 1763, was invited hither by Giardini,
during his management of the opera and Manzoli's performance.
Vento's genius never approached the sublime; however, his melody
was totally free from vulgarity, and, though not new, was always
pleasing and graceful. On which account, and perhaps by the
assistance of Italian politics, he had the honour of defeating Bach;
of whose opera of Adriano perhaps too much was expected, but
Vento's Demofoonte [1764], of which no hopes were formed,
gained infinitely more applause, and a much longer run. It was
even revived the next year, on the arrival of Guarducci. This
composer's harpsichord pieces are flimsy, and so much alike, that
the invention, with respect to melody and modulation of the eight
sets, may be compressed into two or three movements. In these
sonatas, as well as in his songs, he avoids vulgar passages, and
has a graceful, easy, and flowing melody; but his bases are too like
Alberti's, and his trebles too like one another, either to improve
the hand or delight the ear. He had a great number of scholars,
which ensured the expence of printing his pieces, though not their
general and public favour. One or two sets of such easy composi-
tions would, indeed, have been very useful to scholars in the first
stages of their execution; but eight books, in which there is so little
variety, can never be wanted, or indeed borne, but by those who
think it right implicitly to receive all their master's prescriptions.
His duos for voices are alike trivial and uninteresting, and the
opera of Artaserse, which he composed for the Harmonic Meeting,
that was set up in 1771 by the friends of Guadagni and Giardini
(b) Traetta died in 1779.
(c) Mr. Sheridan during his opera regency, used to say. with great sagacity, when she was
on the point of quitting England, that it would be worth a manager's' while to engage ner tor
six years hence, on speculation. .... - . ' ." '
884
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
against the great opera, under the management of Mr. Hobart,
which people of the first rank were so impatient to hear in a
clandestine way, as to run the risk of pains and penalties for it,
when published, appeared to have less merit and novelty than any
one of his former works (d).
After the departure of Agujari for the second and last time, the
managers of the Pantheon engaged the Georgi [1759-1806], a
young singer since married to Banti, the dancer, as her successor.
A measure adopted merely on speculation. She was the daughter
of a Gondoliere at Venice, and for some time a piazza performer
in that city. After this exercise of her natural vocal powers, she
sung her way to Lyons, where she performed in coffee-houses for
such small donations as are usually bestowed on itinerant talents
in such places. Hence, by the power of song, she was conveyed
and bien nourrie to Paris, where her voice was so much admired,
that after very little teaching by some of her countrymen whom
she met with there, she was permitted to sing at the concert
spirituel. Here the applause was so loud that it soon reached
England, and inclined the proprietors of the Pantheon to engage
her for three seasons, upon condition that 1001. a year should
be deducted out of her salary, for the payment of an able master
to cultivate her voice. Sacchini was the first appointed to this
office; but soon found her so idle and obstinate, that he quitted her
as an incurable patient. She was next assigned to Signor Piozzi,
whose patience was likewise exhausted before she became a perfect
singer (e). Since her return to her own country, where the air is
more favourable to good singing than in any other, she has
improved, by example, perhaps, more than precept, so much, that
she now is frequently employed as first woman in the operas of
the principal cities of Italy; an honour to which she is well entitled,
if an old adage of that country is true : that ' ' there are a hundred
requisites necessary to make a good singer, of which, whoever is
gifted with a fine voice has ninety-nine."
The principal singers at the opera in London during the season
of 1777 and 1778, were Francesco Roncaglia, and Francesca
Danzi [1756-91], afterwards Madame Le Brun. The dramas in
which they sung, besides pasticcios, were Creso [Nov. 8, 1777]
and Erifile [Feb. 7, 1778], by Sacchini.
Roncaglia had an elegant face and figure; a sweet toned voice
a chaste and well disciplined style of singing; hazarded nothing,
and was always in tune. The best part of his voice, which was a
soprano, was from D to A, he sometimes went to C, but not easily.
Both his voice and shake were feeble; and of the three great
{d) Vento died in 1777 [1776], very rich, as there was every reason of industry, parsimony,
and avarice, to imagine; but by some strange disposition of his property and affairs, none
of his effects could be found at his death; and his widow and her mother were left wholly
destitute of support, but from charity and the lowest menial labour.
(e) Abel, after these unsuccessful trials, took her in hand, and in pure love for her voice
and person gave her instruction at his lodgings in the country, which being then at Fulham,
gave occasion to one of her countrymen, who had long tried in vain to find Abel in town, to
say, that he despaired of ever meeting with him, for he was always going to Foolish.
885
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
requisites of a complete stage singer, pathos, grace, and execution,
which the Italians call cantabile, graziosa, and bravura, he was in
perfect possession of only the second. As his voice is merely a voce
di camera, his singing in a room, when confined to the graziosa,
leaves nothing to wish. He is of the Bologna school, formed by
Bernacchi, and reminds his hearers of one of that master's best
scholars, Guarducci. As Signora Danzi, now Madame Le Brun,
had a voice well in tune, a good shake, great execution, a
prodigious compass, and great knowledge of Music, with youth,
and a face and figure far from disagreeable; it seems difficult to
account for the little pleasure her performance afforded to persons
accustomed to good Italian singing. However, the problem
certainly admits of a solution, if it be considered, that the natural
tone of her voice is not interesting; that she had never been in
Italy, and had been constantly imitating the tone and difficulties
of instruments; that her chief labour and ambition had been to
surprise, concluding perhaps that wonder however excited includes
pleasure; and forgetting that though an ounce of salt may make a
soup or ragout sufficiently savoury, yet that two ounces will spoil
it; in short, forgetting that she is not a bird in a bush or a cage,
and that from a human figure, representing a princess or great
personage, it is natural for an audience to expect human passions
to be expressed in such tones, and with such art and energy, as
will not degrade an individual of our own species, into a being of
an inferior order (/).
In 1777 [Nov. 4], two new comic singers appeared in
Paesiello's burletta of Le due Contesse: Jermoli and the Todi
[1753-1833]. The manner of singing of the tenor Jermoli, more
resembled that of a German, than an Italian; but neither in voice,
taste, nor action, did his performance ever surpass mediocrity.
And as for Signora Todi, she must have improved very much since
she was in England, or we treated her very unworthily; for though
her voice was thought to be feeble and seldom in tune while she
was here, she has since been extremely admired in France, Spain,
Russia, and Germany, as a most touching and exquisite performer.*
In autumn 1778, the lyric theatre opened with a well selected
and agreeable pasticcio, called Demofoonte, in which the two
principal singers, Pacchierotti and Bernasconi, appeared on our
stage for the first time. Of Bernasconi little is to be said, but
that she had a neat and elegant manner of singing, though with a
voice that was feeble and in decay.** But to describe with
(/) In the summer of 1778 she went into Italy and sung at Milan with Pacchierotti,
Rubinelli, and the Balducci; and during this journey it was imagined that she would have
improved her style of singing; but travelling with her husband, an excellent performer on the
hautbois, she seems to have listened to nothing else; and at her return to London she copied
the tone of his instrument so exactly, that when he accompanied her in divisions of thirds and
sixths, it was impossible to discover who was uppermost.
* This season saw the production on 4th April, 1778, of J. C. Bach's La Clemenza di
Scipione, his last and best English opera. It received 8 performances.
** Gluck wrote Alceste for her, and she made her first appearance at Vienna in that work
in 1764. She also sang in Mozart's early opera, Mitridait., produced at Milan in 1771 under the
composer's direction.
886
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
discrimination the uncommon and varied powers of Pacchierotti
would require a distinct dissertation of considerable length, rather
than a short article incorporated in a general history of Music.
We are, however, now arrived at a period of time when praise
and censure are equally dangerous, and when little information can
be communicated to the reader, with which he is not already
acquainted. There are few subjects on which the opinions of men
differ more than on the merit of public performers, particularly
of the vocal kind. Some having been previously pleased by
another voice and style of singing, listen unwillingly, and with a
determination to hear nothing but defects; while others, unable
to judge for themselves, have not the courage to trust to their own
feelings, without authority. Judgment and candour, the guides of
so inconsiderable a part of an audience, too seldom speak loud, or
endeavour to make proselytes, to have much weight or influence
in fixing the character of a new singer. Indeed, nothing but a fine
voice and uncommon powers of execution are sure of general
applause; while original genius, taste, feeling, and refinement, are
often friendless and unnoticed.
Gasparo Pacchierotti [1744-1821], born in the Roman state,
seems to have begun his career in 1770, at Palermo in Sicily, where
he continued during 1771. In 1772, he was the principal singer
in the great theatre of San Carlo at Naples, with the De Amicis.
In 1773, at Bologna; 1774, at Naples again. In 1775, at Milan,
with the Taiber; 1776, at Forli; 1777, at Genoa and Milan; and in
1778, at Lucca and Turin, previous to his arrival in England, where
his reputation had penetrated a considerable time, and where Signor
Piozzi, who had heard him at Milan, sung several airs after his
manner, in a style that excited great ideas of his pathetic powers.
The Travels of Captain Brydone has likewise contributed to raise
public expectation; indeed, my own was excited so much that I
eagerly attended the first general rehearsal, in which though he
sung sotto voce under a bad cold in extreme severe weather, my
pleasure was such as I had never experienced before. The natural
tone of his voice is so interesting, sweet, and pathetic, that when
he had a long note, or messa di voce, I never wished him to change
it, or to do any thing but swell, diminish, or prolong it in whatever
way he pleased, to the utmost limits of his lungs. A great compass
of voice downwards, with an ascent up to B b and sometimes to
C in alt, with an unbounded fancy, and a power not only of
executing the most refined and difficult passages of other singers,
but of inventing new embellishments, which, as far as my musical
reading and experience extended, had never then been on paper,
made him, during his long residence here, a new singer to me every
time I heard him. If the different degrees of sweetness in musical
tones to the ear might be compared to the effects of different flavours
on the palate, it would perhaps convey my idea of its perfection
by saying that is as superior to the generality of vocal sweetness,
as that of the pine apple is, not only to other fruits, but to sugar
or treacle. Many voices, though clear and well in tune, are yet
887
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
insipid and uninteresting, for want of piquancy and flavour. A
more perfect shake on short notice, and in every degree of velocity,
I never heard. His execution of rapid divisions was so true and
distinct, that, with a loud and vulgar-toned voice, he would have
been admired as a bravura singer; but the natural tone, and, if I
may so call it, sentimental expression, and character of his voice, is
such, as to make many hearers lament his condescending to rival
the lark, or ever, even in pathetic songs, quitting simplicity in order
to change or embellish a passage in the most new, artful, or
ingenious manner possible. But to lovers and judges of Music who
constantly attend the opera, it seems desirable that the performers,
during the run of a musical drama, should have the power of
stimulating attention to an air often repeated, by a variety of new
graces and ornaments, which, in some measure, renovate a song
every time it is performed; yet though Pacchierotti possessed this
power far beyond any singer I had heard, the public, frequently
poisoned by the shafts of envious professors, and perhaps .dilettanti,
was always more inclined to censure than duly commend this talent;
for which I can no otherways account, unless this seeming injustice
still proceeded from the wishes of an audience to hear more of the
sweet tones of his natural voice, undisturbed by art or science.
That Pacchierotti 's feeling and sensibility are uncommon, is
not only discoverable by his voice and performance, but
countenance, in which, through a benign and benevolent general
expression, there is a constant play of features, which manifests the
sudden workings and agitations of his soul. He is an enthusiast in
his art, and feels the merit of a composition and performance with
true Italian energy. Nice and fastidious in criticising himself, he
consequently does not gratify frivolous and doubtful claims upon his
admiration or applause; but to real and intrinsic merit, I never
met with more candour, or heard more judicious and zealous
panegyric bestowed from one professor to another.
To hearers not accustomed to the refinements of singing, his
extemporaneous flights and divisions were so new, that they at first
were doubtful whether to blame or commend. But as the true
criterion of merit in the arts, is to improve on examination, all
persons of knowledge and feeling constantly experienced encreasing
pleasure at each performance, however frequent the opportunities
may have been of gratifying their wish to hear him.
He is not gifted with a very robust constitution, nor was his
chest proof against the rude and sudden attacks of our climate; so
that though he was never obliged by indisposition to be absent from
the stage when his duty called him thither, above once or twice
during four years residence among us, yet his voice was sometimes
affected by slight colds, from which the stoutest natives are not
exempt; but when it was quite in order and obedient to his will,
there was a perfection so exquisite in tone, taste, knowledge,
sensibility, and expression, that my conceptions in the art could not
imagine it possible to be surpassed.
888
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The low notes of his voice were so full and flexible, that in
private, among his particular friends and admirers, I have often
heard him sing Ansani's and David's tenor songs in their original
pitch, in a most perfect and admirable manner, going down
sometimes as low as B b on the second line in the base.
It appears that in his youth, when his chest was strong, while
stimulated by a love of perfection and a determination to execute
every conquerable difficulty, he studied with such unremitting
diligence and assiduity as have enabled him to execute, at sight,
in all clefs, and in every style of composition, the most difficult
songs that have been composed, with such facility, precision, and
expression, as if he had long perused and prepared them for public
performance. This I have often seen him do in original scores,
that it was impossible for him ever to have seen before. He was
the only modern singer that of late years I had found able to enter
into the style of composers and performers of past times; but being
an excellent mimic, he seems never to have heard a singer of great
abilities without remembering the particular traits, inflexions, tone
of voice, and expressions, which rendered him or her famous.
Though he seemed to have a particular zeal for the success of his
friend Bertoni's composition at the opera; yet I never perceived a
want of ardour in his performance of Sacchini's Music, particularly
in Rinaldo, where he sung with as much energy, taste, and
expression, as ever it was possible for him to manifest on any
occasion. And in concerts, he treated the audience with a greater
variety of masters in the songs he selected than any singer of my time
had ever done. At the Hay-market he was usually obliged to lower
his performance, particularly duets, to the level of a first woman of
very moderate abilities, we except Madame Le Brun, who was
however so cold and instrumental in her manner of singing, that
they did not well accord together. I know, there were many
frequenters of concerts, who called themselves lovers of Music and
judges of singing, and yet disliked both his voice and manner, and
did not scruple to say that he had never sung a note in tune during
his residence in this country; which was such an insult upon the
ears and feelings of his admirers, that they, in revenge, flatly denied
their claims to superior knowledge, taste, or experience in such
matters.
Almost every great singer unites himself in interest and friendship
with some particular composer, who writes to his peculiar compass
of voice, talents, and style of singing. Thus Manzoli and Pescetti,
Guarducci and Sacchini, Millico and Gluck, the Agujari and Colla,
and Pacchierotti and Bertoni, were closely connected.
Ferdinando Bertoni [1725-1813], of Salo, a little island in the
neighbourhood of Venice, who accompanied Pacchierotti to
England, has been upwards of forty years a dramatic composer;
having set the opera of Orazio Curiazio for the theatre of San
Cassiano at Venice, in 1746; and since that time he has not only been
often employed for that city, where he has been long maestro of the
conservatorio of the Mendicanti, but for all the principal theatres of
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Italy, particularly that of Turin, where he has been opera composer
at seven different carnivals (g). Sacchini was in too high favour
here at the time of Bertoni's arrival in London for his success to be
very considerable. 1 hough the invention of this master is not very
fertile, his melody is graceful and interesting; and though he never
had perhaps sufficient genius and fire to attain the sublime, yet he is
constantly natural, correct, and judicious; often pleasing, and
sometimes happy. His opera of Quinto Fabio, which had twelve
representations in England, was previously performed twenty times
at Padua with the greatest applause. Indeed, a considerable part
of its success, both here and in Italy, may be justly ascribed to the
admirable manner in which his friend Pacchierotti performed the
part of Fabio, where he appeared not only as a great singer, but an
intelligent and spirited actor.
On the first arrival of Pacchierotti in England, when the
Bernasconi was first woman, Coppola, a languid and uninteresting
soprano, second man, and Pozzi second woman; Adamberger was
the tenor, who with a better voice would have been a good singer;
with Micheli for all work, and his scholar Rovedino, a very young
singer with a well toned base voice, who brought up the rear.
In the summer of 1779, Pacchierotti went to Italy; and
Roncaglia, who, during the applause he received in singing: So che
jedele, a graceful air in Sacchini 's opera of Creso, had been hastily
engaged for another season, before Pacchierotti had been heard,
returned to supply his place, as Madame Le Brun did that of the
Bernasconi.
At the end of Roncaglia's second season, 1780, Pacchierotti came
again to England, and continued the principal singer at the opera
till after the Commemoration of Handel, in 1784. During which,
time, if Madame Le Brun be excepted, we were unfortunate in all
the first women with whom he appeared. These were the Prudom,
a young singer with a voice which study and experience, had she
been allowed a longer life, might have rendered fit for the place
she only supplied occasionally, till the arrival of the Maccherini,
who disappointed every hearer. Nor were the expectations of the
public better gratified on the arrival of Signora Morigi, daughter
of the buffo curicato of that name, who on his first coming to
England in 1766, so admirably performed the part of Tagliaferro,
the German soldier in the Buona Figliuola; but alas ! his long services
were not sufficient to render the public partial to his daughter, who in
the autumn of 1782, when she appeared in the opera of Medonte,
astonished the audience, not by the powers she had, but by those
she wanted; for it was hardly possible to account for such a singer
having been recommended, or thought of, for the first woman of
a serious opera, or indeed of any opera. She was not only much
limited in her taste, style, and knowledge, but in total want of voice.
In recitative she had not one musical tone; and in her songs the
(g) Upon the death of Galuppi, in 1785, Bertoni was appointed maestro di capella to St.
Mark's church and the state of Venice, the most honourable and lucrative employment at
which a musical composer in Italy can aspire.
S90
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
greatest efforts she made amounted to little more than a shriek,
except about three notes at the top of her compass (F, G, and A,) on
which, when she had time allowed for it, she could make something
like a swell. She was young, had a pretty figure, and, with teeth,
would have been handsome. Signora Lusini, and other female
singers, were tried with Pacchierotti before his departure, but
unsuccessfully (a).
On his arrival in London the second time, he found the tenor,
Ansani, here, who, though he disputed Roncaglia's claims to
superiority, submitted, with more than his usual patience, to
Pacchierotti 's supremacy. This performer had one of the best
tenor voices I ever heard on our opera stage. It was sweet, power-
ful, even, and of great compass and volubility. Nor could any
defect be justly ascribed to it, except perhaps a little want of
variety, spirit, and animation, in singing allegros, to distinguish
joy from sorrow. For there was a natural melancholy and pathos
in his tones on all occasions, which rendered his performance
somewhat monotonous. His shake was not good, and he was not
a deep musician. However, the same critics who censured
Pacchierotti' s licentiousness in changing and embellishing his airs,
were most severe on Ansani 's want of those powers. The truth is,
that he was too good for a first singer of such limited talents as
Roncaglia, to like; they had disagreed in Italy, and here their
enmity broke out anew, with double violence. Sacchini took sides
in the dispute, and Ansani being neither of an humble, patient, or
conciliating disposition, was in a perpetual warfare during the two
seasons he remained in this country.
His figure and countenance on the stage were good; he was tall,
thin, and had the look of a person of high rank. He told me, I
believe with great truth, that he was sempre in guai, always in
affliction and vexation, from the natural irritability of his temper,
and the quarrels and ill success of his peevish, affected, and
unfortunate wife; who, if ever she had a voice, lost it before her
arrival in this country. I never could receive any pleasure from
her performance; every note, feeble as it was, she squeezed out
with such difficulty, and with a look so cross and miserable, that
after her first exhibition I never wished more either to see or hear
the Signora Maccherini, who was so proper a match for her husband
in sweetness of disposition, that in Italy, when employed in the same
theatre, if one happened to be applauded more than the other,
they have been known mutually to employ persons to hiss the
successful rival (b).
The comic opera in England, after the departure of Lovattini,
seemed to be in a languid and declining state. Trebbi's
(a) The airs in which Pacchierotti's natural sweetness of voice, taste, expression, and
general powers of pleasing seem to have made the deepest impression, were : Misero pargoletto,
by Monza, in Demofoonte; Non temer, by Bertoni, in the same opera; Dolce speme, by Sacchini,
in Rinaldo; and Ti seguirb fedele, in Olimpiade, by Paesiello.
(6) The Maccherini is said to have been once a very agreeable singer, and considerable
favourite on the Continent. Soon after her first appearance, she ran away with an English
nobleman from the theatre at Florence, in her stage dress, before the performance was over.
891
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
performance was never very attractive; and that of his successor,
Jermoli, was still more feeble, and less in favour with the public.
The same may be said of Viganoni, with some small diminution
of praise. But he, or rather the managers, had the advantage of
a very captivating prima buff a in the Maddalena Allegranti,
who supplied his defects, and was soon distinguished by the
public. Her first appearance seems to have been at Venice in 1771,
and after singing at several other Italian theatres, in 1774, she
went into Germany, where she continued to perform at Manheim
and Ratisbon, till the year 1779, when she returned to Venice, and
after singing there at the theatre of San Samuele, during the
carnival, she came to England in 1781. Her voice was very sweet
and flexible, though not very powerful. Her taste, closes, and
variety of passages in the Viaggiatori Felici, composed by Anfossi,
which was the first burletta in which she appeared on our stage,
were universally admired. However, after she had been heard in
the Contadina in Corte, of Sacchini, and in Anfossi's Vecchi
Burlati, it was found by some that her riffioramenti were not
inexhaustible, and by others, that she did not always sing perfectly
in tune. In 1783, she returned again to Germany, and is now
(1788) at Dresden in the service of the court of Saxony.*
Within these last ten years, Dancing seems to have encroached
upon Music, and instead of being a dependant or auxiliary, is
aiming not only at independency, but tyranny. During the last
century, dancing had very little share of importance in a musical
drama. As the British government consists of three estates: King,
Lords, and Commons, so an opera in its first institution consisted
of Poetry, Music, and Machinery : but as politicians have observed,
that the ballance of power is frequently disturbed by some one of
the three estates encroaching upon the other two, so one of these
three constituent parts of a musical drama generally preponderates,
at the expence of the other two. In the first operas Poetry seems
to have been the most important personage; but about the middle
of the last century, Machinery and Decoration seemed to take
the lead, and diminished the importance both of Music and poetry.
But as the art of singing and dramatic composition improved,
Music took the lead, and poetry and decoration became of less
consequence, till the judgment of Apostolo Zeno, and the genius
of Metastasio, lifted lyric poetry far above its usual level. But
a fourth and new estate seems to have sprung up in Dancing,
which has almost annihilated the influence of the former three.
Yet it seems for the common interest that no one of the constituent
parts of a musical drama should arrogate to itself more than its
due share of notice. If poetry and Music are degraded into humble
dependants on dancing, the story of the drama had better be
told in pantomime; and as articulation is unnecessary, let the
fiddle do the rest.
* Long after this she again appeared in London, in Cimarosa's Malrimonio segreto, but
was a failure.
892
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
After the departure of Mademoiselle Heinel, no dancing had so
much delighted the frequenters of the opera as that of M. Vestris
le Jeune and Mademoiselle Baccelli, till the arrival of M. Vestris
1' Aine, when pleasure was sublimed into ecstacy. In the year
1781, Pacchierotti had been heard so frequently, that his singing
was no impediment to conversation, or even to animated narrative
and debate; but while the elder Vestris was on the stage, if during
a pas seul, any of his admirers forgot themselves so much as to
applaud him with their hands, there was an instant check put to
his rapture by a choral hu — sh ! For those lovers of Music who
talked the loudest when Pacchierotti was singing a pathetic air, or
making an exquisite close, were now thrown into agonies of
displeasure, lest the graceful movements du dieu de la dance, or
the attention of his votaries, should be disturbed by audible
approbation. Since that time, the most mute and respectful
attention has been given to the manly grace of Le Picq, and light
fantastic toe of the younger Vestris; to the Rossis, the Theodores,
the Coulons, and the Hilligsburgs, while the poor singers have been
disturbed, not by the violence of applause, but the clamour of
inattention.
The year 1784 was rendered a memorable aera in the annals of
Music by the splendid and magnificent manner in which the birth,
genius, and abilities of Handel, were celebrated in Westminster
Abbey and the Pantheon, by five performances of pieces selected
from his own works, and executed by a band of more than 500
voices and instruments in the presence and under the immediate
auspices of their Majesties and the first personages in the kingdom.
This event, so honourable to the art of Music and an illustrious
artist, and so worthy of a place here, having been minutely
recorded already in a distinct work (c), I shall only add, that this
celebration has been since establishment into an annual musical
festival for charitable purposes, in which the number of performers,
and perfection of the performances, as well as favour of the public,
have continued to increase. In 1785, the vocal and instrumental
band amounted to six hundred and sixteen. In 1786, to seven
hundred and forty-one. And in 1787, to eight hundred and six
vocal and instrumental performers.
In the spring of 1784, Madame Mara [1749-1833] first arrived
in England, being engaged to sing six nights at the Pantheon. The
dissolution of parliament and general election happening soon after
her arrival, the audiences to which she sung were not very
numerous, nor had her performance the effect it deserved, till she
sung at Westminster Abbey; where she was heard by near three
thousand of the first people in the kingdom, not only with pleasure,
but extacy and rapture (d).
(c) Account of the musical Performances in Commemoration of Handel, by the author
of this history, written and published for the benefit of the_ Musical Fund; an establishment
which his Majesty having since deigned to honour with his patronage, the members and
guardians have been permitted to incorporate themselves under the title of Royal Society of
Musicians.
(d) See printed account of the several performances, quarto.
893
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In the summer of this memorable year, not only Pacchierotti
and his friend Bertoni quitted the kingdom, but Sacchini and
Giardini; two musicians whose genius and abilities are of too high
an order not to be mentioned with particular respect.
Antonio Sacchini [1734-86], of Naples, arrived in England in
1772, after having composed for all the great theatres in Italy and
Germany, with increasing success. And here he not only supported
the high reputation he had acquired on the Continent, but
vanquished the natural enemies of his talents in England. His
operas of the Cid and Tamerlano were equal, if not superior, to any
musical dramas I had heard in any part of Europe. The airs of
Millico, the first man, were wholly written in the delicate and
pathetic style of that singer; as the first woman's part was in the
spirited and nervous style of Girelli. And he cherished the talents
of the inferior singers in so judicious a manner, that all their defects
were constantly disguised or concealed. Savoi, notwithstanding his
fine voice, had been worse than unnoticed before this period, for
he was almost insulted; yet so excellent was the Music he had to
execute in Sacchini's operas, and so favourably did it call him
into notice, that instead of going off the stage in silence, he was
applauded and even encored nearly as much and as frequently as
the first singers. The Carrara too, a young singer, whose voice
was naturally drowsy, childish, and insipid, from the beauty of her
songs, was well received. Indeed, each of these dramas was so
entire, so masterly, yet so new and natural, that there was nothing
left for criticism to censure, though innumerable beauties to point
out and admire. It is evident that this composer had a taste so
exquisite, and so totally free from pedantry, that he was frequently
new without effort; never thinking of himself or his fame for any
particular excellence, but totally occupied with the ideas of the
poet, and the propriety, consistency, and effect of the whole drama.
His accompaniments, though always rich and ingenious, never call
off attention from the voice, but, by a constant transparency , the
principal melody is rendered distinguishable through all the
contrivance of imitative and picturesque design in the instruments.
In the 3'ear 1770, when I saw Sacchini at Venice, he told me
that he had composed near forty serious and ten comic operas; and
in 1778, upon enquiring of him to what number his dramatic works
then amounted, he said to seventy-eight, of which he had forgot
even the names of two. Sacchini, while he remained at Venice in
the character of Maestro dell' ospidaletto Conservatorio, by the
number of masses and motets he had composed, manifested himself
to be as able to write for the church as stage (e). He remained
too long in England for his fame and fortune. The first was injured
by cabals and by what ought to have increased it, the number of
his works; and the second by inactivity and want of ceconomy.
Upon a difference with Signor Rauzzini, this singer from a fond
(e) I procured in Germany an admirable mass, a due cori, which he composed for the
funeral of a great personage at the court of the Duke of Wirtemburgh, of which he had not
himself a copy.
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
friend became his most implacable foe; declaring himself to be the
author of the principal songs in all the late operas to which Sacchini
had set his name; and threatening to make affidavit of it before a
magistrate. The utmost I could ever believe of this accusation was,
that during Sacchini' s severe fits of the gout, when he was called
upon for his operas before they were ready, he might have employed
Rauzzini, as he and others had done Anfossi in Italy, to fill up
the parts, set some of the recitatives, and perhaps compose a few
of the flimsy airs for the under singers. The story, however, gained
ground, and was propagated by his enemies, though always disbe-
lieved and contemned by his friends and the reasonable part of
the public. In the summer of 1781, he went first to Paris, where
he was almost adored; but after increasing his reputation there
by new productions, he returned the following year to London,
where he only augmented his .debts and embarrassments; so that, in
1784* he took a final leave of this country, and settled at Paris where
he not only obtained a pension from the Queen of France, but the
theatrical pension, in consequence of three successful pieces. This
graceful, elegant, and judicious composer died at Paris in September
1786, where he was honoured with a public funeral, and every
mark of respect and distinction, which sensibility and gratitude
could bestow on an artist, though a foreigner, who had contributed
so largely to their most elegant pleasures.
Though living musicians are, in general, neither fair nor safe
objects of history or criticism, while rumour is loud, and the public
able to judge for itself; yet the merit of some is so prominent and
universally acknowledged, that total silence would perhaps
disappoint those even who only look in a book for what they
already know. And the professor of whom I am going to speak has
been so long the delight and wonder of our country; has so much
improved the general knowledge and practice of his particular
instrument; and had so large a share in our musical transactions,
that he is well entitled to an honourable niche in my work.
Felice Giardini [1716-96], a native of Piedmont, when a boy,
was a chorister in the Duo mo at Milan, under Paladini, of whom
he learned singing, the harpsichord, and composition; but having
previously manifested a disposition and partiality for the violin,
his father recalled him to Turin, in order to receive instructions on
that instrument of the famous Somis. But though his preference
to the violin, upon which he soon became the greatest performer
in Europe, seems a lucky circumstance, yet he had talents which
would have made him a superior harpsichord player, had he
continued to practice that instrument; but he told me himself, that
he was perfectly cured of that vanity, at Paris, by the performance
of Madame de S. Maur, a scholar of Rameau, who played in such
a manner, as not only made him ashamed of his own performance,
but determined him never to touch the instrument again in serious
practice. He went to Rome early in his life, and afterwards to
* 1782 is given by Fetis as the date of his departure from England.
805
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Naples, where, having obtained a place among Ripienos in the
opera orchestra, he used to flourish and change passages much more
frequently than he ought to have done. " However," says Giardini,
of whom I had this account, " I acquired great reputation among
the ignorant for my impertinence; yet one night, during the opera,
Jomelli, who had composed it, came into the orchestra, and seating
himself close by me, I determined to give the Maestro di Capella a
touch of my taste and execution; and in the symphony of the next
song, which was in a pathetic style, I gave loose to my ringers and
fancy; for which I was rewarded by the composer with a — violent
slap in the face; which," adds Giardini, " was the best lesson I
ever received from a great master in my life." Jomelli, after this,
was however very kind, in a different way, to this young and
wonderful musician.
Giardini came to England in 1750. His first public performance
in London, at which I was present, was at a benefit concert for
old Cuzzoni, who sung in it with a thin cracked voice, which
almost frightened out of the little theatre in the Hay-market, the
sons of those who had perhaps heard her at the great theatre in the
same street, with extacy. But when Giardini played a solo and
concerto, though there was very little company, the applause was
so loud, long, and furious, as nothing but that bestowed on Garrick
had ever equalled. I had met him the night before at a private
concert, with Guadagni and Frasi, at the house of Napthali Franks,
Esq., who was himself one of the best dilettanti performers on the
violin at that time; and we were all equally surprised and .delighted
with the various powers of Giardini at so early a period of his life;
when, besides solos of his own composition of the most brilliant
kind, he played several of Tartini's, in manuscript, at sight, and
at five or six feet distance from the notes, as well as if he had
never practised any thing else. His tone; bow; execution; graceful
carriage of himself and his instrument; playing some of my own
Music, and making it better than I intended, or had imagined it in
the warm moments of conception; and, lastly, playing variations,
extempore, during half an hour, upon a new but extraordinary kind
of birth-day minuet, which accidentally lay on the harpsichord — all
this threw into the utmost astonishment the whole company, who
had never been accustomed to hear better performers than Festing,
Brown, and Collet ! Of his academy, scholars, manner of leading
at the opera and oratorio, performance in private concerts,
compositions vocal and instrumental, I shall say nothing here, lest
my praise should be too much for others, and too little for himself.*
The Opera-house was opened in autumn, 1784, in no very
auspicious manner: Pacchierotti being succeeded by Crescentini
[1766-1846], with a feeble and uncertain voice,** and the Lusini
* He left England in 1784, but was back again in 1790, producing comic operas at the
Haymarket Theatre. This venture did not succeed, and he took his company to Russia, where
he died at Moscow in 1796. The well-known hymn tune Moscow is by Giardini.
** In the words of Lord Mount-Edgcumbe : "It is but justice to add that, when he was
here, Crescentini was very young, and had not attained that excellence which has since gained
him the reputation of a first-rate singer."
896
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
not much surpassed, by the Ferrarese del Bene. And in the burletta
troop, the tenor and prima buffa were so inferior to the expectations
of the public, that the season went on unprontably, till after
Christmas.
1785. In the spring of this year, Crescentini, in the serious
operas, was superseded by Tenducci, who revived Gluck's Orfeo;
and the D' Orta, in the comic, by the Ferrarese. But these
arrangements, with the assistance of the new serious tenor, Babbini,
and the excellent Baritono, Tasca, would hardly have crouded the
house, without the more attractive assistance of the admirable
dancers, Le Picq, Vestris, Rossi, and Theodore.
Tasca, who had a powerful base voice, and seemed to be a good
musician, returned to Italy at the end of this season. He had been
here three years, during which time he was not only a useful
performer at the opera, but in the oratorios and performances in
Westminster Abbey. His voice, however, wanted mellowness and
flexibility; for, like an oaken plant, though strong, it was stiff.
This was likewise the last season that Anfossi remained in
England. He came hither in 1782, but, like his countryman,
Traetta, arrived here at an unfavourable time : for as Sacchini had
preceded him, and as the winter following was only rendered
memorable at the Opera-house by misfortunes, disgrace, and bank-
ruptcy, his reputation was rather diminished than increased in
this kingdom. But though his resources failed him, and circum-
stances were unfavourable to him here, he had produced before
his arrival in this country many works that have endeared him to
his own, where he is now in the highest reputation.
In the summer, the whole opera machine came to pieces, and
all its springs, disordered by law suits, warfare, and factions, were
not collected and regulated, till the next year.
1786. The regency being at length settled, and Mr. Gallini
invested with the power of ruining himself and others, Didone
Abbandonata, a pasticcio serious opera, was brought out previous
to the arrival of Rubinelli, and had considerable success. But this
must be wholly ascribed to the abilities of Madame Mara, who
sung on our opera stage for the first time. Indeed, she was so
superior to all other performers in the troop, that she seemed a
divinity among mortals. The pleasure with which she was heard
had a considerable increase from her choice of songs; which, being
in different styles by Sacchini, Piccini, Mortellari, and Gazzaniga,
were all severally encored during the run of the opera; a circum-
stance, which I never remember to have happened to any other
singer (/).
Matteo Babbini [1754-1816], the tenor, whose voice was sweet,
though not powerful, had an elegant and pleasing style of singing.
It is easy to imagine that his voice had been better; and not difficult
to discover, though his taste was modern, and many of his
riffioramenti refined and judicious, that his graces were sometimes
(/) These airs were: Son regina, by Sacchini; Se il del mi divide, by Piccini; Ah, non
lasciarmi, no, by MorteHari; and a Scena, in the last act, by Gazzaniga.
Vor,. ii. 57. S97
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
redundant, and his manner affected. His importance was very
much diminished when he sung with the Mara, and after the arrival
of Rubinelli, he sunk into insignificance.
Giovanni Rubinelli [1753-1829] arrived in England during the
run of Didone, in April 1786. His journey hither from Rome,
where he sung during the carnival of this year, was not very
propitious; as the weather was uncommonly inclement, and he was
not only overturned in his chaise at Macon, in France, but after
quitting the ship, in which he sailed from Calais to Dover, the boat
that was to have landed him was overset near the shore, and he
remained a considerable time up to his chin in water, to the great
risk of his health, his voice, and even his life. The first time I meet
m ith his name in the dramatis personam of an opera, is in Caliroe, set
by Sacchini, for Stutgard, 1770, where he performed the part of
second man. He seems to have continued at the court of
Wirtemberg, in no higher station several years, as Grassi and Muzio
are named before him in the Indice de Spettacoli Theatrale. His
name does not appear as first serious man in Italy till 1774, when he
sung at Modena, in Paesiello's Alessandro nell' Indie, and Anfossi's
Demofoonte. After this, he appeared as principal singer in all the
great theatres of Italy, till his arrival in London. The first opera
in which Rubinelli appeared in England, was a pasticcio, called
Virginia, May the 4th. His own part, however, was chiefly
composed by Angiolo Tarchi [1760-1814], a young Neapolitan,
who is advancing into eminence with great rapidity. Rubinelli is,
in figure, tall and majestic; in countenance, mild and benign. There
is dignity in his appearance on the stage; and the instant the tone of
his voice is heard, there remains no doubt with the audience of his
being the first singer. It is a true and full contralto from C, in the
middle of the scale, to the octave above. He sometimes, however,
goes down to G, and up to F, but neither the extra low notes nor
the high are very full. All above C is falset, and so much more
feeble and of a different register from the rest, that I was uneasy
when he transcended the compass of his natural and real voice.
His shake is not sufficiently open; but in other respects he is an
admirable singer. His style is grand, and truly dramatic. His
execution is neat and distinct. His taste and embellishments are
new, select, and masterly. His articulation is so pure and well
accented, in his recitatives, that no one who understands the Italian
language can ever want to look at the book of the words, while he
is singing. His chest is so strong, and his intonation perfect, that
I have very seldom heard him sing out of tune. His voice is more
clear and certain in a theatre, where it has room to expand, than
in a room. He had a greater variety of embellishments than any
singer I had heard, except Pacchierotti, who not only surpasses
him in richness of invention and fancy, but in the native pathos,
and touching expression of his voice. Yet Rubinelli, from the
fulness of his voice, and greater simplicity of style, pleases a more
considerable number of his hearers than Pacchierotti, though none
perhaps, so exquisitely, as that singer used to please his real admirers.
SqS
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
Rubinelli finding himself censured on his first arrival in England for
changing and embellishing his airs, sung "Return, O God of Hosts,"
at Westminster Abbey, in so plain and unadorned a manner, that
those who venerate Handel the most, thought him bald and insipid.
Indeed, I missed several appoggiaturas, which I remember Mrs.
Cibber to have introduced, who learned to sing the air from the
composer himself; and who, though her voice was a thread, and
her knowledge of Music very inconsiderable, yet from her
intelligence of the words and native feeling, she sung this admirable
supplication in a more touching manner, than the finest opera singer
I ever heard attempt if; and Monticelli, Guadagni, Guarducci, and
Pacchierotti, were of the number.
The second opera in which Rubinelli and the Mara sung together,
was Armida, May 25th. All the Music, except the Mara's part,
in this drama was the composition of Mortellari, whose taste in
singing, if we may judge from the three great singers we have lately
heard, Pacchierotti, Rubinelli, and Marchesini, is of the most
refined and exquisite sort. Mortellari was a scholar of Piccini;
but, though of the Neapolitan school, his compositions are less bold,
nervous, and spirited, than elegant, graceful, and pleasing. But
being Palermitano by birth, his strains may be rather called Sicilian
than Neapolitan.
Virginia and Armida, with now and then a comic opera, were
alternately performed till the end of the season, July 12th.
The King's theatre was not opened again till December 23d,
when Alceste, a new opera, composed by M. Gresnich [1755-99],
a German master of the Italian school, was first performed. This
opera, to which the public did not seem partial, was represented but
three times before it was stopt by the indisposition of Madame Mara.
1787. January 13th, was first performed, a comic opera called
Giannina e Bernardoni, originally composed by Cimarosa, but
in which many songs were now introduced of Cherubini. There
were several pretty ariette alia Veneziana, but the drama was
thought too long, and too full of silly Italian buffoonery. Mengocci,
the first buffo, was ill, and his part consigned to another who
merited and met with but little applause. Signora Benini,
however, the first buffa, gave me great pleasure by her performance.
Her voice was not powerful, but of a good quality, and perfectly
in tune. Her execution surprises no more than her voice; but her
taste is good, and her manner of singing extremely graceful and
pleasing. If she was a dilettante and only to sing in a room, her
performance would be perfect.
Cherubini [1760-1842], the nominal composer at the opera this
year, was a young man of genius, who had no opportunity while he
was here of displaying his abilities; but, previous to his arrival, he
had frequently been noticed in his own country, where he is now
travelling fast to the temple of Fame. His opera of Giulio Sabino
[1786] , was murdered in its birth, for want of the necessary support
of capital singers in the principal parts; Babini, the tenor, being
elevated to first man, and the Ferraresi first woman, were
899
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
circumstances not likely to prejudice the public in favour of the
composer.*
February 17th, II Tutor Burlato, a comic opera by Paesiello,
was first performed, in which Mingozzi, being somewhat recovered,
appeared in the principal man's part. He seems a good musician,
and to have a good style of singing, but he was still too feeble to
excite any other sensation in the audience, than pity for the state
of his health.
About this time was performed a serious opera, set by Signor
Rauzzini, called La Vestale [1787], which, from our long
acquaintance with his taste and style, was heard with less attention,
perhaps, than it deserved.
In March, Handel's opera of Julius Ccesar was revived for a
benefit. Though few of the original airs were retained, yet so
many fine things from his other operas supplied the omissions, that
after fulfilling the purpose intended, it was performed for the
manager, with increasing favour, the rest of the season.
In April, the curiosity of the public was excited and gratified by
the arrival of two new comic singers, Signor Morelli and Signora
Storace, from Vienna, whence rumour had been previously very
loud in praise of their abilities. The opera in which they first
appeared was gli Schiavi per Amore, by Paesiello, in which,
besides a great number of gay and agreeable airs, there are fragments
of excellent composition, in which new passages and effects abound,
as usual, in the works of that admirable master.
Giovanni Morelli has a base voice of nearly the same force
and compass as Tasca's, but infinitely more flexible and pleasing.
He is likewise a good actor, and superior in all respects to every buffo
caricato we have had since Morigi's first appearance in the Buona
Figliuola, 1766; yet, as a principal singer to supply the place of a
tenor, it must be owned that he is inadequate to the expectations
of those who remember the sweet voice and excellent humour of
Lovattini.
Anna Storace [1766-1817], a native of England, who went
young into Italy; where, by hearing good singing, with quickness of
parts and study, she acquired a very good taste, and first gave us V
avant gout of March esi's embellishments. But though a lively and
intelligent actress, and an excellent performer in comic operas, her
voice, in spite of all her care, does not favour her ambition to appear
as a serious singer. There is a certain crack and roughness, which,
though it fortifies the humour and effects of a comic song, in scenes
where laughing, scolding, crying, or quarrelling is necessary : yet
in airs of tenderness, sorrow, or supplication, there is always reason
to lament the deficiency of natural sweetness, where art and pains
are not wanting.**
* The well-known air For Tenderness formed, dates from this period. It was one of six
airs added to Paisiello's Marchese Tulipano.
** Anna Storace sang the part of Susanna in the first performance of Mozart's Nozze di
Figaro (1786). She did not stay long on the Italian opera stage, but transferred her talent
to Drury Lane, where she was long a favourite. For interesting accounts of herself and her
brother Stephen, see The Life of Michael Kelly, by S. M. Ellis (Gollancz, 1930).
900
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
The opera in which these two performers first appeared, was
performed to full houses, with great applause, to the end of the
season (g).
December 8th, the King's theatre opened with the comic opera
of II Re Teodoro; another proof of the fertility of Paesiello's
pen. This burletta had been performed all over Italy and Germany
with the greatest applause, previous to its being brought on our
stage. The Music, that was not changed, is extremely original
and pleasing, particularly the finales. There was a mixture of
airs by Corri, Mazzinghi, and Storace; but besides destroying the
unity of style, the certainty of there being merit of some kind or
other in every composition of Paesiello, inclines lovers of Music
to lament, that any of his airs should be changed or omitted.
1788. January 3d, a comic opera originally composed by
Cimarosa, entitled L' Italiana in Londra [1779] was brought on
our stage by the name of La Locandiera. Whether this celebrated
burletta was injured by changing the drama, and laying the scene
in Holland, instead of London, or by the mediocrity of most of
the performers, I know not; but I was much disappointed in its
effect, after all that I had heard and read of its prodigious favour
in Italy, for three years successively, in every great and little town
where there is a theatre, as well as Germany and Poland. Much
of the Music seemed feeble, common, and not of the newest taste.
The symphony, however, of one movement only, and the duet in
the second act, taken from another opera, were very good.
On the last night of this opera, a new dance, composed by the
celebrated M. Noverre, with his usual ingenuity and resources,
called Cupid and Psyche, was exhibited. The effect of this ballet
was very extraordinary; for so great was the pleasure it afforded
the spectators, that Noverre was unanimously called for on the
stage to receive the applause and acclamations due to his merit.
He was led on by M. Vestris and Hilligsberg, who had so admirably
performed the parts of Cupid and Psyche, and crowned with laurel
on the stage not only by them, and the other principal dancers,
Messrs. Chevalier, Didelot, and the Coulon, but by all the figuranti
who had been employed. This, though common in France, was
a new mark of approbation in England.
No serious opera was attempted this season, till the arrival of
Signor Luigi Marchesi [1755-1829], who having been engaged to
sing at Turin during the carnival, was unable to perform in London
till April 5th. This singer, whose talents have been the subject of
praise and admiration in every great theatre of Europe, where
musical dramas are performed in the Italian language, first appeared
at Rome 1774, in a female character, the usual introduction of a
young and promising singer, with a soprano voice and beautiful
(g) The principal dancers of 1786 and 1787, were M. Gojon, with Mademoiselle Mozon,
and Madame Perignon, whose performance was frequently much applauded.
901
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
person. In 1775, he performed the second man's part at Milan,
with Pacchierotti, and at Venice with Millico; but the same year,
he was advanced to the principal character at Treviso. In 1776
and 1777, he sung as first man at Munich and Padua; and by 1778,
he had worked his way to the great theatre of San Carlo at Naples,
which is the criterion and post of honour of an opera singer. He
continued here two seasons, and has since performed with increas-
ing celebrity at Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Milan, Rome, Petersburg,
Vienna, and Turin.*
The Giulio Sabino of Sarti [1729-1802],** was the first opera
in which Marchesi performed on our stage. The elegant and
beautiful Music of this drama did not please so much here as it
ought, and had done in other parts of Europe (h). Several of the
songs, indeed, had been previously sung here at concerts, and did
not appear new. Marchesi 's style of singing is not only elegant
and refined to an uncommon degree, but often grand and full of
dignity, particularly in his recitatives and occasional low notes. His
variety of embellishments and facility of running extempore divisions
are truly marvellous. Many of his graces are new, elegant, and of
his own invention; and he must have studied with intense application
to enable himself to execute the divisions, and running shakes from
the bottom of his compass to the top, even in a rapid series of
half notes. But besides his vocal powers, his performance on the
stage is extremely embellished, by the beauty of his person, and
grace and propriety of his gestures. We expected a great singer,
but that does not always include a fine actor.
Having heard the three greatest Italian singers of the present
times, though the drawing a parallel, and pointing out their several
excellencies and imperfections, would be easy, yet it would be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do it without offending
them and their exclusive admirers. Even comparative praise, as
well as censure, would be thought invidious. But as I have
received great pleasure from the performance of each, and never
expect to find talents exactly similar in different singers, I am
always thankful for the good I find, and endeavour to hear the rest
with candour.
In discriminating the several excellencies of these great
performers, I should, without hesitation, say, that Pacchierotti' s
voice was naturally sweet and touching; that he had a fine shake,
an exquisite taste, great fancy, and a divine expression in pathetic
songs. That Rubinelli's voice was full, majestic, and steady; and
besides the accuracy of his intonations, that he was parsimonious
(h) It was first set for Pacchierotti and the Pozzi at Venice 1781. Rubinelli performed the
principal man's part, in Leghorn, Pisa, and Imola, in 1782. And after that, it was performed
by inferior singers in several other cities of Italy, before the arrival of Marchesi in England.
* In 1789 a caricature of him by J. Nixon was published entitled "A Bravura at the
Hanover Square Concert."
** Cherubim was one of Sarti's pupils.
902
ITALIAN OPERA IN ENGLAND
and judicious in his graces. And that Marchesi's voice was elegant
and flexible; that he was grand in recitative, and unbounded in
fancy and embellishments.
All seem to have studied their art with great diligence during
youth, and to read Music as easily as their native language.
As actors: Pacchierotti seemed in earnest on the stage, and
consequently interested the spectator. Rubinelli had great dignity
in his deportment, though he discovered but little sensibility by his
gestures or tone of voice. Marchesi, with an elegant figure and
pleasing countenance, is at once graceful and intelligent in his
demeanor and action.
Signora Giuliani, the first woman of the present serious opera,
with a person, figure, and style of singing, not inelegant, wants
power of voice to fill a theatre so much, that in forcing her tones
beyond their natural power, in order to be heard, all their
proportions are destroyed, and she is justly accused of singing out
of tune. To this defect, she adds that of a bad shake, and
affectation. But such is the present scarcity of good female singers
in Italy, that previous to her arrival in England, she had been
employed as first woman with Pacchierotti and Rubinelli, in several
great theatres of Italy. At present, the Pozzi and the Giorgi
Banti, whose voices we know to be good, occupy the first places
among Italian female singers; but whether study or experience have
yet made them more perfect singers than we formerly thought
them, I am unable to inform my readers.
The tenor singer of this year, Forlivesi, who has supplied
that place in most of the great theatres of his country, and whose
style of singing seems of the most modern cast, wants not only
power of voice to be heard at a distance, but spirit and sweetness
of tone sufficient to please those that are near him. The lower
notes of his voice seem totally decayed; he has no shake; and
though neither deficient in figure nor action, I am sorry truth
obliges me to say, that he is one of the most uninteresting singers
I have ever heard in an Italian serious opera.
I am now arrived at the end of this laborious chapter, which
the various styles of composition and vocal performance that I had
to describe, and the different subjects that are connected with the
musical drama, have obliged me to make of an enormous length;
but as the Opera includes every species of Music, vocal and
instrumental, its annals, if faithfully and amply recorded, seem
nearly to comprise the whole history of the art. For here we have
the most varied and impassioned composition, the most refined
singing, the completest orchestra, with the occasional use of every
species of solo-instrument; and though the general style of opera
Music is necessarily dramatic, yet that of the church or chamber is
not precluded. Choruses and solemn scenes of splendid sacrifice
or funereal sorrow, in the ecclesiastic style, as well as scenes of
903
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
simplicity and social gaiety, are here frequently admitted with
propriety. Indeed, the opera is not only the union of every
excellence in the art of Music, but in every other art; a
junction which Voltaire has well described in his Mondain, when
he says:
11 faut se rendre a ce palais magique
Oil les beaux arts, la danse, la Musique,
L' art de tromper les ycux par les couleurs,
V art le plus heureux de seduire les coeurs
De cent plaisirs font un plaisir unique.
Haste to the magic palace where abound
The joys sublime of verse, or dance, and sound;
Where bright illusion fascinates the sight.
And Siren-notes the enchanted ear delight;
Where all the plastic powers of art are shewn,
And joys unnumber'd are combin'd in one.
904
Chapter VII
Progress of the Musical Drama at Venice,
during the Present Century
THE opera composers at the beginning of the present century
in Venice, were Marcantonio Ziani [c. 1653-1715], Carlo
Fran. Polarolo [c. 1653-1722], Antonio Polarolo [c. 1680-
1746], his son, the Abate Pignatta, Bernardo Bergognoni, Gius.
Benevento, and Tomaso Albinoni (a).
In 1702, the elegant and graceful Fran. Gasparini composed
Tiberio, his first opera for the city of Venice; and between that
period and the year 1723, produced twenty-five operas for the
same city only, besides the many he set for Rome, Bologna, and
other places. In 1703, Vinacese and Orgiani composed each of
them an opera; and Antonio Caldara, whose first drama for this
theatre was composed in 1697, this year produced the opera of
Farnace. Caldara* was one of the greatest professors both for the
church and stage that Italy can boast. He seems to have been in
the service of the court of Vienna at its most glorious musical
period, and had there the happiness of first setting the operas and
oratorios of Apostolo Zeno and Metastatio, under the direction of
those poets themselves. He continued the favourite composer in
the imperial service till the year 1736, when he set Metastasio's
opera of Achille in Sciro, written expressly for the marriage of the
late Empress-queen with the Duke of Lorrain; so that he was a
dramatic composer near fifty years.
In 1704, Polani, Mixte, Zanettini. Manza, Coletti, and other
minor composers, gave specimens of their abilities in dramatic
Music at Venice; but probably with little success, as we hear no
more of them. It must not, however, be forgotten that, in 1706,
the two excellent composers Antonio Bononcini and Antonio Lotti
furnished, each of them, an opera for the Venetian theatre.
Antonio Lotti [c. 1667-1740], the disciple of Legrenzi and
master of Marcello, Galuppi, and Pescetti, was first organist [1704] ,
and then maestro di capella [1736] , of St. Mark's church at Venice,
and one of the greatest men of his profession. To all the science
and learned regularity of the old school, he united grace and pathos.
Hasse is said to have regarded his compositions as the most perfect
(a) See above, p. 77.
* Caldara is not included in the 1929 edition of Grove's, but his work is reviewed in the
iqio edition.
905
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of their kind. And I can venture to say, from my own experience,
that his choral Music is at once solemn and touching. Between
the year 1698 and 1717, he composed fifteen dramas for the
Venetian theatre. I am much better acquainted with the church
Music of this excellent master than with his operas. His cantatas,
however, of which I am in possession of several, furnish specimens
of recitative that do honour to his feeling. He was opera composer
at the court of Dresden in 1718, and in 1720 returned to Venice,*
where he was living in 1732.
In 1707, Alessandro Scarlatti produced two operas,** and
Caldara another, for this city. In 1708, there were ten new operas
composed for different theatres, by the masters already mentioned;
and in 1709 to the productions of these great musicians, was added
Agrippina, set for the theatre of S. Gio. Crisostomo, by George
Frederic Handel, who was now on his travels.***
No new composer appears to have entered the lists at Venice
till 1712, when Floriano Aresti and Giacomo Rampini gave proofs
of their existence, which were soon swept away by the waters of
oblivion. In 1713, George Heinichen [1683-1729], another young
Saxon composer, travelling through Italy, set two operas for the
Venetian theatre, which were well received.**** This musician
became eminent afterwards in Germany, and was appointed maestro
di capella to the Electoral King of Poland, at the court of Saxony.
Andrea Paulati, an obscure composer, set an opera this year, called
I veri Amici, in which Nicolini sung, which, however, did not give
celebrity to the composer, or longevity to his Music.
The next new master who distinguished himself at Venice, as
a dramatic composer, was the celebrated Don Antonio Vivaldi,
who, in 1714, set Orlando Finto Pazzo; and between that period
and the year 1728, produced fourteen operas for the same city, in
the performance of which he generally led the band. In 1715,
three new composers appeared: Lucantonio Predieri, a Bolognese
master, who besides the operas he set for different parts of Italy,
composed a great number for Vienna, where he was much esteemed
by the Emperor Charles VI. and spent the chief part of his life;
Lorenzo Basseggio, whose name has occurred no where else in my
reading; and Fortunato Chelleri, of Milan, whose Music I have
never seen, but his being employed at Venice to compose five
operas, at a time when men of great abilities abounded m Italy.
* He departed for Dresden in 1717 and stayed there until he was peremptorily recalled by
the Procuratori of St. Mark's in 1719.
** Mitridate Eupatore, and II trionfo della Liberia.
#X# Agrippina was first performed on December 26th. The book was by Cardinal Grimani,
the Austrian Viceroy of Naples, and Handel wrote the music in three weeks. The Grimani
family were the owners of the theatre of S. Gio. Crisostomo at Venice, but despite this it
appears that Handel went to Rome with a view to producing Agrippina there. What happened
there we do not know as there is no record of Handel's activities between July, 1708, and
December, 1709, when he appeared at Venice.
*-X"X-* Heinichen's most important work was a treatise on thorough-bass, Neu erfundene und
griindliche Anweisung, published in 1711, which was revised and republished in 1728 as Der
Generalbass in der Composition.
906
MUSICAL DRAMA AT VENICE
seems to imply merit of some kind or other. To his talent as a
composer, he is said to have joined that of an excellent performer
on the harpsichord.
In 1716, a composer appeared at Venice for the first time, who
afterwards produced twelve operas for that city, besides many for
other places : this was Giovanni Porta, of whose dramatic Music
we have already had occasion to speak in England. He was long
in the service of Cardinal Ottoboni, at Rome, and afterwards
settled at the court of Bavaria, where he died about the year 1740.*
He was one of the most able masters of his time; uniting learning
with invention and fire. No new composer appeared in 1717.
In 1718, an opera was composed by Girolamo Bassani, of whom
I know nothing more; and another by Gius. Mar. Orlandini
[1688 — c. 1750], an able and favourite Bolognese master, who
furnished the Venetian theatre with seven operas between this year
and 1729. I have seen compositions of this author, particularly
in the opera of Nino, performed at Rome in 1722, which seem more
dramatic and elegant than those of any master in the Italian school,
anterior to Hasse and Vinci. He is said to have been happy in the
composition of intermezzi, a gay picturesque Music, which seems
to have been little understood by any other master, till the time of
Pergolesi. I have seen Laudi, or hymns, of his composition, in
three parts that are sufficiently natural and easy for psalm-singers,
not very deep in knowledge of Music; and cantici, or catches. He
continued to flourish from 1710 till 1745.**
The year 1719 furnished several memorable events in the
theatrical annals of Venice: besides operas composed by masters
already mentioned, there was one, Lamano, set by Mich. Ang.
Gasparini, of Lucca, the fourth which he had produced for this
city. He was a scholar of Lotti, and an admirable singing-master,
and prepared several excellent performers for the stage, among
whom was the celebrated Faustina. Stefano Andrea Fiore, with
whose merit I am unacquainted, set the opera called 77 Pentimento
Generoso; and Gius. Mar. Buini, the composer of more than thirty
operas for different theatres in Italy, began his career at Venice
this year, by setting the opera of La Caduta di Gelone. This master
must be remembered among poet-musicians, as he frequently
produced the poetry which he set to Music; and was often equally
successful in both arts. But there seems to have been more
attention paid this year to the singing, at the Venetian opera, than
either the poetry or Music : at one theatre, Valentini and the Tesi
performed in the opera of Lamano; and at another, Bernacchi, in
the Pentimento Generoso, with the Faustina and Cuzzoni, two sirens
gifted with different enchanting powers, which they exercised after-
wards in England to the destruction of theatrical tranquillity, and,
indeed, of good neighbourhood among the adherents of the
contending parties.
* Porta was born c. 1690 at Venice, and died at Munich in 1755.
** His most famous dramatic work was the comic opera 11 giocatore.
907
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In 1720, there were ten new operas at the different theatres of
Venice, set by Buini, Orlandini, Vivaldi, and Porta. The author
of Notitia di Teatri di Venezia, complains this year of the enormous
salaries of the first singers; and says, that more was then given
to a single voice than need to be expended on the whole exhibition.
Formerly, says he, the sum of a hundred crowns was thought a
great price for a fine voice, and the first time it amounted to one
hundred and twenty, the exorbitance became proverbial. But what
proportion does this bear, continues he, with the present salaries,
which generally exceed a hundred sequins; and which has such an
effect upon the rest of the troop, that the demands of every
one go on increasing, in the ratio of the first singer's vanity and
over-rated importance. The consequences, indeed, are fatal, when
the performers combine, as often happens, in a resolution to extort
from the managers a contract for certain sums, of which the
uncertainty of success in public exhibitions, renders the payment
so precarious.
In 1723, the admirable Leonardo Leo furnished the Venetian
stage with the opera of Timocrate, in which Nicolini and the Tesi
were the principal singers (&).
In 1724, Giminiano Giacomelli [c. 1686-1743], of Parma, first
appears here as an opera composer.* He was the scholar of Capeili,
and had a lively imagination that furnished him with agreeable
flights, which, from their novelty, afforded so much pleasure, that
they contributed considerably to propagate and establish the taste of
subsequent times. Francesco Brusa, a Venetian dilettante
originally, but by adverse fate being obliged to make a professional
use of an accomplishment, he derived from it both honour and
profit; being appointed master of the Conservatorio of the
Incurabili in this city, and employed as an opera composer three
successive years, composing in 1724, II Trionfo delta Virtu; in 1725
Amor Eroico; and in 1726, Medea e Giasone.
In 1725, the Venetian theatre first heard the natural, clear, and
dramatic strains of Leonardo Vinci, in his two operas of Iffigenia
in Aulide, and La Rosmira Fidele. A farther account and character
of this elegant composer will be given among the masters of the
Neapolitan school. Carestini first appeared this year at Venice,
in Seleuco, set by another new composer, whose name, Andrea
Zuccari, appears on no other occasion.
In 1726, Vinci's rival, Porpora, composed the opera of Siface,
which was soon followed by Vinci's Siroe, on the same stage. The
public, if not rendered unjust by a spirit of party, is always
benefited by the emulation and contending efforts of men of abilities
and talents: a powerful competitor not only stimulates diligence,
but by the fermentation of hope, fear, and perhaps vanity, awakens,
invigorates, and sublimes genius. There were fifteen new musical
dramas brought on the several Venetian stages this year: two by
(6) Leo's opera of Argeno was performed here in 1728; and his Cato in Utica, 1729.
* An opera of his called Ipernmeslra had heen produced at Venice and Parma in 1704.
908
MUSICAL DRAMA AT VENICE
Vinci, two by Porpora, and the rest by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Polarolo,
Buini; with a single opera by each of the following four principianti:
Luigi Tavelli, Fran. Rossi, Giuseppe Vignati, and Antonio Cortona,
who mounted the stage for the first time, and seemingly with but
little success, as their names, and works, whatever they were, have
been long forgotten.
The next year, 1727, the composers were Porta, Porpora,
Albinoni, Vivaldi, Buini, and three new candidates for theatrical
honours: Giac. Macari, Salvator Apollonj, and Gio. Reali, for
whose works it would now be in vain to enquire. Vinci had been
called to Rome, the preceding year, where he produced his
celebrated opera of Didone, leaving his rival master of the field of
battle at Venice. Here Porpora produced this year his two operas
of Meride and Arianna, which last was afterwards performed in
England.
The arrival of Farinelli at Venice in 1728, where he sung with the
Faustina, who told me, near fifty years after, that she well
rc-membered his performance, and the effect it had on the audience,
was a memorable event in the opera annals of that city. The
veteran composers this year, 1728, were Porta, Albinoni, Vivaldi,
Polarolo, Porpora, and Leo; with Bertol. Cordans, and Pescetti
and Galuppi among the principianti.
In 1729, the same composers are continued, with the addition of
not only Giacomelli and Orlandini among the veterans, but of
Ant. Galeazzi, Fran, Ciampi (c), Baldassare Galuppi detto
Buranello, and Giambattista Pescetti, among the probationers. Of
the two last, further notice will be taken hereafter. This year they
composed the opera of Dorinda, written by the celebrated
dilettante Marcello, in partnership.
In 1730, Gio. Ant. Giai, Ant. Mar. Lucchini, Gio. Adol. Hasse,
and Ricardo Broschi, the brother of Farinelli, first composed for the
Venetian theatres. In the opera of Idaspes, set by Broschi, his
brother Farinelli, Nicolini, and Cuzzoni performed, as they did
in Hasse' s Artaxerxes; and in that composer's opera of Dalisa, Pasi,
Amorevoli, the tenor who was afterwards in England, and Faustina,
were among the singers; and this seems the most splendid period of
the musical drama in Venice; where the poetry of Apostolo Zeno
and Metastasio; the musical compositions of Leo, Hasse, Porpora,
and Galuppi; and the vocal powers of Nicolini, Farinelli, Amorevoli,
Faustina, and Cuzzoni, conspired to delight and charm the lovers
of the lyric scene.
In 1731, Monticelli first appeared in the musical dramas of
Venice, with Carestini, Bernacchi, and Faustina, now married to
the composer Hasse. And the next year the same performers, and
most of the same composers, were again engaged.
The opera being now arrived at its summit of glory in this
philomusfcal city, we shall be less minute in our account of its
(c) This was not the Ciampi who was in England 1748, and whose Christian name was
Vincenzo; but the Ciampi who was at one time an excellent performer on the violin at Massa
Carrara, and author of admirable productions for the church. I am in possession of a miserere
and a mass, by this master, which are inferior to no productions of the kind that I have seen.
909
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
progress, and only mention the principal persons who, in subsequent
times, have most contributed to support by their genius and talents
the high reputation, which the art of Music had acquired in this
ancient republic.
Among the natives of Venice, no professor of the present century
has contributed more copiously to the delight of his fellow-citizens,
and lovers of Music in general, than Baldassare Galuppi,
detto Buranello [1706-85], from the name of the little island of
Burano near Venice, where he was born. His father taught him the
first rudiments of Music, and afterwards he had Lotti for his master.
His two first operas : La Fede nell' Incostanza, for Brescia, and Gli
Amid Rivali, for Venice, were produced in 1722. He succeeded
equally in every species of vocal Music. For the church of St.
Marc, of which he was long maestro di capella, and for the
Conservatorio of the Incurabili, where he presided many years,
he composed masses, oratorios, and motetti innumerable (d). The
number of operas, serious and comic, which he had composed for
the principal theatres of Italy before his departure for Petersburg,
in 1766, exceeded seventy. At his return to Italy, when I saw him at
Venice in 1770, at which time he was near seventy years of age, he
was as full of genius and fire as ever. And he seems, during his
long life, to have constantly kept pace with all the improvements
and refinements of the times, and to have been as modern in his
dramatic Music, to the last year of his life, as ever. This ingenious
and fertile composer died at Venice, in 1785, at eighty-four years
of age (e) [79 years].
Domenico Alberti [c. 1710-40], an illustrious dilettante of
Venice, is well entitled to a place here, as a dramatic composer, as
well as an exquisite harpsichord player, and author of elegant and
pleasing lessons for that instrument. He was the disciple of Biffi
and Lotti, and went into Spain in the character of page to the
Venetian ambasdor at that court. He then astonished even
Farinelli, with his manner of singing, who said, he rejoiced that he
was not a professor, " for," he added " I should have too
formidable a rival to cope with." Alberti afterwards went to Rome,
where he still cultivated singing and playing on the harpsichord. In
1737, he set to Music Endimione, written by Metastasio; and, some
time after, Galatea, of the same lyric poet. Of the vocal
compositions of Alberti, which are but little known in England, and
are, indeed, scarce every where, I procured several at Venice, which
I regard as the most exquisite of the time in which they were
produced.*
(d) Having expressed a wish to Signor Galuppi to be in possession of some of his motetii,
that I had heard at his conservatorio, this admirable composer was so obliging as to have some
of them transcribed and sent after me. And, upon a late examination, I find in them his
usual grace, fire, and originality.**
(e) Pacchierotti wrote me word, that he assisted in singing his requiem, on the ioth of
February. The funeral seems to have been public, and worthy of so celebrated an artist. "I
sung very devoutly, indeed," says Pacchierotti, "to obtain a quiet to his soul."
* He is best known to us as the abuser of the formula known as the Alberti bass. Walsh
published a set of 8 Sonates by him.
** For an account of a visit Burney paid to Galuppi see The Present State oj Music in
France and Italy {2nd edition, p. 183).
910
MUSICAL DRAMA AT VENICE
Giambatista Pescetti [c. 1704 — c. 66] was a Venetian, and
scholar of Lotti. His dramatic productions while he was in England
have been already mentioned in the preceding chapter. His style
was then too meagre and simple for our ears, which had been long
accustomed to the rich food with which they had been fed by
Handel. But in 1764, Manzoli sung him into favour. Indeed,
the voice and style of this admirable performer were such as
precluded all criticism of the Music he had to execute. The truth
is, that a singer of the first class, with a great voice, can render any
Music captivating; whereas an ordinary singer must be supported
by Music intrinsically good, or he sinks. If the attention is not
interested and rewarded either by composition or performance, we
become very severe critics. Pescetti was a goo.d contrapuntist,
having composed Music for the church, which is much esteemed.
But whether he wrote for the church or the stage, the characteristic
of his productions was facility of execution. This, by such as were
fond of complication, was thought an insipid excellence. However,
Manzoli, whose volume of voice was too unwieldy for tricks and
execution, attached him to his service, and unwillingly performed
the Music of any other composer; as Pescetti condescended not only
to adhere to simplicity in his melodies, but to simplify and thin the
accompaniments. And I have never been acquainted with a great
singer who was not displeased with an air in which the harmony
was so loaded, and the parts were so complicated and busy, as to
rob him of the attention of the audience, and require too much of
his own in the performance. Quest' aria e troppo caricata, have I
often heard a singer exclaim, when the ingenuity and effect of the
accompaniments, if kept under in the performance, have entertained
me extremely.
Ferdinando Bertoni has already had a place among Venetian
composers who have been in England. Few masters know the
mechanical parts of their business better than this worthy professor :
his melody is flowing and graceful, though not often new; his parts
are clear and well arranged; and his counterpoint perfectly correct.
And yet there is sometimes a pacific smoothness in his Music that
borders upon languor. Indeed, his own natural disposition is so
quiescent and innoxious, that his friend Pacchierotti could not
stimulate him to any solicitude or energy of conduct in his profes-
sional concerns. If things went ill, he was as little mortified, as
elated if they prospered. And this even tenor of tranquillity
pervaded all his compositions; they would soothe and please by
grace and facility, but not disturb an audience by enthusiastic
turbulence.
But though Venice, ever since the time of Zarlino, has produced
within its own precincts a constant succession of able musicians,
whose names and works have penetrated into the most remote parts
of Europe, yet not content with endemial productions, the
inhabitants have frequently fermented emulation, by calling in
strangers of great talents and abilities to rouse and vivify the genius
of their countrymen. The Neapolitan school, during the present
911
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
century, has often furnished the Venetians with composers, whose
productions have been received on their stage with universal
applause. Among these, besides Alessandro Scarlatti, Leo, Vinci,
and Porpora, already mentioned, Mich. Fini, Ign. Florillo, Salvator
Perillo, Gaetano Latilla, Rinaldo di Capua, Giuseppe d' Arena,
Genaro Alessandri, Domenico Paradies, Genaro Manna, Gioacchino
Cocchi, Nicola Piccini, Tommaso Traetta, and Antonio Sacchini,
all Neapolitans; as well as Sarti, Anfossi, and Mortellari, have had
their works well performed and well received at Venice. Latilla
resided there the chief part of his life; Paradies had been a composer
for that city before his arrival in England, and on quitting it, retired
thither to end his days. Hasse, of the Neapolitan school, though
a Saxon, was long in the service of that republic, and maestro
of the Incurabili Conservatorio [1727], and he likewise retired
thither with the Faustina his wife, who was a native of Venice, to
close the busy and splendid scene of their lives. Cocchi, when
he quitted England, did the same, and is now master of one of
the Conservatorios of that city. Signor Sacchini when I was in
Venice, 1770, was master of the Ospidaletto, and resided four years
at Venice; and when he resigned that employment, it was conferred
on Traetta, at whose decease Anfossi was invested with it, and
allowed, while in England, to perform the duties of the office by
deputation.
We must not quit Venice without paying proper respect to the
noble and celebrated dilettante, Benedetto Marcello [1686-1739],
a native of that city, and descended from the most illustrious
families of the republic. No cotemporary professor was more
reverenced for musical science, or half so much praised for his
abilities in the art, as Marcello. This accomplished nobleman,
besides his musical productions, consisting of psalms, operas,
madrigals, songs, and cantatas, was frequently his own poet, and
sometimes assumed the character of lyric bard, for other musicians
(/). It is probable that Marcello had received some disgust in
his early attempts at dramatic Music; for, in 1720, he published
a furious satire upon composers, singing-masters, and singers in
general, under the title of Teatro alia Moda, or "an easy and
certain Method of composing and performing Italian Operas in the
modern Manner." But his great musical work, to which the late
Mr. Avison's encomiums and Mr. Garth's publication to English
words, have given celebrity in our own country, was first printed
at Venice in eight volumes folio, under the following title: Estro
poetico-armonico , Parafrasi sopra i primi 50 Salmi, Poesia di
Girolamo Ascanio Giustiniani, Musica di Benedetto Marcello,
Patrizj Veneti, 1724 & 1725 [1724-27] . There is a long and learned
preface to the first volume, in order to give weight and authority
to the author's plan and style of composition. But besides the great
(/) He was author of a drama called Aralo in Sparta, which was set by Ruggieri, and
performed at Venice in 1709; and in 1710 he produced both the words and the Music of an
oratorio called Giuditta. He set the Psyche, of Cassini, about the same time. In 1718, he
published Sonnets of his own writing, without Music; and in 1725, he both wrote and set a
Serenata, which was performed at the imperial court of Vienna.
912
MUSICAL DRAMA AT VENICE
display of musical reading, sagacity, and superior views to any of
his predecessors, letters are prefixed to each volume from the
author's friends and admirers, in the same encomiastic strain as the
recommendatory verses, with which almost every book was ushered
into the world during the last century. But not dazzled by these
or the hyperbolical praises of Algarotti or Avison, I have conscien-
tiously examined the whole eight volumes of the Italian edition,
and find, though there is considerable merit in the work, that the
author has been over-praised: as the subjects of many of his fugues
and airs are not only common and old-fashioned at present, but
were far from new at the time these psalms were composed.* But
Marcello was a Venetian nobleman, as Venosa was a Neapolitan
prince; both did honour to Music by cultivating it; but both expected
and received a greater return in fame, than the legal interest of the
art would allow. Marcello was a disciple of Gasparini, and died
in 1741 [1739].
* Avison and Garth published an English edition in 8 volumes in 1757.
Vol. ii. 53. 913
Chapter VIII
Progress of the Musical Drama at Naples,
and Account of the eminent Composers and
School of Counterpoint of that City
THE first Neapolitan master who worked for the stage during
the present century, seems to have been Francesco
Mancini, who flourished from 1700 to 1731, and produced
several operas and intermezzi that were much esteemed by the first
professors of the time, particularly Geminiani and Hasse, who
always spoke of him as a very able master. The celebrated opera
oildaspe Fedele, brought on our stage in 1700 [1710], was set by
Mancini.
About 1720, the scholars of Alexander Scarlatti and Gaetano
Greco, who presided over the conservatorios of Naples, began to
distinguish themselves: among these may be enumerated Leo,
Porpora, Domenico Scarlatti, Vinci, Sarro, Hasse, Feo, Abos,
Pergolesi, and many other great and celebrated musicians, who
merit particular notice. To each of the most eminent of these
masters I shall therefore assign a separate article, specifying the
time when they began to flourish, and the chief works they produced
for the stage.
Leonardo Leo [1694-1744], principal organist of the Chapel
Royal at Naples, was not only admired and respected by his cotem-
poraries, but still continues to be held in reverence by every
professor that is acquainted with his works (g). The first opera
of his composition, that I have been able to find, is Sofonisba,*
which was performed at Naples in 1718, and the last, Siface, in
Bologna, 1737. Between these, he produced three operas for
Venice, and four for Rome. Leo likewise set the Olimpiade of
Metastasio [1737], in which the duo : Ne i giorni tuoi felice, and the
air: Non so donde viene, are admirable; as is Per quel paterno
(g) We must, however, except M. Reichardt of Berlin, who probally understanding the
Italian language better than this venerable master, has severely criticised his manner of setting
the words of his celebrated air : Non so con dolce moto; and his censures have been adopted
by Prof. Cramer of Kiel. Musical Kunstmagazin, 1781; and Mag. der Musik, 1783.
* Leo's first opera was Pisistrato produced in 1714, and he was producing operas until the
last year of his life. Sofonisba was his fifth dramatic work. The B.M. has a copy of St.
Elena al Calvario {Egerton MSS. 2452), and also of the 8-part Miserere (Add. MSS. No. 31616).
914
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
amplesso, in Artaserse, the only air of that opera, by this composer,
that I have seen. Leo likewise set Metastasio's oratorio of St. Elena
al Calvario [1732], of which I have seen some very fine songs. His
celebrated Miserere [1739], in eight real parts, though imperfectly
performed in London at the Pantheon, for Ansani's benefit, 1781,
convinced real judges that it was of the highest class of choral
composition (h).
The purity of his harmony, and elegant simplicity of his melody,
are no less remarkable in such of these dramas as I have been able
to examine, than the judicious arrangement of the parts. But the
masses and motets which are carefully preserved by the curious,
and still performed in the churches at Naples, have all the choral
learning of the sixteenth century. There are likewise extant,
Trios, for two Violins and a Base, superior in correctness of counter-
point and elegance of design to any similar productions of the
same period. This complete musician is equally celebrated as an
instructor and composer; and the Solfeggi which he composed
for the use of the vocal students, in the conservatorio over which
he presided at Naples, are still eagerly sought and studied, not only
in Italy, but in every part of Europe, where singing is regularly
taught.
This great musician died about the year 1742 [1744], at the age
of fifty-three [50]. His death was unhappily precipitated by an
accident which at first was thought trivial; for having a tumor,
commonly called a bur, on his right cheek, which growing, in
process of time, to a considerable magnitude, he was advised to
have it taken off; but whether from the unskilfulness of the operator,
or a bad habit of body, a mortification ensued, which cost him his
life.*
Nicola Porpora [1686-1767] began to contribute to the lustre
of the Neapolitan school, about the same time as Leo. His first
opera of Ariana e Teseo was performed at Vienna in 1717; at
Venice, 1727; and in London, 1734.** The operas he composed for
Naples, Rome, and Venice, before and after his arrival in England,
amount to upwards of fifty. Of his cantatas, which remained in
favour much longer than his operas, mention has been made else-
where (*).
Porpora was so excellent an instructor in the art of singing, that
not only Farinelli, Mingotti, and several other theatrical
performers, but all his scholars, whether princesses or professors,
were proud to own him for their master.
In _ 1736, during his residence in England, he published six
Sinfonie da Camera, or Trios, for two Violins and a Base, which
he dedicated to the late prince of Wales; but these, like almost all
the instrumental Music of vocal composers, except that of Handel
(h) See Book II. note (y), p. 728. (») See above, p. 637.
* Leo died from apoplexy. He was found dead, seated at his harpsichord.
** His first opera, Basilio, was produced before 1710.
915
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
and the late John Christian Bach, are fanciless, and no more fit
for one instrument than another. Indeed, Vinci, Hasse, Pergolesi,
Marcello, and Porpora, the great luminaries of vocal compositions,
seem never to have had any good thoughts to bestow on Music,
merely instrumental. Perhaps the superiority of vocal expression
requires fewer notes in a song than a sonata; in which the facility
of executing many passages that are unfit for the voice, tempts a
composer to hazard every thing that is new. Thus the simplicity
and paucity of notes, which constitute grace, elegance, and
expression in vocal Music, render instrumental, meagre and
insipid.
Porpora was long the principal master of the Incur abili
Conservatorio at Venice, for which he composed several masses
and motets,* that are held in great estimation by the curious. He
retired, however, late in life, to Naples, the place of his nativity,
where, in 1767, he died in great indigence, at the advanced age of
eighty-two. Signor Corri, who had studied under him five years,
was his disciple at the time of his decease; and he says, that
though his friends paid him a considerable sum, not only for his
instruction, but board, Porpora kept so miserable a table, that he
was frequently driven out of the house, by hunger, to seek a
dinner elsewhere.
Leonardo Vinci [1690-1730], of the Neapolitan school, who is
said to have run away from the conservatorio of Gli poveri in
Giesu Cristo, at Naples, where he was the scholar of Gaetano
Greco, on account of a quarrel with Porpora, a student of the same
school, began to distinguish himself in the year 1724,** when he
set <the opera of Farnace, for the Aliberti theatre at Rome (k). So
great was the success of this drama, that he was called upon to
furnish at least one opera every year till 1730, when he composed
two : Artaserse, and Alessandro nell' Indie, both written by
Metastasio. These, as I was informed at Rome, he set for half
price, to gratify his enmity to Porpora who was then his rival, in
that city.
The vocal compositions of Vinci form an sera in dramatic Music,
as he was the first among his countrymen, who, since the invention
of recitative by Jacopo Peri, in 1600, seems to have occasioned
any considerable revolution in the musical drama. The airs in
the first operas were few and simple; but as singing improved, and
orchestras became more crouded, the voice-parts were more
laboured, and the accompaniments more complicated. In process
of time, however, poetry seems to have suffered as much as ever
(k) It is probable that most of the masters of this school produced specimens of their
abilities at Naples, before they were employed to compose for the capitals of other states; but
1 have not been able to find any record of their Premiers Coups d' Essai.
* Also many Cantatas, twelve of which were published at London in 1735.
** Vinci had met with success before this with his comic opera II falso cieco, produced in
1719. According to Eitner, Q.L., Farnace dates from 1720. Porpora's master was Padre Gaetano
of Perugia (not Gaetano Greco) of the Conservatorio of S.M. di Loreto. Vinci's master was
Gaetano Greco as stated in the text.
9*6
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
from the pedantry of musicians, who forgetting that the true
characteristic of dramatic Music is clearness; and that sound being
tiie vehicle of poetry and colouring of passion, the instant the
business of the drama is forgotten, and the words are unintelligible,
Music is so totally separated from poetry, that it becomes merely
instrumental; and the voice-part may as well be performed by a flute
or a violin, in the orchestra, as by one of the characters of the
piece, on the stage. Vinci seems to have been the first opera
composer who saw this absurdity, and, without degrading his art,
rendered it the friend, though not the slave to poetry, by
simplifying and polishing melody, and calling the attention of the
audience chiefly to the voice-part, by disintangling it from fugue,
complication, and laboured contrivance.
In 1726, he set Matastasio's Didone Abandonaia for Rome,
which established his reputation; for in this exquisite drama, not
only the airs were greatly applauded, but the recitative, particularly
in the last act, which being chiefly accompanied, had such an
effect, that, according to Count Algarotti, " Virgil himself would
have been pleased to hear a composition so animated and so
terrible, in which the heart and soul were at once assailed by all
the powers of Music (I)."
I shall mention the rest of this pleasing and intelligent composer's
operas, the airs of which long served as models to other masters,
and are not yet become either ungraceful or inelegant.
In 1727, he composed Gismondo, Re di Polonia; in 1728 [Q.L.
1727], Catone in Utica; in 1729 [Q.L. 1723], Semiramide
Riconosciuta; and in 1730 [Q.L. 1729], Alessandro nell' Indie, and
Artaserse, all for the theatres in Rome (m). The celebrated
air at the end of the first act of Artaserse : Vo solcando
un mar crudelc, originally composed for Carestini, is well known,
and is perhaps the only production of Vinci by which his merits
have been favourably estimated in England. In the printed book
of the words Vinci is called Pro-vice maestro delta Real Capella
di Napoli.
I have been able to find no more of his works after this period;
so that he must either have begun late, or been cut off early in life,
as his great and durable renown seems to have been acquired in
the short space of six years of his existence.
The next Neapolitan who entered the lists, as a dramatic
composer, was Domenico Sarro [b. 1678], vice maestro of the
Chapel Royal at Naples, who flourished from the year 1725 to
1734. This master was much esteemed, both for his ecclesiastical
and secular productions. Among the many operas he composed
for the different theatres of Italy, the two most in favour, were
Tito Sempronio Gracco, for Naples, 1725; and Metastasio's Didone
(l) Saggio sopra V Opera in Musica.
(m) The two last were performed in the theatre delle Dame; the first is dedicated to the
Chevalier de St. George, called in the title page Gioeomo III. Re della Gran Brettagna; and
the second, to his consort, Clementina, called Regina della Gran Brettagna.
917
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Abandonata, for Turin, 1727 [Naples, 1724]. He was one of the
early reformers, who, like Vinci, simplified harmony, and polished
melody, in his productions for the stage.
Adolfo Hasse [1699-1783], detto II Sassone, though a native
of Germany, deserves a place in the fist of Neapolitan composers,
as he had not only instructions from the elder Scarlatti and Porpora,
but began first to be noticed as a man of genius at Naples, in
1725 (n). Much has already been said of this admirable composer
in a former work (o); and more information will be collected
relative to his numerous productions in speaking of the musicians
of his country; I shall therefore only observe here, that he pursued
the elegant and simple manner of Vinci in his vocal compositions,
and as he long survived this first reformer of lyric melody, he
frequently surpassed him in grace and expression; and the operas
of Metastasio, which he set for Rome and Venice after the decease
of Vinci, were not only more applauded by the public, but more
consonant to the ideas of the poet himself, as I discovered in
conversing with him on the subject, at Vienna, in 1773.
Hasse began to compose for the great theatre at Naples, by
setting the opera of Sesostrate, in 1726, the year after the decease
of his master, Alessandro Scarlatti. This opera and Attalo Re di
Bitinia, for the same theatre, in 1728, seem to have been forgotten
by the composer himself in the verbal enumeration of his early
productions with which he favoured me at Vienna; but being in
possession of the printed book of the words of both these dramas,
with the above dates, to which his name is prefixed in the following
manner: La Musica e del Signor Giovanni Adolfo Hasse detto il
Sassone, Maestro di Capella di S. A. S. il Duca di Brunswick, the
record is indisputable. In 1730, he set two operas for Venice:
Dalisa, in which the principal singers were Pasi, Amorevoli, and
Faustina, whom he married about this time; and Artaserse, written
by Metastasio, in which the principal parts were performed by
Farinelli and Cuzzoni. In one of these he is called Maestro
sopra-numerario of the Royal Chapel of Naples; and in the other
Maestro di Capella of Augustus King of Poland and Elector of
Saxony. In 1732, he composed Cajo Fabricio, for Rome; and
Demetrio for Venice. These dramas, particularly the two written
by Metastasio, and the great singers who performed in them,
established his reputation, which extended to every part of Europe.
Of the numerous operas he composed afterwards for the different
courts of Germany, an account will be given elsewhere.
Giuseppe Porsile [c. 1672-1750], of Naples, the son of Carlo
Porsile, who composed the opera of Nerone for that city in 1686,
appears to have been in the service of the Emperor at Vienna in
1720. Apostolo Zeno (p) speaks of his bella Musica to Spartaco,
an opera written by the Abate Pasquini for the imperial court in
(n) See German Tour, Vol. II. p. 183. (o) Ibid. Vol. I.
(j>) Lettere, Tomo. I.
918
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
1726. Between which period and 1735, he composed several
dramas for the different theatres of Italy. His favour at
Vienna, however, appears to have been durable, as he was
employed there, in 1733, to set the oratorio of Giuseppe
Riconosciuto, by Metastasio, which Hasse publicly declared to be
the finest Music he had ever heard. I have never met with any
of his productions; but his style is said, by others, to have been
natural, and full of force and expression (q).
Riccardo Broschi, Maestro di Capella Napolitano, and the
brother of the celebrated Farinelli, whom he instructed in the first
rudiments of Music, composed the opera called L' Isola d' Alcina,
for Rome, in 1728. It was in this opera that the memorable
contention happened between Farinelli and a celebrated performer
on the trumpet, over whom that matchless singer obtained a
complete victory. In 1730, Broschi accompanied his brother to
Venice, where he composed the opera of Idaspe; in which, not only
Farinelli performed, but the Cavalier Nicolini, then old, but still a
great actor, and Cuzzoni, young, and at the summit of her favour.
Though this was not the first appearance of any of these renowned
performers on the Venetian stage, the late Sir Edward Walpole,
who was there at the time, used to declare, that the acclamation
with which they were received, and the rapture communicated by
their talents, surpassed all that he had ever known in any other
theatre in Europe.
Francesco Feo [b. c. 1685], one of the greatest Neapolitan
masters of his time, composed Ipermestra, for Rome, in 1728, and
Andromaca [B.M. Add MS. 24303], lor the same city, in 1730.
From this period till about the year 1740, his name frequently
occurs in the musical dramas of Italy. The few specimens which I
have seen of this composer's abilities in vocal Music, seem correct
and masterly in counterpoint, and full of fire, invention, and force
in the melody and expression of the words.
We are now arrived at a very important period of musical
history, when Pergolesi, the child of taste and elegance, and
nurstling of the Graces, first began to captivate by his strains.
This exquisite composer has so much interested and delighted the
musical world, that a dry list of his works seems insufficient to
satisfy the curiosity which his productions have excited. I shall,
therefore, lay before my readers all the information I was able to
procure concerning his short life, in my tour through Italy; at
which time, though he had been dead upwards of thirty years, yet
I met with several persons, both at Rome and Naples, particularly
the late Mr. Wiseman and Barbella, who had been personally
acquainted with him, and who communicated to me many of the
following circumstances :
Giovanbattista Pergolesi was born at Casoria, a little town
about ten miles from Naples, in 1704.* His friends discovering,
(q) Essai sur la Musique, Tom. III. p. 224.
* Pergolesi was born at Jesi, near Ancona, in 1710.
919
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
very early in his infancy, that he had a disposition for Music,
placed him in the conservatorio at Naples [1725], called Dei poveri
in Giesu Gristo, which has been since suppressed. Gaetano Greco,
of whom the Italians still speak with reverence as a contrapuntist,
presided then over that celebrated school. This judicious master
soon perceiving uncommon genius in his young pupil, took
particular pleasure in facilitating his studies, and communicating
to him all the mysteries of his art. The progress which the young
musician made was proportioned to the uncommon advantages of
nature and art with which he was favoured; and at a time when
others had scarcely learned the gammut, he produced specimens of
his abilities which would have done honour to the first masters in
Naples. At the age of fourteen* he began to perceive that taste and
melody were sacrificed to the pedantry of learned counterpoint,
and after vanquishing the necessary difficulties in the study of
harmony, fugue, and scientific texture of the parts, he intreated his
friends to take him home, that he might indulge his own fancies,
and write such Music as was most agreeable to his natural
perceptions and feelings.
The instant he quitted the conservatorio, he totally changed
his style, and adopted that of Vinci, of whom he received lessons in
vocal composition, and of Hasse, who was then in high favour.
And though he so late entered the course which they were pursuing
with such rapidity, he soon came up with them; and, taking the
lead, attained the goal, to which their views were pointed, before
them. With equal simplicity and clearness, he seems to have
surpassed them both, in graceful and interesting melody.
His countrymen, however, were the last to discover or allow
his superiority, and his first opera, performed at the second theatre
of Naples, called Dei Fiorentini, met with but little success. The
prince of Stigliano, first equery to the King of Naples, discovering,
however, great abilities in the young Pergolesi, took him under his
protection; and from the year 1730 to 1734, by his influence,
procured employment for him at the Teatro Nuovo. But during
this period, the chief of his productions were of the comic kind,
and in the Neapolitan dialect, which is unintelligible to the rest
of Italy, except the Serva Padrona, set for the theatre of San
Bartolomeo.**
It was not till the year 1735, that an account of his merit
penetrated so far as Rome, and inclined the directors of the opera
there, to engage him to compose for the Tordinona theatre in that
city.
Pergolesi, ambitious of writing for a better theatre, as well as for
better performers, than those for which he had hitherto been
employed; and happy in having the exquisite poetry of Metastasio's
* This is too early an age for this story.
** Pergolesi had produced a sacred drama in 1731, between the acts of which he introduced
the intermezzo II maestro di musica. He had also produced La Sallustia with the intermezzo
Nerino e Nibbia, for the court theatre, before he wrote 3ny thing for the 'Teatro dei Fiorentini.'
La serva padrona was produced at Naples in 1733.
920
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
Olimpiade to set, instead of the Neapolitan jargon, went to work
with the zeal and enthusiasm of a man of genius, animated by
hope, and glowing with an ardent passion for his art.
The Romans, however, by some unaccountable fatality, received
his opera with coldness; and the composer being a 3/oung man but
little known, they seemed to want to be told by others that his
Music was excellent, and would soon, by the admiration of all
Europe, make them ashamed of their injustice and want of taste.
To complete his mortification at the ill reception of this opera
[Olympiade], Nerone composed by Duni, the next that was
brought on the stage, and for which his was laid aside, had a very
great success.
Duni [1709-75], a good musician, and a man of candour,
though greatly inferior in genius to Pergolesi, is said to have been
ashamed of the treatment which he had received; and with an
honest indignation declared, that he was out of all patience with
the Roman public, frenetico contro il publico Romano. He even
tried during the short life of this opera, to make a party in its
favour among the professors and artists who were captivated with
the beauty of the Music; but all their efforts were vain; the time
was not yet come when judgment and feeling were to unite in its
favour.*
Pergolesi returned to Naples with the small crop of laurels
which had been bestowed on him by professors and persons of
taste, who in every country compose but a very inconsiderable part
of an audience. He was, indeed, extremely mortified at the fate
of his opera, and not much disposed to resume the pen, till the
Duke of Matalon, a Neapolitan nobleman, engaged him to compose
a mass and vespers for the festival of a saint at Rome, which was
to be celebrated with the utmost magnificence.
Though Pergolesi had but too much cause to be dissatisfied with
Roman decrees he could not decline the duke's proposition, and it
was on this occasion that he composed the Mass, Dixit, & Laudate,
which have been since so often performed for the public, and
transcribed for the curious. They were heard for the first time in
the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, with general rapture; and
if any thing could console a man of genius for such unworthy
treatment as he had lately experienced at Rome, it must have been
such hearty and unequivocal approbation as he now received in the
same city.
His health, however, daily and visibly declined. His friends had
perceived, by his frequent spitting of blood, for four or five years
before this period, that he was likely to be cut off in his prime; and
his malady was still increased by this last journey to Rome. His
first patron, the prince of Stigliano, who had never ceased to love
and protect him, advised him to take a small house at Torre del
Greco, near Naples, on the sea-side, almost at the foot of Mount
* Duni composed a French opera Ninette a la cour in 1755, the success of which induced
him to settle in Paris in 1757. He produced about 20 operas there and exercised a great
influence upon the growth of Opera-bouffe. ..
921
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Vesuvius (r). It is imagined by the Neapolitans, that persons
afflicted with consumptions are either speedily cured, or killed, in
this situation.
During his last sickness, Pergolesi composed his celebrated
cantata of Orpheus and Euridice, and his Stabat mater, at Torre del
Greco, whence he used to go to Naples from time to time to have
them tried. The Salve Regina, which is printed in England, was
th» last of his productions, and he died very soon after it was
finished, in 1737, at the age of thirty-three!*
The instant his death was known, all Italy manifested an eager
desire to hear and possess his productions, not excepting his first
and most trivial farces and intermezzi; and not only lovers of
elegant Music, and curious collectors elsewhere, but even the
Neapolitans themselves, who had heard them with indifference
during his lifetime, were now equally solicitous to do justice to the
works and memory of their deceased countryman. Rome, sensible
now of its former injustice, as an amende honorable, had his opera
of Olimpiade revived: an honour which had never been done to
any composer of the present century before. It was now brought
on the stage with the utmost magnificence, and that indifference
with which it had been heard but two years before, was now
converted into rapture.
Pergolesi' s first and principal instrument was the violin, which
was urged against him, by envious rivals, as a proof that he was
unable to compose for voices. If this objection was ever in force
with reasonable and candid judges, it must have been much
enfeebled, not only by the success of Pergolesi in vocal
compositions, but by Sacchini, whose principal study and practice,
during youth, were likewise bestowed on the violin.
It is Mr. Walpole's opinion that Mr. Gray first brought the
compositions of Pergolesi into England (s) . His opera of Olimpiade
was first performed on our stage in 1742, when Monticelli acquired
uncommon applause in the air: Tremende oscuri atroce, and the
scene where the aria parlante : Se cerca se dice occurs; which,
though it has often been set since to more elaborate and artificial
Music, its effect has never been so truly dramatic; all other
(r) This house was shewn to me in 1770, thirty-three years after his death, among the
extraordinary things to be seen in the environs of Naples.
Is) This exquisite poet went abroad in the spring of 1739, and travelling through France,
arrived at Turin in November of the same year. He did not reach Rome, however, till April,
1740. In his letters he only speaks of the Music he heard in that city (see page 86 of
Mr. Mason's Mem.) and of a glorious concert at Naples (96). His last letter from Italy is dated
at Florence, April 21st, 1741. Mr. Mason says, that he quitted Turin the 15th of August, and
began to cross the Alps the next day. But though there is no mention made of Pergolesi in
Gray's letters from Italy, yet I have frequently heard from Mr. Walpole, Mr. Mason, and
others, of his intimate friends, that he regarded the vocal compositions of this master as models
of perfection. His Salve Regina was performed in England at the little theatre in the Hay-
market, January 8th, 1740, (as appears in the newspapers of the time); so that it could not
have been brought first into this country by Mr. Gray, who did not arrive in England from
Italy till the August of that year.
* There is no evidence to support the story of his stay at Torre del Greco, and the period
immediately before his death was spent at Pozzuli where, tradition asserts, the Stabat Mater
was composed. Paisiello says that this work was written soon after 1729. Pergolesi died in
1736 at the age of 26.
922
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
compositions to those words are languid on the stage, and leave
the actor in too tranquil a state for his situation (t).
The words Tremende oscuri atroce, are not Metastasio's, nor
have I ever been able to .discover whose they are, or how they
happened to be set by Pergolesi; the air, however, A due cori, is
admirable (u).
From all the information that I was able to procure at Rome
ani Naples, concerning the premature death of Pergolesi, there
does not seem the least foundation for the story concerning his
having been poisoned. The disease of which he died was a
consumption, that preyed upon his lungs during the last five or six
years of his existence, and the most active and important of his
life. As envy was said to have stimulated his concurrents to have
recourse to poison in order to get rid of so formidable a rival, it has
been well observed (x), that the success of Pergolesi's productions
was never sufficiently brilliant to render him such an object of envy
to his brethren as to make it necessary to dispatch him by unfair
means.
The art of Music, however, did not die with Pergolesi, as we
shall see by the list of his successors, who pursuing the track which
Vinci, Hasse, and Pergolesi had first traced out, have advanced
into new regions of invention, taste, grace, elegance, and grand
effects.
I was assured at Rome by a musician who had known him
personally, that he was a slow workman; but " the gods fell to
mortals," says Epicharmus, " all that is great and beautiful at
the price of immense labour (y)." Salvini tells us, that the
celebrated composer Carissimi being praised for the grace and ease
of his melodies, used to cry out: " Ah, with what difficulty is this
ease acquired (z) ? "
He had perhaps more energy of genius, and a finer tact, than
any of his predecessors: for though no labour appears in his
productions, even for the church, where the parts are thin, and
frequently in unison, yet greater and more beautiful effects are
often produced in performance than are promised in the score.
And, indeed, it frequently happens, that a score in which the
texture of the parts is very artificial, ingenious, and amusing to
the eye, affords nothing but noise and confusion to the ear. As
the Italians in the sixteenth century were the masters to all Europe
in elaborate composition, even to a pedantic excess, so they have
been the first, in modern times, to abjure its absurdity.
(t) When I mentioned this circumstance to Pacchierotti, in a conversation on the subject,
he very well applied our English vulgar phrase to Pergolesi, by saying, that in setting these
words "he had hit the right nail on the head."
(«) I have a copy of this air in manuscript to the words : Torbido in volto e nero, which
are likewise not to be found in the works of Metastasio.
(x) Notices sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pergolesi; par M. Boyer, Mercure de France
pour Juillet 1772, p. 191.
(y) HdvTa. x<£Ae7ra ra KaXd.
(z) Ah\ questo facile, quanto & difficile I
923
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
The ease and simplicity of Vinci's and Pergolesi's style, were
soon imitated with servility by men of no genius, who always
appear more contemptible in light than laboured strains; and these,
pushing facility to an insipid excess, soon rendered opera Music
proverbially flimsy and frivolous. Of this number were Lampug-
nani, Pescetti, Pelegrini, Giacomelli, Paleazzi, Schiassi, Pampani,
and many others.
The church Music of Pergolesi has been censured by his
countryman, Padre Martini, as well as by some English musical
critics, for too much levity of movement, and a dramatic cast,
even in some of his slow airs; while, on the contrary, Eximeno says,
that " he never heard, and perhaps never shall hear, sacred Music
accompanied with instruments, so learned and so divine, as the
Stabat Mater."
As the works of this master form an aera in modern Music, and
as general praise or censure is seldom just or satisfactory to
discriminative minds, it was my intention to have inserted here,
seme critical remarks resulting from a late careful examination of
his principal productions for the church; but upon calculating the
business I have still to do, and the pages left for its reception, I
find that critical discussion must give way to matters of fact, or
my volume will be rendered too cumbrous and unwieldy.
If the Sonatas ascribed to Pergolesi, for two violins and a base,
are genuine, which is much to be doubted,* it will not enhance
their worth sufficiently to make them interesting to modern ears,
accustomed to the bold and varied compositions of Boccherini,
Haydn, Vanhal, &c. They are composed in a style that was worn
out when Pergolesi began to write; at which time another was
forming by Tartini, Veracini, and Martini of Milan, which has
been since polished, refined, and enriched with new melodies,
harmonies, modulation, and effects.
No fair and accurate judgment can be formed of the merit of a
composer of past times, but by comparing his works with those
of his predecessors and immediate competitors. The great progress
that has been made in instrumental Music, since the decease of
Pergolesi, will not diminish his reputation, which was not built
on productions of that kind, but on vocal compositions, in which
the clearness, simplicity, truth, and sweetness of expression, justly
entitle him to supremacy over all his predecessors and cotemporary
rivals, and to a niche in the temple of Fame, among the great
improvers of the art; and, if not the founder, the principal
polisher of a style of composition both for the church and stage
which has been constantly cultivated by his successors, and which,
at the distance of half a century from the short period in which
he flourished, still reigns throughout Europe.
* It is believed that he composed 30 Sonates for 2 violins and a bass to please the Prince
of Stigliano somewhere about the year 1732. 26 of these were published in London, where a
set of 8 Lessons for the Harpsichord was also issued (B.M. d. 72). The date of these publica-
tions is uncertain, but it was probably about 1780.
924
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
To the abilities of the Neapolitan composers Paradies, Cocchi,
Guglielmi, Traetta, Sacchini, and Anfossi, who have all been in
England, due respect has been paid in a preceding chapter.
Gaetano Latilla [c. 1713-89], an excellent composer of the
Neapolitan school, has spent the greatest part of his life at Venice,
where he distinguished himself chiefly by his comic operas; he was,
however, frequently called to Rome, where his serious operas were
likewise very successful. Temistocle, his first drama of that kind,
was composed for the Tordinona theatre in that city, 1737. He
continued to compose for the Roman theatre till the year 1740,
when his opera of Siroe, of which I am in possession of the score,
and in which the principal singers were Lorenzini, a soprano;
Appiano, contralto; and the celebrated tenor Babbi, had very
great success. From this time till 1766, he continued writing
alternately for Rome and Venice with uninterrupted success.
His invention was perhaps less fertile than that of many
Neapolitan masters; but in the arrangement of his parts, in correct-
ness and knowledge of effects, he has seldom been exceeded.
Latilla is, I believe, still living. In 1770, he was an assistant
to Galuppi at the church of St. Mark, in Venice, and seemed in
great indigence; which, considering his professional abilities, and
former favour, excited indignation and melancholy reflexions, at
the caprice and ingratitude of the public. Since that time, I have
been told that he had the misfortune to be a patriot; and was
thrown into prison at Venice for speaking too freely of state affairs,
and, when enlarged, was ordered to quit the city. To clamour at
grievances in any country, without either power or plan to redress
them, is useless; but in the minds of despotism, the folly is as great
as reasoning with a furious lion, whose mouth is wide open*
Rinaldo di Capua, a Neapolitan composer of great genius
and fire, and whose productions were the delight of all Europe
during many years, is another melancholy instance of the transient
state of a musician's fame and favour. He was living, or rather
starving, in 1770 at Rome, the chief scene of all his former glory !
His history and opinions have been given at large in another
work (a); I shall therefore here only mention his principal
productions. He seems to have been a successful composer from
1737 to 1758. His first serious opera at Rome was II Ciro
Riconosciuto, 1737; and Adriano in Siria, the last, in 1758. A
very fine air from his opera of Vologeso was sung by MonticeUi
in England, and printed by Walsh among the favourite songs of
the opera of Gianguir, nell' orror di notte oscura, to which I refer
as a specimen of his serious style. Indeed, the whole scene in this
opera, beginning by the accompanied recitative, Berenice, ove seU
and terminated by the air, Ombra che pallida, is so admirable,
{a) Present State of Music in France and Italy, Art. Rome.
* Latilla returned to Naples in 1772, and his Antigono was performed there in 1775. He
died at Naples in 1789. Six string quartets by him were published at London. He wrote
altogether about 36 operas.
925
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
that I should wish to insert it here as an example of the perfection
to which dramatic Music was brough. in Italy near fifty years ago,
if it would not occupy too much space in my work. The curious
will, however, do well to procure a copy of it whenever they have
an opportunity.
It has been said (b), perhaps with some truth, that the science
of this composer is not equal to his genius; for being educated as
a dilettante, he probably did not summit to all the drudgery of
dry study, which one intended for the profession of Music must
necessarily undergo.
Domenico Terradellas, or Terradeglias [1711-51], a
Spaniard, born and educated in Catalonia; but, afterwards, a
disciple of Durante, at Naples, began to flourish about 1739,
when he composed the opera of Astarto, and part of Romolo, in
conjunction with Latilla, for the Teatro delle Dame, at Rome.*
In the latter end of the year 1746 he came to England (c),
where he composed two operas: Mithridates and Bellerophon. But
unfortunately for the composer, none of the singers of this time
stood high in the favour of the public. Yet his opera of Mitridate,
I well remember, received much applause, as Music, distinct from
what was given to the performers. And his compositions when
executed in Italy by singers of the first class, acquired him great
reputation.
Besides the favourite songs in the two operas just mentioned,
which are printed by Walsh [B.M. G. 194], Terradellas himself,
while he was in England, published [1747], a collection of Twelve
Italian Airs and Duets in score [B.M. G. 113], which he dedicated
to Lady Chesterfield. In these he seems less masterly and original
than in his other productions that have come to my knowledge.
In the songs he composed for Reginelli, a very learned singer in
ruin, we find boldness and force, as well at pathos. And some
arie di bravura of his composition, for the celebrated tenor singer
Babbi, at Rome, abound with fire and spirit. If his productions
are compared with those of his cotemporaries, his writings, in
general, must be allowed to have great merit; though his passages
now seem old and common (d).
Terradellas was remarkable, not only for attending, in every
situation of the singer, to the spirit of the drama which he had to
compose, but for giving good Music to bad singers, and not under-
writing, as Mr. Bayes calls it, the inferior parts of his theatrical
pieces. Indeed, it has always appeared to me, that an exquisite
singer who can command attention by the mere tone of his voice
(6) Essai sv.r la Musque, Tom. III. p. 177.
(c) This was between the departure of Gluck and arrival of Ciampi.
{d) This composer having spent his youth in Catalonia, was not regularly initiated into the
mysteries of counterpoint in any Neapolitan Conservatorio, having been placed under Durante,
for a short time, only as a private scholar; and I think I can sometimes discover in his scores,
thro' all his genius and elegance of style, a want of study and harmonic erudition.
* His first opera, Artaserse was produced at Naples in 1736.
926
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
and who requires only a canevas, or out-line, to colour at his
pleasure, is in less want of artificial and captivating composition,
than an ordinary singer, who is neither possessed of voice nor taste
sufficient to interest the audience. And Terradellas seems to have
written all his songs for performers of abilities; for his airs are
never made easy and trivial in order to spare the singer. Jomelli's
pen always flowed with this spirit; for he never rejected a passage
that presented itself, because it would be difficult and troublesome
in the execution; but this freedom of style, twenty years ago,
might be more safely practised than at present : for it is well known,
that a company of singers is now reckoned good, in Italy, if the
two first performers are excellent; and an opera is sure to please
if two or three airs and a duet deserve attention; the audience
neither expecting nor attending to any thing else. And the
managers, who find this custom very convenient, take care not to
interrupt play or conversation by the useless and impertinent
talents of the under-singers; so that performers of the second or
third class are generally below mediocrity.
Between the year 1725 and 1740, the musical drama in Italy
seems to have attained a degree of perfection and public favour,
which perhaps has never been since surpassed. The opera stage
from that period being in possession of the poetry of Apostolo Zeno
and Metastasio; the compositions of Leo, Vinci, Hasse, Porpora
and Pergolesi; the performance of Farinelli, Carestini, Caffarelli,
Bernacchi, Babbi, la Tesi, la Romanina, Faustina, and Cuzzoni;
and the elegant scenes and decorations of the two Bibienas, which
had superseded the expensive and childish machinery of the last
century. Dancing was at this time likewise substituted in serious
operas, to the coarse farces between the acts, called Intermedj, or
Intermezzi; and it was about this period that Balli were first
composed analogous to the incidents of the piece, which they
enlivened and embellished without assuming such a degree of
importance as robs the poet, composer, and performer, of their
due rank and attention in every musical drama.
Such was the progress of the melo-drama in Italy, when Nicolo
Jomelli [1714-74] began to flourish. This truly great composer
was born in 1714, at Avellino [Aversa], a town about twenty-five
miles from Naples, in which city he had his musical education
under Leo and Durante.* The first opera to which I find his name,
is Ricimero Re de' Goti, composed for the Argentina theatre at
Rome, 1740. And between that period and 1758, he composed
for the same city fourteen operas, besides others for Venice and
different Italian theatres.
From 1758 till about 1765, he resided in Germany, being
engaged in the service of the Duke of Wiirtemburg, at Stuttgardt,
or rather at Ludwigsbiirg, his new capital, where Jomelli's works
* He studied first with Feo, and afterwards under Prato and Mancini for singing, and
composition with Leo. His first opera L'errore amoroso was produced at Naples in 1737, but
he allowed it to appear as the work of a minor composer called Valentino. His second opera
Odoardo, however, appeared as his work.
927
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
were performed.* Here he produced a great number of operas
and other compositions, by which he acquired great reputa-
tion, and totally changed the taste of vocal Music in Germany.
On his return to Italy, he left all these productions behind him,
upon a supposition that he should again resume hi* station at
Ludwigsbiirg, after visiting his native country. But as he never
returned thither to claim these compositions, they fell into the
hands of his patron the Duke of Wurtemburg, who preserved them
as precious relics of this great master (e) .
After he quitted Germany, Jomelli composed a great number
of operas expressly for the King of Portugal, who tried every
expedient to tempt him to go to Lisbon; which honour though he
declined, on account of the delicate state of his wife's health, yet
he annually furnished that prince with new productions, as well
as with whatever he composed for other purposes.
He composed, after his return to Naples, three operas for that
city: Armida, in 1769 [1770]; Demofoonte, 1770; Ifigenia in
Aulide, 1771.** And in 1772, Achille in Sciro, for Rome, which
was his last.
Some of the Music which he composed for the dances of his
operas has been much celebrated, particularly his Chaconne, which
is well known in England, and has served as a model for that
species of dance throughout Europe, ever since it was composed.
The operas of Jomelli will be always valuable to professors and
curious collectors, for the excellence of the composition; though
it has been thought necessary, in compliance with the general rage
for novelty, to lay them aside, and to have the same .dramas new
set for the stage, in order to display the talents, or hide the defects,
of new singers.
As Jomelli was a great harmonist, and naturally grave and
majestic in his style, he seems to have manifested abilities in
writing for the church, superior even to those for the stage. Of
the many oratorios which he composed, I am only acquainted with
three: Isacco Figura del Redentore [1755], Betulia Liberata
[1743], and La Passione [1749], all written by Metastasio and all
admirably set. In the first accompanied recitative and air of
Isacco, at the opening of the second part, beginning : Chi per pieta
(e) Proposals were published at Stuttgardt in _ 1783, and in Cramer's Mag. der Mus. for
September of the same year, for printing by subscription the entire dramatic works of Jomelli
in score, which were composed during the twenty years that he was in the service of the Duke
of Wurtemberg, consisting of fifteen serious operas, five pastoral dramas, and three burlettas;
but whether this undertaking was ever accomplished, I have not as yet been able to learn.***
The serious operas which Jomelli composed for Stuttgardt, are the following : L' Olimpiade,
La Clemenza di Tito. Nitteii, Pelope, Enea nel Lazio, Catone in Utica, II Re Pastore, Alessandro
nell' Indie, Ezio, Didone, Demofoonte, Semiramide, Vologeso, Artaserse, and Fetonte. Pastoral
dramas: Imeneo in Atene, II Pastore Illustre, and L' Isola Disabitata. Comic operas: II
Matrimonio per Concorso, La Schiava Liberata, and II Cacciatore Deluso.
* This appointment dates from 1753 and lasted for more than 15 years.
** Ifigenia in Aulide was written for Rome in 1751. The 1771 production was Ifigenia in
Tauride (Riemann). Fetis, however, reverses this order and gives Ifigenia in Aulide as being
composed 1773.
*** Only one work, L'Olimpiade, was published. The D.D.T., Vols. 22 and 3 published the
score of Fetonte, and some sacred music has been published by B. & H.; Schlesinger; and
Cranz.
928
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
mi dice, il mio figlio che fa? in which are painted, with an
uncommon degree of agitation and passion the anxiety and terror
of Sarah during the absence of Abraham, whom she supposes is in
the act of sacrificing her son Isaac, have been justly much admired.
I am in possession of a Te Deum, and a Requiem, of his com-
position, which manifest him to have been a great master of the
church style; though he had acquired great fame as a dramatic
composer before he began to exercise himself in this species of
writing, concerning which he had never bestowed a thought since
he left the Music-school, or conservatorio, till about the year 1751,
when it having been determined at Rome that the Music for Passion-
week should be as excellent as possible, Durante, Jomelli, and
Perez, were employed to set the lessons from the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, for the three most solemn days of that holy time.
Jomelli's composition was performed on Wednesday, Perez's on
Thursday, and Durante's on Good-Friday. The first is entitled
Lettione Prima* per il mercoledl santo, con Violini, Oboe, Viola.
Flauti e Corni da Caccia. The second Lettione Prima del Giovedi
santo, a Soprano solo, con Violini, Viola, Oboe, e Corni da Caccia.
And the third Lettione Terza des Venerdl santo, a 4 Voci, con
Violini, Viola, e Corni da Caccia. Having procured a score of
these compositions at Rome, and lately examined them, I can
venture to say that they all appear to me admirable; and as the
composers were all men of great abilities, who exerted themselves
on this honourable occasion, it is difficult to determine, in their
several styles, which is the best. The productions of Jomelli and
Perez are in an elegant and expressive oratorio style; and that of
Durante more in the ancient style of church Music; more learned
in modulation, more abounding in fugue, and more elaborate in
the texture of the parts, as might be expected from his maturer
age, and the solemnity of the day on which his Music was to be
performed.**
But though Jomelli acquired considerable fame by this com-
position for the church, yet he was so far from being intoxicated
by it, that in a visit to Padre Martini, at Bologna [c. 1741], soon
after, he told this learned contrapuntist that he had a scholar to
introduce to him. Padre Martini assured him, that he should be
glad to instruct any one so well recommended. And a few days
after, the good father asking who and where was the disciple he
had talked of? Jomelli, answered, Padre son io; and, pulling a
studio of paper out of his pocket, on which he had been trying
his strength in modulation and fugue upon canto fermo, begged of
him to examine and point out his errors.
From this period he produced many admirable compositions
for the church, in which he united elegance with learning, and
grace with bold design. Among other productions of this kind, the
* There is a MS. copy of a portion of Jomelli's Lettione Prima in the B.M. Add. MS. 31683.
** If the date given by Bumey for the composition of the Lamentations (1751) is correct,
then they must have been written after his association with Martini, which took place about 1741.
Vol. ii. 59. 929
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
two following merit commemoration. An Offertorio, or motet, for
five voices without instruments, followed by an Alleluja of four
parts in chorus; and a Missa pro defunctis [B.M. Add. MSS.
31681], or burial service, which he composed at Stuttgardt for the
obsequies of a lady of high rank and favour at the court of his
patron the Duke of Wurtemburg. These compositions, which are
learned without pedantry, and grave without dulness, will be
lasting monuments of his abilities as a contrapuntist.
But the most elaborate of all his compositions, is the Miserere,
or fifty-first psalm, translated into Italian verse, by his friend
Saverio Mattei, which he set for two voices, accompanied with
instruments, in 1773, the year before his decease. In this produc-
tion, which breathes a pious gravity, and compunction of heart
suited to the contrite sentiments of the psalmist, there is a manifest
struggle at extraneous modulation and new effects, perhaps too
much at the expence of facility and grace. Though all the
movements of this composition are slow, yet the execution is so
difficult, both to the voices and instruments, that when it was
performed in London at Marchetti's benefit, it was the opinion
of the late Mr. Bach, that Jomelli had purposely written what he
could not execute himself, in order to perplex the performers.
This, however, must have been said in pleasantry, for Jomelli had
no malevolence in his disposition; perhaps in striving at excellence
with too great solicitude, he sometimes had recourse to art and
study, instead of giving away to his own feelings. There are,
however, admirable strokes of passion as well as science in the
Music that he has set to this psalm, which, though above the
comprehension of common hearers, will afford great pleasure to
those that are able to read the score, or to follow the performers
through the labyrinths of art.*
This admirable composer had, in general, such a facility in
writing, that he seldom courted the Muse at an instrument; and
so tenacious a memory, that Sacchini assured me he frequently
composed an air on opening a book of lyric poetry, while, like a
peripatetic, he has been walking about a room, which he
remembered a year after, and then committed it to paper, as fast
as he could write a letter.
Jomelli has been called, in a splenetic fit, a Ciarlatano, by a
great and celebrated composer of the same school. If writing too
well for common ears, and too learnedly for lazy hearers, is
quackery, Jomelli was certainly guilty. As Raphael had three
manners of painting, Jomelli had three styles of composition.
Before he went to Germany, the easy and graceful flow of Vinci
and Pergolesi pervaded all his productions; but when he was in
the service of the Duke of Wiirtemberg, finding the Germans were
fond of learning and complication, he changed his style in
compliance with the taste and expectations of his audience; and
* The Miserere was published by Rochlitz.
930
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
on his return to Italy, he tried to thin and simplify his dramatic
Music, which, however, was still so much too operose for Italian
ears, that in 1770, upon my asking a Neapolitan how he liked his
opera of Demofoonte, he cried out with vehemence — e scelerata,
Sign ore !
Climate seems to operate so much on Music, however its
influence may be disputed in manners and government, that what
is admired in one country is detested in another. In cold climates
labour is necessary to circulation; in hot, ease is the grand
desideratum. This principle is carried to such excess in Italy, that
whatever gives the hearer of Music the least trouble to disentangle,
is Gothic, pedantic, and scelerata. As to difficulties of execution,
in a single part, the composers and performers may spin their
brains, and burst their blood-vessels, and welcome, provided the
texture of the parts is clear and simple.
The Gothic inventions, as they call them, of fugues, canons,
and laboured counterpoint of the sixteenth century, they are
willing to resign to the Flemings, who first brought them into Italy;
but of which all the natives, except a few obstinate pedants,
struggled to divest their Music, particularly that for the stage,
during the last century.
I entirely agree with Martial, that Turpe est difficiles habere
nugas; but that the art is to be enervated to the level of ignorance,
idleness, and caprice, I deny. It is the excess of learning and
facility that is truly reprehensible by good taste and sound
judgment; and difficult and easy are relative terms, which they
only can define. To lovers of Music who have heard much in various
styles, little is new; as to others who have heard but little, all is new.
The former want research and new effects, which to the latter, old
Music can funish. Palates accustomed to plain food find ragouts
and morceaux friands too highly seasoned; while to those who
have long been pampered with dainties, simplicity is insipid.
How then is a composer or performer to please a mixed audience,
but by avoiding too much complacence to the exclusive taste of
either the learned, or the ignorant, the supercilious, or the simple?
The health of Jomelli began to decline soon after I had seen
him in perfect health at Naples, 1770. He was then corpulent,
and reminded me of the figure of Handel. In 1771, he had a
stroke of the palsy, which, however, did not impair his intellects,
as he composed Achille in Sciro, for the Roman theatre, and a
cantata for the safe delivery of the Queen of Naples, in 1772;
and in 1773, his Italian Miserere, the most elaborate and studied
of all his works.
His friend Signor Saverio Mattei, the translator of the psalms
into Italian verse, from whose version Jomelli had taken the
Miserere, or fifty-first psalm, gives the following account of the
public funeral and works of the great musician, in his Saggio di
Poesie Latine ed Italiane, published at Naples immediately after
his decease.
931
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Naples, September, 1774. " Yesterday all the musicians of
this city united in celebrating the funeral of the great Jomelli.
The church was very finely ornamented; and a great number of
wax tapers were placed about the pompous bier. Two orchestras
of three rows each could scarcely contain the vocal and
instrumental performers who assisted in executing the Music that
was expressly composed on the occasion by the worthy Sabatini,
who beat the time himself, as maestro di capella. It was the
celebrated Genaro Manna, composer of the archiepiscopal church,
who first suggested this plan of a public funeral, in which all these
musicians had an opportunity of manifesting their regard for
Jomelli, and of furnishing an example to posterity of the gratitude
due to great talents, which may likewise stimulate young artists
to merit equal honours. At the desire of Signor Manna, not only
every musician attended the funeral and performed gratis, but
contributed likewise towards the expences of this solemnity. I
drew up the inscriptions myself, and the Abate Sparziani sent
some sonnets from Rome, that were written by him and his friends
on the occasion.
" Jomelli was my friend; he lived two years in my neighbour-
hood, and I had frequent opportunities of conversing with him,
and of admiring his captivating manners, particularly his modesty
in speaking of rival artists, whose compositions he readily praised,
though their authors were not equally candid in speaking of him.
" Jomelli had acquired considerable knowledge in other arts
than Music: his poetry was full of taste, and there is a fine ode
of his writing, in the collection published at Rome, on the subject
of the reconciliation between the Pope and King of Portugal.
" He was ambitious of distinguishing himself from other
composers in a way peculiar to himself. His invention was always
fertile, his style lyrical and Pindaric; and just as Pindar darted
from one subject to another, Jomelli changed his tones and themes
in a way wholly new, and learnedly irregular.
" But though his learning and elaboration, which appeared in
his works, procured him the esteem of consummate musicians, they
sometimes lost him that of the multitude. He found the theatre
at Naples, and indeed almost all the theatres of Italy, in the
greatest corruption; where, in and out of the orchestra, all is
noise and confusion. No one thing or circumstance harmonises
with another; the company regardless of what is acting, and wholly
ignorant of the text, after much noise, chattering, and inattention,
are scarce quiet when a particular interresting air is performing by
a singer of the first class. A learned and ingenious Music, like
that of Jomelli, full of harmony and contrivance, which requires
a careful execution, and the utmost srilness and attention in the
audience, could not satisfy the frivolous and depraved taste of the
Italians, who used to say, that the Music of Gluck, Jomelli, Hasse,
and Bach, was too rough and German, and pleased them less than
932
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
the songs of the Gondolieri and airs with few accompaniments
and many graces and divisions.
" It was without sufficiently reflecting upon the present
depraved taste of his countrymen, that Jomelli set Ifigenia, his
last opera, for Naples, in such a scientific and elaborate style,
that the audience was dissatisfied with it; but, to say the truth,
most of the singers, who had but little time to rehearse, Jomelli
having only finished the opera, entirely, on the day of representa-
tion, executed this learned composition in a very imperfect manner :
and in a few evenings it was withdrawn. This production,
however, by a caprice, not uncommon in theatrical matters, is
now admired, and thought far superior to the two former; and every
judge and lover of good Music has it on his harpsichord desk, and
would for ever continue to hear it with delight.*
"Jomelli was extremely chagrined at the reception of this opera,
and had soon after a paralytic stroke; of which, however, he
entirely recovered; and, notwithstanding the ill usage of the public,
he composed, at the desire of the Duke of Arcos, a cantata on the
delivery of the Queen, which has many inimitable beauties in it,
that astonish, shake, and affect every mind. His last composition
was my Miserere, which was performed in my house to a very
distinguished assembly, by two great singers, Signor Aprile and
Signora de Amicis; and a second time, before her excellence the
Marchioness Tanucci and a select number of the first people of
Naples.
' ' Metastasio, to whom I transmitted a copy of this Miserere, the
last work of the admirable Jomelli, writes to me as follows :
' Yesterday I received the psalm of the great Jomelli. Full of
impatience, Mademoiselle Martinetz flew to her harpsichord and
sung it with the utmost attention, being obliged to stop in different
places to express her astonishment and admiration of passages at
which she was particularly affected, and which she repeated. We
did not find in this composition his usual rich and enchanting
invention; but we believe he checked his ideas, designedly, from too
free a range, as a flowery or fanciful style would not have suited
the humiliation and penitence of the psalmist. And it is manifest,
that he sought to supply the want of invention by learning and
solemnity, as well as by the ingenuity and texture of the
accompaniments, which leave no vacuity or room for
embellishments; and in this richness of harmony the great merit of
this excellent composer shines with so much lustre. Mademoiselle
Martinetz and myself are greatly obliged to you for this precious gift.
We shall be often gratified by it, and use our best endeavours that
justice may be done to it by those who are capable of feeling its
great and superior merit." Farewell my dear friend.
Vienna, 17 th of October, 1774.
" I have only this to add (says Signor Mattei) that though I am
so zealous an admirer of Jomelli, and at his death was eager to
* Ifigenia was first produced at Rome in 1751. See Editor's Note p. 928.
933
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
bear testimony to his worth and abilities, yet I am always an enemy
to pedantry, party, and injustice. And it is vexatious to hear
certain young people, in the spirit of party, cry out, that Jomelli
is a barbarian, and that there is no other great man than Piccini.
What? Piccini, say a Jomellist, Piccini may compose farces and
songs for the street. What signifies disputing about Piccini and
Jomelli, says a third, Cafaro is the only contrapuntist now living —
What wretched prejudice and injustice is this? Is it impossible for
Cafaro to be a great man unless Piccini is ignorant? Or for Piccini
to be praised without pronouncing Jomelli a barbarian? And
must Jomelli be praised by depreciating both Cafaro and Piccini?
Such quarrels of thoughtless or malignant partizans must be odious
to each of these composers, who through different paths have arrived
at that great renown which all Europe agrees to allow them."
David Perez, the son of Juan Perez, a Spaniard, settled at
Naples, was born in 1711, and brought up in the conservatorio of
Santa Maria di Loreto, in that city, under Antonio Gallo and
Francesco Mancini (/) . His progress in composition was rapid, and
discovered an uncommon genius. When he quitted the
conservatorio, his first perferment was at Palermo in Sicily, where
he was appointment maestro di capella of the cathedral in that city,
at a considerable salary, the half of which he was permitted to
enjoy, not only after he quitted Sicily, but even Italy, to the time of
his death.
He composed his first operas for the theatre at Palermo,* from
1741 to 1748, and then returned to Naples, where his Clemenza di
Tito [1749] was performed with such great applause at the theatre
of San Carlo, as to extend his fame to Rome, whither he was invited
the next year to compose for the theatre delle Dame. Here he
produced Semir amide and Farnace; and for other cities in Italy La
Didone Abbandonata, Zenobia, and Alessandro nelV Indie.
In 1752, he went to Portugal, where he was engaged in the
service of King Joseph. His first opera at Lisbon, Demofoonte,
was received with very great applause. Gizziello was the principal
soprano, and the celebrated Raaf** the tenor (g). It was besides
rendered magnificent in the performance by a powerful orchestra
and decorations that were extremely splendid. But the new theatre
of his Portuguese Majesty, which was opened on the Queen's
birthday, March 31st, 1755, surpassed, in magnitude and
decorations, all that modern times can boast. On this occasion
Perez new set the opera of Alessandro nelV Indie, in which opera a
troop or horse appeared on the stage, with a Macedonian phalanx.
One of the King's riding-masters rode Bucephalus, to a march which
Perez composed in the Manege, to the grand pas of a beautiful
(/) According to Barbella, his chief instrument was the violin, upon which in his youth
he had great execution : ju suonatore difficilissimo di violino.
(g) Gizzielic had a salary from the court of Lisbon, amounting to £.4,000 sterling.
* His first opera, Siroe, was produced for San Carlo, Naples, in 1740.
** The friend of Mozart, who wrote the part of Idomeneo for him. Mozart speaks of him as
his "best and dearest friend."
934
MUSICAL DRAMA AT NAPLES
horse; the whole far exceeding all that Farinelli had attempted to
introduce in a grand theatre under his direction at Madrid, for the
fitting out of which he had unlimited powers. Besides these
splendid decorations, his Portuguese Majesty had assembled
together the greatest singers then existing (h); so that the lyric
productions of Perez had every advantage which a most captivating
and perfect execution could give them.
The operas by which he acquired the greatest fame in Portugal
were Demetrio and Solimano, with which, as they were to be
alternately performed with the operas of Vologeso and Enea in
Latio that Jomelli had been requested by his most faithful Majesty
to compose for his theatre, were produced with a degree of exertion
and emulation, which rendered him superior to himself. Jomelli
on this occasion was chiefly admired for the ingenious and learned
texture of the instrumental parts; and Perez for the elegance and
grace of his melodies, and expression of the words.
His Music for the church, of which a specimen has been printed
in England (i), is grave, ingenious, and expressive.
But though Perez has composed a Te Deum, which is greatly
esteemed at Lisbon, and his Lezione prima per il Ginvedi santo,
mentioned above, has considerable merit, yet it appears on
examining his scores, that this master had not, like Jomelli, much
exercised his pen in the composition of fugues or learned
counterpoint for the church, to the perfection of which, genius alone
can contribute but little, without the assistance of great study and
experience.
There is, however, an original spirit and elegance in all his
productions; in which, if any defect appears, it is the want of
symmetry in the phraseology of his melodies, in which there may
sometimes be found what the French call phrases manquees, and
contre-tems, to which critical ears, in modern times, are much less
accustomed than formerly. An ear for measure and an ear for
harmony and the accuracy of tones, seem to be totally different gifts
of nature; and it frequently happens that a person who dances
perfectly well in time, knows not one tune or tone from another.
Perez, like Handel, was corpulent and gourmand, a propensity
which has been supposed to have somewhat shortened his days.
After living much admired, beloved, and respected, twenty-seven
years in Portugal, where he was maestro di capella to his most
faithful Majesty, and master to the royal family, at a salary
exceeding £.2000 per annum, he died extremely regretted at the age
of sixty-seven (k) . His remains were deposited in the church of the
(h) See a list of them, page 800, note (i).
(i) Matutino de i Morti, published by Bremner, in score [with portrait, 1774].
(k) Like Handel, he was likewise blind, during the latter years of his life; but after this
calamity, when confined to his bed, he frequently dictated without an instrument compositions
in parts to an amanuensis. According to the account of his very intimate friend, Gerard De
Visine, Esq., a gentleman long resident at Lisbon, and well enabled to appreciate his merit, from
whose information most of these particulars are derived, he sung in an exquisite taste, particu-
larly arie di cantabile, or airs of a pathetic kind.*
* Perez died at the age of 69. He visited England in 1755 when his opera Ezio had
considerable success.
935
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Italian Barbadindros, and a solemn dirge of his own composition
was performed at his funeral, by a concourse of the best musicians
in Lisbon.
After the recent loss of Jomelli, Perez, Ciccio di Majo, Genaro
Manna, Cafaro, Sabbatini, Sacchini, and Traetta, the Neapolitan
school of counterpoint is by no means left destitute of able professors,
being still in possession of Piccini, Paesiello, Guglielmi, Alessandri,
Anfossi, Latilla, Cocchi, Fischietti, Cimarora, Mortellari, Monopoli,
Sala, and Tarchi, who, by their genius and abilites, have rendered
their names dear to all true lovers of Music, and who, it is hoped,
will long enjoy their well-earned fame, before they become objects
of history to some future annalist, zealous for the honour of the
musical art. Besides these masters, whose names are well known to
the rest of Europe, there are many young dramatic composers of the
Neapolitan school in different parts of Italy, whose works have not
yet penetrated into other countries, such as: Andreozzi, Amiconi,
Astaritta, Caruso, Curcio, Fabrizi, Franceschini, Marinelli, Monti,
Perillo, Platone, Ponzio, Rava, Rispoli, Tritta, Valentini, and
Zangorella. These noviciates, these candidates for a place in the
temple of Fame, will some of them, doubtless be crowned with
success, and enrolled among their illustrious predecessors.
936
Chapter IX
Opera Composers employed at Rome, and Tracts
published in Italy on the Theory and Practice
of Music, during the present Century
O dramas seem to have been composed expressly for the
Roman theatres, during the first eleven years of the present
century, by any other masters than the two Scarlattis, and
Gasparini, except one opera by Bencini, and one oratorio by
Ciccioni in 1708. Caldara began his career at Rome with Amadori,
in 1711. In 1712, Orlandini and Polaroli; 1715, Pre.dieri; 1718,
Mancini and Porpora; and in 1721, Bononcini set his opera of
Crispo for that city. About this time the Scarlattis and Gasparini
seem to have retired. In 1723, Vivaldi and Micheli were first
employed there; and in 1724, Vinci's name appears for the first
time. The same year Tigrane was set by three different composers :
the first act by Micheli, second by Vivaldi, and third by Romaldi.
The first operas of Falconi and Sarro were likewise performed at
Rome this year. In 1726, Leo and Albinoni; 1727, Costanza;
1728, Feo and Broschi; 1729, Auletta and Fischietti; 1731, Araija,
Giacomelli and Caballone; 1732, Giaj, Porta, and Hasse; 1734,
Vasnieri; 1735, Ciampi, Duni, and Pergolesi; 1737, Latilla and
Rinaldo di Capua, who are still living; 1738, Arena and Logroscino;
1739, Terradellas; 1740, Jomelli; 1741, Bernasconi and Lampug-
nani; 1742, Manna and Selliti; 1743, Conti and Cocchi; 1747,
Abos and Buranello; 1749, Perez; 1752, Sabatini; 1753, Pampani
and Aurisicchio ; 1755, Garzia, Conforto, and Scolari; 1756, Gluck;
1757, Eurichelli and Traetta; 1758, Piccini; 1759, Monopoli and
Ciccio di Majo; 1761, Orgitano; 1763, Guglielmi; 1764, Sacchini
and Bertoni; 1766, Sarti, Franchi, and Souza; 1768, Borghi; 1769,
Anfossi and Monza; 1770, Gasman; 1771, Zanetti; 1772, Paesiello;
1773, Gazaniga; 1775, Masi; 1776, Iberger, Mortellari, Cimarosa,
and Marcello di Capua; 1777, Borroni, Ottani, Caruso; 1778,
Salieri and Bianchi; 1780, Pitticchio, Curzio, Monti, Tarchi, and
Cavi; 1781, Alessandri and Merandi; 1783, Cherubini and Rust;
1784, Mareschalchi and Marinelli; 1786, Tritta, Gius. Giordani,
Albertini, Zingarelli, Giuliani, Amiconi, and Fabrizj; 1788, Man-
fredini, Bernardini, and Platone. A Roman audience being more
fastidious than any other in Italy, Rome is regarded as the post of
honour for musicians. This dry list, therefore, of mere names and
937
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
dates, will at least inform the reader how quick and constant has
been the succession of masters who have worked their way thither
during the present century, by first distinguishing themselves
elsewhere.
Of theoretical tracts and didactic treatises upon Music, that have
been written in Italy during the present century, I shall only be
able to furnish my readers with a mere list, not having room at
present for a minute and critical account of them. Indeed, their
number bears no proportion to the practical works and excellent
compositions with which that country has furnished all Europe.
In 1703, Gasparini published a small but useful tract, entitled
L'Armonico pratico al Cimbalo [1708], of which a fifth edition
was printed at Venice 1764. This work is chiefly confined
to accompaniment (a).
On the Art of Singing, del Canto figurato, Tosi published a
tract at Bologna 1723 (b); and Mancini another at Vienna 1774,
which are excellent.*
On the subject of Dramatic Music, or the Opera, Quadrio
has treated largely, but not with much intelligence or taste, in his
Storia d' Ogni Poesia; Algarotti has written an essay: Saggio
dell' Opera in Musica [1755]; Planelli, a treatise: Trattato dell'
Opera, 1772; Napoli Signorelli, an excellent critical history:
Storia critica de' Teatri, 1783; and Arteaga on the revolutions of
the musical theatre: Revoluzioni del Teatro Musicale, 1783. and
much enlarged in 1785. This is an eloquent writer who loves poetry
better than Music.
Tartini, the principal Italian Theorist of the present century,
published in 1754 his Trattato di Musica; and in 1767, his Disserta-
zione de' pricipj dell' Armonia Musicale contenuta nel Diatonico
genere. Tartini's system has been confuted in the scientific part;
and yet, however .defective he may be in his calculations as a
geometrician, there are frequently to be found in his writings such
admirable ideas, traits of modulation, and curious harmony, as are
invaluable to practical musicians. If, therefore, instead of wander-
ing in the mazes of conjecture, and calculating, unscientifically,
which every dry mathematician can discover, he had given us a
well-digested practical treatise on composition, what a treasure it
would have been to the musical world!
In 1761 [1765], Padre Paolucci published a work, in two
volumes folio, called L' Arte pratica di Contrappunto; the design of
which was to teach composition by examples from the most classical
masters of harmony, which the editor has illustrated with a learned
(a) The republication of this elementary tract so lately as 1754, says M. de la Borde.
Tom. III. p. 344, "proves that harmony makes a very slow progress in Italy, Gasparini not
being arrived at the Regie de l'Octave." But did the French themselves, or any other people,
follow that rule, or the fundamental base, when Gasparini's book was published? And does the
counterpoint of Durante, Jomelli, Galuppi, Piccini, or Sacchini, manifest a want of rules or
knowledge of harmony?
(b) Tosi's treatise was well translated into English by Galliard in 1742.
* This was by Giamb. Mancini (1716-1800), not Francesco Mancini, the composer who
produced Hydaspes at London in 1710.
938
OPERA IN ROME DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
commentary. A plan similar to this was published by P. Martini in
his Saggio di Contrappunto.
In 1767, Musica Ragionata, by Testore. This author builds
his instructions on Rameau's principles.
No History of Music has been attempted in Italy since
Bontempi's in 1695, except that of Padre Martini, which has been
left unfinished. This learned father began his work on so large a
scale, that, though the chief part of his life seems to have been
dedicated to it, only three volumes were published before his
decease, in 1783 [1784]. The first volume, which is wholly
confined to Hebrew Music, appeared in 1757. The second and third
volumes, which treat of the Music of the ancient Greeks, in 1770
and in 1781. In 1774 [and 1775] , this profound master of harmony
published his Saggio di Contrappunto , a work which has been so
frequently cited and praised in the course of this history, that no
further account of it seems necessary here.
In 1774, Eximeno [1729-1808], a Spanish Jesuit, published at
Rome a work entitled Dell Origine e delle Regole della Musica, in
which, too confident of his own powers, he imagined himself
capable, with four years study only, intuitively to frame a better
system of counterpoint than that upon which so many great
musicians had been formed. Possessed of eloquence, fire, and a
lively imagination, his book has been called in Italy, " a whimsical
romance upon the art of Music, in which is discovered a rage for
pulling down, without the power of rebuilding (c)." The author
has certainly, with shrewdness and accuracy, started several
difficulties, and pointed out imperfections in the theory and practice
of Music, as well as in the particular systems of Tartini and
Rameau; but his own resources and experience are totally
insufficient to the task of correcting the errors of the old system,
or forming a new one that is more perfect. He has more eloquence
of language than science in Music. His reasoning is ingenious and
specious, even when his data are false; but his examples of
composition are below contempt; and yet, they are courageously
given as models for students, superior to those of the old great
masters of harmony.*
In 1779, Padre Vallotti [1697-1780] published at Padua the
first book of a treatise entitled Delia Scienza Teorica e Pratica della
moderna Musica. This first book is purely theoretical. The author
promises three other books, the publication of which has not come
to my knowledge. Book second is to contain the practical elements
of Music; the third, the precepts of counterpoint; and the fourth,
rules of accompaniment.**
(c) Bizzarro Romanzo di Musica, con cui vuol distruggere senza poter poi rifabbricare.
Elogij Italiani, Tom. VIII.
* Historically, Eximeno is an important figure, as in this work can be _ found the ideas
which were amplified later by Wagner. He also wrote a satirical novel in imitation of Don
Quixote, substituting counterpoint for chivalry as the cause of his hero's madness. He also
pleaded the cause of nationalism in music.
** The work was not completed, and this was the only volume published.
939
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
In 1782, letters were published at Milan by Zanotti, P. Martini,
and P. Sacchi, upon the division of time in Music, dancing, and
poetry; on the succession of fifths in counterpoint, and on the rules
of accompaniment. A quarto pamphlet.
The same year was published at Venice, in folio, a treatise on
" the Science of Sounds and of Harmony: La Scienza de' Suoni,
e dell' Armonia," chiefly intended to explain the phoenomena of
sound, as far as they may be useful to the practice of counterpoint,
by the Abate Giuseppe Pizzati. This author gives an account of
modern discoveries in harmonics, of the systems of Rameau and
Tartini, and the laws of harmony, in their present extent.
940
Chapter X
Of the Progress of Music in Qermcmy,
during the present Century
THE materials for this chapter, which I collected in my
German tour, have been so much augmented since, by the
acquisition of subsequent publications and a constant inter-
course with the natives of that country, that an entire volume
would be insufficient to contain them. But to do justice,
individually, to all the great musical professors that Germany has
produced during the period which I have now to describe, would
occupy much more space in my work than it is in my power to
allow. Indeed, the curiosity and wants of the generality of my
readers will probably be less pressing about foreigners, whose names
and talents have hardly penetrated into our country, than about
such as tradition has celebrated or acquaintance endeared. It is
therefore hoped, that omissions of minute details, or deep
researches, concerning the Music of every other country but our
own, will be excused.
It has been already related that operas, either in Italian or
German, were established, in the principal cities of the empire,
during the latter end of the last century. At Hamburg, operas in
the German language continued to be performed till about the year
1738 of the present century. Though the chief part of these
dramas were set to Music by Keiser, yet other composers were
sometimes employed. It was here that the Muse of Handel first
took wing, in the year 1704 [Jan. 8, 1705], when his German
opera of Almira was first performed.* Mattheson, Telemann, and
others, contributed to the entertainment of the city of Hamburg,
where six operas were sometimes produced in a year; of which a
list is given in Marpurg's Historical and Critical Essays (a).
The Emperors, from the time of Ferdinand II. to Charles VI.
seem to have had an invariable partiality for the Italian language
and Music. Leopold and Joseph, during the beginning of the
present century, had the Italian composers Ziani, Conti, and the
(a) Historische-Kritische Beytrage.
* Some of the libretto of Almira was in Italian. The opera was an immediate success and
ran without a break until Feb. 25th. It was followed- by Nero, also by Handel, but after three
performances this was withdrawn, and although the. libretto is known the' music has been lost.
941
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
two Bononcini's in their service; and soon after the accession of
Charles the Sixth, the lyric poets Pariati and Apostolo Zeno were
severally honoured with the title of imperial laureat.
On the birth of an arch-duchess, 1724, an opera was exhibited
at Vienna with uncommon magnificence and splendor. The
performers were all persons of high rank, and his imperial Majesty
himself accompanied the voices on the harpsichord, as principal
director. The opera called Eurysteus, written by Apostolo Zeno,
was set by Caldara. A minute account of that performance was
inserted in the Daily Courant, May 30th of this year, with the
names of all the illustrious performers, vocal and instrumental.
Caldara is said to have trembled for the fate of his Music from the
execution of dilettanti only; but was delighted, says the account,
when he heard how well all the parts were performed. There
were seven singers, and twenty-two instrumental performers. The
dancers even were persons of the highest rank, among whom were
two arch-duchesses.
The Emperor was so pleased, that after the third representation
of this opera, he made a lottery for the performers, with prizes of
five hundred, one thousand, and two thousand florins value, in
jewels, gold repeating watches, &c. The arch-duchess Maria
Theresa, afterwards Queen of Hungary and Empress, sung the
principal part on the stage in this drama. It was her boast to
Faustina many years after.
In 1729, the admirable Metastasio was invited to Vienna, where
he continued to fill the place of imperial laureat till his decease in
1782. Most of the operas and oratorios which this poet wrote
for Vienna, were set to Music by Caldara. However, between the
year 1702 and 1729, several dramas were set by the learned
contrapuntist and imperial maestro di capella, Fuchs.
From the death of the Emperor Charles VI. in 1740, few
serious operas seem to have been performed at Vienna till after the
peace of Paris, 1763. In 1764, the year in which the present
Emperor was crowned King of the Romans, Gluck was the
composer, and Guadagni the principal singer. It was in this
year that a species of dramatic Music, different from that which
then reigned in Italy, was attempted by Gluck in his famous
opera of Orfeo,* which, with Gaudagni's admirable action,
succeeded so well, that it was soon after attempted in other parts
of Europe, particularly at Parma and Paris. This is not the place
to discuss its merit; I shall here only observe, that the simplifying
dramatic Music in Gluck's manner, in favour of the poet, at the
expence of the composer and singer, is certainly very rational, where
an opera is performed in the language of the country, and the
singers have no great abilities to display, as in France; but in
England, where we have frequently singers of uncommon talents,
* Orfeo was produced at Vienna in 1762. 1764 is the date of the first printed edition,
published at Paris. Guadagni sang in the 1766 production of Orfeo at Vienna. The part of
Telemacco produced at Vienna in 1765 was written for him.
942
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
and where so small a part of an opera audience understands Italian,
by abridging the symphonies, and prohibiting divisions and final
cadences, in favour of an unintelligible drama, we should lose more
than we should gain.
In 1766, we find in the list of musicians at Vienna the following
names, which have since acquired celebrity all over Europe:
Christopher Wagenseil, Leopold Hofmann, Charles Differs, and
Joseph Haydn.
In 1769 [1767], Alceste, Gluck's second opera upon the
reformed plan, written by Calsabigi, author of Orfeo, was
performed at Vienna with still more applause and admiration than
the first. In 1771 [1770], this opera and Paride, Gluck's third
drama upon the new, or rather old French construction, with better
Music, in which Millico was the principal singer, afforded the
audience such pleasure, as seemed in 1772, when I was at Vienna,
to have impressed the lovers of Music in the imperial capital with
a partiality for that species of dramatic Music, which was not
likely to be soon removed.
No serious operas were, however, performed, after this period,
till the summer of 1785, when their favour was revived by the
great talents of Signor Marchesini, who performed in Sarti's
elegant and graceful opera of Giulio Sabino.
Italian operas were established in a very magnificent manner at
Dresden in 1718. Handel went thither from England in 1719,
to engage singers for the Royal Academy of Music; and Telemann
tells us in his life, written by himself and inserted in Mattheson's
Ehren-Pforte, or " Triumphal Arch," that he heard two operas
there, during this time, composed by Lotti, and performed by
Senesino, Berselli, Guicciardi, and the Santa Stelli, Lotti's wife,
with the Durastanti, then called the countess, and the Tesi. Here
he likewise heard, for the first time, the famous performer on the
violin, Veracini.
In 1754, the opera orchestra at Dresden, under the direction of
the famous Hasse, was regarded as the most judiciously arranged,
and the best disciplined, in Europe (b). In 1756, the singers
were Monticelli, Anibali, and Amorevoli, with the Faustina, the
Negri, and the Todeschini. However, in 1766, most of these
performers, except Anibali and Amorevoli, were dispersed or
deceased. Hasse was, indeed, still nominally principal maestro di
capella, and the list of the band was numerous, and contained the
names of great musicians: among whom were Neruda, an excellent
composer, as well as performer on the violin, two Berozzi's, father
and son, with Fischer on the hautbois, Stotzel on the flute, Weiss
the famous lutenist, and August and Binder on the harpsichord.
Naumann, the Elector of Saxony's maestro di capella, at present,
was now just nominated assistant composer, and was in Italy on
his travels. But the horrors of war long rendered this court unable
(6) See Rousseau's Dictionaire de la Musique, art. Orchestra.
943
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
to cherish the arts of peace, nor has it yet recovered its former
splendor.
The late Electress Dowager of Saxony, when her time was no
longer occupied by cares of state, applying herself wholly to the
study of the fine arts, and travelling into Italy, not only wrote two
serious dramas in the Italian language: Talestri and II Trionfo
della Fedelta, but set them to Music. This princess had learned to
sing at an early period of her life of Porpora, and been taught the
principles of composition by Hasse, and both sung and wrote in
such a manner as did honour to those great masters, as well as her
own genius and application.
Comic operas are again revived at Dresden, but there has been
no serious musical drama attempted there since the siege of that
city by the late King of Prussia.
Music, according to Telemann, was extremely honoured and
cherished at Berlin in the beginning of the present century, at
which time he heard two operas of John Bononcini performed there.
His friends contrived to secrete him in the room during the exhibi-
tion with great difficulty, as the performers chiefly consisted of
persons of high birth: a princess, afterwards married at Hesse
Cassel, sung, and the Queen Sophia Charlotte herself accompanied
her, while the orchestra swarmed with great professors, among
whom were Attilio Ariosti, the two Bononcini's, Antonio and John,
with Fedeli, and Conti.
From the death of Frederic I. 1713, till the year 1742, there
were no operas performed in this capital. But after the accession
of his late Majesty, in 1740, the musical establishment of the court
at Berlin was the most splendid and constant of any in Germany.
Of this establishment, however, as well as that of many other courts
in the empire, so many particulars have been inserted in my German
Tour, that to avoid repetition and to save room, I am obliged to
refer my readers to that publication. But before I quit Berlin, it
seems necessary to mention, that in the year 1754, besides the
composers Graun and Agricola, his late Majesty's opera establish-
ment consisted of fifty performers vocal and instrumental, among
whom Carestini and the Astrua were the principal singers, and
among the instrumental performers were the concert-master, Graun,
the two Benda's, Emanuel Bach, Baron the lutenist, and Quantz
on the German-flute. Though there was a succession of principal
singers from Italy, among whom were Monticelli, Salimbeni,
Mazzanti, Amadori, Porporino, and Concialini; the composers and
instrumental performers were constantly the same, except Em.
Bach, who in 1767, on the death of Telemann, was appointed
music- director at Hamburg.
Graun [Karl H.], the opera composer, dying in 1759, was
succeeded by Agricola,* soon after whose decease, in 1774, his place
* He was appointed director of the Royal Chapel, but owing to the King's annoyance with
hirn with regard to his marriage to ths singer Moltini, the title of Roy. Hofkapellmeister was not
granted. Reichardt was advanced to the post of Court Composer in 1770.
944
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
was supplied by Mr. Reichardt, his Prussian Majesty's maestro di
capella, at Berlin.
The court of Munich has at all times patronised the art of
Music, and had great professors in its service. And operas have
been supported there with great splendor during the present
century, particularly by the late Elector, who was not only an
excellent performer on the viol da gamba, but a good composer.
At the court of Manheim, about the year 1759, the band of
the Elector Palatine was regarded as the most complete and best
disciplined in Europe; and the symphonies that were produced by
the maestro di capella, Holtzbaur, the elder Stamitz, Filtz,
Cannabich, Toeski, and Frantzel, became the favourite full-pieces
of every concert, and supplanted concertos and opera overtures,
being more spirited than the one, and more solid than the other.
Though these symphonies seemed at first to be little more than an
improvement of the opera overtures of Jomelli, yet, by the fire and
genius of Stamitz [1717-57], they were exalted into a new species
of composition, at which there was an outcry, as usual, against
innovation, by those who wish to keep Music stationary. The late
Mr. Avison attributed the corruption and decay of Music to the
.torrent of modern symphonies with which we were overwhelmed
from foreign countries. But though I can readily subscribe to many
of the opinions of that ingenious writer, we differ so widely on this
subject, that it has long seemed to me as if the variety, taste, spirit,
and new effects produced by contrast and the use of crescendo and
diminuendo in these symphonies, had been of more service to
instrumental Music in a few years, than all the dull and servile
imitations of Corelli, Geminiani, and Handel, had been in half a
century.
The musical dramas of Stuttgard, by the excellence of the
composition, and magnificence of the spectacle, was long celebrated
throughout Europe; particularly those set by Jomelli, who resided
at the court of Wurtemburg from 1757 [1753] to 1769. During this
time, he seems to have occasioned a revolution in the taste of the
greatest part of Germany; but Germany and Jomelli were of mutual
service to each other : the one perhaps wanted grace, and the other
solidity. Jomelli on his arrival at Stutgard [1753] composed in
his first manner, which was thin and artless; but finding that the
Germans delighted in rich harmony and contrivance, he met them
half way, and by a mixture of styles, both were improved and more
generally admired.
When Dresden was in its glory, serious operas were frequently
performed at Leipsic, during the fair, by the best musicians and
to the greatest personages in Germany. At present the comic
operas of Mr. Hiller,* in the language of the country, and without
recitative, are the favourite amusements of that city (c). The airs
(c) Every part of Europe, except Italy, seems unanimous in banishing recitative from their
comic operas; indeed, every nation has melodies of its own, but there is no recitative, except
the Italian, which is fit for dramatic purposes.
* Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804) played a considerable part in the revival of the old
German Singspiel operas.
Vol. ii. 60. 945
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
of these burlettas have been long in general use and favour among
the unlearned lovers of Music throughout Germany.
Operas are frequently performed in the Italian language at
Brunswick, where a good taste has been long established by the
elegant and expressive productions of Messrs. G. Benda, Schwan-
berger, and Fleischer.
To this general and summary account of the local establishment
of lyric theatres in Germany, I shall add a list of the great opera
composers which that country has produced during the present
century. At the head of these must be placed Handel, whose
Italian operas alone, exclusive of his German operas, oratorios, and
other works, amounted to thirty-nine; Hasse more than a hundred;
Graun twenty-seven; and Gluck, who was a dramatic composer
more than forty years, in his two styles must have composed
at least fifty (d). After these, the German composers whose works
have been performed in Italy, and equally admired with those of
the best masters of that country, may be enumerated John
Christian Bach, Gasman, and Misliwecek. Mozart composed
an opera for Milan at twelve years old;* and Naumann, the present
maestro di capella at Dresden, worked his way through Italy at an
early period of his life; as did Schuster, the second maestro di
capella at Turin and Dresden; and the Abbe Sterkel, who has
published so many works for the piano forte, which are admirable
in point of taste, as well as the celebrated Pleyel,** have each of
them composed an opera for Naples [1785]. Besides these, Mr.
Reichardt, the chapel-master at Berlin, who is now gone to Italy;
Rust, the Music director at Dessau; and Gresnich, have distin-
guished themselves as composers of Italian dramas; and in the
Indice de' Teatri, there are many names of Germans, who, in some
way or other, have acquired a place in that annual publication
among opera composers.
Having furnished my readers with a list of the vocal composers
which Germany has produced during the present century, I shall
proceed to the instrumental, among whom, however, many of the
masters already mentioned must have an honourable place.
Telemann, Handel, Sebastian Bach, the concert-master Graun,
Emanuel Bach, Kirnberger, Francis and George Benda, Quantz,
Muthel, Holtzbaur, and J. Stamitz. The rest, who are many of
them living, I shall name alphabetically: Abel, John Christian
Bach, Cannabich, Cramer, Ditters, Eckard, Eichner, Filtz,
Fischer, Frentzl, Graaf, Haydn, Hofmann, Kcefler, Lidl. Mozart,
(d) Agricola, the successor of Graun, as opera composer at Berlin, was an able musician,
but bis works, neither in number nor excellence, bear any proportion to the great masters just
mentioned.
* Mozart was writing operas at this early age, but not for Milan. When he was 12 he
wrote Bastien & Bastienne (a parody on Rousseau's Devin du Village). The first opera written
for Milan was MUridate in 1770 when Mozart was 14 years old.
** Pleyel was one of Haydn's favourite pupils, and the six quartets op. 20 were dedicated
by Haydn to him. Mozart thought highly of some of Pleyel's string quartets, as is shown by a
letter dated April 24, 1784.
946
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Pleyel, Rosetti, Schobert, Schroeter, Schwindl, Ch. Stamitz,
Toeski, Vanhal, and Wagenseil.
Besides these, there have been during the present century, and
still are, many excellent composers in Germany, whose names are
little known in England: as Kuhnau, Heinechen, Schmidt,
Krieger, the elder Fasch, John Gaspar Fischer, whom Marpurg
calls the Couperin of Germany; Janitsch, Hoeckh, Neruda, and
Krause, composers for violins, all much admired in their day;
Nichelman, Schaffrath, Rolle Music director at Magdeburg, Fasch
junior, Wolf, Zelenka, Graupner, Stolzel, Homilius, all old masters
much esteemed in their own country. Among the younger instru-
mental composers, of whose works we know but little, the chapel-
master Reichar.dt, Schultz, and Ernst Benda, the son of George
Benda of Brunswick, merit a distinguished place.
It has been already observed that Music being taught with
reading and writing in common schools in Germany, gives an
opportunity to the inhabitants, during youth, of discovering and
cultivating genius wherever it subsists. And to this advantage we
must add the great number of books of instruction and criticism on
the subject of Music, which have been published during the present
century chiefly in the German language, and which must greatly
contribute to make a musician of every reader who has ears, and
critics of all who have understandings.
Of the principal of these books I shall give some account in
chronological order.
The imperial maestro di capella, Fuchs, appears as a theorist in
1701, when he published his Concentum Musico-instrumentalem in
7 Partitas divisum, and dedicated the work to Joseph I. King of
the Romans. In 1725, he published his Gradus ad Parnassum,
sive Manuductio ad Compositionem Musicce, &c. This work, which
is esteemed the best practical treatise on composition which
Germany can boast, was translated into German and published at
Leipsic in 1742 by Mitzler (e).
In 1727, Baron [1696-1760] published an Historical Treatise on
the Lute, in which he inserted anecdotes of various kinds, which
procured him readers not only among the few lutenists then
remaining, but among lovers of Music in general (/).
In 1728, Heinichen, whom Marpurg calls the Rameau of
Germany, published a treatise on Accompaniment and Composition,
which is very much admired for its clearness and science (g).
In 1732 was published Walther's excellent Musicalisches
Lexicon. Of all the books that I have consulted for information
concerning musicians and their works, I have never met with more
satisfaction than from this lexicon; which, though compressed into
a moderate-sized octavo, is so ample and accurate, that I have
(e) It was likewise translated into Italian and published at Carpi, 1761, by Manfredi, with
a letter of recommendation by Pjccini, who styles Fuchs : Tedesco fiieno di senso Italiano.
(/) Historisch-Tkeoretisch und Practische Untersuchung des Instruments der Laute.
(g) Von dem General-Bass in der Composition.
947
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
seldom been disappointed or deceived. This little volume contains,
not only all the technica of ancient and modern Music, but
biography, as far as names, dates, and works, of almost every
eminent musician that has existed in ancient and modern times, till
the year in which the book was published. The author's
information, of course, concerning Germany is the most ample, but
Italy and France have had a considerable share of attention. A
continuation of this work to the present time, would be a great
acquisition to professors and lovers of Music and musical history.
M. Marpurg of Berlin, and M. Hiller of Leipsic, have made
considerable additions to it for Germany in their writings of twenty
or thirty years ago, and other books have since been published,
whence sufficient materials may be acquired to render a new edition
complete for eveiy country.
Mitzler's Musical Library, published at Leipsic from 1736 to
1739, is a scientific and useful work, though written in a dry style.
Mattheson's [1681-1764] best musical writings are his Critica
Musica, 1722; Complete Chapel-Master, 1738 [1739]; and his
Ehrenpforte, or Glory of Music, literally, Triumphal Arch, 1740
(h).* Mattheson, with all his pedantry and want of taste, was the
first popular writer on the subject of Music in Germany; the rest
were scientifically dry and didactic; but as taste improved both in
Music and literature, better writers sprung up. Among the first of
these was John Adolphus Scheiben [1708-76], chapel-master to
the King of Denmark, who, in 1737, began a periodical work called
Der Critische Musikus, or the Critical Musician, which he continued
to the year 1741. This work, which was collected into one thick
volume in octavo 1745, and printed at Leipsic, contains much
musical criticism, as well as many characters and anedotes of the
great musicians who had then distinguished themselves throughout
Europe.
The arts, perhaps, are enjoyed in their infancy with more
enthusiasm than in a more mature state, when criticism has
intimidated the artist, and frequent perfection rendered his judges
more severe.
From the year 1742, when the late King of Prussia fixed the
musical establishments of his opera and court, so many eminent
musicians were engaged in his service, that Berlin seems to have
given the law to the rest of Germany, not merely from the great
number of excellent composers and performers within its precincts,
but theoretical and critical writers. The first, the most voluminous
and most enlightened of these, was Fred. William Marpurg
[1718-95], whose coup d' essai, as a writer, was a periodical work
called the musical Critic on the Spree, 1749 [1750] . Then followed
his Art of Playing the Harpsichord, in three parts, published from
1750 to 1755. After which, A Treatise upon Fugue and
Counterpoint, in German 1753, and in French 1756. This is the
{h) This work contains the lives of above 150 musicians, chiefly Germans, and many of
them written by themselves, at the recmest of the editor.
* A modern edition of the Ehrenpforte was published by Max Schneider at Berlin in igio.
948
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
best book of the kind that is extant, except Padre Martini's Saggio
di Contrappunto , which, for vocal fugues, is perhaps superior; but
for instrumental, M. Marpurg's work is still more useful. The
historical part, however, is scanty and inaccurate : for in the
enumeration of organists of different countries, though M. Marpurg,
who had been in France and civilly treated there, is very grateful,
yet he mentions no English composer of any kind but the feeble
and flimsy Festing, who though a worthy man and much esteemed
by his friends, was far from a great player or good composer.
Among organists he just mentions Stanley and Keeble; but of
Handel's sublime oratorio choruses and manner of playing the organ
he is wholly silent; nor does he ever seem to have heard of our
great organists Roseingrave, Magnus, J. James, Kelway, or
Worgan, who in 1756 was an excellent extempore fughist. And the
examples of canon and fugue are too indiscriminately given to serve
as models of excellence to young students. Indeed, M. Marpurg
was so ingenuous as to confess to me, at Berlin, that he had injured
his work by partiality to friends, whose productions he had
frequently cited, against his judgment '{%). In 1754, M. Marpurg
began the publication of his Historical and critical Essays towards
the Advancement of Music; this work was closed in 1762 [1778],
and consists of five volumes octavo. These essays, with his Critical
Letters on the Art of Music, from 1760 to 1762, called the attention
of Germany to musical criticism; which Hiller's weekly essays on
the same subject continued from 1764 to 1770. The chief of
M. Marpurg's works, theoretical and practical, which are very
numerous, were published between 1749 and 1763, about which
time he was appointed by the King of Prussia, secretary of assize.
After this he devoted his whole time to political calculations, except
what he bestowed on musical ratios in an Essay on Temperament,
[1776], to which he added an appendix on Rameau's and
Kirnberger's rules for accompaniment, or thorough-base, 1770,
octavo.
In 1752, Quantz [1697-1773], who had the honour of being the
late King of Prussia's master on the German-flute, published in
German and French an excellent treatise on the art of playing that
instrument (k); a work not only useful to flute-players, but to every
kind of musician. His counsel to young students in Music are built
upon good sense and experience; and though his genius for
composition was not original, he was a keen observer of the beauties
and defects of others, both in composition and performance. His
advantages in hearing at Dresden, in the most flourishing time of
that court, the greatest performers then living, and afterwards
(i) About this time (1756) fugues began to lose their favour, even in Germany, where their
reign had been long and glorious; but Rousseau's Lettre sur la Musique Francoise, and the
beautiful melody, taste, expression, and effects of theatrical compositions, so much cultivated
in Italy and in all the German courts, brought about a general revolution in Music, which Vinci,
Hasse, and Porpora began, and Pergolesi finished.
(k) Essai d' une Methode pour apprendre a jouer de la Flut traversiere. Versuch einer
Anweisung die Floete zu Spielen. Berlin [1752].*
* The Versuch was reprinted at Leipzig in 1906, edited by A. Schering.
949
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
travelling through Europe for improvement, with an acute
understanding and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, enabled him
to embellish his instructions with anecdotes and observations, which,
notwithstanding the vicissitudes of taste and style, are still extremely
valuable.
The original, great, and learned C. P. Em. Bach, in 1753,
when his reputation was at its acme as a composer and performer,
published the first part of an essay on the true art of playing the
harpsichord. The second part of this admirable work did not
appear till 1762. The instructions and compositions given in
illustration of his doctrines are truly worthy of this great musician.
In 1756, Leopold Mozart [1719-87], father of the present
eminent musician of that name, published a treatise on playing the
violin (/). This work is very well digested, and useful; and though
Geminiani's art of playing the violin was published in England
eight years sooner, it does not appear that any materials for this
work have been drawn from that source.*
In 1757, Agricola, composer to the King of Prussia, published
an excellent translation of Tosi's Arte del Canto figurato, or Art
of Singing, with additions and notes. This is still regarded as the
best book on the subject, in German, as the original is in Italian.
These, and innumerable other musical tracts and treatises, about
this time, with endless controversies between the authors and severe
treatment of each other, made musical people in the northern parts
of Germany much more wise and fastidious, perhaps, than happy.
Of late years the monthly and annual publications of musical
critics, of different musical sects and principles, are carried on with
great spirit (w).
It is difficult to reconcile it with the present religious tranquility
of Germany, and progress of human reason; but there seems an
unwillingness in the inhabitants of the protestant states of Germany
to allow due praise, even to the musical works and opinions of the
Catholics. And, on the contrary, the Catholics appear equally
unwilling to listen to the musical strains of the Protestants. Thus
the compositions of the Bachs, Grauns, and Bendas are little known
at Vienna; and at Berlin or Hamburg, those of Wagenseil,
Hofmann, Differs, Gluck, Haydn, Vanhal, and Pleyel, are not only
less played and approved than at Vienna or Munich, but infinitely
less than in France, Spain, Italy, or England. Messrs. Mattheson
and Marpurg, who have written so much and so well on the Music
(/) Versuch einer griitidlichen Violin schule, Augsburg, quarto [1756].
(m) Germany had in 1773, at least thirty reviews for different branches of literature, to
which have been since added innumerable works of criticism on musical productions : as
Reichardt's Musicalisches Kunst-magazin, or Magazine for the musical Art; Cramer's Magazin
der Musik; Forkel's Musicalisch-Kritische Bibliothek, and Musical Almanack, with an Almanack
jor Music and Painting, &c, &c. What Hudibras says of reformers and religious disputants,
seems applicable to these tuneful discussions in Germany :
" As if their Music were intended
For nothing else but to be mended."
* Geminiani's Art of Playing the Violin was published c. 1734, or about 22 years before
Leopold Mozart's work.
950
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
of most other parts of Germany, hardly seem to have remembered
that there is such a place as Vienna; and yet, in that city, there have
been long employed the best lyric poets, composers, and singers,
that could be found in Europe. Pariati, Apostolo Zeno, and
Metastasio to write; Bononcini, Conti, and Caldara to compose; and
Faustina Farinelli, and Monticelli to sing. There seems to be a
mutual rivalry between the German Protestants and Catholics still
subsisting since the long religious wars in that country, which,
though diminished by political arrangements and philosophy, is still
lurking in the hearts and habits of the several inhabitants. The
musicians of each country encourage these prejudices on a principle
of self-defence; and envy and hatred in others, is but emulation in
them. But the same kind of rivalry appears in every country: in
our own, it is observable between university and university, college
and college, class and class, and even between individual and
individual of the same class. And if such discord reigns in the
mansions of science and philosophy, there is little reason to expect
that the interested and unenlightened members of other professions
and communities should be possessed of more wisdom and candor,
or be more exempt from human weakness than their betters.
The founders of styles, and authors of revolutions in the Music
of Germany, during the present century, seem to have been the
following: Reiser and Handel, at the beginning of the century,
seem to have had no formidable rivals among their countrymen.
However, about the year 1740, Hasse and Graun acquired the
favour of the public by a new style. Gluck, John Christian Bach,
Misliwecek, and Gasman, were next in favour; and at present
Schwanberger, Naumann, Reichardt, Schuster, Seydelmann, Rust,
and Gresnich, are in possession of most of the German theatres,
where operas are performed in Italian.
In organ-playing and composition, Handel and Sebastian Bach
seem not only to have surpassed their cotemporaries, but to have
established a style for that instrument which is still respected and
imitated by the greatest organists in Germany. The harpsichord
Music of these great masters gave way, about the middle of the
century, to the more elegant and expressive compositions of C. P.
Emanuel Bach, who was soon imitated so universally in Germany
by writers for keyed-instruments, that there have been few works
published for them since, which are not strongly tinctured with his
style; those of Wagenseil, Schobert, and Schultz excepted; but Geo.
Benda, C. Fasch, Fleischer, Ernst Benda, Reichardt, &c. &c. are
strong Bachists.
For violins, after Telemann, the concert-master, Graun, Fr.
Benda, Neruda, Janitsch, were in favour through Prussia and
Saxony; while only Hofmann, Schwindl, and Wagenseil were heard
at Vienna; Holtzbaur, J. Stamitz, Filtz, Cannabich, Toeski, and
Frantzl, at Manheim; and Bach and Abel in London. But in less
than ten years all these have been superseded by Haydn, Ditters
[Dittersdorf ] , and Vanhal. At present Rosetti, Mozart, and Pleyel
share with them the public favour; indeed, there has lately been a
95i
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
rage for the Music of Pleyel, which has diminished the attention of
amateurs and the public to all other violin Music. But whether this
ingenious and engaging composer does not draw faster from the
fountain of his invention than it will long bear, and whether his
imitations of Haydn, and too constant use of semitones, and
coquetry in ralentandos and pauses will not be soon construed into
affectation, I know not; but it has already been remarked by
critical observers, that his fancy, though at first so fertile, is not so
inexhaustible, but that he frequently repeats himself, and .does not
sufficiently disdain the mixture of common passages with his own
elegant ideas.
The great German composers for the church, about 1773, were
classed by an excellent critic of that country (n), in the following
order: Fuchs, Sebastian Bach, the elder Fasch, Stolzel, and
Telemann. To these he joins Hasse and Graun; but observes, that
the Homer and Virgil of church Music is Handel; yet confesses,
that the style of good church Music came from Italy. I am but
little acquainted with the church Music of Fuchs,* except what is
inserted in his Gradus ad Pamassum, and P. Martini's Saggio di
Contrappunto; but M. Marpurg says (o), that his masses and motets
are full of exquisite fugues. Sebastian Bach set innumerable
cantatas for the church, besides the Sanctus three times, with
accompaniments, excellent in harmony and expression; Kyrie cum
Gloria six times, all for four voices with instruments; with a Credo
for five voices with accompaniments, of which I am in possession
of the score, which is one of the most clear, correct, and masterly,
I have ever seen. Of J. Fr. Fasch** and Stolzel's compositions, I
have little knowledge, except from tradition; but according to the
report of excellent judges, who are well acquainted with them, they
have great merit. Telemann [1681-1767] set more spiritual
cantatas, or anthems, than Alessandro Scarlatti secular. As he
lived to the great age of eighty-eight [86], and was more than
forty years music-director, he annually composed, ex officio, a
Passionsmusik, or Music for Passion-week, from 1721 till his death
in 1767. And besides these, he left behind him thirty-two choral
compositions for the induction of preachers at Hamburg; thirty-
three annual anthems performed before the chief magistrate; twenty
compositions for royal occasions of jubilation; four funeral anthems;
ten oratorios, &c. &c. Hasse, besides his innumerable operas,
masses, and motets, had, in 1769, composed eleven oratorios.
Graun's cantatas, or anthems, for Passion-week, among which is
Dertod Jesu, or Death of Christ, are excellent in melody, harmony,
(») Versuch einer Kuserlesenen Musikalischen Bibliotheck.
(o) Art de la Fugue.
* Proske in his M.D. prints seven compositions for Church use and some Masses, motets,
etc., will be found in the D.T.O. (Vols. I, II and IX).
** Bach must have thought highly of Fasch (1688-1758) as he made copies of 5 orchestral
suites by him. Fasch started a "Collegium musicum" which may be considered the progenitor
of the "Grosse Concerts" which in turn were followed by the famous Gewandhaus concerts.
952
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
taste, and learning. His Te Deum for the victory obtained by the
King of Prussia at Prague, 1757, is well known throughout Europe.
The organs of Germany in magnitude, and the organists in
abilities, seem unrivalled in any other part of Europe, particularly
in the use of the pedals. In Marpurg's Beytrage, or Essays, Vol.
III. there is a minute inventory of the organs at Freyberg in
Saxony, Halberstadt, Halle in Magdeburg, Konigsberg in Prussia,
Magdeburg, and Meerane in Saxony, of all which the longest
pipe of the manuals is sixteen feet long, and of the pedals
thirty-two (p).
Among organists of the present century, Handel and Sebastian
Bach are the most-renowned. Of Handel's performance, there
are still many living who can remember the grandeur, science,
and perfection; and Sebastian Bach is said, by M. Marpurg (q), to
be many great musicians in one : profound in science, fertile in
fancy, and in taste easy and natural (r). Among organists of the
present time, Albrechtsberger of Vienna is said to play in the true
original style, and to make good fugues; William Friedeman Bach,
elder son of Sebastian Bach, who died lately, was the best organist
in Germany, in style, fancy, and knowledge of harmony; John
Christ. Friederich Bach plays in his father's elaborate style.
Rittel, organist of Erfert, one of the best scholars of Sebastian
Bach, plays extempore fugues, and other movements in three, four,
and five parts; and his choral Music is entirely in the rich, learned,
and ingenious style of his master (s). Of Binder at Dresden,
Dulsick of Czaslau in Bohemia, and Pothoff of Amsterdam, an
account has been given elsewhere (t).
Nor shall I satisfy my own mind, or think I have performed
my duty as a musical historian, if I close this chapter before I have
borne further testimony to the peculiar merit of some of the great
musicians already mentioned but without sufficient discrimination.
Concerning the admirable John Adolphus Hasse, maestro
di capella to the court of Saxony, who was the favourite opera
composer of Italy and Germany from 1730 to 1755, so much has
been said in my German Tour, at a time when he had nearly
finished his career, that I have little to add here, except the
melancholy record of his death at Venice, in 1784 [1783], whither
(i>) One of the largest organs in Germany, but which has been omitted in this list, is at
Gorliz, in Upper Lusatia.
[q) Art de la Fugue.
(r) To this part of the encomium many are unwilling to assent; as this truly great man
seems by his works for the organ, of which I am in possession of the chief part, to have been
constantly in search of what was new and difficult, without the least attention to nature and
facility. He was so fond of full harmony, that besides a constant and active use of the pedals,
he is said to have put down such keys by a stick in his mouth, as neither hands nor feet
could reach. He died at Leipsic, 1754 [1750].
(s) Musikalischer Almanac fur Deutschland, 1782. Leipsic.
{t) State of Music in Germany, &c, 1772. To this list it seems but justice to add the
name of J. Gottfried Moses, organist of Auerbach, in Voigtland, a professor who has done
me the honour of publicly addressing to me a work, entitled Handbuch fur Orgel Spieler, or a
Manuel for Organ-Players, Part II, and for which I take this public opportunity of thanking
this able master of harmony and of his instrument.
953
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
he had retired with his wife Faustina to end his days, soon after
the year 1773, when I left him at Vienna.
Ch. Hen. Graun, the idol of the Berlin school, besides his
numerous operas, which continued to be performed almost
exclusively during the life of the late King of Prussia, composed
masses and spiritual cantatas innumerable. He likewise composed
a considerable number of harpsichord concertos for princess Amelia
of Prussia, which are graceful and pleasing in melody, artful in
the disposition of the parts, excellent in harmony, and yet very easy.
This elegant musician, who sang as well as he composed, died in
1759; and when Fr. Benda carried the news of his death to the
King of Prussia, then in Dresden, his Majesty shed tears (u), and
said, " we shall never hear such another singer again;" which
proves, says M. Reichardt, author of the anecdote (x), that the
King's first affliction was the loss of his singing, not composition,
though he knew its worth.
Of the Chevalier Gluck, the merit is well known to all Europe,
and his peculiar claims to applause as a dramatic composer have
been so fully stated in my German Tour, and will again be
discussed in the next chapter, that I shall only acquaint my
reader here, that after returning to Vienna from Paris [1775], and
being disabled from writing by a paralytic stroke in 1784, he only
lingered in a helpless state till last autmun 1787, when he died at
the age of seventy-three.
Of the illustrious musical family of Bach I have frequently
had occasion for panegyric. The great Sebastian Bach, music-
director at Leipsic, no less celebrated for his performance on the
organ and compositions for that instrument, than for being the
father of four sons, all great musicians in different branches of the
art : William Friedemann, lately deceased, the greatest organ-player
in Germany, particularly in the use of pedals. C. Ph. Emanuel,,
music-director at Hamburg4 has been long regarded as the greatest
composer and performer on keyed-instruments in Europe. John
Christopher Frederic [1732-95], concert-master at Biickeburg, an
eminent composer and performer on keyed-instruments. And John
Christian Bach, the late celebrated opera composer and symphonist,
whose merit is well known throughout Europe. Kernberger, in an
advertisement of his master Sebastian Bach's chants, of which he
was lately editor, calls him the greatest master of harmony in any
age or country; and says that these chants are the greatest
specimens of German art. M. Reichardt, in his Magazine, still
goes farther, and says that no composer of any nation, not even
the deepest Italian, exhausted every possibility of harmony so
much as S. Bach. And adds, "if he had been possessed of the
simplicity, clearness, and feeling of Handel, he would have been
a greater man."
(u) The tale "drew iron tears from Pluto's cheek." Milton,
{x} Musicalisches Kunnstmagazin.
954
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
If Sebastian Bach and his admirable son Emanuel, instead of
being musical-directors in commercial cities, had been fortunately
employed to compose for the stage and public of great capitals, such
as Naples, Paris, or London, and for performers of the first class,
they would doubtless have simplified their style more to the level
of their judges; the one would have sacrificed all unmeaning art
and contrivance, and the other been less fantastical and recherche,
and both, by writing in a style more popular, and generally
intelligible and pleasing, would have extended their fame, and
been indisputably the greatest musicians of the present century.
Emanuel Bach, in his life, written at my request, by himself,
had some excellent reflexions on his own style, which he formed
and polished by hearing the greatest performers, vocal and
instrumental, of his youth, who visited his father, or were employed
in the theatre at Berlin. When the critics, says he, are disposed
to judge impartially, which seldom happens, they are frequently
too severe on works that come under their lash, from not knowing
the circumstances that gave them birth, or remembering the
author's original intention. But how seldom are critics found to
possess feeling, science, probity, and courage? qualities without
which no one should set up for a sovereign judge. It is a melancholy
truth, that musical criticism, which ought to be useful to the
art, is in Germany a trade, commonly carried on by dry,-
malignant, and stupid writers. He then declares that of all his
works those for the clavichord or piano forte are the chief in which
he has indulged his own feelings and ideas. His principal wish
has been to play and compose in the most vocal manner possible,
notwithstanding the great defect of all keyed-instruments, except
the organ, in not sustaining their tone. But to make a harpsi-
chord or piano forte sing, is not easily accomplished; as the ear
must not be tired by too thin a harmony, nor stunned by too full
and noisy an accompaniment. In his opinion Music ought to touch
the heart, and he never found that this could be effected by
running, rattling, drumming, or arpeggios.
If Haydn ever looked up to any great master as a model, it
seems to have been C. P. Em. Bach: the bold modulation, rests,
pauses, free use of semitones, and unexpected flights of Haydn,
remind us frequently of Bach's early works more than of any other
composer. But in writing for violins he has surpassed his model
in facility and invention; freaks, whim, and even buffoonery,
appear natural to Haydn, which in the works of his imitators seem
downright caprice and affectation. Em. Bach used to be censured
for his extraneous modulation, crudities, and difficulties; but, like
the hard words of Dr. Johnson, to which the public by degrees
became reconciled, every German composer takes the same liberties
now as Bach, and every English writer uses Johnson's language
with impunity.
Geo. Chr. Wagenseil [1715-1777], chamber-composer to the
Emperor, if living, must have completed his hundredth year,
955
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
having been born in 1688 (y). From the spirited compositions of
this master for the harpsichord, before the piano forte was brought
to any perfection in our country, the lovers of Music received great
pleasure, about thirty years ago. The Germans long allowed them
to be lively and easy, but those attached to the more refined and
expressive style of Emanuel Bach thought them too trifling.*
Of Fr. Benda [1709-86], first violin to the King of Prussia,
a very sincere eulogium has been inserted elsewhere (z); I shall
only add here, that besides symphonies, violin concertos, and trios,
he has published eight sets of solos for that instrument, which are
extremely admired for their good taste and truly cantabile style.
His brother Geo. Benda [1722-95], many years in the service of
the court of Gotha, published, in 1757, a very elegant set of
sonatas for the harpsichord, in the style of Emanuel Bach, and in
1780 and 1781 two collections of harpsichord pieces full of taste
and pleasing passages; but besides these and several German comic
operas, he composed in 1778 Ariadne in Naxos [1774] and Medea,
two works which he calls Duodrames, upon a new plan, of which
the hint was perhaps suggested by Rousseau's Pygmalion, which M.
Benda has likewise set.** The author has manifested great abilities
and feeling in the expressive and picturesque symphonic
composition with which he has told the story and painted the distress
o/ Ariadne, when abandoned by Theseus in the island of Naxos.
This is done wholly without singing. The narrative part is spoken in
blank verse, and the several passions and sentiments are seconded
and highly coloured in fragments of symphony, like those of
accompanied recitative of the most select, impassioned, and
exquisite kind.
Schobert [c. 1720-67] is well entitled to a niche in an English
history of Music, his pieces for the harpsichord having been for many
years the delight of all those who could play or hear them. His
first works were published at Strasburg about 1764; soon after
this period he went to Paris, and was engaged in the service of the
prince of Conti.*** About the year 1770 [1767], he and the chief
part of his family were poisoned by eating -faux champignons, or
what we call toad-stools, taking them for mushrooms. In 1766, I
was the first who brought his works to England from Paris. His
style never pleased in Germany so much as in England and France.
Those of Emanuel Bach's party allowed him to be a man of genius,
but spoiled by his affectation of a new and extraordinary style,
accusing him of too frequently repeating himself. The truth is, the
spirit and fire of his pieces require not only a strong hand but a
harpsichord, to give them all their force and effect. They are too
[y) He was living in 17S4. (z) German Tour, Vol. II.
* There has been much confusion as to the dates of the birth and death of this composer.
From the editor's inserted dates it will be seen that he died at the age of 62.
** Rousseau's Pygmalion was not produced until 1775, the year after the composition of
Benda's Ariadne.
*** Schobert settled in Paris in 1760, and his first works were published there in that year.
A selection of his compositions will be found in the D.D.T., Vol. 39, edited by Riemann.
956
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
rapid, and have too many notes for clavichords or piano fortes,
which supply the place of harpsichords in Germany. The novelty
and merit of Schobert's compositions seem to consist in the
introduction of the symphonic, or modern overture style, upon the
harpsichord, and by light and shade, alternate agitation and
tranquillity, imitating the effects of an orchestra. The general use
of piano fortes, for which the present compositions for keyed-
instruments are chiefly written, has more contributed to lessen the
favour of Schobert's pieces, than their want of merit.
Of the same school, with less spirit and originality, is John
Fried. Edelman, born at Strasburg, 1749.*
Eichner [1740-77], who was in this country about twelve years
ago [1773], and died at Potzdam in 1778, introduced a style between
that of Schobert and the present; with less fire than Schobert, and
more taste and expression. He was accused by the critics of his own
country of being too modern.
There are many great German musicians dispersed throughout
Europe, whose merit is little known in England, or even in their
native land; among these is Eckard [1735-1809], who has been
fifty years at Paris. This musician has published but little; yet by
what has appeared, it is manifest that he is a man of genius and a
great master of his instrument.
Kernberger [1721-83], of Berlin, lately deceased, was a scholar
of Seb. Bach, and possessed of great musical learning (a). His
knowledge of counterpoint, and of all the laws and subtilties of
canon and fugue, were indisputable. But in his compositions he
is often dry and crude, and perpetually striving at new passages and
effects, with which his invention did not very liberally supply him.
Rolle [1718-85], of Magdeburg, likewise lately deceased, was
an excellent composer for the church, as well as author of pieces for
the organ and harpsichord of great merit. His oratorio of Thirsa
and her Sons is full of good taste, new passages, pleasing effects, and
pathos.
Of Fr. Gottlob Fleischer, of Brunswick, born 1722 [d. 1806],
all the Music I have seen is excellent. His harpsichord-pieces are in
a good taste, and full of grace and fancy; and his German comic
opera of the Oracle, composed in 1771, is more in the best modern
style of Italy, than any Music of that kind and period that I have
seen.
Ernst William Wolf [1735-92], chapel-master at Weimar, has
not only composed a great number of favourite German comic
operas, but excellent pieces for the harpsichord; and, in 1782,
published an Easter Cantata, or anthem in score, of which the
Music is admirable, though the airs are perhaps a little too dramatic
for the church.
The trios and symphonies of Schwindl [d. 1786], which were
thought so pleasing and excellent, before the Vienna school was
(a) He is said by Reichardt frequently to have corrected Rameau, in his work called
Kunst des reinen Satzes. " ' ' I Z ■"_
* Edelmann was guillotined at Strasburg in 1794. during the .French Revolution.
957
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
known, seem to have been wholly laid aside in our country since
the departure of Giardini with whom they were in high favour. But
even twenty years ago, though they were admired by dilettanti in
German}', professors, who allowed the author to have genius, denied
him taste and correctness.
The spirited, natural, and unaffected symphonies of Vanhal
[1739-1813], seem to have preceded those of Haydn, at least in
England. The quartets and other productions for violins by this
excellent composer certainly deserve a place among the first
productions, in which unity of melody, pleasing harmony, and a
free and manly style are constantly preserved.
I am now happily arrived at that part of my narrative where it
is necessary to speak of Haydn! the admirable and matchless
Haydn! from whose productions I have received more pleasure
late in my life, when tired of most other Music, than I ever received
in the most ignorant and rapturous part of my youth, when every
thing was new, and the disposition to be pleased undiminished by
criticism or satiety.
It having been reported in 1778, that Haydn was dead, I took the
liberty of applying to Sir Robert Keith, his Majesty's minister
plenipotentiary at the imperial court, for information concerning
him; who not only contradicted the report, but condescended to
honour me with the following particulars, which his German,
secretary had procured from the best authority.
Joseph Haydn [1732-1809], maestro di capella to his serene
highness prince Esterhasi, was born at Rhorau, in Lower Austria,
in 1733 [1732]. His father, a wheelwright by trade, played upon
the harp without the least knowledge of Music, which, however,
excited the attention of his son, and first gave birth to his passion for
Music. In his early childhood he used to sing to his father's harp
the simple tunes which he was able to play, and being sent to a
small school in the neigbourhood, he there began to learn Music
regularly; after which he was placed under Reuter, maestro di
capella of a cathedral [St. Stephen's] at Vienna; and, having a
voice of great compass, was received into the choir, where he was
well taught, not only to sing, but to play on the harpsichord and
violin. At the age of eighteen, on the breaking of his voice, he was
dismissed from the cathedral [c. 1749]. After this, he supported
himself during eight years as well as he could by his talents, and
began to study more seriously than ever. He read the works of
Mattheson, Heinichen, and others, on the theory of Music; and for
the practice, studied with particular attention the pieces of Emanuel
Bach. At length he met with Porpora, who was at this time in
Vienna [1752], and, during five months, was so happy as to receive
his counsel and instructions in singing and the composition of vocal
Music. In 1759, he was received into the service of Count Marzin
[Morzin] as director of his Music, whence, in 1761, he passed to the
palace of prince Esterhasi, to whose service he has been constantly
attached ever since.
958
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
The first time I meet with his name in the German catalogues
of Music, is in that of Breitkopf of Leipsic, 1763, to a Divertimento
a Cembalo, 3 Concerti a Cembalo, 6 Trios, 8 Quadros or Quartets,
and 6 Symphonies in four and eight parts. The chief of his early
Music was for the chamber. He is said at Vienna to have composed
before 1782, a hundred and twenty-four pieces for the bariton, for
the use of his prince, who is partial to that instrument, and a great
performer upon it (b) . Besides his numerous pieces for instruments,
he has composed many operas for the Esterhasi theatre, and church
Music that has established his reputation as a deep contrapuntist.
His Stabat Mater [1771] has been performed and printed in England,
but his oratorio of II Ritorno di Tobia, composed in 1775 for the
benefit of the widows of musicians, has been annually performed at
Vienna ever since, and is as high in favour there, as Handel's
Messiah in England. His instrumental Passione [" The Seven Last
Words." 1785], in parts, is among his latest and most exquisite
productions. It entirely consists of slow movements, on the subject
of the last seven sentences of our Saviour, as recorded in the
Evangelists. These strains are so truly impassioned and full of
heart-felt grief and dignified sorrow, that though the movements are
all slow, the subjects, keys, and effects are so new and so different,
that a real lover of Music will feel no lassitude, or wish for lighter
strains to stimulate attention.
His innumerable symphonies, quartets, and other instrumental
pieces, which are so original and so difficult, have the advantage
of being rehearsed and performed at Esterhasi under his own
direction, by a band of his own forming, who have apartments in
the palace and practice from morning to night, in the same room,
according to Fischer's account, like the students in the conserva-
tories of Naples. Ideas so new and so varied were not at first so
universally admired in Germany as at present. The critics in the
northern parts of the empire were up in arms. And a friend at
Hamburg wrote me word in 1772, that " the genius, fine ideas,
and fancy of Haydn, Ditters, and Filtz, were praised, but their
mixture of serious and comic was disliked, particularly as there is
more of the latter than the former in their works; and as for rules,
they knew but little of them." This is a censure which the
admirable Haydn has long since silenced: for he is now as much
respected by professors for his science as invention (c). Indeed, his
compositions are in general so new to the player and hearer, that
they are equally unable, at first, to keep pace with his inspiration.
But it may be laid down as an axiom in Music, that " whatever
is easy is old, and what the hand, eye, and ear are accustomed to;
and, on the contrary, what is new is of course difficult, and not
only scholars but professors have it to learn. The first exclamation
of an embarrassed performer and a bewildered hearer is, that the
Music is very odd, or very comical; but the queerness and
(6) This is the same instrument as Lidl played, described below.
(c) The extent of Haydn's fame may be imagined from his being made the hero of a
poem called The Art of Music, in Spanish, and printed at Madrid ten years ago.
959
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
comicality cease, when, by frequent repetition, the performer and
hearer are at their ease. There is a general chearfulness and good
humour in Haydn's allegros, which exhilerate every hearer. But
his adagios are often so sublime in ideas and the harmony in which
they are clad, that though played by inarticulate instruments, they
have a more pathetic effect on my feelings, than the finest opera air
united with the most exquisite poetry. He has likewise movements
that are sportive, folatres, and even grotesque, for the sake of
variety; but they are only the entre-mets, or rather intermezzi,
between the serious business of his other movements.
G retry, of Liege, is claimed by the Germans, but this fertile
and agreeable composer will have a place in the next chapter.
Naumann [1741-1801] goes on writing, in what seems to me an
Italian style, too feeble and placid for those who admire the
originality and force of Piccini and Paesiello.
Mozart [1756-91], who astonished all Europe by his premature
talents during infancy, is now no less the wonder of the musical
world for his fertility and knowledge, as a composer.
Charles Stamitz [1746-1801], the son of the great Stamitz of
Manheim, has all the fire of his father, and has kept pace with the
times without the servile imitation of any style.
Kozeluch [1754-1818], is an admirable young composer of
Vienna, whose works were first made known in England by the
neat and accurate execution of Mademoiselle Paradis, the blind
performer on the harpsichord, in 1785. And his productions have
since greatly increased in number and in favour. They are in
general excellent, abounding with solidity, good taste, correct
harmony; and the imitations of Haydn are less frequent than in any
other master of that school.
The Abbe Sterkel [1750-1817] has not travelled through Italy
unprofitably; his harpsichord pieces, though not very learned or
consonant to harmonical rules, are full of spirit, taste, and pleasing
passages; and he has not only collected all the vocal flowers of the
greatest opera singers of the present times, but scattered them
liberally through his works. His violin accompaniments generally
consist of passages of effect, and such as give importance to the
player. Indeed, his pieces, though not very original, are less
tinctured with Bachism, or Haydnism, than those of his country-
men who have not visited Italy. And though less solid and less his
own property, than Kozeluch's, yet they are more easy to execute,
and more intelligible to unlearned hearers.*
Schultz [1747-1800], of Berlin, is a nervous and excellent
composer as well as an elegant writer on Music (d).
And Reichardt [1752-1814] is an animated and rapid writer
and composer, a great admirer of Handel, and a patriotic and
decisive critic.
(d) He is author of the musical articles in the second part of Sultzer's Theory of the
fine Arts.
* See Grove's Vol. V. p. 135 for an interesting account of a meeting between Beethoven
and Sterkel in 1791.
Q&O
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Herschel [1734-92], master of the King's band at Hanover,
and brother of the great astronomer, is an excellent instrumental
composer, in a more serious and simple style than the present; more
resembling that of Abel than Haydn.
Hiller, of Leipsic, the favourite composer of German comic
operas, is likewise a candid critic, and an useful writer upon Music.
The music-director of Gottingen, Forkel, is a composer,
voluminous musical critic, and historian (e).
Professor Cramer, of Keil, a dilettante, began to publish at
Hamburg, in 1783, a Musical Magazine.
Professor Eschenburg, of Brunswick, the celebrated translator
of Shakspeare into German, Brown's Dissertation on the Rise, &c.
of Music and Poetry, Webb on the same subject, and the oratorio
of Judas Maccabaeus, has done me the honour to translate the
Dissertation on the Music of the Ancients, prefixed to the first
volume of this work, and my Account of the Commemoration of
Handel.
Abel, and the German musicians who have long resided in
England, will be reserved for the last chapter concerning miscel-
laneous matters and the general state of Music in our own country.
Qerman Dilettanti
Among these his late Majesty the King of Prussia [Frederick
the Great, 1712-86] is entitled to the first place in talents, as well
as rank. This heroic and accomplished prince having had Quantz
early in life for his master on the German-flute and in composition,
played no other pieces than his own and those of his master, which
were never allowed to be printed. His Majesty during more than
forty years of his busy reign, when not in the field, allotted four
hours a day to the study, practice, and performance of Music. All
the German masters allowed him the first place among dilettanti
composers, as well as performers on the flute. Fischer, however,
who was some time in his service before he first came to England,
did not seem to like his musical productions, thinking them,
even then, somewhat dry and old-fashioned. This prince had
certainly great professors in his service, though he never was partial
to Emanuel Bach, the greatest of them all. His Majesty, besides
a great number of pieces for the flute, and some for the harpsichord,
composed sometimes for the voice; particularly in the pastoral
opera of Galatea & Alcides, in 1747, of which the overture and
recitatives were Graun's, and the airs by the King jointly with
(e) I am sorry that the third volume of this author's General History of Music which is
to be confined chiefly to the Music of Germany, was not published before this chapter was
written; as it would probably have saved me as much trouble in seeking, selecting, and
arranging the materials, as my ist vol. seems to have saved him, as far as he has hitherto
advanced in his work; which from the great resemblance of its plan to that of my own, I can
hardly praise with decency.*
* Forkel (1749-1818) is chiefly remembered as being the first biographer of J. S. Bach.
(Leipzig, 1802).
Vol. ii. 61. g6j
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Quantz and Nichelmann.* Sometimes, the day before performance,
his Majesty would send a new song to the maestro di capella to be
introduced in an opera, and this was universally believed to be his
own production in all its parts. During the last years of his life,
according to his chapel-master, Reichardt, his Prussian Majesty
having lost some of his front teeth, not only discontinued the
practice of the flute, but his evening concerts, and became totally
indifferent to Music: a proof that his Majesty's chief pleasure in
the art was derived from his own performance.
To the late Elector of Bavaria and his sister the late Electrice
Dowager of Saxony, I have already paid my respects; yet it is but
justice to the memory of that prince to say, that upon a late
examination of the score of an entire mass for four voices, with
instrumental accompaniments, of his composition, of which his
serene highness honoured me with a copy, I find the design and
composition much superior to the generality of dilettante
productions.
Prince Lobkowitz,** and his most amiable and accomplished
niece, the Countess Thun, as well as Mademoiselle Martinetz, were
justly ranked among dilettanti of the first class at Vienna, in 1772,
The late syndic of the state of Hamburg, Schuback, the worthy
and ingenious imitator of Handel, is well entitled to a distinguished
place among dilettanti, for his oratorio called the Disciples at
Emaus, printed in score, 1778.
Beecke, captain of dragoons in the regiment of prince Frederic
of Wurtemberg at Vienna, has been a composer and publisher
more than twenty years. His pieces for the piano-forte are much
admired at Vienna.
Baumgarten, an officer in the Prussian service, has new set
Zemire et Azov, in German; Andromeda, a Monodrame, and the
Mufti's Tomb, a comic opera, 1777.
The principal printers, publishers, and venders of manuscript
Music in Germany are
Breitkopf, of Leipsic, who annually prints catalogues of new
publications in types; and besides a general catalogue, with the
prices marked of printed and manuscript Music, ever since the year
1762, he has distributed Theme-catalogues, in which the subject of
each piece is exhibited in notes, so that a musical collector is
enabled to discover whether he is already in possession of any of
the works specified in his list of new Music.
The Hummels, of Amsterdam and Berlin, are considerable
engravers of Music.***
* In 1889 B. & H. published 120 pieces written by Frederick the Great. These were
edited by Spitta. Burney is unjust in his criticism of this king's love for music. He was playing
the flute in 1773, the date of the death of Quantz, who wrote his 300th flute concerto in that
year. Shortness of breath compelled the king to give up flute playing, but he recommenced
the study of the clavier.
** Ferdinand Philip Lobkowitz (1724-84) was a patron of Gluck. Burney in his "Musical
Tour in Germany" tells a story of the writing of a symphony by this prince and Emmanuel
Bach, each composing a bar alternately. Ferdinand's son, Joseph Francis (1772-1816), is
well known because of his connection with Beethoven.
*** This firm ceased to exist in 1821.
962
MUSIC IN GERMANY DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Westphal and Co. of Hamburg, whose catalogues contain all
the musical publications of France, Italy, England, Germany,
Denmark, and Sweden, engraved, types, and manuscript.
Hafner, of Nuremberg, engraves Music on copper, in a more
neat manner than most other publishers.
Artaria,* of Vienna, has lately opened an extensive commerce
in the sale of Music of the Austrian school, neatly engraved; which,
in the year 1772, when I was in Germany, could only be obtained
in manuscript.
And now, neither justice nor candour will permit me to quit
Germany and its numerous great musicians, without totally dis-
avowing the opinion of another person, which was inconsiderately
inserted in the first edition of my German Tour, before I was able
to examine its truth: for I am now more than ever convinced,
that this opinion, which accused Germany of want of genius, was
unjust, and founded on prejudice and ignorance of Teutonic
discoveries and atchievements in the whole circle of arts and
sciences. There can be no physical cause assigned for want of
genius in a whole people on any part of the globe, within the
temperate zone. And to pronounce, that an empire extending over
at least a twelfth part of Europe, and whose inhabitants amount to
a seventh part of the people to be found in that quarter of the globe,
should be deficient in genius, was not only unjust, but inconsistent
and absurd; particularly in the book of a man who during his whole
life has been an enthusiastic admirer of German musicians, from
Handel and Hasse, to Bach and Haydn. So far therefore from
letting a second-hand prejudice warp my judgment or influence
my opinions in writing my General History, I have long been
keeping double guard over my pen and my principles, having been
as angry with myself as the most patriotic German can be, for ever
having given admission to such a reflection.
* Artaria's are famous for their relations with Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven.
963
Chapter XI
Of the Music of France
during the Present Century
MUSIC, during this period, seems to have been patronised
in France with as much zeal as in Italy or Germany,
though perhaps with less effect upon its cultivation. But
the long and pertinacious attachment to the style of Lulli and his
imitators in vocal compositions, to the exclusion of those improve-
ments which were making in the art in other parts of Europe, during
the first fifty years of this century, have doubtless more impeded
its progress, than want of genius in this active and lively people, or
defects in their language, to which Rousseau and others have
ascribed the imperfections of their Music.
The names of the serious opera composers in France between
Lulli and Rameau are now easier to be found than their works;
their panegyrics are not suffered to die, whatever may be the fate
of their Music.
Colasse [1649-1709], the scholar and immediate successor of
Lulli, in 1687, finished the opera of Achille & Polyxene, of which
only the first act could be found among his master's papers.
Between this period and 1706, he furnished the Academie Royale
with eight entire operas.
Charpentier, Demarets, Campra, Coste, and Detouches, are
all enrolled among the French opera composers, who began to
distinguish themselves soon after the death of Lulli. These were
followed by Bertin, in 1706; Mouret, 1714; Monteclaire, 1716;
Francoeur, and Rebel, who composed operas in conjunction from
1725 to 1760, as our Beaumont and Fletcher did plays; by Blamont
in 1731, and by Brissac in 1733, the same year as that in which
Rameau produced his first opera.
The lyric theatre at Paris, after the decease of Lulli [1687],
was conducted by his son-in-law, Francine, who obtained a patent
for ten years, upon condition that he paid a pension of 10,000
livres a year to the widow and children of Lulli. In 1698, Francine
entered into partnership with Dumont, and obtained a new patent
for ten years more. In 1704, the patentees had incurred a debt of
380,780 livres; after this, the patent was transferred to Guyenet,
and, in evil hour, from him to others; for not one of all the
964
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
entrepreneurs and projectors who have embarked in this hazardous
undertaking, from the time of Lulli to the present, seem to have
escaped ruin.
The government of an opera, says M. de la Borde (a), is a
painful and embarrassing employment. It is necessary that the
director of so complicated a machine should know how to manage
all the springs, remove every obstacle to their motion, gratify the
taste and sometimes the caprice of the fickle public, unite in one
interest a crowd of different rival talents, excite emulation without
jealousy, distribute rewards with justice and delicacy, censure and
punish with address, limit the unbounded demands of some by
flattery, check the independence of others by apparent concessions,
and try to establish in the interior government of this republic as
much harmony as reigns in the orchestra. It is manifest that
nothing but the most subtile, artful, and pliant character can hope
to accomplish such Herculean labours.
But though the revolutions in the opera government have been
so numerous since the death of its first legislator, Lulli, Music
remained stationary for near a century, in spite of the several
attempts that were made in order to stimulate activity and
enterprize.
In 1702, the publication of a pamphlet entitled Paralele des
Italiens et des Francois en ce qui regarde la Musique et les Opera,
by the Abbe Raguenet, a man of taste and intelligence, who had
resided some time at Rome, gave birth to a long, but ineffectual
controversy, concerning the degrees of perfection, and superiority
of French and Italian Music. The book was licensed by Fontenelle,
who said in his testimony that " he thought it would be very
agreeable to the public, provided the}' were capable of equity."
This declaration, however, did not prevent Freneuse, the continuator
of Bonnet's Flistoire de la Musique, from attacking the author and
Italian Music, in a most furious manner, treating both with equal
contempt and obloquy.
The French, after this period, seem to have enjoyed their
lyric sommeils in great comfort and tranquillity till 1752; when the
performance of Pergolesi's Serva Padrona at Paris, by a company
of burletta singers from Italy, set the musical republic in a flame
which has not yet been extinguished.*
There had, indeed, been a sensation excited, that was rather
turbulent, and tending to a civil war, on the first appearance of
Rameau as a dramatic composer in 1733, who by new harmonies
and accompaniments had given offence to the true believers in the
worship of Lulli; but this soon subsided, and the nation not only
heard his compositions with rapture, but reverenced him as " a
theorist, to whom Music was as much indebted as physics and
philosophy to Newton."
(a) Tom. III. p. 486.
*La Serva Padrona was first performed at Paris in 1746 but with little success. The 1752
performance was between the acts of Lully's Acis et Galath.ee.
965
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Minutely to discuss the merits of this musician in the practice
and theory of his art would occupy more pages in my book than I
have now to spare. I shall, however, confess the effect his
compositions and writings have had on myself, in spite of early
perjudices against the vocal Music of France in general, and still
more against its execution at the serious opera.
John Philip Rameau [1683-1764], composer to the King of
France and Chevalier de St. Michel, was born at Dijon 1683. He
went early in his life to Italy, [1701], and at his return was
appointed organist at Clermont en Auvergne, where his Traite de la
Musique was written, in 1722.* He was afterwards elected organist
of St. Croix de la Bretonnerie at Paris [1732]. Here his time was
chief!}' employed in teaching; however, he published harpsichord
lessons and several other theoretical works, without distinguishing
himself much as a vocal composer, till the year 1733, when, at fifty
years of age, he produced his first opera of Hippolite & Aricie. The
Music of this drama excited professional envy and national discord.
Party rage was now as violent between the admirers of Lulli and
Rameau, as in England between the friends of Bononcini and
Handel, or, in modern times, at Paris, between the Gluckists and
the Piccinists.
When the French, during the last century, were so contented
with the Music of Lulli, it was nearly as good as that of other
countries, and better patronised and supported by the most splendid
prince in Europe. But this nation so frequently accused of more
volatility and caprice than their neighbours, have manifested a
steady persevering constancy to their Music, which the strongest
ridicule and contempt of other nations could never vanquish.
Rameau only answered his antagonists by new productions
which were still more successful; and, at length, he was
acknowledged by his countrymen to be not only superior to all
competition at Paris, but sole monarch of the musical world. From
1733 to 1760 he composed twenty-one operas [and ballets], of
which the names and dates are annually published in the Spectacles
de Paris, and in many other periodical works.
Rameau's style of composition, which continued in favour almost
unmolested for upwards of forty years, though formed upon that
of Lulli, is more rich in harmony and varied in melody. The genre,
however displeasing to all ears but those of France, which had been
nursed in it, was carried by the learning and genius of Rameau to
its acme of perfection; and when that is atchieved in any style, it
becomes the business of subsequent composers to invent or adopt
another, in which something is still left to be done, besides servile
imitation.
The opera of Castor and Pollux [1737] having been long
regarded in France as the master-piece of this composer, I shall here
* This appointment lasted from 1702-5. In 1706-8 he was at Paris, and in 1709-14 was
organist at Notre Dame, Dijon, vice his father. He was organist at the Jacobins, Lyons, in
1715, and in that year returned to Clermont-Ferrand where he was appointed Cathedral organist,
and where his Traite de V harmonie was written.
966
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
insert a few remarks upon it, that have been made on a recent
examination.
The overture is the best of this author, upon Lulli's plan (6).
The opening symphony is beautiful; but why the same melody was
not applied, in the same measure, to the poetry, I know not, unless
the versification required a change of time; but, in that case, why
write the symphony on a subject that would not suit the words?
But those eternal changes in the measure, which teaze and
disappoint the ear of all that are used to other Music, is general in
serious French operas, and seem as much the fault of the poet as
musician. It is, however, wonderful, that this defect was not sooner
discovered. The over-charged tenderness of Rameau's Music
appears in all his slow movements, which are in one style, and
generally in triple time. This master perpetually discovers himself
to be a great harmonist; but inured to a bad taste and style of
composition, as well as to bad singing, he has only augmented the
defects of his predecessors, and rendered what was rude and clumsy
in Lulli, still more offensive, by endeavours at sweetness or high
seasoning. The appoggiaturas, or leaning notes, being so
frequently incorporated in the harmony, renders it crude, and the
hanging on every note, as if unwilling to relinquish it, checks and
impedes the motion of the air, and gives it a slow and languid effect,
however lively the theme on which it is composed. Every passage
in such melody resembles a French heroic verse :
" Each is an Alexandrine, through the song,
That like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along."
The opening of the second act : Que tout gemisse, is very fine,
and the pathos well applied; but the subsequent air, which is cast
in an admirable mould, is spoiled by frequent and unnecessary
changes of measure; and yet in spite of these defects, and the vocal
outrages of Mademoiselle Arnould, I was more pleased and affected
by this scene, than any other I ever heard at the French serious
opera. The march, which has few appoggiaturas in it, is like
other Christian Music.
The prelude tendre, at the opening of the third act, abounds with
too many of these drags, which being equally harsh to the ear and
injurious to pulsation, seem to prevent the performer from ever
falling on his feet; and bar eleventh, the chord of the superfluous
fifth, which makes all nature shudder, except our Gallic neighbours,
is here continued so long, that it distorts the countenance of every
other hearer, like hiera pier a. The major minuet, page 121, after
so long and tiresome a minority, is rich in harmony and graceful in
melody. The voice is worse used by the composer than the most
insignificant instniment. For after several symphonies that are
extremely promising, and the ear has been made to expect a
(6) "The overtures of Lulli," says M. D'Alembert, "are all cast in the same mould; yet,
insipid as they are, they have been the invariable models of all other overtures for sixty years;
during which time, there has been but one overture heard in our operas, if even that can be
called one." Melanges de Litt. Tom. IV. p. 457.
967
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
continuation of the prefatory strain, nothing is given to the vocal
part but broken accents and dislocated measures. In the chaconne,
which is admirable, the measure is well marked and well accented.
This must long have preceded Jomelli's favourite chaconne, and
have served as a model to him, Theller, and others, in composing
this species of dance. More genius and invention appear in the
dances of Rameau than elsewhere, because in them, there is a
necessity for motion, measure, and symmetry of phrase. And it
may with truth be said, that nothing in Lulli's operas was imitated
or adopted by the rest of Europe, but the style of his overtures, or in
Rameau 's, but the dances.
After frequent perusals and consultations of Rameau's theoretical
works, and a long acquaintance with the writings of his learned
commentator D' Alembert, and panegyrists, the Abbe Roussier, M.
de la Borde, &c. if any one were to ask me to point out what was the
discovery or invention upon which his system was founded, I should
find it a difficult task.
The base to a common chord has been known ever since the
first attempts at counterpoint; and it only seems as if Rameau had
given new names to old and well-known combinations, when he
calls the key-note, with f , Generateur, Basse-jondamentale. But
the Italians, ever since the time of Zarlino, have distinguished this
lowest sound by calling it the first base, lmo. basso; and the other
parts of the chord when made the base, basso rivoltato, or 2do.
basso. But Brossard in his Musical Dictionary, published 1702, in
defining Trias harmonica, or the three sounds of a common chord in
its first state, calls the under-note basse, or son fondamental; and
afterwards remarks that among the three sounds that compose the
Triade harmonique, the gravest is called basis, or sonus
fundamental . And what has Rameau told us more, except that
that the harmoniques produced by a string or pipe, which he does
not pretend to have first discovered, are precisely the third and fifth
in question. This is the practical principle of the fundamental base;
the theoretic was surely known, of harmonical, arithmetical, and
geometrical proportion and ratios of sound, with which so many
books have been ostentatiously filled ever since the time of Boethius.
The Abbe Roussier, his most learned apostle and able champion,
candidly confessed in his first work, that " the system of a
fundamental base ought not to be regarded as one of those
principles which precedes the consequences to be deduced from it."
Le merite de cette decouverte consiste, a avoir reduit en un systeme
simple, commode, et facile a saisir, toutes les operations des grands
maltres de I' harmonie. Traite des Accords, 1764.
Rameau's system, as compressed and arranged by D' Alembert
(c), is perhaps the shortest, clearest, and best digested, that is
extant; and yet, from the geometric precision with which it has
been drawn up by that able mathematician, many explanatory
notes and examples are wanting to render Rameau's doctrine
(c) Elemens de Mus. Theor. et Prat, suivans les Principes de Rameau, 1752 and 1762.
968
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
intelligible to musical students in the first stages of their application;
and even after that, the work, to be rendered a complete theory,
would require many additions of late discoveries and improvements,
both in the theory and practice of harmony (d).
About the year 1760, the System of a Fundamental Base, by
Rameau, gave occasion to much discussion in Germany. By some
it was adopted there as well as in Italy, by others disputed. It
seems, however, as if this system, ingenious as it is, were some-
what over-rated by French theorists, who would persuade the
world that all Music not composed on Rameau' s principles should
be thrown into the flames — Jusqu' a mon systeme says Rameau
himself; and M. de la Borde says, that " Music since the revival of
arts was abandoned to the ear, caprice, and conjecture of
composers, and was equally in want of unerring rules in theory
and practice — Rameau appeared, and chaos was no more. He
was at once Descartes and Newton, having been of as much use
to Music as both those great men to philosophy." But were
Corelli, Geminiani, Handel, Bach, the Scarlattis, Leo, Caldara,
Durante, Jomelli, Perez, &c. such incorrect harmonists as to
merit annihilation because they never heard of Rameau or his
system? Indeed, it may be further asked, what good Music has
been composed, even in France, in consequence of Rameau giving
a new name to the base of a common chord, or chord of the
seventh? The Italians still call the lowest sound of Music in parts
the base, whether fundamental or derivative; but do the French
imagine that the great composers above-mentioned, and the little
composers who need not be mentioned, were ignorant whence
every supposed base was derived? The great harmonists of the
sixteenth century seldom used any other than fundamental bases.
And the fundamental base to the hexachords has always been the
key-note, and the fifth above and fifth belnw, just as Rameau has
given it in his theoretic tracts.
But though the several merits of this musician have been too
much magnified by partizans and patriots in France, and too much
depreciated by the abettors of other systems and other styles, as
well as patriots of other countries, yet Rameau was a great man;
nor can the professor of any art or science mount to the summit of
fame, and be elected by his countrymen supreme dictator in his
particular faculty, without a large portion of genius and abilities.
The successful revival of his opera of Castor and Pollux in 1754,
after the victory obtained by his friends over the Italian burletta
singers who had raised such disturbance by their performance of
Pergolesi's intermezzo, the Serva Padrona was regarded as the
most glorious event of his life. The partizans for the national
(d) Many opinions concerning melody, taste, and even harmony, which were current forty
or fifty years ago, would now only excite contempt and laughter. Imagination, which had
been manacled by narrow rules, formed on Gothic productions, at length broke loose and
liberated, flutters and flies about from flower to flower, sipping like the bee its native food
wherever it can be found.
969
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
honour could never hear it often enough. " This beautiful opera,
says M. de la Borde, without any diminution in the applause or
pleasure of the audience, supported a hundred representations,
charming at once the soul, heart, mind, eyes, ears, and imagination
of all Paris (e)."
From this sera to the time of his death, in 1767 [1764] , at eighty-
four [81] years of age, Rameau's glory was complete. The Royal
Academy of Music, who all regarded themselves as his children,
performed a solemn service in the church of the Oratory, at his
funeral. And M. Philidor had a mass performed at the church
of the Carmelites, in honour of a man whose talents he so much
revered.*
The cotemporary and subsequent composers of operas with
Rameau, of the old school, were Mondonville, from 1742 to
1758; Berton, from 1755 to 1775 (/); Auvergne, from 1752 to
1773;** and Trial, from 1765 to 1771.
In 1752, a troop of Italian burletta singers having been engaged
to perform at Rouen, the Academie Royale de Musique, which
presides over all provincial operas as well as those of the capital,
refused to let them appear at Rouen, before they had performed
at Paris. In August they exhibited, at the Opera-house, in the
Serva Padrona of Pergolesi, which was performed between the acts
of Lulli's opera of Acis & Galatea, as an intermezzo, its original
use. This performance made so many proselytes to Italian Music,
that the friends of Rameau and the national opera took the alarm.
Innumerable pamphlets were written on both sides, and among
the rest, the celebrated Lettre sur la Musique Frangoise, by
Rousseau. There was too much good sense, taste, and reason in
this letter for it to be read with indifference; it was abused, but
never answered. The author was burnt in effigy at the Opera-
house door. And while it was read by all the rest of Europe as an
excellent piece of musical criticism, full of new ideas and views
concerning dramatic Music, it was held in execration by the
adherents to the ancient style of opera Music, and has been lately
called " a wretched performance, dictated by spleen, bad taste,
want of judgment, and inconsistence," by a writer (g) who, on
some occasions, seems to know better, and to have ideas of good
(e) Essai sur la Musique, Tom. III. p. 465.
(/) This master was not only a composer of new operas, but a reviver of the operas of
Lulli and other old masters, which he retouched with equal tenderness for their reputation,
and respect for modem improvements in the drama.
(g) M. de la Borde, Tom. I. p. 412.
* A complete edition of the works of Rameau was commenced in 1894 under the general
editorship of Saint-Saens.
** D'Auvergne (1713-97) was one of the earliest French Composers to write in the form of
the Italian intermezzo. His first attempt in this style was Les Trocqueuts produced on July 30,
I753-
970
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Music, more worthy of a master of harmony and the present state
of the art in every part of Europe (h).
In 1753, Rousseau's Devin du Village was first performed at
the great Opera-house as an Intermede,* and being composed in a
familiar pleasing ballad style, neither entirely French nor Italian,
and sung in the language of the country, was universally
applauded. The same year Pergolesi's Stabat Mater was performed
at the Concert Spirituel, which convinced many reasonable French-
men that their church Music was not so perfect as they had
imagined it. Caffarelli was this year sent for express from Naples
by Marshal Richelieu, to gratify the curiosity of the Dauphiness, a
princess of the house of Saxony, who had expressed a wish to hear
him.** After fulfilling the object of his journey, and performing
once at the Concert Spirituel, this singer returned to Naples
without building towns or softening rocks in France.***
And all these attempts at Italian Music, after the first
fermentation subsided, only made the return to the ancient national
psalmodic strains more welcome to patriotic ears, when the operas
of Lulli and Rameau were revived, which they now were, with
universal applause. And the driving away the buffoons, as the
Italian comic singers are called in France, is recorded in all the
periodical publications concerning the theatres in 1754, with great
triumph. In the Spectacles de Paris, they were compared to
noxious vapours which infect the air. The opera of Titon &
Aurore of Mondonville, and the Castor & Pollux of Rameau,
tranquilised les esprits.
In 1755, the motets a grand choeur of La Lande and Mondonville
were in great favour at the Concert Spirituel, and no profane
mixture of Italian Music was heard there, except the performance
of the two celebrated Bezozzi on the hautbois and bassoon, which
there were a few so wicked as to admire, de bon coeur.****
This year was performed at Paris Noverre's [1727-1810]
celebrated ballet, called Les Fetes Chinoises, which was afterwards
(h) It is not my wish to be thought an implicit believer in the paradoxes of Rousseau.
When he says that the French have no Music, nor ever, from the nature of their language,
can have any, and if they have, tant pis pour eux. I regard it more as a sarcastic bon mot,
than a truth which will admit of demonstration. But all he has said of French recitative,
false expression, want of measure and melody, is so true, that the most reasonable part of
the nation have long since given up these points, and only wish to preserve their language in
the lyric theatre, and to graft upon it the Music of Italy; which by no means seems
impracticable, if with the melody of Italy the singing of that country could likewise be adopted.
* It had, however, been performed before the King at Fontainebleau in October, 1752.
** Caffarelli was invited to Paris in 1750 by the Dauphine, and sang at some concerts there.
*** The Concert Spirituel was started in 1725 for the performance of music which was
neither operatic nor French. The promoter of this design was Philidor and the first performance
took place on March 18, 1725. The performances always took place on the days on which
there was no performance at the opera. The original Concert Spirituel was discontinued in
1791, but in 1805 it was revived, and concerts are still given during Passion Week.
**** The brothers Besozzi appeared at the Concert Spirituel in 1735.
971
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
attempted in England to the great destruction of Mr. Garrick's
dramatic plans and property.*
In 1758 [1757], Duni, an Italian composer of Parma, began
first to adapt the melody of his own country to French words, for
the comic opera. And about 1761, Philidor [1726-95] and
Monsigny had the address to betray the French into a love for
Italian melody, or at least a melody resembling that of the burletta
operas of Italy then in circulation. In 1764 and 1765, I was at
Paris, and if the singing had been less national, should have been
very much pleased with the Music of the Theatre Italien, particu-
larly in Rose et Colas, Anette et Lubin, Le Roi et le Fermier, Le
Marechal F errant, Le Sorcier, and Isabelle et Gertrude, in all which
the singing of Caillot, as well as the acting, were such as vanquished
ali prejudice against French singing in general. All these were
produced previous to Gretry's arrival at Paris 1768, who brought
with him all the taste of Italy, which, however, in compliance with
the language and national taste of France, he has been frequently
obliged to sacrifice, in order to please his protectors and judges.
In 1770, I visited Paris again expressly to listen critically to the
reigning Music of that capital; and though the comic opera was
in possession of many new and pleasing dramas that were well
written and admirably set, the serious opera had not advanced a
step towards perfection, or even variety, in five years' time, if the
opera of Emelinde, by Philidor, be excepted, in which that
ingenious composer quitted the ancient opera style of his country,
accelerated the recitatives, and terminated his scenes with many
excellent airs, a V Italienne (i).
The year 1774 was rendered remarkable in the annals of French
Music, by the arrival of the Chevalier Gluck at Paris, whose
operas, by his conforming to the genius of the French language,
and flattering the ancient national taste, were received with
acclamation. He began his career in this capital by his celebrated
opera of Orphee, of which the reputation was already established;
and this was followed by I phi genie, taken from one of Racine's best
tragedies, which had all the success that may be imagined from the
force of his genius applied to a favourite drama, set in the style of
their favourite composers, Lulli and Rameau.**
In Ins opera of Cythere Assiegee, 1775, where more delicacy
and tenderness, than force, were required in the composition, he
was not so successful. Nor was his Alceste, the year following,
received with the same rapture as at Vienna. Indeed, his Armide,
in 1777, did not quite fulfil the ideas of grace, tenderness, and
pathos, which some of the scenes required, and auditors accustomed
to Italian Music expected: however, his operas were excellent
(i) The first run of Emelinde [1767] was not very considerable, but it has since been
revived [as Sandomir in 1769] with more applause than it received during its first performance.
* Noverre came to England in 1755 at Garricks' invitation, producing Les Fetes Ckinoises
at Drury Lane on Nov. 8, 1755.
** Gluck's first Paris production was Ipheginie on April 19, 1774. The production of
Orpheus was on August 2, 1774.
972
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
preparations for a better style of composition than the French had
been used to; as the recitative was more rapid and the airs more
marked, than in Lulli and Rameau: there was likewise more
energy, fire, and variety of movement, in his airs in general, and
infinitely more force and effect in his expression of grief, fear,
remorse, vengeance, and all the violent passions.
Gluck's Music is so truly dramatic, that the airs and scenes,
which have the greatest effect on the stage, are cold, or rude, in a
concert. The situation, context, and interest, gradually excited in
the audience, give them their force and energy.
Indeed, he seems so much the national musician of France, that
since the best days of Rameau, no dramatic composer has excited
so much enthusiasm, or had his pieces so frequently performed (k).
And the French, who feel very enthusiastically whatever Music
they like, heard with great rapture the operas of Gluck, which
even the enemies of his genre, allowed to have great merit of a
certain kind; but though there is much real genius and intrinsic
worth in the dramatic compositions of this master, the congeniality
of his style with that of their old national favourites, Lulli and
Rameau, was no small merit with the friends of that Music. The
almost universal cry at Paris was now, that he had recovered the
dramatic Music of the ancient Greeks; that there was no other
worth hearing; that he was the only musician in Europe who knew
how to express the passions : these and other encomiums prepara-
tory to his apotheosis, were uttered and published in the journals
and newspapers of Paris, accompanied with constant and
contemptuous censures of Italian Music, when Piccini arrived
[1776]. This admirable composer, the delight and pride of Naples,
as Gluck of Vienna, had no sooner erected his standard in France,
than all the friends of Italian Music, of Rousseau's doctrines, and
of the plan, if not the language, of Metastasio's dramas, inlisted
in his service. A furious war broke out, all Paris was on the Qui
vive? No door was opened to a visitor, without this question
being asked previous to his admission: Monsieur/ estes vous
Picciniste ou Gluckiste? — These disputes, and those of musical
critics, and rival artists throughout the kingdom, seem to me to
have soured and diminished the pleasure arising from Music in
proportion as the art has advanced to perfection. When every
phrase or passage in a musical composition is to be analised and
dissected during performance, all pleasure and enthusiasm vanish,
and the whole becomes a piece of cold mechanism. It is certainly
necessary for professors to study and make themselves well
acquainted with the fundamental rules of their art; but I would
advise true lovers of Music to listen more than talk, and give way
to their feelings, nor lose the pleasure which melody, harmony, and
expression ought to give, in idle enquiries into the nature and
accuracy of their auricular sensations.
{k) It has lately been said in the Journal de Paris, that each of his pieces had supported
two or three hundred representations. , ...
973
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Nicola Piccini, born in 1728 [d. 1800], may be ranked among
the most fertile, spirited, and original composers that the Neapolitan
school has produced. An invincible passion for Music frustrated
the intentions of his father, who designed him for the church.
He practised in secret, and was discovered by accident to have
made a considerable progress in the art, before his father could
be prevailed on to let him have a master. In 1742, he was placed
in the conservatorio of St. Onofrio, under Leo, and after his death
under Durante. Piccini spent twelve years in study before he
quitted the conservatorio in 1754, and began his career at the
Florentine theatre in Naples with a comic opera called, Le Donne
Dispettose [1755]; and the next year, Le Gelosie, and II Curioso
del suo Proprio Danno, of all which the success increased in a
duplicate ratio. At length, in 1756, he set the serious opera of
Zenobia, for the great theatre of San Carlo, which was crowned
with still greater success than his comic operas. In 1758, he
composed Alessandro nell' Indie, for Rome; and after this, every
theatre in Italy was eager to engage him. In 1760, his celebrated
comic opera of the Buona Figliuolo had a success that no musical
drama could boast before. It was no sooner heard at Rome than
copies were multiplied, and there was no musical theatre in Europe
where this burletta was not frequently performed, in some language
or other, during many years. In 1761, he composed six operas,
three serious and three comic, for different theatres of Italy; and
was at once applauded in Turin, Reggio, Bologna, Venice, Rome,
and Naples. Sacchini assured me, in 1776, that Piccini had
composed at least three hundred operas, thirteen of which were
produced in seven months.* On his arrival at Paris, he received
many mortifications before his reputation was firmly established,
from the partizans of the old French Music, as well as the friends
of Gluck. The success of his operas of Roland [1778], Atys,
Iphigenie en Tauride [1781], Adele de Ponthieu, Didon, Diane &
Endymion, and Penelope, seems to have solved a problem which
was long thought insolvable : ' ' Whether the French language ■ was
capable of receiving Italian melody? "
In 1783, the opera of Renaud was set by Sacchini for the French
theatre, and in 1784, Chimene and Dardanus. La Colonie and
L' Olimpiade** of this graceful and expressive composer, though
performed to French words for which they were not originally
intended, had made him so many friends in France, that the operas
composed expressly for the use of that country, in which he had
established himself on his leaving England, were heard with willing
ears and heart-felt rapture (/). Anfossi, Paesiello, and Salieri, have
(/) Oedipe a Colone, left unfinished by Sacchini, was brought on the stage in 1787, with
the greatest success.***
* Piccini was, without doubt, a prolific composer, but Sacchini was exaggerating. Eitner in
his Q.L., gives a list of 85 operas by him.
** These last two operas had been heard at Paris in 1775 and 1777.
*** Oedipe a Colone was completed in 1785 and produced at Versailles on April 4, 1786.
974
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
in their turn been heard at Paris; where, though much of the business
of reformation remains to do, yet much has already been done,
within these thirty years, by the comic operas of Duni, Philidor,
Monsini, and Gretry, as well as by the serious operas of Piccini and
Sacchini. Indeed, those of Gluck, though manifestly on the plan
of Lulli and Rameau, are greatly superior to both those composers
in rhythm and effects. But by comparing the French operas even
of Piccini and Sacchini, with the Italian of these excellent masters,
I can easily discover a complaisance for the ancient musical taste of
France, as well as the fetters of language; and sometimes an
imitation of the tour de phrase et de periode in the melody, as well as
recitative. But who can blame them for accommodating their
strains to the taste of their judges? If good Music and performance
are ever heartily felt in France, it must be progressively. Not only
Lulli and Rameau must be wholly forgotten, but a totally different
style of singing must be adopted and established; otherwise it will be
in vain for the greatest composers, with the assistance of the best
lyric poets in the universe, to attempt the reformation (m) .
A singing-school is now established at Paris, with Piccini for
principal master; but if his assistants are not Italians, and the
Music upon which they form the voice is not Italian, and set to
Italian words, it may be safely predicted, that many ages will
elapse before any scholars will be produced that foreigners will
hear with pleasure; and that the period is still more distant when
the national taste in singing will be so meliorated by their
performance, as to escape censure from the rest of Europe.
In 1778, a spirited and enterprising director of the opera, M. de
Visme du Valguay, gave the nation an opportunity of hearing the
Music of Italy, performed by the natives of that country, in their
own language, which was the most likely expedient to bring about
a speedy reformation in the vocal art; but though Piccini, Sacchini,
Anfossi, and Paesiello, were the composers, and the celebrated
tenor Caribaldi, and the Chiavacci, and Baglione, the principal
singers, the plan did not succeed, and they were dismissed the next
year, with patriotic triumph, not sorrow.
Many of the instrumental composers and performers of France,
during the present century, have been celebrated in other countries.
M. Marpurg in his Musical Essays, published at Berlin, gives a list in
1755 of thirty-three eminent organists and harpsichord players then
living, who had likewise distinguished themselves as composers:
at the head of these were Calviere, D' Aquin, Rameau, Clair embault,
D' Agincourt, and Couperin. And the harpsichord pieces of
Rameau, Mondonville, and Duphly, with the violin solos of Le
Clair, were printed in England, about thirty years ago, and in
(m) Even M. Chabanon, a good musician and enthusiastic admirer of good composition,
flatters the French with telling them, that "an Italian either in swelling or in aspirating a
tone is guilty of an exaggeration, which is offensive to French ears." And, in the next page,
"that the French manner of singing, more sober and more mitigated than the Italian, preserves
every charm of that Music (Piccini's) reputed foreign." De la Musique, p. 88, edition of 1785.
There are many new, ingenious, and excellent reflexions in this tract; but it is not difficult to
discover, that this elegant writer has heard but few Italian singers of the first class.
975
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
general use and favour. And in more modern times, the names
and merit of Philidor, Duport, and Hiilmandel, are well known in
our country. But the number of practical musicians, natives of
France who have distinguished themselves during the present
century, in different parts of that Kingdom, is very considerable.
Of these, the several talents have been so lately displayed with
patriotic zeal by M. de la Borde, in his Essai sur la Musique, that
I shall refer my curious readers to that entertaining work. I shall,
however, mention at least the names of the most remarkable, to
facilitate farther enquiry.
Bernier [b. 1664], scholar of Caldara, is regarded by M. de la
Borde, as one of the greatest contrapuntists and fughists that ever
existed. He died in 1734.*
Marchand [b. 1669] was one of the greatest organ-players in
Europe, during the early part of the present century. Rameau, his
friend and most formidable rival, frequently declared, that the
greatest pleasure of his life was hearing Marchand perform; that no
one could be compared to him in the management of a fugue; and
that he believed no musician ever equalled him in extempore playing
(n). This musician died 1732.**
Calviere is ranked by his countrymen among the greatest
organists that ever existed, and one whose facility in playing
extempore fugues on the most whimsical and difficult subjects, was
truly wonderful.
The younger Bousset is celebrated among French organists, who
were followed by the lovers of Music wherever they played.
The great Couperin [b. 1668], who died in 1733, was not only
an admirable organist, but, in the style of the times, an excellent
composer for keyed-instruments. His instructions for fingering, in
his Art de Toucher le Clavecin [1716], are still good; though his
pieces are so crouded and deformed by beats, trills, and shakes, that
no plain note was left to enable the hearer of them to judge whether
the tone of the instrument on which they were played was good or
bad.***
Balbastre [1729-99], an excellent organist of Rameau's school,
is still living. His organ concertos, at the Concert Spirituel, were
long the delight of Paris.
Among the violin performers of France, during the present
century, Le Claire, Guignon, and Gavignie, are the most celebrated.
The compositions of Le Claire [b. 1697] manifest original genius,
as well as knowledge of harmony, and of his particular instrument.
Le Claire, in returning at night from Paris to a small country house,
(n) The Germans relate a story , which no French writer has confirmed : that Marchand,
being at Dresden, challenged to a trial of skill all the organists of Germany, which none but
Sebastian Bach ventured to accept. It was an honour, says M. Marpurgh, for Pompey to be
only defeated by Csesar, and to Marchand to have no superior but Bach.
* According to Riemann, Bernier was one of the first French cantata composers.
** For an account of his famous musical contest with J. S. Bach at Dresden, see Grove's
Vol. III. p. 317.
*** His works for the clavecin have been published in 4 volumes by Durand at Paris.
976
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
to which he had retreated after being tired of the great world, was
murdered in 1764, without its ever being known by whom, or for
what.
Blavet was long regarded as one of the best performers on the
German-flute in Europe. This celebrated musician, who was born
in 1700, at the age of sixty-eight, died under an operation for the
stone.*
At present Rault [b. 1736] is the favourite performer on the
flute at Paris; and Blaise [d. 1772], who set the comic opera of
Isabel et Gertrude [1759], and Cugnier, are the principal bassoons.
Among genuine French composers not yet mentioned, is
Gossec [1734-1829], who, in 1784, was appointed director-general
of the new Royal School of Singing.** His panegyrist, M. de la
Borde, says, that ' ' all the foreign composers upon earth will never
make Frenchmen forget the beautiful productions of Philidor and
Gossec; of which, when the violent admirers of the new style, le
nouveau genre, are come to their senses, they will be obliged to
confess the worth." According to this zealous defender of the
principles of Rameau, Gossec is the better musician for having had
no master, and being of no school. He has composed for the serious
and comic opera; but his symphonies performed at the Concert
Spirituel, his mass for the dead, and his oratorios, have placed him
at the head of the best composers of France.***
To the fertile and pleasing composer, Gretry, who was born
at Liege in 1743 [1741-1813], though not a native of France, as he
has been more than twenty years settled in that kingdom, where, in
all the musical vicissitudes of its capital, he has been the constant
favourite of the public, an honourable niche seems due in this
chapter. This admirable master had his musical education in Italy,
and at the age of seventeen [24] he distinguished himself at Rome by
the composition of an intermezzo, called Le Vende Miatrice [1765].
Sacchini used to say, that he remembered him at Naples, where he
regarded him as a young man of genius, who wrote as much in the
style of that school as any of the natives of Italy; but when he heard
his comic operas at Paris, many years after, he did not find that he
was much improved, by composing to French words, and for French
singers. However, from the small number of good composers in
France, compared with those in every great city of Italy, he has
enjoyed an unrivalled fame in his present station, which no composer
is sure of at Venice, Rome, or Naples. He has, at least, improved
the French taste as much as they have corrupted his; they have met
him half way, and perhaps the genius of the language, style of
singing, and national prejudices, if he had been inflexible, could not
have admitted a nearer approximation.
* Blavet was the composer of one of the first French operas-comiques.
** Later incorporated into the Conservatoire de Musique in 1795, with Gossec, Cherubini,
Lessueur, and Mehul, as Inspectors.
*** Gossec's work in connection with the development of the orchestra is of paramount
importance, and Grove's [Vol. Ill, i>. 726) gives him credit for establishing the symphonic
orchestra a short time before Haydn. Gossec's first symphony dates from 1754, i.e., the year
before Haydn's first quartet. He was influenced by Stamitz who published works at Paris.
Vol. ii. 62. 977
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
This inventive composer has produced, since his arrival in
France, more than thirty comic operas for the Theatre Italien, and
six or seven musical dramas, serious and comic, for the great Opera-
house, or Academie Roy ale de Musique, of which Zemire et Azor,
and Richard Cozur de Lion, have been translated, and successfully
brought on the English stage.
Among Italian composers, whose works are in present favour at
Paris is Antonio Salieri [1750-1825], maestro di capella to the
Emperor; a young composer, born in the Venetian state, and the
scholar first of Pescetti, and, after his decease, of Gasman. He has
set operas in Italian, German, and French; but has chiefly distin-
guished himself at Vienna, where he set thirteen operas mostly
comic, before he returned to Italy, where he composed for five or
six different theatres. In 1784, he set Les Danaides, a serious
opera for the Academie Royale de Musique at Paris, which had
great applause, even in competition with the operas of Gluck,*
Piccini, and Sacchini. Since that period he has produced for the
same theatre, Les Horaces [1786], and Tarare;** this last has had
a very uncommon success.
The number of musical treatises, tracts, systems, essays, critical
dissertations, and pamphlets, published in France, during the
present century, is too considerable for even a complete list of them
to be inserted here. With the titles and principles of the chief that
have come to my knowledge, I shall, however, terminate this
chapter.
Brossard's [c. 1654-1730] Musical Dictionary was first pub-
lished in 1702 [1703], and translated into English by Grassineau
1740, but not called a translation, which it ought to have been;
though the English editor ingenuously confesses himself to be much
indebted to the learning and materials of Brossard's work, which is
more than plagiarists always do on such occasions.
In 1705, a Treatise on the Rules of Composition was published
by Masson, which went through several editions, and was regarded
as a classical work till Rameau's treatise appeared, in 1722.
In 1710 [1691], Affilard published Easy Rules for Singing at
Sight, in which the time of the airs is regulated by a chronometre,
or pendulum.
In 1743 and 1751, Romieu, of Montpellier, published what he
called A new Discovery of the grave Harmonics, meaning the third
sound, resulting from the coincident vibrations of two acute simul-
taneous sounds; a phenomenon which Tartini had discovered in
1714, and upon which he afterwards built his system, or Trattato
di Musica, published in 1754.
In 1752 [Q.L. 1754], Bethisy [1702-81] published a treatise
entitled an Explanation of the Theory and Practice of Music
according to the new Discoveries. The author has availed himself
* It was Gluck who recommended Salieri to the Academie de Musique.
** Tarore, which was produced on June 8, 1787, was afterwards known as Axur, Re d'Ormus.
978
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
of Rameau's principles, but not so implicitly as a true believer
should have done.
The same year, D' Alembert published Elements of Music, upon
the principles of Rameau, a well-digested and excellent epitome
of Rameau's doctrines.
In 1753, Serre [b. 1704], of Geneva, published very ingenious
Essays upon the Principles of Harmony; and in 1763, Observations
upon the same Subject. These tracts contain many curious discus-
sions and critical remarks, on disputable points in the theory and
practice of harmony, which will both entertain and instruct a
musical student.
In 1756 [1767], was published, Blainville's [c. 1711— c. 69]
History of Music; a work for which the author's materials seem to
have been so scanty, that he was reduced to fill two-thirds of his
thin quarto volume, with an indigested treatise on composition.
1759. The Composer's Guide, by Gianottt [d. 1765], built
on Rameau's system of the fundamental base. The author of this
work having been long in the practice of explaining this system to
his scholars, has drawn it up in a clear and intelligible manner.
The same year, the Abbe Morelet published a small pamphlet
on Musical Expression and Imitation, which is full of ingenious
ideas, and written with elegance.
1764. A Theory of Music, by Balliere of Rouen [1729-1800],
built on the harmonics, and the disputed and unsafe basis of the
column of air in a French-horn when caused to sound. Several
of the intervals of this instrument and the trumpet, are so false
in practice, that though they are expressed by the numbers 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, they do not all correspond with musical proportions.
Jamard [b. c. 1720], in his Recherches sur la Theorie de la
Musique, 1769, extends this theory, till, by multiples, he arrives
at the acute and inappreciable scale of birds.
The same year was published by the learned and accurate
theorist, the Abbe Roussier [1716-90], A Treatise upon Chords
and their Succession [Q.L. 1764]. In 1765 [1st ed. 1755],
Observations upon different Points of Harmony; 1770, a Memoir
concerning the Music of the Ancients; and 1776 [Q.L. 1775],
Practical Harmony, or Examples for his Treatise upon Chords.
All this profound writer's treatises are built upon the principles of
Rameau, but Rameau sublimed. The Abbe's favourite discovery
and systematic principle is the Triple Progression, upon which
he endeavours to prove that the musical systems of the Egyptians,
Greeks, and Chinese, were founded. By triple progression is meant
a series of perfect fifths, so that the word temperament equally
disturbs his system and his temper. It is to be feared that the
good Abbe in this particular, and in his principles in general, is too
rigid and inflexible a theorist for the fanciful melody and licentious
modulation of modern composers.
979
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Our countryman, Salmon's proposal for reducing all Music to
one clef (o), has frequently been revived in France without the
least allusion to him or his work; which are both so much out of
the question, that the French writers have frequently disputed
among themselves the right to the invention. And so late as
January 1786, a proposal was published in the Journal de Paris,
for adopting a single clef, as a new discovery.
Dubreuil published in 1767, a Manuel Harmonique, or Table
of practical Chords, according to the regie de V octave, which M.
de la Borde condemns as inaccurate and deficient in variety; but
with due deference to this author and his friend the Abbe Roussier,
I must say, that this rule for accompanying the scale in the base,
ascending and descending, with a few exceptions easy to retain,
comprehends the harmony of almost all the good compositions that
have been produced within these thirty years.
In 1768, Rousseau's lively and instructive Musical Dictionary
was published; and as he gave no quarter in it to French Music,
the admirers and defenders of that Music have treated his opinions
with equal severity. It is, however, the business of true critics not
only to point out the errors of a work, but, if it has any, the merit.
There may be mistakes in Rousseau's Dictionary; but are there no
good articles, no marks of refined taste, and nice observation in
speaking of dramatic Music? No short, clear, and happy definitions
of musical technica? And is everything he has said of French
Music thought so absurd and paradoxical at present, even in
France, as it was thirty years ago? The Abbe Roussier and his
disciple M. de la Borde, who treat as absurd and stupid whatever
seems unfavourable to their doctrines, were awed perhaps by the
thunder of Rousseau's eloquence, while alive; but no sooner were
they sure that the Hon was dead, than they plucked up a courage,
and boldly attacked him at all points.*
The feuds in France between the Gluckists and Piccinists, not
only gave birth to daily verbal disputes, but literary. The conten-
tion was not left to the decision of youth and beauty in the theatre,
but the partizans of each Music had the venerable assistance of
learning and science. I have read, and tried to read, many tracts
and brochures that were produced on the occasion, but was pleased
with none so much, as with M. Marmontel's Essai sur les
Revolutions de la Musique Francoise 1778, and M. Chabanon's
Dissertation sur la Musique consideree en elle--meme, et dans ses
Rapports avec la Parole, les Langues, la Poesie, et le Theatre,
1785, in which these learned academicians and elegant writers have
attacked and defended different sides with all that reason and
eloquence can offer; but, at last, it will probably be found, that
sense, habit, and prejudice, will not leave the decision to cold
(o) See Book III. p. 473.
* Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique was completed in 1764, but although he was granted
permission to print it at Paris in 1765 the work did not make its appearance there uniil 176S.
An edition printed at Geneva appeared in 1767. An English edition by Wm. Waring was
published in 1770 at London.
9S0
MUSIC IN FRANCE DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
reason or warm eloquence, but insist upon having a vote on the
occasion.
La Poetique de la Musique, par M. Le Conte de la Cepede,
1785, contains many excellent reflexions and precepts for a young
composer of lyric dramas, particularly French, from which the
author draws all the illustrations of his principles.
I must not close this chapter without making my acknow-
ledgements to M. DE la Borde [1734-94], author of the Essai sur
la Musique, published at Paris 1780, in four volumes quarto; a
work to which I have so often referred, and which contains such
an ample and curious collection of materials, as nothing but a long
and unwearied diligence could amass. It has, however,
frequently given me much concern to see the spirit of system
operate so strongly on the author, as to affect both his candour
and consistence. The critique upon musical writers in the third
volume, seems only a vehicle for general censure of all that have
not subscribed to the fundamental base of Rameau, the triple
progression of the Abbe Roussier, and praise of all that have.
There is no middle state, no Music or musical merit of any kind,
theoretical or practical, unsanctioned by these dogmas. But will
M. de la Borde venture to assert, or can he even believe, that till
the publication of Rameau's Systeme de la Basse fondamentale,
and the Abbe Roussier' s Memoir e sur la Musique des Anciens,
there was no good Music in the world, or that all which has been
produced since, by innumerable great masters in several parts of
Europe, who never studied or heard of either, is execrable? That
there is great method and merit in the systems of both these
theorists, no candid judges of the subject will deny; and perhaps
there are few who will not grant that the principles of harmony
have not been formed into a code, equally luminous and useful to
students, by any other writers, and yet will not shut their ears to
all Music not built upon their principles. The inconsistency of
individually praising Italian composers in such glowing terms, and
yet seizing every opportunity to censure and sneer at Italians and
foreigners in general, proves the work to have been compiled by
persons of different principles. What a coil is made (Vol. III. p.
690) about a sharp fifth used merely as an appoggiatura, or note
of taste, with which the base or harmony has nothing to do, and
which, therefore, has no effect on the modulation! And yet M.
de la Borde can bear the quinte superflue, and have patience to
give a rule for its use in composition ! Can any one sincerely
praise the compositions of Piccini, Sacchini, and Paesiello, who is
distgusted by those happy licences, in which the very soul of
Italian Music consists?
M. de la Borde gives us his musical creed in pretty plain terms,
torn. III. p. 639, in answer to a remark of M. Jamard, who
expresses his surprize, that " the Italians without any formal
system, compose better Music than the French, who are in
possession of the true principles of harmony." This M. de la Borde
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
is so far from granting, that, on the contrary, he is certain the
French Music, with respect to counterpoint, is infinitely superior
to the Italian; and that the Italians surpass the French in nothing
but dramatic Music, which is not like other Music, subservient to
the laws of counterpoint! — " We will allow," continues he, "that
the Italians are superior to us in melody; but they in return must
grant, that with respect to harmony we write in a manner superior
to them in correctness, purity, and elegance." What! superior to
Leo, Feo, Durante, Abos, Jomelli, Caffaro, and Manna. But
neither melody nor harmony, alone, can constitute good Music,
which consists in the union of both; and melody without harmony,
or harmony without melody, is as imperfect as a man with one
arm, or one leg, to whom nature has originally given two.
With respect to all the feuds and contentions lately occasioned
by Music in France, they seem to have annihilated the former
disposition of the inhabitants to receive delight from such Music
as their country afforded. There are at present certainly too many
critics, and too few candid hearers in France as well as elsewhere.
I have seen French and German soi-disant connoisseurs listen to the
most exquisite musical performance with the same sans-froid as an
anatomist attends a dissection. It is all analysis, calculation, and
parallel; they are to be wise, not pleased. Happy the people,
however imperfect their Music, if it gives them pleasure! But
when it is an eternal object of dispute; when each man, like
Nebuchadnezzar, sets up his own peculiar idol, which every
individual is to fall down and worship, or be thrown into the fiery
furnace of his hatred and contempt, the blessing is converted into
a curse.
982
Chapter XII
Qeneral State of JSAusic in England
during the Present Century
MUSIC has at all times been called in to the assistance of
the weak plays and unattractive actors of our national
theatres; and incidental songs, and singing between the
acts, have been found so alluring, that when there was no
plan formed for exhibiting musical dramas, singers have been
engaged at considerable salaries, expressly for that purpose.
Before the present century, the art of singing, indeed, seems
to have been little cultivated among us, by either sex, beyond
what concerned time and tune. The honourable Roger North, in
his manuscript Memoirs of Music, speaks of the younger Banister as
an excellent singing-master; but the players, who sung PurcelTs
songs on the stage, seem to have had nothing but voice and action
to recommend them : such as Bowen, Harris, Freeman, and Pate,
among the men; and among the women, Mrs. Davies, Miss Shore,
afterwards wife to Colley Cibber, Mrs. Cross, Miss Champion, and
Mrs. Bracegirdle. It was, however, a powerful recommendation
to a song, during the last century, to say that it had been performed
at the Play-house. How different from modern times! Church
Music, by the gay and fastidious frequenters of the opera, before,
as well as after it has been heard, is pronounced to be old-fashioned,
and play-house Music vulgar. Till the reign of Queen Anne,
indeed, the gentlemen of the Chapel Royal were occasionally
allowed to sing on the stage; but that Princess thinking the practice
indecent, prohibited its continuance. There are few instances of
vocal performers, especially female, being brought on our stage,
but by accident. The fear of seduction, profligacy, and the world's
opinion, deters parents from educating their children with a view
to a profession, which nothing but uncommon success and
prudence, can render honourable in the eyes of the most serious
part of the nation. The generality of female singers, therefore,
having every thing to learn after leisure for study is no longer in
their power, usually remain ignorant of the principles of their art,
and so totally dependent on a master, as to be obliged to perpetuate
that apprenticeship, which ought to have been served before they
set up for themselves.
983
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
At the beginning of this century, Weldon and Banister were the
composers at Drury-lane, and Eccles at Lincoln's-Inn Fields.
John Eccles [c. 1650-1735] was a popular and ingenious composer
for the stage; and during the reign of Queen Anne, his entries, and
play-house tunes and dances, were very much esteemed, as well as
incidental songs to several plays, which, after the death of Purcell,
were the next in favour of any by our own countrymen. " A
soldier and a sailor," in Congreve's Love for Love [1695], and
a rope-dancing tune, with two or three catches, have the stamp of
original merit. About the year 1730,* he was appointed master of
the King's band, and set the odes till the time of his death, in
1735, when he was succeeded by Dr. Greene.
In 1701, Acts and Galatea, a masque written by Motteaux,
and set by Eccles, was performed at Drury-lane, in which Mr.
Hughs, Mr. Leveridge, Mrs. Lindsey, and Mrs. Campion, were
the singers. This musical drama was likewise frequently performed
in 1702 and 1703 at Lincoln's-Inn Fields.
In 1702, The Judgment of Paris, written by Congreve, and set-
by Daniel Purcell, brother of Henry, was performed at Drury-lane.
This Music had been composed in 1699, on occasion of an advertise-
ment in the London Gazette, N° 3585, acquainting musical
composers, that " several persons of quality having, for the
encouragement of Music, advanced two hundred guineas, to be
distributed in four prizes: the first of one hundred, the second of
fifty, the third of thirty, and the fourth of twenty guineas, to such
masters as should be adjudged to compose the best;" [1700] those
who intended to become candidates were referred to Jacob Tonson,
at Grays-Inn-Gate, for further information. Weldon obtained the
first prize, Eccles the second, Dan. Purcell the third, and Godfrey
Finger, the best musician perhaps among the candidates, the fourth.
Dan. Purcell was a wicked punster, and no less wicked composer.
His right to the first title is recorded in Joe Miller, and to the
second, in the score of his Judgment of Paris, which he printed,
it should seem, to convince the world how righteously he ha,d been
judged. Indeed, he seems to have had little other merit than that
of being brother to Henry Purcell, whose Music of all kinds was
now in the highest favour throughout the kingdom.**
In 1703, Mrs. Champion, the singer, performed a piece upon
the harpsichord at her benefit in Lincoln's-Inn play-house; the,
first feat of the kind that was announced in the newspapers; and
this year Mrs. Tofts, whose performance was afterwards so much
admired in the first operas, sung several Italian and English songs
at a subscription concert in the same theatre.
In 1704, Weldon's Judgment of Paris was brought on the stage
at Drury-lane, in which Mrs. Tofts performed the part of Pallas.
* His appointment as Master of the King's Band was in 1700 in place of Dr. N. Staggins
deceased.
** About 1699 or 1700 Eccles published 3 vols, of Theatre Music, but without specifying the
plays for which the tunes were written, and about 1710 a collection of nearly 100 songs by
him was published. This collection was selected from songs written for 46 dramatic works.
984
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
There was this year a benefit concert at York-buildings for Corbet,
who was afterwards the leader at the opera. The singers at this
concert were Mrs. Lindsey, and Messrs. Hudson, Hughs, and
Laroon.
Margarita [de L'Epine], who the preceding year had sung at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields, began this year to sing, between the acts, at
Drury-lane, songs composed by her master, Greber. And Godfried
Pepusch, from Berlin, had a concert by seven young musicians
whom he had brought over; the Music composed by John Christian
Pepusch, his brother, afterwards Dr. Pepusch.
The first attempt at an opera in the Italian manner, was the
most important musical event of the year 1705 (a). And to the
account of the following year already given, nothing remains to be
added, but the appearance of two new singers at Drury-lane,
Ramondon and Holcomb, who afterwards become considerable
favourites. Holcomb [c. 1890-c. 1750], who had been brought
up in Salisbury Cathedral, was called the boy, as long as his treble
voice continued. He afterwards quitted the stage and taught
singing, for which, by a constant attendance at the Italian opera,
he qualified himself in a manner superior to most Englishmen of
his time.
In the original edition of the Tatler, N° 101, for September
29th, 1709, a performance of Music was advertised at Stationers-
hall, for the benefit of Mr. Turner, consisting of songs for one,
two, and three voices, besides several full-pieces of Music for
trumpets, hautbois, violins, &c. by Mr. Dean, Mr. Manship, and
others. But what renders this concert worth mentioning here, is,
that in the advertisement a solo of the famous Arcangelo Corelli
was promised to be performed by Mr. Dean. This is the first
time that I have seen such a promise in the newspapers (b).
Corelli's solos, though published at Rome in 1700, had not yet
been printed in England.*
About this time, the names of two foreign musicians, Pepusch
and Galliard, appear so frequently in theatrical advertisements, that
it seems necessary to give some account of them.
John Christopher Pepusch [1667-1752] was born in 1667 at
Berlin, and had made so great a progress in Music at the age of
fourteen, that he was sent for to court, where he gave such proofs
of his abilities that he was appointed to teach the prince, father
of the late King of Prussia. He remained at Berlin till he was
about twenty, when he went into Holland,** where he first began to
publish his compositions ; but after continuing there about a year,
he came to England [c. 1700] soon after the Revolution. His
first employment in London was playing the tenor in the band at
(a) See above, p. 654. (6) The price of admission to this concert was 2s. 6d.
* See editor's note Book III, p. 399, with regard to the dates of Corelli's Sonates.
** He remained at Berlin until he was 30, and left after witnessing a terrible act of
despotism by the King.
985
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Drury-lane play-house; but having convinced the managers that he
deserved a better place, he was advanced to the harpsichord, about
1700. In 1707, he had acquired English sufficient to adapt
Motteaux's translation of the Italian opera of Thomyris to airs of
Scarlatti and Bononcini, and to new set the recitatives. In 1709
and 1710 several of his works were advertised in the first edition
of the Tatlers, particularly a set of sonatas for a flute and base, and
his first book of cantatas. In 1713, he obtained, at the same time
as Crofts, the degree of doctor of Music at the university of Oxford.
And soon after this, upon the establishment of a choral chapel at
Cannons, he was employed by the Duke of Chandos, as maestro di
capella;* in which capacity he composed anthems and morning and
evening services, which are still preserved in the Academy of Ancient
Music. In 1715, he composed the masque of Venus and Adonis,
written by Cibber; and in 1716 The Death of Dido, by Booth,
both for Drury-lane. These pieces, though not very successful,
were more frequently performed than any of his other original
dramatic compositions. In 1723, he published an ode for St.
Cecilia's Day,** which he had set for the concert in York-buildings.
And about the year 1724, Dr. Berkeley, dean of Londonderry,
afterwards bishop of Cloyne, having formed a plan for erecting a
college in one of the Summer Isles, or Bermudas, among the
several persons of distinguished abilities whom he had engaged to
accompany him thither, fixed on Dr. Pepusch. But having
embarked with his associates for the intended settlement, the ship
was wrecked, and the undertaking frustrated.
Being returned to England after this accident, Dr. Pepusch
married Margarita de l'Epine,*** who had quitted the stage, where
she had acquired a fortune that was estimated at £.10,000. These
possessions however, did not incline the doctor to relax in his
musical studies or pursuits. He had always been a diligent
collector of ancient Music and musical tracts, and he was now
enabled to gratify this passion without imprudence. He still
continued to compose for the play-house in Lincoln' s-Inn Fields,
and had the 'Squire of Alsatia for his benefit there in 1726, "with
singing by Mrs. Chambers, also singing in Italian and English by
Mrs. Forsyth, Mrs. Davies, and Mrs. Grimaldi, being the first
time of their respective appearances on the stage." Soon after
[1728], he was very judiciously chosen by Gay, to help him to
select the tunes for the Beggar's Opera, for which he composed an
original overture upon the subject of one of the tunes (I'm like a
skiff), and furnished the wild, rude, and often vulgar melodies,
with bases so excellent, than no sound contrapuntist will ever
attempt to alter them.
* This appointment dates from 1712. Pepusch became Musical Director of Lincoln's Inn
Fields Theatre shortly after taking his degree in 1713.
** This was the masque The Union of the Three Sisters. The above masques were written
during his directorship at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre.
*** He married de 1' Epine in 1718.
986
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
After this period, he composed but little, applying himself
chiefly to the theory of Music, and explaining the mysteries of
composition to young professors. He had always been extremely
anxious for the prosperity of the Academy of Ancient Music, of
which he was one of the first founders [1710], and continued very
active in its service to the time of his death. As a consequence
of his musical erudition and zeal for the advancement of his art,
he published in 1731, a correct edition of a short Treatise on
Harmony, which the late Earl of Abercorn is supposed to have
assisted him in putting into English (c). This work contains many
elementary rules of composition that are practical and useful; but
it likewise contains many prejudices and exploded doctrines, which,
to revive, would shackle genius and throw the art back into Gothic
times.
In 1737, he was appointed organist of the Charter-house,
which afforded him a tranquil retreat well suited to his time of
life and love of study; and here he was visited and consulted as an
oracle, not only by young musical students, to whom he was always
kind and communicative, but by every master who modestly
supposed he had still something to learn (d). Here he greatly
augmented his library, which consisted of musical curiosities,
theoretical and practical, of all kinds.
In 1739, he lost a son, his only child, upon whose genius and
disposition there was every reason to found the greatest expectations;
and in 1740 [1746], Mrs. Pepusch died; after which, his time
seems to have been chiefly devoted to the study of the genera and
systems of the ancient Greek Music, concerning which he presented
a paper to the Royal Society in 1746 (e), and was soon after elected
a member of that learned body.
From this period till the year 1752, when he died at the age
of eight-five, he persisted in the study of Greek Music; and,
having dispatched the Genera, was trying to illustrate the doctrines
and prejudices of Isaac Vossius concerning the Rhythmus of the
ancients, but left no papers behind him on the subject, that were
either useful or intelligible to those who had the possession of them
after his decease.
This profound musician was buried in the chapel of the Charter-
house, where a tablet was placed, and inscribed to his memory,
by his friends and associates of the Academy of Ancient Music
[in 1757].
As a practical musician, though so excellent a harmonist ,_ he
was possessed of so little invention, that few of his compositions
(c) This nobleman had so long studied composition under Dr. Pepusch, and so frequently
conversed with him on the subject, that he was supposed more able to explain his principles
in English than the doctor himself. The first edition of this small tract appeared without the
plates or the consent of the author [1730].
(d) In one of my visits to this venerable master, very early in my life, he gave me a
short lesson which made so deep an impression, that I long endeavoured to practise it. "When
I was a young man, said he, I determined never to go to bed at night, till I knew something
that I did not know in the morning."
(e) No. 481, and Martin's Abridg. Vol. X.
987
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
were ever in general use and favour, except one of his twelve
cantatas, Alexis, and his airs for two flutes or violins, consisting of
simple easy themes or grounds with variations, each part echoing
the other in common divisions for the improvement of the hand.
Indeed, though only one cantata of the two books he published
was ever much noticed, there is considerable harmonical merit in
them all; the recitatives are in general good, and the counterpoint
perfectly correct and masterly. The fifth cantata of the second
book seems much superior to the rest : the first air would admit of
modern taste and expression, the harmony is rich, and the parts
are well arranged; and the second air, with a trumpet accompani-
ment, is spirited, and if sung by a powerful and cultivated voice,
would have a good effect. But these cantatas are by no means
in the style of Ales. Scarlatti, as has been suggested; they rather
resemble the cantatas of Gasparini, whose melodies were simple
and modulation timid, than the original cantilena, and extraneous
modulation of Scarlatti. Among all the publications of Pepusch,
the most useful to musical students was, perhaps, his correct edition
of Corelli's Sonatas and Concertos in score, published in 1732.
He treated all other Music in which there was fancy or invention
with sovereign contempt (/). Nor is it true, as has been asserted,
that " he readily acquiesced in Handel's superior merit." Handel
despised the pedantry of Pepusch, and Pepusch, in return, con-
stantly refused to join in the general chorus of Handel's praise (g).
The sole ambition of Pepusch, during the last years of his life,
seems to have been the obtaining the reputation of a profound
theorist, perfectly skilled in the Music of the ancients; and attaching
himself to the mathematician De Moivre and Geo. Lewis Scot, who
helped him to calculate ratios and construe the Greek writers on
Music, he bewildered himself and some of his scholars with the
Greek genera, scales, diagrams, geometrical, arithmetical and
harmonical proportions, surd quantities, apotomes, limmas, and
everything concerning ancient harmonics, that was dark,
unintelligible, and foreign to common and useful practice (h). But
with all his pedantry and ideal admiration of the Music of the
ancients, he certainly had read more books on the theory of modern
Music, and examined more curious compositions, than any of the
musicians of his time; and though totally devoid of fancy and
(/) About the year 1746, I was so fortunate, at the late Dr. Arne's, as to be introduced
to his acquaintance, of which from his great reputation for science, I was very ambitious. The
first time I had the honour to play to him, I ventured to attempt a very difficult lesson of
Scarlatti, and when I had done, he both flattered and frightened me extremely, by saying:
"pray young man play me that bagatelle again." What a great man must this be, thought I,
who calls a lesson that has cost me such immense labour to execute, a bagatelle] But it was
neither a fugue nor a canon.
(g) After playing a lesson of Handel to him at the Charter-house, in the year 1747, I was
sufficiently young and ignorant of the world, to ask him how he liked that master's works?
When all the answer I could obtain from him, to my silly question, was that he thought him
"a good practical musician."
(ft) In his attempts at calculation, the old French mathematician, De Moivre, used to
call him a stupid German dog, who could neither count four, nor understand any one that
did. And Mr. Scot, who helped him to construe the Greek theorists, used to say that he had
very little Latin and less Greek; as I have been assured by Dr. Pepusch's scholar and friend,
the late Sir John Turner, who had these opinions from De Moivre and Scot themselves.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
invention, he was able to correct the productions of his cotem-
poraries, and to assign reasons for whatever had been done by
the greatest masters who preceded him. But when he is called the
most learned musician of his time it should be said, in the Music of
the sixteenth century. Indeed, he had at last such a partiality for
musical mysteries, and a spirit so truly antiquarian, that he allowed
no composition to be Music but what was old and obscure. Yet,
though he fettered the genius of his scholars by antiquated rules,
he knew the mechanical laws of harmony so well, that in glancing
his eye over a score, he could by a stroke of his pen, smooth the
wildest and most incoherent notes into melody, and make them
submissive to harmony; instantly seeing the superfluous or deficient
notes, and suggesting a base from which there was no appeal.
His admirable library, the most curious and complete in scarce
musical authors, theoretical and practical, was dispersed after his
death. He bequeathed a considerable part of his best books and
manuscripts to Kelner, an old German friend, who played the
double-base in the theatres and concerts of the time; some to
Travers, and these and the rest were at last sold, dispersed, and
embezzled, in a manner difficult to describe or understand.
John Ernest Galliard [c. 1687-1749], a native of Zell, came
over in the suite of Prince George of Denmark [c. 1706] ; his
instrument was the hautbois, which he played in public, perhaps
for the last time, in accompanying Mrs. Barbier in a song at his
benefit in Lincoln's-Inn Fields play-house, 1722. He seems to have
studied our language on his arrival in this country with considerable
diligence and success : for in 1712 he was chosen by Hughes to set
his opera of Calypso & Telemachus, for the Queen's theatre in
the Haymarket (i) . And he afterwards not only composed cantatas
written by Hughes and Congreve, but the Music of many entertain-
ments and pantomimes for Lincoln's-Inn Fields and Co vent-garden;
and in 1742, published an admirable translation of Tosi's Art of
Singing. But in 1709, it is not probable that he could have been
the translator of Raguenet's Par allele des Fran, et des Ital. as has
been imagined, the English of which is even superior to that of the
translation of Tosi. He was constantly attached to Rich, both at
Lincoln's-Inn Fields and Co vent-garden, and composed for no other
theatres; though his hunting song in the Royal Chace: " With early
horn," was long the delight of every play-house and public place
in the kingdom. Beard and Lowe hardly ever appeared on the
stage without being called upon to sing it.
In 1728, he published, by subscription, his Music to the Hymn
of Adam and Eve from Milton. This is extremely well set in the
grave and learned style of his master Steffani.* The recitative is
still in the more ancient style of Italy, in which there are formal
closes, terminated with a shake, instead of the more colloquial
cadence of modern recitation. At his last benefit, in 1746 [1745],
(z) See above, p. 680.
* Dr. Benjamin Cooke afterwards added orchestral accompaniments to this work and
extended some of the movements into Choruses.
989
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
among his other compositions that were performed on the occasion,
there was a piece for twenty-four bassoons and four double-bases !
This worthy musician, who died in 1749, was certainly an excellent
contrapuntist; but with respect to his compositions in general, I
must say, that I never saw more correctness or less originality in
any author that I have examined, of the present century, Dr.
Pepusch always excepted.*
The year 1714 was rendered an important period to the progress
of the violin in this country, by the arrival of Geminiani and
Veracini; as the abilities of these masters confirmed the sovereignty
of that instrument over all others, in our theatres and concerts.
The compositions and performance of Nicola Mateis had polished
and refined our ears, and made them fit and eager for the sonatas
of Corelli; and many of our young nobility and gentry who
travelled to Italy during his life, were ambitious of hearing and
taking lessons of this great master on the violin, which became so
much in favour, that the English were said to have stripped Italy,
not only of many of its best pictures and statues, but of all its
valuable violins. And the favourite instrument upon which Corelli
himself had played, was brought hither soon after his death by
Corbet, an Englishman, and remained many years in the possession
of a gentleman at Newcastle, at whose decease it was purchased
by the late Mr. Avison for Giardini, whose property it still continues.
Veracini, who was now regarded as the greatest violinist in
Europe (k), performed symphonies between the acts, at the opera,
immediately after his arrival, and in April had a benefit concert at
Hickford's room. His compositions, however, were too wild and
flighty for the taste of the English at this time, when they regarded
the sonatas of Corelli as models of simplicity, grace, and elegance
in melody, and of correctness and purity in harmony. Indeed, no
instrumental Music was heard with equal delight by the ignorant
and the learned, or imitated more closely by subsequent composers
for violins. His solos and concertos still extended his fame, and
were thought inimitable, till the arrival of Geminiani, who though
Corelli had been one of his masters, and of whom he always spoke
with reverence, yet, gifted with a more powerful hand, a bolder
modulation, and a less symmetric style, he intrepidly stepped forth
and convinced the musical world that Corelli had left his disciples
a demesne that was still capable of higher cultivation and improve-
ment. And as we are greatly indebted to this master for the
improved state of the violin before the arrival of Giardini in this
country, and indeed for the advancement of instrumental Music in
general, during the early part of this century, we must here stop
and pay our respects to him.
Francesco Geminiani [1667P-1761], a native of Lucca, was
born about the year 1666. He received his first instructions on the
{k) See Book III. p. 450.
* There is a curious collection of music by him in the Henry Watson Music Library at
Manchester.
990
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
violin of Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, of Milan, commonly called 77
Gobbo [the Hunchback], a celebrated performer on that instru-
ment, who set the opera of Ariberto & Flavio, for Venice, in 1684.
After this, he studied counterpoint under Ales. Scarlatti at Rome,
where he became a disciple of Corelli on the violin; and having
finished his studies there, he went to Naples, where from the
reputation of his performance at Rome, he was placed at the head
of the orchestra; but, according to the elder Barbella, he was soon
discovered to be so wild and unsteady a timist, that instead of
regulating and conducting the band, he threw it into confusion;
as none of the performers were able to follow him in his tempo
rubato, and other unexpected accelerations and relaxations of
measure. After this discovery, the younger Barbella assured me,
that his father, who well remembered his arrival at Naples, said he
was never trusted with a better part than the tenor, during his
residence in that city.
In 1716, he published in London his first work, dedicated to
Baron Kilmansegge, consisting of Twelve Solos for the Violin (/),
which though few could play, yet all the professors allowed them
to be still more masterly and elaborate than those of Corelli. In
1726, he formed Corelli' s first six solos into concertos, and soon
after, the last six. He likewise selected six of his sonatas for the
same purpose, and imitating his style in composing additional parts
to them, manifested how much he respected the originals. It was
not till the year 1732 that Geminiani published his first six
concertos, which he called his Opera seconda, and dedicated to the
Duchess of Marlborough. Soon after this, his Opera terza, or
second set of concertos, appeared, which established his character,
and placed him at the head of all the masters then living, in this
species of composition.
His second set of solos [Op. 4], commonly called his French
solos, either from their style or their having been composed and
engraved in France, was published in 1739. These were admired
more than played; as about this time it became more than ever the
fashion for public solo-players to perform only their own
compositions, and others were unable to execute them. His third
set of concertos [Op. 6], which appeared about the year 1741, was
so laboured, difficult, and fantastical, as never to be played, to my
knowledge, in either public place or private concert.
His long-promised work, with the title of Guida Armonica,
published in 1742, appeared too late; for though there are many
combinations, modulations, and cadences, that would open the
mind and enrich the memory of a young student in harmony, he
promised too much (m); and his authority in the kingdom was
(l) These seem to have been previously published at Amsterdam, by Le Cene, of which
edition I am in possession of a copy, beautifully engraved on copper.
{m) The original title runs thus : "Guida Armonica o Dizionario Armonico, being a sure
guide to harmony and modulation, in which are exhibited the various combinations of sounds,
progressions of harmony, ligatures, and cadences, real and deceptive." It was a kind of mill, in
which good Music was to be ground with little trouble and no genius; as good sense and science
by the Laputan machine, in Gulliver's Travels.
991
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
diminished by new Music and new performers, as well as by his
own frequent change of sentiment: setting up at one time as a
model of perfection, what he would despise and condemn at
another.
His Treatise on Good Taste, and Rules for Playing in Good
Taste, did not appear till about 1747 [1749] ; but that was too soon
for the present times. Indeed a treatise on good taste in dress,
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, would now be as useful to a
tailor or milliner, as the rules of taste in Music, forty years ago,
to a modern musician.
In 1748, he published his Art of Playing the Violin* which was
a very useful work in its day; the shifts and examples of different
difficulties, and uses of the bow, being infinitely superior to those
in any other book of the kind, or indeed oral instruction, which
the nation could boast, till the arrival of Giardini (n).
His composition called the Enchanted Forest, in which he
endeavoured by mere sound to represent to the imagination of an
audience all the events in the episode of the thirteenth book of
Tasso's Jerusalem, was published about 1756; but Music has never
had the power, without vocal articulation, to narrate, or instruct;
it can excite, paint, and soothe our passions; but is utterly
incapable of reasoning, or conversing, to any reasonable purpose
(o).
Besides these practical and theoretical works, he published two
books of Harpsichord Pieces [1743], that are rendered imprac-
ticable by crouded harmony and multiplied notes; and two books
upon the Art of Accompaniment, which are only intelligible to those
who no longer want such assistance; and if practised, would be
intolerable to singers and solo-players, who wish to be heard
through the tinkling of a harpsichord.**
Geminiani was seldom heard in public during his long residence
in England. His compositions, scholars, and the presents he
received from the great, whenever he could be prevailed upon to
play at their houses, were his chief support. In 1731, he advertised
a Weekly Consort of Musick, to be carried on at Hickford's room,
by subscription, and at which he played the first violin
himself (p). In 1741, he had a benefit concert at the little theatre
[n) Geminiani, however, was certainly mistaken in laying it down as a rule, that "no
two notes on the same string, in shifting, should be played with the same finger"; as beautiful
expressions and effects are produced by great players, in shifting, suddenly, from a low note
to a high, with the same finger on the same string.
(o) That truly great musician, Emanuel Bach, some years ago, attempted, in a
duet, to carry on a disputation between two persons of different principles; but with all his
powers of invention, melody, and modulation, the opinions of the disputants remained as
obscure and unintelligible, as the warbling of larks and linnets.
(j>) This concert was advertised to be carried on the next year by Arrigoni and San
Martini, "in the same manner as by Signor Geminiani, who had declined the undertaking; the
first violin by Signor Carbonelli."
* The date and origin of this publication is uncertain. The question is dealt with by
Fuller-Maitland in the Oxf. TIM. Vol. IV. p. 175. According to F. Kidson (British Music
Publishers) this work could not have been published before 1734. It was, however, published
long before 174S.
** The Art of Accompaniment is examined by F. T. Arnold in The Art oj Accompaniment
from a Thorough-Bass.
992
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
in the Haymarket, by command of their Royal Highnesses the late
Prince and Princess of Wales. And in 1749, a Concerto Spirituale,
during Lent, at Drury-lane theatre; in which he led the band, and
played a concerto, from the fifth solo of his fourth opera, and the
tenth solo of the same set. The unsteady manner in which he led
seemed to confirm the Neapolitan account of his being a bad mental
arithmetician, or calculator of time (q). After this, he went to
Paris, where he continued till 1755, when he returned to England,
and published a new edition of his two first sets of concertos (r).
In 1761 [1760], he went to Ireland, to visit his scholar Dubourg,
master of the King's band in that kingdom, who always treated
him with great respect and affection.* It is supposed that his death
was accelerated there the next year, by the loss of an elaborate
Treatise on Music, which he had been many years compiling, and
which, by the treachery of a female servant, was conveyed out of
his room, and could never be recovered. Surviving this loss but
a short time, he died at Dublin, September 17th, 1762, at the great
age of ninety-six.
Geminiani, with all his harmonical abilities, was so circum-
scribed in his invention, that he was obliged to have recourse to all
the arts of musical cookery, not to call it quackery, for materials
to publish. In his younger days, when imagination is most fertile,
sixteen years elapsed between the publication of his first book of
solos and his first six concertos. Indeed, during that period, he
atchieved what a plodding contrapuntist of inferior abilities might
have done as well: he transformed Corelli's solos and six of his
sonatas into concertos, by multiplying notes, and loading, and
deforming, I think, those melodies, that were more graceful and
pleasing in their light original dress. After the publication of his
second set of solos, his productions seem to have been the offspring
of whim, caprice, expedients, and an unprincipled change of style
and taste, which neither pleased the public, nor contributed to his
own honour or profit. One day he would set up French Music
against all other; the next English, Scots, Irish — any thing but the
best compositions of Italy or Handel. It is well known how much
he preferred the chaiacter of a picture-dealer, without the necessary
knowledge or taste in painting, as very good judges asserted, to
that of a composer of Music, by which he had subsisted and acquired
all his fame and importance. It is to be feared that a propensity
towards chicane and cunning, which gratifies some dispositions more
by outwitting mankind, than excelling them in virtue and talents,
[q) I was present at this performance, but remember nothing of the band being obliged
to stop in the middle of a piece, as has been said. There was part of a very fine mass, by
Negri, performed; which, with all the inaccuracy of execution, which the want of more
rehearsing occasioned, was much applauded.
{r) This edition was prepared from a score which I had made for my own improvement,
and of which, upon Geminiani complaining, in 1750, that he had lost his original, I was much
flattered by his acceptance.
* The post of Master and Composer of the State Music in Ireland had been obtained for
Geminiani in 1728 by his pupil Lord Essex. For some reason or other, Germiniani never took
up the post, and Dubourg went instead.
Vol. ii. 63. 993
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
operated a little upon Geminiani; whose musical decisions ceasing
to be irrevocable in England, determined him to try his hand at
buying cheap and selling dear; imposing upon grosser ignorance
with false names, and passing off copies for originals. As a
musician, he was certainly a great master of harmony, and very
useful to our country in his day; but though he had more variety of
modulation, and more skill in diversifying his parts than Corelli,
his melody was even inferior, and there is frequently an irregularity
in his measures and phraseology, and a confusion in the effect
of the whole, from the too great business and dissimilitude of the
several parts, which gives to each of his compositions the effect of a
rhapsody or extemporaneous flight, rather than a polished and
regular production (s).
In 1715 [May, 1714], Mr. Matthew Dubourg, had a benefit
concert at twelve years old [11], at the great room in James-street
(t); and the same year, and at the same place, a benefit concert
[July, 1715] is advertised for Signor Castrucci, lately come from
Italy with the Earl of Burlington; this was the beginning of two
performers who afterwards became very eminent professors.
From the year 1717 to 1720, there were no Italian operas at
the King's theatre; and at Lincoln 's-Inn Fields, and Drury-lane,
the attempts at musical dramas in English were but feeble, and
their success seems to have been proportioned to their merit. At
this time French Comedies, in the Italian manner, were performed
in the Hay-market very peaceably, and very frequently honoured
with the presence of his Majesty George I. and the Royal Family; it
was at these that Mademoiselle Violante performed her feats on
the rope.
In 1720, the year in which the Royal Academy of Music*
was formed, and operas were supported with unusual liberality and
splendor, there seem to have been more musical performances
elsewhere, than at any other period. In the Daily C our ant, the
only vehicle at this time for such intelligence, the following
exhibitions were announced : February 2d, a benefit play for Mrs.
Turner Robinson, at Drury-lane, with new entertainments -of
singing between every act. The 10th, a consort for Signor Castrucci,
at York-buildings, in which he played several concertos and solos of
his own composition. 15th, a consort of vocal and instrumental
Music, at ditto, for the benefit of Mrs. Dennis, the vocal by herself,
who before had never performed in public. 23d, a consort at
Hickford's room in James-street near the Hay-market, for the
benefit of William Douglass, commonly called the Black Prince;
singing by Mrs. Fletcher; solo and concerto by Mr. Dubourg;
solo and concerto by Mr. Kytch on the German-flute and hautbois.
27th, a consort for Mr. Dubourg. April 8th, during Lent, the
(s) His sixth concerto of the second set is always to be excepted, which is the most
pleasing and perfect composition of the kind, within my knowledge.
«) He is said to have played, standing upon a joint-stool, a solo, at Britton the small-
coal man's concert, much earlier.
* The Royal Academy was formed in 1719, but the season did not open until April, 1720.
994
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
same performer had a consort at Drury-lane play-house, in which
he played several concertos and solos of his own composition.
May 21st, at the desire of several gentlemen and ladies, Mr. Grano
performed on the trumpet and German-flute (u). May 31st, a
consort for Mr. Aubert. June 16th another, at Hickford's room,
for Castrucci, the first violin of the opera (x). September 1st, a
benefit consort, at ditto, for Signor Francesco Scarlatti, brother of
the famous Alessaudro Scarlatti, in which the greatest part of the
Music was of his own composition. A sermon is advertised that
was preached in the cathedral of Hereford, at the anniversary
meeting of the three choirs of Worcester, Glocester, and Hereford,
September 7th. And at the annual feast of the sons of the clergy
December 8th, Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate, with an anthem
composed by Mr. Greene, were vocally and instrumentally
performed at St. Paul's.
This will give the reader an idea of the miscellaneous
performances and general state of practical Music in our country, to
which I shall only add a short record of the first appearance of such
new performers as afterwards became eminent, and of such
exhibitions as were remarkable for their singularity.
In 1722, a new species of entertainment was advertised at the
Opera-house, called a Ridotto [or Redoute] : " it was opened with
twenty-four select songs, which lasted about two hours; after which
the company passed over a bridge, from the pit to the stage, where
a duke and duchess led up the ball : the hours were the same as at a
masquerade (y)." The songs were selected from the late operas,
and performed by Senesino, Baldassarri, Mrs. Anastasia Robinson,
and Salvai.
This and the preceding year Mrs. Sarah Ottey [b. c. 1695]
frequently performs solos at concerts on three several instruments :
harpsichord, base-viol, and violin.
In February, there was a benefit concert for Mr. Thomson
[1757-1851], the first editor of a collection of Scots tunes in
England.* To this collection, for which there was a very large
subscription, may be ascribed the subsequent favour of these
national melodies, south of the Tweed. After this consort, " at the
desire of several persons of quality, was performed a Scottish song."
In Castrucci's advertisement for his benefit concert this year,
in which he styles himself first violin of the opera, he promises a
particular concerto with an echo; adding that, " as he has for the
(m) This was a kind of mungrel dilettante, who during many years condescended to make
concerts and give lessons, en i>rojesseur,_ always insinuating that it was merely for the pleasure
of amusing the public and instructing individuals. Grano's trumpet march was long used by
the guards.
(x) Till the year 1715-, this station had been occupied by Corbet, an Englishman, who had
been in Italy during the life of Corelli, and returned thither a second time, when he quitted
the opera.**
(y) Freeholder's Journal, February 14th.
* Beethoyen and Haydn arranged Scotch and Welsh songs for the various publications
of George Thomson.
** See editor's note page 694.
995
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
space of six years had the honour to serve the English nobility, he
hopes they will favour him this last time, being to return the
ensuing summer to Rome, his native country."
Carbonelli, who had not been long in England, had this year
for his benefit at Drury-lane, and at play-house prices, " an
entertainment of Music," in which he seems to have mustered all
the forces which London could then supply, that were not employed
in the opera. The bill of fare is so minutely given in the
advertisement, that I shall transcribe it from the Daily Courant, as
an instance of the musical dainties then in season. Act I. A new
concerto for two trumpets, composed and performed by Grano and
others; a new concerto by Albinoni, just brought over; song by Mrs.
Barbier; concerto composed by Signor Carbonelli. Act II. A
concerto with two hautbois and two flutes, composed by Dieupart;
a concerto on the base- violin by Pippo;* song, Mrs. Barbier; by
desire, the eighth concerto of Arcangello Corelli. Act III. Concerto
by Carbonelli; solo on the arch-lute by Signor Vebar; song, Mrs.
Barbier; a new concerto on the little flute, composed by Woodcock,
and performed by Baston; solo, Signor Carbonelli; and for finale,
a concerto on two trumpets by Grano, &c. (z).
William Babel [c. 1690-1723], organist of Allhallows, Bread-
street, seems to have been the first, in this country at least, who
thinned, simplified, and divested the Music of keyed-instruments
of the crouded and complicated harmony, with which, from the
covenience of the clavier, and passion for full and elaborate Music, it
had been embarrassed from its earliest cultivation. This author
acquired great celebrity by wire-drawing the favourite songs of the
opera of Rinaldo, and others of the same period, into showy and
brilliant lessons, which by mere rapidity of finger in playing single
sounds, without the assistance of taste, expression, harmony, or
modulation, enabled the performer to astonish ignorance, and
acquire the reputation of a great player at a small expence. There
is no instrument so favourable to such frothy and unmeaning Music
as the harpsichord. Arpeggios, which lie under the fingers, and
running up and down the scales of easy keys with velocity, are not
difficult, on an instrument of which neither the tone nor tuning
depends on the player; as neither his breath nor bow-hand is
requisite to give existence or sweetness to its sounds. And Mr.
Babel b}' avoiding its chief difficulties of full harmony, and
dissimilar motion of the parts, at once gratified idleness and vanity.
I remember well in the early part of my life being a dupe to the
glare and glitter of this kind of tinsel; this poussiere dans les yeux,
which Mr. Felton continued, and other dealers in notes, et rien que
des notes, till Jozzi, the singer, by his neat and elegant manner of
executing the brilliant, graceful, and pleasing lessons of Alberti,
(2) This performer frequently played solos on the trumpet, German-flute, and common-
flute, the same night; as the young Burke Thumoth did, soon after, on the trumpet, flute, and
harpsichord.
* Pippo, whose real name was Filippo Mattei, was the composer of the 1st Act of the
opera Muzio Scaevola, for which Bononcini wrote the 2nd, and Handel the 3rd Acts. See above
p. 712.
99§
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
rendered them the objects of imitation. At length, on the arrival
of the late Mr. Bach, and construction of piano-fortes in this
country, the performers on keyed-instruments were obliged wholly
to change their ground; and instead of surprising by the seeming
labour and dexterity of execution, had the real and more useful
difficulties of taste, expression, and light and shade, to encounter.
Babel, who was one of his Majesty George the First's private Music,
died about the year 1722.
The most memorable musical events of 1723, where the arrival
of the admirable Giuseppe San Martini, whose performance on the
hautbois and compositions were, afterwards, so justly celebrated;
and of John Clegg [1714-c. 1750], no less remarkable for his early
excellence on the violin, and insanity.
Martini's first public performance in England was at a benefit
concert for Signor Piero, at the little theatre in the Haymarket,
where he is called " an Italian master just arrived." A concert at
the same place was advertised soon after, " by particular desire of
several ladies of quality, for the benefit of John Clegg, a youth of
nine years of age, lately arrived from Ireland, with several solos
and concertos by the youth; particularly a concerto of Vivaldi.
The principal violin by the youth."
In 1724, Mich. Christ. Festing [d. 1752] performs a concerto
and solo of his own composition, at a benefit concert for Prince
Douglass, which is the first time his name occurs in the newspapers.*
In March this year, Corbett, the first leader of the opera, being
returned from Italy a second time, advertises by subscription at the
little theatre in the Haymarket, " an entertainment of Music, with
variety of new concertos for violins, hautbois, trumpets, German-
flutes, and French-horns; with several pieces by Mr. Corbett on
a particular new instrument never heard in England."
This year were published three cantatas by Geo. Hay den,
organist of Bermondsey, which were long in great favour with the
lovers of pure English Music. And, indeed, they seem the best
which had been produced since Pureell's time. His two-part song:
" As I saw fair Clora," and several other single songs by this
obscure musician, enjoyed a lasting fame at clubs and festive
meetings.
These are the chief musical transactions, exclusive of the Opera,
till the accession of King George II. 1727, when the public was
informed in the newspapers of the times, that the famous Mr.
Handel was appointed to compose the anthem for the coronation.
October the 6th, it was rehearsed at Westminster-Abbey, and justly
admired.
San Martini's first publication in England was advertised the
same day; consisting of " Twelve Sonatas for two Flutes and a
Base, being exceeding fine Harmony."
The Beggar's Opera, which came out the latter end of this year
[Jan., 29, 1728], forms a memorable epoch in our national Music:
* Festing was one of the founders of the Society of Musicians, and for a long period acted
as the Hon. Secretary.
997
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
for though not a single new air was composed for this pasticcio
in our vulgar tongue, it has proved the best opera to the patentees
of our playhouses that ever was brought on the stage. The morality
and the Music are equally intelligible and acceptable to the galleries;
and a favourite singer can always fill the rest of the house.
In 1728, Matthew Dubourg, whose performance and conduct
had acquired him many friends, was appointed composer and
master of his Majesty's band of Music in Ireland (a). This
excellent performer, born in 1703, was the natural son of the
celebrated dancing-master Isaac, and had instructions from
Geminiani soon after his arrival in England. He resided several
years in Ireland after his first appointment; but from the year 1735,
when he was taken into the service of the late prince of Wales, he
frequently visited England. I saw him at Chester in 1744, and had
the pleasure of accompanying him in the fifth solo of Corelli, which
he performed in a manner so superior to any one I had then heard,
that I was equally astonished and delighted; particularly with the
fulness of his tone and spirit of his execution.*
It has been erroneously said, that Dubourg was no composer;
he was indeed no publisher, but the odes which he set for Ireland,
and innumerable solos and concertos which he composed for his
own public performance, are now in the possession of one of his
disciples, and of some of them the composition is excellent.
Dubourg died in London 1767 (b).
Corbett advertises an entertainment of Music, at Hickford's
room, in which he was to take leave of the public, by performing
his new Bizzarie, which were then printing by subscription, " in
all the new gustos of Italy, for all instruments, and places where
Music is proper." Soon after this, he advertised for sale, the prices
marked on each lot, " his curious study of Music — instruments of
all sorts — Stainers, Cremona violins and basses, with the four
celebrated violins of Corelli, Gobbo, Torelli, and Nic. Cosimi,
deceased, till all are sold, he intending to retire." Though we hear
no more of this musician's public performance; yet, in March 1741,
he advertises another sale of curious compositions and musical
instruments, together with his collection of pictures. Whether
purchasers were not found for these effects, or whether he still
continued collecting, at his .decease, a few years after, he bequeathed
to Gresham College the best of his musical instruments, with £.10
a year to a servant to take care of them; and likewise gave to the
same college the rest of his personal estate. The views of this
worthy professor were, however, frustrated, by the sale and disper-
sion of his musical instruments and curiosities, which soon after
(a) It has been said that this place was offered to Geminiani, who could not accept of
it on account of his being a Roman Catholic.
(b) The late Mr. Redmond Simpson, who married the daughter of Dubourg, had an
excellent portrait of him, and another of his father Isaac.
* Dubourg took part in the 1st performance of the Messiah in 1742, and led the band at
Concerts given by Handel in Ireland during that year.
998
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
the testator's decease were sold by auction at Mercer's Hall and
at his house in Silver-street, Golden-square.*
Among the musical phenomena of the time may be mentioned
a singular performance of a certain Joachim Frederic Creta, who
being in London in 1729, at several concerts " blew the first and
second treble on two French-horns, in the same manner as is usually
done by two persons." We may set this against the double flutes,
the tibia pares, et imputes of antiquity, which, however, though
long lost, have been lately revived by the musical knowledge and
ingenuity of Mr. Sharp.
Another phenomenon of this year was the performance on the
harpsichord of little Kuntzen [1720-81], " a youth of seven years
old, just arrived from Germany." This young musician remained
in England many years, and continued to improve in proportion to
the expectations raised by his early talents. He published before
his departure for Lubeck, where his father was organist, a book of
lessons [12 Sonatas, Op. I.] which required genius to compose,
and hand to execute.
In 1730, Miss Rafter, afterwards the celebrated Mrs. [Kitty]
Clive [1711-85], first appeared on the stage, at Drury-lane, as a
singer, at the benefit of Harry Carey, who seems to have been her
singing-master.** The manner in which this benefit was announced
in the Daily Post, December 3d, is so singular that I shall transcribe
the paragraph for the amusement of my readers. After naming
the play, which was Greenwich Park, and the additional entertain-
ments of singing: particularly a dialogue of Purcell by Mr. Carey
and Miss Rafter, and a cantata of Mr. Carey's by Miss Rafter,
there is an apology from Carey, for the tragedy of half an act not
being performed (c); but a promise is made of indemnification by
the entertainments between the acts. The editor of the paper then
adds: "but at our friend Harry Carey's benefit to-night, the powers
of Music, poetry, and painting, assemble in his behalf, he being an
admirer of the three sister arts : the body of musicians meet in the
Haymarket, whence they march in great order, preceded by a
magnificent moving organ, in form of a pageant, accompanied by
all the kinds of musical instruments ever in use, from Tubal Cain
to this day : a great multitude of booksellers, authors, and printers,
form themselves into a body at Temple-bar, whence they march
with great decency to Co vent-garden, preceded by a little army of
printer's devils, with their proper instruments: here the two bodies
of Music and poetry are joined by the brothers of the pencil;
(c) Meaning Chrononhotonthologos, which was not acted till 1734.***
* See editor's note p. 694 regarding this.
** Kitty Clive made her first stage appearance at Drury Lane in 1728. In 1729 she played
the part of Phillida in Cibber's ballad opera Love in a Riddle. She sang the part of Dalila
at the first performance of Handel's Samson, in 1743. See editor's note page 841 for Horace
Walpole's comments on this production. She appeared in a revival of The Tempest in 1746, for
which Ame supplied the music, and was the first singer of "Where the Bee sucks."
*** "The most Tragical Tragedy that ever was Tragedized by any Company of Tragedians,
called Chrononhotonthologos," produced at the Haymarket Theatre on Feb. 22, 1734.
999
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
when, after taking some refreshment at the Bedford Arms, they
march in solemn procession to the theatre, amidst an innumerable
crowd of spectators."
Poetry and Music, in high antiquity, formed but one profession,
and many have been the lamentations of the learned that these
sister arts were ever separated. Honest Harry Carey [c. 1690-1743]
and Jean Jaques Rousseau are the only bards in modern times who
have had the address to reconcile and unite them. The Honest
Yorkshireman [1735] of Carey and the Devin du Village of
Rousseau are indisputable proofs that popular strains, at least, if
not learned and elegant Music, may be produced by the writer of
a dramatic poem. Carey, without musical learning, invented
many very pleasing and natural melodies, which neither obscured
the sense of the words, nor required much science to hear. But
either from the ambition of the singer, or expectations of the
audience, Music is not suffered to remain simple long upon the
stage; and the more plain and ancient the melodies, the more they
are to be embellished by every new performer of them. The
tunes in the Beggar s Opera will never appear in their original
simple garb again.
This year Miss Cecilia Young, a scholar of Signor Geminiani,
who now sung in public for the first time, had a benefit concert
at Drury-lane play-house, pit and boxes laid together at half a
guinea. This lady, afterwards the wife of Dr. Arne, with a good
natural voice and fine shake, had been so well taught, that her
style of singing was infinitely superior to that of any other English
woman of her time.
A paragraph inserted in the London Journal from Dublin,
December 11th, celebrates the performance of young Clegg and
his sister at a concert. They are called scholars of Bononcini. But
the music he played on the violin was said to be of his own
composition. His sister's performance was vocal.
As the Italian opera when prosperous gave birth to several
English operas, after the Italian manner, so the prodigious success
of the Beggar's Opera produced innumerable musical dramas and
ballad farces of the same kind. In 1731, the Village Opera, written
by Charles Johnson, consisting of new words to old tunes, was first
performed, and seems to have been well received. It was afterwards
imitated by Bickerstaff [in 1762] in Love in a Village *
But the favourite dramas of this year were George Barnwell,
and the Devil to Pay. In this farce Miss Rafter first acquired
celebrity, and after she was Mrs. Clive, to the end of her theatrical
life, she never received more applause, or earned it better in any
part she acted, than in that of Nell. Her singing, which was
intolerable when she meant it to be fine, in ballad farces and songs
of humour was, like her comic acting, every thing it should be.
* The first performance of the Village Opera was in 1729. For a list of Ballad Operas see
Grove's, Vol. I, p. 207.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
The favourite musicians of our own country at this time were
Dubourg, Clegg, Clarke, and Festing, on the violin; Kytch on the
hautbois; Jack Festing on the German-flute; Baston on the common-
flute; Karba on the bassoon; Valentine Snow on the trumpet; and
on the organ, Roseingrave, Greene, Robinson, Magnus, Jack
James, and the young blind Stanley, who whenever there was a
charity sermon, or new organ to be opened, seems to have been
preferred to all others. The favourite play-house singer was
Salway, and at concerts, Mountier from Chichester.
As to composition for our national theatres, Pepusch and Galliard
seem to have been wholly unrivalled till the year 1732, when new
attempts at musical dramas in our own language brought forward
two competitors, who were long in possession of the public favour.
These were John Frederic Lampe, and Thomas Augustine Arne.
Lampe [1703-51], a Saxon, who arrived in England about the year
1726, now first began to be noticed as a composer. February the
25th, the following paragraph was inserted in the Daily Post : " We
hear that there is a subscription for a new English opera called
Amelia, which will shortly be performed at the new theatre in the
Haymarket, by a set of performers who never yet appeared in
public." This opera, written by Harry Carey, was first performed
March 13th, 1732, in the principal character of which, Miss Arne,
afterwards so celebrated as a tragic actress by the name of Mrs.
Cibber, first appeared on the stage, as a singer. The Music which,
according to the advertisement, was " set in the Italian manner,"
having been much applauded, was soon avowed by Lampe, and
Miss Arne's performance interested every hearer.*
The success of this opera probably suggested to her brother
the idea of a similar attempt. But before an account is given of
this performance, it may be necessary to say something of his
musical' education.
Thomas Augustine Arne [1710-78] was the son of Arne the
celebrated upholdsterer, of King's-street, Covent-garden, at whose
house the Indian Kings lodged in the reign of Queen Anne, as
mentioned in the Spectator, N° 50. Arne had a good school
education, having been sent to Eton by his father, who intended
him for the law. But I have been assured by several of his
school-fellows, that his love for Music operated upon him too
powerfully, even while he was at Eton, for his own peace or that
of his companions; for with a miserable cracked common-flute, he
used to torment them night and day, when not obliged to attend
the school. And he told me himself, that when he left Eton, such
was his passion for Music, that he used to avail himself of the
privilege of a servant, by borrowing a livery and going into the
upper gallery of the opera, which was then appropriated to domestics.
At home he had contrived to secrete a spinet in his room, upon
which, after muffling the strings with a handkerchief, he used to
* Lampe's greatest success was The Dragon of Wantley (libretto by Carey) which was
produced on Oct. 26, 1737.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
practise in the night while the rest of the family were asleep; for
had his father discovered how he spent his time, he would, probably,
have thrown the instrument out of the window, if not the player.
This young votary of Apollo was at length obliged to serve a three
years clerkship to the law, without ever intending to make it his
profession ; but even during this servitude, he dedicated every
moment he could obtain fairly, or otherwise, to the study of Music.
Besides practising on the spinet and studying composition, by
himself, he contrived during, his clerkship, to acquire some
instructions on the violin, of Festing, upon which instrument he
made so considerable a progress, that soon after he had quitted his
legal master, his father accidentally calling at a gentleman's house
in the neighbourhood, upon business, found him engaged with
company; but sending in his name, he was invited up stairs, where
there was a large company and a concert, in which, to his great
astonishment, he caught his son in the very act of playing the first
fiddle! Finding him more admired for his musical talents than
knowledge in the law, he was soon prevailed upon to forgive his
unruly passion, and to let him try to turn it to some account. Mo
sooner was the young musician able to practise aloud in his father's
house, than he bewitched the whole family. In discovering that
his sister was not only fond of Music, but had a very sweet-toned
and touching voice, he gave her such instructions as soon enabled
her to sing for Lampe, in his opera of Amelia. And finding her
so well received in that performance, he soon prepared a new
character for her, by setting Addison's opera of Rosamond, in
which he employed his younger brother likewise in the character
of the Page. This musical drama was first performed March 7th,
1733, at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, where Mrs. Barbier performed the
part of the King; Leveridge, Sir Trusty; Page, Master Arne, who
had never appeared in public; Messenger, Mr. Corfe; Queen, Mrs.
Jones; Grideline, Miss Chambers, and the part of Rosamond by
Miss Arne. The opera was performed ten nights successively,
and with great applause; the last time, for the benefit of Mr. Arne,
jun. the composer. Having succeeded so well in a serious opera,
our young musician tried his powers at a burletta, and fixed upon
Fielding's Tom Thumb for that purpose, which under the title of
the Tragedy of Tragedies having met with great success in 1731,
he now got it transformed into the Opera of Operas, and setting it
to Music, " after the Italian manner," had it performed May 31st,
at the new theatre in the Hay-market; the part of Tom Thumb by
Master Arne, his brother. Princess Amelia and the Duke of
Cumberland honoured the second representation with their presence;
the prince of Wales, the sixth; the youngest princesses, the eighth;
and afterwards it had a considerable run.
Besides Lampe and Arne, there were at this time other
candidates for musical fame of the same kind; among these were
Mr. John Christ. Smith [1712-95], who set two English operas for
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Lincoln's-Inn Fields: Teraminta [1732], and Ulysses [1733]; and
De Fesch, the oratorio of Judith.
But though the solid and general food for lovers of Music was
such as Corelli, Geminiani, and Handel had furnished, yet side-
dishes were frequently supplied by others; and in 1733 Mr. Walsh,
the purveyor general, offered to performers on the violin, solos by
Tartini, De Santis of Naples, Berati, and De Fesch; and to German-
flute players, solos by Bononcini, Quantz, Valentini, and Tessarini.
There was no concert now without a solo on the violin by
Veracini, or Clegg, nor play at Drury-lane without a concerto on
the same instrument by Charke (d). In 1735 [1734], Caporale,
the celebrated performer on the violoncello, arrived in England;
and though no deep musician, nor gifted with a very powerful
hand, he was always heard with great partiality, from the almost
single merit, of a full, sweet, and vocal tone.
In 1736 [Jan. 12], Mrs. Cibber, who had captivated every
hearer of sensibility by her native sweetness of voice and powers
of expression, as a singer, first appeared as a tragic actress, in the
part of Zara at Drury-lane, where her brother was engaged as
composer; and it is difficult to say which of the two received the
greatest applause, the actress for her truly interesting person and
pathetic voice and manner, or the musician for his natural and
pleasing strains, particularly the march, which was encored every
night.
This year Mr. Beard, who had his musical education in the
Chapel Royal [under Gates] , first appeared on the stage at Covent-
garden [1735], in the dramatic entertainment of the Royal Chace,
or Merlin's Cave, and instantly became a favourite of the town, by
the performance of Galliard's most agreeable of all hunting songs,
" With early horn." And about this time the three Miss Youngs
were the favourite English female singers: Caecilia the eldest,
afterwards married to Arne; Isabella, to Lampe; and Esther, to
Jones [the organist ? ] (e) . Kelway this year succeeded Weldon as
organist of St. Martin's in the Fields; and Keeble of Chichester, and
Gladwin, began to distinguish themselves as harpsichord players.
The year 1737 was rendered memorable at Co vent-garden
theatre by the success of the burlesque opera of the Dragon of
Wantley, written by Carey, and set by Lampe, " after the Italian
manner." This excellent piece of humour had run twenty-two
nights, when it was stopped, with all other public amusements, by
the death of her Majesty Queen Caroline, November 20th, but was
resumed again on the opening of the theatres in January following,
and supported as many representations as the Beggar's Opera had
done, ten years before. And if Gay's original intention in writing
his musical drama was to ridicule the opera, the execution of his
(d) Charke was a dancing-master, an actor, a man of humour, and an excellent performer
on the violin. He was married to Colley Cibber's daughter, who had likewise acute parts, and
merit, as an actress; but there was nothing in which this ingenious pair exercised their talents
more successfully, than in mutually plaguing each other.
(e) These sisters are still living.
1003
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
plan was not so happy as that of Carey; in which the mock heroic,
tuneful monster, recitative, splendid habits, and style of Music,
all conspired to remind the audience of what they had seen and
heard at the lyric theatre, more effectually than the most vulgar
street tunes could do; and much more innocently than the tricks and
transactions of the most abandoned thieves and prostitutes. Lampe's
Music to this farcical drama, was not only excellent fifty years ago,
but is still modern and in good taste.
About the year 1737, poor Castrucci, Hogarth's enraged
musician, was superseded at the Opera-house in favour of Festing,
not Clegg, as has been said (/). He had published two books of
solos before; and in 1738, he published twelve concertos for violins.
He was long thought insane; but though his compositions were too
mad for his own age, they are too sober for the present. Among
many passages of Corelli and Handel, there are several of his own,
which discover him to have been a man of genius, well acquainted
with the bow and finger-board of his instrument.
Clegg, by the account of cotemporary professors, seems to have
been superior to all performers on the violin in tone and execution,
till about the year 1742 [Jan., 1743/4], when he had so deranged
his faculties by intense study and practice, that he was confined
in the hospital of Bedlam; where, during intervals of sanity, he was
allowed the use of his instrument; and it was long a fashionable,
though inhuman amusement, to visit him there, among other luna-
tics, in hopes of being entertained by his fiddle or his folly !
In 1738, Arne established his reputation as a lyric composer,
by the admirable manner in which he set Milton's Comus. In this
masque he introduced a light, airy, original, and pleasing melody,
wholly different from that of Purcell or Handel, whom all English
composers had hitherto either pillaged or imitated. Indeed, the
melody of Arne at this time, and of his Vauxhall songs afterwards,
forms an sera in English Music; it was so easy, natural and
agreeable to the whole kingdom, that it had an effect upon our
national taste; and till a more modern Italian style was introduced
in the pasticcio English operas of Messrs. Bickerstaff and Cumber-
land, it was the standard of all perfection at our theatres and
public gardens.
This year the first meeting was advertised in the London Daily
Post and General Advertiser, of " the subscribers to a Fund for
the support of decayed musicians and their families at the Crown
and Anchor tavern in the Strand, on Sunday evening, April 19th,
at seven o'clock." Another meeting was convened at the same
place, May 7th, when the fourteen laws or resolutions, which are
still in force, were framed.
In tracing the origin and progress of this admirable institution
[now the Royal Society of Musicians], which has been since
(f) Castrucci had such an antipathy to the very name of Festing, that in his most lucid
intervals, he instantly lost his temper, if not his reason, on hearing it pronounced. A gentleman,
now living, used in polisonnerie, to address him in conversation, by the name of his rival:
"Mr. Festing — I beg your pardon; Mr. Castrucci, I mean," which put him in as great a rage
as Hogarth's street musicians on May-day.
1064
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
imitated not only at our theatres and at Vienna, as well as in other
parts of Europe, but honoured with their Majesties gracious patron-
age and protection, it appears that Handel, whose works have
always been its chief support, performed himself at the first benefit
in 1739; when Alexander' s Feast was given with several concertos
on the organ and other instruments, " particularly a new concerto
composed by Mr. Handel on purpose for this occasion (g)."
A concert was this year established at Hickford's room in
Brewers-street, which continued, with Festing for leader, till the
time of his death. The elder Cervetto [1682-1783] is now first
mentioned as just arrived ;* and this worthy professor, who
remained in England till the time of his death, at above a hundred,
with Abaco, Lanzetti, Pasqualini, and Caporale, about this time,
brought the violoncello into favour, and made us nice judges of
that instrument.
About this time, likewise, the city concerts at the Castle and
Swan taverns were established, of which Stanley was the chief
support and director during many years.
In 1740, March 28th, Handel, though never nearer ruin himself,
benevolently gave Acts and Galatea, with his own performance of
two new concertos, at Lincoln's-Inn Fields, for the benefit of the
Musical Fund. And in 1741, he bestowed on the same charity
the performance of his serenata called Pamasso in Festa; in which
were introduced concertos and solos, on the hautbois by San
Martini, on the German-flute by Wiedeman, on the violin by CI egg,
on the bassoon, by Miller, and on the violoncello by Caporale.
In the autumn [Nov.] of this year, Handel went to Ireland. I
have taken considerable pains to obtain a minute and accurate
account of the musical transactions of the great musician, during his
residence in that kingdom; and in a particular manner tried to wipe
off the national stain, of the oratorio of the Messiah having " met
with a cold reception " in England, previous to Handel's departure
for Ireland (h); a fact which I am glad to find impossible to ascertain,
either by the newspapers of the times, in which all his other public
performances sacred and secular are chronologically recorded, or
by the testimony of persons still living, who remember the
performance of the Messiah in Ireland, and of his oratorios previous
to that period in England.**
Falkener's Journals, for 1741 and 1742, have been consulted
for the advertisements of Handel's performances during his residence
in Dublin; and the first time any thing on the subject occurs, is
in the paper for December 19th, 1741, when U Allegro, II
(g) Daily Post, March 20th, where it is said that Mr. Handel not only gave the house and
his performance gratis, but Mr. Heidegger made a present of £.20 to defray the other incidental
expences.
(h) Mem. of the Life of Handel, 1760, p. 131.
* According to Grove's, Cervetto came to England in 1728. He participated in the first
production of Arne's Comus in 1737.
** The first public performance of the Messiah took place on Tuesday, April 13th, 1742, at
Dublin.
1005
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Penseroso, and II Moderate, are advertised for the 23d. The
arrival of Signora Avolio, one of his performers, is mentioned in
another paper.*' But March 27th, 1742, Mr. Handel's new, grand,
sacred Oratorio called the Messiah was advertised for performance
on the 12th of April following. In the paper of the day after
performance, it is very much praised, and the admiration of the
public is expressed in the warmest terms. After this, Handel had
his Acis and Galatea, Esther, Alexander' s Feast, the serenata of
Hymen, and an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, said to be newly set to
Music, performed. The Messiah was again announced for the 3d of
June, and in exactly the same words as before : being called new,
grand, &c. This, it was said, would be the last of Mr. Handel's
performances during his stay in the kingdom.
An Irish gentleman still living, who was at Dublin when Handel
was there, and perfectly remembers his performances, person, and
manners, says, that " he was received in that kingdom by people
of the first distinction with all possible marks of esteem, as a man
and admiration as a performer and composer of the highest order. ' '
And adds, " the Messiah, I am thoroughly convinced, was
performed in Dublin for the -first time, and with the greatest
applause. Mrs. Cibber and Signora Avolio were the principal
performers. These, with the assistance of the choiristers of St.
* Handel left London early in November. 1741. He broke his journey at Chester and
it was on this occasion that Burney, then a youth of fifteen, saw the man who afterwards
became his idol. Burney gives us the following account of this event: —
"When Handel went through Chester on his way to Ireland in the year 1741, I was at the
public school in that city and very well remember seeing him smoke a pipe over a dish of
coffee at the Exchange Ccffee-House; for, being extremely anxious to see so extraordinary a
man, I watched him narrowly as long as he remained in Chester; which on account of the
wind being unfavourable for his embarking at Parkgate, was several days. During this time he
applied to Mr. Baker the organist, my first music master, to know whether there were any
choirmen in the Cathedral who could sing at sight, as he wished to prove some books that had
been hastily transcribed by trying the choruses which he intended to perform in Ireland. Mr.
Baker mentioned some of the most likely singers then in Chester, and among the rest a printer
of the name of Jansen, who had a good bass voice and was one of the best musicians in the
choir. A time was fixed for the private rehearsal at the Golden Falcon, where Handel was
quartered; but alas! on trial of the chorus in The Messiah 'And with His stripes we are
healed' poor Janson, after repeated attempts, failed so egregiously that Handel let loose his
great bear upon him, and after swearing in four or five different languages, cried out in broken
English, 'You scoundrel, did you not tell me that you could sing at sight?'
" 'Yes sir,' says the printer, 'and so I can, but not at first sight.' "
Handel reached Dublin on the iSth Nov. and his arrival was recorded in Faulkner's Journal
for Nov. 21, 1741, as follows : —
"Last Wednesday the celebrated Dr. Handel arrived here in the Packet Boat from Holy-
head a Gentleman universally known by his excellent Compositions in all kinds of Musick "
At his first concert (Dec. 23) L' Allegro, 11 Penseroso ed il Moderato was performed. On the
29th Dec. Handel writes to Jennens — "I opened with the Allegro, Penseroso, and Moderato,
and I assure you that the words of the Moderato are vastly admired. The Audience being
composed (besides the Flower of Ladies of Distinction and other People of the greatest Quality)
of so many Bishops, Deans, Heads of the Colledge, the most eminent People in the Law, as
the Chancellor, Auditor General, etc., etc., all of which are very much taken with the Poetry,
so that I am desired to perform it again the next time."
L'Allegro was followed by Alexander's Feast and a revival of Imeneo. Imenco
had failed in London when produced in November 1740, but was hailed with delight in Dublin.
The following notice appeared in Faulkner's Journal on March 27, 1742 : —
"For the Relief of the Prisoners in the several Gaols, and for the Support of Mercer's
Hospital in Stephen's Street, and of the Charitable Infirmary on the Inn's Quay, on Monday
the 12th of April will be performed at the Musick Hall in Fishamble Street, Mr. Handel's new
Grand Oratoria, called The Messiah."
The work was publicly rehearsed on April 8th, and we read in Faulkner's Journal " — that it
gave universal satisfaction to all present; and was allowed by the greatest Judges to be the finest
composition of Musick that ever was heard "
The first performance was postponed until Tuesday the 13th — "At the desire of several
persons of Distinction."
Handel left Dublin for London on August 13th. That he intended to revisit Ireland in.
1743 is evident from a letter to Jennens, but this plan was not fulfilled.
1006
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
Patrick's cathedral and Christ-church, formed the vocal band; and
Dubourg, with several good instrumental performers, composed
a very respectable orchestra. There were many noble families here,
with whom Mr. Handel lived in the utmost degree of friendship
and familiarity. Mrs. Vernon, a German lady, who came over
with King George I. was particularly intimate with him, and at her
house I had the pleasure of seeing and conversing with Mr.
Handel; who, with his other excellences, was possessed of a great
stock of humour; no man ever told a story with more. But it
was requisite for the hearer to have a competent knowledge of at
least four languages: English, French, Italian, and German; for in
his narratives he made use of them all (i)."
Mrs. Arne, who went to Ireland with her husband in 1742,
where they staid till 1744, has not the least doubt of the Messiah
having been performed there for the first time.
In 1741, Lampe and his wife and sister, with Sullivan the singer,
the two Messings, and Jemmy Worsdale, went to Preston Gild,
and afterwards to Chester, where they performed the Dragon of
Wantley, the Dragoness, Amelia, &c. (k).
As I first arrived in London in the year 1744, I am enabled to
give the reader an exact account of the general state of Music there
at that time and since, from my own memory and knowledge,
without consulting books, or trusting to tradition. Of the Italian
opera an ample detail has been already given up to the present
time, chapter sixth of this volume, and of oratorios, to the death
of Handel, in the Sketch of his Life prefixed to the Account of his
Commemoration .
Mr. Arne, afterwards Dr. Arne, on his return from Ireland
in Autumn 1744, was engaged as composer to Drury-lane
play-house, and Mr. Lampe at Co vent-garden. At the first, Mr.
Gordon, a young man lately arrived from Italy, was the leader of the
band; he was remarkably near-sighted, always playing in spectacles.
He succeeded Charke and had a strong hand and tone, well fitted to
his situation. At the other theatre, old Wood, the father of the
late Mr. Wood of that theatre, and organist of St. Giles's and of
Chelsea College, was the leader. Mr. Beard was the principal
singer at Covent-garden; and Lowe, who had been in Ireland with
Mr. Arne, was engaged at Drury-lane; where Mrs. Arne was
likewise engaged as serious singer, while Mrs. Clive was in high
favour in the comic style of ballad farces and songs of humour. At
Covent-garden the singers were Mrs. Lampe, and Miss Young,
sisters of Mrs. Ame, and all three daughters of Anthony Young,
organist of Catherine-Cree-church near the Tower. Such was the
state of Music at our national theatres at this period, when Handel,
(*) It will add great weight to this account, if I venture to say, that I was honoured with
it, July i6th, 1788, from Dr. Quin of Dublin; a gentleman whose taste and judgment in Music
I as much respected forty years ago, as his professional skill and other acquirements.
(k) I happened to be at Chester school when this company arrived there, and frequently
heard them perform. Shuter, then a boy of about twelve or fourteen years old, was a livery
servant to Lampe, and a special Pickle, who took off all the performers, and among the rest,
Worsdale, so well, in Carey's song of "Young Roger came tapping at Dolley's window," that
it was with difficulty he was prevented from breaking his bones.
IO07
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Corelli, and Geminiani, with some introductory Musicks of Purcell,
furnished both the bands with all the pieces they ever attempted.
The only subscription concert at the west end of the town at
this time, was at Hickford's room or dancing-school, in Brewers-
street; and in the city, the Swan and Castle concerts, at which
the best performers of the Italian opera were generally employed,
as well as the favourite English singers. Frasi and Beard sung at
both, and Miss Turner was a favourite at the Swan. Festing,
Collet, and Brown were our principal performers at this time on
the violin, among the natives; and Veracini, Carbon elli, and
Pasquali, among the Italians. Caporale, Pasqualino, and Cervetto,
violoncellos. San Martini and his scholar Vincent, hautbois,
Wiedeman and Ballicourt, German-flutes. Miller and Hebden,
bassoons. Kelway and Stanley, the best organists; Keeble and
Gladwin, at Ranelagh and Vauxhall; and little Harry Burgess at
the harpsichord in Drury-lane, where, for second-music, he often
played concertos, generally of his own, as clean and as unmeaning
as if set on a barrel. The harpsichord at Covent-garden was
played by old Short, organist of St. Sepulchre's church, who was
only able to drum thorough-base.
At this time Jozzi, a castrato, and second singer at the opera,
brought over Alberti's Lessons, which he played, printed, and sold,
for his own, at a guinea each book; till detected by a gentleman
coming from Venice, who had been personally acquainted with
Alberti, and was in possession of a manuscript copy in his own
hand writing; which, in order to expose the impudence and
plagiarism of Jozzi, he gave to Walsh, who printed and sold the eight
elegant and graceful lessons of the original composer, for six
shillings. Jozzi, though not the author of these charming pieces,
which were the first of a style that has been since too much
imitated, but never equalled, had the merit of playing them with a
neatness and precision that was truly admirable. The harpsichord
having neither sostenuto nor expression, maintained its reputation
by brilliant execution; and there was an accent, a spring, and
smartness in Jozzi's touch, which I had then never heard. Handel's
harpsichord lessons and organ concertos, and the two first books of
Scarlatti's lessons, were all the good Music for keyed-instruments
at that time in the nation; and these were original, difficult, and in a
style totally different from those of Alberti. Handel's organ
concertos long remained in possession of the first and favourite
places, in the private practice and public performance of every
organist in the kingdom; and Scarlatti's were not only the pieces
with which every young performer displayed his powers of
execution, but were the wonder and delight of every hearer who
had a spark of enthusiasm about him, and could feel new and bold
effects intrepidly produced by the breach of almost all the old and
established rules of composition.
The Rev. William Felton [1713-69], prebendary of Hereford,
an imitator of Handel's concertos, who had a neat finger for
common divisions and the rapid multiplication of notes, produced
too8
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
two concertos out of three sets, that were thought worth playing in
London. And two of his airs with variations were the pride of
every insipient player in town and country. Mr. Kelway, a scholar
of Geminiani, kept Scarlatti's best lessons in constant practice, and
was at the head of the Scarlatti sect. He had, in his voluntaries
on the organ, a masterly wildness, and long supported the character
of a great player, in a style quite his own, bold, rapid, and fanciful.
With his harpsichord playing I was not acquainted, but have often
been assured, that he executed the most difficult lessons of Scarlatti,
in a manner peculiarly neat and delicate. As to composition,
it is to be lamented that he did not exercise his pen and fancy
more early in life, or that he ever attempted it at all: for on the
arrival of Bach, and appointment at court, as chamber-musician to
the Queen, to whom he dedicated his first publication in this
country, Mr. Kelway thought it necessary, as music-master to her
Majesty, to publish a book of harpsichord lessons, which are,
perhaps, the most crude, aukward, and unpleasant pieces of the
kind that have ever been engraved. There is a manifest want of
facility and experience, which proves that though he was old in
practical Music, he was young in its theory and in composition.
Stanley, however, and all the other organists, adhered to
Handel's concertos, or composed for themselves in that style. The
lessons of this great master, more complicated and difficult of
execution, were vanquished by few, though attempted by many.
About this time, Mr. John Worgan [1724-90] , since Dr. Worgan,
succeeded Mr. Gladwin in playing the organ at Vauxhall Gardens.
He then studied the harmony and modulation of Palestrina, and
organ fugues of Handel. And with an extempore prelude, alia
Palestrina, and one of these fugues, he used every night to preface
a concerto of Handel. By constant practice he became a very
masterly and learned fughist on the organ, and, as a concerto
player, a rival of Stanley. He was first taught by his brother, and
afterwards by Roseingrave, till getting acquainted with Geminiani,
he swore by no other divinity. His organ playing, though more in
the style of Handel than of any other school, is indeed learned and
masterly, in a way quite his own. In his youth, he was impressed
with a reverence for Domenico Scarlatti by old Roseingrave' s
account of his wonderful performance on the harpsichord, as well
as by his lessons; and afterwards he became a great collector of
his pieces, some of which he had been honoured with from Madrid
by the author himself. He was the editor of twelve at one time
and six at another, that are admirable, though few have now
perseverance sufficient to vanquish their peculiar difficulties of
execution. He is still in possession of many more, which he has
always locked up as Sybil's leaves. Dr. Worgan has composed
innumerable songs and concertos for Vauxhall, and several
oratorios, in which the choruses are learned and masterly.
Handel at this time " did bestride our musical world like a
Colossus." He had done with operas; and after his return from
Ireland, applied himself wholly to the composition of sacred
Vol. ii. 64. 1009
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Music (I). In 1745, I performed in his band, sometimes on the
violin, and sometimes on the tenor, and by attending the rehearsals,
generally at his own house in Lower Brook-street, and sometimes
at Carlton-house, at the desire of his constant patron the late prince
of Wales, father to his present Majesty, I gratified my eager
curiosity in seeing and examining the person and manners of
so extraordinary a man, as well as in hearing him perform on the
organ. He was a blunt and peremptory .disciplinarian on these
occasions, but had a humour and wit in delivering his instructions,
and even in chiding and finding fault, that was peculiar to himself,
and extremely diverting to all but those on whom his lash was laid.
Francesina, who had sung in the opera with Farinelli and Caffarelli,
and again in 1740; now having quitted the opera stage, she
constantly attached herself to Handel, was first woman in his
oratorios for many years, and Mr. Beard first man. Lowe had
sometimes a subordinate part given him; but with the finest tenor
voice I ever heard in my life, for want of diligence and cultivation,
he never could be safely trusted with any thing better than a ballad,
which he constantly learned by his ear; whereas Mr. Beard, with
an inferior voice, constantly possessed the favour of the public by
bis superior conduct, knowledge of Music, and intelligence as an
actor. The principal violin at this time was played by Carbonelli,
a plain intelligent performer of Corelli's school (m).
Dr. Greene was now at the head of our cathedral Music, and
the King's band. And Mr. Arne and Mr. Boyce were frequently
concurrents at the theatres and in each other's way, particularly at
Drury-lane. Arne was aspiring, and always regarded Handel as a
(/) Chronological list of Handel's oratorios, after his return from Ireland.
Composed Produced Produced
Samson 1741-2 1743 De Fesch.
Semele 1743 1744 Judith .. .. I7^
Susanan 1748 1749 " /JJ
J°seP^ J743 1744 Dr_ Greene.
St :: :: :: %$ 'it ■Jsa&Deb-h g*
SSSfSLSSS? :: 88 3 Wli** :: :: :: :: HZ
Joshua 1747 1748 _ A
Solomon 1748 1749 Dr. Arne.
Alexander Balus . . 1747 1748 Alfred 1746 — 1761
Theodora 1749 175" Judith 1764— 176Q
Jephtha 1751 1752
Triumph of Time and Stanley
Truth . . . . 1708 & 1757 1757 Zimri \ 1760
Pasticcios from Handel.
Israel in Babylon, compiled by Toms . . 1765 Dr. Worgan.
Cure of Saul, words by Dr. Brown . . 1766 Hannah 1764
Omnipotence, selected by Dr. Arnold and
Toms. Giardini.
Redemption, adjusted by Dr. Arnold . . 1786 Ruth . . . . . . 1778
Oratorios set by Mr. Smith.
David's Lamentation over Saul and Dr. Arnold.
Jonathan 1740 Cure of Saul, new set 1767
Paradise Lost 1760 Abimeleck, written by Smart . . . . 1768
Rebecca 1761 Resurrection 1769 [1773]
Nabal 1764 Prodigal Son 1773 [1777]
(m) He published twelve solos soon after his arrival, which he dedicated to his patron
the Duke of Rutland. They were composed on the model of Corelli's fifth opera, but were well
put together, and not totally destitute of invention, as far as his hand and ideas could carry him.
IOIO
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
tyrant and usurper, against whom he frequently rebelled, but with
as little effect as Marsyas against Apollo.
The late Mr. Tyers, proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens, who by
his taste in laying them out, paintings of Hayman, band of Music,
good wines, and cold collations, had attracted much company
thither, and rendered it a favourite and delightful place of public
amusement in fine weather; in the summer of 1745, added, for the
first time, vocal to his instrumental performances; engaging Mrs.
Arne, Messrs. Lowe, and the elder Reinhold, to sing. On this
occasion the orchestra was enlarged, and Mr. Arne's ballads,
dialogues, duets, and trios, were performed here with great
applause, and circulated all over the kingdom. During this first
summer, his little dialogue of Colin and Phcebe, written by the late
Mr. Moore, author of Fables for the Female Sex, was constantly
encored every night for more than three months, successively.
At this time Richard Collet played the first violin. His tone
was full, clear, and smooth, and his hand strong; but having neither
taste nor knowledge of Music, he always remained an inelegant
player. Hebden was sometimes the principal violoncello, and
sometimes the bassoon. Valentine Snow, afterwards serjeant
trumpet, was justly a favourite here, where his silver sounds in
the open air, by having room to expand, never arrived at the ears
of the audience in a manner too powerful or piercing. Here Mr.
Worgan not only played the organ in an improving manner for
many years, but first exercised his genius in composition. Richard
Vincent, for more than thirty years the principal hautbois at
Co vent-garden, was, ab origine, in the Vauxhall band.
Ranelagh* had been planned by the late Mr. Lacey, joint
patentee of Drury-lane theatre with Mr. Garrick, built, and made
a place of public diversion just before my arrival in London.
Several experiments were tried in placing the orchestra, in filling it,
and in the time of performance, before it was settled as an evening
promenade. The orchestra was at first placed in the middle of
the Rotunda. The performance was in a morning; and oratorio
choruses chiefly furnished the bill of fare. Sir John Barnard
complaining to the magistrates, that the young merchants and city
apprentices were frequently seduced from their counting-houses and
shops by these morning amusements, they were prohibited, and
the doors opened at six o'clock in the evening. The performance,
however, ,did not begin till eight o'clock, but was ended at ten.
The late Mr. Mich. Christ. Festing was the leader and chief
conductor of the musical establishment here, from the time of my
arrival in London till his death. This performer, with a feeble
hand, little genius for composition, and but a shallow knowledge
* Horace Walpole writing on May 26, 1742, says : —
" Two nights ago Ranelagh-gardens were opened at Chelsea; the Prince, Princess, Duke,
much nobility, and much mob besides, were there. There is a vast amphitheatre, finely gilt,
painted, and illuminated, into which everybody that loves eating, drinking, staring, or crowding,
is admitted for twelvepence. The building and disposition of the gardens cost sixteen thousand
pounds. . . . Vauxhall is a little better; for the garden is pleasanter, and one goes by water.
Our operas are almost over; there were but three-and-forty people last night in the pit and
boxes. ..."
IOII
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
in counterpoint, by good sense, probity, prudent conduct, and a
gentleman-like behaviour, acquired a weight and influence in his
profession, at which hardly any musician of his class ever arrived.
He led .during many years at the opera, at Ranelagh, at the concert
at Hickford's room, at the Swan and Castle concerts in the city,
and often at Handel's oratorios. Nor was there a benefit concert for
any English professor at that time without a solo on the violin by
Mr. M. C. Festing; and yet there is not a ripieno player on the
violin at the opera now, whose hand and abilities are not superior
to those of Festing upon that instrument. Learn hence, ye young
professors, that something else is necessary, besides musical talents,
to carry you reputably and comfortably through the world !
The first organ-player at Ranelagh was the late Mr. Keeble,
and the second the late Mr. Butler. After singing had been introduced
at Vauxhall, it was thought necessary, though choruses had been
discontinued, to engage Mr. Beard, Frasi, and other favourite
singers of the times, to perform single songs between the full pieces.
Caporale the favourite violoncello player of these times was of
the band, as well as Millar, the best bassoon during his whole
life, that I can remember. Pasqualino and the elder Cervetto,
the rivals of Caporale at this time, had infinitely more hand, and
knowledge of the finger-board, as well as of Music in general;
but the tone of both was raw, crude, and uninteresting. The younger
Cervetto, when a child, and hardly acquainted with the gammut,
had a better tone, and played what he was able to execute, in a
manner much more chantant than his father. And, arrived at
manhood, his tone and expression were equal to those of the best
tenor voices.
Such was the general state of Music in London in 1749, when
Giardini arrived, whose great hand, taste, and style of playing,
were so universally admired, that he had soon not only a great
number of scholars on the violin, but taught many ladies of the
first rank to sing; and after he had been here a few years, he
formed a morning academia, or concert, at his house, composed
chiefly of his scholars, vocal and instrumental, who bore a part in
the performance. This continued, while he was still augmenting
the importance of his instrument and our national partiality for
the taste of his country, till the admirable productions and great
performers of Germany began to form a Teutonic interest and
Germanic body here, which, before Giardini's departure from
London, became very formidable rivals to him and his Roman
legion.
Festing, whose health and favour began to decline in the year
1750, died about 1752, after mortifications of many kinds, the
least of which were not those arising from the rapid success and
universal applause of Giardini. He was succeeded at Ranelagh and
in some of the concerts by Mr. Abram Brown, a performer who
had a clear, sprightly, and loud tone, with a strong hand; but
though he had travelled through Italy, he was ignorant of Music,
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
and the pieces he played consisted of notes, et rien que des notes:
for he had no soul or sense of expression. He brought over a
favourite solo of Tartini (the second in the second set, published
by Walsh), with which alone he figured at all concerts, for at least
six or seven years, without ever entering into Tartini 's true style
of playing it, or that of any performer of his school. Mr. Brown,
however, had not the mortification either to feel or know his
defects; but, on the contrary, was contorted with a full conviction
of his superiority.
San Martini's compositions, indeed, so full of science,
originality, and fire, began to be noticed; but they were little known
till after the decease of this most accomplished musician.
Charles Avison [c. 1710-70], organist of Newcastle, was an
ingenious man, and an elegant writer upon his art. He visited Italy
early in his youth, and at his return having received instructions from
Geminiani, a bias in his compositions for violins, and in his Essay
on Musical Expression [1752], towards that master, is manifest.
Rameau was likewise his model in harpsichord Music, and he
over-rated Marcello's Psalms either to depreciate Handel, or forward
the subscription he opened for their publication. He succeeded,
however, in neither of these designs; Handel is more and more
respected, and Marcello is dropped into his right place, among
eminent dilettanti. With respect to Avison's own musical
productions they want force, correctness, and originality, sufficient
to be ranked very high among the works of masters of the first
class {n).
As to such elegant private concerts as are now frequently given
by the nobility and gentry at their own houses, they were at this
time scarcely known. The first I remember were at Lady Brown's,
under the direction of Count St. Germain. Her ladyship distinguished
herself as a persevering enemy to Handel, and a protectress of
foreign musicians in general, of the new Italian style; and was
one of the first persons of fashion who had the courage, at the risk
of her windows, to have concerts of a Sunday Evening.
The next remarkable Academia, that I remember to have
occasioned much curiosity and speculation, was established at the
house of Mrs. Fox Lane, afterwards Lady Bingley, on the arrival
of Giardini in England. The superior talents of that performer
were always warmly patronised by this lady to the time of her
death; and not content with admiring him herself, she contrived
every means that could be devised to make him the admiration of
others. As Giardini was seldom to be heard in public after his first
arrival, she invited very select parties of the first people in the
kingdom to hear him at her house, for which happiness she did not
suffer them to remain ungrateful at his benefit.
(») The late Dr. William Hayes of Oxford, a man of very considerable abilities in his
profession, has pointed out the false composition, as well as false reasoning, of Mr. Avison, in
Remarks on his Essay on Musical Expression.
1013
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
When Mingotti arrived in this kingdom, having united her
interests with those of Giardini in the conduct and management of
the opera, Mrs. Lane espoused her cause with great zeal; entering
into the spirit of all her theatrical quarrels as ardently as if they
had been her own. With two such performers, the concerts she
gave to her choice friends were subjects of envy and obloquy to all
those who were unable to obtain admission. At these concerts
Mrs. Lane frequently played the harpsichord herself; as did Lady
Edgcumbe and the late Lady Milbanke, both admirable performers
on that instrument. Lady Rockingham, the Dowager Lady Carlisle,
and Miss Pelham, scholars of Giardini, and Mingotti, used to sing;
and the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of hearing these professors
and illustrious dilettanti any where else, stimulated curiosity so
much, that there was no sacrifice or mortification to which
fashionable people would not submit, in order to obtain admission.
And la padrona della casa lost few opportunities of letting them
know the value she set on her invitations, by using them like dogs
when they were there. Whenever a benefit was in contemplation
for one of her proteges, taking care of the honour of her guests, she
obliged them to behave with due gratitude and munificence on the
occasion. " Come! " would she often say to her friends, " give
me five guineas," — a demand as implicitly obeyed as if made on
the road. Nor had any one, who ever wished to be admitted
into such good company again, the courage to ask the occasion
of the demand; but patiently awaited the lady's pleasure to tell
them whether they should be honoured with a ticket for Giardini's
or Mingotti 's benefit.
Lampe, the ingenious composer of the Dragon of Wantley,
quitting London in 1749 [1748], resided two years at Dublin; and
in 1750, went to Edinburgh, where he was settled very much to the
satisfaction of the patrons of Music in that city, and of himself;
but in July 1751, he was seized with a fever which put an end to
his existence, at the age of fifty-nine.
In 1753, Pasquali, an excellent performer on the violin and
a good musician, who came to England about the year 1743,* went
to Edinburgh; where he had an establishment, and lived much
respected as a professor, and beloved as a man, by all who knew
him, till the time of his death in 1757.
The ballads of the late Dr. Samuel Howard** [1710-82], which
were long the delight of natural and inexperienced lovers of Music,
had the merit of facility; for this honest Englishman, brought up
in the Chapel Royal, preferred the style of his own country to that
of any other so much, that he never staggered his belief of its being
the best in the world, by listening to foreign artists or their
productions.
* Pasquali settled in Edinburgh about 1740. He left that town for Dublin during 1748-51,
and in 1752 was in London. He then returned to Edinburgh.
** Dr. Howard helped Boyce with his Cathedral Music.
1014
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
De Fesch, a German who came to England about the year
1730, was a good contrapuntist and a voluminous composer, but
his productions were in general dry and uninteresting.*
Wiedemann, who came to England, about the year 1726, was
long the principal solo player on the German-flute. He was a good
musician; but in his productions, he never broke through the
bounds of that mediocrity to which his instrument seems confined.
Content with our former possessions and habits, we went on in
the tranquil enjoyment of the productions of Corelli, Geminiani,
and Handel, at our national theatres, concerts and public gardens,
till the arrival of Giardini, Bach, and Abel; who soon created
schisms, and at length, with the assistance of Fischer, brought about
a total revolution in our musical taste.
In 1762, Arne quitted the former style of melody, in which he
had so well set Comus, and furnished Vauxhall and the v/hole
kingdom with such songs as had improved and polished our national
taste; and when he set the bald translation of Metastasio's opera of
AHaserse, he crouded the airs, particularly in the part of Mandane
for Miss Brent, with most of the Italian divisions and difficulties
which had ever been heard at the opera. This drama, by the
novelty of the Music to English ears, with the talents of Tenducci,
Peretti, and the doctor's scholar Miss Brent, had very great success;
and still continues to be represented whenever singers can be found
who are possessed of sufficient abilities for its performance. But in
setting Artaxerxes, though the melody is less original than that of
Comus, Arne had the merit of first adapting many of the best
passages of Italy, which all Europe admired, to our own language,
and of incoporating them with his own property, and with what was
still in favour of former English composers.
The general melody of our countryman, if analysed, would
perhaps appear to be neither Italian nor English, but an agreeable
mixture of Italian, English, and Scots. Many of his ballads,
indeed, were professed imitations of the Scots style; but in his other
songs he frequently dropped into it, perhaps, without design. Ame
was never a close imitator of Handel, nor thought, by the votaries
of that great musician, to be a sound contrapuntist. However, he
had an inward and secret reverence for his abilities, and for those
of Geminiani, as well as for the science of Pepusch; but except
when he attempted oratorios, theirs was not the merit requisite
for him, a popular composer who had different performers and
different hearers to write for. In the science of harmony, though
he was chiefly self-taught, yet being a man of genius, quick parts,
and great penetration in his art, he betrayed no ignorance or want
of study in his scores.
The oratorios he produced were so unfortunate, that he was
always a loser whenever they were performed. And yet it would
be unjust to say that they did not merit a better fate; for though
*De Fesch held the post of maitre de chapelle of Notre Dame, Antwerp, until 1731, when
he was dismissed for ill-treating some of the choir boys there. He came to England from
Antwerp and settled in London, where he died c. 1758.
IOI5
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
the choruses were much inferior in force to those of Handel,
yet the airs were fiequently admirable. But besides the great
reputation of Handel with whom he had to contend, Arne never was
able to have his Music so well performed; as his competitor had
always a more numerous and select band, a better organ, which he
played himself, and better singers.
None of this ingenious and pleasing composer's capital
productions had full and unequivocal success but Comus and
Artaxerxes, at the distance of 24 years from each other. Rosamond,
his first musical drama, bad a few songs in it that were long in
favour, and the Judgment of Paris [1740] many; but except when
his sister, Miss Arne, afterwards Mrs. Cibber, sung in them, he
never gained any thing by either. Thomas and Sally [c. 1760]
indeed, as a farce, with very little musical merit, was often acted;
and previous to that, Eliza was a little while in favour; but the
number of his unfortunate pieces for the stage was prodigious (o);
yet none of them were condemned or neglected for want of merit
in the Music, but words, of which the doctor was too frequently
guilty of being the author (p). Upon the whole, though this
composer, who died March 5th, 1778, had formed a new style of his
own, there did not appear that fertility of ideas, original grandeur of
thought, or those resources upon all occasions which are discoverable
in the works of his predecessor, Purcell, both for the church and
stage; yet, in secular Music, he must be allowed to have surpassed
him in ease, grace, and variety; which is no inconsiderable praise,
when it is remembered, that from the death of Purcell to that of
Arne, a period of more than fourscore years, no candidate for
musical fame among our countrymen had appeared, who was
equally admired by the nation at large.
Of near a hundred and fifty musical pieces that have been
brought on the stage at our two national theatres within these forty
years, thirty of them, at least, were set by Arne.
In 1763 [1762], the English pasticcio burletta of Love in a
Village, and in 1765 the Summer's Tale, and the Maid of the Mill,
betrayed us into a taste for Italian melody, which has been the
model of most of our vocal composers in and out of the theatre ever
since. The Duenna, another favourite English pasticcio, in 1775,
helped us on, and Dr. Arnold, Mr. Dibdin, and Mr. Shield, have
very judiciously complied with the reigning taste, and imitated or
adopted the opera style in all its vicissitudes.
Mr. Linley, and Mr. Jackson of Exeter, in their elegies at
least, have stedfastly adhered to a style of their own, which seems
to have been formed upon the melodies of our best old English
(o) The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, Fall of Phceton, King Pepin's Campaign, Don
Saverio, Temple of Dulness, Guardian Outwitted; Achilles in Petticoats, &c.
[p) There was certainly at this time a great scarcity of lyric poets. Till Mr. Mason wrote
songs, we had few that were fit for any tunes, but such as are used in the Beggar's Opera and
ballad farces. But for these, such has been our passion during the present century, that a
collection of popular ballads set to every-day Music, which I made a few years ago, amounts
to nine volumes in folio !
1016
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
masters, and those of the last age, that were most worthy of being
preserved.
It has been already observed in this chapter, that till the Italian
opera was established in this country, little was expected from our
singers besides a voice and an ear. Indeed, long after that period,
good taste in singing was so little diffused throughout the island,
that the great and exquisite performers who came hither from the
Continent seem to have made but a small impression on their
astonished hearers. Nicolini. Senesino, Bernacchi, Faustina,
Cuzzoni, Farinelli, Caffarelli, Carestini, Conti, Monticelli, Mingotti,
Elizi, Manzoli, Guarducci, and Guadagni, had no effect upon our
national taste; and though a few individuals among the people of
fashion, by private instructions from them, and by the best of all
lessons, hearing them frequently perform in public, diminished the
original sin of our native brogue and vulgar expression; yet as these
pupils could be heard but by few, their power was local, and no
more likely to have any general effect upon our national cantilena,
than their learning French and Italian upon our general language.
It is not difficult, however, to fix the aera of a change in our vocal
Music, which seems to have remained stationary for near half a
century. It was begun by the compositions and instructions of Dr.
Arne, who endeavoured to refine our melody and singing, more from
Italian than English models; and was greatly accelerated by the
pasticcio English operas above mentioned, as well as by the
instructions of Tedeschini, Cocchi, Vento, and Giardini, who were
employed about this time to teach several of our play-house
singers. Tenducci's performance in Artaxerxes had a rapid effect
upon the public taste, and stimulated to imitation all that were
possessed of good ears and flexible voices. In later times the
scholars of Sacchini, Piozzi, Parsons, and others, with the public
concerts, where the best compositions and most exquisite
performance of all kinds were constantly heard, completed the
revolution; and it may be with truth and certainty affirmed, that
our taste and judgment in both, even at the play-houses, differ as
much from those of twenty or thirty years ago, as the manners of
a civilised people from those of savages.
After the death of Festing, the subscription concert at Hickford's
room declined, and another was established by Mrs. Comely, in
Soho-square, where the best performers and the best company were
assembled, till Bach and Abel uniting interests, opened a
subscription, about 1763, for a weekly concert;* and as their own
compositions were new and excellent, and the best performers of
all kinds which our capital could supply, enlisted under their
banners, this concert was better patronised and longer supported
than perhaps any one had ever been in this country; having
continued for full twenty years with uninterrupted prosperity. The
same concert now subsists in a still more flourishing way than ever,
* Their joint direction of Concerts commenced on Feb. 29, 1764, and continued until May 9,
1781. Bach died in 1782 and although Abel continued the series the concerts were not successful.
Abel had some share in the "Professional Concert" which was founded in 1785.
IO17
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
under the denomination of the Professional Concert, with the
advantage of a greater variety of composition than during the regency
of Bach and Abel, to whose sole productions the whole performance
of each winter was chiefly confined. Fischer, indeed, composed for
himself, and in a style so new and fanciful, that in point of
invention as well as tone, taste, expression, and neatness of
execution, his piece was always regarded as one of the highest treats
of the night, and heard with proportionate rapture. Here Cramer,
Crosdil, Cervetto, and other eminent professors, established their
reputation, and by every new performance, mounted still higher in
the favour of the public.
The late Earl of Kelly, who was possessed of more musical
science than any dilettante with whom I was ever acquainted, and
who, according to Pinto, before he travelled into Germany, could
scarcely tune his fiddle, shut himself up at Manheim with the
elder Stamitz, and studied composition and practised the violin
with such serious application, that, at his return to England, there
was no part of theoretical or practical Music, in which he was not
equally versed with the greatest professors of his time. Indeed, he
had a strength of hand on the violin, and a genius for composition,
with which few professors are gifted.
The late Mr. Burton [1730-85], the scholar of Keeble, was an
enthusiast in his art; but having in his youth exercised his hand
more than his head, he was not a deep or correct contrapuntist.
He had, however, in his pieces and manner of playing them a
style of his own, to which, from his having been one of the first
harpsichord players in our country who attempted expression and
light and shade, he excited an interest and attention, which would
now perhaps be much more difficult to obtain.
Among English performers on the violoncello, must not be
forgotten, the late Messrs. Gordon and Paxton, whose full and
sweet tone, as well as judicious manner of accompanying the voice,
placed them very high in the favour of the public, as concert
players.
But I shall close my narrative concerning illustrious musicians
who have distinguished themselves in our own country, during
the present century, and whom death has rendered objects of history,
by paying a tribute to a late professor, whose loss not only the
lovers of Music in England, but the musical world in general, will
long deplore.
Charles Frederic Abel [1725-87], a disciple of Sebastian
Bach, was in the Electoral King of Poland's famous band at Dresden
near ten years; but at length finding that the ceconomy to which
that court was reduced by the horrors of war rendered his subsistence
scanty and precarious, he quitted the service in 1758, and departed
from the capital of Saxony with only three dollars in his pocket.
He travelled on foot to the next little German province, where he
found his talents were not only honoured but rewarded. This
success, however, only raised his ambition, and excited a stronger
1018
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
desire to try his fortune elsewhere; he went therefore soon to another
court, and still on to a third, remaining only at each long enough
to acquire a sufficient sum to defray his expences to a new scene
of action; when, at length, he arrived in England, 1759, where his
worth was soon discovered and rewarded. The late Duke of York
was one of his first and best patrons, till the Queen's band was
established, when he was honoured with the title of chamber
musician to her Majesty, and an appointment of £.200 per annum.
The concert long carried on by him and his friend the late Mr. Bach
was frequently very profitable, and he had as many scholars as he
chose to undertake.
His performance on the viol da gamba was in every particular
complete and perfect. He had a hand which no difficulties could
embarrass; a taste the most refined and delicate; and a judgment
so correct and certain as never to let a single note escape him
without meaning. His compositions were easy and elegantly simple,
for he used to say, " I do not chuse to be always struggling with
difficulties, and playing with all my might. I make my pieces
difficult whenever I please, according to my disposition and that
of my audience." Yet in nothing was he so superior to himself,
and to other musicians, as in writing and playing an adagio; in
which the most pleasing, yet learned modulation; the richest
harmony; and the most elegant and polished melody were all
expressed with such feeling, taste, and science, that no musical
production or performance with which I was then acquainted
seemed to approach nearer perfection (q) .
His manner of playing an adagio soon became the model of
all our young performers on bowed-instruments: Barthelemon,
Cervetto, Cramer, and Crosdil, who may be ranked of his school,
were more sparing of notes in a cantabile than, during youth, their
great facility of execution would have stimulated them to, if Abel's
discretion, taste, and pathetic manner of expressing, I had almost
said of breathing, a few notes, had not kept them in order.
Abel's musical science in harmony, modulation, fugue, and
canon, which he had acquired under his great master Sebastian
Bach, and taste under Hasse and the great singers employed in the
performance of his operas at Dresden, had made him so complete
a musician, that he soon became the umpire in all musical
controversy, and was consulted in difficult and knotty points as
an infallible oracle. All lovers of Music lamented that he had not
in youth attached himself to an instrument more worthy of his
genius, taste, and learning, than the viol da gamba, that remnant
of the old chest of viols, which, during the last century, was a
necessary appendage to a nobleman or gentleman's family
throughout Europe, previous to the admission of violins, tenors, and
bases in a private house or public concert. It has been justly
observed in an account of Abel, well drawn up, and inserted in the
(q) This was written in 1779.
1019
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Morning Post, June 22d, 1787, soon after his funeral, that " his
favourite instrument was not in general use, and would probably
die with him." It was practised longer in Germany than elsewhere;
but since the death of the late Elector of Bavaria, who next to Abel
was the best performer on the viol da gamba I had ever heard, the
instrument seems laid aside (r). The late M. Lidl, indeed, played
with exquisite taste and expression upon this ungrateful instrument,
with the additional embarrassment of base strings at the back of
the neck, with which he accompanied himself, an admirable
expedient in a desert, or even in a house, where there is but one
musician; but to be at the trouble of accompanying yourself in a
great concert, surrounded by idle performers who could take the
trouble off your hands, and leave them more at liberty to execute,
express, and embellish the principle melody, seemed at best a work
of supererogation. The tone of the instrument will do nothing for
itself, and it seems with Music as with agriculture, the more barren
and ungrateful the soil, the more art is necessary in its cultivation.
And the tones of the viol da gamba are radically so crude and nasal,
that nothing but the greatest skill and refinement can make them
bearable. A human voice of the same quality would be intolerable.
As Abel's invention was not unbounded, and his exquisite taste
and deep science prevented the admission of whatever was not
highly polished, there seemed in some of his last productions a
languor and monotony, which the fire and fertility of younger
symphonists and composers of his own country, made more obvious.
His last quartets, of which he did me the honour to make me a
present of his original score as a specimen of his science and care
in the composition and arrangement of the parts, though not
abounding in new melody, are in point of harmony and selection
of sounds, models of perfection, and if printed in score, would be
excellent studies for young contrapuntists.
Abel, like other great professors of his own country, played on
several instruments, besides that to which he had chiefly pointed
his attention. On the harpsichord, though he had not a great hand
for lessons, he used to modulate, in arpeggio, with infinite variety
and knowledge; and, indeed, when he was in spirits and fancy,
I have heard him modulate in private on his six-stringed base with
such practical readiness and depth of science, as astonished the late
Lord Kelly and Bach, as much as myself. This accomplished
musician died in London, June 20th, 1787.
The celebrated performer on the violin, Lolli [d. 1802], came
into England in the beginning of 1785; but by a caprice in his
conduct equal to his performance, he was seldom heard. And then
so eccentric was his style of composition and execution, that he was
regarded as a madman by most of his hearers. Yet I am convinced
that in his lucid intervals he was, in a serious style, a very great,
(r) The place of gambist seems now as totally suppressed in the chapels of German
princes, as that of lutenist.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
expressive, and admirable performer. In his freaks nothing can
be imagined so wild, difficult, grotesque, and even ridiculous as
his compositions and performance. After playing at the oratorio,
and making the grave and ignorant laugh at very serious
difficulties upon which he had perhaps but ill bestowed his time,
he suddenly left the the kingdom, a la sourdine; perhaps, at last, to
shun difficulties of another kind.
Of vocal performers who have distinguished themselves at the
opera, due notice has been taken elsewhere; and to several others
a tribute has been paid in the Account of the Commemoration of
Handel; yet since that time another has mounted so high in the
favour of the public, that it would be construed into injustice or
want of feeling not to allow her an honourable niche in this chapter.
Mrs. Billington [c. 1768 — 1818], after distinguishing herself in
early childhood as a neat and expressive performer on the
piano-forte, appeared all at once, in 1786,* a sweet and captivating
singer. At first, in emulation of the Mara and other great bravura
singers, she was perhaps too frequently struggling with difficulties,
which she has, however, since so totally subdued, that no song seems
too high or too rapid for her execution. But besides these powers,
which the bad taste of the public tempts or obliges her to exercise,
perhaps too frequently for lovers of expression and simplicity, the
natural tone of her voice is so exquisitely sweet, her knowledge of
Music so considerable, her shake so true, her closes and
embellishments so various and her expression so grateful, that
nothing but envy or apathy can hear her without delight.
The present composers and instrumental performers of the first
class are too well known for my readers to require information
concerning their abilities. The patrons and lovers of the art have
heard them with their own ears, and will judge for themselves. I
shall therefore proportion my narrative to their wants, and merely
record, in alphabetical order, the names of the principal artists to
whose powers of pleasing the public is most obliged. Indeed, it is
a painful self-denial not to celebrate the talents of musicians whom
I have so often heard with delight; but how is it possible to
discriminate the several excellences of the many great performers
on the violin now resident in this country, or describe the powerful
hand and truly vocal adagio of a Barthelemon; the fire, tone, and
certainty of a Cramer; the neatness and precision of a Pieltain; the
sweet tone and polished style of a Raimondi; the taste, refinement,
and enthusiasm of a Salomon; or the accuracy and expression of
a Schoener? Men whom I ever meet with pleasure, and hear with
delight, however various their talents.
Keyed-instruments are perhaps no where on the globe better
played, in every different style, than at present in this country, by
* As Rosetta in Love in a Village, although she had appeared at a concert at Oxford in
1782. In 1783 she married James Billington, a double-bass player. She went to Dublin and Mrs.
Billington appeared in the opera Orbheus and Eurydice.
A GENERAL HISTORY OF MUSIC
Burney, Clementi, Cramer jun. Miss Guest, Hiilmandel, the two
Wesleys, and many others, not only professors but dilettanti, who
though not public performers, are heard with great pleasure in
private. It gives me much concern that I am obliged to strike
out of this list the name of Mr. John Samuel Schroeter; but this
distinguished musician, whose neat and exquisite performance on
the piano-forte will be long remembered with regret, died November
1st, 1788, while this sheet was printing!
On the hautbois we have the admirable Fischer, the Parks, and
Patria. On the German-flute, Florio, Grsef, and Tacet. On
the violoncello, the matchless Cervetto and Crosdil. On the
bassoon, Baumgarten and Parkinson. And on the clarinet, Mahon.
M. Baumgarten, leader of the band at Covent-garden theatre, has
been so long in England that his merit is unknown to his
countrymen on the Continent; but besides his performance on the
violin and organ, he deserves notice as an instrumental composer
of the German nation.
The Catch-Club at the Thatched-house was instituted in 1762
[1761], by the late Earl of Eglington, the Earl of March, now Duke
of Queensberry, H. Meynel, Esq. and a few more of their friends.
The spirit and liberality with which this establishment has been
since supported, has not only much improved the manner of
performing the catches, canons, and glees of old masters, but been
productive of innumerable new compositions of that kind, which
are still of a more ingenious and elegant texture.
And the Concert of Ancient Music, originally suggested by
the Earl of Sandwich in 1776, in favour of such solid and valuable
productions of old masters as an intemperate rage for novelty had
too soon laid aside as superannuated, was supported with spirit
and dignity by the concurrent zeal and activity of other noblemen
and gentlemen of the first rank, who united with his lordship in
the undertaking, till 1785, when it was honoured with the presence
of their Majesties, whose constant attendance ever since has given
to this institution an elevation and splendor, which perhaps no
establishment of this kind ever enjoyed before. Here the
productions of venerable old masters, particularly those of Purcell
and Handel, are performed by a select and powerful band, with
such correctness and energy, as the authors themselves never had
the happiness to hear.*
The Commemoration of Handel, in 1784, having been crowned,
with a success equally honourable to that great artist and to the
nation, similar performances have since been annually repeated,
to still more numerous audiences, for charitable purposes, in
Westminster- Abbey, under the title of A Grand Musical Festival.
In 1787, the band of vocal and instrumental performers amounted to
* The Concert of Ancient Music was discontinued in 1848, and its library transferred to-
Buckingham Palace, and afterwards to the R.C.M.
MUSIC IN ENGLAND DURING THE XVIII CENTURY
eight hundred and six musicians, exclusive of the principal singers,
consisting of twenty-two, with Madame Mara, Rubinelli, Harrison,
and Morelli, at their head. And such is the state of practical Music
in this country, that the increase of performers, instead of producing
confusion, as might have been expected, has constantly been
attended with superior excellence of execution; as experience, the
best of all teachers, has so guided the zeal of the directors, and the
science of the conductor and leader of this great enterprize, that
a certain road to full perfection in every department seems to have
been attained.
1023
CONCLUSION
I HAVE at length arrived at the end of a work that has been thirty
years in meditation, and more than twenty in writing and
printing. Whether I have been too brief or too minute in my
narrative must be left to the wants and intelligence of my readers.
Ignorance and science are relative terms, and the same book, like a
dictionary, may at once contain too much for one purchaser, and
too little for another. My ambition has been to gratify reasonable
curiosity concerning every part of my subject, without shrinking at
difficulties; yet those who have previously had leisure and
opportunity to draw knowledge from the same sources will think
much might have been retrenched; while others, to whom the
subject is wholly new, will be in want of many additions.
The havock which death has made since this work was begun
among my friends, and those I wished to please, who, of course,
were the most willing to be pleased, is so great, that more than
half my first subscribers have disappeared; and if any curiosity was
excited, or interest awakened, towards the subject by the former
volumes, it is not likely to be of much use to the present.
New ideas and new events have arisen in the lapse of time, which
have swelled my materials, and rendered my subject too unwieldy
for the space to which it was originally allotted; but as respect for
my readers prevented hasty publication, it is hoped that the great
time and labour which have been bestowed upon it, will not render
the work less worthy of their patronage.
If the first book of this history was necessarily compiled from
few and obscure materials, and conjecture and speculation were
called in to supply their defects; and if the second confined the
reader to antiquarian knowledge, and afforded him no information
but of barbarous times and more barbarous Music; it is hoped that
these final books will make him some amends, as they include all
the simplicity and harmonical merit of the last century, and
refinements of the present.
It may be thought a useless labour by some to have drawn from
the tomb the names of so many obscure and barbarous authors,
1024 ,
CONCLUSION
whose insipid productions, if preserved, would but degrade human
nature, and shew the imbecility of their endeavours at distinction;
but the progress of science, and the principles of its declension, can
only be discovered by tracing the steps by which it has advanced
towards perfection or tended to corruption.
Many specimens of melody and harmony are given, not as
models of perfection, but reliques of barbarism, and indisputable
vouchers that mankind was delighted with bad Music, before good
had been heard; and I have spoken of some musicians whose fame
is now so much faded, that it is perhaps the last time they will ever
be mentioned. Yet though I have constantly treated old masters
with reverence, it has never been at the expence of the modern.
Indeed, respect for the dead should not annihilate all kindness for
the living, who are in much greater want of patronage. The artist
who is suffered to linger in want and obscurity, is made but small
amends by posthumous honours and commemorations.
FINIS.
Vol. ii. 65 T02g
Appendix I
A SELECTION
OF CHARLES BURNEY'S
LETTERS
Charles Burney to Samuel Johnson
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
Uth April 1755.
Sir,
That you w'd think my Letter worthy of Notice, was what I began
to Despair of, and indeed I had framed and admitted several Reasons
for your silence, more than sufficient to exculpate you. But so
highly has your politeness rated my Intentions, that I find it
impossible for me to resist accepting the Invitation with which you
have honoured me of writing to you again, though Conscious, that
I have nothing to offer w'ch can by any means merit y'r attention.
It is with the utmost Impatience that I await the possession of
y'r Great Work, in w'ch every Literary Difficulty will be solved,
and curiosity gratified, at least as far as English Literature is
concerned. Nor am I fearful of letting Expectation rise to the utmost
limit to w'ch she can, accompanied by reason, since I am certain
that no Disappointment will ensue.
From what you are pleased to say concerning Mr. Dodsley, I
shall ever think myself his Debtor, but yet I cannot help suspecting
that you intended him a Compliment when you talked of
Recommendation; is it possible that the world sh'd be so blind, or
Booksellers so stupid as to need other recommendation than your
own? — indeed I shall Honour both so far as to Substitute Solicitation
in the place of the above humiliating term. Such of my friends as
1027
APPENDIX
have not already ordered y'r Dictionary, I have requested to apply
to Mr. Dodsley.
Perhaps you will smile when I inform you that since first the
rumour of your Dictionary' s coming abroad this winter was spread,
I have been supposed to be marvellously deep in politics: not a sun
has set since the above time without previously lighting me to the
coffee-house; nor risen without renewing my curiosity. But time,
the great revealer of secrets, has at length put an end to my solicitude;
for if there be truth in book men, I can now, by cunning calculation,
foretell the day and hour when it will arrive at Lynn.
Having Determined at the Close of the Ensuing Summer to fix
my further abode in London, I cannot help rejoicing that I shall be
an inhabitant, and exulting that I shall be a fellow citizen w'th Mr.
Johnson, and were it possible to be honoured with a Small Share in
his Esteem I sh'd regard it as the most grateful circumstance of my
Life, and shall I add, that I have a female Companion with Intellects
sufficiently Masculine to enter into the true Spirit of y'r Writings,
and consequently to have an Enthusiastic Zeal for them and their
author? How Happy w'd y'r presence make us over our Tea, so
often meliorated by y'r productions.
If in the meantime y'r avocations w'd permit you to bestow
a Line or two upon me, without greatly inconveniencing yourself,
you w'd communicate the Highest Delight to
y'r Most Obed't
& most Humble Servant
CHA. BURNEY.
Have you, Sir, ever happened upon a little French Book entitled
Synonymes Francois by M. V Abbe Girard. I am inclined to imagine,
if you have not seen it, that it w'd afford you, as a philologer some
pleasure; it being written with great Spirit, and, as I think,
Accuracy, but I sh'd rejoice either to have my opinion confirmed
or corrected by yours. If you should find any Difficulty in procur-
ing the Book mine is Wholly at y'r Service.
Lynne R's
April 14th
1755.
The letter from Johnson to Bumey which evoked this reply will be found in Boswell's
Life of Johnson, dated 8th April, 1755. The Dodsley mentioned is Robert Dodsley (1703-64)
the well known author and bookseller. In his early life he was a footman in the employ of
the Hon. Mrs. Lowther. In 1738 he published Johnson's London. He entered into partnership
with his brother James, and the firm published the first complete edition of Sterne's
Tristram Shandy The present letter bears the following remark (probably written by Fanney
Burney) "No. 2. This neither had nor required an immediate answer."
1028
APPENDIX
Charles Burney to Arthur Young
(B.M. AddMSS. 35,126. /157)
Queen Sq.
Oct. 11 — 73.
Dear Sir,
You understand the arcana of the Bibliopolean Tribe so much
better than myself, that I want your counsel. I shall state my
present situation as an author, and then beg of you to tell me how,
under similar circumstances you w'd act.
My Italian Tour is reprinted, & ready to deliver, not one copy
of the first Edit, being left. I have corrected & somewhat enlarged
it, to the amount of 10 or 12 pages. — The German Tour has gone
off so well, that of 1,000 copies, Robertson says he imagines not one
will be left by Jan'y next. Now Becket has called once or twice
when I was out, as Hamilton tells me, to sound me as to disposing
of the Copy-right, or 2d Impression of both Tours. What w'd you
do? W'd you dispose of the new Edit, of the Italian & stand [?•]
the rest? or w'd you dispose of all, or stand [?] all? I sh'd be sorry
to throw away two B'ks that have made their way, without Book-
selling, or other Craft, & yet I want ' all my Time & Thought so
much for my History, that I sh'd be glad if I c'd cleverly wash my
Hands of all Trouble ab't former publications.
The advertising, & sale however of these Tours will awaken
attention in some to the subject of my great undertaking, & keep
it alive in others, & it will become the Bookseller' s interest to push,
if they purchase, the former works, which will be serving me in
spite of themselves. — If you advise selling Copy-right or Edition-
right, what sh'd I ask in either case? — ■ / suppose the Trade w'd lake
off my Hands not only their new impression of the Italian Tours
but that now on sale of the Germ. Tours, concerning which I have
settled with nobody, nor nobody with me? — Suppose I say,
Gentlemen, what will you give me for the 2d Edition of Italian Tour,
paying all expenses of it. What for the Copyright of D'o? or
conditionally , allowing something for every new Impression provided
I prepared it for the press?
For the 1st Edit, of Germ. Tour?
For 2d do
or for Copy-right in perpetuity.
But in every case sh'd not something be allowed for preparing a
new impression?
Now, opposite to the Questions, if you w'd be kind enough to
specify a fair & practicable sum, by w'ch I mean one that will
neither fright the Trade, nor Injure myself, you would very much
oblige
Dear Sir
Your Affectionate Serv't
CH. BURNEY.
1029
APPENDIX
/ beg you to present my best comp'ts to Mrs. Young — you have not
mumbled tough Beef-Steaks, nor cut cold meat, nor taken pot-luck
in Qu. Sq. a great while.
Arthur Young was a great friend of the Burney's and there are frequent references to
him in Fanney's Early Diary. He married a Miss Allen, a sister of the Mrs. Allen who became
Dr. Burney's second wife. Young published a number of books on agriculture.
Under cover from the Revd. T. Twining
to Dr. C. Burney
(B.M. Add. MSS. No. 39929. /161J
Before 15 April, 1778.
The compliments of Dr. Montgomery man attend Dr. Burney
— though, unknown to Him, takes the liberty earnestly to request
the favor of a single quarter of an hour's converse with Him this
evening, relative to ye subject of His valuable work: he (Dr. M.)
having, or thinking he hath, discover' d in two hitherto unnoticed
passages, the one of Athenceus, the other of Msychius, full proof
of the use of counterpoint among the Greeks, and express mention
of a public performance by Bausippus Heracleates upon the
Lyre.
From the same to Dr. Burney
(B.M. Add MSS. 39,929. fl62)
St Martins Street,
Leicester Fields.
Before 15th Apl., 1778.
Dr. Montgomeryman presents his respects to Dr. Burney —
presumes to hope that no apology will be thought needful for his
omitting to call on Dr. Burney last night, as he (Dr. M.) did not
receive from Him the favor of any answer to his note, which he
confesseth, His (Dr. Burney's) reputed character for politeness
& urbanity of manners had induced him to expect. He would
not have it thought to be his wish to obtrude himself, or his
notions, upon any man: he, however, hopeth that Dr. Burney
will have no objection to his laying h[is] discoveries & conjectures
before the public; which [it is~\ now his purpose speedily to do,
in a Dissertation] on the Music of the Greeks, . . . [the rest
torn away.]
1030
APPENDIX
Dr. Crotch to Charles Burney
(By permission of Miss Burney)
March 8th, 1791.
Sir,
The arrival of Haydn in the Country has excited the curiosity
of every lover of Music — My friends have expressed a great desire
that I should study his music & hear him perform in public but
more particularly in private, supposing that I should derive greater
advantage from hearing his observations on music in conversation
than by making my own remarks on the manner of his performing
or conducting in public.
My having no friend that can compare with yourself in
knowledge or experience in music will I hope be a sufficent excuse
for taking the liberty of asking your advice in this matter. If,
therefore, you will be so kind as to inform me whether you agree
with the opinion of myself and friends & whether there is a
probability of being introduced to that great master you will ever
oblige.
Y'r most obedient Servant,
WILLIAM CROTCH.
My best respects to Mrs. Burney & family,
High St.,
Oxford.
ion
Charles Burney to Samuel Rose
{B.M. Add. MSS. 33,965. /22).
Chelsea Coll.,
To Samuel Rose, Esq., 12 Aug't., 1796.
Chancery Lane.
My Dear Sir,
Supposing that ab't this time you may be returning from your
circuit, I trouble you again on the subject of Mr. Prof. Young's
commission. If my queries concerning the Pitch-pipe & double
base string were communicated to him & have been answered, I
should be obliged to you for his further explanation in these matters;
as the last letter which you inclosed from your friend was written
previous to his having seen the doubts which prevented Gray the
Organ-builder from going to work immediately , it has left us
where it found us.
However, if no further instructions are yet arrived, Gray will
go to in the best manner he can on those contained in the first
letter; but further delay sh'd incommode & disappoint your
ingenious & learned correspondent.
Believe me to be with great regard,
Dear Sir, Yours most truly,
Cha's Burney.
103 1
APPENDIX
Charles Burney to Edmond Malone
Chelsea College,
10 (or 18) Oct., 1798.
To Edmond Malone, Esq.
My Dear Sir,
I have been such a vagabond of late, as not to be three days
together at home since your departure from London. I have,
however, finished the perusal of Boswell's II vol. of the Life of
Johnson, and scribbled a sheet of hasty remarks, which consist
chiefly of such ejaculations as I sh'd have uttered had I been
reading the book to you, or you to me. But few of them, can
therefore be adopted in your 2d edition. It is too late now to
soften or expunge the harsh and offensive opinion of living
characters and those productions uttered in private conversation
by Johnson, without the least idea of their being made public.
Among all the good qualities of our friend Boswell, w'ch were very
numerous, delicacy had no admission. He was equally careless
what was said of himself, or what he said of others. But the
memorabilia w'ch his diligence and enthusiastic admiration of the
British Socrates have preserved are inestimable and will merit
the gratitude of posterity as long as the language of our country
shall be intelligible.
As your time for returning to town seems nearly arrived, I
shall not put you to the expense of a double letter, but send this
and the enclosed to Queen Anne Street. But cannot conclude
without an io triumphi! a hurra! and Nelson forever —
What a great event is this victory! and how extensive and
promising the effects! The Ministry and the whole Nation are
lifted out of the Slough of Despond! Adieu my dear Sir.
Pray let me know when you are returned and believe me with
great regard,
Ever yours.
CHAS. BURNEY.
Charles Burney to William Crotch
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
Chelsea College,
Feb'y. 17th, 1805.
My dear Crotch,
Much as I want leisure, I am glad that you have given me an
opportunity of writing to you; and if it were not for want of a
commodity at my time of life so precious, I should write you a long
letter. Let us begin with the books you want. After publishing
the Hid &IVth Vols of my History of Music, I put all original
1032
APPENDIX
materials on the shelf in lumber rooms, and in holes and corners
out of the way, supposing I should never want them again; but
on undertaking the musical department of the new Cyclopedia on
a large scale, including besides definitions in all the languages of
Europe where Music has been much cultivated, with its history
biography, criticism and discussions, a rash undertaking for a man
not likely to live till the work is finished! — as it will at least be ten
years ere the whole is issued from the press! In the course of my
labours in drawing up articles concerning everything that the
Alphabet furnished relative to Music, I found it necessary to ferret
out all my old books and papers which I had been collecting, ran-
sacking and commenting, for more than 50 years, and with which
I am fearful to part in a loan to any distance, not knowing in
jumping from article to article, when or who I may want to consult.
I lent 4 or 5 years ago some scarce books to a friend in Ireland,
which have not yet been all returned, though some of them I have
been in constant want. And other books that I have lent in a
hurry without making a record to whom, have occasioned a chasm
in my library which I can never fill up. I have always had such
pleasure in lending books to those unable to purchase & who truly
enjoy them, that I have often bought them for no other purpose.
Now, as to the books you mention, you may examine or read
them in my library whenever you come to Town, or I will let you
have any particular book to your lodgings, as I shall know where
to find it on short notice if wanted — the examining curious books
will occupy no more time here than at Oxford, when you are on
the spot. Let me know when you are likely to visit the Capital,
and they shall be looked out.
And now my dear Crotch, let me tell you for what friendly
purpose I wished to write to you previous to receiving your last
letter. It was to tell you that when I wrote you my congratulations
on the success of your lectures, I had seen none but good-natured
lovers of music whom you had delighted with your perform-
ance; but that after the departure of my letter I had seen some
Germans & good judges of Music who have kept pace with the
times, without being insensible to the merit of old masters. These
enlarged and enlightened judges both of old and new Music are
unwilling to subscribe to your severe, and even, contemptuous
remarks on Haydn. They say that you oppose your opinion to
that of all Europe, and at a time too, when all the musical world
is lamenting his loss and singing Requiems to his soul. They say
that your criticism will injure his fame in this country, and destroy
the pleasure of the public. But that the contrary would have
happened, if you had pointed out the beauties of such great and
original composers as Haydn and Mozart, and told your audience
on what they were founded. Now there seems so much good sense
and, fairness in these observations, that I know not how to confute
them. I have long ago said that Haydn's whimsicalities, which
he sometimes introduced for the sake of variety, and sometimes in
1033
APPENDIX
sport, had a great deal of wit in them; and knowing his natural
temper to be playful, and music always good-humoured, regarded
them as musical bons mots. But take away all these oddities, and
does not enough remain of serious, beautiful & sublime, to constitute
a truly great man? Original writers of all kinds are at first regarded
as innovators. The first concert of Anc't Music established in this
country in 1711 or 12 was set up against Handel whose style had
so much more force & variety than what our nation had been
accustomed to, that the Te Deum which he composed for the peace
of Utrecht in 1713, was not performed at St. Paul's, or anywhere,
but in the Chapel Royal at St. James', till 1732. No one ever loved
the memory & melody of Pur cell and his powers of making
Englishmen feel English words, with more enthusiasm than I
have always done, who with all his genius & vocal effects knew
nothing of the genius & peculiar power of any instrument but the
Organ. But it was not till I had heard the instrumental effects of
Handel's Utrecht Te Deum that I made this discovery; nor till I
had heard his oratorios performed that I preferred his sacred Music
in general to that of our Doctors Blow, Crofts, and Greene. I am
afraid, my dear friend, that you must not be so sincere in public
as to say what music pleases you best for your own eating, when
your opinion differs from the judgement of the rest of the world —
/ mean the enlightened and experienced part of it, who have heard
music of all kinds & in other countries. As to Haydn's comic turn,
Shakespear, you know was a writer of Comedies as well as
Tragedies, and no one of his admirers is perhaps, able to tell you
which he loves best. And as there is a comic Music in Burlettas
equally good, in its kind, with that of serious Operas, why may not
Haydn sometimes be comical, as many of our Poets have been in
their Comi-tragedies?
But I am told that you were remarkably severe and sarcastic on
the Instrumentation to Haydn's Oratorio of the Creation, and it
should, seem, without considering that it was a description of Chaos
before Order existed, he had to remind his audience of confusion,
floating atoms, and the throes of Nature in labour. I have no
doubt but that this was the idea with which he composed this
Symphony — it was the Idea at least with which I heard it performed
under the direction of Salomon, and thought it a great mark of
intelligence and reflexion. I am sorry that the two Masses which
you have seen of Haydn did not please you. If you say in public
that you do not approve them, you must give your reasons — //
your principal objections are that they do not resemble Handel's
Oratorios or Anthems, it will be asked why they should? Surely
such an inventive composer as Haydn may be allowed to have a
style of his own. His Fugues even have expression, light and
shade, and are embellished by ritornels and intersticial symphonies
without drawing off the vocal parts from the subject of the Fugue.
But are not the answers to all his regular Fugues correctly brought
in? If his Fugues resembled those of Handel would it not degrade
him into an Imitator, perhaps a plagiary? There are 4 of Haydn's
1034
APPENDIX
Masses now in London, one only of which I have had time to peruse
(which is in By) but that I examined with infinite pleasure.
Do all the justice possible, my studious and ingenious professor,
to the solidity, harmony, and learning of old masters, but consider
their productions as Ecclesiastical Music, and allow (as the Jockeys
say) weight for age. But in Dramatic Music, where Fugues can
hardly be admitted with Propriety, from the difficulty of getting
them by heart, and the absurdity of singing different words at the
same time, a light, clearer, and more fanciful music is necessary
and more appropriate. So that we must not fancy anything wrong
that is not to be found in the old masters.
The inexhaustible Mozart, whose compositions I did not like at
first; they seemed too capricious and as if he were trying experi-
ments, till he began to compose vocal music, of which he knew
nothing till after his decease; but which, both in his serious and
comic operas, seems to me, and innumerable others, the most
delightful dramatic music that has ever been composed. And yet I
have my favourites among Italian and German opera composers
whose productions give me infinite pleasure, both in hearing them
performed and in seeing them on paper.
Whoever writes or speaks to the public must not indulge
favouritism. In writing my general Hist'y of Music, if I had only
gratified the exclusive admirers of Handel, I should have celebrated
the genius and ability of no other musician. And what sort of a
general history would it have been. In my account of his com-
memoration he was my sole Hero, and I have stuck close to him,
as his faithful squire, I was nursed in Handel's music, and have
revered it and praised it more fully than that of any other, but not
exclusively . I have endeavoured to discriminate and point out the
peculiar merit of other great Masters in every country.
Fight Handel's Organ Fugues, Oratorio Choruses, and Hautbois
Concertos against the whole universe, you'll be on good ground, but
when you come to talk of Melody, grace, contrast, and variety in all
which though he exelled his contemporaries, it will not be easy to
convince those who have kept pace with the times, that he equally
towers over all his successors, such as Vinci, Pergolisi, Jomelli,
Perez, Piccini, Traetta, Anfossi, and Paesiello. I am speaking of
secular vocal Music. But in speaking of reading or hearing music
of all countries and times we should only compare them with their
contemporaries. I have always imagined that a man at the head
of his profession at one time would have been so at another. Purcell
lived in a barbarous age in our country for all Music but that of the
Church; but had he lived 50 years later or at any more modern
period he would certainly have adopted all the improvements in
secular Music of his predecessors, and have d'evance son siecle —
outstript his age. By reading and comparing one age with another,
I can easily see that such men as Josquin, Palestrina, Tallis, Bird,
Marenzio, Caressimi and Stradella would have been at the head of
any age in which they happened to flourish, but not of all ages.
For though you & I my friend, admire the art of Fugue, Canon, &
1035
APPENDIX
ingenious contrivances, the public, who does not hold them in such
reverence, nor indeed understand or know the difficulty of their
construction so well, think them dry, and unintelligible productions.
Extensive knowledge, experience, and acquaintance with the
scores, and effects in performance of the works of high renown, is
necessary to a Lecturer in the Capital: as a glance at single parts
can give us but little information concerning the merit of the whole.
There is a Mr. Latrobe, a Moravian divine, born in England but
brought up in a German College on the Continent, an excellent
musician, a good organ player, & a great collector of curious com-
positions from Germany, who has lately procured 4 of Haydn's
Masses; these he plays very well from the Score. We have adapted
to the Pianoforte all Haydn's best Quartets, which make admirable
lessons.
It is not only in England that Haydn has been admired, the
Germans, of course, are proud of him, but in France and, Spain his
fame and favour are still higher than with his votaries here. When
I have the pleasure of seeing you at Chelsea, I will shew you what
is said of him at Paris in the new Edition of the Encyclopedic
Methodique, by the most severe & prejudiced Musical Critic in
France, or perhaps in the world, who will allow no opera Music to
be bearable but that of Gluck — and in a charming Spanish poem on
Music by YRIVATI (?) , written and published at Madrid near 30
years ago, Haydn is its hero for instrumental music, at the distance
of Vienna and Madrid, Capitals the most remote from each other
in Europe.
No man's works could so soon penetrate to such a distance
without extraordinary merit. I tell you all this, my dear
Crotch, that you may conciliate parties, and not make enemies
among real Connoisseurs by praising one Master at the expense of
another.
Praise when you can; play the best productions of gifted men;
and let alone the spots in the sun which are invisible to common eyes
and you will not find it impossible to please a whole audience.
With so little time as I have to spare I should certainly not have
extended my letter before I was aware, had I not wished that your
hearers should allow you to be not only a good player, but a man
of candour, extensive knowledge, and an enlarged taste.
Believe me to be what I ever have been, dear Crotch
Your sincere friend and well wisher,
CH. BURNEY.
Crotch lectured in London at various times, and in 1804, 1805, and 1807 at the Royal
Institution. The lectures were published in 1831 under the title "Substance of Several Courses
of Lectures on Music read at Oxforij. and in the Metropolis."
Burney is wrong when he writes that the Utrecht Te Deum was not performed at St. Paul's
until 1732, as the first performance of this work took place in that Cathedral on July 7th, 1713.
It is possible that he is referring to the Birthday Ode of the same year, the first performance
of which might have been in the Chapel Royal on Feb. 6, 1713.
IO36
APPENDIX
William Crotch to Charles Burney
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
Holywell
Oxford
March 4th, 1805
My Dear Sir,
I am greatly obliged to you for the long & friendly letter you
have been so good as to write to me. I feel the value of the favor as
I know your time to be engrossed by real business.
I shall certainly avail myself of your kind offer of letting me
visit your study when I come to town. — At present I am eager
after music rather than books.
I am exceedingly glad to hear that the public are to be favored
with another of your productions.
With regard to my Lectures. I am, indeed fully aware that
the task of lecturing in the Capital requires " Extensive knowledge,
Experience, and acquaintance with the scores & effects in
performance of the works of men of high renown " — And that " the
Lecturer should possess candour and an enlarged taste as well
as be a good player " — Like the Poet in Rasselas he should have
every requisite & no defect — / pretend not to this character — and
the object of this letter is to explain. — For I think my opinions have
been (unintentionally , I doubt not) misrepresented to you. — Had
you been present at my Lectures, I think you would have been
inclined, if not to defend my opinions, at least to have explained
them to persons who misunderstood them. — I cannot admit that I
used " severe, sarcastic or contemptuous language " in treating of
ye works in general or of any particular work of Haydn. His
witticisms delight & amuse me — and I esteem him a truly great
man. — I am aware of the opposition made at all times to innovation.
— / never dislike any composer on account of his novelties. All
inventions cannot be improvements — Nor do I value music in
proportion to its age. Although I admire the vocal melodies of
Stradella I abjure the harmonies & modulations of ye Prince of
Venoso. The expression of Pur cell charms me — But the changes
of time in Lulli's Operas, perplex & weary me. The Elegance of
Hasse & the genius of Scarlatti are no less obvious to me than the
fire 6- dignity of Handel. — Is music capable of perpetual
improvement in all its branches? The Architecture & Sculpture
of ye Moderns is surely not to be compared with those of ye
Ancients — Painting too is on the decline — Yet I see with delighi
that Astronomy, Chemistry S- other Arts & Sciences (& I wish
could add Vocal Music) are daily improving.
You have been told that I idolize Handel, that I admire his
works exclusively — No my Dear Sir — I have praised him less than
seme would think he deserved. It is not for his Instrumental
Chamber Music, beautiful as much of it is — for in general the
subjects are fitter for what he afterwards applied them to, —
1037
APPENDIX
Oratorios 6- Choruses — It is not for his Organ fugues, which though
admirable want (I think) light & shade, contrast of passage,
episodes, variety — Nor is it for his Instrumental Concert Music
which was however the best of his time, that I prefer Handel — But
for the greatness of his mind, the accuracy of his judgement, the
variety of his styles & his skill in adopting the thoughts of
preceeding & coeval composers. — Bird might be as sublime, Hasse
as beautiful — Haydn more ornamental — But Handel united
grandeur, elegance & embellishment with the utmost propriety, &
on this account I ventured to pronounce him, upon the whole, the
greatest of all composers.
Without presuming on any very extensive knowledge I may,
however, own that many fortunate (perhaps Providential)
circumstances have concurred to make me acquainted with the
music of the most eminent at least of ancient & modern composers.
— And, knowing how little any music is cultivated abroad except
that of the reigning favorites, I may be allowed to doubt whether
foreign connoisseurs are, in general, competent judges of the
comparative merits of Oratorio composers. I am credibly informed
however, that the works of Handel were much admired by Mozart,
& that they are now more known & respected on the Continent than
they were formerly — I have seen your opinion of Vocal and
instrumental Music, of Sacred & Secular Music, of Air &
accompaniment & of ye construction of a fugue — With all this I
agree — In my lectures I laid down broad principles from which I
endeavoured to judge the merits & defects of ye composers of
all ages.
There are admirers of Haydn who esteem him " not only the
greatest composer of his age but of all ages." If his champions
are offended that I cannot allow him the same degree of credit for
his vocal as for his instrumental productions I am sorry. But
surely all Europe is not against me? Will not Italy prefer the
vocal melodies of Sacchini, Cimarosa, & Paisiello to those of
Haydn? Every one who can sing from Madame Mara to the
Chorus Singer will allow that in his Oratorios (to use Madame
Mara' s own words) " the voices only accompany the instruments "
— Whatever style of Music Haydn adopts, instrumental effects form
the chief excellence. — Nor is it in favor of Handel that I contend. —
I prefer to Haydn's Choral Music that of [ ?~\, Duranti, Purcell,
Em'l. Bach, Hasse, Jomelli, Graun, Pergolesi, [ ?] & Mozart —
& the songs of ye whole Italian School from Carissimi to Paisiello. — ■
I am not offended at his inventions for I think his Recitatives &
Choral Fugues want novelty. — Where is the vocal flow of melody
& transparency of accompaniment which you so happily describe in
Italian Songs? — Is not hz guilty of the same error in imitating the
rising of ye Sun &c for which Handel & others are censured by
all good critics?
I am happy to find that Mr Latrobe who is a professed admirer
of Haydn thought that my remarks on his Oratorio of ye Creation
were, upon ye whole, just. Shakespear is my delight—But I [am]
1038
APPENDIX
convinced that the Buffoonery in his tragedies was always a fair
object of Censure. Some subjects, some passages, some
movements strike me as too light for the Sacred Oratorio of ye
Creation — My remarks were written before I had heard the report
of Haydn's death. I am Truly glad to hear of it contradicted — I
think I shall agree with the writer in the French Dictionary &
with the Spanish Poet — for I expressly call Haydn " The most
original, ingenious, & extraordinary composer of ye present age "
— " Admirable in his Piano Forte Music " — " In his quartetts
without a rival " — " Infinitely superior to every composer of
symphonies " — " The greatest of all instrumental composers " —
/ am Dear Sir
Your ever obliged friend
& humble servant
WM. CROTCH.
C. Wesley to Charles Burney
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
My dear Sir,
Although your many and important Engagements & my own
necessary Drudgery have denied me the Happiness of a personal
Interview for so long an Interval of Time, yet I trust you ar>e
assured that my high respect & cordial Esteem have in no Degree
diminished, & I felt extreme satisfaction in having lately heard
that your Health is considerably improved.
I scarcely need say that I shall have great additional pleasure
in congratulating you Viva Voce whenever you can indulge me
with an Hour, compatible with your more consequential concerns.
I have also to prefer a Petition which if admissible, both myself
& your Petitioner will rest always obliged. — Mr. William Linley
(Brother to the late Mrs. Sheridan the celebrated Songstress) is
exceedingly desirous of the Honour of being introduced to you,
& I felt not a little proud in Privilege of informing him that I was
so happy as to have long enjoyed your acquaintance & good will.
— / also promised him what I now perform, to request of you
whether he may expect this Favour upon any morning when you
can with least Inconvenience sacrifice a few moments. I will make
any pre-engagement of my own yield to whatever Time you may
appoint, & I am very certain that Mr. L. will look forward to it
with much exultation.
With every best wish, believe me,
My dear Sir,
Your most devoted & faithful Servant,
C. WESLEY.
Camden Town,
Tuesday, March 22nd, 1808.
1039
APPENDIX
Charges Burney to Lady Banks
(By Permission of R. Border, Esq.)
To Lady Banks,
Soho Square.
Dr. Burney presents his best respects to Lady Banks & has
the honour to acquaint her Lad'p. that his health is so much
ammended by the warm weather that he has resumed his morn' g
ride, & keeps open house at home from 3 to 5, for all his friends
who shall honour him with a call. He fears L'y B., though in
general a sacred promise keeper, has suffered the hard & uncouth
name of Pfeiffer to escape her memory & how much he wished
to know whether Lady Spencer had ever seen, or wished to see,
" a collection of 6 Italian & 6 English songs by such a composer "
— previous to the eager wish of Dr. B. to furnish L'y Banks's
studious friend, Lady Sarah Spencer, with various scraps & Tit-bits
of elegantly simple melody.
Chel. Coll., May 8th, 1809.
Charles Burney to his Qrandson
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
Chel. Coll.,
July 4th, 1809.
My dear Grandson,
I have just seen your Father for a few minutes, and was vexed
to find that he had not been able to comply with my request in
acquainting you that I had rec'd with great pleasure your excellent
Essay, w'ch had been so justly & honourably crowned in preference
to the productions of so many competitors. I was so ill when
your welcome parcel came to hand, as not to be able to write
legibly, but desired my Rev' d Son Dr. Cha's to amplify the few,
though strong & sincere expressions of my approbation of your
discourse. But he was too much occupied in attending to his
pupils, so lately disposed to be rafractory; and he being still totally
without assistance, was unable to execute my commission so that
I fear you will think me wanting in civility and unworthy of your
gift. I must therefore now, feeble as I am in mind & body,
endeavour to tell you my feelings on the receipt of your Exanimo
dono ded.it. I always thought you w'd treat the subject given
in an able & forcible manner — mais vous avez deva,nce mon attente.
Your principles are good, and orthodox, without cant or meanness,
& you manifest not only a great extent of reading, but depth of
thought. Your matter is well arranged, and each period is the
legitimate offspring of the preceding sentiment. But I note your
notes, w'ch are well selected and from good authority, were cited,
1040
APPENDIX
i.e., uttered, as confirmations of your opinion — mentioning the
authors, without giving chap, and verse.
Not only myself, but all my offspring, have been fond of that
little impliment, the Pen, and your Essay will disgrace none of us.
Though if we think of its origin, a punning etymologist may
accuse us all of being addicted to the game of the Goose.
God bless you, my dear Charles — that this successful effort
may inspire you with fresh hope & vigour in future collegiate
contests & literary pursuits, is the sincere wish of your very
affectionate Grandfather,
CHAS. BURNEY.
P.S. — Your father & mother, who are both very well; set off
to-morrow for Worthing, where L'y Crewe, le petit Monsieur,
and his temporary Tutor join them.
To Charles Burney, B.A.,
Merton College,
Oxon.
Charles Burney to Rev, Dr. Burney
(By Permission of Miss Burney)
(No Date.)
To the Rev ' d. Dr. Burney ,
Rectory House,
Deptford.
My dear Cha's.
I have been thinking of nothing else since I saw you, but how to
secure to you the English books you wish from my lib'y — if you
will give me a list of all you can recollect, I may , perhaps, in my
general Catalogue, find them and others, I wish you to have — but
to pull my lib'y to pieces as long as I have eyes to see it in its present
state w'd break my heart It cannot be long ere I quit sublunary
concerns.
Sarah is still at Richmond — But in her last letter she tells me
that she and Charlotte Barrett went yesterday to call upon a Lady
who knows me extremely well, and enquired after me with great
anxiety — this L'y is a Miss Hotham, the daughter of Sir Charles
Hotham who was the friend of my old fr'd L'y Mary Duncan. She
has taken a house lately at Richmond, and fitted it up most
delightfully , w'th books, pictures, prints and everything that can
make it amusing. She is in very bad health, and never goes out;
but receives morning visitors, as many as chuse to come, and
entertains them w'th a vivacity and spirit w'ch seems inexhaustible.
She again desired S. to recall her to my remembrance and present to
Vol. ii. 66. 1041
APPENDIX
me her best compliments. I am ashamed to tell S. that I cannot
recollect any such intimate friends, nor indeed any thing ab't the
name of Hotham. — Can you my divine Doctor? I have written in
the most humble and penitent manner to Reading, confessing my
mistake in imagining you had been ill treated by the Le Noir family;
but have received no answer. Well, having eased my conscience, I
shall certainly get rid of a correspondence that has long been
troublesome to me and try to forget all ab't it. Heaven bless you
and yours.
C. B.
Dr. Bumey to Madame D'Arblay
(By Permission of Miss Bumey)
1812.
Nov'r.
My dear F. B. d'Arblay,
I hasten most urgently, to warn you against selling your Cottage
at Norbury Park. You can settle, and receive any money that
has been rec'd, and is due to you, for rent; but by no means part
with the Freehold. The Capt. in James St, a man of business, is
entirely of my opinion — you and our Alex, seem to rejoice much at
his having gained a Student-ship. — / thought he had done that w'th
a high hand of £10 annually long ago — how is this? je n'entends
goutte — Becky has been at work for you, as to lodging — God Bless
you — God help you — Dr. Cha's has very kindly behaved for Alec
at Cambridge — think how creditable it will be for the student to
have a little freehold in his Native Country.
C.B.
CQ42
Appendix II
MEMOIR of CHARLES BURNEY
CHARLES BURNEY was born in Raven Street, Shrewsbury,
on April 12th, 1726 (o.s.). The family name was originally
Macburney, and it was believed by some of the family that
an ancestor had come to England in 1600 with James I. Macauley
in his Essay on Madame D'Arblay, says that the family was probably
of Irish extraction, but gives no reason for this belief. Charles
Burney stated that he could never discover any link with either
Ireland or Scotland. The Macburney's were at one time people of
substance and James Macburney, the grandfather of Charles had
an estate at Great Hanwood in Shropshire, and also a house in
Whitehall. Later in life he became land steward to the Earl of
Ashburnham.
His eldest son, James, who was born at Hanwood in 1678, was
educated at Westminster School under the famous Dr. Busby. He
also studied painting with Dahl, a portrait painter with a European
reputation. At the age of 19 James, the younger, married an
actress named Rebecca Ellis. This step so enraged the father that
he took for his second wife his cook by whom he had a son, Joseph,
who became the heir, and who quickly ran through the family
fortune.
James Burney, the younger, and father of Charles, was a man
of varied accomplishments, and somehow managed to make a
living. After the death of his wife Rebecca, he married Ann
Cooper, a young lady from Shropshire (who had in her early youth
been courted unsuccessfully by Wycherley, the dramatist), and
settled in Shrewsbury where Charles and his twin sister Susannah,
who died young, were born. Shortly after the birth of the twins,
1043
APPENDIX
James left Shrewsbury for Chester, where he established himself as
a portrait painter. The young Charles did not accompany his
parents to Chester, but remained at Condover, a village near
Shrewsbury, in the charge of an old nurse. He received some early
schooling at the Free School, Shrewsbury, but later attended the
Free School, Chester, where he studied music under Edmond Baker,
organist at the cathedral there. It is probable that he began his
musical studies at Shrewsbury, where his half-brother James was
the organist at St. Margaret's for over fifty years (1735-89). He
could only have remained at Chester for three or four years as in
1797 he writes to his daughter Fanny : — " I ran about Chester, the
rows, walls, cathedral, and castle, as familiarly as I could have done
fifty years ago ; visited the Free School, where I hie hcec, hoe'd it
three or four years ; and the Cathedral, where I saw and heard the
first organ I ever touched." He must have been a model scholar
for in later life he frequently declared that he was only chastised
once whilst at school, and that for prompting another student. It
was during this period that Burney first met Handel, an account of
which meeting will be found on p. 1006 of this volume.
After these few years at Chester, Charles, now about 15 years of
age, returned to Shrewsbury and again became a pupil of his half-
brother James, with the view of adopting music as a profession.
He also took lessons in violin playing and French from Nicholas
Matteis, the son of the famous Matteis who is mentioned so often in
Book III of the History.
In 1744 Burney must have been in Chester for in that year
(probably in August) he met Arne who was passing through Chester
on his way to London from Dublin after a two-years' residence there.
Arne must have been impressed by Burney 's capabilities or eager-
ness, for he offered to take him to London as an articled pupil.
This proposition was accepted and Charles left for London in the
company of Arne.
In London he lived with his elder brother Richard, who was
settled in Hatton Gardens. According to Madame D'Arblay
(Memoirs of Dr. Burney), Charles did not receive much instruction
from Arne, and his time was mostly spent in copying music and
playing in the orchestra at Drury Lane under his master. Despite
Arne's apparent lack of attention to his young pupil (and the
evidence regarding this is one-sided), it was whilst he was with him
that Burney made the acquaintance of Mrs. Cibber (Arne's sister)
and Garrick. Mrs. Cibber took an interest in young Burney and
at her house in Scotland Yard he came into contact with many of
the notabilities of the day. It was here that he again met Handel.
In Burney 's account of the Handel Commemoration of 1784 he
writes : " He was very fond of Mrs. Cibber, whose voice and manner
had softened his severity for her want of musical knowledge."
Writing of Handel's performance on the harpsichord, he continues :
" Indeed his hand was then so fat that the knuckles which usually
appear convex, were like those of a child, dinted or dimpled in,
so as to be rendered concave ; however his touch was so smooth, and
1044
APPENDIX
the tone of the instrument so much cherished, that his fingers
seemed to grow to the keys. They were so curved and compact
when he played, that no motion and scarcely the fingers themselves,
could be discerned."
In 1745 Burney wrote some of the music for a revival
of Thomson's Alfred which Arne produced at Drury Lane
on March 30th.
About this time he met Fulke Greville, a descendant of the
famous Greville, Lord Brooke, poet, friend and biographer of Sir
Phillip Sydney. Fulke Greville wished to employ a musician
who was also a gentleman, but despaired of finding one. Kirkman,
the harpsichord maker said thai he knew of one likely to meet
Greville 's requirements and a meeting between Burney and Greville
took place at Kirkman's shop in Broad Street, Golden Square.
Burney was in ignorance as to the object of the encounter, but his
abilities and behaviour so impressed Fulke Greville that he paid
£300 to Arne for the release of Burney from his articles.
Fulke Greville was hardly an ideal companion for a young man
just on the threshold of a career, and it speaks well for Burney that
he emerged unscathed from an association that might have been
highly injurious to him.
Another important event which took place about this time was
Burney 's meeting with Samuel Crisp (the Daddy of the Early
Diaries of Fanny Burney), which took place at Greville's house
near Andover. It is probable that Crisp's goodness and interest
in Burney counteracted the influence of Greville and his usual
associates.
1747 saw the publication of a set of six Sonates for two
violins and a bass, and in 1748 or 1749 Burney married a Miss
Esther Sleepe, a young lady of French extraction.
There does not appear to be any record of the birth of his first
child, a daughter Esther, but the first son, James (afterwards
Admiral Burney) was born in June, 1750, and the second son,
Charles (who died young), in June, 1751.
Burney was appointed organist of St. Dionis Backchurch, in
Fenchurch Street, in 1794 at a salary of £30 per annum. He was
also appointed Harpsichord player and Conductor for the " New
Concerts " which had been established at the " King's Arms,"
Cornhill. Besides these activities he did much teaching and in
1750 composed some of the music for Mendez's Robin Hood which
was a failure (Drury Lane, December 13th), and for Queen Mab
(Drury Lane, December 26th), which was successful.
The large amount of work which he accomplished occasioned a
severe illness and for three months of 1751 he was confined to bed.
The fear of becoming consumptive led him to accept in the same
year, the position of organist at St. Margaret's Church, King's
Lynn, Norfolk, at a salary of £100 per annum (£120 according to
D. N. B.), and here his second daughter, Frances (Fanny; Burney
was born on June 13th, 1752 (n.s.) At Lynn also were born his
1045
APPENDIX
daughter Susanna and his son Charles (1767), afterwards famous as a
Greek scholar.
The town of Lynn in those days was busy and important, and
although Burney may have regretted having had to leave London,
and despite the ill repair of the organ at St. Margaret's, he soon
became well known, and established connections with many well-
known families in the district.
It was his habit to go from house to house upon the back of his
mare " Peggy," an animal so adapted to the humour of her master
that he was able to study Italian whilst on these journeys. It was
at Lynn that he first formed the idea of writing a History of Music.
In 1760 his health was so much improved that he was able to
return to London and settle in Poland Street, where he rapidly
earned a place as a teacher of music. Here was born in 1761 his
daughter Charlotte, and here in the same year he suffered the loss
of his wife on September 28th. The following extract from a letter
to Miss Dorothy Young gives one an idea of his feelings on this
occasion : — " Amongst the numberless losses I sustain, there are
none that unman me so much as the total deprivation of domestic
comfort and converse — that converse from which I tore myself
with such difficulty in a morning, and to which I flew back with
such celerity at night ! She was the source of all I could ever
project or perform that was praise-worthy — all that I could do that
was laudable had an eye to her approbation. There was a rectitude
in her mind and judgment, that rendered her approbation so
animating, so rational, so satisfactory ! I have lost the spur, the
stimulus to all exertions, all warrantable pursuits — except those of
another world. From an ambitious, active, enterprising Being, I
am become a torpid drone, a listless, desponding wretch ! I know
you will bear with my weakness, nay, in part, participate in it ;
but this is a kind of dotage unfit for common eyes, or even for
common friends, to be entrusted with."
Amidst all his teaching activities, Burney found time to do some
original work, and shortly after his return to London he published
a number of concertos for the Harpsichord.
About this time he appears to have met Johnson, but if Boswell
is to be relied upon the first meeting took place whilst Burney lived
at Lynn. In his Life of Johnson, for the year 1758, Boswell inserts
an account of this meeting in which it appears that it was during
some visit which Burney made to London. As no date is men-
tioned beyond some time after March 8th, 1758, Boswell may have
pre-dated the occurence. Madame D'Arblay says this event took
place in 1760 when Johnson was living in the Temple.
Little is known of Burney after the death of his wife until 1764
when he took his daughters, Esther and Susan, to Paris with a view
to putting them to school there. Writing from Paris to Fanny on
her twelfth birthday (June 13th, 1764) he says : — " I am just come
from the Comick Opera, which is here called the Comedie Italienne,
where I have been extremely well entertained, but am so tired with
1046
APPENDIX
standing the whole time, which every one in the pit does, that I can
hardly put a foot to the ground, or a hand to the pen." No doubt
this latter discomfort caused Burney more annoyance than the
former.
Whilst in Paris he met David Hume who was the Secretary
to the Embassy there.
The visit to Paris appears to have roused him from the despon-
dency due to the death of his wife, and in 1765, at Garrick's
suggestion, he adapted Rousseau's Devin du Village for the Drury
Lane Theatre, with the title, The Cunning Man, but with only
partial success.
Amongst the many people with whom Burney made friends
during his residence at Lynn was a Mrs. Stephen Allen, a widow
with two children. Coming to London in order to obtain better
educational facilities for her children, she renewed her friendship
with Burney, and in 1767 the couple were secretly married at
St. James's, Piccadilly.
In 1769 the University of Oxford conferred upon him the
degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Music. His exercise for the
latter was a lengthy anthem with overtures, etc. The work
achieved considerable success and had several performances at the
Oxford Music Meetings. It was also produced under Emmanuel
Bach's direction at Hamburg.
Fanny notes in her Diary : —
" Sunday afternoon, June (1769).
My papa went last Monday to Oxford in order to take a Doctor's
Degree in Musick : Is not that a grand affair ? — He composed an
Anthem by way of exercise to be perform' d on the occasion, in which
his pupil Miss Barsanti was to be the principal singer, and make her
first appearance in publick. . . . His Anthem was performed last
Thursday, and gave much satisfaction — indeed the musick of it is
delightful — Poor Barsanti was terrified to death, and her mother,
who was among the audience, was so much affected, that she fainted
away."
Dr. Burney had written home as follows : — -
" Oxford, Thursday, June 22nd
past 2 o'clock.
My dear Girls,
I know it will please you much to hear that the performance
of my Anthem is just very well over, not one mistake of consequence —
Barsanti did extremely well, and all was much applauded — i" shall
to-morrow have both my Degrees (for I must first take that of
Batchelor of Musick) with great unanimity and reputation. Dr.
Hayes is very civil ; and lends me his robe with a very good grace.
— Adieu. — i" know not when I get home."
T047
APPENDIX
Through the whole of his lifetime Burney had an interest in
astronomy and in 1769 he published an Essay towards the History
of the Comets, together with some translations from the French
which had been made by his first wife. This production had no
success, but it is probable that the writing of it inspired him to
engage more seriously in the compilation of his long contemplated
History of Music. He soon discovered that in order to gather
materials for a work on the scale conceived by him, it would be
necessary to visit the Continent. Accordingly in June, 1770 he
left London on the first of his interesting " Musical Tours." Passing
through Lille he proceeded to Paris, then to Lyons, Geneva (where
he met Voltaire), Turin, Milan, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence,
Rome, and Naples. He arrived back in England in January, 1771,
and went to Chessington, the home of " Daddy " Crisp, where he
put together his Present State of Music in France and Italy, and which
he published in the same year.
The success of the book was immediate. Johnson was so struck
with the idea that he frankly imitated it in his Tour to the Hebrides.
In the same year Burney published a letter on " Bowing," by
Tartini.
During his absence on the Continent his family had removed
from Poland Street to Queen's Square, Bloomsbury. It pleased
Dr. Burney to think that Swift may at one time have visited there,
as the house had been the residence of Barber, the famous printer.
Many famous people visited him here, amongst these being
Captain Cooke the famous navigator, prior to his second voyage
round the world. James, the eldest son of Dr. Burney, who was
in the Navy, accompanied Cooke on this voyage (1772-4) and also
on the third (and last) voyage. Burney himself makes a note of
this visit as follows : —
" In February, I had the honour of receiving the illustrious
Captain Cooke to dine with me in Queens-Square, previously to his
second voyage round the world.
" Observing upon a table Bougainville's Voyage Autour du
Monde, he turned it over, and made some curious remarks on the
illiberal conduct of that circumnavigator towards himself, when
they met and crossed each other ; which made me desirous to know,
in examining the chart of M. de Bougainville, the several tracks of
the two navigators ; and exactly when they had crossed or
approached each other.
Captain Cooke instantly took a pencil from his pocket-book,and
said he would trace the route, which he did in so clear and scientific
a manner, that I would not take fifty pounds for the book. The
pencil marks having been fixed by skim milk, will always be
visible."
With a view to making another Continental Tour, Burney now
busied himself with the study of the German language, and in
July, 1722 he set off on his travels, in the course of which he met
Gluck, Metastasio, and Hasse, at Vienna. On his return he was
1048
APPENDIX
held up at Calais by bad weather, which may have caused the
severe illness he suffered upon his return to Queens Square. Whilst
in bed he busied himself with the notes of this journey and on his
recovery sought the ever open door of Chessington in order to
prepare his work for the press. The Present State of Music in
Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces, appeared in
two volumes in May, 1773 and in the same year he was elected an
F.R.S.
A second edition of the French and Italian Tour was issued, and
both these works had details of his proposed History of Music.
Burney proposed issuing this work in two volumes, quarto, at
£2 2s. Od. the set ; one guinea to be paid at the time of subscribing
and the other on the delivery of the second volume, in sheets.
He proposed issuing the first volume in 1774, but the scheme would
not go forward unless he had 500 subscribers before sending it to
press.
After the issue of this prospectus he received a letter from a
Mr. Chandler and a Mr. Davis, two city merchants, on behalf of an
unknown patron, guaranteeing him against loss. This, however,
was not necessary.
During his visits to Naples and Vienna he had been impressed
by the schools of music there, and in 1774 he formulated a scheme
for a similar institution here, advocating the use of the children
of the Foundling Hospital for this purpose. A meeting of the
Governors and Directors of the Institute was convened to discuss
the scheme, and after a lengthy discussion it was decided to give
the idea a trial. A little later however, he received a letter from
Sir Charles Whitworth, the chief of the Board, to the effect that the
project could not be put into execution.
In 1774 the Burney 's removed to No. 1, St. Martin's Street.
Dr. Burney had bought this house in April or May of that year,
but they did not take possession until October. Fanny writes in
her Diary :
" St. Martin's Street,
Leicester Fields,
Oct. 18th.
My father, very much recovered, and myself left Chesington ten
days ago. . . . We came immediately to this house, which we
propose calling Newton House, or The Observatory , or something
that sounds grand. By the way, Sir Isaac's identical observatory
is still subsisting, and we show it, to all our visitors, as our principal
Lyon. I am very much pleased with the Mansion. . . . "
This house was afterwards renumbered No. 35, but was pulled
down early in the present century. Here the Burney's lived until
the Doctor was appointed organist at Chelsea College in 1783, and
here he received on terms of intimacy most of the notabilities of the
day. His musical evenings were famous, and very few musicians
visited London without taking part in them.
1049
APPENDIX
The first volume of the History appeared in 1776, the year in
which Sir John Hawkin's work was published. The publication
of this volume had been delayed on account of attacks of rheuma-
tism in the fingers, and also because of lack of time due to Burney's
popularity as a teacher. It is unfortunate that the whole of
Fanny's Diary for the year 1776 was destroyed by herself, for which
act the following explanation^ ) is given :
" The whole of what was written of this year was upon family
matters or anecdotes, and I have destroyed it in totality."
In the production of this first volume, Burney had received
considerable assistance from the Rev. Thomas Twining, a Greek
scholar (he had translated the Poetics of Aristotle), and a keen lover
of music. Twining himself contemplated writing a History of
Music but abandoned his plan upon hearing of Burney's similar
intention, putting his material and extensive knowledge of Greek
at the disposal of his friend.
Burney's professional duties took him, about 1777, to the
Thrales at Streatham, where he was engaged as music master to
Queenie (afterwards Viscountess Keith), the eldest daughter. As
usual with Burney he was soon great friends with the Thrales, and
so was brought into more intimate contact with Dr. Johnson.
There is an amusing account of Fanny's first meeting with Johnson
in her Diary for March 28th, 1777. In 1778 Johnson accompanied
Burney on a journey to Winchester, where the latter was putting
his youngest son, Richard, to school under Joseph Warton. In the
Memorials which Fanny compiled in her old age this event is dated
earlier.
It was at the house in St. Martin's Street that Mrs. Thrale first
met Piozzi, the well-known singer, who later became her second
husband. Mrs. Thrale, in her Autobiography says that she met
Piozzi at Brighton in 1780, but according to Fanny the meeting
took place on the occasion of the second visit of Johnson and the
Thrales to St. Martin's Street, and says that this took place a few
months after the first one.
In 1778 was published Fanny Burney's Evelina, and in 1779
Dr. Burney read a paper before the Royal Society upon the musical
prodigy, William Crotch, which was printed in the Philosophical
Transactions, vol. 69, part I. In this year he lost his great friend
Garrick, and in 1781 another friend, Mr. Thrale, died.
The second volume of the History was long overdue, but at last
it was published in 1782. For some reason or other there were two
different printings of this volume, a fact which hitherto appears to
have escaped notice. The normal second volume is one in which
the long/ is used, and in which many of the smaller musical examples
are printed from type. This volume also contains a page of
Corrigenda, and we have seen one with an index. The copy from
which the editor prepared the present edition had the modern s, no
Corrigenda and all the examples engraved. In many cases the
examples contained a number of errors. We have only seen this
1050
APPENDIX
copy of this apparently rarer edition, and the British Museum does
not possess one.
Burney had never received any official acknowledgment from
official circles, but in 1783 Burke obtained for him the position of
organist at Chelsea College, raising the salary which had been £30,
to £50 per annum. His great friend Samuel Crisp, died this year
(1783).
The Handel Commemoration of 1784, was, as the reader of the
History will easily understand, a most important event for Burney,
and in 1785 he published his well-known account of it. By this
time death had claimed another of his friends, this time Samuel
Johnson, who died on the 13th December, 1784.
The post of Master of the King's Musick fell vacant in 1786 on
the death of the holder, the blind musician, Charles John Stanley,
who had succeeded Dr. Boyce in 1779. Burney naturally had
great hopes of being appointed in Stanley's place, and even had an
interview with the King about the matter, but he was not successful
and Sir William Parsons was appointed. It is thought that the
post of Dresser to the Queen which was given to Fanny Burney in
July, 1786, was by way of consolation. A wretched consolation as
it turned out.
The final volumes of the History and a second edition of the
first volume were published in 1789. In the same year Burney
started writing articles for the Monthly Review.
About this time he became afflicted with a nervous disorder
and during the attacks of this illness he composed nothing but
those dry canons and fugues, against which he had so often declaimed
in the History. A long course of Bath water cured this illness,
and then once more he busied himself with literary work. He had
two projects in hand, a Life of Metastasio which was published in
1795 in three volumes, and A Dictionary of Music which was never
published. In this year his wife died. The death of Burke
followed in 1797 and in 1800 his beloved daughter Susan, Mrs.
Phillips died. 1801 saw Burney contributing articles to Ree's
Encyclopedia for which he received the large fee of £1,000, and in
1806 Fox granted him a pension of £300.
Fanny had been allowed to relinquish her post of Keeper of the
Robes in 1791, and in 1793 had married Alexandre D'Arblay, who
had been Adjutant-General to La Fayette. In 1802 Fanny and
her husband left England for France, and here she spent the next
ten years of her life, not returning to England until 1812, although
she had made an unsuccessful effort to leave France in 1810.
Towards the end of 1807 Burney suffered a paralytic stroke,
but recovered and resumed the collection of material for his Memoirs
which task he had begun in 1782.
Dr. Burney died on April 12th, 1814, the night of the official
rejoicings over the first abdication of Napoleon. He was buried
on April 20th in the grounds of Chelsea College, and later a tablet
to his memory was erected in Westminster Abbey.
1051
APPENDIX
There is no biography of Burney yet, but it is pleasant to know
that Dr. Percy A. Scholes is at present engaged on a life of the great
historian.
The Memorials compiled by Madame D'Arblay are valuable in
many ways, but the style is atrocious, and the sequence of events
at times rather difficult to place in proper order.
As a composer Burney is of no importance. His works are
correct and pleasant, and little else, but as a writer on music he
is of the first importance, and without doubt he was the most
learned musician in England, if not in Europe. Modern writers
on the music of the eighteenth century are deeply indebted to him ;
one has only to compare Burney with Grove's Dictionary of Music
to realise how much.
1052
Appendix III
Some Lesser4cnown Gramophone
Records of Music referred
to in this History
Abbreviations : — Col., Columbia ; H.M. V ., His Master's Voice ; Pari., Parlophone
Ancient Greek Music.
One Record (two examples).
R 1016.
Hebrew Music.
One Record (three examples).
R1016.
Organum.
Two Records. Col. 5710-11.
One Record. Pari. R 1017.
Pari.
Pari.
Col. DB 303
5468.
Carols.
DB 2612-5
5057
Gregorian Chant.
Twelve Records made by the Choir
at Solesmes Abbey. H.M.V.
D1971-1982, or in Album Series,
No. 120.
Two Records made by the Schola of
Ampleforth Abbey. H.M.V.
C 2087-8.
Four Records from the Dutch
Catalogue. Col. DHX 6-9.
Gradual " Misit dominus verbum
suum." Pari. R 1017.
The following seven Records were
made by H.M.V. in 1904 and are
still available : D 826 ; D 830-3 ;
E 336-7.
Polyphonic Church Music.
Six Records made by the Dijon
Cathedral Choir. H.M.V. DA 4846 ;
DB 4893-7.
Palestrina. Pari. R 1021 ; Col. 5711,
5712, 4970 ; H.M.V. C 1473-6 ;
DB 1570-71.
Orlando di Lasso. Pari. R 1021.
Vittoria. H.M.V. DB 1572.
Anerio. H.M.V. DB 1572.
Orlando Gibbons. Col. DB215.
Byrd, Wm. Agnus Dei (5 Part Mass).
Col. DB 5547.
Ave Regina. Motet.
H.M.V. C 1606
Ave Verum. Motet.
H.M.V. C 1606.
Exsurge Domine. H.M.V.
C 1678.
Bruck, Arnoldus de. Aus tiefer Not.
Pari. R 1020.
Finck, Heinrich. Christ ist erstan-
den. Pari. R 1020.
Troubadour Music.
Troubadours. Three Songs. Pari.
R1018.
Minnesingers. Three Songs. Pari.
R1018.
Early Netherland Music.
Dufay. Gloria, for boys' choir and
two trumpets. Pari. R 1019.
Josquin. Et Incarnatus. Pari.
R1019.
1053
APPENDIX
Early Netherland Music — contd.
Arcadelt. Ave Maria (sung by the
Sistine Choir). H.M.V.
DB 1570.
Ave Maria, (sung by the
London Catholic Choir) .
Col. 4968.
Early English Church Music,
Psalmody, etc.
Merbecke. Agnus Dei, Benedictus,
Credo. Col. 9841.
Pange Lingua, Gloria in
Excelsis, Pater Noster.
Col. 9842.
Psalm 46. Plainsong Tone 5 (Sarum
Psalter. Col. DB 17.
Psalm 67. Merbecke. Col. 9842.
Psalm 91. (Pointing.) Col. DB 17.
Psalms 29, 133, 121 and 123. (Point-
ing. " Parish Psalter.") Col. DB
993.
Scotch Psalmody
Old Scottish Psalm Tunes (Organ).
Three Records. Col. 4516-7 and
4754.
Old Scottish Psalm Tunes, sung by
unaccompanied choir. Three Re-
cords. Col. 4518-20.
Old Scottish Psalm Tunes, (Organ).
H.M.V. B3226.
Early Instrumental.
Keyboard ;
Bull, J. King's Hunting Jig (played
on the Virginals). Col.
5713.
Gigge (Harpsichord). Pari.
E 10524.
Byrd. Pavane and Galliard. The
Earl of Salisbury (played on the
Virginals). Col. 5712.
Sellinger's Round (Harpsichord) .
Pari. R 1023.
Farnaby. Three Pieces (Virginals).
Col. 5713.
Viol, Lute and Recorders:
Dering. Fantasy for six Viols. Col.
9837.
Morley. Fantasies for two Viols.
Col. 9837.
Norcombe. Divisions on a Ground
for Viol da Gamba and Lute.
Col. 5714.
Simpson, C. Divisions in D, No. 5,
for Viola da Gamba. Col. DB 1 100.
Early Instrumental — contd.
Weelkes. Fantasy for a Chest of
Viols. Col. 5714.
Franck. Melchior. Pavane (String
Quartet). Pari. R 1023.
Hausmann. German Dance. Pavane
(String Quartet). Pari. R 1023.
Green Sleeves. Divisions to a Ground
for Recorders and Virginals. Col.
DB 1062.
Tudor Solo Songs.
Morley. It was a Lover and his
Lass. Col. 4985.
Dowland, J. Awake, sweet love
(with Lute and Viol). Col. 5715.
Early Secular Music.
Sumer is Icumen-in. Col. 5715.
English Folk Songs. Five Records.
Col. DB 336, 452, 607, 706, and
802.
English Folk Songs. Two Records.
Col. DB 335 and 477.
Hebrides, Songs of the. Four Songs.
Col. 9338 and Col. 9922.
Welsh Folk Songs. Two Records.
Col. DB 384-5.
Madrigals, etc.
Gibbons, Orlando. Ah, dear Heart.
Col. 9876.
The Silver Swan. Col. 5717.
Morley. Fire, Fire, My Heart. Col.
5548.
I Follow, Lo, the Footing.
Col. 9877.
■ Sing we and chant it.
Col. 5716.
Weelkes. O Care, Thou wilt Des-
patch me. Col. 9877.
Hence Care, thou art too
cruel. Col. 9877.
As Vesta was descending.
Col. 5717.
Vauter, Thos. Sweet Suffolk Owl.
Col. 5549.
Gesualdo. Resta di darmi noia.
Pari. R 1022.
Hassler, Hans. Mein Lieb' will mit
mir kreigen. Pari. R 1022.
Byrd, Wm. Lullaby my sweet Little
Baby. Col. 5546.
Be still my Blessed
Baby. Col. 5546.
Farmer. Fair Phyllis. Col. 5717.
Pilkington. Rest, Sweet Nymphs.
Col. 5716.
1054
INDEX TO NAMES
VOLUMES I and II
<<S7>
KEY — (i) denotes Volume I.
(ii) denotes Volume II.
Bold figures denote main reference.
" f " denotes " and following pages.
" n " denotes footnote.
Aaron, Pietro (i), 519; (ii), 129,
131/, 139, 151.
Abbon (i), 585.
Abel, K. F. (ii), 867, 869, 885«,
1015, 1017, 1018/.
Thos. (i), 801.
Abercorn, Earl of (ii), 987.
Abos (ii), 854, 857, 914.
Accursius (i), 173.
Achilles (i), 258, 271, 274, 276, 277.
Adamberger (ii), 890.
Adami (i), 736; (ii), 150, 152, 154,
155, 164, 166, 240, 244, 437, 438,
544, 558, 605, 629.
Adamson, Elizabeth (ii), 58.
Addison (i), 17, 117; (ii), 165, 535,
546, 657/, 662, 665, 675, 676, 677,
678, 681, 1002.
Adrian (i), 94, 381.
Pope (i), 449, 450, 488, 564.
Willaert (i) (see Willaert) .
Adson (ii), 262, 279.
Aegisthus (i), 152, 802.
Aescyhlus (i), 142, 273, 311, 336.
Affilard (ii), 978.
Agamemnon (i), 152, 274.
Agazzari, Agost (ii), 433.
Agenor of Mytilene (i), 12.
Agincourt, D ' (ii), 975.
Agostini, Paolo (ii), 416.
Agricola, A. (ii), 206.
J. F. (ii), 944, 950.
R. (ii), 208.
Agujari (i), 636; (ii), 861, 882,
883, 885.
Albergati (ii), 538.
Albergatti, La Vittoria (ii), 684.
Alberti, D. (ii), 103 ; (ii), 405, 910,
996, 1008.
Alberti, Gaspard (ii), 151.
Guis. Matteo (ii), 444.
Albinoni, Tommaso (ii), 405, 444,
556, 796, 808, 905, 909, 996.
Albrechtsberger (ii), 953.
Alc;eus (i), 238, 306-7.
Alcman (i), 238, 304-5.
Aldovrandi, Cardinal (ii), 510, 565.
Aldrich, Dr. (ii), 61n, 66, 68, 76,
95, 241, 309, 349, 351, 402, 433,
478/, 608, 615, 618, 637.
Aldrovandini (ii), 538.
Alembert, D ' (ii), 968, 979.
Alessandri, Felice (ii), 874.
Alessandro della Viola (ii), I64n.
io55
INDEX TO NAMES
Alexander, (i), 153, 155, 167, 287,
315, 607, 706.
Ill, Pope (i), 508.
Alfonso de Castillo (ii), 235.
Alfred, King (i), 452, 510, 559, 597,
725w.
Algarotti (ii), 913, 917, 938.
Aliprando, Benvenuto (i), 623.
Allacci (ii), see Allatius.
Allatius, Leo (i), 442, 496 ; (ii),
540, 557, 558, 574, 592.
Allegranti, M. (ii), 892.
Allegri, Greg (ii), 417, 435.
Allison, R. (ii), 52, 54.
Alstedius (ii), 370.
Alypius (i), 23, 29, 30, 33, 53, 55,
95, 293, 349, 439, 467.
Ambrose, St. (i), 195, 414, 415, 416,
417, 418, 420.
Amerbach (ii), 207.
Amicis, Anna de (ii), 864, 865.
de (Family) (ii), 864.
Amorevoli (ii), 839, 841, 909, 918,
943.
Amphion (i), 161, 223, 225, 255, 256,
266, 318; (ii), 374, 469.
Anacreon (i), 286, 335, 336, 364,
Andreoni (ii), 831, 839.
Andronicus, Livius (i), 138, 144,
370.
Anerio, Felice (ii), 164.
Anfossi (ii), 892, 894, 897, 912, 974,
975.
Angelieri, Giorgio (i), 636.
Angelo, daPicitono (ii), 135.
Anguillara (i), 632, 633.
Animuccia (ii), 151, 162.
Anmer (ii), 262.
Anne Boleyn (i), 738, 798. 801.
Annibali, Dom. (ii), 803, 804, 805,
808, 811, 943.
Ansani (ii), 891, 915.
Anthen^us (i), 174, 189.
Anthony, of Padua, St. (i), 620.
Antigenides (i), 153, 155, 231,
326-9, 624.
Antinori (ii), 734.
Antiochus (i), 372.
Antoninus, (i), 94, 381, 411.
St. (i), 506.
Antonio a Tempo (i), 628.
Antonio dagl' Organi (i), 644.
Apollo (i), 87, 225-40, 243, 267, 273,
282, 302, 404, 524.
Apollodorus (i), 173, 225, 258, 270.
Apolloni, Salv. (ii), 909.
Apollonius, Dyscolus (i), 156.
Rhodius (i), 260, 294.
Apuleius (i), 17, 62, 175, 230, 248,
329, 378, 379, 387.
Aquivivus (ii), 173.
Aratus (i), 51, 87, 94, 99, 103, 322.
1056
Arbuthnot, Dr. (i), 331 ; (ii), 756
Archias, of Hybla (i).
Trumpeter (i), 297.
Archilei, Signora (ii), 311, 559.
Archilochus (i), 137, 288-90, 306.
Archytas (i), 221, 304, 325, 356 ;
(ii), 138.
Arena (ii), 838.
Aresti, Fl. (ii), 906.
Argonauts (i), 236, 251, 257, 260
267, 268.
Arion (i), 161/, 335, 347, 624.
Ariosti, Att. (ii), 556, 699, 700, 712
724, 730, 733, 742, 944.
Ariosto (i), 348, 528, 597, 625, 642 ■
(ii), 246, 605, 793.
Aristides, Quintilianus (i), 12
34, 42, 44, 54, 69, 72, 74, 75, 87
146, 326, 337, 346, 404, 468.
Aristoclides (i), 335.
Aristogiton (i), 362.
Aristonous (i), 316.
Aristophanes (i), 73, 232, 320, 335,
347.
Aristotle (i), 11, 26, 29, 48, 122,
126, 133, 137, 138, 157, 221, 231
260, 282, 325, 338, 339, 349, 360n,
361, 363, 388, 607, 679; (ii), 161,
428.
Aristoxenus (i), 11, 24, 33, 34, 40,
42, 43, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 56,
65, 67, 68, 95, 115, 119, 120, 121,
228, 307, 318, 337, 338, 340, 348
349-52, 354, 356, 357, 401.
Arkadelt (ii), 200, 243/.
Arnaud, Abbe (i), 46, 47, 146, 337 ;
(ii), 561.
Arne, Mrs. (ii), 425, 776n, 791,
1000, 1007, 1011.
— Dr. Tkos. (i), 85 ; (ii), 403,
488, 643, 648w, 658m, 681, 705, 709n
781, 808, 868, 1001/, 1004, 1007,
1010, 1011, 1015/.
(Senr.), Thos. (ii), 776w.
Arnold, Dr. (ii), 495, 786, 1016.
Arrigo, Tedesco (i), see Isaac,
Henry.
Artaria (ii), 963.
Arteaga (ii), 5l3n, 938.
Artusi (i), 114; (ii), 145/, 190, 517.
Ascham, Roger (ii), 17, 58.
Asclepiades (i), 156, 159.
Ashton, Hugh (i), 785, 794.
Ashwell, Thos. (i), 785, 794.
Astorga, Baron D' (ii) 636.
Athanasius, St. (i), 426.
ATHENiEUS (i), 17, 66, 125, 298, 304,
30S, 313, 318, 319, 322, 328, 329,
331, 334, 335, 340, 360, 361, 363,
364, 385, 403.
Attalus (i), 373.
Attey (ii), 279.
INDEX TO NAMES
Augustine, St. (i), 85, 375, 413, 414,
415, 427, 432, 447, 448, 455, 482,
528, 587, 689.
Augustus (i), 210, 373.
Aulus Gellius (i), 153, 156, 157.
Aureli, Aurelio (ii), 547.
Aurisicchio (ii), 857.
Auvergne (ii), 970.
Avella, D' (i), 471 ; (ii) 482.
Avison (i), 103 ; (ii), 7, 912, 945,
990, 1013.
Avolio, Signora (ii), 1006.
Ayrton, Dr. (ii), 495.
Rabbini (ii), 897/, 899.
Babel, Wm. (ii), 996/.
Bacchius, Senior (i), 57, 65, 106.
Bacchus (i), 133, 168, 192, 244-48,
248, 258, 262, 265.
Bacchylides (i), 299, 312.
Bach, C. P. Emanuel (ii), 36m, 98,
265w, 812, 845, 848, 866, 944, 950,
951, 955, 961.
J. C. (i), 416??, 725 ; (ii), 547,
864-66, 869, 874, 876, 877, 884,
916, 930, 946, 954, 997, 1009, 1015,
1017, 1020.
J. C. F. (ii), 953, 954.
J. S. (i), 60 ; (ii), 96, 97, 98,
445m, 700m, 866, 951, 952, 953,
954/, 1018.
W. F. (ii), 953, 954.
Bacon, Sir Francis (i), 11, 135, 703.
Roger (i), 493.
Baglione (ii), 975.
Bagnolesi (ii), 770, 771, 773.
Baif, J. A. (ii), 215, 233.
Baini, La (ii), 867.
Balarini (ii), 558.
Balbastre (ii), 976.
Balbo, Ludov. (ii), 183.
Bald ass arri (ii), 706, 718, 719, 995.
Baldi (ii), 743, 747, 751, 754, 757,
759.
Baldwyne, John (ii), 80 n.
Bale (i), 549, 550, 674, 675.
Ballard, Robt. (ii), 45, 46, 247.
Balliere (ii), 979.
Baltazarini (ii), 223/, 274, 433.
Baltzar, Thos. (ii), 337, 338, 368,
461, 462, 641w.
Bambisio (i), 642.
Bandini (ii), 620, 622, 623.
Baneister, G. (i), 774.
Banister, J. (ii), 368, 369, 641m,
654.
(Junr.) (ii), 983, 984.
Banks, Sir Joseph (i), 384.
Barbazon (i), 568.
Barbell a (ii); 451-53, 919, 991,
Vol. ii. 67.
Barbier, Mrs. (ii), 678, 679, 681,
682/, 684f, 716, 989, 996, 1002.
Bardella, A. W. (ii), 513.
Bardi, Giov. (ii), 510, 512, 514, 602,
603.
Bargagli (ii), 433.
Barley, Wm. (ii), 54, 55m.
Barnard, John (ii), 291, 292, 318,
343.
Baron (ii), 947.
Baroness, The (ii), 659, 663, 671,
673, 690.
Baronius (i), 465, 469, 471, 663.
Barre, de la (ii), 473.
Barthelemon (ii), 871, 1019.
Bartholinus (i), 140, 322, 388, 400.
Bartlett (ii), 279.
Bartoli, Daniel (ii), 429.
Baryphonus (ii), 459.
Basam (ii), 14.
Basiron (i), 769.
Basnage (i), 213.
Bassani, Giamb. (i), 555 ; (ii), 436,
437, 443, 444, 462, 478, 606, 625.
Gir. (ii), 907.
Basseggio, L. (ii), 906.
Bassiron (i), 709.
! Baston (ii), 250.
1 Batman (i), 697.
Batson (ii), 262, 278.
Batten, Adrian (ii), 290.
Baumgarten (ii) 962, 1022.
Bayle (i), 679, 746», (ii), 43, 44.
Beard, John (ii), 493, 775m, 791,
801, 805, 808, 811, 989, 1003, 1010,
1012.
Beauchamp (ii), 464.
Beaulieu, de (ii), 225.
Beaumont and Fletcher (ii), 269,
277, 964.
Beccari (ii), 508.
Bechada (i), 579.
Beck, David (ii), 208.
Becker, D. (ii'), 461, 462.
Bede (i), 447, 448, 451, 455, 482,
559, 560, 663, 701, 783.
Beecke (ii), 962.
Beldemandis, Prosdocimus de (i),
510, 548, 552, 645-6.
Bembo, Cardinal (i). 562, 566, 622,
629, 710.
Bend a, Fr. (ii), 956.
G. (ii), 946, 956.
Bene, del (ii), 897, 899.
Benedict, Biscop. (i), 451.
VIII, Pope (i), 465.
Benedictus (i), 753, 754-7, (758),
(Ducis).
Benevento, Gius. (ii), 905.
Benevoli, Orazio (i), 416w ; (ii),
66, 417, 418, 430.
1057
INDEX TO NAMES
Bennet, John (ii), 55, 106, 279.
Bentley, Dr. (i), 105.
Berardi, Ang. (ii), 430, 538.
Berchem, Jacket (ii), 245, 246.
Berenstadt (ii), 699, 700, 707, 722,
723, 728.
Bergognoni, B. (ii), 905.
Bermudo, Joan (ii), 236.
Bernabei, Ercole (ii), 418.
G. A. (ii), 418.
Bernacchi, Ant. (ii), 539, 698, 699,
737, 738, 760/, 761 n, 764/, 789,
907, 909.
Bernai, Alex, de (i), 605.
Bernard (Organist) (ii), 201.
Mr. (i), 87.
St. (i), 563, 579, 689.
de Ventadour (i), 609.
Bernardi, Steffano (ii), 418.
Bernardino, da Siena (i), 620.
Bernasconi (ii), 886, 890.
Bernhard (ii), 459.
Berni (i), 597, 642.
Bernier (ii), 976.
Berno, Abbot (i), 468.
Berozzis (ii), 943.
Berselli, M. (ii), 713, 943.
Bertin (ii), 964.
Bertolli (ii), 760/, 764/, 768, 773,
778/, 781, 788, 791, 805, 808, 812.
Bertoni (ii), 857, 867, 889/, 894, 921.
Bertrand, Ant. (ii), 215.
Besozzi (ii), 971.
Bethisy (ii), 978.
Betinelli (ii), 197.
Betterton (ii), 643, 648, 649, 657,
660, 664.
Betum, Wm (or Beton) (ii), 13.
Beurheisius, Frederic (ii), 205.
Bevin, Elway (ii), 263, 289, 292,
317.
Beyland, Ambrose (ii), 332.
Beza, T. (ii), 36, 43, 55, 56, 154.
Biancardi (ii), 172.
Bianchini, Dr. (i), 159, 201.
Bianconi (ii), 178.
Biber, H. J. F. (ii), 462.
BlCKERSTAFF (ii), 1000.
Bidon (ii), 129.
Biffi, G. (ii), 184, 189, 910.
Bilenius, Jacob (ii), 205.
Billington, Mrs. (ii), 1021.
Binchois (i), 712, 713, 769m.
Bini, Pasq (ii), 446, 447.
Birch, H. W. (ii), 487.
Birchenska, J. (ii), 370, 371.
Bird, see Byrd (ii).
Bisson, Louis (ii), 222.
Bitti, Martino (i).
Blainville, de (i), 13, 753; (ii), 467,
979.
Blair, Dr. (i), 288, 315.
Blaise (ii), 977.
Blamont (ii), 964.
Blanche, of Castille (i), 608.
Blancks, E. (ii), 52.
Blavet (ii), 977.
Blithman (ii), 65, 93.
Blondel (i), 570/
Blow, Dr. (i), 555 ; (ii), 344, 350/,
362, 390, 475, 480, 487, 703m.
Boccaccio (i), 566, 617, 622, 637/, ;
(ii), 196, 282.
Boccherini (ii), 449, 455.
Bochart (i), 219, 253.
Boesset, A. (ii), 317, 465m, 474.
J. B'. (ii), 464, 474.
Boethius (i), 34, 119, 146, 153, 293,
318, 319, 375, 429, 513, 515, 529,
532, 549, 559, 586, 669, 671, 680,
705, 707 ; (ii), 131, 138, 173, 202,
428.
Boiardo (i), 597, 625, 642 ; (ii), 507m
Boileau (i), 105, 115, 116, 117.
Bona, Cardinal (i), 499.
Bonadies (ii), 130m.
Bonamy (i), 568.
Bonadies (i), 708.
Bonatelli (ii), 598.
Bonet (i), 13, 800m.
Bonner, Bishop (ii), 19, 22.
Bonnet (ii), 223m.
Bononcini, G. B. (ii), 538, 541, 542,
583, 585, 586, 635, 636, 659, 661,
663m, 672, 700, 707, 712, 715, 719,
724, 725, 729, 747/, 757, 777, 782,
942, 944.
Gio. M. (i), 474m ; (ii), 422,
424, 428, 538.
M. A. (ii), 442, 556, 606,
656m, 663m, 672, 905, 942, 944.
Bontempi (i), 13, 33, 56, 118, 343,
477, 545 ; (ii), 416, 430, 547, 558.
Booth (ii), 657.
Borde, de la (ii), 210, 211, 470, 473,
474, 964, 968, 969, 980, 981/
Borel (i), 605.
Borisini (ii), 728, 729, 733, 734, 846.
Boschi (ii), 666, 673, 700, 702, 707,
708, 709, 713, 718, 719, 728, 729,
733, 743, 747, 751, 754, 758, 759.
Signora (ii), 673.
Bottrigari (i), 88, 103, 113, 214 ;
(ii), 195.
Bougeant (i), 119, 122, 123, 125.
Bourgeois, Louis (ii), 44, 45.
Bourdelot (ii), 574.
Bournonvilles (ii), 473.
Bousset (ii), 976.
Bowen (ii), 983,
Boy, The, see Holcbmb.
1658
INDEX TO NAMES
Boyce, Dr. (ii), 13, 20, 21, 60, 67,
68, 76, 82, 89, 95, 125m, 263, 265,
289, 310, 349, 350, 352, 357, 380,
3S3f, 402, 479m, 480, 486, 487, 488,
492/, 537, 724, 1010, lOUn.
Boyle, Mr. (i), 105.
Braccioli, G. (ii), 729, 777.
Bracegirdle, Mrs. (ii), 983.
Brandi, Ant. (ii), 558.
Brantome (i), 801 ; (ii), 23m.
Breitkopf (ii), 962.
Bremner (ii), 867.
Brenner (ii), 460.
Brent, Miss (ii), 1015.
Brind (ii), 489.
Brissac (ii), 964.
Britton, Thos. (ii), 369.
Broschi, R. (ii), 788, 789, 833/, 909,
919.
Bross'ard (ii), 968, 978.
Brown, Abram (ii), 1012.
Brown, Dr. (i), 33, 68, 144, 446, 462.
Browncker, Lord (ii), 329.
Browne, John (i), 774.
Brent, Miss (ii), 681.
Brivio (ii), 841.
Bruce, Mr. (i), 177, 386.
Brumel (i), 709, 727, 735, 736, 746,
765.
Brumoy (i), 136, 142.
Brun, Le (i), 636 ; (ii), 385/, 889,
890.
Brunne, Robt. de (i), 649.
Brusa, Fr. (ii), 908.
Bryennius (i), 34, 40, 53, 87, 119,
446, 500.
Bryne, Albertus (ii), 342.
Bucer (ii), 19.
Buchanan (ii), 36.
Buffon (i), 249.
Buini, G. M. (ii), 907, 908, 909.
Bull, Dr. (i), 784 ; (ii), 24, 93/", 116,
260, 262, 321.
Buonporti, Fr. Ant. (ii), 444.
Burette (i), 36, 44, 45, 49. 50, 65«,
68, 88, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 102, 103,
105, 110m, 111, 112, 119, 121, 122,
123, 124, 125, 126, 157, 158, 256,
402.
Burlington, Earl of (ii), 685, 695,
994.
Burnet (i), 801», 802 ; (ii), 15, 25,
59 n.
Burtius, N. (ii), 132.
Burton, Avery (i), 785, 794.
John (ii), 970, 1018.
Busnois (i), 712.
Butler, Ch. (i), 477, 553 ; (ii),
291m, 317, 329.
Buttstett, J. H. (ii), 458."
Buxtehude, D. (ii), 458.
Byfield (ii), 705.
Byrd, Thos. (ii), 94m.
William (i), 706, 784 ; (ii),
22, 24, 60, 66??, 67, 74/, 93, 95, 97
102, 104, 115, 116, 247, 265, 266
283, 292, 311, 348, 383, 479.
Caccini, Francesca (ii), 531, 559,
570.
- G. (ii), 513, 514, 515m, 516,
517, 564, 595, 602, 603, 607.
Cadmus (i), 217, 218/, 263.
Qedmon (i), 647, 783.
Caffarelli (i), 131; (ii), 813, 817,
818, 819, 821, 857, 971.
Caillot (ii), 972.
Caimo, G. (ii), 184.
Caldara (ii) 421, 445, 556, 583, 583
637, 905, 906, 937, 942, 976.
Callimachus (i), 241, 308.
Calliope (i). 87 242.
Calori (ii), 859, 860.
Calvalca (i), 213.
Calviere (ii), 975, 976.
Calvin (ii), 19, 36, 41/, 217.
Calvisius, Sethus (ii), 206.
Cambert (ii), 404, 407, 467, 468, 645,
646, 648, 651.
Cambio, P. (ii), 174.
Camden (ii), 22, 25, 264, 286 287.
Campion, Mrs. (ii), 984.
T. (ii), 118.
Campra (ii), 473.
Camus (ii), 474.
Cange. du (i), 474, 500, 502, 509,
546, 581, 652m ; (ii), 240w, 606.
Canis, Cornelius (ii), 248/
Canisius (i), 419.
Cannabich (ii), 945.
Capellini (ii), 621.
Capollini, Mich. Ang. (ii), 571.
Caporale (ii), 1003, 1012.
Cara, Marchetto (ii), 129.
Carara (ii), 880, 894.
Carbonelli (ii), 790, 996, 1010.
Cardot (ii), 216.
Carestini (ii), 782, 783f, 786, 791,
793, 797, 826, 827, 838, 908, 909,
917, 944.
Carey, H. (ii), 732, 776?*, 999, 1000,
1001, 1004.
Caribaldi (ii), 975.
Carissimi (i), 554; (ii), 23m, 161,
200, 356, 367, 404, 405, 419, 430,
459, 479, 534m, 537, 544, 606,
607/ 622, 923.
Carlo DArgentilly (ii), 151.
Carmignani (ii), 864.
Caron (i), 712, 769m.
Carpentier (i), 474, 567, 581.
Carpentras (i), 710.
Cartwright (ii), 34.
Casarini (ii), 846, 847.
1059
INDEX TO NAMES
Casaubon (i), 319, 322.
Casella (i), 627, 628, 642.
Cassani (ii), 660, 664, 673, 679.
Cassiodorus (i), 375, 454, 586.
Castiglione (i), 735; (ii), 128, 141.
Castor and Pollux (i), 265.
Castro, J. de (ii), 222.
Castrovillari (ii), 547.
Castrucci (ii), 698, 702, 770m, 774,
779, 853, 994, 995, 1004.
Catallus (i), 376.
Caurroy, F. E. du (ii), 229/.
Cavalcante (i), 622.
Cavaliere (ii), 510, 511, 516, 519,
525m, 559, 564/, 595, 607.
Cavalli (ii), 467m, 541, 543, 545, 546,
547, 597, 602^, 620.
Cavendish (i), 799.
Cawston (ii), 28, 32.
Caxton (i), 658, 659.
Caylus, Count de (i), 614.
Cecilia, St. (i), 663.
Celsus (i), 411.
Censorinus (i), 410.
Cepede, de la (ii), 981.
Cerberus (i), 264.
Cerceau (i), 119, 122, 123, 125.
Ceres (i), 268, 269, 270.
Cerone (i), 114, 475; (ii), 426.
Certon (ii), 46m, 213.
Cervetto (ii), 867, 1005, 1012, 1018,
1019.
Cesti, M. A. (ii), 404, 419, 544, 597,
601, 615/, 621, 622, 625.
Ceva (ii), 582.
Chabanon (i), 120 ; (ii), 975, 980.
Chabran (ii), 446.
Chambonieres (ii), 473.
Champion (ii), 473.
Chandos, Duke of (ii), 775.
Charlemagne (i), 449, 450, 561 563,
584, 592, 596, 725?*, 801.
Charles I (i), 697 ; (ii), 287 f.
Charles II (i), 209 ; (ii), 340/ 404,
406/ 641, 645, 647, 651.
Charles V (i), 707, 711, 800; (ii),
17, 25, 242.
Charles VI, of France (i), 596.
Charles IX (i), 801 ; (ii), 45m, 215,
252.
Chateauneuf (i), 119.
Ckerubini (ii), 899.
Chaucer (i), 557, 586, 626m, 853-66,
783 ; (ii), 96.
Ckelleri (ii), 906.
Chesterfield, Lord (ii), 839.
Chiavacci (ii), 975.
Child, Dr. (ii), 264, 287m, 289, 290;^,
311, 330, 342, 348, 364, 480.
Chilmead (i), 87.
Chilperic (i), 588.
Chilston (i), 694. 701.
Chimenti (ii), 803, 818.
Chiron (i), 255, 257, 268.
Chor^ebus (i), 318.
Christina of Sweden (i), 350, 403,
480, 507, 529, 609; (ii), 438, 541.
Chrysostom, Dion (i), 326, 388.
Chrysostum, St. (i), 412, 413.
Chrysothemis (i), 300.
Ciacchi (ii), 844, 846.
Ciampi, Fr. (ii), 444, 789, 909.
L. V. (ii), 597, 848, 849, 852,
862.
Ciardini (ii), 864, 865.
Gibber, C. (ii), 642, 648, 649, 654,
655, 657, 660, 661, 662, 664, 667,
813.
Mrs. (i), 148, 526; (ii),
658m, 754, 776, 875, 899, 1001,
1003, 1006, 1016.
Cicero (i), 12, 17, 29, 111, 141, 144,
146, 187, 216, 252, 260, 290, 304,
310, 350, 372, 373, 562, 695; (ii),
141, 161, 179, 276m.
Cicognini (ii), 570.
Cieco, Francesco (i), 643/; (ii),
239.
Cifra, Ant. (ii), 154, 163, 164, 431.
Cima, P. (ii), 184, 189, 412.
Cimarosa (ii), 892, 899, 901.
Cinesias (i), 321.
Cino da Pistoia (i), 622.
Cionacci (ii), 560.
Ciprandi (ii), 853, 868.
Cirilli, Fr. (ii), 558.
Clairembault (ii), 975.
Clari (ii), 424, 425, 426, 444, 579.
Clarke, Jeremiah (ii), 352, 475/,
480, 666.
Claudian (i), 403.
Clayton, Dr. (ii), 94.
Thos. (ii), 635, 636, 658,
675 723
Clegg, J. (ii), 702, 997, 1000, 1001,
1003, 1004.
Clemens. Alexandrinus (i), 94,
193, 194, 218, 281, 293, 304, 347,
411, 426, 516; (ii), 331.
Non Papa (ii), 250.
Clementi (ii), 98, 424.
Cleonidas (i), 353.
Clifford, J. (ii), 291, 351, 370.
Clio (i), 241.
Clive, Kitty (ii), 999, 1000.
Clcnas (i), 332.
CloThaire II (i), 561.
Cluer (ii), 772m.
Clytemnestra (i), 152, 802.
Cobbold, W. (ii), 52, 112.
Cocchi, G. (ii), 856, 857, 858, 859,
860, 861, 862, 863, 884, 870. 874,
922.
1060
INDEX TO NAMES
Cochl^eus, J. (ii), 204.
COELIUS, AURELIANUS (i), 156.
Colasse (ii), 473, 984.
Colbert (i), 116.
Collet, R. (ii), 1011.
Colman, Cath. (ii), 641m.
Colman, Dr. C. (ii), 285, 329, 330,
365, 640, 641».
Edward (ii), 329, 641w.
Colonna, F. (ii), 427.
G. P. (ii), 537, 585, 601.
S. (i), 633 ; (ii), 438.
Commodus (i), 381.
Conforto (ii), 855, 859.
Congreve (ii), 123, 656, 677, 984,
989.
Constanti (ii), 734.
Constantine (i), 412, 414.
of Fleuri (i), 498.
(Violinist) (ii), 366.
CONSTANTIUS (i), 415.
Conti, Fr. Bart, (ii), 663, 767n, 941,
944.
Gugl. (ii), 570.
Contini (ii), 841.
Cooke, Capt. (ii), 330, 342, 348, 349.
350, 356, 374, 381, 640, 6iln.
Dr. Benj. (ii), 989n.
Cook (Singer) (ii), 655, 663, 670.
Coperario (ii), 116, 283, 285, 309,
310, 322, 333.
Coppola (ii), 890.
Cog, Gian le (ii), 247.
Corjebus, see Choraebus.
Corbet (Violinist) (ii), 694, 985, 990,
997, 998.
Corbet, Bishop (ii), 51.
Corelli (i), 558 ; (ii), 143w, 374, 405,
434, 436, 437/, 449, 493, 537, 541,
579, 585, 625, 630, 653, 716, 725,
985, 988, 990, 991.
Corinna (i), 238, 312.
Corkine (iij, 262.
Cormano (ii), 768.
Cornacchini (ii), 858.
Cornelius Nepos (i), 95.
Cornely, Mrs. (ii), 1017.
Cornish, William (i), 553, 774, 782.
Corri (ii), 880, 901, 916.
Corsi, Jacopo (ii), 510, 514.
Corteccia, Fr. (ii), 197.
Corticelli (i), 620.
Cortona (ii), 558, 909.
Cosimo, Nicola (ii), 444.
Cosyn, Benjamin (ii), 79n.
John (ii), 52.
Cotton, John (i), 474, 506/, 515, 545,
670 ; (ii), 202.
Sir Robt. (i), 508.
Coucy, Chatelain de (i), 600/.
Couperin, Armand-Louis (ii), 473.
Couperin, Fr. (ii), 95, 975, 976.
Courtois, J. (ii), 248.
Cousser (ii), 460.
Couteaux, A. aux. (ii), 464.
Coverdale (ii), 14, 18m.
Cramer (ii), 867, 1018, 1019.
Cranforde, Wm. (ii), 283.
Cranmer (i), 802 ; (ii), 19, 36.
Crates (i), 297.
Cremonini (ii), 864, 865, 868.
Crequilon, Thos. (ii), 246, 247.
Crescembini (i), 480w, 566, 568,
610«, 621, 622, 630 ; (ii), 438, 507,
560, 562, 593n, 598, 622.
Crescentini (ii), 896/.
Crespel, G. (i), 727 ; (ii), 214.
Creta, F. C. (ii), 999.
Creyghton, Robt. (ii), 478.
Crexus (i), 335.
Croce (ii), 105.
Croft, Dr. (ii), 352, 480/, 488, 489,
690, 986.
Cromwell, Oliver (ii), 331, 350.
Crosdil (ii), 867, 1018, 1019.
Cross, Mrs. (ii), 655, 670, 983.
Crowley, R. (ii), 18n.
Croza (ii), 848, 850, 855.
Cruger (ii), 459.
Cud worth, Dr. (i), 260.
Cugnier (ii), 977.
Curioni (ii), 853.
Curteys (ii), 335.
Cutell (ij, '700-1.
Cutting, Thos. (ii), 262, 263.
Cuzzoni (ii), 129, 721, 723, 728, 729,
73ln, 733, 736/, 738, 743, 745, 747,
750, 751, 754, 757, 759, 780, 781,
788, 789, 791, 849, 850, 896, 907,
909, 918, 919.
Cybele (i), 228, 246.
Dacier (i), 133, 142, 143, 144, 277 ;
(ii), 503.
Dallans (ii), 343, 344.
Damascus, Pope (i), 499.
Damiano (ii), 562, 598.
Damon (i), 12, 153, 155, 325, 326,
763.
William (ii), 51.
Dante (i), 528, 566, 617, 620, 622,
625/, 644 ; (ii), 513.
Danzi, see Brun, Le.
Daquin (ii), 975.
Dardanus (i), 409.
Davenant, Dr. C. (ii), 368, 642, 646.
Sir W. (ii), 300, 304, 310,
331, 639/.
David (i), 195, 196, 197, 198, 199,
205, 212.
1061
INDEX TO NAMES
Davies, Cecilia (ii), 879, 880, 882,
884, 983.
Davis, Dr. (i), 647.
R. (i), 707, 708.
Davy, Richard (i), 774.
Day, John (ii), 28, 31, 50, 51, 52, 102.
Dean (Violinist) (ii), 985.
Deborah (i), 194, 198.
Deering, Richard (ii), 292, 374, 375.
Defesch (ii), 781, 1015.
Delany, Mrs. (ii), 691, 741m, 749n,
796m, 805m.
Demetrius (i), 334.
Triclinius (i), 143, 155.
Democritus (i), 157.
Demodocus (i), 281-^!, 647.
Demosthenes (i), 333.
Denis, the Carthusian (i), 505.
Dennis, Mrs. (ii), 994.
Dentice, Luigo (ii), 135, 173.
Descartes (ii), 329.
Destouches (ii), 473.
Dibden (ii), 1016.
Didymus (i), 354-5, 356 ; (ii), 133.
Dieupart, Cm. (ii), 654, 656, 675, 996.
Diodati, of Lucca (ii), 58.
Diodorus, Siculus (i), 161, 167, 169,
173, 176, 216, 219, 220, 228, 229,
235, 244, 258, 259, 262, 268, 270,
279, 280, 407.
Diogenes, Laertius (i), 153.
Diogenian (i), 234.
Diomedes (i), 233 ; (ii), 502, 597.
Dionysius (i), 244.
Halicarnassus (i), 12, 146,
366, 367, 368, 409.
■ Iambus (Poet) (i), 87, 94,
311.
Diruta, G. (ii), 426.
Ditters, Ch. (ii), 943.
Dogget (ii), 664.
Donato, B. (ii), 104, 174, 176.
Don Calmet (i), 197, 202, 204, 565.
Doni, Antonfrancesco (i), 707 ;
(ii), 131, 151.
G. Battista (i), 72, 107,
108, 124, 355, 492, 784 ; (ii), 145m,
178, 179, 180, 205, 283, 412, 427,
511/, 523, 524, 558, 561, 564, 602.
Dorion (i), 329, 330.
Dotti, Anna (ii), 728, 729, 734, 743,
747.
Douglass, Wm. (ii), 994, 997.
Dowland, J. (ii), 52, 55, 116/, 119,
120, 202, 260, 329.
Downes (ii), 482m, 641m, 644m, 646.
Dragki, Ant. (ii), 460.
G. B. (ii), 344m, 645.
Draudius (ii), 183, 252, 411, 433.
Dryden (i), 248, 703 ; (ii), 390, 404,
503, 646/, 651, 667, 776m, 798.
1062
Du Bos, Abbe (i), 135, 140, 141, 147
400, 468, 711, 725.
Dubourg (ii), 993, 994, 998, 1001.
Dubreuil (ii), 980.
Duchat, Le (i), 727.
Duchesne (i), 591.
Du Clos (i), 138, 139, 141, 146, 147.
Dufay (i), 712, 713, 769m.
Duffet, Thos. (ii), 643.
Dumanoir (ii), 366.
Dumeni (ii), 470.
Dumont (ii), 473, 964.
Duni (ii), 921, 972, 975.
Dunstable (i), 452, 677, 707, 708,
711,712,713, 726.
Dunstan, St. (i), 542, 453.
Duport (ii), 976.
Dupuis (ii), 494.
Durand (i), 554.
Durante, Fr. (i), 481 ; (ii), 424,
426, 630.
Durastanti (ii), 700, 702, 706, 707,
708, 709, 713, 719, 722, 723, 728,
783, 943.
Durfey (ii), 657.
Duttons (i), 651.
Eberardi (ii), 859, 860, 863,
Ebner (ii), 458.
Eccles, J. (ii), 984.
Echembrotus (i), 302.
Eckard (ii), 957.
Eckehard (i), 431.
Edelman, J. F. (ii), 957.
Edward I (i), 649.
II (i), 656.
Ill (i), 783.
IV (i), 697, 784.
VI (ii), 15-22, 25, 28, 29.
Eichner (ii), 957.
Eleutherus (i), 301.
Elford, R. (ii), 481, 482m, 488.
Elisi (ii), 859, 860, 861, 862, 863,
870.
Elizabeth, Queen (ii), 22/, 50, 65,
74, 260, 364.
Ellis, Will (ii), 335, 337.
Embry, Thos. D' (ii), 217.
Empedocles (i), 155, 299.
Englebert (i), 496.
Enno, Seb. (ii), 606m.
Epaminondas (i), 94, 325, 329.
Epigonius (i), 335, 348.
Epine, F. m de L' (also referred to
as The Italian Lady, and Mar-
garita) (ii), 652, 653, 656, 657,
660, 663, 664, 669, 670f, 673, 679,
681, 682/, 684, 685, 689, 694, 698,
713, 985, 986.
INDEX TO NAMES
Erasmus (i), 763. (ii), 126, 204.
Erato (i), 242.
Eratosthenes (i), 356 ; (ii), 138.
Eredia, P. (ii), 435.
Eschenburg (ii), 961.
Escobedo (ii), 240.
Este, Michael (ii), 114, 278, 322.
T. (ii), 52, 112.
Etree, John D' (ii), 214.
Euclid (i), 23, 26, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41,
56, 57k, 65, 67, 69, 121, 319,
353-4, 517, 751.
Eudal de Sully (i), 502, 504.
Eumelus (i), 288.
Eumolpus (i), 269.
Eunomis (i), 161.
Euridice (i), 263, 264, 495.
Eurilochus (i), 233.
Euripides (i), 78, 79, 338, 638;
(ii), 191.
Eusebius (i), 94, 196, 202, 259, 349,
411, 412, 414, 427.
Eustace, see Wace.
Evelyn, John (i), 28m ; (ii), 337m,
368m, 409m, 64 In, 699n.
Eximeno (i), 423m, 480, 525 ; (ii),
939.
Faber, Gregory (ii), 205.
Henry (i), 471, 475.
Stapulensis (ii), 211.
Fabri, A. P. (ii), 760/, 761m, 764/,
768.
Fabricius (i), 174, 256. 258, 284,
315, 350, 373, 550 ; (ii), 161.
Facho (ii), 432.
Faidit, Anselm (i), 573-6, 601.
Farina, C. (ii), 434, 435m.
Farinelli (i), 131, 315; (ii), 451,
737, 759, 781, 788, 789/, 791, 793,
798, 800, 803, 813, 814/, 831/,
839, 909, 918, 919.
Farmer, J. (ii), 52, 115.
Farnaby. G. (i), 784 ; (ii), 24, 52,
55, 98.
Farrant, Richd. (ii), 19, 21, 66,
290 n.
Fasch, J. F. (ii), 952.
Fauchet (i), 568, 570, 571, 600,
609^, 664.
Faustina (ii), 129, 225, 736, 737/
743, 745, 747, 750, 751, 754, 757,
759, 789, 907, 909, 912, 918, 943.
Fayrfax, Dr. (i), 680w, 707, 773,
774, 785, 791/; (ii), 61.
Federici, Fr. (ii), 573, 574, 586, 587.
Felton, Rev. W. (ii), 1008/
Feo, Fr. (ii), 914, 919, 927m.
Ferrabosco (ii), 105, 1157*, 116, 118,
121, 122, 277, 282, 283, 285, 322.
Dom. (ii), 118m.
Ferraresi, The, see Bene, del.
Ferrari, Bene, (ii), 460, 542, 543,
597, 605, 606.
(ii), 446, 454.
Ferri, Baldassare (ii), 558.
Festa, C. (i), 710 ; (ii), 198/
Festing, M. C. (ii), 705, 790, 853,
997, 1002, 1004, 1005, 1011/ 1017.
Feven, Ant. de (i), 709, 746, 767/",
770.
— ■ — Egbert de (i), 709.
Fevre, Le (ii), 474.
Ficoroni (i), 135m.
Filicaia (i), 630.
Filtz (ii), 945.
Filmer, Ed. (ii), 317, 465.
Finck, Herman (ii), 205.
Finger, G. (ii), 462, 984.
Fiore, S. A. (ii), 907.
Fischer (ii), 943, 961, 1015, 1018.
Fischietti (ii), 862.
Fisher (Hautbois) (ii), 405.
Flaccus (i), 139.
Flaminius (i), 202, 336.
Flavian, of Antioch (i), 415.
Fleischer (ii), 946, 957.
Fletcher, Mrs. (ii), 994.
Fleury (i), 41 9m.
Foggia, Fr. (ii), 416.
Fogliano, L. (ii), 133.
Fontenelle (ii), 11, 132, 594.
Forde (ii), 116, 262, 263, 278, 327,
328.
Forkel (ii), 961.
Forlivesi (ii), 903.
Fortunatianus (i), 563.
Fortunatus of Poitiers (i), 663.
Foster, Will (ii), 79m.
Fraguier, Abbe (i), 110, 111, 112,
119.
Franc, Guillaume (ii), 45.
Franceschilli (ii), 629.
Franceschini, P. (ii), 536.
Francesco, dello Viola (ii), 141,
171.
Francesina (ii), 803, 818, 821, 828,
831, 1010.
Franchinus, see Gafurio (i).
Francine (ii), 964.
Francis, St. (of Assissi) (i), 620,
629.
Francis I (ii), 19, 210.
Franco, of Cologne (i), 501, 513/
529-44, 553, 556, 568, 637, 670.
Franco, of Paris (i), 530m.
Francoeur (ii), 964.
Franklin, Dr. (i), 142.
Frantzel (ii), 945.
10O3
INDEX TO NAMES
Frasi (ii), 681, 840, 841, 844, 846,
847, 848, 849, 852, 853, 875, 896,
1012.
Frederic II (i), 621.
Barbarossa (i), 621.
Frederick the Great (ii), 961/.
Freeman (ii), 983.
Freneuse (ii), 467.
Freschi, Dom. (ii), 553.
Frescobaldi (ii), 98, 285, 416, 423,
457, 462.
Froberger (ii), 423, 457, 462.
Froschius, J. (ii), 203.
Fuchs (ii), 942, 947, 952.
Fulgentius (i), 507.
Fuller (i), 452, 774n ; (ii), 18w, 21,
309.
Gabbalone, M. (ii), 452.
Gabbet (i), 647-8.
Gabrieli, And. (ii), 433.
Dom. (ii), 556.
Gabrielli, Caterina (ii), 881/", 884.
Gafurio, Franchinus (i), 106, 416,
506, 509, 519, 531, 645, 677, 707,
708, 712, 713, 714, 720, 725, 726,
727, 735 ; (ii), 129/, 139, 172, 195,
202, 235.
Gagliano, G. B. (ii), 558, 559, 570.
Galeazzi, Ant. (ii), 909.
Galen (i), 153, 157.
Galerati, The (ii), 690, 694, 707,
709.
Galilei, Vincenzo (i), 33, 87, 100,
103, 110, 129, 435; (ii), 123w,
138, 144, 145, 198, 251, 427, 512/.
Galileo (i), 343, 675 ; (ii), 144, 427,
465.
Galli (ii), 841, 847.
Gallia, Maria (ii), 653.
Galliard (i), 478 ; (ii), 129, I55n,
537, 539, 662, 680, 686, 704, 989/",
1001.
Galliculus, John (ii), 202, 206.
Gallini (Impressario) (ii), 897.
Galuppi (ii), 597, 838, 839, 840, 842,
845, 847, 852, 853, 855, 859, 860,
861, 862, 867, 869, 870, 874, 875,
890n, 909, 910.
Gamble, John (ii), 332, 337.
Gamboce, Opp. (ii), 155.
Gardano (i), 7l0n ; (ii), 244, 246,
247.
Garrick (i), 147, 149 ; (ii), 649, 818,
840w, 876, 972.
Garth (ii), 912.
Gascoigne (ii), 268.
Gasman (ii), 946.
Gaspar, see Weerbeck.
106-1
Gasparini, Fr. (ii), 424, 438, 541,
601, 635, 652, 653, 661, 679, 704,
716, 905, 938.
Mich. Ang. (ii), 556, 737,
738, 907.
Gastoldi, G. (ii), 184, 188, 189, 317.
Gates, B. (ii), 495, 775.
Gaudentius (i), 57n, 119, 120, 121,
293, 342.
Gautier de Coincy (i), 586.
Gavignie (ii), 976.
Gay (ii), 986, 1003.
Gedoyn, Abbe (i), 379.
Geminiani (ii), 7, 405, 439, 442, 443,
445, 585, 629, 702, 844, 990/, 998,
1015.
Genebrard (i), 202.
Genet, St. (i), 590.
George I (ii), 487n, 699, 70ln, 742n.
II (ii), 694, 751, 804w.
Georgi (ii), 885,
Gerbert (of St. Blasius) (i), 13,
426, 438, 471, 490, 492, 510, 511,
544, 553, 556, 680.
Scholasticus (i), 497/, 585.
Germain, Count St. (ii), 844.
Germi (ii), 507n.
Germont, William de (i), 596.
Geronticus (i), 426.
Germanus (i), 447.
Gerson (i), 505, 509.
Gesner (i), 262.
Gesualdo (ii), 177/, 433?*.
Giacobbi, Gir. (ii), 536, 597n.
Giacomelli (ii), 908, 909.
Giai, G. A. (ii), 909.
GlAMBELLARI (i), 630.
Gianotti (ii), 979.
Giardini (ii), 405, 442, 443, 446,
455, 737, 849, S53, 854n, 855, 856,
867, 869, 874, 884, 894, 895/, 990,
1012, 1013, 1014.
Gibbons, Christopher (ii), 342, 348,
350, 362/, 365, 382, 64 In.
Edward (ii), 264.
Ellis (ii), 264, 362.
Orlando (i), 554, 784 ; (ii),
116, 264/, 278, 284, 285, 292, 311,
321, 362, 383, 405.
Gibetti (ii), 872.
Gibson, Bishop (i), 560.
Giles, Dr. Nath. (ii), 363.
Giocomazzi (ii), 849, 873.
Giordani (ii), 878.
Family (ii), 853n.
Giovanelli, Ruggerio (ii), 165.
Giraldus (i), 155.
Cambrensis (i), 482-4.
Girardeau, Isabella (ii), 664, 671,
673, 674, 679.
Girelli (Aguila) (ii), 878, 894.
Giuliani, Signora (ii), 903.
INDEX TO NAMES
Giustinelli (ii), 864, 867.
Gizziello (Conti) (i), 131 ; (ii),
799, 800/, 805, 808, 810, 875, 934.
Gladwin (ii), 1003, 1009.
Glareanus (i), 113, 418m, 710, 712,
723m. 728, 730, 737, 740, 759, 761,
763, 767, 769, 770, 806; (ii), 17,
125, 146, 203, 204, 206.
Gloucester, Bishop of (i), 210,
216», 2l7n, 261, 264.
Gluck (i), 725 ; (ii), 673?*, 844, 845,
878;?, 886«, 897, 942/, 946, 954,
972/, 975, 978.
Gogavinus (i), 349.
Goldwin (or Golding), J. (ii), 480.
Gombert, N. (i), 753 ; (ii), 212, 243.
Gonzaga (i), 623.
Gordon (Impressario) (ii), 870, 871.
— Mr. (ii), 706, 723.
Gossec (ii), 977.
Gosson (ii), 330.
Goudimel (ii), 38, 44, 45, 46, 55,
154, 218.
Gower (i), 660, 665, 666.
Gowre, Richard (ii), 29.
Grabu (ii), 404, 407m, 647, 648, 651.
Gracchus (i), 146.
Grafton (ii), 28.
Granier (ii), 217.
Grano (ii), 995, 996.
Grassi, C. (ii), 871, 873, 878, 898.
Graun (ii), 461, 848, 944, 946, 952,
954, 961.
Gravina (i), 145, 565, 566, 619, 636.
Gray (i). 79 ; (ii), 583.
Graziani (ii), 479, 606.
Grazzini (ii), 582.
Greber (ii), 653, 657, 985.
Greco, Gaetano (ii), 914, 916m, 920.
Greene, Dr. M. (ii), 488/, 494, 704,
781, 1010.
Gregory, St. (i), 414, 415, 416, 417,
418, 419, 420, 423, 425, 430, 442,
447, 456m, 563, 689.
Gregory of Tours (i), 563, 564.
Gresham, Sir Thos. (ii), 93.
Gresnich (ii), 899, 946.
Gretry (ii), 960, 972, 975, 977/
Griffiths, Chas. (ii), 335.
Griffydd ap Cynan (i), 484.
Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (i),
577, 649, 650.
Grotte, Nich. de la (ii), 222.
Guadagni, G. (ii), 530, 681, 848, 849,
862/, 875/, 942.
Signora (ii), 871, 872, 873.
Guami, Gioseffo (ii), 433.
Guarducci (ii), 539, 871, 872/, 874,
884.
Guarini (ii), 598.
Guarnieri, Wm. (ii), 130, 172.
Guedron, Pierre (ii), 317, 474.
Guerrero (i), 800.
Guglielmi, P. (ii), 874, 876.
Guicciardini, L. (i), 711, 723, 735,
758; (ii), 211, 242, 243, 250.
Guidetto, Giov. (ii), 156.
Guido (i), 424, 425, 430, 432, 434m,
458/, 489, 491, 492, 497, 498, 501,
506, 507, 508, 510, 511, 513, 518,
522, 528, 529, 532, 541, 545, 549,
556, 560, 565, 568, 585, 669, 671,
689, 706, 707, 725 ; (ii), 132, 196.
Guidi (Poet) (ii), 438.
Guidiccione (ii), 524.
Guignon (ii), 366, 976.
Guillaume IX of Aquitain (i), 608.
Guinneth, J. (i), 707, 708.
Guitmond of St. Lufrid (i), 479.
Guittone D'Arezzo (Poet) (i), 479,
625.
Gyles, Nath. (ii), 116, 261, 289.
Habengton, Henry (i), 680.
ELenel, Jacob (ii), 207.
Hafner (ii), 963.
Halde, Du (i), 46.
Hall (ii), 123, 267.
Hamboys (i), 530m, 674, 677, 678
680.
Hamilton, Sir Wm. (i), 372.
Hammerschmidt, A. (ii), 457.
Handel (i), 17, 60, 65m, 85, 406, 526,
725, 738 ; (ii), 7, 8, 38, 96, 98, 161,
374, 383, 405, 406, 424, 426, 488,
489, 493, 495, 503, 505, 537, 546,
636, 666.
Arrives in England, 672 ;
Produces Rinaldo, 673/; second
visit, 682 ; produces II Pastor
Fido, 682/; Theseus, 685/;
Amadigi, 694/"; Utrecht Te Deum,
695m ; Oboe" Concerto in F, 699 ;
Royal Academy formed 700 ; goes
to Dresden, 700 ; Radimisto, 701 /;
Harpsichord Suites, 703m ; Muzio
Scevola, 712; Floridante, 718/;
Otho, 121 f; Flavins, 723, 724;
Julius Ccesar, 725/; granted a
printing patent, 725 ; Tamerlane,
729 ; Rodelinda, 730/ ; Scipio,
734/ ; Naturalisation Papers,
734m ; Alessandro, 736 ; Admetus,
742/ ; Ricardo Primo, 751 ;
Siroe, 753/; Tolomeo, 757/; end
of the Academy, 759 ; partner-
ship with Heidegger, 760 ; journey
to Italy, 760 ; Lotario, 760/
Parthenope, 764/; Poro, 768/
Ezio, 770/ ; Sosarmes, 773/
Esther and A cis and Galatea, 77 '5/
Orlando, 111 ; Deborah, 780
quarrels with Senesino, 780
>G5
INDEX TO NAMES
Handel — continued.
Opera of the Nobility, 781 ;
Carestini arrives, 782 ; Ariadne,
783/; Pamasso in Festa, 785/;
Athalia, 786/ ; breaks with
Heidegger, 788 ; Covent Garden
Theatre, 791/; Ariodante, 792/;
Alcina, 792 ; Alexander's Feast,
798; Atalanta, 801/; Arminio,
805 ; II Trionfo del Tempo, 807 ;
ill-health, 810; Berenice, 810/;
Autograph from Berenice, 812 ;
illness, 817; Faramond, 817f;
Alessandro Severus, 821 ; Xerxes,
821 ; Musical Shorthand, 822« ;
Benefit Concert, 823 ; Statue
erected at Vauxhall, 824 ; Saul,
S25 ; Israel in Egypt, 825 ;
Jupiter in Argos, 826 ; Ode for St.
Cecilia's Day, 826 ; Activities in
1739 ; Imeneo, 828 ; U Allegro, il
Penseroso, 828w ; Deidamia, 828 ;
Journey to Ireland, 838 ; Judas
Maccabceus, 841 ; Oratorios at the
King's Theatre in 1744 and 1745
Lucio Vero, 847, 852, 875, 890
Commemoration Festivals, 893
Julius Ccesar revived, 900
Agrippina, 906, 916 ; Almira,
941, 943, 946, 951 ; his organ
playing, 953, 954 ; Handel and
Pepusch, 988 ; Coronation An-
them, 997, 1005 ; Concert for
Musicians' Fund, 1005 ; Handel in
Ireland, 1005/; The Messiah,
1005f; return from Ireland;
List' of Oratorios, 1010 , 1015,
1016, 1022.
Handlo, Robert de (i), 532, 535,
543, 545, 671.
Harmodius (i), 325, 362.
Harmonia [i), 218.
Harmonides li), 298.
Harris (Organ Builder) (ii), 344/.
(Singer) (ii), 983.
Hasler, Leon (ii), 207.
Hasleton (ii), 32.
Hasse, J. A. (i), 479, 725 ; (ii), 424,
461, 540, 599, 737, 738, 788, 789,
804, 826, 827, 838, 840, 847, 852,
853, 854, 855, 870, 905, 909, 912,
914, 916, 918, 919, 920, 943, 944,
946, 952, 953.
Nic. (ii), 461.
Hawkins, Sir John (ii), 39 n, 647n.
Hayden, Geo. (ii), 997.
Haydn (ii), 437, 449, 845, 880 n, 943,
955, 958/.
Haym, Nic. (ii), 653, 656, 661, 67372,
675, 684, 701, 721. 722, 723, 724,
729, 730, 747, 753.
Hearne (i), 676.
io66
Heath (ii), 32.
Hedington, J. and Ch. (ii), 223.
Heidegger (ii), 679, 689, 695, 760,
767, 788, 813, 817, 824, 825.
Heinechen (ii), 459, 906, 947.
Heinel, Mlle. (ii), 878, 893.
Heiro (i), 125, 335.
Helfer, Ch. D' (ii), 211.
Heliodorus (i), 401.
Hellanicus (i), 293.
Henry of Gottingen (ii), 37.
II (i), 678, 696.
Ill (i), 648.
V (i), 666-7.
VI (i), 675, 784 ; (ii), 28.
VII (i), 779.
VIII (i), 712, 738, 784,
799/, 802 ; (ii), 13, 25, 29, 37n, 123,
216, 246, 262.
Heraclides of Pontus (i), 62, 259,
281, 293, 304.
Herbst (ii), 458.
Hercules (i), 258, 259, 260, 265.
Heric (i), 488-9.
Hermannus Contractus (i), 469.
Hermes (i), 165, 168, 277.
Hermias (i), 363.
Hermippus (i), 244.
Herod (i), 210.
Herodian (i), 165.
Herodorus, Trumpeter (i), 155,
298.
Herodotus (i), 161, 165, 166, 169,
176, 216, 232, 234, 235, 247, 259,
267, 284, 286, 289, 347, 624.
Herschel (ii), 961.
Hesiod (i), 162, 212, 240, 301.
Hesychius (i), 73, 121, 308, 400.
Hexner (ii), 123.
Heyden, S. (ii), 203.
Heylanus, P. (ii), 250.
Heylin (ii), 26, 48.
Heyther, Dr. (ii), 264, 265n, 286,
287.
Hiero (i), 300n.
Hill, Aaron, (ii) 672, 673.
Hiller, J. A. (ii), 945, 948, 961.
Hilton, J. (Junr.) (ii), 293, 311, 316,
317, 326, 328, 374.
John (Senr.) (i), 774n ;
(ii), 114.
Hinestroia, Lud. Venegas de (ii),
236.
Hipparchus (i), 325, 347, 348, 362.
Hippasus of Metapontus (i), 349.
Hippias (i), 362.
Hobart, Hon. Mr. (ii), 877, 885.
Hofhaimer, Paul (ii), 203.
Hofman, Eucherus (ii), 205.
Hogarth (ii), 698, 1004.
Hogerus (i), 492/
INDEX TO NAMES
Holcomb (ii), 985.
Holder, Dr. (i), 478, 675 ; (ii),
476/, 498, 500.
Hollinshed (i), 680m, 799 ; (ii), 123,
267.
Holtzbaur (ii), 945.
Homer (i), 19,76, 152, 158, 175, 212,
224, 229m, 240, 255, 256, 260, 271,
272, 273, 274, 275, 277, 279, 280,
281, 282, 283, 290, 294, 295, 301,
625 ; (ii), 191.
Hooker (ii), 34.
Hooper, E. (ii), 52, 116, 261.
Hopkins, J. (ii), 18, 49, 54, 56.
Horace (i), 17, 123, 124, 143, 253,
307, 308, 334, 368, 369, 376, 410,
561 ; (ii), 104».
Howard, Dr. S. (ii), 1014.
Hubald, see Hucbald (i).
Hucbald (i), 433, 465, 489/, 501, 502,
503, 585, 645.
Hudson, Geo. (ii), 640, 641m, 985.
Huerga, Cyp. de la (ii), 236.
Hughes (ii), 655, 666, 680, 681,
776m, 984, 985, 989.
Hugo of Vercelli (i), 501.
Hulmandel (ii), 976.
Hume (i), 428, 725m, 801m.
Hummels (ii), 962.
Humphrey, Pelham (ii), 349, 350,
374, 381, 405, 644m.
Hunt, Arabella (ii), 123.
Huss, John (i), 701 ; (ii), 35, 36, 38,
42, 45, 49.
Hyagnis (i), 227, 238, 318.
Iamblicus (i), 267.
Ignatius, St. (i), 415.
India, Sigismondo D' (ii), 605.
Ingegneri, M. A. (ii), 190, 509.
Ingelo, Dr. (ii), 363.
Ion of Chios (i), 319.
Irnerius (i), 679.
Isaac, Henry (i), 707, 708, 727, 735,
759/, ; (ii), 201.
Isham, John (ii), 481.
Isidore, St. (i), 412, 500.
Isis (i), 168, 175, 263.
Ismenias (i), 330.
Italian, Lady, see Epine.
Ives, Symon (ii), 294, 295m, 299, 311,
327.
Jackson (i), 85 ; (ii), 1016.
Jacob (i), 192.
Jacomelli, G. B. (ii), 316.
Jamblicus (i), 342, 427m.
James I, King (ii), 94, 178, 260/.
II (ii), 379, 438, 651.
St. (i), 410.
Wm. (ii), 336.
Jannequin, Clement (ii), 212/.
Jaucourt, de (i), 161.
Jeffrey, the Harper (i), 696.
Jefferies, Judge (ii), 343.
Jehoshaphat (i), 206.
Jenkins, John (ii), 283, 285, 322/
330, 333, 336.
Jephtha's Daughter (i), 194.
Jermoli (ii), 886, 892.
Jerome, St. (i), 421m.
of Prague (i), 701, ; (ii),
35, 36.
Jeune, Cecilia le (ii), 47.
Claude le (i), 129. (ii), 38,
45, 46/, 52, 55, 211, 217/, 230, 234.
Jewel, Bishop (ii), 58.
Job (i), 210, 211.
John li Chapelain (i), 587.
of Fornsete (i), 682m.
of Gaunt (i), 652.
the Carthusian (i), 644-5.
Damascenus, St. (i), 442,
444.
XXII, Pope (i), 466, 504,
508, 511, 544.
Precentor (i), 449, 482.
— of Salisbury (i), 498, 512.
of Tewkesbury (i), 673.
Johnson, E. (ii), 52.
Robt. (i), 795, 814-6 ; (ii),
19, 21, 28, 32, 99, 102, 115, 262.
— — Dr. S. (i), 15, 560, 648;
(ii), 317, 955.
Jomelli (ii), 583, 852, 853, 858, 860,
874, 896, 927-934, 935, 945.
Jones (i), 707; (ii), 116,262.
Inigo (ii), 293, 295, 301, 304
513n.
Jonson, Ben (ii), 118, 267, 277, 282
293, 301, 642.
Jortin, Dr. (i), 103.
Josepi-ius (i), 205, 210, 211.
Josquin, des Prez (i), 446, 707, 708,
709, 710, 714, 726, 727, 731r 732,
735/, 763, 765, 769, 770 ; (ii), 17,
137, 147, 183, 237m.
Jozzi (ii), 451, 599, 844, 996, 1008.
Julian, Emperor (i), 16, 223, 226,
453.
Julianus, Bishop (i), 454m.
Julius Pollux (i), 134, 157, 231,
298.
Jupiter (i), 220.
Justina, Empress (i), 413.
Justinian, Emperor (i), 94.
Justin Martyr (i), 411.
Kapsberger (ii), 419, 570m.
Kasar, Wm. (i), 785, 794.
Keeble (ii), 705, 1003, 1012, 1018.
1067
INDEX TO NAMES
Keirleber (ii), 459.
Keiser (ii), 405, 460, 461, 462, 601,
941.
Kelly, Earl of (ii), 1018, 1020.
Kelner (ii), 989.
Kelway (ii), 214, 492, 493, 1003,
1009.
Kepler (i), 114; (ii), 459.
Kerl, J. de (ii), 251.
J. C. (ii), 458.
Kernberger (ii), 957.
KlNDERMANN (ii), 457.
KlNDERSLEY (ii), 116.
King, Dr. (i), 33ln.
Kirby, G. (ii), 52, 106.
Kircher (i), 12, 99, 100, 102, 103,
115, 136m, 346, 443, 469, 544, ; (ii),
204, 415, 417, 427, 435, 457, 459,
464,571,573,607,611.
Klemme, J. (ii), 456.
Klingenstein (ii), 458.
Kloefler (ii), 213.
Knefal (ii), 207.
Knerler (ii), 461.
Knight (ii), 32.
Knox, John (ii), 36, 58.
Kozeluch (ii), 960.
Krieger (ii), 460.
Kuhnau (ii), 458.
Kuntzen (ii), 999.
Kytch, Mr (ii), 994, 1001.
Lab an (i), 191.
Lambert, Mich, (ii), 466, 467, 469,
470.
li Cors (Tors) (i), 578, 605.
Lamia (i), 333, 334.
Lampadarius (i), 443.
Lampadius (ii), 203.
Lampe, J. F. (ii), 776m, 781, 1001,
1002, 1004, 1007, 1014.
Lamprus (i), 95, 349.
Lampugnani (ii), 838, 840, 841, 842,
843, 845, 847, 84S, 852, 855.
Lande, La (ii), 473, 530, 971.
Landi, Stef. (ii), 572, 598.
Lane, Mrs. Fox (ii), 1013/.
Lanfranco (ii), 134.
Laniere, N. (ii), 277, 278, 287, 288.
311, 329, 407, 651.
Lanzetti (ii), 450.
Laroon (ii), 985.
Laschi (ii), 848, 849, 862.
Lasso, Orlando di (i), 725, 735 ;
(ii), 60, 167, 211, 214, 251/.
Lasus (i); 320, 338, 347-9.
Latilla (ii), 597, 848, 849, 861, 912,
925, 929.
Latimer (ii), 31m.
io&8
Laud, Archb. (i), 428.
Laudino (i), 644.
Laura (i), 634-6.
Laurens, de (i), 801.
Laurenti, G. (ii), 444, 450.
La wes, Henry (i), 628 ; (ii), 56,
293, 301, 302, 303, 304, 310/, 318,
320, 329, 330, 332, 373, 640, 641m,
651.
Wm. (ii), 56, 293, 294, 295,
304, 309/, 318, 319, 329, 330.
Lawrence (ii), 665, 679, 690.
Lebeuf (i), 420, 422tc, 460m, 467,
488, 501, 502, 503, 505, 509m,
580, 581, 584, 590, 614, 615.
Leclair (ii), 975, 976.
Legrenzi, G. (ii), 435, 436, 541, 553,
619, 620, 621, 625, 808.
Leibnitz (i), 526.
Leighton, Sir Wm. (ii), 115, 116,
279.
L'Enclos (ii), 474.
Lemmo da Pistoja (i), 627.
Leo (ii), 583, 738, 838, 840, 853, 908,
909, 914/
X (i), 186, 209, 736, 770;
(ii), 131.
Monk (i), 564.
Leonardo dell'Arpa (ii), 177.
Leopold, Emperor (ii), 460.
Leveridge (ii), 654, 655, 660, 687,
682, 684, 984, 1002.
Liberati, A. (ii), 154, 155, 163, 164,
414, 417, 430, 537.
Liceti (i), 233.
Licinius Tegula (i), 376.
Lidl (ii), 1020.
Lightfoot, Peter (ii), 208m.
Lind, Dr. (i), 46.
Lindsey, Mrs. (ii), 655, 660, 664,
670, 984, 985.
Linley (ii), 494, 1016.
Linus (i), 168, 213, 255, 258-260,
268, 269 ; (ii), 374.
Litchfield (ii), 262, 278.
Livy (i), 138, 144, 323, 369, 371, 372,
376.
Lobkowitz, Prince (ii), 844, 962.
Locatelli, P. (ii), 454.
Locke, M. (i), 703 ; (ii), 264, 332,
333, 349, 371, 372, 374, 375, 407,
641m, 644, 645.
Lolli (ii), 1020/.
Lombard, Peter (i), 679.
Longinus (i), 116.
Lorenzo de' Medici (i), 630.
Loreto, Vittorio (ii), 558, 570m,
572, 605.
Lotti, Ant. (ii), 421, 424, 556, 636,
748, 905/, 907, 910, 911, 943.
Lottini, Ant. (ii), 818.
INDEX TO NAMES
Louis XII (i), 736-7 ; (ii), 17, 464/.
XIV (i), 116, 131, 186, 209 ;
(ii), 464, 467, 469, 473, 651.
Lovattini (ii), 871, 872, 873, 881,
891, 900.
Lowe, Edward (i), 807m ; (ii), 335,
337, 342, 348, 369, 382.
(Tenor) (ii), 1010, 1011.
Lucan (i), 220, 234, 237.
Lucchesina (ii), 813, 818, 821.
Lucchini, A. M. (ii), 909.
Lucian (i), 122, 173, 223, 248, 298,
312,330,360,361,379,411.
Luciani (ii), 875.
Lucilius (i), 73.
Lucinda, Fr. (ii), 558.
Lucretius (i), 254.
Lulli (i), 116, 131; (ii), 211, 225,
315, 350, 367, 368, 404, 406, 407,
431, 442, 464, 466, 467, 468/', 546,
586, 601, 603, 605, 607, 644, 645,
673, 722, 743, 964, 970, 971, 973,
975.
Lupi (i), 727.
II, Didier (ii), 214.
Lupo (ii), 116, 262, 263, 283, 285,
322.
Lupus (i), 447.
Luscinius (ii), 16m, 203, 208.
Lusini, Signora (ii), 891, 896.
Lusitanio (ii), 240.
Luther (ii), 36/, 49.
Luzzaschi, L. (ii), 177.
Luzzo, Fr. (ii), 545, 547.
Lysander (i), 316.
Lychaon of Samos (i), 318.
Lycurgus (i), 287, 305.
Lydgate (i), 660, 665, 666.
Lye, Revd. Mr. (i), 560.
Mabillon (i), 430, 455, 488, 491, 663.
Macari, Giac. (ii), 909.
Maccabees (i), 209.
Maccherini (ii), 890, 891.
Mace (i), 346m ; (ii), 58m, 374, 376/.
Machau, Guillaume de (i), 614/.
Machault (i), 544.
Maclaurin (i), 243.
Macrobius (i), 111, 320, 342, 369.
Macropedias (ii), 57.
Maffei (i), 562, 618, 619.
Maggiore (ii), 871, 872.
Magnasco, L. (ii), 151.
Mairan, de (i), 159.
Maire, Le (i), 476 ; (ii), 474.
Ma jo, Ciccio da (ii), 869.
Malone (ii), 641m.
Malvezzi, Chr. (ii), 513.
Manchicourt, P. (ii), 250.
Mancini, Fr. (ii), 665, 785, 914, 938.
■ Giamb. (i), 479 ; (ii), 539.
Manelli, Fr. (ii), 542-3.
Manini (ii), 681.
Manzoli, Giov. (ii), 867/, 884, 911.
Mara, Madame (ii), 893, 897, 899,
1023.
Marbeck, see Merbeck.
Marcel (ii), 466.
Marcellinus (ii), 530.
Marcello (ii), 424, 636, 912, 916.
Marchand (ii), 976.
Marchesi (ii), 637, 901/.
Marchesini, see Lucchesina.
Marchetti (ii), 880.
Marchetto di Padua (i), 501,
519-22, 529, 531, 645, 672, 691,
725 ; (ii), 133.
Marculf (i), 564.
Marcus Aurelius (i), 384.
Marenzio, Luca (ii), 103, 104, 105,
165/, 180, 513, 749.
Marie (Poetess) (i), 587.
Marietti (ii), 867.
Marini, Biagio (ii), 434m.
Marmontel (ii), 980.
Marot, C. (i), 746m; (ii), 39m, 42,
43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 55, 154, 210.
Marpurg (i), 13, 83m, 96, 120, 127,
128; (ii), 207, 415, 416, 425, 457,
459, 460, 941, 948, 948/, 953.
Marsh, Alphonso (ii), 641m.
Marsh am (i), 174.
Marsilius Ficinus (i), 115.
Marsyas (i), 227, 228, 232, 389, 524.
Martelli, Ludovico (i), 630.
Martianus Cap. (i), 23, 40, 71, 156,
375, 517.
Martin, Jon. (ii), 492.
Martinelli, Caterina (ii), 559.
Martini (i), 13, 113, 126, 127, 201,
214, 426, 434, 442, 445, 446, 463,
492, 493, 507, 544, 549, 671, 678,
711, 721, 723, 724m, 727m, 740;
(ii), 99, 139, 147, 152, 153, 154,
162, 163, 173, 183, 195, 196, 414,
415, 416, 417, 418, 425, 436, 536,
537, 924, 929, 939, 940.
(Hautbois) (ii), 405.
Martinus Capella (i), 488.
Mary, Queen (ii), 21, 22, 25, 30, 50.
Queen of Scotland (ii),
23m.
Mason (i), 117; (ii), 478, 485, 493,
504, 505, 922m.
Masson (ii), 978.
Mattei, Colomba (ii), 853, 855, 856,
857, 858, 859, 860, 861, 862, 863,
864, 867.
— — Filippo, (ii) 996.
Sa verio (ii), 930, 931/.
Matteis, Nicola (ii), 407/, 652, 990.
io6g
INDEX TO NAMES
Mattheson (ii), 461, 462, 615, 941,
943, 948.
Mauduit, Jacques (ii), 233, 234.
Maupin La (ii), 470/.
Maximus Tyrius (i), 276, 410.
Mazarin (ii), 467, 468, 644, 672.
Mazzochi, D. (ii), 416, 421, 570tc,
571, 573.
V. (ii), 416, 533.
Mei, Girolomo (ii), 145.
Meibomius (i), 30, 57n, 60, 65, 87,
112, 113, 163, 348, 349, 350, 439,
468, 806, ; (ii), 36, 205.
Mel, Rinaldo del (ii), 533.
Melampus (i), 269, 270.
Melancthon (ii), 206.
Melanippides (i), 320, 321, 338.
Melaspina (i), 622.
Melegulo (ii), 131.
Mell, Davis (ii), 336/.
Gaudio (ii), 154.
Mellini (ii), 848.
Melvil, Sir James (ii), 22/.
Menage (i), 467, 468, ; (ii), 43.
Mendez (ii), 493.
Menestrier (i), 414, 427, 629 ; (ii),
57, 509.
Mengocci (ii), 899, 900.
Mengoli, P. (ii), 428.
Menophilus (ii), 530.
Meon (i), 228.
Merbecke (i), 785, 794, 803/, ; (ii),
18, 25, 28, 65, 343.
Mercury (Egyptian) (i), 172, 224,
229.
(Greek) (i), 223-5, 266, 590.
Merighi (ii), 760/, 764/, 768, 803,
818.
Mersennus (i), 114, 129, 130, 401,
422, 476, 479, 546, 675, 737 ; (ii),
204, 222, 232, 233, 325, 464, 465/.
Mersius, J. (i), 12, 349.
Merula, C. (ii), 141, 177, 432, 592.
T. (ii), 398;z, 420, 422, 606.
Mesomedes (i), 94.
Metastasio (i), 104, 144, 147, 526,
550, 617 ; (ii), 500, 507, 546, 583,
624, 643, 659, 675, 753, 770, 782,
789, 822, 840, 841, 854, 892, 905,
909, 910, 915, 917, 918, 919, 931,
942, 1015.
Michael of Pomposo fi), 465, 466,
469, 470.
Micheli (ii), 871, 872, 890.
Mico (ii), 285, 322.
Midas (i), 227, 402.
cf Agrigentum (i), 315.
Middlesex, Lord (ii), 8l7n, 838,
839, 846, 847.
Midias (i), 333.
Milan, LuDOV. (ii), 235. '
Millar (ii), 1012.
Milleville (ii), 424.
Millico (ii), 877/, 880, 894, 943.
Millot, Abbe (i), 567, 590.
Milton (Historian) (i), 448.
John (i), 145, 416, 587, 625,
628; (ii), 116, 301, 302, 303, 311,
989, 1004.
- J. (Senr.) (ii), 55, 115, 116,
119.
Mimnermus (i), 308-9.
Minerva (i), 222-3, 324, 325, 333,
347, 524.
Mingotti (ii), 852, 853, 854^, 855,
856, 867, 1014.
Minuccio D'Arezzo (i), 642.
Miriam (i), 192, 193, 198.
Miroclet, St. (i), 418.
Misliwecek (ii), 946.
Mitzler (ii), 948.
Moivre, De (ii), 988.
Moliere (i), 147 ; (ii), 644.
Molinaro, S. (ii), 178, 433.
Mondini (ii), 853.
Mondonville (ii), 970, 971, 975.
Monsigny (ii), 972, 973.
Montagnana (ii), 702, 771, 773,
777/, 781, 788, 791, 818, 822.
Montaigne (i), 148 ; (ii), 207, 433.
Montanari (ii), 447.
Monteclaire (ii), 964.
Monteverde, C. (ii), 184, 190/, 312,
435, 514, 543, 607.
Montfaucon (i), 331, 404, 588.
Montford, Simon (ii), 35.
Monticelli (ii), 750, 839, 840, 841,
843, 844, 845, 852, 854, 909, 922,
943.
Morales (i), 707, 740 ; (ii), 235, 240.
Morelt (ii), 979.
Morelli (ii), 900, 1023.
Morigi (ii), 871, 900.
Signora (ii), 890.
Morin (i), 236.
Morley, Thos. (i), 477, 532, 536,
553, 677, 686, 707, 714, 784 ; (ii),
54, 55, 60. 61, 81, 86f, 106, 114,
115, 146, 184, 197, 292, 317, 329,
598n.
Morris, Richard (i), 484, 647.
Mortellari (ii), 899.
Moses (i), 166, 191, 192, 193.
Motteux (ii), 659, 661, 984.
Mountier (ii), 1001.
Mouret (ii), 964.
Mouton, John (i), 709, 710, 746,
769/, ; (ii), 137.
Mozart, Leop. (ii), 950.
W. A. (ii), 946, 960.
Muffatt, G. (ii), 458.
Mummius (i), 135, 324, 336, 372.
Mundy, John (ii), 52, 53, 60, 113,
289.
1070
INDEX TO NAMES
Muratori (i), 455, 499, 566, 568, 618,
619, 620, 621, 622, 628, 636, 637 ;
(ii), 560, 592.
Muris, John de (i), 510, 529, 531,
541», 545f, 556, 557, 645, 669, 673,
679«, 689, 691, 706, 707.
Mursckauser (ii), 459.
Musjeus (i), 213, 255, 258, 267,
268-9, 347.
Muscovita, The (ii), 826, 827.
Muses (i), 229, 240-4.
Muthel (ii), 98.
Myrtis (i), 312.
N abbes (ii), 304.
Nanino, Bern, (ii), 154, 163, 414,
417, 524.
G. M. (ii), 154, 163, 166.
Nardini (ii), 446.
Nares (ii), 494.
Naumann (ii), 943, 946, 960.
Neal (ii), 25, 32n, 49n.
Negri, The (ii), 783, 791, 801, 805,
808, 811, 943.
Nemesis (i), 87.
Nenna, P. (ii), 533.
Nero (i), 188, 299, 379-381, 389, 405 ;
fit), 214.
Neruda (ii), 943.
Nevil, Lady (ii), 79, 80.
Newton, Sir Isaac (i), 120, 171, 175,
217, 221, 244, 257, 262, 268, 288,
304, 703 ; (ii), 379.
Nich, Elias (ii), 207.
Nichelmann (ii), 962.
Nichomachus (i), 121, 342, 349, 517.
Nicolini (ii), 541, QQlf, 664, 665,
673, 674, 675, 676, 679, 680, 681,
693, 694, 695/, 699, 716, 759, 789,
906, 908, 909, 919.
Nonius, Marcellus (i), 73.
Nonnus (i), 227.
Norden (i), 176.
Norman, John (i), 785, 795.
North (Lord Keeper) (ii), 372, 373.
■ Roger (ii), 268n, 322, 345,
366, 369, 373, 407, 983.
Nostradamus (i), 566, 568, 574, 577,
609.
Notker of St. Gall (i), 487, 566.
Noverre (ii), 901, 971.
No vi, Ant. (ii), 558.
Numa (i), 368.
Oakland (ii), 28, 32.
Obrecht (i), 709, 713, 735, 763 ; (ii),
206.
Occleve (i), 660.
Odington, Walter (i), 487w, 515-9,
542, 670, 673, 699.
Odo, Bishop of Paris (i), 428.
of Cluny (i), 432, 465, 468,
489, 491, 492, 493, 496, 501, 585.
Okenheim (i), 707, 708, 712, 713,
727/, 763, 765 ; (ii), 140, 133.
Olen (i), 194, 234, 235, 267.
Olsii (ii), 653.
Olympus (i), 43, 44, 47, 50, 51, 69,
231/, 238, 288.
Onomacritus (i), 267, 269, 347.
Origen (i), 411.
Orlandini, G. M. (ii), 907, 908, 909,
937.
Ornithoparcus (i), 728, ; (ii), 202,
203, 208.
Orpheus (i), 168, 213, 251, 255, 258.
260-7, 268, 269, 324, 347, 360,
495, 624 ; (ii), 374, 469.
Orta, D' (ii), 897.
Orto, De (i),' 740.
Orwel (i), 707.
Osiris (i), 167, 168, 171, 175, 244,
245, 247, 263.
Otfrid of Weissemberg (i), 701.
Ottey, Mrs. Sarah (ii), 995.
Ottoboni, Cardinal (ii), 438, 440,
441, 583, 661, 907.
Ovid (i), 233, 247, 250, 254, 255.
Pacchierotti (ii), 530, 637, 854,
886/, 890/, 894, 896, 898, 902, 903,
910w.
Pachelbel, J. (ii), 458.
Pacini (ii), 728, 729, 733.
Paesiello (ii), 472, 886, 900, 960,
974, 975.
Paganini, Signora (ii), 859, 860.
(Singer) (ii), 859, 860, 862,
875.
Paix, J. (ii), 207.
Palestrina (i). G6n, 706, 7Wn, 735,
740, 793 ; (ii), 46, 6ln, 8ln, 103,
129, 141, 143, 152, 153/", 180, 200,
216, 252, 479.
Pallavicini, B. (ii), 431, 583.
Carlo (ii), 583, 584.
Palmerini (ii), 743, 751, 754.
Palscha (ii), 97.
Paolo, Agostini (ii), 414.
Paolucci (ii), 536, 537.
Pan (i), 227, 247-8.
Panacmus (i), 346.
Panichi (ii), 839.
Paolucci (ii), 938.
Pappus, Alexandrinus (i), 40.
Parabosco (ii), 135, 136.
Paradies (ii), 424, 839, 846, 912.
Paradis, Mlle (ii), 960.
Pariati (ii), 582, 942.
Parker, Archb. (ii), 50.
107 1
INDEX TO NAMES
Parsons, Robt, (i), 795, 816/; (ii),
19,21,60,74,370.
SirW. (ii). 494.
Pashe (i), 707.
Pasquali, N. (ii), 844, 848, 1014.
Pasqualini, M.A. (ii), 558, 622.
Pasquier (i), 568.
Pasquino, B. (ii), 424, 438, 541.
■ Ercole (ii), 424.
Passerini (ii), S52.
Pate (ii), 983.
Pau (i), 176, 189.
Paul Diaconus (i), 467, 508, 565.
Paul, St. (i), 410, 447 ; (ii), 38.
Paulati, A. (ii), 906.
Paulmy, Marquis de (i), 597.
Pausanias (i), 17, 152, 153, 161,
165, 223, 227, 229, 233, 235, 245,
251, 256, 259, 263, 265, 266, 267,
268, 270, 280, 287, 300, 302, 303,
313, 315, 316, 317, 323, 333.
Peacham (ii), 81, 104, 166, 214, 317.
Pearson, Mrs. (ii), 681.
Pecci (ii), 533.
Peirson (ii), 116.
Peisistratus (i), 133n.
Pena, J. (i), 353.
Pendarves, Mrs., see Delaney.
Penllyn, William (i), 484, 647.
Penna, Lorenzo (ii), 428.
Pepin, King (i), 487, 584, 592,
725m, 801.
Pepusch, Godfried (ii), 985.
Pepusch, Dr. J. C. (i), 33, 34, 348,
478, 543, 670, 724m; (ii), 52m,
76m, 95, 237n, 261, 635 653, 704,
709, 985/, 1001, 1015.
Pepys, S. (ii), 345n, 559n.
Percy, Dr. (i), 565n, 648.
Perelli, Cosimo (ii), 444. .
Peretti (ii), 681, 867, 1015.
Perez (ii), 808, 853, 857, 858, 859,
861, 867m, 869, 929, 934/
Pergolesi (ii), 599, 637, 839, 840,
848, 849, 914, 916, 919-24, 965,
969, 970, 971.
Peri,' J. (ii), 435, 466, 510, 513, 514,
515, 516, 517, 518, 559, 564, 595.
607, 916.
Periander (i), 264.
Perichon, J. (ii), 223.
Pericles (i), 326.
Perrault, Charles (i), 42, 105, 115,
116, 117, 123, 221, 403; (ii), 210.
— — Claude (i), 105, 115, 116,
125, 126.
Perrin (ii), 467, 468, 646.
Perron, Cardinal du (ii), 215, 229.
Perti, G. A. (ii), 421, 536, 542, 556.
Pertici (ii), 599, 848, 862.
Perugino, Fran. Sev. (i), 512.
— — • Simone B. (ii), 151.
Pervin, J. (ii), 222.
Pescetti (ii), 806, 807, 821, 825, 826,
827, 828, 838, 857, 868, 909, 911,
924.
Peter, St. (i), 412.
Peterborough, Earl of (ii), 691/
Petrarch (i), 566, 617, 622, 625,
628, 631/
Petruccio (i), 710, 767m ; (ii), 151.
Pez, Beanard (i), 471.
Phalaise (ii), 247.
Phelyppes, Sir Thos. (i), 774.
Phemius (i), 284-5, 647.
Pherecrates (i), 320, 321, 335.
Philammon (i), 235, 301.
Philidor (ii), 970, 972, 975, 976.
Philip Augustus (i), 578, 586, 592,
596.
de Valois (i), 604
of Macedon (i), 323, 336.
Philips, Peter (ii), 77n.
Philo (i), 411.
Philopoemen (i), 317.
Philoxenus (i), 150, 320, 327.
Phocylides (i), 361.
Phcemonoe (i), 235.
Phrynis (i) 321, 325, 335, 336, 338.
Piatti (ii), 871, 872.
Piccini (ii), 472, 769, 845, 867m, 871,
872, 873, 874, 875, 876, 8S2, 934,
960, 973, 974, 975.
Piccioli, G. A. (ii), 183.
Piccitoni (ii), 172.
Pierson, Martin (ii), 292.
Piggot, Francis (ii), 475.
Pignatta (ii), 905.
Pilkington (ii), 116, 262, 278.
Pilotti, see Schiavonetti.
Pinacci (ii), 771, 773.
Pindar (i), 95, 100, 125, 143, 230n,
267, 290, 299, 312-5, 364.
Pinto (ii), 856, 1018.
Piozzi (ii), 885, 887.
Pipilare (i), 740.
Pirker (ii), 846.
Piscina, Rosa (ii), 678.
Pistoccht (ii), 539, 540, 541, 558,
584, 589, 597m, 625, 661.
Pitts (i), 549, 550, 674, 675, 678, 807,
Pittacus (i), 306.
Pizzati, Guis. (ii), 940.
Planelli (ii), 938.
Plato (i), 29, 36, 42, 48, 51, 52, 71,
110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 120, 122,
167, 169, 219, 231, 236, 268, 281,
287, 308, 326, 338, 339, 361, 403,
410 ; (ii). 141, 428, 534.
Playford, Henry (ii), 356.
J. (Senr.) (i), 477m, 774m,
(ii), 24, 56, 287m, 293, 310, 313,
326, 329/ 349, 362, 373, 374.
1072
INDEX TO NAMES
Pleyel (ii), 449, 946, 952.
Pliny (i), 54, 60, 160, 161, 205, 280,
311, 330, 331, 373, 385, 400, 563 ;
(ii), 161.
Plott, Dr. (i), 526, 652.
Plutarch (i). 11, 24, 29, 42, 43, 44,
45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 60, 65, 68,
94, 95, 126, 136, 137, 141, 142, 146,
153, 156, 158, 162, 194, 227, 231,
234, 235, 238, 257, 258, 259, 262,
269, 273, 277, 280, 281, 287, 289,
292, 298, 303, 304, 314, 316, 317,
320, 321, 324, 326, 328, 329, 330,
331, 332, 334, 335, 336, 338, 340,
348, 349, 360, 364, 367, 402 ; (ii),
503.
Pococke (i), 176, 181.
Podio, Guillerm DE (ii), 235.
POLHYMNIA (i), 242.
Poliascki, Giov. Dom. (ii), 605.
Polidoro, O. (ii), 420.
Politian (i), 629 ; (ii), 197, 507/.
Pollarolo, Ant. (ii), 905, 909.
C. F. (ii), 556, 690, 738,
767m, 777, 793, 905.
Poly^enus (i), 153.
Polybius (i), 149, 152, 305.
POLYMNESTUS (i), 332.
Pompeati (ii), 844.
Pompey (i), 377.
Ponge (ii), 871.
Pontio, P. (ii), 147, 148, 156, 167,
184, 243, 251.
Pope (i), 17, 152. 216*?, 252, 260m,
271, 272, 274, 275, 277, 281 ; (ii),
27 3n, 640, 641, 670n, 776m.
Porphry (i), 350.
Porpora, Nicola (ii), 637, 737, 782,
783, 788, 789, 791, 842, 908, 909,
915/, 944.
Porsile, Guis. (ii), 918/
Porta, Giov. (ii), 700, 701, 907, 908,
909.
Constanzo (ii), 156, 172,
183/ 184/ 200.
Porter, Walter (ii), 318.
Potenza (ii), 856, 857, 858.
Potter, Archbishop (i), 273.
Power, Lyonel (i), 692/, 701, 707.
Pozzi, Anna (ii), 884, 890.
Praetorius (ii), 462.
Pratinas (i), 95.
Predieri, L. (ii), 906.
Priestley, Dr. (i), 268, 706.
Printz, G. (i), 13, 340, 769 ; (ii),
438, 459.
Proclus (i), 171, 410.
Procopius (i), 334.
Procustes (i), 340.
Pronomus (i), 66, 327, 388.
Prudom (ii), 890.
Vol. ii. 68.
Prynne (ii), 294, 331.
Psammenitus (i), 186.
Pseudo-Aristotle (i), 449w, 553.
Ptolemies, Kings of Egypt (i),
170, 186, 187.
Ptolemy (i), 31, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58,
60, 61, 65, 112, 119, 121, 352, 354,
355-8, 421 ; (ii), 138.
Soter (i), 334.
Pulci (i), 625, 630, 642 ; (ii), 507.
Purcell, D. (ii), 489, 667, 984.
H. (i), 59, 527, 555 ; (ii),
333, 344, 350, 351, 352, 379-406,
443, 485, 487, 504, 559m, 579, 601,
610m, 615, 622, 650, 667, 703, 1016.
H. (Senr.) (ii), 380, 381,
64 In.
Thos. (ii), 380, 381.
Pylades (i), 316, 317.
Pythocritus (i), 303.
Python, Defeat by Apollo (i),
233/ 301.
Pythagoras (i), 71, 121, 153, 155,
166, 186, 262, 266, 267, 288, 293,
318, 319, 342-7, 352, 353, 358, 529.
Quadrio (ii), 201, 433, 460, 559,
572, 582, 598, 661, 938.
Quagliati (ii), 434, 525.
Puantz (ii), 10, 745, 746, 782, 849f,
V962.
Quercioli (ii), 871, 872.
Quilici (ii), 858, 864.
Quin, James (ii), 339.
Quinault (i), 116; (ii), 404, 468,
472, 644m.
Quintilian (i), 133m, 134, 157, 194.
Raaf (ii), 934.
Rabelais (i), 727, 738, 758; (ii),
211, 213, 243.
Rafter, Miss, see Clive, Kitty.
Raguenet (ii), 965, 989.
Raimondi (ii), 2l3n, 452.
Rambaud, de Vaqueiras (i), 609.
Rameau (i), 46, 51, 56, 706; (ii), 7,
225, 406, 472, 965/, 970, 971, 973,
975, 976, 978, 979, 981.
Ramis, Bartholomeo (ii), 132, 195,
235
Ramondon (ii), 660, 663, 670, 985.
Rampini (ii), 906.
Rauzzini (ii), 880, 882, 894, 900.
Raval, Seb. (ii), 166.
Ravaliere, de la (i), 562, 568, 579,
586, 590, 592, 608.
Ravenscroft (i), 553, 677 ; (ii), 51,
52m, 55, 56, 106, 115, 213, 261, 279,
283.
1073
INDEX TO NAMES
Reading, John (ii), 476.
Reali, Gio. (ii), 909.
Rebel (ii), 964.
Record, Robt. (i), 549, 550.
Redford, John (ii), 29.
Redi (ii), 430.
Reggio (ii), 651.
Reginelli (ii), 702, 845, 846, 847.
Regis (i), 769m.
Regnard, Francis (ii), 215.
Reichardt (ii), 945, 946, 954, 960,
962.
Reimschneider, J. G. (ii), 760/, 764/.
Reincken (ii), 457.
Reinesius (i), 701.
Reinhold (ii), 801, 805, 809, 1011.
Reischius, Geo. (ii), 202.
Remi of Auxerre (i), 488, 496, 501,
585.
Resta, N. (ii), 848.
Rhaw, Geo. (ii), 202, 203, 206, 247.
Ricciarelli (ii), 853, 856.
Riccoboni (ii), 268, 277, 461, 663n.
Rich, Chris, (ii), 654, 667.
(ii), 788n, 828.
Richard 1st, of England (i), 570/,
577.
Lewis (ii), 304.
Richefort, John (ii), 246.
Rigel, Dr. Thos. (i), 492.
Rinaldodi Capua (ii), 840, 841,
925/.
Rinuccini, O. (ii), 467, 510, 514, 515,
519, 536, 595, 602.
Rinvoysy (ii), 46n.
Rishby (i), 707.
Ristori, A. (ii), 777.
Rittel (ii), 953.
Riva, Guilo (ii), 460.
Rizzio, David (i), 801 ; (ii), 178.
Robert of Gloucester (i), 783.
Robinson, Anastasia (ii), 689, Q9Qf,
694, 695/, 699, 706, 713, 718, 719,
720, 722, 723, 725, 728, 729, 995.
Elizabeth (ii), 692.
Mrs. Turner (ii), 706, 994.
Rochois, La (ii), 470.
Rodio, Rocco (ii), 173.
Rogers, Dr. (ii), 330, 340, 342, 362/,
364.
Roland (i), 597.
Rolle (ii), 957.
Rolli, P.A. (ii), 712, 718, 719, 751,
781, 813.
Romano, Micheli (ii), 264, 412, 413.
Romieu (ii), 978.
Romulus and Remus (i), 367.
Roncagla, Fr. 885/.
Ronsard (ii), 215, 233.
Rore, Cipriano (ii), 172, 213, 214,
246, 251, 252, 253.
Rosa, Laura (ii), 858.
Salvator (ii), 126, 621/,
626/.
Roscius (i), 141.
Roseingrave, D. (ii), 703.
R. (ii), 704.
Thos. (ii), 345, 703/, 1009.
Rosenmuller (ii), 458.
Rossi (Librettist) (ii), 673, 680, 682.
- Fr. (ii), 558, 909.
Lemme (ii), 428.
Lemma (i), 56.
■ Luigi (ii), 618/, 621, 522,
624.
Mich. Ang. (ii), 435, 572.
Roswick, Mich, (ii), 202.
Rota, Andrea (ii), 196.
Roubillac (ii), 825.
Rousseau (i), 33, 41, 43, 46, 74, 85,
128, 129, 144, 368, 424, 460n, All,
476, 481, 506, 527, 540, 546; (ii),
99m, 498, 500, 554, 599, 603, 675,
964, 970, 971, 9S0, 1000,
Roussell, Francois (ii), 222.
Roussier, Abbe (i), 45, 47, 121,
345m, 356m, 357, 462; (ii), 968,
979, 980, 981.
Rovedino (ii), 890.
Rovetta, G. (ii), 431, 433, 543.
Roy, Adrian Le (ii), 45, 46.
Rubinelli (ii), 637, 768m, 898, 899,
902, 903, 1023.
Rue, Pierre de la (i), 709, 710, 740,
746, 764/, 770.
Russel, Dr. (i), 46.
Rust (ii), 946.
Rymer (i), 572, 652%, 697 ; (ii), 13,
28.
Sabbatini, G. (ii), 427.
Sabellicus (ii), 202.
Sacadas (i), 302, 303, 332.
Sacchetti, Franco (i), 626.
Sacchi (ii), 940.
Sacchini (ii), 472, 687m, 873, 878,
879, 880, 882, 885, 889, 890, 892,
894/ 898, 912, 930, 974, 975, 977.
Sacrati (ii), 467m, 543, 597.
Saggione (ii), 652, 653.
Sainte Palaye (i), 568, 579.
Saintwix, Thos. (i), 680.
Salieri (ii), 974, 978.
Salinas (i), 85, 113; (ii), 205, 235,
236/
Salle, Mlle. (ii), 788m.
Salmon (ii), 225.
Thos. (ii), 371, 980.
Salvadori (ii), 524.
Salvai (ii), 707, 709, 713, 718, 719,
995.
1074
INDEX TO NAMES
Salvini (i), 643 ; (ii), 923.
Salway (ii), 1001.
Sammartini, Bapt. (ii), 454.
Guis. (ii), 997, 1013.
Sammonicus (i), 562.
Samuel (i), 194.
Sandoni (ii), 690, 737.
Sandys, George (ii), 58, 57, 313, 318.
San Martini, see Sammartini
Sansovino (i), 630.
Santarelli (ii), 156, 157«, 239, 528.
Sappho (i), 286, 307-8.
Sarro (ii), 599, 914, 917.
Sarti (ii), 637, 943.
Sartori, La (ii), S67.
Sartorio, G. (ii), 545.
Satyrs (i), 249, 250.
Saul (i), 194, 196, 198.
Savage, Mr. (ii), 818.
Savoi (ii), 871.
Saxo Grammaticus (i), 155 ; (ii),
679.
Scaletta, Hor. (ii), 428.
Scaliger Jos. (i), 349.
Scalzi (ii), 783/.
Scarlatti, Aless. (i), 60 ; (ii), 405,
421, 426, 434k, 439, 442, 541, 557,
579, 585, 586, 590, 601, 602, 624,
629/, 659, 662, 664, 749, 906, 914,
918, 937, 988, 991.
Dom. (ii), 96, 98, 405, 424,
440, 541, 558, 606, 635, 691», 703,
704, 706», 838, 840, 914, 937, 1009.
Franc, (ii), 995.
Schamelius (ii), 202.
Scheiben, J. A. (ii), 948.
Scheidemann (ii), 457.
Schein (ii), 457.
Scheitt (ii), 457.
Schiavonetti, E. P. (ii), 666, 673,
679, 682/, 684, 686, 694, 695/,
698, 699.
Schindlerin (ii), 880, 881.
Schlinck, Arnold (ii), 208.
Schobert (ii), 956/
Schop, J. (ii), 461.
Sckuback (ii), 962.
Schultz (ii), 960.
Schuster (ii), 946.
Sckutz (ii), 457, 460.
Sckwanberger (ii), 946.
Sckweiffelbut (ii), 461.
Schwindl (ii), 957/
Scocketto (i), 627.
Scot, G. L. (ii), 988.
Scotti (ii), 868, 870.
Segantini (ii), 864.
Segatti (ii), 781, 788, 791.
Seneca (i), 112, 143.
Senesino (ii), 425, 700, 703, 707,
708, 709, 712/, 718, 719, 722, 723,
Senesino — continued.
728, 729, 733, 741, 742, 743, 747,
751, 754, 757, 759, 767, 768, 771,
773, 777/, 780, 781, 782, 788, 791,
839, 943, 995.
Sennuccio (Delbene) (i), 636, 637.
Serafini (ii), 852.
Serafino DallAcquilla (i), 751,
152n.
Serra (i), 480, 507, 508.
Serre (ii), 979.
Serven, J. (ii), 222.
Servetus (ii), 41.
Servius Tullius (i), 77, 368, 369.
Sesostris (i), 170, 171, 235.
Sestini, Signora (ii), 881.
Severino (i), 619.
Shakespeare (i), 147, 587, 625, 703 ;
(ii), 23n, 103, 117, 268/, 280, 546,
643, 659.
Shelburne, Earl of (i), 686.
Shepherd, J. (i), 785, 794, 809, 810 ;
(ii), 19, 21, 28, 32, 61.
Sheryngham (i), 774.
Shield (ii), 1016.
Shirley, James (ii), 293.
■ John (i), 666.
Shore, Miss (ii), 983.
Siddons, Mrs. (ii), 649.
Sidonius Apollinaris (i), 561.
Siface (ii), 541, 558, 559.
Sigebert (i), 530.
of Gemblours (i), 474.
Signorelli (ii), 938.
Simonelli, M. (ii), 437, 438.
Simonides (i), 299, 309-14.
Simpson, Chris, (ii), 330, 332, 333,
371.
SlRENAS, SlLVA DI (ii), 235.
Sirens (i), 250-3, 260.
Slater, Dr. Wm. (ii), 56.
Smeaton, Mark (i), 801.
Smegergil (ii), 329.
Smith, Dr. (i), 508, 670n, 675 ; (ii),
236n.
Father (ii), 322n, 343/".
■ J. C. (ii), 494, 681, 776w,
780, 1002/
Snegasius, Cyriacus (ii), 205.
Snetzler (ii), 344, 345n.
Snow, Val. (ii), 790, 801, 1011.
Socrates (i), 265, 763.
(Historian) (i), 413, 415.
Solomon (i), 205.
Solon (i), 154, 158, 162.
Somis, Lorenzo (ii), 446, 895.
Sophocles (i), 80, 142, 143, 144,
279, 336, 385 ; (ii), 191.
Sorbellone (ii), 859, 860.
Soriano, Fr. (ii), 163, 412.
Sourdeac, De (ii), 467, 468.
1075
INDEX TO NAMES
Soriano (ii), 524.
Spagna, A. (ii), 582.
Spalatinus (ii), 41.
Spataro (ii), 132, 133, 195.
Spelman (i), 409m.
Spenser (i), 79m, 587 ; (ii), 103, 280.
Squarcialuppi, A. (ii), 197.
Stamitz (ii), 945, 960, 977m.
Stanley, John (ii), 494, 495, 1001,
1005, 1009.
Steele, Sir R. (ii), 661, 675, 676,
677,680.
Steffani (ii), 418, 424/, 460, 579,
672, 989.
Steneken, C. (ii), 461.
Sterkel (ii), 946, 960.
Sternhold (ii), 18, 20, 49, 50, 54, 56.
Stesichorus (i), 309.
Stiles, Sir Fr. Eyles (i), 58/, 61,
95, 124.
Stillingfleet (i), 111, 112, 113,
119, 243, 319, 343, 447, 448; (ii),
273tc.
Stoppelaer (ii), 791.
Storace, A. (ii), 900.
(ii), 901.
Stotzel (ii), 943.
Stowe (i), 657, 658, 678 ; (ii), 68, 94,
267.
Strabo (i), 161, 169, 176, 187, 220,
227, 245, 303, 325m, 563.
Strada (ii), 425, 737, 760/, 764/,
766, 768, 771, 773, 777m, 778/,
782, 783, 786, 791, 798, 801, 803,
804, 805, 808, 810, 824.
Stradella (ii), 404, 405, 419, 421,
430, 436, 540m, 574/, 583, 587, 607,
615, 749.
Stradiotti (ii), 694.
Striggio, Ales, (ii), 197, 598.
Strinati, M. (ii), 582.
Strozzi, Barbara (ii), 605.
Claudia (ii), 597.
G. (ii), 467, 543, 598«.
Pietro (ii), 510.
Strutt (i), 456.
Strype (ii), 48, 68.
Stubbs (ii), 55.
Suetonius (i), 380, 389.
Suer, Countess (i), 573.
Suidas (i), 12, 94, 121, 231, 245, 258,
281, 304, 311, 318, 322, 326, 332,
335, 347, 350, 354, 407, 415, 624.
Surrey, Earl of (ii), 18m, 48.
Susato (i), 726m, 731, 753 ; (ii), 212,
216, 247, 253.
Swift (i), 17, 105, 507, 636; (ii),
314, 670 680.
Synethius (i), 94.
1076
Tacitus (i), 405, 410.
Taillefer (i), 597.
Tailour (ii), 55m.
Tallis, Thos. (i), 686, 706, 729 ; (ii),
19, 21, 22, 24, 28, 32, 33, 50m, 55,
60, 65/. 74, 81, 93, 95, 183, 247,
263, 265, 266, 292, 311, 348, 370,
383, 479.
Tanaquil, Faber (i), 104.
Tanner (i), 542, 547m, 549, 550, 673,
674, 675.
Tarchi, Ang. (ii), 898.
Tarditti (ii), 525.
Tartarus (i), 264.
Tartini (i), 55, 82, 83, 111, 112, 547,
706, 728 ; (ii), 129, 405, 442, 443,
446/, 938, 978, 1013.
Tasca (ii), 897, 900.
Tasso (i), 528, 625, 642; (ii), 129,
500, 598.
Tassoni (ii), 178, 179.
Taverner (i), 708, 785, 786/; (ii),
28, 61, 94.
Taylor, Jeremy (i), 620.
Tedeschi (ii), 839.
Tedeschini (ii), 859.
Telemann (ii), 462, 941, 943, 944,
952.
Telephanes (i), 332, 333.
Temple, Sir William (i), 105.
Tenaglia (ii), 540m, 541, 602.
Tenducci (ii), 681, 857, 858, 860
877, 897, 1015.
Terence (i), 134, 139, 141, 143, 400,
560 ; (ii), 191.
Terni, Guilo di (ii), 446.
Terpander (i), 153, 154, 291-4,318,
345 ; (ii), 374.
Terpsichore (i), 242, 385.
Terradellas (ii), 840, 846, 847,
926/.
Tesi, The (ii), 907, 908, 943.
Tessarini (ii), 405, 445.
Testore (ii), 939.
Testwood (ii), 25.
Tevo (i), 33, 110.
Thaletas (i), 156, 158, 287-8.
Thalia (i), 242.
Thamyris (i), 280-1.
Thaun, Phil, de (i), 580.
Theinred (i), 675, 700.
Theobald of Arezzo (i), 471.
Theocritus (i), 121m, 336.
Theodora (i), 334.
Theodoret, St. (i), 202, 415.
Theodore of Tarsus (i), 448, 455.
Theodorus (i), 330.
Theodosius (i), 412, 631.
Theon (i), 153, 349.
Theophrastus (i), 156, 157, 329,
349.
INDEX TO NAMES
Theseus (i), 143, 264, 278, 323.
Thomas of Tewkesbury (i), 531,
553, 673.
Thibaut of Navarre (i), 608/.
Thoth (i), 165.
Thuanus (ii), 144.
Thucydides (i), 153, 286, 295, 407.
Thule (ii), 460.
Tignali (ii), 540n.
Tigrini, O. (ii), 146, 147.
Tragus of Elis (i), 297.
Timocreon (i), 361.
Timotheus (i), 150, 153, 155, 298,
317, 318-322, 328, 330, 336, 338 ;
(ii), 374.
Tinctor, John (i), 509m, 646, 677,
711, 712, 713, 717m, 721, 726, 727,
731, 735 ; (ii), 130, 172, 173, 202.
Tiresias (i), 279, 284.
Titus Vespasian (i), 208.
Todi, The (ii), 886.
Toeski (ii), 945.
Tofts, Mrs. (ii), 653, 655, 660, 663,
667/, 671, 984.
Tomkins (Family) (ii), 290.
Thos. (ii), 114, 263, 290.
Torelli, Gaspar (ii), 581.
G. (ii), 434, 436, 443, 444,
462.
Torkesey, Johan (i), 690, 691.
Torres, Melchior de (ii), 235.
Tosi, G. F. (ii), 537, 556.
P. F. (i), 478; (ii), 537»,
652, 662, 738, 938, 950, 989.
Tournefort (i), 428.
Traetta, T. (ii), 883, 912.
Travers, J. (ii), 492, 989.
Trebbi (ii), 881, 891/
Trevisa (i), 784.
Trial (ii), 970.
Trithemius (i), 531.
Triulzi (ii), 846.
Trombetta (ii), 855.
Trovar, Francesco (ii), 235.
Tucker, Rev. W. (ii), 47S.
■ (Singer) (ii), 505.
Tudway, Dr. (ii), 67, 76, 82, 89, 95,
115, 265, 293, 344, 345m, 348, 349,
351, 357, 360, 402, 476, 478, 485,
489, 704.
Tunsted (i), 555, 674/ 689.
Turges, E. (i), 774.
Turini, Fr. (ii), 414, 434.
Turner, Mr. (ii), 985.
Mrs. (ii), 660.
Dr. Wm. (ii), 361/
Tusser, J. (ii), 29.
Tye, Dr. (i), 785, 793, 795 ; (ii), 19,
20, 22, 65, 292.
Tyers, J. (ii), 824, 825, 1011.
Tyndal, Wm. (i), 202, 203 ; (ii), 14.
Tyrt^eus (i), 154, 291.
Tzetzes (i), 264, 281.
Ubaldino, Ubaldini (i), 621.
Ulysses (i), 251-3, 275, 276, 277,
282, 283.
Urania (i), 242.
Usher, Archbishop (i), 87, 259.
Utendal, Alex, (ii), 207.
Vaelboke of Brabant (ii), 202n.
Valderrabano, Henrico de (ii),
235.
Valente, Cieco (ii), 177.
Valentini, Guis. (ii), 437.
P. F. (ii), 264, 415.
■ (Urbani) (ii), 659, 660,
662, 664, 673, 678, 679, 682/ 684/
686, 907.
Valeriano (ii), 682, 684/
Valesecchi (ii), 864.
Valguay, Du (ii), 975.
Valle, Della (ii), 434, 435, 518m,
524/ 558, 559, 603k, 618.
Vallotti (ii), 939.
Vanbrugh, Sir J. (ii), 656, 657, 677.
Vaneschi (ii), 839, 841, 846, 852, 855.
Vanhal (ii), 449, 958.
Varillas (ii), 57.
Vasari (ii), 560.
Vatable (ii), 42.
Vebar (ii), 996.
Vecchi, Orfeo (ii), 190m.
Orazio (ii^, 184, 189, 190,
592/
Velly, Abbe (i), 451m.
Vento (ii), 867, 869, 874, 87S, 882,
884.
Veracini, Ant. (ii), 437, 451.
F. M. (ii), 405, 437, 443,
444, 448, 450/ 689, 693, 798, S21,
843, 853, 943, 990, 1003.
Verdelot, Philip (ii), 212, 243.
Vernizzi, Ottav (ii), 598.
Vertot, Abbe (i), 561.
Vespasian (i), 336.
Vestris (Junr.) (ii), 893, S97.
(Senr.) (ii), 893.
Viadana, Ludovico (ii), 411, 412,
427, 433, 434m.
Vicentino (i), 544 ; (ii), 138, 139,
240.
Vico, Signora Diana (ii), 694, 695/
698.
Viganoni (ii), 892.
Vignati (ii), 909.
Vignola, Guis. (ii), 558.
1077
INDEX TO NAMES
Villani (i), 643, 644 ; (ii), 560.
Vincent, R. (ii), 1011.
T. (ii), 870.
Vinci, Leonardo da (ii), 128, 753.
(ii), 624, 733, 782, 838,
857m, 908, 909, 914, 916/, 920.
Vinders, Jerom. (i), 753.
VlNETTE, J. DE (i), 555.
Vio, Mich, di (ii), 553.
Viola, Alfonso della (ii), 508m.
509, 592.
Violante, Mlle. (ii), 994.
Virdung (ii), 203w.
Virgil (i), 76, 255, 266, 268, 376,
407, 464, 624, 625, 627 ; (ii), 191.
Visconti (ii), 839, 841, 852.
House of (i), 623/.
Vitali, Ant. (ii), 444.
Filippo (ii), 570.
Vitalian, Pope (i), 454, 482, 499.
Vitruvius (i), 115, 126, 135, 136,
373, 375, 403.
Vitry, Philip de (i), 646, 671, 689.
Vittorio (i), 554 ; (ii), 241.
Vivaldi, A. (ii), 405, 445, 451, 637,
733, 777, 906, 908, 909.
Voltaire (i), 116, 119, 140, 359,
567 ; (ii), 472, 904.
Vossius, G. (ii), 178, 205.
Isaac (i), 72, 76, 81, 85,
108, 112, 387, 479; (ii), 987.
Wace (i), 647.
Wagenseil, G. 'Chr. (ii), 943, 955/
Wallis, Dr. (i), 34, 57, 60, 87, 112,
118, 119, 204, 354, 355, 478; (ii),
498.
Walpole, Horace (ii), 729m, 73 1m,
739m, 839m, 841m, 846m, 852 n,
1011/.
Walsh (ii), 476, 486, 488m, 656, 663,
703m, 715, 717, 767, 772m, 791, 804,
807, 821, 826, 827m, 840, 842m,
845, 854, 857m, 859, 867, 925, 926,
1003, 1008, 1013.
Walsingham, Thos. (i), 691.
Walther, J. G. (i), 438, 753, 758,
769 ; (ii), 39m, 154, 163, 164, 171,
173, 202, 204, 206, 212, 213, 425,
427, 435, 445, 456, 457, 458, 459,
461, 724, 947/
J. J. (ii), 461, 634.
Walton, J. (ii), 487.
Waltz (ii), 783/, 791, 801.
Ward, J. (17th cent.) (ii), 262, 283,
285.
Dr. (ii), 93m, 94, 95.
Warton (ii), 20, 39m.
Watson, Thos. (ii), 105.
Webb (i), 81m ; (ii), 329.
Weelkes, Thos. (ii), 106/, 116, 317.
Weerbeck, Gaspar van (i), 709,
735, 736, 746, 767; (ii), 151.
Weld on, John (ii), 351, 481, 487f,
493, 654, 984.
Wentworth, Lady (ii), 670m.
Werckmeister (ii), 209.
West (i), 79, 296, 300.
Westphal & Co. (ii), 963.
Wharton, Mr. (i), 565m, 648, 696?z.
Whitchurch, Ed. (ii), 50.
White, Robt. (ii), 19, 21, 22, 23,
61-5.
Wm. (ii), 283, 285.
Whitelocke (ii), 294, 298, 299, 300.
Whythorne, Thos. (ii), 102, 103.
Wiedeman (ii), 842, 1015.
Wiely, Samuel (ii), 475.
Wilbye, John (ii), 106, 115, 116.
Wilder, Ph. van (ii), 29.
Wilkinson (i), 707.
Wilks (ii), 660, 664.
WiLLAERT (i), 710, 736, 769, 770 ;
(ii), 137, 140, 141, 170/, 183, 251.
William and Mary (ii), 651.
de Champeaux (i), 569.
de Lorris (i), 664.
of Malmsbury (i), 447, 498.
of Newark (i), 774.
of Poitou (i), 570, 590,
609.
■ the Conqueror (i), 579.
Wilson, Dr. John (ii), 314/ 329,
335, 337, 340, 342.
Wion, Arnold (i), 420.
Wise, Michael (ii), 349, 356/
Wiseman (ii), 441, 442, 446, 447, 919.
Withers, Geo. (ii), 265.
Wolf, E. W. (ii),' 957.
Wolsey, Cardinal (i), 798/ ; (ii),
123.
Wood, Anthony (i), 673, 678, 680,
807 ; (ii), 81m, 94, 264, 289, 290,
315, 331, 334/ 342, 34f 362, 363.
Woodcock (ii), 996.
Wooton, Mr. (i), 105.
Wootton, Sir Henry (ii), 301.
Worgan, Dr. (ii), 1009.
Wyatt, Sir Thos. (i), 785 ; (ii),
18m, 48, 123.
Wyclif (i), 701 ; (ii), 35, 36.
Wydow, Robert (i), 680m.
Wylde, John (i), 686, 691.
Wynken de Werde (i), 658.
Xenocrates (i), 156.
Xenophilus (i), 349.
Xenephon (i), 155, 257, 331.
1078
INDEX TO NAMES
Yates, Mrs. (ii), 879.
Yeart, Bernard (ii), 130, 173.
Yonge, N. (ii), 103, 105.
Young, Cecelia, see Mrs. Arne.
Mary (ii), 868, 871.
(Sisters) (ii), 1003.
Zacconi (i), 476m ; (ii), 149/, 162m,
412.
Zamparini (ii), 873, 877.
Zanetti (ii), 602, 940.
Zarlino (i), 33, 107, 346, 418m, 442,
444, 445, 446, 728, 736, 752 ; (ii),
81w, 125, 137/, 146, 171, 172, 183,
213, 243, 251, 509, 592m.
Zeno (ii), 134m, 540, 546, 560, 582,
583, 659, 675, 679, 694, 699, 719,
724, 730, 738, 767m, 817, 822, 827m,
840, 842, 892, 905, 909, 918, 942.
Ziani, D. P. A. (ii), 545, 547.
Ziani, M. A. (ii), 545m, 556, 573, 905,
941.
Zipoli (ii), 424.
Zuccari, A. (ii), 908.
Zwingle (ii), 36, 45.
1079
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
VOLUMES I and II
Academy of Ancient Music (ii),
749, 775, 987.
Accents (i), 28, 525.
Accentuation of Words (ii), I25n.
Accompaniment. Improvement by
Crexus (i), 335.
Acis and Galatea (ii), 775, 776, 788,
798, 826.
Act of Uniformity (ii), 28, 48.
Act. What in a Greek Tragedy (i),
142.
Actors, Greek (i), 144.
Acts of the Apostles. Set by Dr.
Tye (ii), 20.
Agincourt, Song of (i), 667-8.
Airs. Different from Recitative or
Chanting (i), 84, 104, 140.
Antiphony (i), 122 ; (ii), 26.
Abyssinia, Music of (i), 177/.
Ambrosian Chant, see Chant,
Ambrosian (i) .
Amphictyonic Counsel (i), 302.
Antiphonal Singing (i), 415.
Antiphonarium of Gregory (i),
419, 431.
of Guido (i), 466, 469, 471.
Arcadians, (i) 149-152, 366.
Aria. Early Use (ii), 543.
Archicembalo (ii), 137n.
Articles of Reformation (ii), 59n.
Arts. Several Times Perfected and
Lost (i), 185-6.
Their best period in Greece
(i), 286-7.
Their Origin (i), 164-5.
Astrology (i), 550m.
1080
Athenians. Their passion for
shows (i), 142.
Athens (i), 315, 324.
Athletics (i), 300.
Autos Sacramentales (i), 428.
Babylonish Captivity (i), 206-7.
Bacchanals (i), 245, 248.
Bag-pipe (i), 388, 642, 661.
Example (i), 398.
Ballad Operas. Beggar's Opera
(ii), 677, 756, 986, 997/, 1000.
(ii), 1000, 1016.
Ballads, English (i), 666.
Ballata (i), 640w.
Ballets, Early French (ii), 223/.
Bard. Set over Clytemnestra (i),
152.
Bards, Gallic (i), 206.
Grecian (i), 279.
■ Supposed Castriti (i), 284ra.
The First Historians (i),
286, 569.
Welsh (i), 206, 484, 647.
Bars (i), 84, 541.
Beggar's Opera, see Ballad Operas
(ii).
Bells (i), 407, 453, 517.
Berlin. Opera in the 18th cent.
(ii), 944.
Bestiarus (i), 580.
Birds. More fond of noise than
music (i), 159.
Blind Organists (ii), 239, 494, 1001.
Bohemian Bretheren (ii), 36, 42,
45.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Bologna, Early Operas at (ii),
535/.
Music at, in the 16th
cent, (ii), 195-6.
Bourdoun (i), 661.
Bow. Early use in France (i),
588-591.
Was it known to the
Ancients ? (i), 406.
Brunswick, Operas at (ii), 946.
Buccina (i), 389.
Bulimia. Common disease among
musicians (i), 305.
Cannons (ii), 700, 775.
Canon (i), 728^, 739, 741, 750/; (ii),
80, 96, 115%, 279/ 412, 414, 415,
459, 491.
Defined (i), 35.
Canonici Psalt.s (i), 415.
Cantata. Early use of word (ii),
605, 606.
Cantatas, see Chamber Cantatas.
Cantica (i), 139.
Canticum (i), 138, 142.
Canto Fermo, see Plain Song.
Cantors (ii), 208.
Canzone (i), 629; (ii), 164%, 174.
Capistrum (i), 232, 298, 387,
Example, 398.
Capitoline Games (i), 412.
Carmen Seculare (i), 376.
Carnean Games (i), 293.
Carnival Songs (i), 758 ; (ii), 197.
Carols. Early use in French
Churches (i), 581.
Carol. Use of word (i), 641%.
Castes (i), 199.
Castrati (ii), 126, 136, 139, 240,
528/ 558.
Bards (i), 284%.
Catch Club (ii), 1022.
Cathedral Service (ii), 18, 34, 307,
481/
Cembalo (i), 641.
Chamber Cantatas Cii), 601-638.
Origin (ii), 601.
Review of Carissimi's (ii),
608/
Review of Cesti's (ii), 615/
Review of Salvator Rosa's
MSS. Book (ii), 621/
Review of Scarlatti's (ii),
629/
Chamber Duets (ii), 424.
Chamber Music. Quartets, early
(ii), 435.
Change Ringing (ii), 325, 326.
Chant, Ambrosian. Differs from
Gregorian (i), 416-7,
Chant, Ambrosian — Continued.
Established at Milan (i),
413, 414.
Modes (i), 417.
Gallican (i), 663.
Gregorian Introduction
into England (i), 448.
Introduction into France,
(i), 449-451, 584.
■ Modes (i), 417.
Notation (i), 431.
Origin (i), 419, 420.
Chanting (i), 197, 411, 532, 544, 583,
584.
Chapel Royal (ii), 15/, 65, 260, 261,
348, 774, 983.
Institution (i), 697/
Organists (ii), 261, 289, 342,
362, 382, 473, 480, 487, 489, 492,
495%
Chelys (i), 405, 406.
Children of the Chapel Royal
(i), 698-9 ; (ii), 30, 31, 261, 775.
Chimes (ii), 207, 208, 325, 326.
Chinese Music (i), 46/ 703 ; (ii),
11%.
Chorus. Greek Drama (i), 136, 138,
142, 143, 333, 338.
Choruses. In early oratorios (ii),
580.
Chromatic Harmony in Gesualdo's
Works (ii), 180%.
Church Music in England After
Purcell (ii), 475-495.
To the time of Guido (i),
409-56.
Cithara (i), 137, 141, 187, 243, 280,
293, 299, 302, 325, 335, 378, 380,
383, 404, 405.
Examples of (i), 394.
Timotheus' Improvements
(i), 292/
Clefs (i), 470.
List of (i), 716.
Singing Clefs of the Middle
Ages (i), 438, 440.
Coloured Lines (i), 468-9.
Comedians, Companies of (ii), 660,
664, 666, 738, 994.
Comedy, Roman (i), 141.
Comma (i), 691.
Compositions Given, see under
Musical Examples.
Concento (i), 637.
Concert Spirituel (ii), 885, 971,
976, 977.
Concerts (ii), 451, 652, 675, 690%
775, 823, 826, 849, 984, 985, 993,
994, 995, 996, 997, 999, 1000, 1003,
1005, 1013, 1017, 1022.
Ancient Music (ii), 1022.
1081
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Concerts — Continued.
Hickford's Room (ii), 451,
493, 652, 689m, 770m, 992, 994, 995,
998, 1005, 1008, 1017.
Origin in England (ii), 368,
369.
Professional Concert (ii),
1018.
— Swan and Castle Cii), 493,
494, 802, 1005, 1008.
York Buildings (ii), 652,
653, 675, 690, 985, 986, 994.
Concerto. Early use of the word
(ii), 433, 434.
Concha (i), 389. Example (i), 398.
Conductus (i), 553m, 554.
Convocation, Court of (ii), 31, 32.
Cornet (ii), 146.
Corybantes, see Curetes.
Coryphaeus, see Greek Music.
Cotton, MSS. (i), 670/.
Counterpoint. A new invention
(i), 131.
Early Italian (i), 637.
Early use of word (i), 509/.
— — Example from Josquin (i),
723.
Examples from Marchetto
da Padova (i), 520-22.
Example from Pietra
Aaron (i), 724.
Invention of, (i) 457/, 677,
711/
No trace in Early Missals
(i), 426.
Specimen of (i), 127.
Was it known to the
Greeks? (i), 105/
Covent Garden (ii), 646, 788, 826,
989, 1003, 1007, 1022.
Cretan Music (i), 445.
Cretans. Their love of music (i),
150.
Crowd (i), 588m.
Cunning Man, The (i), I44n.
Curetes (Cabiri or Corybantes)
(i), 217, 368, 407.
Cymbalum (i), 74, 386, 405.
Examples (i), 397.
Da Capo (ii), 601, 602, 857, 866.
Dancing. A Silent Poetry (i), 288n.
Dancing at the Opera (ii), 892,
897, 901.
Dancing. In Greek Drama (i), 138.
In Religious Rites (i), 410,
427, 428.
Pyrrhic Dance (i), 278, 344.
Dancing Masters (i), 597.
Decameron (i), 638/
Defacing Monuments (ii), 27.
1082
Defects of Wind Instruments (i),
401.
Definitions. General (i), 21.
Greek Modes (i), 53.
Mr. Mason's (i), 117m.
— — Terms used in early counter-
point (i), 500/
Delian Girls and Games (i), 295.
Delphos, Temple of (i), 301.
Degrees, Musical (i), 678/
Devin du Village (i), 144.
Diaphonia, see Organum.
Dichord (i), 174, 386.
Examples (i), 390, 397.
Dictionaries of Music. Tinctor,
J. (i), 717, note.
Diesis (i), 49, 50, 52, 302, 691.
Diospolis (i), 175-6.
Discant (i), 461, 497, 500/ 514, 534,
546, 700.
Discords, Early Mention of (i),
522.
Greek (i), 120.
Monteverde's use of (ii),
190/
721.
721.
Prepared and Resolved (i),
Used as passing notes (i),
Use of (i), 719/
Disputes. Between early French
and Roman Musicians (i), 449-451.
Dithyrambics (i), 133, 142, 245.
Diverbia (i), 139.
Divisions (i), 527m, 528 ; (ii), 275,
419, 466, 668/ 710/, 744, 831/, 850/
Dolphins. Legend of Arion (i),
161/
Double Flutes (i), 141, 228m, 401.
Examples (i), 394, 398.
Dragon of Wantley (ii), 1003, 1007.
Dramatic Music. Greek (i), 133/
Purcell's (ii), 389/
(see also under Theatre).
Dress. Of Troubadours and Jong-
leurs (i), 624.
Druids (i), 206.
Drum (i), 178, 221, 407.
Drury Lane Theatre (ii), 493, 652,
653, 654, 655, 656, 657, 666, 984,
985, 986, 993, 994, 995, 996, 1000,
1003, 1007, 1010.
Dryden's Remarks on Opera (ii),
646/
Ear for Music. No proof of under-
standing (i), 104.
Ecclesiastical Modes, see Modes.
Echeia (i), 135, 136.
Effects of Music. Music of.
Antiquity (i), 149/
Egyptian Music (i), 166.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Eleusinian Mysteries (i), 262, 264,
268.
Encores at the Opera (ii), 694,
799.
England. Dilettanti (ii), 1013/.
Establishment of Music
in (i), 447-456.
Church Music after Purcell
(ii), 475-95.
Early Operas (ii), 639-650.
Italian Opera in (ii), 651-
904.
Music in the 16th cent, (i),
773-817 ; (ii), 13-127.
Music in the 17th cent, (ii),
260-410.
Music in the 18th cent, (ii),
983-1023.
Engraving of Music (ii), 408.
Epicedium, or Dirge for Pindar (i),
314.
Epigonium (i), 335.
Epigram of the Emperor Julian
(i), 454.
on Flute Players (i), 330.
Epithalamiums (i), 369.
Equal Flutes, see Flutes.
Etruscan Music (i), 372/.
Fancies (ii), 262, 323, 366, 367, 406,
434.
Fantasias for Instruments (ii),
283, 434.
Faux-Bourdon (i), 461, 504, 584 ;
(ii), 55.
Fayrfax Manuscript (i), 773/, 796 ;
(ii), 213.
Fiddle (i), 649, 661 ; (ii), 267 n.
First Days Entertainment (ii),
331
Fistula (i), 377, 399, 401.
Florence. Music at, in the 16th
cent, (ii), 196-200.
Flute (i), 66, 140, 141, 153, 154, 155,
157, 165, 168, 174, 178, 187, 219,
222, 227, 232, 238, 273, 288, 291,
297, 298, 302, 315, 319, 325, 326,
327, 329, 337, 367, 368, 370, 378,
399, 413.
Construction and Use of
(i), 400/
— — Examples (i), 394, 395, 398.
German (ii), 714, 949, 961,
977, 995, 997, 1008, 1015.
History of (i), 325/.
Use in religious rites (i),
331, 332, 410.
Flute Players, Celebrated (i),
332/
— — Colleges of (i), 334.
Orgy of (i), 371.
Prosperity of (i), 330, 331.
Flutes. Equal (i), 383, 389.
Examples (i), 394, 395, 398.
Price of (i), 330.
Use in theatre (i), 400 ^
Foot in Poetry (i), 72, 74, 75, 76,
77.
Forrest-Heyther Collection of
Part Books (i), 785/.
France. Establishment of music
in (i), 447/.
Music in the 16th cent, (ii),
210-234.
Music in the 17th cent, (ii),
464-474.
Music in the 18th cent, (ii),
964-982.
French Language (i), 579/; (ii),
472.
French Music, Voltaire on (ii),
472.
Fugue (i), 528, 724n ; (ii), 77n.
Common in early Church
Music (i), 722/.
Origin of (i), 723.
Gamut of Guido (i), 467/.
Genera (see Greek Music).
General Satirists Like Cocles (i),
289.
Germany. Dilettanti (ii), 961-3.
Early Lyric Poetry (i),
701-2.
Instrumental Composers of
the 18th cent, (ii), 946/.
Music in the 16th cent, (ii),
201-9.
Music in the 17th cent, (ii),
456-463.
Music in the 18th cent, (ii),
941-963.
Music Publishers (ii), 962/.
Theorists, etc., in the 18th
cent, (ii), 947/.
Glees (ii), 375, 376.
Gondolieri (i), 626.
Grass-hoppers (i), 161, 236.
Greek Music. Apollo, Hymn to
(i), 90, 95.
Calliope, Hymn to (i), 89,
95
— — Coryphaeus (i), 81, 142.
Dramatic Music (i), 133/.
From the Homeric Age to
the conquest by the Romans (i),
286-342.
Genera (i), 40/, 51.
Had the Greeks any music
in parts (i), 105/.
Heroes and Heroic Times
(i), 254-285.
Melopoeia, (i), 67/
1083
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Greek Music — continued.
Do. The Practice of (i), 87/.
■ Modern Enharmonic (i),
49/, 337.
— — Modes. Characteristics (i),
62 ; Compass (i), 54, 307, 332% ;
Definition of (i), 53 ; intervals
(i), 55 ; oldest (i), 54 ; Ptolemy's
system (i), 56/; table of (i), 54, 55.
Music during the residence
of the Gods upon earth (i), 215-
246.
Mutations (i), 64/.
Nemesis, Hymn to (i), 93,
94, 95.
Ode of Pindar (i), 101, 102.
Old Harmonic of Olympus
(i), 43/, 50, 52, 68.
Pindaric Ode (i), 101/
Rhythm (i), 71/, 97/
Table of Greek Notation
(i), 38.
■ Terrestrial or Demi Gods (i),
247-253.
Tetrachords (i), 25/, 230,
266.
Gregorian Chant, see Chant.
Gresham Professors (ii), 93, 94.
Guidonian Hand (i), 470, 473,
Diagram I, 671.
Guitar (ii), 145.
Abyssinian (i), 179, 405.
Hammers of Pythagoras (i), 343.
Handel Commemoration (ii), 890,
893,961, 1021.
Harmatian Air (i), 309.
Harmonic Meeting (ii), 884.
Harmony. Early (i), 510, 511.
Guido's Definition (i), 464.
Harmony of the Spheres (i), 244,
337.
Harp (ii), 145.
Harp of Ten Strings (i), 385.
Harp. Theban (i), 181-3, 384.
Burney's Remarks (i), 183-5
Plate (i), 391.
In the British Isles (i), 646/,
666.
Triangular, see Trigon.
Use by Troubadours (i), 589.
Harpsichord (i), 348 ; (ii), 140,
145, 635, 674, 689, 704, 754, 951,
984, 999, 1003, 1008, 1009, 1020,
1021/.
Music (ii), 491, 495«, 703w,
706w, 112n, 874, 884, 910, 954,
956/ 992, 999, 1008.
Hautbois (ii), 146, 214, 686, 699,
100S, 1022.
Haymarket Theatre (Little) (ii)
844, 847, 849, 853n, 896, 993, 997.
Haymarket Theatre, see Opera
House.
Hebrew Instruments (i), 198, 211.
Hebrew Music (i), 143, 191-214.
Examples (i), 392-3.
Heptachord (i), 318, 345.
Heralds (i), 274, 298, 597.
Hexachord (i), 459, 472/, 671.
Hickford's Room, sea under Con-
certs.
Hocket (i), 51 In.
Horns (i), 175, 193.
First use in opera in Eng-
land (ii), 702.
French (ii), 702, 708w, 979,
999.
Hurdy Gurdy (i), 588.
Hydraulicon (i), 403, 453, 454, 498,
561.
Hymns. Allegorical (i), 360.
Apollo (i), 234/, 23S-240,
294.
Greek, Popular (i), 360.
Hercules (i), 314.
.Lasus (i), 348.
Mercury (i), 292, 405.
of Mesemodes. Music (i),
89/ ; Notation (i), 95 ; Modula-
tion or Melody (i), 95 ; Rhythm
(i), 97.
of Orpheus (i), 267.
Theurgic (i), 360.
of Mussus (i), 269.
Hyperboreans (i), 235.
Iceland, Poetry of (ii), 42.
Impressing of Singers (ii), 28/
Improwisatori (i), 195, 784.
Instrumental Music. Admisssion
into the Church (i), 426.
In the 17th cent, (ii), 282/.
Instruments, see under separate
names.
Used by Minstrels (i), 594.
Interludes (ii), 268.
Intermezzi (i), 139 ; (ii), 197, 597/,
804, 805, 970, 971.
Introduced into England
(ii), 653.
La Serva Padrona, see
under " L."
Intervals. Difficulties upon wind
instruments (i), 51 ; 4th in Greek
Music (i), 56 ; Gaudentius on
Greek Concords and Discords (i),
120 ; Aristoxenean (i), 121 ;
Pythagorean (i), 120, 462 ; Franco's
Classification (i), 513-4 ; de
Muris' Classification (i), 551-2.
1084
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Intervals — continued.
Used in Organum (i),
460-3.
Use of 4th in modern
Greece (i), 445.
Isthmian Games (i), 323-4.
Italian Music in the Middle
Ages (i), 622/.
Italy. Music in the 17th cent, (ii),
411-432.
— — The Mecca of Musicians (i),
725/.
Jongleurs (i), 569, 591/
Prohibited in Paris (i), 596.
Juglars (i), 569.
Kettle Drum (i), 178.
Keys. Restrictions in Early Music
(i), 424-5.
King of the Minstrels (ii), 365.
King's Band (ii), 287, 367/, 407,
646, 648, 984.
King's Theatre, see under Opera
House.
Lacedemonians (i), 150, 153, 290-1,
292, 304, 305.
Lady Nevil's Book (ii), 79/
Lamnatzeach (i), 203—4.
Languages, Euphony of (ii), 497-
505.
Origin of Italian (i), 617/
Origin of Modern (i), 559/
Lansdowne MS. No. 763 (i), 685/
La Serva Padrona (ii), 599, 849,
965, 969, 970.
Laudi Spirituali (i), 629/; (ii),
152, 196, 563.
Laws of the Twelve Tables (i),
369.
Lays (i), 586/
Lay of Aristotle (i), 607.
Lectisternium (i), 369.
Leipsic, Operas at (ii), 945/
Letters Used for Notation, see
Notation.
L'Homme Arme (i), 714, 738, 740,
742 ; (ii), 162, 237m.
Library of Music. Scheme for a,
(i), 708, 709n.
Ligatures (i), 539-40.
see Notation.
Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre (ii),
653, 654, 782, 788, 826, 828, 984
985, 986, 989, 1002, 1003, 1005.
Lines, see Stave.
Linia. Festival of Linus (i), 259.
LlPOGRAMMATISTS (l), 313, 348.
Liturgy, Establishment of (i), 426.
— — - In the reign of Edward VI
(ii), 19.
In the reign of Elizabeth
(ii), 26/
In the reign of Henry VIII
(h), 14.
Lutheran (ii), 37/
Merbecke's Booke of Com-
mon-Praier (i), 803-6.
Published (i), 803 ; (ii),
28, 32.
Lituus (i), 384, 388.
Example (i), 395.
Lombardy. Music in the 16th cent.
(ii), 183-195.
Lute (i), 642, 662 ; (ii), 15, 21, 24,
117, 122, 123, 144, 197, 223, 263,
279, 333, 349, 377, 464, 513n, 531,
541, 996.
Lyra- Viol (ii), 322, 323, 562.
Lyre. Examples of (i), 394,396, 397.
Abyssinian (i), 179, 386.
Example (i), 396
Discovery by the Greek
Mercury (i), 224.
Etruscan (i), 386. Exam-
ple (i), 396.
Grecian (i), 49, 66, 125, 141,
152, 154, 156, 223, 225, 228, 242,
260, 262, 264, 272, 273, 274, 318,
319, 320, 332, 335, 336, 337, 367,
384, 387, 404, 406.
Invention by Hermes (i),
173.
Mercurian (i), 34, 173, 224,
259, 266, 292, 406.
Of Orpheus (i), 266.
Of Pythagoras (i), 386.
Example (i), 397.
Of Six Strings (i), 386.
Example (i), 397.
Macbeth (ii), 645.
Madrigals (i), 629 ; (ii), 102/, 247
262, 420, 651.
Magadis (i), 335.
Magadizing (i), 124, 335.
Mannheim. Music in the 18th
cent, (ii), 945.
Masks. Examples (i), 395.
In stage performances (i),
134.
Masques (ii), 123, 266, 276/, 293/,
508, 509, 984.
— — Comus (ii), 301/ 311.
Early English (ii), 267/
Lovers made men (ii), 277,
278.
278.
Triumph of Peace (ii), 293/
Vision of Delight, The (ii),
1085
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Mass. At Funeral of Henry VIII
(ii), 15.
Institution of (i), 412.
Masses. Early Printed (i), 709-
710; (ii), 156/.
Measured Music (i), 524/.
Medicinal Powers of Music (i),
156/
Melody in Italy. 17th cent, (ii),
431, 432, 555.
Melody. Of early music (i), 510.
Melopoeia, see Greek Music.
Mesolabe (ii), 138.
Metres of Greek Verse (i), 75/
of Latin Verse (i)j 76, 77.
Meurs, Location of (i), 551.
Military Music (i), 273, 305.
Military Songs (i), 597.
Minstrels (i), 569, 591, 592/ 648/,
676, 696/
■ At Chester Fair (i) , 65 1-2.
■ At Tutbury (i), 652/
Fees in the reign of Henry
VI (i), 676, 696.
Granted a Charter (Paris)
(i), 595/ 697 n.
Granted a Charter by
Edward IV (i), 697.
In the service of the Earl
of Northumberland, a.d. 1512 (i),
796-8.
King of the (ii) , 366.
— Les Deux (i), 593/
Ordnance Regulating (1316)
(i), 657.
Performance by (1377) (i),
657.
Missa Pap;e Marcelli (ii), 157.
Modes. Ambrosian Modes (i), 417.
Ecclesiastical (i), 61, 463,
465, 496, 517, 723 ; (ii), 124, 204.
Ecclesiastical. Differ from
the Greek Modes (i), 417, 421.
Greek, see under Greek
Music .
Gregorian (i), 417.
Greek, see Greek Music (i).
Signs of the (i), 548.
Monochord (i), 344ra, 351, 353 ; (ii),
138, 140.
Moods (i), 84, 535/ 671, 691, 714.
Morality Plays (ii), 57, 267, 560.
Motellus (i), 553, 554.
Motets (i), 552, 553, 554, 555, 726k,
747/; (ii), 67.
Motet. Verbum bonum (ii), 170,
171.
Musars (i), 569.
Music and Words (i), 84, 526, 528 ;
(ii), 125n.
Music in the Eastern Church (i),
415.
1086
Music in the Early Church (i),
409-456.
Traces of Greek Music (i),
422.
Music in the Reign of Charles II
(ii), 340/
Music in the Reign of Elizabeth
(ii), 22/
Music During the Commonwealth
(ii), 321-340.
Music in the Reign of James I (ii),
260/
Music in the Reign of Mary (ii),
21, 22.
Music Schools. Greek (i), 244.
Musica Ficta (i), 646, 672.
Musica Sacra. Dr. Croft's (ii),
481/
Musical Criticism, Essay on (ii),
7-11.
Musical Establishment of
Charles I (ii), 287/
Charles II (ii), 347/
Edward VI (ii), 15/
Elizabeth (ii), 25.
- Henry VIII (i), 800 ; (ii),
13/
■ Cardinal Wolsey (i), 799/
Musical Examples. Animuccia,
Chant (ii), 153.
Aridsti. Air from Vespa-
sian (ii), 726.
Arkadelt. Madrigal (ii),
244-5.
Bandini. Fragment of a
Cantata (ii), 620.
Barbella. Tinna nonna (ii),
452.
Bassani. Symphonies in
Cantatas (ii), 628.
Benedicamus Domino (from
Gerbert) (i), 556.
Benedict. On the death of
Josquin (i), 754-7.
Blow, Dr. Crudities (ii),
353-5.
Bontempi. Paride (ii),
551-2.
Broschi, R. Air from
Artaxerxes (ii), 833/
Brumel. Duo (i), 766.
Bull, Dr. Specimens of
Difficulties (ii), 99-101.
Byrd. Fortune (Virginals)
(ii), 102.
Byrd. " My Mind to me "
(ii), 84/
Byrd. " O Lord my God "
(ii), 82/
Byrd. The Carman's
Whistle (ii), 78.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Musical Examples — continued.
Caccini. Euridice (ii), 520,
523.
Caccini. Le Nuove Musiche
(ii), 603-5.
Perissone Cambio. Villota
(ii), 175.
Canis. Chanson (ii), 248-9.
Cantilena Guidonis Majoris
(i), 687.
Carissimi. Cantata, Maw
Queen of Scots (ii), 608, 609.
Carissimi. Extracts from
Cantatas (ii), 611-615.
Caurroy. Eust. du Noel (ii),
231-2.
Cavaliere's. L'Anima et di
Corpo (ii), 567/.
Cavalli. Air (ii), 620.
Cavalli. Erismena (ii),
549-551.
Cesti, M.A. Extracts from
Cantatas (ii), 615-618.
Cesti, M.A. Ovontea (ii),
548-9.
Chanson du Chdtelain de
Coucy (i), 602-4.
Chant for New Year's Day
(i), 584.
Chant for the Feast of St.
John (i), 583.
Deering. Canticum Sa-
crum (ii), 375.
Divisions in the first Operas
performed in England (ii) 668/.
Divisions in Italia Operas
(ii), 710-11.
Divisions sung by Farinelli
(ii), 831/
Divisions, 1740-55 (ii), 850/.
Donato, B. Canzone (ii),
176.
Dowland, J. Lamentation
a 4 (ii), 119; a 5 (ii), 120.
Early Welsh Music (i),
485-6.
Examples of Early Nota-
tion, (i), 431, 432, 433, 434, 435,
436.
Extracts from Le Balet
Comique de la Royne (ii), 226-9.
Faus Semblant (i), 616.
Fayrfax. Gloria (i), 793-4 ;
Qui Tollis (i), 791-2 ; Ouoniam
Tu (i), 792-3.
Fayrfax, Dr. R. That was
my woo (i), 778-9.
Federici. Santa Caterina
(ii), 586, 587.
Ferrabosco. Song (ii), 282.
Ferrabosco. Avres (ii),
121, 122.
Musical Examples — continued.
Festa. " Motetus " (ii),
198-200.
— — Fevin, Anthony. Et Vitam
Venturi (i), 768.
Fevin Anthony. Kyrie (i),
767-8.
— — Ford. Canon (ii), 327 ;
Canon (ii), 328.
Gastoldi. II Bell 'Humore
(ii), 188 ; L'Innamorato (ii), 189.
Gesualdo. Madrigal (ii),
181-2.
Goudimel. Motetus (ii),
218-219.
Greek Music (i), 88-93, 101.
Handel. Recit. from
Aihalia (i), 65n.
Hilton, J. Canon (ii), 328.
— Hymn. Alta Trinita (i), 631
Henry Isaac. Anima Mea
(i), 760-1.
Henry Isaac. De Testi-
monis (i), 762-3.
Italian Melody, 17th cent.
(ii), 431, 432.
Ives, S. Canon (ii), 327.
■ Jenkins, J. The Five Bell
Consort (ii), 324-5.
Claude le Jeune. Chanson.
(ii), 220-222.
Jeune, C. le. Psalm No.
134 (The " Old Hundredth ") (ii),
47.
Johnson, Robert. Alman.
(ii), 102.
— Johnson, Robert. Sabbatum
Maria (i), 814-6.
Josquin. Benedictus (i),
744/.
Josquin. Canons (i), 742.
Josquin. Canons, Pleni
sunt and Agnus dei (i), 739.
Josquin. Canon. Pleni
sunt (i), 741.
Josquin. Defloration de
Jehan Okenheim (i), 732-4.
Josquin. Motet (i), 747-9.
Josquin. Osanna (i), 743/
Josquin. Specimen of
Counterpoint (i), 723.
Lasso, Orlando di. Cantio
(ii), 254-5.
Lawes, H. Air in Comus
(ii), 303.
Lawes, H. Psalm (ii), 320.
Lawes, H. Song (ii), 313.
Lawes, Wm. Psalm (ii), 319
Legrenzi. Aria (ii), 620.
Leo, di. Aria, alia Lecese
(ii), 454.
Locke, M. Glee (ii), 376.
1087
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Musical Examples — continued.
Luther. Easter Hymn.
(ii), 40.
Luther. Ein Feste Burg
("), 40.
Luther. " Es woll uns
Gott " (ii), 40.
Luther. Prayer against
the Turks (ii), 51.
- Luther. Psalm No. 128
(ii), 39.
Marenzio. Madrigal (ii),
168-170.
■ Mazzochi. Recit. (ii), 571.
Merbecke. Extract from
" The Booke of Common-Praier,
Noted " (i), 803-6.
Milton, J. Ayre (ii), 119.
Monteverde. Discords (ii),
191.
Monteverde. Madrigal (ii),
192-5.
Monteverde. Orfeo, ex-
tracts (ii), 517/, 521/.
Morley, Thos. Canzonets
(ii),89/.
■ Mouton. Mixolydian
Example (i), 772.
Mouton. Quam Pulcva es
(i), 770-2.
Mundy. " In Deep Dis-
tresse " (ii), 53-54.
Newark, William. Yowre
Counturfetyng (i), 775/
Okenheim. Canon (i), 728/;
Kyrie (i), 730 ; Benedictus (i), 730.
■ Palestrina. Attempts at
Expression (ii), 16.
Palestrina. Extract from
the Magnificat in the 2nd Tone
(ii), 143.
Palestrina. Motetus (ii),
158-160.
Pammelia. Rounds, etc.,
from (ii), 280-1.
Parsons, Robt. Song (i),
816/
■ Peri. Euridice (ii), 520, 523
Pistocchi. Aria (ii), 589.
Pontio, P. " Sicut Erat "
(ii), 148.
Porta. Fugue for 7 Voices
(ii), 184-7.
Prologue to the paraphrase
of the Epistle for St. Stephen's Day
(i), 581-2.
■ Purcell. Mad Bess (i), 59.
Purcell, H. (Senr.). Song
(ii), 381.
Purcell, Thos. Chant (ii),
381.
Roman d' Alexandre (i), 606.
1088
Musical Examples — continued.
Rore, Cjrprian di. Cantio
(ii), 256-7.
Rosa, Sal vat or. Specimens
(ii), 626/
Rossi, Luigi. Extracts from
Cantatas (ii), 619.
Rue, Pierre de la. Benedic-
tus (i), 764-5.
Salinas, Examples from
(ii), 238, 239.
Scarlatti, A. Aria (ii), 590.
— Scarlatti, A. Extracts from
Cantatas (ii), 631/
J. Shepherd. Motettus (i),
809-810.
Sheryngham. My Woful
Hart (i), 777-8.
Songs bv Thibaut of
Navarre (i), 610/
■ Song of Agincourt (i), 668.
Song of Roland (i), 598.
Song on the death of Richard
I, by Anselm Faidit (i), 574-5.
Stradella. Duet from St.
John the Baptist (ii), 587-9.
Sumer is i cumen in (i),
681-5.
Tallis. Derelinquit Impius
(ii), 71/
— — Tallis. Heave the Voice (ii),
33, 34.
Tallis. Salvator Mundi (ii),
69/
Tartini. Aria del Tasso
(ii), 453.
Taverner. Dum Transisset
(i), 787-9 ; Qui Tollis (i), 790.
Turges, Edmund. Alas it is
I (i), 780-1.
Turini, Fr. Canon (ii), 414.
Tye, Dr. Mass, Euge Bone
(i), 811-13.
Vecchi. Amfiparnasso (ii),
595.
Weelkes. Madrigal, " My
Flocks Feed Not " (ii), 107-112.
Robt. White. Anthem for
five voices (ii), 62—64.
Whitelock. Coranto (ii),
300.
Wise, Michael. Anthem (ii),
357-9.
Zarlino. Canon (ii), 142.
Musical Fund, see Royal Society
of Musicians.
Musical Instruments. French
[c. 1250) (i), 604-5.
See under separate names.
Reflections on the use and
construction of (i), 399-407.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Musical Instruments — continued.
Mentioned by Chaucer (i),
661-2.
Mentioned by Luscinius (ii),
203, 204.
Used by Minstrels (i), 657-8.
Musical Terms, Early Use of (ii),
606n.
Musical Theorists, see Theorists.
Musicians' Company (City of
London) (ii), 285 ; Westminster
(ii), 305/, 364.
Mythology, Egyptian (i), 172.
Nakers (i), 605.
Naples. Music at, in the 16th cent.
(ii), 172-182.
Opera in the 17th cent, (ii),
557-9.
Opera in the 18th cent, (ii),
914-936.
National Music, see under separate
countries.
Nebel fi), 385.
Nemean Games (i), 317-322.
Netherlands. Music in the 16th
cent, (ii), 243-259.
Neumes, see Notation.
Noels, see Carols.
Nomes (i), 227, 308, 322, 332.
Nomodictai (i), 299.
Notation. Accidentals (i), 646.
Boethius on (i), 429, 430.
Coloured Notation (i), 543,
553.
Early Music (i), 428/.
Early use of the sharp sign
(ii), 253.
Early Welch Notation,
from William Penllyn's Book (i),
484-7.
Eastern Church (i), 439-447
Franco's Notation (i), 536/
Greek Notation (i), 23/, 30 ;
Table of Greek Notation (i), 38 ;
Hymns of Mesemodes (i), 95.
Guidonian (i), 467/
Hucbalds (i), 493/
Improvements ascribed to
St. Gregory (i), 430, 431.
Ligatures (i), 539, 540, 715.
Musical Characters used by
Morley (i), 714/,.
Neumes (i), 436-7, 440, 441,
528.
Odington's (i), 517, 518, 519.
■ Plica (i), 538-9, 543.
Points, use of (i), 431, 433,
459, 715-6.
Prolation (i) , 69 1 -2 .
Vol. ii. 69.
Notation — continued.
Prolation. Signs used by
Josquin (i), 745.
Rests and Pauses (i), 540.
Roman Letters used (i),
429, 430.
■ Syllabic (i), 459.
Obelisks, at Rome (i), 170/
Odes of Greek Tragedy (i), 143.
Ode of Pindar (i), 101, 102.
Olympic Games (i), 233, 294-300, 379
Opera. At Berlin in the 18th cent,
(ii), 944.
At Brunswick (ii), 946.
• At Dresden (ii), 460, 943.
At Hamburg (ii), 461, 663n,
941.
At Leipsic (ii), 945.
At Naples in the 18th cent.
(ii), 914-936.
At Munich (ii), 460, 945.
At Rome in the 18th cent.
(ii), 937/
At Stuttgard (ii), 945.
At Venice, see under Venice
Beginnings in England (ii),
331.
Buff a. In the 17th cent.
(ii), 592-600.
Decline of Italian Opera in
England (ii), 814.
Dryden on (ii), 647/
Early English (ii), 639-650.
Early French (ii), 467/
■ Establishment in Italy (ii),
506-559.
In France in 18th cent, (ii),
984/
— — German (ii), 460, 461.
House (Haymarket) (ii),
656, G60n, 664, 678, 838, 843.
Italian Opera in England
(ii), 651-904.
— — of the Nobility (ii), 737,
780, 781/ 788/ 81 In.
• Orchestra in Early (ii), 435
Prices of Admission (ii),
660, 662, 663, 665, 679, 689, 694,
699.
Operas, see also under Ballad Operas
and Pasticcios.
Abos. Tito Manlio (ii),
854.
Addison and Clayton.
Rosamond (ii), 657/
■ Ariosti. Artasevse (ii), 730.
Ariosti. Giro (ii), 716, 721.
Ariosti. Dario (ii), 733.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Operas — continued.
Ariosti. Lucius Verus (ii),
742.
Ariosti. Marcus Coriolanus
(ii), 722, 729, 775.
Ariosti. Vespasian (ii), 724/
Arne. Artaxerxes (ii), 643.
Arne. Olimpiade (ii), 868.
Bach, J. C. Adriano (ii),
869.
865/.
870.
Bach, J. C. Orione (ii), 865/
Bach, J. C. Zanaida (ii),
Barthelemon. Pelopida (ii),
Bononcini, G. B. Astarto
(ii), 707/, 712, 718, 721, 782.
Bononcini, G. B. Astyanax
(ii), 747.
— — Bononcini, G. B. Calphur-
nia (ii), 729.
Bononcini, G. B. Crispo
(ii), 719, 721.
Bononcini, G. B. Erminia
(ii), 723.
Bononcini, G. B. Farnace
(ii), 724.
Bononcini, G. B. Griselda
(ii), 719/, 780.
Bononcini. Thomyris (ii),
659, 660, 664.
Bononcini, M. A. Camilla
(ii), 656, 657, 659, 660, 663, 664.
Caccini. Euridice (ii), 516.
Cavaliere. Disperatione di
Fileno (ii), 511.
Cavaliere. II Satiro (ii),
512.
Cavalli. Erismena (ii),
545/.
Cesti. Orontea (ii), 544,
601, 621.
Cherubini. Giulio Sabino
(ii), 899.
Ciampi, L. V. Adriano (ii),
849.
Ciampi, L. V. Bertoldo (ii),
862.
Ciampi, L. V. Didone (ii),
852.
Ciampi, L. V. II Negli-
gente (ii), 849.
Ciampi, L. V. II Trionfo
de Camilla (ii), 849.
Cimarosa. Giannina (ii),
899.
Cimarosa. L'ltaliana in
Londra (ii), 901.
Clayton. Arsinoe (ii), 655.
Cocchi. Alessandro nell
Indie (ii), 862.
Operas — continued.
Cocchi. Ciro Riconosciuto ■
(ii), 857/
Cocchi. Creso (ii), 856.
Cocchi. Erginda (ii), 859.
Cocchi. II Tempo della
Gloria (ii), 858.
Cocchi. Issipile (ii), 856.
Cocchi. La Clemenza di
Tito (ii), 858, 870.
Cocchi. La Famiglia in
Scompilia (ii), 862.
Cocchi. Le Nozze di
Dorina (ii), 862.
Cocchi. Tito Manlio (ii),
86 If.
855.
767.
Cocchi. Zenobia (ii), 856/.,
Conforto, N. Antigono (ii),
Conti. Clotilda (ii), 663.
Conti, Fr. Wenceslaus (ii),
Corri. Alessandro nell' Indie
(ii), 880.
Davenant. First Day's
Entertainment (ii), 639, 640.
Davenant. Siege of Rhodes
(ii), 640/.
Berenice (ii), 553.
Calypso (ii), 680,
Freschi.
— — Galliard.
681.
Galuppi.
— ■ — • Galuppi.
842, 847, 852.
■ Galuppi.
Galuppi.
Ridicoli (ii), 875
Galuppi.
Antigono (ii), 845 ■
Enrico (ii), 841,
Euristeo fii), 855.
Gli A manti
II Filosofo di
Campagna (ii), 860, 862, 875.
Galuppi. II Mercato di
Malmantile (ii), 862.
Galuppi. II Mondo della
Luna (ii), 859.
— Galuppi. La Calamita de'
Cuori (ii), 864.
Galuppi. Penelope (ii), 839,
852.
Galuppi. Riccimero (ii),
853, 854.
Galuppi. Scipione (ii), 840.
Galuppi. Sirbace (ii), 842.
Gasparini. A mbleto (Hamlet)
(ii), 679.
Gasparini, Fr. Antiochus
(ii), 679, 681.
Giardini. Enea e Lavinia
(ii), 867.
Giardini. II re Pastor e (ii),
869.
Giardini. Rosmira (ii), 855,
Gluck. Artamene (ii), 845..
logo
Operas — continued.
Gluck. La Caduta de'Gi-
ganii (ii), 844.
Gluck. Orpheus (ii), 876,
897.
Grabu. Albion and A Ibanius
(ii), 647.
Gresnech. Alceste (ii), 899.
Guglielmi. Ifigegnia (ii),
874.
Handel. Admetus (ii), 742/,
751, 758, 770, 852.
Handel. Alcina (ii), 792,
796, 803, 812.
Handel. Alessandro (ii),
736/, 753, 777.
Handel. Amadigi (ii), 694/,
699, 857.
Handel. Ariadne (ii), 783/,
788, 854.
Handel. Aviodante (ii), 791,
793/, 800.
Handel. Berenice (ii), 810/".
Handel. Deidamia (ii), 828.
Handel. Ezio (ii), 770/
Handel. Faramond (ii),
817/, 823.
Handel. Flavins (ii), 723,
775.
Handel. Floridante (ii),
718/. 721, 747, 780.
Handel. Giustino (ii), 806/",
810, 812.
Handel. II Pastor Fido (ii), 682 f,
788.
Handel. Imeneo (ii), 828.
Handel. Julius Ccssar (ii),
725/, 730, 764, 766, 773, 900.
Handel. Jupiter in Argos
(ii), 826.
■ Handel. Lotario (ii), 760 f.
■ Handel. Orlando (ii), 777/,
780.
Handel. Otho (ii), 721 f,
724, 733, 742, 782, 791.
Handel. Parnasso in Fesia
(Serenade) (ii), 785/, 809, 828.
Handel. Parthenot>e (ii),
764/', 767, 805, 806.
Handel. Poro (ii), 768/,
770, 804, 805.
Handel. Radamisto (ii),
701-3, 707, 712, 718, 753, 760.
Handel. Ricardo Primo
(ii), 751/
Handel. Rinaldo (ii), 673/,
679, 693, 694, 698, 699, 770.
Handel. Rodelinda (ii),
730f, 733, 770.
Handel. Scipio (ii), 734/,
767.
Handel. Siroe (ii), 753/
Vol. ii. 69*.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Operas — continued
Handel. Sosarmes (ii).
773/, 788.
Handel. Tamerlane (ii),
729, 770.
Handel. Terpsichore (Ballet)
(ii), 788.
■ Handel. Theseus (ii), 685/
— — Handel. Tolomeo (ii), 757/",
766, 777.
Handel. Xerxes (ii), 821.
Hasse. Artaserse (ii), 870.
Hasse. II Re Pastor e (ii),
855.
Hasse. Olimpe in Ebuda
(ii), 827.
■ Hasse. Siroe (ii), 804, 806.
Jomelli. Andromaca (ii),
853.
Jomelli. Atiilio (ii), 852.
■ ■ Jomelli. La Disjatta di
Dario (ii), 862.
Lampugnani. Alceste (ii),
843.
Lampugnani. Alessadro
nell'Indie (first produced as
Roxana) (ii), 845.
Lampugnani. Alfonso (ii),
842.
Lampugnani. Roxana (ii),
842, 847.
Lampugnani. Siroe (ii),
852, 855.
■ Latilla. Madama Ciana
(ii), 849.
Leo. Cato (ii), 777.
— — Locke. Psyche (ii), 644,
654.
Locke. Tempest (ii), 644.
■ — — Mancini. Hydaspes (ii),
665, 666, 672, 678, 679, 694, 698.
Monteverde. Ariadne (ii),
514, 519.
Monteverde. Orfeus (ii),
516/.
Mortellari. Armida (ii), 899
■ Muzio Scevola (ii) , 712/, 72 1 .
Paesiello. Gli Schiavi per
Amore (ii), 900.
Paesiello.
(ii), 901.
Paesiello.
(ii), 900.
Paesiello.
(ii), 886.
Paradies.
Perez.
donata (ii), 861.
Perez. Ezio (ii), 853.
Perez. Farnace (ii), 858.
Peri. Dafne (ii), 510, 514,
515.
1 09 1
II Re Teodoro
II Tutor Burlato
Le due Contesse
Phaeton (ii), 846.
Didone Abbann-
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Operas — continued.
Peri. Euridice (ii), 515, 536.
Pescetti. Busiri (ii), 828.
Pescetti. Demetrio (ii), 806,
807, 812.
Pescetti. Diana and i
Endymion (ii), 826.
Pescetti. La Conquista del j
Velio d'Oro (ii), 821, 823.
Piccini. Buono Figliuola '
(ii), 871/, 875.
Piccini. Buona Figliuola
Maritata (ii), 873.
Piccini. Schiava (ii), 873,
875.
Politian. Orfeo (ii), 507/.
Porpora. Ariadne (ii), 781,
782, 800.
Porpora. Feast of Hvmev
(ii), 800.
Porpora. Ferdinando (ii),
782.
Porpora. Polifemo (ii), 791,
793, 797.
Porpora. Temistocle (ii),
842.
Porta, Giov. Numitor (ii),
700, 707.
Purcell. Bonduca (ii), 398/.
Purcell. King Arthur (ii),
392, 648.
Rameau. Castor and
Pollux (ii), 966/, 969.
Rauzzini. La Vestale (ii),
900.
■ — ■ — Sacchini. Creso (ii), 885,
890.
Sacchini. Erifile (ii), 885.
Sacchini. II Cid (ii), 878.
Sacchini. Nitteti e Perseo
(ii), 880.
Sacchini. Lucio Vero (ii),
879, 880.
Sacchini. Tamerlano (ii),
878.
Sarti. Giulio Sabino (ii),
902.
Scarlatti, A. Pyrrhus and
Demetrius (ii), 661, 663, 664, 672,
698, 699.
Scarlatti, D. Narciso (ii),
703, 706.
Terradellas. Bellerophon
(ii), 847.
Terradellas. Mitridate (ii),
846.
Vecchi. Amjiparnasso (ii),
593/
Vento. Demofoonte (ii), 869.
Vento. La Vestale (ii), 882.
■ Veracini. Adviano (ii), 798.
Operas — continued.
Veracini. L' Err ore di
Solomone (ii), 843.
Veracini. Parte nio (ii), 821,
823.
Veracini. Roselinda (ii),
843.
Vinci. Elpidia (ii), 733.
Operas, Unknown Composers (ii).
.Eneas (ii), 782.
Almahide (ii), 664, 678, 679.
Arbaces (ii), 783, 787.
Arsace (ii), 716, 717, 718,
823.
Ceffalo e Procri (ii), 840.
Clear tes (ii), 698, 699, 700.
Demofoonte (ii), 813, 854.
— — Dido '(ii), 809, 812.
■ Honorius (ii), 799.
Ifigenia (ii), 792.
II Giocatore [Intermezzo) (ii),
804, 805.
II Trionfo D'Amore (ii), 681 .
Issipile (ii), 792.
Lucio Vero (ii), 694, 698.
La Pescatrice (ii), 861.
Merope (ii), 805.
Ormisda (ii), 766, 767.
Pourceaugnac (Intermezzo)
(ii), 805.
Sabrina (ii), 813.
Semiramis (ii), 782.
Tito (ii), 813.
Venceslao (ii), 699.
Operatic Conventions (ii), 688m.
Oracle of Delphos (i), 234.
Orang-outang (i), 249.
Oratorio (ii), 152, 510, 560/, 775,
806, S07, 818, 825, 841n, 843, 877,
1010, 1015/
Beginnings of (ii), 560-591
Conventions of (ii), 582.
Oratorios (ii).
■ Bach, J. C. Gioas (ii), 877.
Cavaliere. Dell Anima, e de
Corpo (ii), 510, 511, 564/
Handel. Alexander's Feast
(ii), 798, 807, 809, 812, 825, 826.
Handel. Athalia (ii), 786/".
Handel. Deborah (ii), 780,
787.
Handel. Esther (ii), 775,
776, 780, 798, 807.
Handel. 77 Trionfo del
Tempo (ii), 807, 809, 825.
Handel. Israel in Egypt
(ii), 825.
Handel. Judas MaccabcBus
(ii), 841, 847.
Handel. Messiah (ii), 1005/
Handel. Saul (ii), 818, 825,
IOQ2
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Oratorios — continued.
- — — Jomelli. Betulia Liberata
(ii), 874.
Jomelli. La Passione (ii),
877.
Porpora. David (ii), 792.
■ Stradella. St. John the
Baptist (ii), 578/.
Orchestra. At Manheim (ii), 945.
In early operas (ii), 435.
In Monteverde. Orfeo (ii),
519.
— ■ — In Peri. Euridice (ii), 516.
In the first oratorio (ii), 565.
Opera, in the 18th cent.
(ii), 693/, 790, 853, 856, 871.
Organ (ii), 26, 65, 207, 239, 291,
322w, 418, 473, 704, 705, 798, 951,
953, 1008.
— — Early English (i), 453.
— ■ — Early use in Europe (i),
454-5, 482, 487-8, 499, 517, 528,
643.
Invention of Pedals (ii), 201 .
In France in the 17th cent.
(ii), 473 ; 18th cent, (ii), 975/.
In Germany in the 17th
cent, (ii), 456/; 18th cent, (ii),
951, 953.
In Jewish Worship (i), 213.
Mentioned by Chaucer (i),
663.
Organ Builders (ii), 343/
Music. Early Notation
(i), 710n.
Water, see Hydraulicon.
Organizing (i), 450, 460w, 484, 498,
500.
Introduction into the
Ritual (i), 502/
Organum (i), 460, 461, 490/ 494/
500, 503, 509, 513, 519.
Orgel Probe (ii), 2097?.
Orgia (i), 245-6.
Orpheus Britannicus (ii), 390/
Orphic Beliefs (i), 262.
Overture (ii), 586, 945.
Oxford, Music at (i), 452 ; (ii),
315, 334-340, 479.
Music Lecture founded by
Dr. W. Heyther (ii), 286-7.
Marbles (i), 28 227, 268,
291, 316.
Pammelia (ii), 279/ 326.
Panathen^an Games (i), 324/,
335, 362, 368.
Pan Pipes, see Syrinx.
Pantheon (ii), 882, 885, 893, 915.
Papal Bulls. John XXII (i), 504,
505, 511.
Part Music, Early English (i),
665 n.
Passion (i), 414.
Pasticcios. Alessandro in Persia
(ii), 838/, 840, 841.
Alessandro nell' Indie (ii),
855.
Alessandro Severus (Handel)
(ii), 821.
Annibale in Capua (ii), 845.
Antigona (ii), 859.
Aquilio (ii), 729.
Arianna e Teseo (Galuppi,
etc.) (ii), 859/, S61, 875.
Aristodemo (ii), 843.
Arminio (ii), 689, 693, 694,
858.
Arsace (ii), 712, 817.
— — Artaxerxes (ii), 788, 792,
798, 799, 800, 852, 878.
Astarto (ii), 864.
Attalo (ii), 857.
■ Belmira (ii), 782.
Berenice (Bach, Galuppi,
etc.) (ii), 869.
Cajus Fabricius (ii), 782,
783.
Cleonice (ii), 867.
Creso (ii), 689, 690, 693.
Demetrio (Cocchi, etc.) (ii),
856, 857, 858.
Demofoonte (ii), 886.
Dido (Hasse, etc.) (ii), 847.
Didone (Sacchini, etc.) (ii),
882.
897.
694.
Didone Abbandonata (ii),
Dorinda (ii), 684, 685, 689.
Elisa (ii), 733.
Ernelinda (ii), 684,689,693,
Etearco (ii), 672.
Ezio (ii), 868.
■ Gianguir (Hasse, etc.) (ii),
840, 841.
— ■ — Gli Stravaganti (ii), 871.
Hercules (ii), 680.
II Trionfo della Continenza
(ii), 845.
II Tutor e e la Pupilla (ii),
864.
Ipermestra (Hasse and Lam-
pugnani) (ii), 852, 855.
La Cascina (ii).
Leucippe e Zenocrita (ii), 867
L' Incostanza Dehisa (ii), 844.
L'Ingratitudine Punita (ii),
847.
776.
Lucio Papirio Dittatore (ii),
Lucio Vero (Handel) (ii), 847
Mandane (ii), 841.
IOQ3
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Pasticgios — continued.
Meraspe (Pergolesi, etc.)
(ii), 840.
Meride e Selinunte (ii), 827.
Mitridate (ii), 798.
Nerone (ii), 852.
Olimpiade (Galuppi, etc.)
(ii).
Orestes (Handel) (ii), 788.
Orfeo (Hasse, Vinci, Por-
pora) (ii), 798, 799, 800.
• Polidoro (ii), 840.
Semiramis (Hasse, etc.) (ii),
847/.
898.
Si fare (ii), 874.
Siroe (ii), 867.
Solimano (ii), 856.
Tigrane (ii), 873.
Tito Manlio (ii), 700.
Tolomeo (ii), 862.
Trakebarne (ii), 871.
Virginia (Tarchi, etc.) (ii),
Vologeso (ii), 85S.
Patent Granted to Tallis and
Byrd (ii), 66ra.
Pentathlon (i), 297.
Percussion Instruments (i), 407.
Phonasci (i), 146m.
Phorminx (i), 284, 405,
Photinx (i), 175, 188,
Pianoforte. First use in England
(ii), SI An.
Plain Song (i), 82, 96, 131, 231, 722 ;
(ii), 55.
Opponents of (i), 424.
Use of Accidentals (i), 419.
Plectrum (i), 225, 407.
Plica (i), 538-9.
Poetical and Musical Contests
(i), 296/, 372, 395.
Poetry. An Eloquent Dance (i),
288m,
Saxon (i), 783/
Points, Use of, see Notation.
Points D'orgue (i), 497.
Poliphant (ii), 24.
Polypthongum (i), 404.
Prayer Book, see Liturgy.
Prizes Given (i), 299, 316.
Processional Singing (i), 413.
Prolation, see Notation.
Prophecy and Music (i), 194/
Proses fi), 565-6.
Psalmody, Metrical (ii), 18, 20,
26, 35/ 48/, 127, 313, 314, 341, 364.
■ Origin of (ii), 38 f.
Psalmody (i), 746,7.
In Scotland (ii), 58.
Psalms (i), 196.
Instruments mentioned (i) ,
199-201.
Psalms — continued.
Singing of, in Early Church
(i), 410.
Titles Prefixed to (i),
202/
Psalters, Early English (ii), 18m,
28, 49/
■ Genevan (ii), 43/
Psaltery. Example (i), 396, 661.
PSALTRIiE (i), 372.
Publications in the Reign of
Charles I (ii), 317-8.
in the Reign of Charles II
(ii), 369/.
Puppets Used in Operas (ii), 556 w,
597m.
Puritans and Music (ii), 25, 31,
34, 59, 307, 308, 321/, 341, 342.
Pyrrhic Dance (i), 278, 344.
Pythic Air (i), 302.
Games (i), 233, 288, 290,
300-16, 337.
Quadrivium (i), 451, 585, 679.
Quarter-tones (i), 50, 52, 337 (see
also Diesis) .
Queen's Theatre, see under Opera
House.
Ranelagh Gardens (ii), 493, 100S,
101 If.
Ratios (i), 342/, 351/, 356/
Rebec (i), 588, 662.
Recapitulation of History of
Greek Music (i), 337-341.
Recitative, Invention of (ii),
506-559, 564.
■ Italian (i), 104, 140, 147 ;
(ii), 466, 584, 607, 651.
Old French Opera (i), 81.
Redoute (Ridotto) (ii), 995.
Reformation, The (i), 807 ; (ii),
14/, 32, 59.
Regle de L'Octave (i), 718.
Religious Rites, Use of Music in
(i), 273, 366, 367.
Rests and Pauses, see under
Notation.
Rhapsodists (i), 279, 294, 299.
Ritornels (i), 378.
Roman D'Alexander (i), 604.
Roman Drama (i), 369-370.
Imitators of Greeks (i),
374
Public Games (i), 381-2.
School of Composition (ii),
150-170.
Romance Language (i), 562/.
1094
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Rome. Castrati in the 17th cent,
(ii), 528/.
Indebtedness to Etruria (i),
372.
Instrumentalists in the 17th
cent, (ii), 526, 527.
■ Music in Ancient (i), 366-
382.
Music at Rome in the 18th
cent, (ii), 937-940.
Opera at (ii), 525/, 540/,
937/
Oratorio in the 17th cent.
(ii), 564/.
— ■ — Singers in the 17th cent.
(ii), 527.
Rotte (i), 588 n, 661.
Roundelays (i), 515.
Royal Academy. Calls on Sub-
scribers (ii), 703n, 717, 718, 723,
730;*, 733«, 742, 747, 750, 751, 753,
753n.
Royal Academy of Music (ii), 699,
700, 703?*, 723, 725, 729, 730n,
751, 753, 759, 767, 943, 994.
Meetings of Directors (ii),
703w, 742.
Royal Society of Musicians (ii),
1004/
Salii (i), 368.
Saltarello (i), 368n.
Saltatores (i), 368.
Sam Buca (i), 404.
Scale of Terpander (i), 345.
■ Systems. Scotch (i), 45, 46 ;
Chinese (i), 45 ; Greek, see Greek
Music.
Scales, Comparison of Old and
New (i), 718-9ra,
Scenici (i), 370.
School of Music, Canterbury (i),
451.
Schools of Music. Founded by
St. Gregory (i), 419rc, 725.
Hebrew (i), 195.
Scolia (i), 359-365, 368, 410 ; (ii),
597.
How Performed (i), 360.
Varieties of (i), 360.
Score. Origin of the word (i), 705.
Scotch Music (i), 45/, 49, 52, 55.
Secular Music, Early English
(i), 774/.
Restricted to a few keys
(i), 424, 425.
Selah (i), 204/.
Semibreve, Invention of (i), 542
Servi Symphoniaci (i), 377.
Shakespeare, Adaptations of (ii),
642/.
Shakespeare's References to
Music (ii), 268/.
Sic yon Register (i), 332.
Sicily. Influence upon Rome (i),
373.
Simicum (i), 335.
Singers, Guidos Verses on (i),
463-4.
Singing, French (ii), 466.
■ In England. According to
G. Cambrensis (i), 482-4.
Sistrum (i), 74, 179, 189, 378, 387.
• Example (i), 397.
Solmisation (i), 470/
Early Example (i), 471.
Sonates, Early (ii), 332, 434/, 915,
924.
Song of Richard I of England
(i), 572-3.
Sonnet on Josquin (i), 752.
Sons of the Clergy, Festival (ii),
386, 388.
Spain. Music in the 16th cent, (ii),
235-241.
Species of Octave (i), 56, 61, 423.
Spectator, The (ii), 665, 675, 678,
681.
Spinet (ii), 210.
Stave, in Early MSS. (i), 419, 432,
434w, 464, 468/, 514.
Stuttgard, Opera at (ii), 945.
Sumer Is I Cumen In (i), 681-5, 723
726.
Swans and Music (i), 236, 237, 261.
Symphonia, Hucbald's (i), 494 ;
Odington's (i), 516.
Symphonies, Early (ii), 945, 958.
Syrinx (i), 146, 222, 224, 247, 272,
273, 383, 389, 402.
Example of (i), 394.
Tambour de Basque (i), 641.
Tarantula (i), 157.
Tatler, The (ii), 661, 669, 677, 985.
Temperament (i), 348, 357.
Tempest, The (ii), 644/
Testudo (i), 385.
Examples (i), 396.
Tetrachords, see Greek Music.
Theatre, Music in the. Shakes-
peare (ii), 268/.
— — ■ Gammer Gurton's Needle
(ii), 266, 267.
Gorbuduc (ii), 268.
in London (ii), 655 u.
1095
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Theatres in the Reign of
Charles I (ii), 304-5.
Theban Harp, see Harp.
Thebes, Building of (i), 175/.
Theorbo (i), 405.
Theorists, Anonymous. Cotton
MSS. (i), 671/.
Aristoxenus (i), 349-
352.
529-44.
685/
Bede (i), 448.
Boethius (i), 429.
Chilston (i), 694.
Cotton, John (i), 506/
Cutell, Richard (i), 700-1.
Didymus (i), 354-5.
Euclid (i), 353-4.
Franco of Cologne (i), 513/
[.
Guido (i), 430/ 458/
Hamboys (i), 678.
Handlo, Robert, de (i), 543.
Hogerus (i), 492/
Hucbald (i), 489/
Lansdowne MS. No. 763 (i),
Lasus (i), 347-9.
Marchetto da Padova (i),
519-522.
Morley, Thos. (ii), 86, 87.
Muris, J. de (i), 545/, 669-70
Odington, Walter (i), 515-
19, 542.
— — Power, Lyonel, (i) 692/.
Ptolemy (i), 355-8.
■ Pythagoras (i), 342-7.
Salinas (ii), 237/
Theinred of Dover (i), 675.
Tinctor, J. (i), 712.
Torkesey (i), 690.
Tunstede (i), 673-5.
Vitry, de Philip (i), 552-6.
■ Walsingham, Thos. (i), 691.
Wylde, John (i), 686-8.
French, in the 18th cent.
(ii), 978/
German, in the 16th cent.
(ii), 201/; in the 17th cent, (ii),
947/
in Italy in the 16th cent.
(ii), 129/; in the 17th cent, (ii),
938/
Thorough-bass, Invention (ii), 411.
Three Choirs Festival (ii), 493,
995.
Timbrel (i), 384, 389, 407.
Example (i), 395, 398.
Time Table, Formation of (i),
525/, 714/.
TlNTINNABULA (i), 4Q7.
Trigon (i), 367, 385.
Example (i), 396.
1096
Tritone (i), 276.
Triumphs of Oriana (ii), 112/
Trivium (i), 451, 585, 679.
Tromba Marina (i), 389.
Troubadours (i), 562, 567/
Bibliography (i), 61 2 w.
Trumpet (i), 155, 156, 175, 178, 193,
297, 298, 369, 383, 389 ; (ii), 919.
979, 995, 996.
of the Jubilee.
Example (i), 395.
Tuba (i), 383.
Example (i), 395.
Turkish Music (i), 784.
Twelve Tables, Laws of (i), 369.
Utricularius (i), 388.
Vases, for Augmenting Sound, see
Echeia.
Used in Calculating
Ratios (i), 349.
Vaudevilles (i), 612.
Vauxhall Gardens (ii), 493, 824,
825, 1009, 1011, 1015.
Venice, Early Opera At (ii), 542-
557.
Opera in the 18th cent, (ii),
905-913.
Intermezzi At, in the
18th cent, (ii), 599. ,
List of 17th cent. Opera
Composers (ii), 557.
Music At in the 16th cent
(ii), 170-2.
Versus Fescennini (i), 369.
Vielle, see Hurdy Gurdy.
VlLLANELLA (ii), 174/
Vingt Quatre Violons (ii), 464, 468.
Viol (i), 569, 588, 642 ; (ii), 123, 233,
235, 284, 332, 333.
Viol da Gamba (ii), 1019/
Viol D'Amore (ii), 699, 725.
Viola D'Arco (ii), 144.
Violette Marine (ii), 779.
Violin (i), 588, 718; (ii), 24, 122,
146, 207, 223, 335, 403, 406/ 433/,
461/ 464, 468, 625, 628, 856, 87 In,
895/, 915, 924, 951/, 956, 976, 985,
990/ 1008, 1010, 1020.
In England, in the 17th
cent, (ii), 406-10.
In- Germany, in the 17th
cent, (ii), 461, 462.
In Italy, from the 16th
cent, (ii), 433-455.
INDEX TO SUBJECTS
Violin — continued. I Virginals (ii), 16w, 21, 23, 24, 122.
Invention of the Half Voices, Classification of (i), 716-7.
Shift (ii), 445;z.
— — Use in Early Oratorios (ii), Waites (i)> 698
,. .... nnn innn ,__. Waldenses (ii), 357?.
Vl?^°^> &k629, l0°3, l003' Women and Religious Rites (i),
lUUo, lUl^I, lUlo. 1 Q9
Violone (ii), 144, 146.
Virginal Music (i), 784 ; (ii), 24,
66, 76, 89, 96/.
Collections of (ii), 79, York Buildings, see under
95, 98/, 321, 332. Concerts
iOC)7
ADDENDA and CORRIGENDA
VOLUME I.
p. 5. For Tunsted read Power.
p. 30. Editor's Note — read Jans for Jais.
p. 432. Delete Editor's Note.
p. 463. Delete Editor's Note and insert: — In some MSS the name
Enchiridion is given to the Dialogus De Musica of Odo of Cluny.
Odo studied music under Remy d'Auxerre at Paris, and later
achieved fame as a trainer of choir-boys.
On account of mention of the note gamma ut as the lowest note
of the scale, this tract has sometimes been attributed to Guido.
This theory is not tenable, however, as the gamma ut was not
an innovation made by Guido.
p. 495. Editor's Note — for p. 433 read p. 463.
p. 687. Guido minor is probably Guy, Abbot of Chalis, who lived in the
12th or 13th centuries He wrote a tract, Re gules de Arte
Musica, which Coussemaker included in his Scriptores (Vol. II.).
p. 688. The Metrologus Liber is by an unknown writer. There is
another copy in the B.M. (Arundel MSS, No. 130). The Bod. 515
tract is Tunsted's De Ouatuor Principalibus, which Burney
describes on p. 674.
p. 704. Editor's Note — for mendane read mundane.
p. 741. In the Plcni Sunt, by Josquin, read Tenor clef for Alto in the
third score,
p. 759. Editor's Note — for Isaacs read Isaac,
p. 760. The last note in the highest voice part of the penultimate bar
should be a minim.
VOLUME II.
p. 118. Editor's Note ** — insert the word " published " after " also."
p. 216. Editor's Note — for Re Roy read Le Roy.
p. 243. Note (t)— for p. 259 read p. 212.
p. 304. Lewis Richard. His name is included in 1618 as a servant of
Queen Anne (wife of James I) in the accounts for her funeral. In
1625, during the reign of Charles I, he is one of the Queen's
servants " who came over with her," and ordered to have black
cloth for liveries. (H. C. Lafontaine, The King's Musick,
pp. 52 & 59.)
p. 434. Editor's Note **— insert the word " in " after " reprinted."
p. 465. Editor's Note — the Grove's reference should be Vol. 3, p. 695.
p. 541. Line 9 — for Ca villi read Cavalli.
p. 557. Note (q) — Allatius (Allacci) died in 1669.
p. 596. Vecchi's Amfiparnasso, 2nd score, bar 2. The Breve in the treble
part should be C#
p. 659. Editor's Note ** — for Warley read Wanley.
p. 700. Bononcini — for Giov. Mar. read Giov. Battista.
p. 807. Editor's Note * — for Tempa read Tejnpo.
p. 818. Note (w) — for December 29th read December 24th.
p. 883. Editor's Note *** — for Amida read Armida,
*oq8
PRINTED BY
The Marshall Press Ltd.
Milford Lane, strand
London. W.C.2
Date Due
HELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY
3 5002 03017 614 8
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11